History Main / EvolvingTrope

* For some, the SchoolIsForLosers trope has also evolved. Very few people today consider education ''itself'' to be a bad or unnecessary thing. What ''is'' considered a bad or unnecessary thing is the time and money cost for education. Student loan debt (at least in the [[EaglelandOsmosis United States and]] [[ValuesDissonance other English-speaking nations]]) is a major hot-button issue, since going into it is all but required unless the student or their family is wealthy enough to pay the tuition in full, or if said student spends a few years in the armed services. This, along with the fact that many jobs that just needed a high school diploma in the 1980s, never mind the 1950s, now require college degrees or even graduate degrees and possibly hours of unpaid internships or volunteer work, has lead to some young people [[DespairEventHorizon concluding that]] higher education and good grades may not be [[HardWorkHardlyWorks worth the effort]], or the financial risk, and decide to go to trade schools instead.

* In the same lines, diverse ethnic groups have been targeted in the U.S. throughout the years, often linked to migrant waves and wars: In the early 19th century, it was the Dutch and the Nordics, followed by the Germans during the middle of the century, Irishmen and Chinese during the late 19th century, Jews and Italians during the early 20th century, Japanese and Vietnamese between WWII and the the Vietnam War, Latinos since the second half of the 20th century, Arabs/Muslims during the early years of the 21st century.

* In high school settings, from the late 1990s onwards it has become very rare for the most popular girl in school to be portrayed as a BrainlessBeauty. Generally any AlphaBitch or LovableAlphaBitch who does seem ditzy will be ObfuscatingStupidity or at worst a GeniusDitz. Surprisingly the revelation that the pretty, bubbly girl is actually brainy is still usually treated as a stunning reveal in universe. The idea that popular girls are dumb also faded away due to the rise of the AlphaBitch as a standard BigBad in such a setting (intelligent schemers are more intimidating as main antagonists) and to set them apart from their SpearCounterpart, the JerkJock (they rely on their physical strength to intimidate people, so because WomenAreWiser, the AlphaBitch will use psychological manipulation to intimidate people).

* PinPullingTeeth originally was TruthInTelevision when the first models of "pineapple" fragmentation grenades were introduced, and soldiers' accounts from both World Wars feature them doing exactly this. Concerns about safety pins being accidentally pulled after snagging on things like dense underbrush led to the pins being revised to require more force to pull, meaning trying this with a contemporary 21st-century hand grenade is an easy way to break a tooth.

* For some, the SchoolIsForLosers trope has also evolved. Very few people today consider education ''itself'' to be a bad or unnecessary thing. What ''is'' considered a bad or unnecessary thing is the time and money cost for education. Student loan debt (at least in the [[EaglelandOsmosis United States and]] [[ValuesDissonance other English-speaking nations]]) is a major hot-button issue, since going into it is all but required unless the student or their family is wealthy enough to pay the tuition in full, or if said student spends a few years in the armed services. This, along with the fact that many jobs that just needed a high school diploma in the 1980s, never mind the 1950s, now require college degrees or even graduate degrees and possibly hours of unpaid internships or volunteer work, has lead to some young people [[DespairEventHorizon concluding that]] higher education and good grades may not be [[HardWorkHardlyWorks worth the effort]], or the financial risk.

* For decades, any kind of scandal would be the kiss of death for a celebrity. In the 1990s, the rise of celebrity culture and the decreasing power of MoralGuardians led celebs to [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity actively seek scandals based around wild behaviour to gain popularity]]. Then during the 2010s, a wave of allegations of sexual abuse shattered the reputations of many celebrities and it became clear that there was a [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil limit to what the public would put up with]], and studios once again began adding [[https://www.forbes.com/sites/schuylermoore/2018/03/12/morality-clauses-in-hollywood/#100e3e1649a5 "turpitude clauses"]][[note]]Effectively a clause that allows a contract to be ended based one of the parties acting in a shameful manner (the specifics them are so complex they are effectively their own speciality in law)[[/note]] on their contracts to protect themselves from stars who went too far.

* The JiveTurkey trope eventually got replaced with characters who speak similar but more realistic/modern [[UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents African-American Vernacular English]], or characters that speak in TotallyRadical Internet slang.

