Rename: Raised By Wolves

There has been a topic for this in the past, but I won't use Thread Necromancy on it. Point is, Raised by Wolves is horribly misused, often used to refer to a Wild Child rather than someone who is ignorant of social customs.

I verified some links. Out of 21:

• 10 Good
• 10 Bad
• 1 Uncertain.

Not a representative sample, I will admit, but this does not bode well.

We need alternative titles.

The one that sticks in my mind is Were You Raised By Wolves, though it's probably not the best.

Raised In A Barn

^ As it was pointed out in the other thread, Raised In A Barn is used for uncultured people, who don't wipe their ass, and eat soup with their hands, not for people who are honestly unfamiliar with the modern society.

edited 22nd Aug '10 3:36:20 AM by Superior

I don't see why Raised by Wolves should refer to anything other than the literal, the plot of a person being raised by animals is common enough. Definitely needs a rename.

Wild Child says that Raised by Wolves is its parent trope. If that's the case, then listing a character who was literally raised by animals as Raised by Wolves isn't automatically a misuse.

Have we considered the possibility that Wild Child might be the problem? Raised by Wolves is a fairly common expression matching our usage, but Wild Child is usually used to describe an uninhibited young person in the Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll mold.

^I really think Wild Child should be renamed to Feral Child, since that's the usual term for such children.

Our current definition of Raised by Wolves applies it to people who are ivory tower academics. It's not just a trope for people literally raised by animals. Wild Child is the closest we have to that, but it makes the mistake that most people do that Raised by Wolves is exactly what it says on the tit.

Watch out for that Freudian Slip....

@Doktorvon: Good point. The established term for a Wild Child is in fact a "feral child", and was probably just named Wild Child simply because the phrase Rhymes on a Dime.

Ninja'd a redirect.

edited 22nd Aug '10 9:36:07 AM by Stratadrake

OK so we've got three good names for Wild Child but not one for "Person highly unconfortable and misunderstanding of social conventions"...

I've heard people on tv shows call the latter the Socially Challenged  ^*

Raised by Wolves is basically Aspergers Syndrome in trope form.

The current name causes too much confusion with Wild Child, which is the literally someone who was Raised by Wolves.

From the posts on this thread, the old one, the misuses in wicks and on the page, I'd say we're clearly beyond consensus on the issue to rename but keep getting stuck on the name.

So here's an alternative titles crowner so that we can get a move on.

I think we got stuck on the last one because of all the barn names which have the problem of referring to a different sort of problem. If this one gets stuck again, someone make a mental note to get a timer on it.

Heck, if one wants further proof of misuse, just look at Raised by Wolves's own page:

• The image displays a Wild Child
• Out of the ~150 examples on the very page, at least 31 are referring to a Wild Child (Mowgli is listed), with no mention of the character's social akwardness. And again, this is the page with the definition on top. Almost the entirety of the Real Life section focuses on Wild Child. Just do a text search for "literally" (as in literally raised by wolves) and many of the bad examples leap out.

I second Socially Challenged. Or perhaps Socially Inept? Were You Raised By Wolves is not much of a good name as it does not really clear up what the trope is about.

edited 22nd Aug '10 10:46:31 AM by Ghilz

A good chunk of the examples seems to be about the "raised by animals" interpretation...

So the definition seems to be "oblivious to social customs & taboos"? Perhaps it will help if we collect the cases when this can occur:

• Naïve Newcomer (a foreigner, person from another world, or similar, wo knows about social conventions, just not the ones of this one)
• aborigine / foreigner behaving according to their own customs ("in my country, we do not wear clothes!")
• raised in a barn (from the same society, but was never taught him manners) or social recluse fresh out of his hole
• feral child (raised by animals, or animal turned into a human)
• Innocence Virgin On Stupidity - character who's so pure, she's completely clueless and cannot sin
• has Asperger's (or other mental disease that makes them anti social); alternatively, just really nervous around people

• Absent-Minded Professor can be prone to this.
• Someone who has had Abusive Parents too.

The current definition of Raised by Wolves is really just Socially Inept. Crowner hooked.

edited 22nd Aug '10 3:47:49 PM by Madrugada

I don't like "inept", it doesn't sound strong enough.

Socially Clueless?

I feel like Socially Challenged could apply to someone who's just shy or challenged in some other way.

Raised by Wolves is mainly about characters who don't understand what's expected of them socially because they lack social experience and/or have no "feel" for interpreting social experiences — hence being blunt, literal, etc.

Socially Inept and Socially Clueless are a bit closer to the mark. I wish I could think of a succinct way to convey that lack of social understanding and experience is the problem specifically. Socially Ignorant?

I thought of strong word: Socially Bereft.

Bereft means that they have had something taken from them and usually in the sense that they are (or should be) grieving the loss.

Added two more options:

Etiquette Blind

Social Graceless

Socially Deprived?

Posted some thoughts on a possible hierarchy in this thread, let's see if it helps with a name.

I was going to suggest Socially Inept, too, except for the distinction that people can be socially inept at any age, regardless of whether or not they were raised that way.