7,831
edits
Unfortunate Implications/Literature: Difference between revisions
Unfortunate Implications/Literature (view source)
Revision as of 07:15, 2 November 2023
, 6 months agono edit summary
m (Mass update links) |
HLIAA14YOG (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
| (25 intermediate revisions by 10 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{smallcaps|Important Note:}} Just because a work has [[Unfortunate Implications]] does ''not'' mean the author was thinking of it that way. In fact, that's the point of it being ''unfortunate''. So, please, no [[Justifying Edit
----
== J. R. R. Tolkien and his works (''The Hobbit'', ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''The Silmarillion'', etc) ==
* [[J. R. R. Tolkien|J.R.R. Tolkien]] struggled for his entire life with how to reconcile his strict Catholicism (which viewed evil as an inherently uncreative force, and emphasized personal free will) with a race that was [[
** Looking broadly, some critics charge Tolkien was racist because of the trend in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' for western and northern "white" people (Gondor, Rohan) being "good" in opposition to eastern and southern "non-white" people (Harad, Rhun, Khand) being "bad". But a closer and [[Fantastic Racism|thorough reading]] reveals the former aren't all or always good and neither are the latter all or always bad. His views on race and evil, both in and out of universe, are better understood after reading ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' and [[All There in the Manual|assorted supplementary material]] like ''Unfinished Tales'', ''The History of Middle-earth'' and especially his ''Letters''.
** More specifically, some critics have claimed Tolkien was racist because of [http://tolkien.slimy.com/faq/External.html his description of Orcs] in ''The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien'': "... they are (or were) squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes; in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types." Other critics have noted Tolkien's modifier "(to Europeans)" meant he recognized different cultures have different standards of beauty (being that Mongolians are the "least lovely" to Europeans). The statement isn't "Orcs ''are'' Mongolians" but "Orcs ''look like'' degraded and repulsive versions of to-us-unpretty Mongolic physical shape." But any way you slice it, that statement isn't [[Politically Correct]] by modern standards.
** In ''The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien'', the author once compared his Dwarves to Jews - "at once native and alien in their habitations, speaking the languages of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue." In a radio interview, he said the Dwarf language was modeled to be Semitic. Though he was speaking in specific terms, [https://web.archive.org/web/20130308030252/http://www.jewishjournal.com/arts/article/a_ring_of_bias_not_likely_20011214
** In a letter to his English publisher regarding the above, Tolkien also wrote: "...I have many Jewish friends, and should regret giving any colour to the notion that I subscribed to the wholly pernicious and unscientific race-doctrine".
== C. S. Lewis and his works (''The Chronicles of Narnia'', etc) ==
* ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'' are more or less permanently under fire for two major issues. One controversy is the Calormenes, evil Arabs/Indians who embody most topical vices.
** They're also presented as worshippers of—and, in Aravis's case, a descendant of—evil spirits, as Aslan definitely calls the vulture-headed Calormene god Tash "demon" in ''The Last Battle''. Given that Calormenes are based either on Arabs or people from India,{{verify}} this isn't a very tolerant view of Islam or Hinduism.
* The other major controversy is about Susan Pevensie's absence from Paradise at the end of ''The Last Battle'', sometimes interpreted as "being barred from Heaven for liking lipstick and nylons."
* A generally patronizing sense of "that's no good for a girl" pervades discussions of Lucy and Susan's participation in battle. Even though in practice, Lucy and Susan are powerful warriors (on par with their male counterparts), a sentiment which becomes more pronounced as the series went on.
* There seems to be racist implications in ''Prince Caspian'' that are possibly worse than the portrayal of the Calormenes.
** In the scene in Aslan's How, several creatures generally considered [[Black and White Morality|"evil"]] in mythology are brought in to assist Caspian's [[The Revolution Will Not Be Villified|band of rebels]]. The fact that they are killed without ever having done anything overtly evil<ref>
** There is an uncomfortable sequence earlier in the book where Caspian first meets the Narnians and some dwarfs offer to introduces him to a couple of ogres and a hag. Caspian flatly refuses and the "good" Narnians agree, saying they don't associate with those sort and wouldn't have Aslan for a friend if they did. (Keeping in mind that in ''[[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'', "those" sorts were the White Witch's minions, and in attendance at Aslan's humiliation and murder.)
