All The Tropes

Unfortunate Implications/Other Media: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Unfortunate Implications/Other Media (view source)

Revision as of 20:59, 27 April 2023

449 bytes added ,  1 year ago
m
no edit summary
VisualWikitext
(Rescuing 1 sources and tagging 0 as dead.) #IABot (v2.0.8)
mNo edit summary
Line 112:
 
== Other ==
* [http://img150.imageshack.us/i/laserbm1.png/sr=1 Shoop Da Whoop].{{dead link}}
* [httphttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pyW6w5B7Aw This news broadcast]. Not the news itself but the way it is presented, and how every person they interviewed happened to be black, tying into a racist stereotype. Not to mention all the unfortunate implications in a number of the [[YouTube]] comments alone. Also, the "Related Videos".
* In the comic strip 'Baldo', which takes place [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|probably]] in southern California, the only Caucasian character is a racist counselor that believes that everybody who isn't Caucasian is a gang member.
* The continuing difficulty some USA news outlets have in accepting that California-born figure-skater [[w:Michelle Kwan|Michelle Kwan]] is an American:
** MSNBC News 1998: "American beats out Kwan"
** Seattle Times 2002: [http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20020303&slug=fancher03 "American outshines Kwan, Slutskaya in skating surprise"]
** Similar comments followed [[w:Kristi Yamaguchi|Kristi Yamaguchi]] during her skating career.
*** That isn't Unfortunate Implications. That's racism.
* In magazines where they make a list of attractive men (like ''People'' and their Sexiest Men Alive issue.) They use the fact that he's happily married and a doting father as a selling point. Since most of the Sexiest Men Alive are happily married, it makes it appear that women only want a man if he's in love with someone else. So women only want married men, then?
Line 127:
** Similarly, there is a Russian coursebook that ''loves'' using sentences about Siberia. "Where is she?" "She is in Siberia." "We are going to Siberia in a week's time." It's hard not to interpret that as a bit of [[Black Comedy|morbid]] [[Textbook Humor]] on the writer's part, since to anyone who's familiar with Russian history, Siberia is instantly associated with [[The Gulag|one thing]].
* On one news website one of the tags (for an article indexing articles on financial bailouts in the US, strangely enough), one of the user contributed tags is "This is what happens when you give money to 'the sons of Ham'". It's arguably made worse (or funnier) by the fact the site's owner was the author of several controversial newsletters in the 1980's regarding black crime.
* In the Epcot World Showcase in [[Disney Theme Parks|Disney World]], all of the eleven countries are in the northern hemisphere.<ref>About 90% of countries and the human population are north of the equator, however.</ref> The closest they get to the equator is Mexico or MorroccoMorocco. Sub-Saharan Africa isn't represented at all because the only nation that would sponsor it was South Africa, at the time deep in apartheid and an obvious potential PR disaster. On the other hand... The Animal Kingdom Park is pretty much EPCOT - Africa.
** On the subject of Disney, what about the Small World ride? It shows a lot of stereotypes, even if it was considered [[Fair for Its Day]] when it was built.
* This overlaps considerably with [[Values Dissonance]], but New Zealand has All Blacks, its national rugby team, and All Whites, its national association football team.<ref>They have a range of other colors, as well.</ref> Wikipedia used to have an article at "List of All Blacks", since moved, that was the target of controversy more than once.
Line 135:
{{quote|'''McCain''': [[Barack Obama|Obama]]'s not an Arab. He is a good man.}}
* Typographical example: Anytime the [[wikipedia:Neuland|Neuland]] or [[wikipedia:Lithos|Lithos]] typefaces are used in reference to African or other foreign cultures, which are virtually their only appearances since the turn of the century. The use of those two is done to evoke a "primitive" or "uncultured" feel, regardless of the true situation. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120204163440/http://www.studio-gs.com/neuland.html More info on the topic.]
* The ''New York Times''{{'}} gift guide for [http://www.nytimes.com/gift-guide/holiday-2009/colorstyleguide/list.html "People of Color"]. Which is bad enough in itself, but most of those gifts would be perfectly acceptable and like by anyone. However they seem to have been chosen because they were created by "famous people of color."
