Basic Trope: Acceptable behaviour in one culture is unacceptable in another.
- Straight:
- Alice, a historically-unaware time traveller from a Free-Love Future, causes a scandal in Victorian London when she "innocently" (and unsucessfully) flirts with the married Bob, and absolute outrage when she does the same to his unmarried sister Catherine. Not to mention she dared to show her ankles — why, the nerve!
- Dave, a Troperian tourist visiting the deeply religious Tropetania, shocks locals when he trips on the pavement and exclaims "Jesus!"
- Elizabeth alarms her Tropestani hosts when she insists on finishing her meal — she "doesn't want to let good food go to waste", they worry they've been mean hosts by not providing more than she can eat.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice causes outrage when she walks around Victorian London completely naked and propositions random passers-by for sex.
- Dave, used to casually making fun of religion in secular Troperia, gets arrested for loudly comparing the Eucharist to cannibalism. In the cathedral of the Tropetanian capital. During the Easter Vigil.
- Elizabeth gets indigestion eating food her hosts provide whilst they frantically attempt to provide her with more, mortified at their apparent lack of hospitality.
- Downplayed:
- Alice kisses an unmarried person she is affectionate for. In a place where that, while not indecent, is still unusual.
- Dave doesn't have the firmest grasp on Tropetania's religious beliefs, and makes a minor theological mistake in public that makes people think he's dumb but not blasphemous or anything.
- Elizabeth is mildly chastised by her hosts for not using her fork "correctly", but it's brushed off and never brought up again.
- Justified:
- The work is simply reflecting real life taboos.
- Different cultures naturally observe different religions, with their own notions of what is sacred, or sinful.
- In a Time Travel work, the natural evolution of societal norms over time is to be expected.
- Some underlying material or sociological reason, stated in the work:
- Patriarchal societies treat women as the virtual property of their fathers and husbands. Protecting female "modesty" and controlling their sexuality is like protecting their property rights, or inheritance rights if the legitimacy of any resulting offspring is questionable. In a world which doesn't have reliable contraception, this is even more of a concern, as is the risk of diseases such as syphilis. A future world does not have such concerns, and has had time to question established gender roles.
- A rich, food-abundant country might be more worried about wasting food due to environmental concerns. A poorer country might see Sacred Hospitality as a matter of life and death, and appearing too poor is a sign of shame, and so they are naturally generous with what they do have.
- Inverted: Frances, a virtuous Victorian maid, is shocked to find herself in a Free-Love Future where other girls are wearing midriff-revealing tops, short shorts and bright red lipstick, flirting with every boy in sight, talking about their sex lives as if they were discussing the weather, swearing every other word, and putting their elbows on the table during dinner.
- Subverted:
- It turns out Alice has wound up in a Steampunk Alternate Universe version of Victorian London, where attitudes to female dress and sexuality are somewhat more relaxed than in Real Life.
- Nevertheless, Christian forgiveness and non-judgementalism are taken seriously in Tropetania too. The locals readily overlook Bob's casual blasphemy.
- Elizabeth's hosts just thought she was hungry after such a long journey.
- Double Subverted:
- But only somewhat more relaxed. Alice's behaviour still manages to cause scandal somehow.
- Nevertheless, the locals are still uncomfortable with Bob's profanities, despite their outward piety.
- And it would reflect badly on them as hosts if they didn't feed her accordingly, surely?
- Parodied: ???
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: The cultures are similar enough for one person not to inadvertantly break anyone's taboos. Or, a very relaxed culture has few to no taboos.
- Enforced:
- The work must reflect Real Life cultural differences (or audience expectations of what those are) to appear realistic.
- It's an educational work designed to teach children the importance of respecting other cultures, and the consequences of not doing so.
- The producers wanted a Fish out of Water comedy and the writers needed to demonstrate this by the main character inadvertantly breaking one or more taboos.
- The work is playing up to audience expectations of Funny Foreigner stereotypes (whether the foreigners themselves having such "ridiculous" taboos, or a foreigner character making a fool of himself for not recognizing their taboos).
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: The character works undercover for a corrupt arms manufacturer who wants to provoke an international incident as that would be of great benefit to their employers; yet needing to remain Beneath Notice, they pretend to be just an ignorant foreigner.
- Defied: Dave researches Tropetanian customs and habits before his trip so he avoids stepping on the toes of locals when he arrives.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Shame on you if you don't go back to the main page! This heathen Wiki Walk behaviour simply will not do!