** The dark-haired Black Dwarfs are also depicted as being less honorable and nastier than their redheaded Red Dwarf counterparts.
*** Notably, the movie avert the two previous ones by showing Minotaurs (who were on the White Witch's side in the first movie) as being part of Caspian's
▲== Harry Potter ==
* An example from ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' would be that the only canonically gay love is also the only time in the series when the [[The Power of Love]] - as opposed to an infatuation like Merope's - is a destructive force rather than a positive. In a series about how [[The Power of Love]] is the most powerful magic of all, this comes off as quite an oversight.
** There's also the whole "{{spoiler|Grindelwald}} was actually manipulating {{spoiler|Dumbledore}} and didn't have romantic feelings for him" thing, which makes it make more sense when you realize that the two "destructive [[The Power of Love]]" examples are of unrequited love. Which also manifests itself in Tonks, who becomes weaker because of it. Getting the idea of "Love is awesome, but loving someone who doesn't love you back sucks" out. Which isn't an unfortunate implication.
** It could be. Some say the love we give away is the only love we keep. Others see [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|willingness to release a person]] as a noble thing. [[The Other Wiki]] has [[wikipedia:Unrequited love|more.]]
* The goblins can be compared to the stereotypical medieval European image of Jews, and their historical interactions with the wizards to those between Americans and Brits.
* The way that Rowling treats muggles in general. Despite the fact that a large portion of the series is dedicated to showing how pointless racism against muggleborns is, all the muggles present in the books are either rude, stupid, or just generally incompetent/lesser compared to the wizards - or at least are seen that way by almost all the wizards, making this something of a YMMV as far as Rowling herself is concerned. For example:
** The British army/police forces isn't shown doing anything in Voldemort's reign of terror.
** The Minister for Magic thinks an acceptable amount of "communication" with the Prime Minister is showing up in his office every once in a while to tell him about important stuff that terrifies him and he can't do anything about.
*** Additionally, the Minister's reaction to the PM's telling him 'I have a phone call with the President of the United States scheduled for that time, we'll have to reschedule our meeting' is to go 'Oh, we'll just mind-control the President into rescheduling ''his'' meeting instead.' So not only are Muggle heads of state free to be mindscrewed for the most trivial convenience of the Ministry, they'll also blithely do it across international borders. as a standard of ethical behavior, this is epically... not.
** Aurors mindwipe witnesses and cover public incidents up as catastrophic accidents. And we see what happens with a Muggle investigation into a magical murder (the Riddles): nothing. An SAS/auror taskforce would make out like gangbusters, if the Wizarding World got over their patronizing attitude to Muggles long enough to form one.
** After the villains take over the country and really get down to Mugglecide, there is a mention that some of the good wizards "put protective spells over their Muggle neighbours' homes, with them none the wiser", meaning that even in such dire circumstances nobody as much as entertains a thought that the Muggles deserve to ''know'' what is going on and have a say in their own survival. Big Brother will protect you, indeed.
*** Context: the unfortunate implication here is not that none of the wizards want to tell their neighbors, but that wizarding law forbids them to on penalty of 'being locked in a prison where the soul-eating monsters that guard it slowly drive you mad'.
** When Harry and friends are going to see the Quidditch World Cup a wizard in charge casually wipes a Muggles memories to keep him from wondering about the strange people he's seen lately. It's implied that the wizard has been doing this constantly, to the point its starting to cause visible psychological damage, and no one seems to see anything wrong with this.
** Then there's the fact that the idea of being a Muggle or a Squib basically amounts to "Oh, so you're non-magical? Too bad for you!"