* The New Musical Express once produced a pack of cards with rock musicians' pictures. A reader pointed out that it was a bit hypocritical of the NME to criticize Morrisey for alleged racist remarks while having a pack of cards with [[Bob Marley]] as 'The King of Spades'
* Water cannons and fire hoses are tried-and-true methods of breaking up a riot or civil disturbance. It's safe, effective, and the ammo's cheap. The police forces of most countries rely on water power to this day. But not the USA. Water power was extensively used to quell African-American demonstrations during the Civil Rights era of the '60s, and has been connected with racist police forces oppressing peaceful demonstrations ever since. American law enforcement avoids these now.
** On a similar note, the recent protests in the UK over the increase of school tuition fees provoked a lot of discussion about how Police should handle such demonstrations in the (then) future. Though the protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, it was suggested that the police might/should (depending on the source) bring in water cannons to "quell further unrest". It was pointed out that the only times water cannons have been used within the UK was in Northern Ireland during [[The Troubles]]. The UI being that either students demonstrating (for the most part) peacefully in London were as bad as decades of violent civil unrest, or that Northern Ireland was of such little consequence to the government that it took decades of violent civil unrest before even water cannons were thought necessary.
** A good deal of modern protestorsprotesters have a habit of recording an entire incident, but only posting the police's reaction to their and making it out as oppressive. Which means that they don't think what they actually did is relevant to how the cops respond. Which means they think they don't have any responsibility for their actions. Which can be rather darkly ironic when the protestorsprotesters in question are demanding others take responsibility for problems, but won't take any responsibility for their own.
* Racial profiling. Yes, ''statistically'', people of Arab and Black descent are more likely to be Muslims.{{verify|reason=I was under the impression that the majority of Muslims are from southeast Asia. Perhaps this needs to be re-phrased.}} However, the innocent Muslims (y'know, the majority), as well as non-Muslim Blacks and Jews, are quite rightly irritated at being associated with one of the most negative events in modern history just because of their skin color. On the ordinary street crime level, a disproportionate number of crimes are committed by Blacks and Latinos, because said groups are more likely to be economically disenfranchised, which leads to higher crime rates, which leads to a negative image of said groups in the eyes of law enforcement, which means they don't trust the cops, which leads to a negative image in the eyes of law enforcement...
** Going off of the Muslim bit, many American people imagine Muslims as being a group limited solely to the Middle East. Thus, they freak out at the thought of any living in the United States, despite the fact that Christianity and Judaism also originated in the Middle East and have spread pretty darned global. (This is, of course, an old trend in Western culture; as [[The Cartoon History of the Universe|Larry Gonick]] once joked--as regards the Spanish Inquisition--"No weird Middle Eastern religions here--only Christianity!")
** Speaking of Islam, doesn't it also seemed to be a bit of an Unfortunate Implications that whenever people made a bigoted statement against Islam, they are called 'racists' or 'racism?' As if implying that Islam is a race, something you are born into, when Muslim people comes from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and cultures.
* There's a comforter set called the [[Othello]]. Did the designers of that not know what happens in that play?! For those that don't know {{spoiler|the climax involves Othello smothering his wife to death ''in their bed''.}} [[What Did You Expect When You Named It?]]
Line 148:
* In Network TV land, CBS sent a memo to fire A.J. Cook from the hit crime show ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' for supposed "creative" (aka "financial") reasons. To add further insult, Paget Brewster (aka Emily Prentiss) will have her role reduced and a new actress will be cast to replace JJ. These decisions have been seen as having sexist undertones by an enraged fanbase and through angry blogs, calls and complaints to CBS, an online petition, and even a mailing campaign. This was accompanied by an increase in [[Charlie Sheen]]'s wages for his then-on-hiatus show ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'' (which he was fired from) to 2K per episode per week. And just to add insult to injury, Sheen is a known spousal abuser who was fired for drug abuse and making derogatory comments about the production staff, making the apparent gender [[Double Standard]] even more obvious.
