Stepford Suburbia: Difference between revisions

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[[File:~~Stepford_Suburbia_9834~~.jpg|link=Edward Scissorhands|right|[-''[[[[Weeds]] Little boxes, little boxes<br />Little boxes all the same.]]

[[File:Stepford Suburbia 9834.jpg|link=Edward Scissorhands|right|[-''[[[[Weeds]] Little boxes, little boxes<br />Little boxes all the same.]]

''-] ]]

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This is a [[Town with a Dark Secret]], with the added twist that the Dark Secret is hidden in this "idyllic" neighbourhood. The Trope Namer is, of course ''[[The Stepford Wives]]'', a thoroughly creepifying book about such a town.

[[Stepford Suburbia]] is the sister-city to the [[Uncanny Village]], and both are located in the [[Crap Saccharine World]]. Its residents include [[Teen Drama|angsty teens]], [[The Beautiful Elite]] and, of course, the [[Stepford Smiler]].

'''Stepford Suburbia''' is the sister-city to the [[Uncanny Village]], and both are located in the [[Crap Saccharine World]]. Its residents include [[Teen Drama|angsty teens]], [[The Beautiful Elite]] and, of course, the [[Stepford Smiler]].

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== Comic ==

* An issue of ''[[Shade the Changing Man]]'' featured a [[Stepford Suburbia]] run by a man who had created a [[It Runs on Nonsensoleum|madness-powered]] machine that turned people "normal"<ref>He thought his father made it, but actually his father's machine was a self-flagellation device with which he punished himself for not being "normal"</ref>. He started as a [[Heteronormative Crusader]] with mild racism and an inablility to understand young people, but as his madness increased, his definition of "normal" grew even narrower ("You take milk in your coffee, right, Joe?")

* An issue of ''[[Shade the Changing Man]]'' featured a Stepford Suburbia run by a man who had created a [[It Runs on Nonsensoleum|madness-powered]] machine that turned people "normal".<ref>He thought his father made it, but actually his father's machine was a self-flagellation device with which he punished himself for not being "normal"</ref> He started as a [[Heteronormative Crusader]] with mild racism and an inablility to understand young people, but as his madness increased, his definition of "normal" grew even narrower ("You take milk in your coffee, right, Joe?")

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== Literature ==

* [[Jasper Fforde]]'s ''[[Nursery Crime|The Fourth Bear]]'' opens in one of these, where creatures from cautionary tales, such as monsters under the bed, really exist to keep the kids in line.

* Camazotz from ''[[A Wrinkle in Time]]'' appears to be an entire planet of [[Stepford Suburbia]]. Controlled by a [[Brain In a Jar|disembodied brain]].

* Camazotz from ''[[A Wrinkle in Time]]'' appears to be an entire planet of Stepford Suburbia. Controlled by a [[Brain In a Jar|disembodied brain]].

* "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" by [[Ursula K. Le Guin]] is about a town where everyone's happiness is [[Powered by a Forsaken Child]] - literally.

* Waverton in the story of the same name. In this case, everyone in the neighborhood [[I'm a Humanitarian|is a cannibal.]] But the new couple in town doesn't know that.

* ''Candor'' by Pam Bachorz is about a town that uses subliminal messages to create its Stepford ~~Suburbia--especially~~ creepy in the teens, who love their SAT study parties a bit too much for comfort. The town was planned by the protagonist's father as a way to have a perfect world after his other son died.

* ''Candor'' by Pam Bachorz is about a town that uses subliminal messages to create its Stepford Suburbia—especially creepy in the teens, who love their SAT study parties a bit too much for comfort. The town was planned by the protagonist's father as a way to have a perfect world after his other son died.

* The town of Joyful Travail in ''[[Indigo|Revenant]]'', although it's run in a far more coldly efficient fashion than most examples of this trope.

* Rosewood in ''[[Pretty Little Liars]]''.

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* "The Kids Aren't Alright", by [[The Offspring]], tells the story of a neighborhood full of promising lives that [[It Got Worse|Got Worse]]: Jamie got pregnant and dropped from high school, Mark has no job and spends all his days playing guitar and smoking pot, Jay committed suicide, and Brandon OD'd and died. Supposedly, Dexter Holland wrote this song after finding his old neighborhood torn apart by tragedy.

** For the record, Dexter is from Orange County (see below).

* "Subdivisions", by Rush, details the oppression of conformity in the "mass-production zone" ~~-- and~~ the inevitable draw they have on those who manage, briefly, to escape.

* "Subdivisions", by Rush, details the oppression of conformity in the "mass-production zone"—and the inevitable draw they have on those who manage, briefly, to escape.