** [[Word of God]] confirmed that wizards are scared of
** And then there's the Dursleys.
* Marietta Edgecome betrayed the DA class, after six months of pressure from her mother and never wanting to join in the first place, and told Umbridge. She ends up with "SNEAK" written across her face in boils caused by Hermione's deliberate jinx (which Harry thinks is "brilliant"), and still has them at the start of the next school year, implying that the facial scars are permanent, especially since that's her final appearance. Many readers felt this was [[Disproportionate Retribution]]. Furthermore, the jinx bears a very creepy resemblance to the medieval punishment of physically branding the word of a convicted person's crime across their face so that people would read their crime on their faces for the rest of their lives.
** There's a very strong message throughout the entire series that [[Good Is Not Nice]].
*** This sequence doesn't even fulfill that because a trap you never actually tell anyone about before it springs has zero value as a deterrent, and yet deterrence was Hermione's stated purpose in creating it. It's a purely sadistic measure of revenge, not an actual safeguard against betrayal at all. Dis-turb-ing, especially from "keep-the-rules-and-free-the-slaves" Hermione.
==
* There are many offensive racial stereotypes and racist subtext:
** Diego, one of the vampires in Stephenie Meyer's follow-up novella "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner," is coded as a minority; he's described as having "dark, dense, curly hair, big, wide eyes, and really full lips," spends a lot of time talking about "life in the ghetto," "junkie hos" and "gang-bangs," and bursts into (incorrect) random Spanish. Yet, when describing his human self being pursued by gang members, Diego has this to say about Riley, the vampire who swoops in and gets between the gang and Diego himself: ''"I remember thinking he was the whitest guy I'd ever seen."'' In other words, a minority person is complimenting Riley for being the bravest, noblest person ever...i.e., white, even though vampires in ''Twilight'' are abnormally pale.
Line 49 ⟶ 52:
** Leah is the only example of an independent woman in the whole series, and is unable to have children because she is a 'shape shifter'; because of this she is described as 'less of a woman'! It doesn't help that Leah is portrayed in a very unsympathetic light. Here Meyer implies that if a woman is independent and strong (i.e. a shape shifter) she is less of a woman, and if she is unable to have child, she is a disgusting failure in the eyes of nature, and undeserving of sympathy.
** Compare Leah and Jacob. Leah was dating Sam for a while and the two were in love, then along comes her cousin and within seconds she has been dumped for Emily. Not only that but now she has to see the pair nearly every day and she can hear Sam's thoughts. As a consequence she has become bitter and angry, however the others tell her to be quiet as she's irritating them and repeatedly insult her. Jacob falls in love with a girl he hardly knows, who never actually liked him and made that quite clear but his constant moping after her resulting with him running away is met with sympathy and support. When Leah is unsympathetic she is criticized. [[Double Standard]] much?
* There are the extensive, mind-boggling implications of Bella and Edward's "romance". Girl sees guy, instantly falls in love with him for some reason and won't leave him alone despite quickly revealing that she is, you know, ''his food''. Guy sees girl, becomes obsessed with her for some reason and won't leave ''her'' alone, despite knowing that she is his food. Girl abandons everything she cares for and everyone who cares for her, becoming self-destructive without guy, but that's okay because she loves him. Guy does nothing less than stalk and abuse girl, but that's okay because he loves her. Girl would rather become a soulless, bloodsucking monster than grow old, because nothing is more important than being beautiful forever (that becomes moot however, as Bella's [[Mary Sue]] powers are beyond equal). ''None'' of this is ever presented as anything other than wonderful, beautiful love, and it's even compared to ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' and ''[[Wuthering Heights (novel)|Wuthering Heights]]'' '''as a compliment'''
To expand on the "abuse" mentioned above, we have Edward ''sneaking into Bella's room'' without her knowledge or permission to "watch her sleep." He belittles her and blames it on her clumsiness; at one point he suggests she can't even do laundry for fear of injury. He tells her where she can go and who she can see (by the end of the first book, she no longer has any friends outside the Cullens), and has her babysat by his family when he can't be with her. At one point, he mentions he would have disabled her car to prevent her from going somewhere. He is constantly reminding her that it's only his sheer will that keeps him from killing her. In the second book, he tells her that if they were ever to be permanently separated, he'd kill himself. And then he leaves her, without any thought to her feelings at all. He also has a tendency in the books to use sex as a bargaining tool (for marriage and college), and makes Bella feel bad for ''wanting'' that amount of intimacy with him. He basically manipulates her into marriage, which she had said explicitly that she didn't want, especially at 18. And when she gets pregnant, he conspires to kill the baby ''against her wishes'' and pimps her out to Jacob for future baby-making...without her knowledge. And why does he do all of this? Because he "loves her." However, 99.9% of his actions are considered interpersonal abuse by pretty much every mental health professional.
