Tropes I’m tired of

PeanutButterPigeon85 · 2021-11-22T18:01:06+00:00

Ooh, I have one:

The spurned ex-husband whose ex-wife is now dating or married to a rich guy. By the end of the movie, the ex-wife realizes she was wrong to ever leave her ex. The current boyfriend or husband often meets a gruesome end. Sometimes, the ex-wife meets a gruesome end, too. (See: Taken, San Andreas, 2012, etc....)

The trope assumes that men feel emasculated when their ex-girlfriends/wives move on, and it "resolves" that emasculation via plot devices that break up the new relationship and restore the "dominance" of the original partner, whether or not the two get back together.

Ok-Yogurtcloset3467 · 2021-11-22T18:58:37+00:00

Woman with mental/health issues finding purpose with a man.

Women falling in love wih the man who treats them like shit but actually "really loves her"

Man cheats and she forgives him. Hate it

Relationship is struggling because hes a lazy POS. But they "both" realise they have to change and work at he relationship. We all know she was always working on that relationship

The gold digger trope. We all know there are m awful men who will rob a woman of everything she has, including her sanity and yet I never see it on a screen and rarely see it in books

Young girl being hot. That's it. If she looks like she could pass for a teen or she's 18 (because they love to say its fine because it's legal) don't show her as some young vixen

Statutory rape being a joke. This one drives me mad

Stupid, fat man with beautiful intelligent women. I hate everything about this one to the point I just don't watch it anymore

Golden_Lavender · 2021-11-22T17:18:15+00:00

Not necessarily a movie trope but a book tropes I'm done with is

·Mafia romances just period

·Asshole to Golden boy redemption especially when there is no apologies or groveling. This one is interesting because whenever I see the Asshole being mistrusted and disliked rightfully so, women always talk about how "bitchy" the female lead is and how she should give him a chance.

·Friends to lover slow burn. This one especially because whenever I see this trope done, the context is always that the two friends show obvious feelings for one another but will still date other people. Take the book that was all the rage over the past year for this trope, "People We Meet On Vacation". The dynamic between the two leads was just one big codependent emotional affair and yet so many people ate up their romance as actual goals.

During the course of this book the male lead was in an on and off again romance with his girlfriend and was even gearing up to propose to the girlfriend at one point but decided against because of his feelings for the best friend. This guy went on vacations, slow danced, held hands, gave flipping forehead kisses and even on occasion pretended to be newly weds with his "best friend" during their vacations, all of this occurring while he was in his on stage with his girlfriend. What makes this even worse is the fact that he hated pda in the context of a romantic relationship but had no problem doing so for his "bestfriend" and the "bestfriend" even admitted to herself that she wouldn't trust her boyfriend to go on vacations with and have a friend like herself but even so she didn't like the fact that the girlfriend didn't like her (even though you just admitted why).

It just irks me so much because just like the tenets of FDS always say, men (even in fiction) will use other women as a placeholder for the women that they do want and "if he wanted to he would" (show pda or whatever) . The worst part of all of this is the fact that instead of calling out the dynamic for being unhealthy instead everyone was talking about how they wanted a boyfriend like the ML.

This bothers me because it goes to show that people have no perspective or nuance when it comes to fictional characters.. Forming favorable biases just because someone is controlling the narrative is a fatal flaw of media audiences.If the book was written from the perspective of the girlfriend everyone would hate the best friend unquestioningly but because it's told from the perspective of the best friend everyone is rooting for her romance. (Other examples include people emphasizing with Joe from You, Joker and Rick from Rick and morty).

If the ML was in fact your boyfriend what makes you think you would be the best friend, don't assume you'll be the female lead. If anything most women end up being the second female lead that is disrespected for someone else. And even if you are the best friend why would you want to be in a relationship that was founded on the disrespect shown towards someone else and their relationship. Women who read that book and applauded their romance imo are red flags who would definitely be romanticize being the other women.

