Description tweak: Crazy Jealous Guy

I think this is a minor enough issue that I could probably just go ahead and do it myself with little complaint, but I'm bringing the issue up here anyway just to be safe. Namely, this trope says pretty bluntly that this is an Always Male trope, which I simply do not believe is true. While women may be more likely to have their jealous behavior played for laughs, it doesn't always happen like that. Possibly as a result of this, people tend to use the trope Clingy Jealous Girl to denote cases of serious female jealous when it is just supposed to be a cute or comedy trope.

So, to put it bluntly, I want to rewrite the description for Crazy Jealous Guy to make it more gender neutral.

The Crazy Jealous Guy description I think oversells the idea that Clingy Jealous Girl is a comedy trope, and could probably use a slight tweak. I don't think it should be made unisex, however, because I do think there is a sex difference in portrayals, as I said in the other thread.

I don't think Clingy Jealous Girl is always played for laughs; nothing in its description implies that and there are non-comedy examples on the page. But in aggregate, the Clingy Jealous Girl is more likely to be comedic or a nuisance but not a physical threat unless she's yandere; the Crazy Jealous Guy is more likely to be physically dangerous or an antagonist.

If you really want to have all the "serious jealousy" on one trope and all the "comedic jealousy" on another, we'd need a complete rename and restructure for both.

Calling someone a pedant is an automatic Insult Backfire. Real pedants will be flattered.

This. The question is of whether the jealousy is to be split per whether it is played for drama or for laughs, or whether it is to be split per whether it is by males or females.

Personally, I say it should be the latter. The distinction between drama and laughs is a continuous spectrum, whereas the distinction between males and females is (primarily) one or the other. Whether it is played for drama or laughs will be associated with whether it is done by males or females, but should not be treated as inherent in it.

edited 17th Feb '12 5:11:25 PM by HiddenFacedMatt

"The Daily Show has to be right 100% of the time; FOX News only has to be right once." - Jon Stewart

Clingy Jealous Girl does overplay the comedy, yeah. I also feel it has too much of an anime perspective. I don't think the comedic violence thing is so normal outside of Japan.

Still, judging by the examples on the page we either have misuse where it is being played seriously and it shouldn't be or the description needs expanding. If the trope really is comedy only, then people are probably just looking at the gendered title and saying a clingy jealous girl must be a Clingy Jealous Girl when that is not quire the case.

Also, finally, a suspicion of mine is that when a girl is a Crazy Jealous Guy, she's much more likely to be labeled a yandere instead.

Again, I don't think Clingy Jealous Girl is necessarily a comedy trope. And it says right in the Clingy Jealous Girl description that it goes right up to and including yandere: "she can be anywhere on the spectrum from a fondly-regarded nuisance to a psycho stalker. [...] If she's a Yandere, she'll snap and try to Murder the Hypotenuse at least once."

I think it's the Crazy Jealous Guy description that overplays the idea that Clingy Jealous Girl is a comedy trope.

edited 17th Feb '12 5:18:48 PM by lebrel

Calling someone a pedant is an automatic Insult Backfire. Real pedants will be flattered.

But when it's a female it's almost always treated differently by the work itself because it's subverting expectations of gender roles. They tend to be treated as either actually less dangerous, or perceived as less dangerous by those around them. It's a very different trope than the male version. Classic spear/distaff.

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

I think the male/female distinction is more important than whether it's played for comedy or not. Both pages have both types of examples as it is anyway. Both of these also rely a lot on Abuse Is Okay When It’s Female on Male.

The Internet misuses, abuses, and overuses everything.

Okay, keeping it split by gender works, I guess. In that case, Crazy Jealous Guy needs to downplay the idea that Clingy Jealous Girl is always for comedy. And can we remove the fan reaction stuff from Clingy Jealous Girl's description?

One trope should not really define another.

The Internet misuses, abuses, and overuses everything.

Woman Scorned is a pretty decent Distaff Counterpart for the trope.

ok boomer

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