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Author: HeartOfAnAstronaut

Apr 12th 2012 at 4:06:58 AM

PeopleSitOnChairs? Seriously, as Arivne says, the real life ratio is 50/50 and I feel like the more example you get, the closer we're going to get to that. Surely this is only a trope if there's some kind of plot relevance to boys?

That said, off the top of my head I can think of two TV shows where the sex of the baby is male and that is important to the plot:

* On SexAndTheCity Miranda has a boy, which is ironic because men have been a source of trouble for her, romantically.
* On Charmed the fact that Piper has a son is relevant because the magic in the show is passed down through generations of women.

Also, you have a lot of stories from historical fiction and real life history about people in power wanting sons because daughters can't inherit, e.g. Henry VIII wanting a son so much that he changed religions so that he could divorce his first wife. I'm oversimplifying, but he obviously wanted a son BAD. So basically it's not like this trope can't be improved because sometimes boy babies are meaningful but as it is, it makes no sense?

Tropes are commonly used plot devices that we recognise and even expect. If someone gets pregnant in a story it's not like we're thinking "oh yeah, that's definitely going to be a boy, that old chestnut". Does that make a girl a subversion? Because that doesn't make any sense and is a bit UnfortunateImplications.