peppervl:
bethadastra:
tmirai:
This is such an interesting...
This is such an interesting dissection of a very common trope in writing female characters that I never really thought about before, but it’s so prevalent and so obvious and so fucking disgusting.
THIS is what made me so uncomfortable with certain anime/manga stories back in the day, now I have a word for it! I’m so glad they discuss the link between Born Sexy Yesterday and colonialism too, very relevant!!!
Long video, but DEFINITELY worth a watch.
I do wish it had gone into the area of consent too - these women who were born sexy yesterday don’t know what consent is and therefore cannot - but aside from that it’s a excellent discussion of a troubling media trend.
The video clearly shows how prevalent this trope has been, sadly I was unaware of it while writing the trilogy and am now suddenly concerned that I’ve implemented it. I don’t think so, but I’m interested to hear from readers.
GUDSRIKI SPOILERSLike the Bury Your Gays trope, I hope in part that Gudsriki is so over-the-top unusual in its purposes and concepts that whatever resembles the trope doesn’t fall into it. One of the disturbing factors in this trope is why it’s in the story. I know I’ve missed that one because Nel was not written with the “innocent appeal” thing for the male audience in mind. But still-
Nel is literally born yesterday, even mentioning that fact in those words. She is not overtly sexualized, but does have a romantic relationship with the main character. That character is not male and does not see any appeal in Nel’s pseudo-youth, but did in the beginning create her as a surrogate for a lost lover, which may play deeper into the trope than even the males in the video. On the other hand, her actions are never portrayed as a good thing, the heroes of this series are all flawed to the extreme so if she is taking advantage, it’s not condoned. Hacking brings another level to it, probably, though I’m not sure if it makes the trope better or worse, if it exists here at all.
I think there are a couple scenes in which Nel’s inexperience is used as a bond between her and Vibeke, but to me these feel neutral to the trope. I’m not sure I can quantify why that is. Obviously my books are not immune by merit of their unconventional elements, but readers I’ve spoken to about Bury Your Gays generally consider Gudsriki to be not-guilty, seeing as pretty much everybody else dies too and death together in this case is the happiest ending these two could hope for. Also the story ends there, while the worst of that trope tends to be in ongoing media or well before the climax.
I think the most disturbing part of this trope is what @peppervl mentioned, the idea of consent. Nel is about 5 months old (or 3 years old if you count her knife days) when the romantic stuff begins, but I do not consider her unable to consent. She has the mind of a 20 year old, sort of. That sort of is very important when considering this trope. The trope itself focuses however on the fantasy of getting someone ‘fresh’ and untouched, a power fantasy above all. Nel obviously has power over Vibeke at all times in a big way.
So Gudsriki definitely skips some critical parts of the trope, I think, but also has some things fairly close to it. What do you think? I’m very interested in hearing whether I’m guilty of this one, and on any thoughts any readers may have.
