Rename due to severe misuse: Estrogen Brigade Bait

This trope originally referred to male characters that were written with certain characteristics to attract women, fanservice being a large element, but also elements like brooding and having a Dark and Troubled Past and other things. However, this definition is based on authorial intent that is extremely hard to prove and the examples basically turned into Perverse Sexual Lust for males. This was brought up in the TRS several months ago because of this and the definition was rewritten to mean Mr. Fanservice, since that is a trope that can be proved through on screen evidence. The examples were cleaned up a bit, and a warning in bold against bad examples was added to the description. Despite this, the bad examples have persisted on both the example page and in links on the wiki. I going to do a wick check here, but you should also take a look at the actual examples because they are just as bad.

Here’s the first thirty non-ptitle wicks. I removed troper tales examples from the wick check.

Incorrect:
•Aaron Dismuke: “Has an estrogen brigade”
•Abney Park: “Has an estrogen brigade”
•Pantheon/Academy: Incorrect, “Has an estrogen brigade”
•Ace Attorney: X Just X, seems to mean “Has an estrogen brigade”
•Characters/Ace Attorney Prosecutors And Law Enforcement Officers: Seems to be “he’s hot”.
•Characters/Ace Attorney Witnesses And Other Characters: “Has an estrogen brigade”
•A Clockwork Orange: Seems to be “he’s hot”.
•Action Commands: X Just X, seems to mean “he’s hot”.
•Adaptational Attractiveness: “He’s hot”
•Adorkable: Several examples of “he’s hot”
•Adrenaline Makeover: A This Troper example of “he’s hot”
•Adventureland: “he’s hot”
•Aerith And Bob: Natter, “he’s hot”
•Affably Evil: unclear, seems to be “he’s hot”
•Agents Of Cracked: Combination of of X Just X, “he’s hot”, and an actual mention to fanservice.
•Agora: In this case “she’s hot”: “Rachel Weisz could be considered Testosterone Brigade Bait.”
•Characters/Aladdin: “He’s hot”, although there is a mention of authorial intent.
•A Lady On Each Arm: “He’s hot”

X Just X examples:
•Acceptable Hard Luck Targets
•YMMV/Adventures Of The Galaxy Rangers
•Aeterna Roma
•After School Nightmare
•After The Academy
•Characters/Air Gear
•Disney/Aladdin

Correct:
•Funny/Advertising: Refers to The Man Your Man Could Smell Like, which is more of a parody of this trope.
•Agarest Senki: Seems to be correct
•Air Force Delta: Seems to be correct.

Unclear:
•YMMV/Akira
•Affably Evil: unclear, seems to be “he’s hot”

Edit: I realized I sampled 31 wicks instead of 30, but the 31st one is so bad that I want to show it here anyway:
•Alan Rickman: “Has an estrogen brigade”
Here's the entry:

This misses the whole point of the trope definition!

Compare this to the Distaff Counterpart Ms. Fanservice, which from what I’ve seen has nowhere near the same amount of misuse. I think a big part of the problem is the name. People misunderstand Mr. Fanservice to mean "has an Estrogen Brigade", or has the potential to attract one by being "hot". I think a rename is in order. We should name it to something that clearly shows that this trope is about Fanservice, like "Mr. Fanservice".

edited 25th Jul '11 3:34:17 PM by djbj

Compare this to the Distaff Counterpart Mrs Fanservice, which from what I’ve seen has nowhere near the same amount of misuse

I'm not so sure. There's a lot of actress pages that call underage girls that for a bit of cleavage showing.

I'm surprised this isn't on YMMV.

Also, weren't we trying to get rid of lists of "people or things a random troper finds hot"? I think this page can do without the examples.

Yeah, we should go through and nuke the "we think this character is hot".

Fight smart, not fair.

We nuke it because tropers can't be bothered to read trope descriptions? I hope not. This is not "We find you hot". It's in big, bold letters in the description. It's about the author intentionally making a character to appeal to the female demographic. It's a trope, and it's valid. People just use it as a placeholder for Perverse Sexual Lust.

Mr. Fanservice is one of the alt titles... Can't we rename it to that?

edited 11th Aug '11 7:39:05 PM by Ein

Courage is not the lack of fear; it's the ability to proceed in spite of fear.

This title has been perpetually confusing to me. I like Mr. Fanservice much better.

Agreeing.

* agrees with changing the name to Mr. Fanservice *

Since everyone seems to favor renaming to Mr. Fanservice, I'm starting the renaming project.

I'm liking the uniformity of Mr. Fanservice...

I am now known as Flyboy.

I just finished renaming this trope to Mr. Fanservice, as well as renaming all subsections. Of course, this means the new subsections will need cleaned, the old ones cutlisted, and instances of the old name changed (or removed if they are misused).

Um, I think you jumped the gun a little bit. While I agree with the rename, and I am got the decision got fastracked, I think we needed a bit input to get a consensus.

Well, the discussion is two months old... if anyone comes in objecting, then we'll know. It appears this has been ignored, and it's a rather popular trope, too, so I'm kind of surprised...

I am now known as Flyboy.

It's only one month old. But yeah, I'm surprised there hasn't been more interest in this thread. I kept thinking about giving it a vanity bump but I didn't want to have to do it. Anyway, let's wait and see if there are any objections to the rename from the mods or any other tropers.

Oh, I read that as June, not July. But, yeah, I'm shocked the tropers weren't all over this one...

I am now known as Flyboy.

Sure, I jumped the gun, but the gun was taking too long to fire. The gunman had fallen asleep, so I fired the gun myself.

Well, now we wait in the foxhole and see if your gunshot earns us an artillery barrage...

I am now known as Flyboy.

While I agree that this rename is needed and I think the new name is better, the rename was done in a to inofficial way. Maybe we schould run a crowner to prevent people from complaining?

As one of the people who are being baited (sorry), Mr. Fanservice sounds like a better name. I've used that redirect before anyway.

I remember my sister suggesting the pun Guy Candy for this.

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

With a discussion this one-sided, I don't think a crowner is really necessary. Everyone so far has favored renaming this trope, and all a crowner would do is reinforce that.

I'll wait till later tonight to see if anyone complains, and if not I'll lock the thread and say we're finished.

@Startodrake, I've always used Man Candy, rather than Guy Candy, personally.

I like the old name, though, it's so amusing. But I wouldn't be put out if it was changed.

SPATULA, Supporters of Page Altering To Urgently Lead to Amelioration (supports not going through TRS for tweaks and minor improvements.)