Hello everyone, It is unpopular opinion time! Well, to be honest, I don’t know if these are unpopular or the book blogging community collectively agrees on these? Nevertheless the following are the female tropes I think we’ve all had enough of (hopefully)
✨ Damsel In Distress
This is obviously not a surprise. I think all of us collectively can agree that this trope needs to end for the greater good of humanity. Like come on, it’s the 21st century, the world has moved ahead, and women no longer need to be saved by men. More conveniently this trope encompasses within itself a similar trope – I’m not beautiful trope. Can we stop already? Perfect, beautiful girl doesn’t realize she’s pretty unless she’s told by the bad-ass, full of himself guy. Is self love dead in this generation?
✨ The “strong” female character
This might contradict my earlier point but hear out my question:
WHY are all strong female characters are shown with masculine traits? More importantly why do they have to be rude and emotionless to qualify as a strong lead?
Girls and boys can be strong mentally and emotionally, in terms of intellect and other qualities too. Fighting and doing Kung-Fu doesn’t only qualify as strong. One can be a good lead while also being sweet, kind and funny. I’ll need authors to chant this, to be honest.
✨ Not like other girls
This is almost synonymous to slut shaming, in my opinion. And I’ve not only read about guys saying this to attract the girls but girls thinking the same about themselves. Which is shocking and really not cool. 99% of the times, this trope is used for the girl who is different, pure and dropped down from heaven itself. She’s not into dating, she doesn’t like the color pink and she wears full body covering clothes while also deprecating the girls who don’t. Hailee hated this trope so much she made a song on it, can the authors stop too now? That’ll be great, thanks.
✨ Beauty standards
All women are beautiful YET why is it that I only see slim heroines in YA literature. Why are none of them chubby or overweight. Why are there beauty standards? Why do we only see typical looking female protagonists in books? Thankfully these days, I’m seeing a bit of diversity and end of stereotype in books related to race and ethnicity. We need more of that in terms of physical beauty too!
Great list Anushka!!
Its totally relatable, seeing these tropes just make me roll my eyes at this point.
May I ask, what are you favourite female character tropes, and why?
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Hii! Thank you so much ❤ Haha, I don't have a favorite trope but Hermoine is one of my favorites and I wish we had more of her type in books!
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Yes to all of these! Also, the crazy/evil woman who can’t handle power. Ugh.
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Haha, yes, forgot to add that! Glad you liked the post ❤
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Amazing post, Anushka!
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I hate when a female character calls herself plain and then some guy comes into the picture, calling her beautiful and suddenly she’s pretty. Let’s be real, we know if we are pretty and having some guy tell us we are, well nice, shouldn’t alter our perception of ourselves. Great post!
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That is so annoying honestly haha😂😂❤ thank you so much 😊
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Ahh this is a great post, I love all of your points so much here. I agree that a strong character doesn’t necessarily define itself by, well, the strength and badass fight and things like that, characters can be strong in so many ways, mentally and emotionally too and we need more of that for certain ❤ and yes yes yes yes to diversity in beauty standards, beauty doesn't define itself with specific traits and this, this needs to be highlighted in books way more. ❤
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Yess those are soo important in books now. Thank you soo much for your sweet comment 😊😊❤
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I hate ALL these tropes! Especially “not like other girls”. You know who I hate in real life? The people who say they’re not like other girls. And women who say they don’t hang out much with other women because there will be too much drama. Like, STFU, Susan.
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Omg hahaha. Yes people who say they don’t even realise that they’re slut shaming. and if they do , then they don’t give a damn. Women need to be there for each other oof!! ❤
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Oh gosh I so agree with you about the strong female characters- they end up being so masculine and emotionless
And I don’t like not like other girls either. Fantastic post!
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Yes strong female characters are usually badly done. So glad you liked the post, thank youuuu ❤☀🌠
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