Needs Help: Miss Robinson Boy Wonder

This is a weird trope all around. To start with, the title is just weird. It sounds like it's some sort of transgender trope, like it's about Miss Robinson pretending to be a boy so she can be a kid sidekick. Miss Robinson Doesnt Have A Girl Wonder seem more like what (I think?) the author was going for.

But the trope itself seems problematic too. It's a trope about "absence", for one thing: "Superheroines rarely have boy sidekicks."

But as suggested in the trope description itself, the whole thing is more about small sample size than anything.

The Kid Sidekick trope itself had a pretty short heyday (the 1940s, more or less, with Robin as a prominent Grandfather Clause exception.) And during the heyday of the Kid Sidekick, female superheroes themselves were rare (it's not much of an exaggeration to say "Wonder Woman and a bunch of characters you've never heard of.")

And of that small number of heroines, very few had kid sidekicks of either gender.

I'd say cut it, actually - I don't think it's actually a trope.

edited 15th Aug '12 9:44:37 AM by suedenim

So, is this just a female hero with a male sidekick? The description is very confusing as to what the trope actually is, and instead goes on describing the sociological situation of past times.

Actually, the trope seems to be "a female superhero who doesn't have a male sidekick."

Am I the one who's a birdbrain, or is the trope that confusing?

It's not just you. I think part of the name may be supposed to be a reference to Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate, but I'm not sure. There's no YKTTW link on the discussion page, so I checked the Internet Archive, and this dates back to 2007, and that version isn't a whole lot better. Link.

At least if you read that, I think it's a little more clear that this is supposed to be "Female Superheroes don't have male sidekicks". Which is pretty much the opposite of what the name suggests, insofar as the name can be said to suggest anything. Also, is "X doesn't have Y" even a trope?

Furthermore, it seems to have been launched with one example, which was an aversion!

It's been around for five years and has only managed to gather nine wicks. Which is unsurprising—I'd be embarrassed to list this on a work page even if it fit. :)

My diagnosis: terrible, misleading name, and arguably not a trope. I'm inclined to suggest cutting it entirely. We could try to find an actual trope in there, but I don't think that will be easy, and even if we succeed, it will likely have only a passing resemblance to what this is at present.

Does that mean we have four aversions and two examples? That's not enough for a trope.

Even if we found more examples, I don't believe it's a trope. And even if it were a trope, it would need a new name and a new description. But I don't believe it is a trope. (Did I say that already?) :)

Agreed.

And I'm reasonably sure there aren't any hidden examples lurking out there someplace. The number of "female superheroes with sidekicks" period is really, really small.

There are a few ideas this page is trying to address, but it seems that whomever wrote this wasn't 100% sure which of those the examples specifically pertain to.

That's more something that belongs on an analysis page.

As it is, I don't see a trope, and I favour cutting it.

I'm not even sure it's worth an analysis or useful notes page. That sidekicks tend to be the same sex as their superhero might be worth noting (emphasis on "might"). The special case of that for female superheroes isn't. In particular, trying to turn the female case into an excuse to complain about sexism in comics seems contrived.

There's certainly plenty of sexism in comics, but I don't believe that sexism is the primary reason that female superheroes don't have male sidekicks. I believe the primary reason is that sidekicks tend to be the same sex as—and often have similar powers to—their superhero. They're typically the mini-version of the main superhero.

I think that the hero really only gets an opposite gender side kick if they have a habit of multiple sidekicks to begin with. See Batman.

It's an essay, not a trope. The trope should be about female heroes with male sidekicks, not the "rule" that female heroes don't get male sidekicks.

Or at least "any sidekick to a female hero will also be female". Emphasis on what the trope does, not what it does not.

edited 17th Aug '12 7:41:56 PM by Stratadrake

Clocking.

Crowner due to perceived unspoken consensus.

edited 21st Oct '12 8:20:08 AM by DonaldthePotholer

Crowner hooked.

Yeeesh. That page is bad. And I admit, I thought, from the name, that it was about a female sidekick replacing a male sidekick. I fully support cutting.

I can see two possible tropes in there:

• A sidekick will be the same gender as the superhero.
• A female superhero will have a male co-character who is both Love Interest and sort-of sidekick.

edited 21st Oct '12 8:55:28 AM by Madrugada

Crowner stable and called. Send to cutlist.

Done.

Page was cut, discussion note added and cutlisted subpage. Can we close this?