* Even though Bella and Edward's relationship is legal in Washington (the age of consent being 16), it doesn't make it any less creepy, since Edward is really 109 yet fancying a 17-year-old girl. If a regular really REALLY old man (i.e. non-gorgeous or young looking) began an obviously sexually charged relationship with a teenage girl, even if it was actually legal, people would start complaining. Now if he started breaking into an 18 year old girls room and watching her sleep... Yet because Edward is pretty, people have no problem with the fact that he is old enough to be her great-grandfather.
* Werewolf imprinting. The pedophilia allusions are impossible to ignore. People can try to argue that it's not a sexual thing, but it's stated to be about best breeding choices, which makes it ''absolutely'' sexual. That's arranged marriage type implications. Then there's the fact that Jacob imprints on Renesmee within days of her ''being born''. That's right. Jacob selected his ideal sexual match when she was an infant. [[Sarcasm Mode|No, absolutely no pedophilia allusions here]]. The fact that imprinting is inherently a sexual process (as stated above), means that Jacob imprinting on Nessie and Quil imprinting on Claire could be seen as child grooming:
{{quote|
:: Imprinting is described as basically [[Happiness in Slavery]] turned [[Up to Eleven]] for the wolf. The implications if a wolf were to imprint on someone sufficiently amoral or sadistic are pure [[Fridge Horror]]. Hell, it's portrayed as a good thing that wolves are ''expected'' to commit suicide by giving up their immortality after their imprints die of old age, and actually want to, without exception. At no point do the wolves get ''any'' say in whether or not they imprint or who they imprint on, and imprinting eventually amounts to an automatic death sentence for the wolf. And this clusterfuck of magical [[Mind Rape]] (that essentially reduces an individual wolf to nothing more than an extension of his imprint) is supposed to be this transcendent and wonderful thing. [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7586237/1/ This fanfic] is a brilliant and utterly ''terrifying'' example of just this sort of [[Unfortunate Implications]]. Warning<nowiki>:</nowiki> do NOT read just before you go to bed.
----
==Other Examples==
* The Shadow series (a spin-off series from [[Ender's Game]]) has ''tons'' of sexist undertones. For one thing every single relationship outside of Bean and Petra's always has the woman as a [[Strangled by the Red String]] [[Shallow Love Interest]] for the more well-developed male characters and literally every couple has to have babies. LOTS and LOTS of babies! It gets really ridiculous with Graff whose love interest doesn't even get a name or a single line of dialogue or make an actual appearance
Line 64 ⟶ 70:
* A good argument can be made that [[H.P. Lovecraft]]'s entire body of work can be traced back to a combined fear of sex, foreigners, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|seafood]]. All this made doubly ironic by the fact that his wife was ''Jewish''. His later work tones down the racism, and now our "genetically inferior" villains are just deformed or inbred.
** Not all the unfortunate-ness of Lovecraft is implied. On more than one occasion he came right out and made statements showing a degree of racism shocking ''even for his era.'' A good (and shocking) example is this passage, the ''final twist'' of "Medusa's Coil" (ghostwritten for someone else, but it's his):
{{quote|
* ''[[Redwall]]'':
** The "good guy" species all speak perfectly civil, upper-class English... except for the moles, who have an accent that sounds like that of the West Country, an English region more associated with rural life and stereotypes (and, hence, the working class). The [[
** There's also an incident in ''Loamhedge'' that is... less than sensitive to wheelchair-users. Martha, who has been confined to a wheelchair all her life, {{spoiler|gets up and walks}} to save the Abbot; she says afterward that {{spoiler|''she was only impaired by a lack of willpower''}}.