* While NintendoHard games are still popular, the original flavor of this trope is largely a thing of the past: In the past, especially during the age of rental stores like Blockbuster, the reasons for this tropes was two-fold: One, to get you to buy the game, as video game companies do not make revenue from rentals since that rental copy counts as only one purchase. And two, to get the advertised hundreds of hours of action out of what is actually a very short and linear game from start to finish. This changed during the 90s and especially the 2000s, as the video game demographic widely from kids and young adults and other forms of revenue took hold. This however, had the consequence of an influx of video games (of [[SturgeonsLaw varying levels]] [[UsefulNotes/Shovelware of quality]]) with a casual demographic in mind; much to the chagrin of the [[ChallengeSeeker hardcore gaming]] audience. Then came the advent of the {{Retraux}} video game boom and the birth of the SoulsLikeRPG. Both of which found niches among hardcore gamers who were disenchanted with the increasing casual focus in game design. Today, video games come many flavors, from incredibly easy and casual focus to insanely difficult and hardcore focus. Some of these [[TakeAThirdOption even appealing to both]].

* Between the 1930s and the '60s, the U.S. government, in film, was portrayed as [[NobleProfession unequivocally good]]. The portrayal of corruption has become more and more common, though as PatrioticFervor rises, it may lapse back for a time. The late [[TheSixties Sixties]] and early [[TheSeventies Seventies]] saw ''liberal'' contempt for the U.S. government, but in late [[TheSeventies Seventies]] and TheEighties it was ''conservatives'' who started to exhibit anti-government attitudes. There are currently antiestablishment factions on both ends of the spectrum (exemplified perfectly by the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street), and they wax and wane in influence depending on the political alignment of whoever is in power at the time.

* Until TheNineties, a few small tattoos were enough to make a TattooedCrook. As small and medium-size tattoos went into mainstream fashion in the mid-90s, the bad guys have started taking their tattoos up a notch, with KnuckleTattoos, facial tattoos and so on. Japan is an exception, as tattoos are still mainly worn by the {{Yakuza}}.

* For most of the 20th century, the portrayal of the [[StandardFiftiesFather mid-late century American dad]] was that of the family man who could do no wrong, or at least had a good answer, often under a nostalgic lens in contrast to [[BumblingDad more absent-minded parents]]. By the 2010s, however, more cynical views of that era in history and the past in general have led to far ''far'' less sympathetic depictions, and a typical post-WWII dad in fiction is now expected to be a bigoted wife-battering drunk with [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking an unused G.I. bill]], pretty much the last things you'd expect from someone like Ward Cleaver.

* The YuriGenre has broadened its scope in TheNewTens. The pure romance story where two girls meet at a OneGenderSchool is showing its age, while lesbian relationships are becoming increasingly common romantic subplots in a number of genres. ''Anime/CrossAnge'' and ''Anime/KillLaKill'', among others, show multiple homosexual relationships among the main characters, but use very few of the standard tropes of the genre and are primarily action series. This is increasingly referred to as "background yuri."

* The MinorityShowGhetto and the QueerShowGhetto (concepts that were prominent from TheEighties through The2000s) haven't quite faded away, but are slowly being replaced by WatchedItForTheRepresentation in the latter half of TheNewTens, thanks to increased awareness of intersectional oppression and the greater need for diversity in media.

* While NintendoHard games are still popular, the original flavor of this trope is largely a thing of the past: In the past, especially during the age of rental stores like Blockbuster, the reasons for this tropes was two-fold: One, to get you to buy the game, as video game companies do not make revenue from rentals since that rental copy counts as only one purchase. And two, to get the advertised hundreds of hours of action out of what is actually a very short and linear game from start to finish. This changed during the 90s and especially the 2000s, as the video game demographic widely from kids and young adults and other forms of revenue took hold. This however, had the consequence of an influx of video games (of varying quality) with a casual demographic in mind; much to the chagrin of the [[ChallengeSeeker hardcore gaming]] audience. Then came the advent of the {{Retraux}} video game boom and the birth of the SoulsLikeRPG. Both of the which found niches among hardcore gamers who were disenchanted with the increasing casual focus in game design. Today, video games come many flavors, from incredibly easy and casual focus to insanely difficult and hardcore focus. Some of these [[TakeAThirdOption even appealing to both]].
* For some, the SchoolIsForLosers trope has also evolved. Very few people today consider education ''itself'' to be a bad or unnecessary thing. What ''is'' considered a bad or unnecessary thing is the time and money cost for education. Student loan debt (at least in the [[EaglelandOsmosis United States and other English-speaking nations]]) is a major hot-button issue, since going into it is all but required unless the student or their family is wealthy enough to pay the tuition in full, or if said student spends a few years in the armed services. This, along with the fact that many jobs that just needed a high school diploma in the 1980s, never mind the 1950s, now require college degrees or even graduate degrees and possibly hours of unpaid internships or volunteer work, has lead to some young people [[DespairEventHorizon concluding that]] higher education and good grades may not be [[HardWorkHardlyWorks worth the effort]], or the financial risk.

