History Main / SoapBoxSadie

A character, often a child or teenager and almost AlwaysFemale, who cares deeply about [[AllLovingHero all worthy causes]]. She wants to protect the environment from polluters, prove that [[ShowingUpChauvinists women aren't inferior to men]], and FreeTheFrogs. If she's the main character of the show, she spends a lot of time struggling with her idealism and whether it is too unrealistic. Soap Box Sadie is usually a post-hippie, the type of girl who would have been a hippie had she not been born in the wrong decade. Sometimes she's updated to the more recent counter-cultures of the time like emos, goths, hipsters, etc.

* Brian from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' mutated into this in later seasons, delivering liberal and atheist aesops left and right. A few of them made perfect sense (Don't discriminate against gay people) but eventually morphed into such gems as "Religion is for idiots!" and "If we legalized pot everything would be, like, a billion times better!" The fact that Brian is Creator/SethMacFarlane's AuthorAvatar makes you wonder how much of this is mirrored in his own personal life. He repeatedly gets run down by other characters who point out he's simply a contrarian with a pathological need to feel morally and intellectually superior to every one around him.

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]

-->-- '''Marge Simpson''', ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E14LisaVsMalibuStacy Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy]]"[[note]][[LongRunners An episode of season five]]. Then [[{{Flanderization}} she doubled down]].[[/note]]

* Riley in ''Film/{{Detention}}''. Her getting thrashed in her debate with [[CanadaEh Gord]] on the morality of eating meat triggers an existential crisis that ends with the former vegan eating a burger and trying to hang herself. Gord himself is also one, though his views are an inversion of Riley's -- he believes that ''not'' eating meat is morally wrong. [[spoiler:That's because he's a vegetable-based alien lifeform, who is leading the invasion of Earth in order to stop vegans like Riley from eating his kin.]]

* Brian from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' mutated into this in later seasons, delivering liberal and atheist aesops left and right. A few of them made perfect sense (Don't discriminate against gay people) but eventually morphed into such gems as "Religion is for idiots!" and "If we legalized pot everything would be, like, a billion times better!" The fact that Brian is Creator/SethMacFarlane's AuthorAvatar makes you wonder how much of this is mirrored in his own personal life.

-->-- '''Marge Simpson''', ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E14LisaVsMalibuStacy Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy]]"

Compare GranolaGirl, LiteralSoapboxSpeech, StrawFeminist, StrawVegetarian, [[StrawCharacter Strawman Political]], AuthorTract. Special bonus if they [[LiteralMinded actually get]] on a [[VisualPun soapbox]].

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS28E17CaperChase Caper Chase]]", Mr. Burns encounters a group of stereotypical students being this, at Yale University, whose leader calls Mr. Burns "worse than Hitler" for referring to him as a "fellow" as it's a gender-specific pronoun, despite clearly being male.

** Kyle dips into this frequently as well, especially when he [[CatchPhrase learned something today]].

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS28E17CaperChase Caper Chase]]", Mr. Burns encounters a group of stereotypical students being this, at Yale University, whose leader calls Mr. Burns "worse than Hitler" for referring him as a "fellow" as it's a gender-specific pronoun, despite clearly being male.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E21TheOldManAndTheLisa The Old Man and the Lisa]]", Lisa believes that she has turned Burns into an ecologically sensitive businessman. He hasn't changed at all, but when Burns offers Lisa her final cut of the proceeds (which totals twelve million dollars), Lisa rips up the check. This causes Homer to have five simultaneous heart attacks.