** A majority of the ''Redwall'' books are not too bad, but the most recent, ''Eulalia'', has lots of Unfortunate Implications. Let's see, an innocent vole is forced to dress up like a vermin and used as a trick and the Redwallers badly hurt him. This would be fine if it acknowledged that it was an accident, that because of the disguise they thought he was an enemy, but they justify it because the vole was rude to a protagonist earlier. So even when the Redwallers realize that the vole had no choice he gets treated horribly, and then when he tries to steal the Sword of Martin as revenge for his ordeal... he quickly gets killed off.
Line 82 ⟶ 88:
** And then there's the spanking...
** And the fact that most of the women are openly misandrist. Is it any surprise that everyone is dancing [[The Masochism Tango]]? The [[Witch Species]] Aes Sedai at least have a [[Justified Trope|justification]] for that: they're members of a [[Lady Land]] ivory-tower organization which has dominated the continent for 3,000 years. It'd be just as much a problem if they ''hadn't'' lost touch with the common man and made the world more misandrist. (But you'd also think that some of the ''non''-Aes Sedai female characters would have their heads on straight, which is where the [[Epic Fail]] comes in.)
** And the [[Contemptible Cover|cover]] of the second book, in which the artist depicted the [[
* ''[[Gone with the Wind]]'':
** The white people speak the King's English and all the black people speak in in a highly stereotyped dialect. Especially considering the dialect of the southern aristocracy wasn't even the King's English in [[Real Life]], and while the accents between slaves and the elite would have been different, but not ''that'' different. In this case, the book was written by a Southern US author, so to her, the white-southerner accent '''was''' standard "unaccented" English,
Line 98 ⟶ 104:
*** A lot of female characters have had family members brutally murdered in front of them. Some were even forced to watch. Men in the Voyager program typically enter because their families reject them for either [[Why Couldn't You Be Different?|not being able to fit more mundane roles]] or for [[Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?|getting turned into things against their will]]. So women are primarily motivated by deprivation and men are primarily motivated by rejection.
** '''Sexuality''':
*** This series attempts to reconstruct the [[Depraved Homosexual]] and [[Depraved Bisexual]] tropes, accepting a lot of the criticisms those tropes have received. However, since the Crooked Rainbow are a bunch of [[World of Ham|rabid]] [[
*** Which bears an even more unfortunate suggestion: That in the Voyagers' universe, being too fanatical about any social cause will automatically reduce you to thinking, speaking, and acting exactly like an Internet [[Troll]] [[New Media Are Evil|in your everyday life]].
** '''Race''': Mantithians are only fully compatible with Mantithians sexually. Mosquatlons have dated them, but most attempts to have interspecies children end in failure. Whiteouts are likewise only compatible with other Whiteouts. Ooze Pens with Ooze Pens, etc. Meaning that sometimes, [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|segregation is good]]! Although, Pens and Pencils of varying subspecies can interbreed, with mixed results.
* S.L. Viehl's [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Jorenians]] are [[Mindlink Mates|monogamous]] (and invariably heterosexual) enough to make the [[Moral Guardians]] weep with shame. {{spoiler|In the second book of the ''[[Stardoc]]'' series, the vengeful Ktarka -- who's not allowed to marry, because she proposed to someone who turned out to already be engaged -- is [[Psycho Lesbian|making advances on the heroine]] in between attempts to destroy her.}} Another Jorenian character seems nearly as shocked at the fact that {{spoiler|Ktarka was putting the moves on another woman}} as at {{spoiler|the fact that she had ''already'' killed several characters and was ''planning'' on killing at least three more, one of them a ''[[Would Hurt a Child|little kid]]''}}. (Someone must have called Viehl on it: Later in the series, she {{spoiler|paired up the gay secondary character Hawk with a male Jorenian... and}} tossed in an [[Anvilicious]] [[Author Tract|message about how same-sex marriage is okay]].) And that's not even taking [[Rape Is Love|Duncan's]] [["It's Not Rape If You Enjoyed It"|behavior]]—the [[Aliens Made Them Do It|various]] [[Raised by Orcs|karmic]] "[[Freudian Excuse|outs]]" he's [[Karma Houdini|given]] aside—into account.
