Markup View

Author: Cider

Mar 22nd 2012 at 1:29:52 PM

My stance hasn't really changed. I still say action girl should be a trope index with no examples, as should bad ass. But suppose this WomenAreDelicate page does get through. If we are documenting a "double standard" then this needs a better title. Action Girl is not a double standard, rebellious or new. Women have been in scraps since they existed.

A title like, MenAreStronger, GuysAreTougher would make that double standard more clear. It needs a description that takes in more points too.

"In fiction men characters tend to be stronger and tougher than women characters. This is true in real life to an extent, men do tend to be larger, have larger muscle groups, denser muscle fibers and more testosterone. Their records in most competitive sports will almost always be higher by the numbers for example. Furthermore, before advancement in medicine changed things, women had lower life expectancies than men, it only made sense that men be in harm's way when it was required, being less likely to die and not as critical to the group's continued survival if they did.

That's not to say this is a universal occurrence, neither in fiction nor in real life but you will find more men construction workers, police officers, soldiers, fire fighters miners, hunters, security guards and such than you will women, though fiction may exaggerate, women have and still do all of those things. This can especially be problematic when applied to other species, as noted in InsectGenderBender and MoreDeadlyThanTheMale, but then MostWritersAreMale."

Really if we are just covering a broad gender DoubleStandard then "Action Guy" is way too narrow a title. As is, neither ActionGuy nor ActionGirl need to have trope pages, as ActionHero is gender neutral and ActionHeroine is a redirect. Badass shouldn't be used as a standard for anything. Badass has no concrete meaning beyond something someone found "impressive". It is as meaningless as trying to make a trope out of "Awesome", "Amazing" or "Sucks". Badass is index material at best. ActionGirl is index material, at best.

ItSucks is an index. Would make a page with "A Female/Male who sucks" as a laconic? How do they suck? How are they badass? Strength and toughness, or even broad physicality can at least be measured objectively somewhat.