* For some, the SchoolIsForLosers trope has also evolved. Very few people today consider education ''itself'' to be a bad or unnecessary thing. What ''is'' considered a bad or unnecessary thing is the time and money cost for education. Student loan debt (at least in the [[EaglelandOsmosis United States]]) is a major hot-button issue, since going into it is all but required unless the student or their family is wealthy enough to pay the tuition in full, or if said student spends a few years in the armed services. This, along with the fact that many jobs that just needed a high school diploma in the 1980s, never mind the 1950s, now require college degrees or even graduate degrees and possibly hours of unpaid internships or volunteer work, has lead to some young people [[DespairEventHorizon concluding that]] higher education and good grades may not be [[HardWorkHardlyWorks worth the effort]], or the financial risk.

* While NintendoHard games are still popular, the original flavor of this trope is largely a thing of the past: In the past, especially during the age of rental stores like Blockbuster, the reasons for this tropes was two-fold: One, to get you to buy the game, as video game companies do not make revenue off of rentals since that rental copy counts as only one purchase. And two, to get the advertised hundreds of hours of action out of what is actually a very short and linear game from start to finish. This changed during the 90's and especially the 2000’s, as the video game demographic widely from kids and young adults and other forms of revenue took hold. This however, had the consequence of an influx of video games (of varying quality) with a casual demographic in mind; much to the chagrin of the [[ChallengeSeeker hardcore gaming]] audience. Then came the advent of the {{Retraux}} video game boom and the birth of the SoulsLikeRPG. Both of the which found niches among hardcore gamers who were disenchanted with the increasing casual focus in game design. Today, video games come many flavors, from incredibly easy and casual focus to insanely difficult and hardcore focus. Some of these [[TakeAThirdOption even appealing to both]].

* Between the 1930s and the '60s, the U.S. government, in film, was portrayed as [[NobleProfession unequivocally good]]. The portrayal of corruption has become more and more common, though as PatrioticFervor rises, it may lapse back for a time. The late [[TheSixties Sixties]] saw ''liberal'' contempt for the U.S. government, but in TheSeventies ''conservatives'' started to exhibit anti-government attitudes. There are currently antiestablishment factions on both ends of the spectrum (exemplified perfectly by the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street), and they wax and wane in influence depending on the political alignment of whoever is in power at the time.

* For most of the 20th century, the portrayal of the [[StandardFiftiesFather mid-late century American dad]] was that of the family man who could do no wrong, or at least had a good answer, often under a nostalgic lens in contrast to [[BumblingDad more absent-minded parents]]. By the 2010s, however, more cynical views of that era in history and the past in general has led to far ''far'' less sympathetic depictions, and a typical post-WWII dad in fiction is now expected to be a bigoted wife-battering drunk with [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking an unused G.I. bill]], pretty much the last things you'd expect from someone like Ward Cleaver.

* For decades, the portrayal of the [[StandardFiftiesFather mid-late century American dad]] was that of the family man who could do no wrong, or at least had a good answer, often under a nostalgic lens in contrast to [[BumblingDad more absent-minded parents]]. By the 2010s, however, less romanticized (or rather more cynical views) of that era in history and the past in general has led to far ''far'' less sympathetic depictions, and a typical post-WWII dad in fiction is now expected to be a bigoted wife-battering drunk with [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking an unused G.I. bill]], pretty much the last things you'd expect from someone like Ward Cleaver.

* For some, the SchoolIsForLosers trope has also evolved. Very few people today consider education ''itself'' to be a bad or unnecessary thing. What ''is'' considered a bad or unnecessary thing is the time and money cost for education. Student loan debt (at least in the [[EaglelandOsmosis United States]]) is a major hot-button issue, since going into it is all but required unless the student or their family is wealthy enough to pay the tuition in full, or if said student spends a few years in the armed services. This, along with the fact that many jobs that just needed a high school diploma in the 1980s, never mind the 1950s, now require college degrees or even graduate degrees and possibly hours of unpaid internships or volunteer work, has lead to some young people [[DespairEventHorizon concluding that]] higher education and good grades may not be [[HardWorkHardlyWorks worth the effort]], or the financial risk. This shifting attitude also led to the SternTeacher trope, once the default way teachers were portrayed in fiction, and its exaggerated SisterTrope the SadistTeacher both falling out of favor. In modern times, negative portrayals of teachers tend to portray them as [[ApatheticTeacher apathetic]] or [[MisplacedKindergartenTeacher unfit for their job]] rather than downright cruel.