* In ''[[Invisible Man (novel)|Invisible Man]]'' by Ralph Ellison, ''everything'' is a [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|symbol relating to an overall point about race relations]]. More than once a character who expresses a view different from Ellison's is revealed to be
* TV series ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' releases a few tie-in novels. So far so good. First two are published as a single book in America. Also good. What's not good is that, in the cover illustration, the two black characters, Lister and the Cat, are replaced by a white guy and an actual cat, respectively...
* ''[[His Dark Materials]]'':
** as a [
** There's also the fact that "all servants" supposedly have dog dæmons, suggesting that they were chosen as servants because of their dæmons; people who don't have dogs as dæmons can't get the job because they are considered too independent. It's not hard to think of racial profiling or job discrimination when it comes to this.
** Not to mention that ''all'' religious people in this serie are portrayed as [[Knight Templar
* [[Ian Fleming]]'s [[James Bond]] novels.
** Particularly ''[[Live and Let Die (novel)|Live and Let Die]]'' and ''[[Goldfinger]]''. In this case, most of this is not "unfortunate" implications but straight out racism and sexism. Ian Fleming was openly racist and sexist, which was not uncommon for Britons of his era, making it [[Values Dissonance]] as well.
Line 127 ⟶ 133:
** Zoey has two male friends who are gay, which is all fine and dandy, except between the two of them, [[Camp Gay|they demonstrate every single gay stereotype out there.]] Not to mention that both gay characters are described as being very soft-spoken, doe-eyed, and generally submissive. The straight men are pretty much all dominant and outgoing. We never see any heterosexual men who are quiet or reserved, and we never see any gay guys who are masculine or forward.
** No matter what's going on, if it's mentioned that a character smokes pot, [[Author Filibuster|Zoey and her friends will pause to rant about how nasty and uncool pot-smoking is]]. In ''Betrayed'', we find out that Neferet specifically chooses students to feed to the red-eyed vampires just because Zoey ratted them out to her as having used pot. When the police confront Zoey about the deaths, Neferet tries to blame it all on the victims falling in the river after being high, which sounds uncomfortably like "they were asking to die a brutal death!" And while Neferet is the bad guy, Zoey in no way ever contradicts or debates that argument.
* The first ''[[Flora Segunda]]'' book seems to paint its [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|pseudo-Aztecs]], the Huitzils, as [[
* Frank Herbert clearly had serious issues with homosexuality; [[Big Bad]] Baron Harkonnen in ''[[Dune]]'' is a [[Depraved Homosexual]] who even lusts after his own nephew, and even his henchman Piter is briefly said to have a vaguely feminine personality. Then ''The Dosadi Experiment'' features the omniscient narrator discussing how gay people make ideal suicide bombers, an aside that comes right the hell out of nowhere and [[
* ''[[Blubber]]'', by [[Judy Blume]]. Poor Linda gets mercilessly bullied and tries to [[Actual Pacifist|solve the problem by dialogue]], not by punching back. This attitude show her maturity and yet she is considered to be a weak person who deserves no compassion. Even when [[Designated Hero|Jill]] has learnt the hard way that being bullied hurts, she still seems to think that Linda somehow deserved what she got. Oh, and [[Complete Monster|Wendy]] [[Karma Houdini|got no punishment]].
