Needlessly offensive and narrow title: Be A Whore To Get Your Man

Deserves to be a trope, but the title is unnecessarily sexist and judgmental, and the trope isn't necessarily just for straight women. How about Playing To Your Partner's Fetish or Dressing For The Other Half for the general trope of someone tailoring their dress sense to appeal to their partner or unrequited lust-object?

Against a change. Playing To Your Partners Fetish would be a different trope, although somewhat related. The version described is Always Female, and even if it weren't, that'd be a redirect issue, not a rename one. As for offensiveness and judgementality, I can't judge that but since it doesn't say All Women Are Whores or even Women Who Dress Like This Are All Whores, it doesn't seem too terribly bad.

edited 8th Jul '11 3:49:57 AM by Wulf

They lost me. Forgot me. Made you from parts of me. If you're the One, my father's son, what am I supposed to be?

"Deserves to be a trope, but the title is unnecessarily sexist and judgmental" - London Kd S

Odd, because people wouldn't hesitate to call a guy seduced by this kind of thing a pervert. So, judge the guys who are lured in and not the girls who lure them in? Who's sexist now?

As for "dressing for the other half" it implies that guys WANT seductively dressed girlfriends. Even if they find it attractive, they can still find it immoral enough to feel they shouldn't associate with her anyway. So, that title wouldn't be much less misleading.

I don't have a problem with the current title.

The trope itself is a Family-Unfriendly Aesop—that if you want your guy, you should force yourself to be promiscuous even if that's not your natural personality—and while the tone of the trope title is a bit sexist, I think the trope itself is a bit sexist, too. So I don't have much of a problem with it, it fits. I don't know of any examples that are with different genders, either...

Current project: Cleaning up the Chrono Crusade examples one at a time. God help me.

I agree with Bright Blue Ink on this one.

The trope itself is sexist. This happens frequently in media. That doesn't mean we try to sugar coat the sexist tropes.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

If we sugar coated it, you'd suck that too

I'm fine with this trope. While whore may not be a word to use in polite company, it's not a curse word.

Fight smart, not fair.

Yes, the trope itself is sexist, regardless of the name. That said, my main issue with the name is that the trope seems to be more about simply dressing provocatively than about prostitution or even promiscuity.

"Tart Up For Him," maybe? (Yes, "tart" usually does imply promiscuity. But "tart up" usually refers to clothing rather than behavior.)

edited 8th Jul '11 11:10:39 PM by FarseerLolotea

Oh man. Where did the OP said that the guy is a pervert here? Or where did he judge him in any other way? "some people would call the guy seduced by that girl a pervert, so you're sexist!!!" it's really... weird way of thinking. You know, I think it's reasonable to say that both "pervert" and "whore" are sexist in this context, not that it's ok to say "whore", because pervert is such terrible word.

On topic: I agree with OP (although the title suggestions require some more thinking, I guess), and the title is also misleading: it's not about being a whore, it's about dressing in skimpy or overly sexual clothes. I know that colloquially "whore" is pretty much any woman with any "inappropriate" qualities, especially sexy clothing, but while reading the trope name Be a Whore to Get Your Man clothing style is not the first thing that comes to mind.

"This must be Thursday," said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer, "I never could get the hang of Thursdays."

Skimpy Clothes Win The Man?

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

They don't have to be skimpy. The trope is that nice girls don't get the guy until they shed the "nice girl image"

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

The trope is sexist and offensive. The title should reflect that.

Are you sure it's just about the way she dresses? the description says "The Ingenue learns to dress and act like a slut in order to snag her man" and the laconic says "If you want to get your guy, you have to put out". Both seem to indicate that behaving like a slut/whore is part of the trope, not just dressing like one.

Sackett - I don't think that logically follows. We have tropes that are racist and offensive, like Scary Black Man, but we don't actually use racist words in the titles themselves. This one could easily be toned down a bit and keep the same meaning.

EDIT: How about Nice Girls Never Get Guys?

edited 9th Jul '11 11:42:30 AM by captainbrass2

"Well, it's a lifestyle"

^ No, the trope is about success with the guy coming from making a specific change in appearance and attitude, not what happened before.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

How about Be A Slut To Get Your Man?

I don't know if that's actually less offensive, but huh.

^ I consider "slut" a more offensive word, so that wouldn't solve the issue.

I like the current title. It's provocative and describes the trope well. It's a sexist trope, and putting it in plain terms like this makes people see it for what it is.

Thanks for the all fish!

I was suggesting that in response to Farseer Lolotea's comment, not actually to suggest a non-offensive name.

"Where did the OP said that the guy is a pervert here?" - Ktosza

I never CLAIMED that the OP said that the guy is a pervert. My point is that those objecting to judgmental attitudes towards skanks generally seem to have little problem with judgmental attitudes towards perverts. Come to think of it that may be better left to a separate thread.

As for the topic at hand, first let's narrow down what specific traits are involved to qualify as this trope by definition, THEN decide on a title to reflect that.

I don't think it's needlessly offensive. It's rather effectively offensive, and it's not obscene.

Most of the examples are clothing-related, but I do spy a few that imply having sex more, having better sex, or more kinky sex. E.g.

"I should've beat her where she beat me, in the sack." The Women.

In Summer Of Sam, Mira Sorvino can't please her husband, so she is forced to beg for sex tips from his ex-girlfriend to keep him from cheating.

Chris Rock had a stand-up bit based on how past relationships shape the requirements for current relationships for men and women differently: "Women can't go backwards in terms of lifestyle, while men can't go backwards sexually." Basically, Rock told the women in the audience that if their men kept insisting on kinky sex acts, it was because a previous girlfriend did it for him.

Questionable Content, (ends with the mom saying she won her husband over all his other potential girlfriends because she put out first.)

And the Real Life section refers to one group who literally say a wife should be a whore for her man in bed.

edited 9th Jul '11 10:31:09 PM by Tyoria

Still suggests Really Gets Around rather than just dressing provocatively or flirting.

Even the examples that specifically reference sex don't necessarily imply that the woman necessarily has sex with anyone but her love interest. Because we can't be having that now, can we?

"Slut" and "whore" outright imply promiscuity. Which is the only real issue I have with the title, as it's a Handle With Care trope (i.e. insulting to begin with).

edited 9th Jul '11 11:24:47 PM by FarseerLolotea

Perhaps the word 'tart' would actually be better than 'whore'. It does seem to imply a certain manner of dress and mannerisms, but not necessarily the behaviour. I can imagine myself saying "Dressing like a tart" but not "Dressing like a whore". Because the latter would be more insulting.

edited 10th Jul '11 12:02:57 AM by LoniJay

Be not afraid...

Be A Tease To Get Your Man?

Like I said earlier, we ought to make sure we have a good idea what qualifies as this trope and what doesn't before deciding on a title that reflects that.