Frogspocket · 2021-11-22T19:11:33+00:00

A married man pining for an old flame, but it's romantic tho because she was the true "love of his life" and he lost her. 😭 She is so goals

🙄🙄🙄🙄

Leather-Pay-9714 · 2021-11-22T17:19:29+00:00

Women who never age😒

GlitteryMoss · 2021-11-22T17:14:09+00:00

Accomplished woman from a town who moved to the city to accomplish stuff leaves accomplished boyfriend in the city to go back home to run into the LVM ex boyfriend who did not accomplish anything, and decides he is the keeper.

pickmieshaexorcist · 2021-11-22T16:15:46+00:00

My least favorite are:

The hysterical mother. Popular in disaster flicks, sci-fi and post-apocalyptic fiction. Dad is a stoic badass who gets shit done while mom puts her family in danger because she is emotional and is a blubbering mess.
Cad reformation stories. Where the dangerous guy or playboy cad finally changes his ways for the lead woman. It’s just straight Barb the Builder propaganda.
cheating stories where the affair is framed as the great love of their lives and things work out. More propaganda encouraging pickmeism. Irl, how you get them is how you lose them.

BedazzledSwashbuckle · 2021-11-22T16:30:46+00:00

"Powerful" women who (a) use magic, or (b) have tiny non-muscular arms and wispy builds but the martial skills to take down armed, trained, dangerous teams of men twice their size despite not being armed or wearing body armor (which, really, is also magic if you think about it).

Anything but what, statistically, actually does even the playing field between genders, which is to arm women with exactly the items and training that the men have. That's something I don't see in media or movies very often, and it really irritates me.

Also, anything with cute 20s or teens gals engaging in hi-jinks with unrelated grandpas, even if it "stays platonic." Get real.

Antique_Fortune6974 · 2021-11-22T16:39:03+00:00

Don't forget: -Nerdy guy gets popular girl Classic..

Softrito · 2021-11-22T20:38:28+00:00

Manga fanbase is so misogynistic--shocking when the majority of fans are female. Example: there's a really popular story where the female lead is abused by her father and had a bunch of issues because of it. Her father marries her off to the male lead and the wedding night reads like a rape scene. BUT DON'T YOU DARE CALL IT RAPE! CONTEXT! EVER HEARD OF CONTEXTS?! Fyi the fanbase hates the female lead for being weak despite her having to be written like that because of the abuse but they love the male lead, despite him stalking her since she was a kid, speaking down to people, having a major inferiority complex and taking it out on her, never talking to her and only ever being near her when he is about to take sex from her.

Platipus6 · 2021-11-22T21:46:24+00:00

All the gorgeous people are well dressed in a never-ending closet-full of clothes, have perfect skin, make-up, hair and physiques despite never going to the gym.

Their home lives are 2 parent, 2 storey house, huge personal bedroom decorated tastefully. Dad is gainfully employed and Mom is relaxed, refreshed and competent at everything. She cooks a 10 course breakfast of which people eat 1 bite. Probably how they're all skinny.

They're all hooking up and swapping partners and this doesn't lead to a school shooting from jealousy between or from outside.

Pool parties, sleepovers, hangs, going to the mall and movies.. without failing school from never doing homework.

Riverdale, Clueless, Mean Girls, 7th Heaven, Buffy (movie and tv)..

No wonder the average kid has cognitive dissonance about what real life is like compared to this dream life that 5% of the population gets to have. And it's marketed as a basic representation of high school.

herbivorouscarnivore · 2021-11-22T16:35:51+00:00

You forgot men who just need a chance/haven’t met their soul mate. He can change given either of those conditions!!!

I also despise the trope with the boy who won’t take no for an answer, and endlessly pursues the woman until she realizes they are meant to be. No. In real life, that’s stalking, and it’s scary and threatening.

JoanGreenCat · 2021-11-22T17:03:28+00:00

- Female that only talks woke buzz words that doesn't make any sense, nagging every male and be stereotypical lib-fem

- " I'm not like other girls" treating everything feminine as weak.

- Woman that was cheated on but somehow everyone is angry at her for not forgiving the guy but at the end of the movie she forgives.

