Why the sectionectomy?: AliensMadeThemDoIt

Evening, Wiki Talk. I asked about this earlier in Ask The Tropers and was pointed here.

It was recently noted over in Content Policy Discussion that the examples were wiped from Aliens Made Them Do It and Dominatrix without a stated reason. It looks like they both had plenty of examples from non-pornographic works, and weren't attracting an unusual amount of creepiness (though the latter had a Zero Context Example problem).

I was wondering what happened there? Were they sectionectomied just for being sex-related?

edited 17th Mar '13 10:08:07 PM by InsanityPrelude

I assume it was because the examples looked creepy.

I skimmed through the examples for Aliens and they could definitely have used some de-gushing, but just arbitrarily chopping them seems over the top.

The trope description is problematic, too; right now, the trope focuses on "it's an excuse for bad lemons," rather than its potential use in non-lemon contexts.

Which would be?

There are lots of uses that aren't fanfic related. Dragonriders Of Pern comes to mind, when the psychic link to a dragon or fire lizard causes their bondmate to experience the same sexual desire as the dragon. I challenge anyone to declare the Pern novels pornographic.

Well, for one thing, any use that's not explicit is probably not a lemon :)

• Played for Drama: "Aliens require a pair of individuals to mate who would not otherwise get together for plot-related reasons." The Tower And The Hive series example comes to mind, where aliens force two cousins together because sex will cure their broken hearts. (While it's a horrible botch of a plot, a romantic plot is a plot, and the series is not pornography.)
• Played for Laughs: See the page quote; here, the idea is alluded to as a gag.

edited 18th Mar '13 5:17:47 PM by Ramidel

Looking through the examples, there's quite a few that are from non-fanworks. I agree that the definition needs to be reworked to make it clear that while it may crop up in fic, that's not the only time it can happen.

EDIT: Generalizing due to all these frickin' ninjas.

edited 18th Mar '13 5:22:57 PM by Willbyr

Howabout a redraft to remove the Fanfic focus? Like this:

edited 18th Mar '13 5:24:51 PM by FastEddie

That looks good.

The examples need to be purged of creepiness. The Dominatrix cut was a year ago.

edited 18th Mar '13 5:26:50 PM by FastEddie

@Eddie: Looks good. Can you give us the examples in a sandbox to work with?

Here you go: Sandbox.Alien Viagra

I scrubbed a lot of the mess out (unrelated note: the page was also a natter-magnet), but as my tolerance is abnormally high (and I'm half-asleep anyway), I probably missed something or two.

edited 18th Mar '13 6:02:02 PM by Ramidel

@11: Yeah, I felt a little silly bringing up something so old, but I guess I wasn't the first one who only just noticed. I'm glad at least one of them is salvageable!

I don't think Dominatrix is actually a trope at all, at least on its own.

Dominatrix is not a trope? No, it really is.

Looking at Sandbox.Alien Viagra now.

Of course Dominatrix is a trope, just like Hollywood Nerd and everything else on Characters as Device and/or Characterization Tropes. Of course, it's not indexed on either.... Face Palm.

We aren't pretending these things don't exist, but we do want to avoid gushing over them.

edited 19th Mar '13 8:55:53 AM by Fighteer

I said Dominatrix on its own. For comparison, we have things like Depraved Bisexual for stereotypes about bisexuals, and Bi The Way for when it's not treated as anything special by the narrative, but we don't have Bisexual.

It could be Useful Notes, maybe. But it needs to have some narrative purpose attached (even if that's just 'this unconventional lifestyle' is treated casually by the narrative) in order to be a trope, I think.

I think your definition of "trope" is seriously wrong. The archetype of a sexually predatory woman is definitively a trope.

I've gotta agree, but in any case, that's talk for another thread. Unless we're talking about a Green-Skinned Space Babe making protagonists have sex.

edited 19th Mar '13 10:37:12 AM by Ramidel

@ nrjxll, not looking at the page, I think that most personality quirks and traits count as tropes because they're the basic building blocks of characters. It's just that the majority of personality tropes don't see a lot of use unless it's a definitive trait.