{{quote|''In the high school halls''

''In the shopping malls''

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''The kind of look that says they're perfect'' }}

* [The] [[Arcade Fire]]'s third album, ''The Suburbs'', is a [[Concept Album]] which focuses on, well, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|the suburbs]]. It takes a somewhat nuanced view of the subject ([[The Face of the Band|Win Butler]] is on record as saying that it's a letter "''from''" the suburbs, not for them or against them), but the Stepford form is definitely visible (particularly "Sprawl II: Mountains Beyond Mountains").

* [[The Smashing Pumpkins]]' video for "Try, Try, Try" contains a sequence that takes place in a dark [[Stepford Suburbia]].

* [[The Smashing Pumpkins]]' video for "Try, Try, Try" contains a sequence that takes place in a dark Stepford Suburbia.

* [[Blur (band)|Blur]] often sang about apparently normal suburban characters who are a lot weirder under the surface. ''Tracy Jacks'' and ''Stereotypes'' are two examples.

* ''The Sound of the Suburbs'' by The Members is a late '70s punk anthem about teenagers bored by suburban conformity.

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== Tabletop Games ==

* "Night Horrors: Wolfsbane", a sourcebook for ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'' features a town where everything's nice and orderly, a little oasis in the midst of the ''[[New World of Darkness]]''. What made it so nice and orderly? Simple; several years ago, something blew over the town and ''ate everyone's souls''. So the town's spirit possessed all the inhabitants and put them on autopilot. The name of the setting is : "The Road to Stepford: Lonesome Forest" and it's in Chapter II : the shadows p.98.

* "Night Horrors: Wolfsbane", a sourcebook for ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'' features a town where everything's nice and orderly, a little oasis in the midst of the ''[[New World of Darkness]]''. What made it so nice and orderly? Simple; several years ago, something blew over the town and ''ate everyone's souls''. So the town's spirit possessed all the inhabitants and put them on autopilot. The name of the setting is : "The Road to Stepford: Lonesome Forest" and it's in Chapter II : the shadows p. 98.

* The ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' module "A More Perfect Union" brought the player characters to the seemingly idyllic small town of Unity. With a name like that, what could possib-ly go wrong? {{spoiler|Hivemind}}

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== Video Games ==

* The trope-naming "The [[Milkman Conspiracy]]" level of ''[[Psychonauts]]'' is a ''literally'' twisted (i.e. it [[Alien Geometries|looks like an Escher engraving]]), evil little suburb where the lawn flamingos turn to watch you and everyone is either a [[Girl Scouts Are Evil|Rainbow Squirt]] or a [[The Men in Black|G-Man]]. It's hilarious, but rather creepy once you realize that this is how [[Conspiracy Theorist|Boyd]] sees ''every'' affluent neighborhood.

** And by "affluent neighborhood" we mean "the world". He sees the entire world as a sham [[Stepford Suburbia]] that's ''watching him all the time''.

** And by "affluent neighborhood" we mean "the world". He sees the entire world as a sham Stepford Suburbia that's ''watching him all the time''.

* ''[[Fallout]] 3'' features ''two'' of these, Andale and Tranquility Lane{{spoiler|, the virtual world of Vault 112}}. Suffice to say, there are other factors that make them both even creepier than the standard Stepford Suburbia.

** This applies to much of suburban America in it's pre-war days, where people were being killed in everything from government experiments, to malfunctioning factory robots, to ''taste-testing soda''. Chinese Americans were also being rounded up and imprisoned after the Sino-American war began in 2066, and fears of Communism and sabotage led to the Unites States becoming a police state in everything but name.

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== Western Animation ==

* The Town Called Malice in ''[[The Venture Brothers]]''.

* [[Meaningful Name|Moralton]] in ''[[Moral Orel]]''. For all the [[Davey and Goliath]] stylings, it is a place filled with self-hating, hypocritical, abusive [[Jerkass~~|Jerkasses~~]] that seem dead set on crushing the naive and hopelessly optimistic protagonist. And that's when said protagonist isn't wreaking carnage because he takes the bad advice of his authority figures to extreme and unfortunate ends.

* [[Meaningful Name|Moralton]] in ''[[Moral Orel]]''. For all the [[Davey and Goliath]] stylings, it is a place filled with self-hating, hypocritical, abusive [[Jerkass]]es that seem dead set on crushing the naive and hopelessly optimistic protagonist. And that's when said protagonist isn't wreaking carnage because he takes the bad advice of his authority figures to extreme and unfortunate ends.

* The episode "Mooving Day" of ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'' involves Timmy moving to a very creepy suburb inspired by the [[Trope Namer]].