- And just in general every "family" series where female is just a MOM she has no personality, no emotions she is just a background to make breakfast, do grocery shopping and be a "bad parent" for asking kids to clean while father is so fun just sitting in front of tv and nagging mother with the kids.

dkwantsdk · 2021-11-22T23:12:00+00:00

Dead, murdered, kidnapped, raped woman used to drive male character development and story. Fodder for a man's story.

bizzybumblebee · 2021-11-22T18:38:37+00:00

the fat chick in the movies who thinks sleeping around is empowering

PenneyPence · 2021-11-22T18:54:57+00:00

People who meet, hook up immediately and are magically in a loving committed relationship.

catsandcafes · 2021-11-22T17:00:55+00:00

This just reminds me of that scene in high school musical 2 where Gabriella confronts Sharpay and goes “What’s the prize?! Troy??” And proceeds to say she doesn’t want him. As a child I was like omg fight for your man but now me is so happy that the sentiment exists in a Disney movie for young girls.

Maleddie · 2021-11-22T23:56:23+00:00

You included it already, but to expand: two model-like women fighting over an extremely average, bland man. I actually hate any storylines of women fighting over men.

It's reality TV, but I caught a bit of the US Ex on the Beach when I was on holiday in Cyprus recently and I found it unwatchable: the way it was the men sitting back while the women said catty things about each other because they were so desperate for the men's attention. Hideous.

scorchedsouI · 2021-11-22T23:25:29+00:00

Women in general overworking themselves or enduring extreme suffering "for the sake of others" (100% of time it's because they're spineless people-pleasers).

It's a realistic trope, but when there's several female characters that display this behaviour in a movie/book/video game with everyone treating it like it's normal, I just lose all appreciation for the media. I've grown so sick of this I can't stand these characters appearing just once anymore.

LonchuraStriata · 2021-11-22T16:44:35+00:00

I'd like to add:

- Everyone needs to be paired up by the end of the movie/series (ideally in a heterosexual relationship with a baby on the way) even if it makes no sense for their character and you literally have to pull a random new character that person would never feel attracted to out of your hat in the last 30 seconds. Because no woman is complete without a man and every man deserves a hot woman as a prize at the end.

Serious_Papaya8615 · 2021-11-22T15:56:25+00:00

This is all so true

BrightIdeaGenerator · 2021-11-24T03:44:50+00:00

I'm a sci-fi/fantasy person so I'll share some that crop up in the media I like.

-Polyamory! Polyamory is everywhere because it's the future!!! Soooo futuristic!! It's frequently referenced and a passing character might have two husbands or something, but none of the main characters do. I did appreciate that in Defiance, Ambassador Olfin Tennety was a legit evil person, and she had no problem having both her husbands killed (one got away) to sell one of her plots. So, at least polyamory wasn't even being sold as ha! ha! how awesome!, but the only person shown practicing it was a user and a horrible person. Of course, its also a woman, but .... there were enough cool female characters.

-The Prostitute' with a Heart of Gold is a character. I have no problem with the character herself usually, but the weird simping way that everyone fawns over how awesome she is and the women that aren't prostitutes' are all made to look like boring sticks in the mud. all the other people treat her fairly and equitably. Sex work is glamourized, and the only people who treat the Sex Worker as less than a person is rightly shown as a asshole, but its treated as an exception, not the rule or THE WAY THE WHOLE INDUSTRY WORKS. Except in Firefly, where Mal frequently calls Inara a whore, and it's ..... flirting??? Other than this ugly trait, I actually really like Mal.

- we have to have rape and abuse of women because its HISTORICAL. It wouldn't be believable otherwise! never mind the magic and dragons!

Anyway, yeah, those are ones that pop up my sci-fi and fantasy A LOT and it pisses me off.

xfelugirlx · 2021-11-23T14:05:30+00:00

It’s so male gaze it hurts, i mean they even sexualize our suffering but making us use sexy outfits and smoke when we have an existencial crisis

Noemie_Mathilde · 2021-11-23T00:43:16+00:00

Are there films/tv series written by women that are equally bad pickme propaganda? I've not seen "Girls", how would FDS rate it?

Witchy-Woods · 2021-11-23T22:50:23+00:00

anything in manga and anime

Title	Tropes I’m tired of
Author	Bekinditsfree
Upvotes	869
Comments	79
Date	November 22, 2021 3:41 PM UTC (4 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/FemaleDatingStrategy
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/FemaleDatingStrategy/comments/qzo8sj/tropes_im_tired_of/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/FemaleDatingStrategy/tropes-im-tired-of.1087160 https://theredarchive.com/post/1087160

Comments