* [[Slash Fics]] are contested for objectifying male homosexuality.
** And here's another one. Who told you that [[No Bisexuals|all characters]] in [[If It's You It's Okay|in Slash fics]] are homosexuals?
** [[Ho Yay]] often assumes that nearly any affection two men have for each other is homoerotic. [[Les Yay]] often assumes that two women who are close to each other have some kind of romantic interest. (Since [[Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls]], the former is a lot more prevalent.)
** [[Foe Yay]] assumes that if two characters dislike each other, they ''must'' be attracted to each other.
Line 154:
* The blog [http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/ Sociological Images] points out unfortunate implications in other media.
* The [[Mighty Whitey]] trope is itself Unfortunate because it implies that white people are automatically better at things non-white cultures can do, even if the non-white people have been training their whole life. Problem is, reaction to this trope often this carries the Implication that white people cannot/should not beat non-whites at anything from the non-white culture, ever. There are things white people should be good at, things non-whites should be good at, and there's no overlap.
* Some gay porn provides some strangely fascinating examples of this. It's terribly easy to find some where women are all [[Jerkass|Jerkasses]]es, [[Yaoi Fangirl|Yaoi Fangirls]]s, ''both'', or [[Dude Looks Like a Lady|not]] [[Crossdresser|actually]] [[TranssexualismTransgender|a woman]]. Some choose to top it off by cheerfully basking in [[All Gays Are Promiscuous|certain]] [[All Gays Are Pedophiles|tropes]]. If examples are ''[[Bile Fascination|wanted]]'', try pretty much anything by an individual, presumably a homosexual male, who posts under the alias of 'Beautiful Creamer.' (Warning: '''NOT SAFE FOR WORK'''. Also, contains [[All Gays Are Promiscuous|certain]] [[All Gays Are Pedophiles|tropes]]...)
** Here's some [[Unfortunate Implications]] for you: who are you calling "[[TranssexualismTransgender|not actually a woman]]"?
*** They might have been referring to the fact that the Internet is relatively anonymous and that sometimes people lie... but the context implies otherwise, lumping together three groups that have nothing in common with each other or with homosexuality: men with effeminate appearances, cross-dressers, and transgender people.
* An English language race convention creates unfortunate implications. This troper was tutoring an ESL student from Korea, and she (the students) was talking about an American who moved to Seoul to open a language school. This troper asked if he was Korean, as in asking if he had immigrated and became a citizen. She responded that no, he was white (turns out is now a Korean). The implication here is that white people can never be accepted as Korean, but will always be just a white person living in Korea.
** The same thing occurs in Japan as well. There are plenty of naturalized Japanese who still get clumped together as "gaijin". The idea remains that race =equals nationality.
* This was taken from the IMDB trivia entry for the movie ''Conviction'': Screenwriter Pamela Gray says she doesn't believe the awards or critics, she knows if her projects are well received by listening in the theater ladies' room after a showing, as if only the opinions of the ladies matter.
* The BCE/CE dating system is an example of both Unfortunate Implications and [[Political Correctness Gone Mad]] as it is meant to be a calendar system that is more sensitive to non-Christians. BCE is Before Common Era and CE is Common Era, but the dates themselves are identical to the BC/AD system based on when Christ was born. So if it's not based on Christianity, then what happened at 1CE that made it the "Common Era"? Common to whom? Is there ANY''any'' event whose significance would be universally recognized enough to actually be called the Common Era? By changing the names but not the dates, they moved from a calendar that makes no secret about being based upon an event that Westerners find important to implying that the birth of Christ was objective turning point for all humanity. This is an example of tryigntrying to avert one UIset of Unfortunate Implications while falling straight into another.