* William Golding, the author of ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'' didn't include female characters on the island, and explained this as being because he believed that women would have exerted a civilizing influence and prevented the boys' society from collapsing. Coupled with the book's [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|Family Unfriendly Aesops]] [[Hobbes Was Right|on the]] [[Humans Are
* ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'':
** R.A. Salvatore's novel ''Gauntlgrym'' contains one of the first, if not ''the'' first openly bisexual character in the ''Forgotten Realms'' novels. The character, Dahlia Sin'felle, was the [[Rape as Backstory|victim of rape when she was a child]], is a sexual sadist, a serial killer, and a rapist in her own right.
** Salvatore's most popular character, Drizzt Do'Urden, is a heroic dark elf who ventures to the surface world and experiences racism. However, ''every'' other dark elf in Salvatore's story is [[
* ''[[Sea of Trolls|The Sea of Trolls]]'' and its sequels:
** All full-fledged Christians are at best, good but slightly stupid, and at worst, [[Complete Monster|complete monsters]]. Only pagans (or pagan/Christians, like Jack) are truly good.
Line 142 ⟶ 148:
** Patch is also described as being tall, dark, and swarthy, with a very Italian last and a love of hanging out in less savory parts of town. In other words, he's pretty much the perfect stereotype of an ethnic gangster.
** On the topic of the harassment, at several points in the novel, Nora is told by the school guidance councilor that Patch is not safe to be around and that she highly recommends that Nora does not hang around Patch off school property or by herself. The advice is perfectly logical, given that Patch ''is'' scaring Nora with his behavior, but Nora instantly is suspicious of the advice. And then the end of the book {{spoiler|proves Nora's suspicions right, by having the councilor be a [[Clingy Jealous Girl]] who wants to drive her away from Patch}}.
* ''[[The Sound and
* ''[[The Kane Chronicles]]'' has two protagonists. A [[Brother-Sister Team]] who discover that the Egyptians myths are true. The US covers show both siblings in an appropriate environment. The UK covers show the male protagonist fighting a monster while his sister is completely absent from the cover.
* ''[[Spy High]]'' kills off Chinese-American Jennifer in the third book, and [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|replaces]] her with Bex, a white girl. Also serves to make Cally the [[Token Minority]] since she is the only non-white team member after this.
* ''[[Skulduggery Pleasant]]'' has the threat of The Americans coming in and "helping out" the Irish magical community when they show weakness, and never leaving. While this could be based on common fears/stereotype of [[White Man's Burden|American Imperialism]], one of the two American characters in the series is Billy-Ray Sanguine, a Texan with a stereotypical accent, who just happens to be a complete sociopath who works for the highest bidder. His dad, Dreylan Scarab,<ref>who is hinted to have been released by the Americans early in order to cause a crisis among the Irish</ref>
* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]:
** While this series is entertaining, it does have a number of [[Unfortunate Implications]]. The book ''Free Fall'' portrays Japan as a [[Third World Country]], one that has parents that sell their daughters to countries like the USA for 500 American dollars, one that has old people considering cities to be evil, one that has old people considering the USA "the place of the golden roads", one that has at least one old couple smoking opium, and one that has at least one village that is set up in a way that would be unlikely in Japan. You can be sure that people who live in Japan would find such a portrayal either hilarious or offensive.
Line 151 ⟶ 157:
** This series has [[Double Standards]]. For instance, a number of reviewers of the book ''[[Weekend Warriors]]'' stated that they could not sympathize with the Vigilantes because they gave three rapists the [[John Wayne Bobbit]] treatment. One reviewer did point out that if a male character did this to the three rapists, then readers would sympathize with ''him''. So it's okay for male characters to do this, but not female characters?
* ''[[Sweet Valley High|Sweet Valley University]]'' decided to [[Killed Off for Real|kill off]] Todd's Asian girlfriend [[Too Good for This Sinful Earth|Gin-Yung]] to pave the way for him to get back together with white, blonde, perfect-size-six Elizabeth. Made worse by the [[Derailing Love Interests|derailment]] that Gin-Yung went through to set up the return of Todd/Elizabeth, and especially by having Gin-Yung tell Todd on her deathbed to [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|get back together with Elizabeth.]]
