kira-sucks-lawlipops:

kaible:

f1rstperson:

fandomsandfeminism:

marchy88:

mentethemage:

isleofapplepies:

One of my least favourite dialogue tropes is when a man tells a woman, “You can’t do that” or “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” and she says, “Why? Because I’m a woman and therefore too weak to handle this/can’t take care of myself?” or something to that effect and the guy replies with, “No, because everyone who tried that ended up with a bullet in their brain” or something equally reasonable and not gender-specific that paints him as the rational not sexist guy and the woman as an irrational paranoid feminist who searches for sexism in everything. This whole scenario is built on the idea that sexism is over and women’s fears and suspicions don’t have a leg to stand on. It’s also self-congratulatory pseudofeminism bc it’s supposed to make the viewer/reader/listener feel that in this specific work of fiction women are treated respectfully and as equal with men.

huh.. never thought of it like that

But, what if the male character isn’t sexist? I meam…their fictional sure but…I’m not sure how to phrase this

Its not a question of the character themselves- its how the writers are portraying them. The way this trope plays out, the whole moment revolves around the woman looking foolish for assuming that there is sexism happening. She is characterized as being irrational, jumping to conclusions, even insecure. While the dude is characterized as the calm, rational one.

It is a trope that specifically works by taking a woman standing up to sexism and saying “haha it wasnt actually sexist at all! Isnt calling out sexism foolish and silly. Thats what you get for assuming that men are sexist!”

I have the same reaction with homophobic jokes set up like this. Like the whole “you can’t marry a woman”, “why bc you think its wrong” “no we haven’t found you the right dress yet silly!” Or stuff along those lines.

It feels like someone setting up to punch you and then you duck and the person goes “haha, i wasn’t gonna punch you at all, why would you duck? You shouldnt just assume someone’s gonna deck you because they have their fists up.”

Similar trope: a woman being put in a situation where she’s being threatened and is vulnerable to extreme harm, that then turns into her revealing she was where she wanted to be all along and ends with her kicking ass/leaving with the exact info she needed, which is a trope that fails to be a subversion because it only works if the scene/setting sells her as being helpless and vulnerable to that harm in the first place, when most male characters would not be, and also allows the filmmakers to indulge in the concept of women being made helpless and vulnerable and then getting to pretend it was super feminist of them to do so because it was “subverted”

you can just say yoss wheton