* The [[Five-Token Band]] trope. Usually, the white guy is [[The Hero]], and the Asian is either [[The Smart Guy]] or, if [[The Big Guy]], a [[Genius Bruiser]] who gets the "bruiser" part from knowing kung fu. The black guy might be [[The Lancer]] (though if it's in a non-Western setting, [[The Lancer]] will provide that hint of [[Perfectly Cromulent Word|indigeneity]]) or may play the role on the [[The Big Guy]]/[[The Smart Guy]] dichotomy not occupied by the Asian. If there is an American Indian, he'll be (for [[Trope Namer]] reasons) the [[Sixth Ranger]], or sometimes [[Sixth Ranger Traitor]].
* Caribou Coffee, which went through a stylistic revamping semi-recently,{{when}} had a form on their websites inviting people to submit answers to the question "What do you stay awake for?" Some of the "[[Your Mileage May Vary|best]]" answers were printed on the new cups. One of the ones that made it? "Making sure the monsters stay in the closet."
** That one is clearly [[That Came Out Wrong]].
* A LOT of character types have unfortunate implications if you think about them too hard. The most glaring one this troper can think of at the moment is the [[Tsundere]] character, particularly typethe Atsun-tsun type. Fandoms generally tend to love Type Atsun-tsun Tsunderes, especially if they're female, but the more extreme examples tend to show behavior that's disturbingly similar to the aggressor in abusive relationships. Of course, this is usually when they stop being [[Tsundere|Tsunderes]]s and start becoming [[Jerk Sue|Jerk Sues]]s.
* Because of the impossibility of accurately representing the surface of a sphere on a rectangular map, the [[wikipedia:Mercator projection|Mercator projection]] unavoidably distorts the relative sizes of continental landmasses. Unfortunately, this happens to result in a situation where most maps of the world depict North America, Russia and Europe (the parts of the world populated predominantly by white people) as being vastly larger than they really are, with Africa, South America, India and South Asia looking smallish and insignificant in comparison, just because they happen to be situated alongcloser to the equator. Ironically, the original intent of the map was to depict the more equatorial -situated locations more accurately because they were more valuable.
* For awhilea while on [[Accentuate the Negative]] page, someone pointed out that you're more likely to see negative reviews than positive reviews, and negative reviews gain more views. Someone then pointed out that people were more interested in reading criticisms rather than "unjust praises". There's a good reason that when this is mentioned on the [[Accentuate the Negative]] page, it links to [[Unfortunate Implications]].
* When ''the News Of The World'' was axed, one editor said he had "worked there for 18 months, it was a wonderful paper and they had gotten rid of all the Black people". This was because the media baron Conrad Black (who is in fact Caucasian) once owned it, but clearly [[That Came Out Wrong]].
* [http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ldt6y/i_am_a_ta_at_a_university_my_professor_and_i_are/ A TA sought advice from Reddit after they and their professor found definitive proof six students were plagiarizing]. All six students were Black. In fact, they were the only Black kids in the class. Due to Canadian politics, they were worried they'd be accused of discrimination. Responders suggested the papers be evaluated by a third party, with names removed. Ironically, several people suggested the post was from a race-baiting troll, under the assumption that no one in such a situation could ever be worried about looking racist when they're not.
* Many times, when an autistic person writes an autobiography, the back cover blurb will say something about it being a special insight into "the world of autism for the rest of us", assuming that every prospective buyer of the book and potential reader of the blurb, and by extension every person who reads books in general, is non-autistic.
Line 174:
** This attitude also spreads to ''[[Survivor]]'' themed works. A survivor webcomic has [[Fan Dumb]] who constantly berate female players for doing things that ''they praise male fans for doing''. [[Hypocritical Fandom]], anyone?
** ''Survivor Sucks'' had a topic posted that was a petition to ban Leif (who is a dwarf) from competing on basis of being a "midget", and that other contestants with disabilities (Deafness, missing limbs, etc) shouldn't have been allowed either. Is there anything saying they ''can't'' compete?
** It's no secret that Cook Islands had some [[Unfortunate Implications]] with dividing the tribes by race, and complaints that the casts were "too white". Yet ''Fiji'' featured a final five of only one white person, one asianAsian man, and three blacks. (One of them being [[Ambiguously Brown]]) And there were complains that they weren't ''white enough''.