* ''[[The Time
** First, we have the central premise of the novel. An adult man has a very special relationship with a little girl, which involves telling her that he's destined to be her husband, informing her how in love with her he is and grooming her to fall in love with him. Oh, and she can't tell anyone else about this special relationship, because they won't understand. Also, said special relationship involves appearing to her naked. It's no wonder that Alonso Duralde dubbed the film adaptation "To Catch a Time-Traveling Predator."
** At one point, Henry has sex with Clare while she's asleep. Nonviolent or no, this smacks of [[Marital Rape License]], made all the worse because neither of them seem to find anything wrong with it.
Line 157 ⟶ 163:
** And, of course, the ending. {{spoiler|After Henry's death, Clare finds a note in which he tells her that he'll time-travel to the future to see her when she's old. The last scene is of her as an old woman, wearing the outfit that he described in the note, which she's done every day for an unspecified period of time in hopes that today is the day.}} If this were described as unhealthy or codependent, it would be fine, but the very end of the novel is a quotation about how Penelope and Odysseus, implying that this behavior is hunky-dory and, indeed, deeply romantic.
* [[Tom Clancy]]'s books can have these as well, especially on the subjects of race. In his early books, where the enemy was mostly the Soviet Union, the villains were shown to be competent, often with sympathetic traits. But later books, most notably ''The Bear and the Dragon'' and ''Debt of Honor'' tend to show the non-White villain nations as little more than mustache-twirling, [[For the Evulz|evil-for-the-sake-of-evil]] incompetents. Even to the point that there are glaring inaccuracies in order to make them so. For instance, in ''Debt of Honor'' the Japanese Government decides to bring back the Empire without even so much as a brief mention of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, and there are numerous errors in ''The Bear and the Dragon'' regarding the Chinese Military. It's especially glaring when it comes from a man who accurately depicted the interior of U.S Submarines from ''sheer guesswork'', and one of the biggest indicators of the unfortunate truth that most of his later works are ghostwritten by other authors.
** To be fair, the real-world Japanese extreme nationalist party never mentions Article 9 either whenever ''they'' talk about wanting to do what they want to do. Clancy's consistent plot device for creating an enemy nation is to go "OK, what if the worst possible people in their political system actually won a majority?" and then run from there. Russia, China, and Japan all go the same way in his storyline, even if two of those nations didn't actually have elections.
* ''Love in the Time of Cholera'' has Florentino Ariza get raped on a boat by an unknown woman. This just turns him into a [[Loveable Sex Maniac]] and doesn't appear to have any negative effects. Add to that the lighthearted tone of the book and you'll have at least one person feeling incredibly uncomfortable with [[Double Standard Rape (Female on Male)|the implications]].
* When [[Isaac Asimov]] was accused of sexism, he pointed to Dr. Susan Calvin of his ''[[I Robot]]'' stories as an example of a strong female character. While she is a strong character, she is also a shrewish, misanthropic [[Insufferable Genius]] who is feared and disliked by her colleagues. This could imply that a woman cannot be strong and likable at the same time.
Line 165 ⟶ 172:
** Then there is the fact that her father, when aksed by her whether this suicide instruction is an order, declines, and ''then '' sends Evrek, her fiance, to sneak in the Imperial camp and either liberate or kill her, only stopping the plan at the last second and not even telling her about that until much later . Just how little does he trust her?
** And then there is her fiance, Evrek. The chemistry between them is '''exactly zero''', and the fact that she just casually fell in love with some local doesn't seem to change things in the slightest between them. So either this is an [[Arranged Marriage]] (again, great way to portray an advanced, utopic society), or somehow the way people in the future express love is extremely different from today's standards.
*You can spot an occasional example in ''The Desert War'', Alan Moorehead's famous collection of World War 2 dispatches. On one occasion he praises an Australian unit for the fact that they "worked like blacks". What he meant of course was that they were hard working which is a virtue both in a free citizen and a soldier. But it has the unfortunate implication of not taking slavery seriously.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
| |||