Very bad snowclone New Crowner: 02/15/12: Token Deity

Brevity Is Wit

Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.

However, none of the names are less than three words. So concise doesn't seem to work here, or at least we can't come up with anything.

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

I think syllable count (and scansion) is more important than word count. Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness is only two words.

Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.

...And the leading options are both over 10 syllables. So, concise does not seem to work, or we are simply unable to find it.

edited 20th Feb '12 3:43:59 PM by lu127

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

...talking about a hypothetical name that hasn't been suggested.

Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.

The top names aren't clear, concise, or witty. As it says on Clear Concise Witty:
"The name of a trope must be clear, so that readers can intuitively guess the definition at a glance;"
Honestly tell me that you could guess what the top-voted names mean if you didn't already know.

Atypical Deity Appearance could be just about anything. It could mean that God is an Eldritch Abomination.
Subversive Deity Presentation just sounds like "God is not what you expected him to be." Again, that could mean that God is actually an Eldritch Abomination, or just about anything else. If the goal is to stop misuse, this is not the name you want to go with.

Neither of them even give you a hint that the trope is about God being a different race or gender than you were expecting.

Compare to God Is Not A White Male, which immediately tells you how the trope plays out 95% of the time.

You could say "But then people won't put examples of God being white or a male when he's usually not." But people list inversions of tropes all the time - that's nothing new.

edited 20th Feb '12 4:02:26 PM by abk0100

Aren't we supposed to stay away from dialogue-like titles?

And I dislike the idea of God Is Not A White Male, when the presentations of deities in cultures are very different. It tells me nothing about the various presentations. God was never a white male to me to begin with.

Case in point: Greek Mythology gods are always portrayed completely different from their expected appearance in mythology. But those were not a white male to begin with.

edited 20th Feb '12 4:05:51 PM by lu127

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

That's a good point about Greek gods - I hadn't thought of that.

What about a title with Race Lift in it? Its description; "A Race Lift is what occurs when a character's race or ethnicity of a character is changed in the creation of a derivative work. Sometimes this is a method to try and keep things politically correct." describes this trope almost exactly.

I know it isn't completely accurate, since some gods don't have a cannonical race, just a commonly accepted one, but it would cover most examples at least.

edited 20th Feb '12 4:11:35 PM by abk0100

God Gets A Race Lift? I think I like the sound of that - except that it ignores the variation of making "God" female.

edited 20th Feb '12 4:14:28 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

A added a few options with "Race Lift" in them, and also a couple with Affirmative Action (like Affirmative-Action Legacy), which might work better. It doesn't leave out gender.

edited 20th Feb '12 4:17:42 PM by abk0100

I like Divine Race Lift, especially if a wick to Race Lift is added to the description.

Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.

Ooh, Divine Race Lift is really good. It does rule out gender, but Divine Gender Lift could be a redirect to cover that.

edited 20th Feb '12 4:33:53 PM by shimaspawn

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

That name doesn't cover gender flips but it doesn't have to.

Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.

If we do end up with that one, I would like Divine Gender Lift as a redirect. I like it though. It's one of the better ideas we've had.

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

I'm in favor the name containing the phrase Race Lift in some form.

Divine Gender Flip for the redirect, I think. For parity and clarity.

edited 20th Feb '12 8:16:11 PM by pawsplay

Race Lift?

I like it!

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

Affirmative Action God and Affirmative Action Deity get my exclusive support!

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I like that one too. Too bad it's getting voted down. I guess we can still use it as a redirect.

edited 22nd Feb '12 2:10:41 PM by abk0100

But they're largely unrelated to what the trope is, misleading, and they have the same issues as the minority ones do.

edited 22nd Feb '12 3:42:09 PM by shimaspawn

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

I consider Affirmative Action God condescending. God could be a black woman just, you know, because. Why shouldn't she?

This trope is about when you cast someone to play god specifically because they don't fit the typical presentation of that god. It's the same logic as affirmative action. An actor is cast as god not because they're the best person to play the part, but because their race or gender is different from the people who normally play that part.

It could be Affirmative Action. Or it could be a deliberate artistic choice. Or it could be self-insertion. Or the re-use of a Stock Character of another sort as God. There are many reasons to do it other than a sense of charitability toward someone of minority status.

That might not have come out the way you intended it to sound.

edited 22nd Feb '12 3:51:21 PM by pawsplay

Media and public perception. The "Affirmative Action" is by the creators who design the characters, after all. If you ask Christian/Jewish people*

in the street to describe what they believe to be the most "accurate" Anthropomorphic Personification in 10 seconds, more often than not you'd get a Grandpa God or God Is A White Man answer.

edited 22nd Feb '12 3:58:54 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Yeah, and when you Grandpa God Buddha into an old white man, it's hardly affirmative action. This trope does not only apply to the Abrahamic God. There are a lot more deities than just that one. Stop focusing on him as the only example of the trope.

edited 22nd Feb '12 4:03:19 PM by shimaspawn

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

You said it better than I did. This is a trope picking a race or gender for god that contrasts with most other portrayals, which is the same basic idea as affirmative action.