* For some, the SchoolIsForLosers trope has also evolved. Very few people today consider education ''itself'' to be a bad or unnecessary thing. What ''is'' considered a bad or unnecessary thing is the time and money cost for education. Student loan debt (at least in the [[EaglelandOsmosis United States]]) is a major hot-button issue, since going into it is all but required unless the student or their family is wealthy enough to pay the tuition in full, or if said student spends a few years in the armed services. This, along with the fact that many jobs that just needed a high school diploma in the 1980s, never mind the 1950s, now require college degrees or even graduate degrees and possibly hours of unpaid internships or volunteer work, has lead to some young people [[DespairEventHorizon concluding that]] higher education and good grades may not be [[HardWorkHardlyWorks worth the effort]], or the financial risk.

* The JiveTurkey trope eventually got replaced with characters who speak similar but more realistic/modern [[UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents African-American Vernacular English]] are still .

* For decades, the portrayal of the [[StandardFiftiesFather mid-late century American dad]] was that of the family man who could do no wrong, or at least had a good answer, often under a nostalgic lens in contrast to [[BumblingDad more absent-minded parents]]. By the 2010s, however, more cynical views of that era in history and the past in general has led to far ''far'' less sympathetic depictions, and a typical post-WWII dad in fiction is now expected to be a bigoted wife-battering drunk with [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking an unused G.I. bill]], pretty much the last things you'd expect from someone like Ward Cleaver.

* In high school settings, from the late 1990s onwards it has become very rare for the most popular girl in school to be portrayed as a BrainlessBeauty. Generally any AlphaBitch or LovableAlphaBitch who does seem ditzy will be ObfuscatingStupidity or at worst a GeniusDitz. Surprisingly the revelation that the pretty, bubbly girl is actually brainy is still usually treated as a stunning reveal in universe. The idea that popular girls are dumb also faded away due to the rise of the AlphaBitch as a standard BigBad in such a setting (intelligent schemers are more intimidating as main antagonists) and to set them apart from their SpearCounterpart, the JerkJock (they rely on their physical strength to intimidate people, so because WomenAreWiser, the AlphaBitch will use psychological manipulation to intimidate people)

* {{Arcadia}} was once regarded as charming because it was settled by humans, with pastures and fields, as opposed to the WildWilderness. Now, in more settled times, it is regarded as natural and so a contrast to ViceCity.

* For some, the SchoolIsForLosers trope has also evolved. Very few people today consider education ''itself'' to be a bad or unnecessary thing. What ''is'' considered a bad or unnecessary thing is the time and money cost for education. Student loan debt (at least in the [[EaglelandOsmosis United States]]) is a major hot-button issue, since going into it is all but required, unless the student or their family is wealthy enough to pay the tuition in full, or spend a few years in the armed services. This, along with the fact that many jobs require four or more years of education and possibly hours of unpaid internships or volunteer work, has lead to some young people [[DespairEventHorizon concluding that]] higher education and good grades may not be [[HardWorkHardlyWorks worth the effort]], or the financial risk.

* For some, the SchoolIsForLosers trope has also evolved. Very few people today consider education ''itself'' to be a bad or unnecessary thing. What ''is'' considered a bad or unnecessary thing is the time and money cost for education. Student loan debt (at least in the [[EaglelandOsmosis United]] [[ValuesDissonance States]]) is a major hot-button issue, since going into it is all but required, unless the student or their family is wealthy enough to pay the tuition in full, or spend a few years in the armed services. This, along with the fact that many jobs require four or more years of education and possibly hours of unpaid internships or volunteer work, has lead to some young people [[DespairEventHorizon concluding that]] higher education and good grades may not be [[HardWorkHardlyWorks worth the effort]], or the financial risk.

* For decades, the portrayal of the [[StandardFiftiesFather mid-late century American dad]] (literally was that of the family man who could do no wrong, or at least had a good answer, often under a nostalgic lens in contrast to [[BumblingDad more absent-minded parents]]. By the 2010s however, a less romanticized and even highly cynical view of that era of history and the past in general has led to far ''far'' less sympathetic depictions, and a typical post-WWII dad in fiction is now expected to be a bigoted wife-battering drunk with [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking an unused G.I. bill]], pretty much the last things you'd expect from someone like Ward Cleaver.