* Elementary schools in Gwinnett County, Georgia apparently asked kids some rather offensive [https://web.archive.org/web/20140103100651/http://news.yahoo.com/fred-got-two-beatings-per-day-homework-asks-230717586--abc-news.html math word problems.] The questions include such gems as "Each tree has 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?", "If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?" and yet another asks how much cotton Fredrick picks in a day. The school district claims it's to teach kids history, but if so, it's very poorly handled.
* The [[Bratz]] doll lines [http://www.bratz.com/?section=bios Biography] page has exactly one character who has any ambition aside from looking glamorous RIGHT THIS MINUTE, said character is also [[Stay in the Kitchen|the only boy on the page]].
* The rather controversial ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' fanfic ''[[The Conversion Bureau]]'' has the rather unfortunate message of "if a new race arrives on the scene; it is acceptable, no ''good'', to force the natives to convert to the newcomer's race and adapt to their customs and rules. In the process, the natives' history, culture and identity is completely erased. And the natives must convert or be killed." Basically, the story seems to advocate genocide/forced assimilation.
* The ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' fanfic ''[[How I Became Yours]]'' has quite a bit of misogynist subtext. To make matters worse '''[[Female Misogynist|a woman wrote it]]'''.
** Almost all of the [[Action Girl]] characters undergo [[Chickification]]. Katara frequently cries and [[Wangst|Wangsts]] over the miscarriage of her son. Toph loses her [[Deadpan Snarker|sarcasm]] and [[The Ladette|tomboyish attitude]], while acting completely smitten with Aang. Worst of all is Azula, who suffers from amnesia and loses her identity as someone who is a devious strategist and powerful Firebender, yet also [[BrokenPerfectly AceCromulent Word|butdened]] [[Broken Ace|by emotional issues]] to an emotional and powerless woman. All of them are completely useless without men, in spite of their having been crucial to their sides' canon victories at certain points.
** Zuko, upon finding out that Mai hid Katara's pregnancy from him in order to avoid potential political fallout, beats her, divorces her, and leaves to go after Katara. [[Designated Hero|We are meant to sympathize with Zuko]] even though he was cheating on Mai, and [[Designated Villain|Mai is supposed to be seen as pure evil]], rather than as someone who [[Shoot the Dog|takes morally gray actions for well-intentioned purposes]] and later seeks [[Revenge]] for her unjust treatment.
* In the ''[[Lyrical Nanoha]]'' fanfic, ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6270588/1/ Behind The Smile]'', it's suggested that Hayate's [[Skinship Grope]] tendencies [[Cerebus Retcon|were a way of warding off male attention in middle school, because she been sexually abused in the past]]. Disregarding the fact that she had been feeling up her knights since she was nine, before she would have to keep up appearances, this bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the idea that homosexuals are only attracted to the same gender because they were sexually abused.
* It's fairly common to see members of a fandom referring to a [[Wholesome Crossdresser]] or [[transgender]] character as a "trap." The unfortunate implications are twofold--one, that trans-women aren't "REAL WOMEN", and two, that their sole purpose in life is to trick innocent young (cisgender) men. And of course, the reaction to discovering their trans*ness is always disgust and horror, and in extreme cases ''murder''. People can still get a lesser sentence or get away with murdering a trans person if they claim "trans panic" as a defense.
* Next time you check out at the grocery store, take a look at the covers of sex advice magazines marketed to women like ''[[Magazines/Cosmopolitan|Cosmopolitan]]''. Nearly all the blurbs talk about the magazines' contents in the context of "pleasing" or "serving" the ''men'', rather than the women who would be reading the publications.
* Another example of [[Fan Dumb]]... in ''[[Big Brother]] US''', after Shelly Moore decided to vote out Jeff Shroeder, [[Disproportionate Retribution|people started to make Hate-sites about her, calling her employers asking for her termination,]] and wished bad things on her daughter such as being taken away, kidnap, rape, or murder. This daughter in question was ''eight years old''.
* [[Rule 34]] is often seen as this.
 
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/2010994"