Has anyone realized that in media we rarely see a friendship between an unpopular and plain girl amd a popular attractive boy?

Cause the reverse is so much more common like Kim Possible for example, but the reverse is pretty much unheard of. It might happen from time to time, but it's sexist.Maybe Harry Potter's friendship with Luna and Hermione might count, but it's still less common.

You clearly don't read much romance fiction or Shōjo manga.

Edited by StarSword on Feb 3rd 2023 at 6:28:30 AM

Not really. I mean in romance they fall in love, but I meant in western media.

This is very common in (now) cliche school romance movies. The most popular guy in school will choose the down-to-earth, Plain Jane/Girl Next Door over the prettier Alpha Bitch.

This whole IMDB list of mostly Western movies disagree with you, OP. Also, we have Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy for a reason.

I mean as in they stay friends

I think that is more due to media neglecting platonic m/f relationships in general rather than neglecting this specific dynamic.

You might like The Half of It.

Agreed, e.g. Stranger Things season 4 gets some mileage out of how the group of Steve, Nancy (popular) and Robin, Eddie (unpopular) is rather disparate and would probably not have happened without the supernatural threat pushing them together.

Edited by Synchronicity on Feb 5th 2023 at 1:44:19 PM

That, and friendships are typically between people with similar interests and hobbies. There's just not as much reason for a stereotypical popular girl and a stereotypical unpopular boy to hang out because they're likely just into different things. That's not sexist, it's just how these things usually work.

If you're excluding examples where the two characters fall in love, I don't think Kim Possible counts because the two become an item by the end of the series and get ship teased a lot before then.