Yup. :) Male characters can also be subject to unfair tropes and stereotypes as well. Like I said, if a male character never gets jealous, it's assumed he doesn't care about his relationship. It also seems to be more acceptable for a female character to be interested in another guy if she thinks her relationship with another love interest is not going to happen. It's also more acceptable for a women to try to make a guy jealous by pretending to be interested in someone else. With either gender, I dislike this trope, because you don't actually do that to someone you truly care about.
For some reason, scenes in which the girl is jealous bothers me, mostly because I often find it OOC and I don't like cliche cat-fights. My favorite scene of that kind is from Leverage, when Parker was jealous of a girl who liked Hardison. She expressed this by breaking a beer bottle with her bare hands! XD Which was so IC for her, and that might be why I don't usually like those scenes. If I feel that the female character's reaction doesn't actually suit them. A male character's reactions tend to make more sense for the individual character.
I probably notice unfair female character tropes more because I'm a girl, and I do agree with you about Gen and the slapping scene. That was until I remembered she was acting as a queen and not as his wife, and he didn't dodge because he was accepting her reproach. Queen Elizabeth also smacked people as a public representation of her dislike of their actions. Kings would do the same, and female leaders often imitated this in order to appear more male.
Either way, violence from males towards females automatically rises outcries because we associate it with domestic violence. It tends to bother us less with women towards men, because guys can usually defend themselves. Also, as my mother used to tell me, before the 70s the socially accepted method for telling a guy you weren't interested was to smack them. (As I'm watching Life on Mars, I'm starting to understand why.) Regardless, violences it never an appropriate response, unless your defending yourself from a physical assault. I accept the scene in KoA, because of the time and place and what it represents, if it were set in modern times...? Not so much.
I mean there are tons of books where the main character was considered a prime example of a "strong woman," but all they really are are men in women's body.
THIS. THIS. THIS.
That sums up a lot of my feelings about certain books like the Alanna series. I also dislike the trope that says that girls who are more traditionally girly can't be independent and tough too.
Good point about Anidori. She lived a very shelter life at the start of the book, and how she developed and grew was a very important part of the book.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-11-12 03:36 am (UTC)For some reason, scenes in which the girl is jealous bothers me, mostly because I often find it OOC and I don't like cliche cat-fights. My favorite scene of that kind is from Leverage, when Parker was jealous of a girl who liked Hardison. She expressed this by breaking a beer bottle with her bare hands! XD Which was so IC for her, and that might be why I don't usually like those scenes. If I feel that the female character's reaction doesn't actually suit them. A male character's reactions tend to make more sense for the individual character.
I probably notice unfair female character tropes more because I'm a girl, and I do agree with you about Gen and the slapping scene. That was until I remembered she was acting as a queen and not as his wife, and he didn't dodge because he was accepting her reproach. Queen Elizabeth also smacked people as a public representation of her dislike of their actions. Kings would do the same, and female leaders often imitated this in order to appear more male.
Either way, violence from males towards females automatically rises outcries because we associate it with domestic violence. It tends to bother us less with women towards men, because guys can usually defend themselves. Also, as my mother used to tell me, before the 70s the socially accepted method for telling a guy you weren't interested was to smack them. (As I'm watching Life on Mars, I'm starting to understand why.) Regardless, violences it never an appropriate response, unless your defending yourself from a physical assault. I accept the scene in KoA, because of the time and place and what it represents, if it were set in modern times...? Not so much.
I mean there are tons of books where the main character was considered a prime example of a "strong woman," but all they really are are men in women's body.
THIS. THIS. THIS.
That sums up a lot of my feelings about certain books like the Alanna series. I also dislike the trope that says that girls who are more traditionally girly can't be independent and tough too.
Good point about Anidori. She lived a very shelter life at the start of the book, and how she developed and grew was a very important part of the book.