Just a meme and a caption: Real Women Never Wear Dresses

I really had no idea what was going on in this image, until I read the caption. And I probably still wouldn't without the caption. Can't we do better?

EDIT: And I screwed up the title. Brilliant.

edited 20th Oct '11 3:38:26 PM by Mukora

This is a Fan Reaction trope. The reaction guys are there for that purpose. They like her when she kicks ass and hate when she cries. That's the trope in a nutshell.

It was also chosen in a previous Image Pickin' thread.

edited 20th Oct '11 3:56:25 PM by SalFishFin

I'm in favor of removing the image.

First, it's not really a good display of the trope. I see (1) someone in a dress doing synchronized dancing; (2) guys joining the mood and cheering her on; (3) the same person crying; (4) the same guys joining the mood and going solemn. How the bleep does that even relate to "feminine women are considered useless"?

Second, we have a standing kill order on meme images, and for some reason that guideline has one single exception explicitly written into it for this particular trope image. Now I'm happy to make an exception to the rules if the result is cool; but this is not anything special, not even a particularly famous meme, and it doesn't have any powerful message either. It's just kludgy.

It's just meh. Solid meh. So yeah, motion to pull because (1) it doesn't demonstrate the trope, and (2) it's a meme. Sure, IP talked about this before; we're officially allowed to change our mind, too.

As far as I know, it's the reaction guys that are exempt, but this definitely could be better. Is there a scene of her baking?

There's a scene of her with a baby and a scene of her at the spa. Both of which were rejected in favor of the crying.

I think the image is...okay. I'd prefer that the first pic of her actually showed her obviously fighting than what looks like dancing, but I think the basic idea is solid enough that we shouldn't pull it unless we have a better picture to put up. It does demonstrate the trope to a degree (kicking ass = happy audience, crying = not happy audience), but it could be clearer.

edited 20th Oct '11 5:09:10 PM by JapaneseTeeth

1. The reaction guys do not have a blanket exemption. That is, they are not automatically ok, just because they're the reaction guys.

2. "It was picked in a previous IP discussion" is also not an automatic pass.

That said, I have to agree that the current image is not very good. There's nothing to indicate that she's being a badass in the first picture, and nothing to indicate that the reaction guys dislike her for being emotional in the second.

She also kind of looks squashed in the first picture.

Ass kicking posses: [1]◊,[2]◊,[3]◊.

Who is this girl, anyway? Is it Mulan?

Perhaps shots of Zelda and Sheik would work? I'm just not seeing what these "reaction guys" contribute to the picture. They're not even particularly clear at showing approval and disapproval, and four shots like these look more like a 1-2-3-4 sequence of events. They seem to be there just for the sake of the old meme.

edited 21st Oct '11 2:45:24 AM by Spark9

It's Katara from Avatar:The Last Airbender

I like the first and third images.

They're in there because this is an audience reaction trope.

I get that that's the intent. However, (1) they do not show the audience reaction particularly well, and (2) such pictures are not commonly used on other Audience Reactions tropes. In fact, I could not find another example anywhere of a trope picture like this.

Surely there are some comics (likely web comics) out there that lampshade or discuss this enough to use them.

They're not used elsewhere because there aren't that many Audience Reaction that focus on approval and then disapproval. We do, however, try to show reactions in Audience Reaction tropes, rather than simply try to cause it (like many of the initial pictures did).

I'm really not too fond of this meme. I can live with it, since it seems to be the most illustrative thing we could find, but I'm just sick of memes in general.

Even if we ARE to use the reaction guys meme, it doesn't necessarily have to be with that character. (Or even that particular tomboy moment and feminine moment even if it is of that character.)

What comes to mind for me would be to juxtapose something of Pinkie Pie running with Pinkie Pie baking.

For what it's worth, I think the real problem with using the reaction guys isn't so much that it's a meme as that it's of, well, guys. This trope is, rightly or wrongly, often thought of as a primarily female complaint, and obviously, women have more reason to complain about it than men do.

There are two problems with that image:

• Pinkie doesn't really look all that badass in the first picture, she's just...running.

• She isn't an example. Fans don't dislike her when she does stereotypically "girly" things, and given her character, when she bakes it really isn't an example of a girly activity anyway.

And in general MLP isn't really a good series to use for this, given the Periphery Demographic. Heck, one of the most popular episodes is about the girliest pony in town making dresses for her friends, and even that didn't draw those sorts of complaints.

edited 22nd Oct '11 1:14:56 PM by JapaneseTeeth

The question isn't whether or not she gets that reaction, but whether or not she does the kind of thing that tends to get that kind of reaction.

Alternatively, maybe we could instead use a character who is herself a major target of such a reaction, like Mulan.

edited 23rd Oct '11 6:44:55 PM by HiddenFacedMatt

Shouldn't the image somehow display what the caption is saying?

I like that one, it shows a good contrast.

I think it's fine for an audience reaction trope to show what the reaction is to; it seems to me that most AR tropes do that. Certainly showing what the reaction is (generally just a simple like/dislike) is not very indicative.

I like the original image...it fits the trope better since this trope is an Audience reaction trope.

the Mulan one is JAFAAC

I don't have a problem with the Katara image.

If by "JAFAAC" you mean "three faces in two clearly distinct obvious action poses", then you should probably re-read what JAFAAC stands for.