Rant: Awkward Girl and Popular Guy Trope

This is different from the rest because I do actually like it sometimes, but that's only to a point. I can't be reading all these books that are exactly the same.

I understand the awkward girl trope, I mean, us bookworms are a lot of the time, awkward. So I can see where that comes in, but I feel like oftentimes authors forget that there are actually some confident people out there in the world. I don't mind having awkward main characters, but when it's always about an awkward girl meeting a hot popular guy and her life getting better because of that, it just bugs me.

To me, the entire idea seems wrong. Most of the time when a book has this trope it's as if they re saying, "Oh look how much of a special snowflake my character is! She isn't like all those other popular girls and yet she can still get the guy!" Now while I have enjoyed books with this trope, I just don't appreciate the actual trope. It makes it out to be like we are shaming those other girls for being extroverts in the same way society seems to shame introverts. And making it as if an awkward girl should feel lucky for being able to snag some guy who's really hot and extroverted seems wrong to me.

I wouldn't mind it all that much if it wasn't so overdramatic like "Why does he like me? Of all those beautiful popular girls he could have? Why would he choose me?" and then they actually go on to ask him why he chose her. Why does he have to have a reason other than he likes you more than them? I don't get it. Why does there need to be some life-altering reason as to why he likes you more than them. Seems pretty ridiculous to me.

While I'm at it, let's just discuss the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope. I don't think it's healthy for the readers to be reading about how someone is putting someone else on such a high pedestal building them up to be like a god to them. It isn't healthy for the reader to want to become that unattainable MPDG or the Hot Popular Guy. I feel like it sends the wrong message to the readers. As most of this is in YA there are a lot of younger readers who are still really impressionable and may not understand that this isn't how real life works.

My point, I like when it isn't used as a tropy plot device. If that's just who the characters are, the bookworm and the sports star, then that's who they are. I just hate when it's made to be this huge deal where characters feel like they are unworthy of being with that other person.

Anyway, thoughts on the topic?


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Things That Are Over Romanticized in Books

I'm on a blogging kick, I've already written three other blog posts in advance. I just feel like talking about books right now. Today I decided I wanted to talk about some things I thought were over romanticized in books, as you should know if you read the title of this post.

Death

There are so many books out there over romanticizing death that it isn't even funny. There are even romances where death is the fricken love interest. In reality death is scary and sad and we don't want to see it happen to those we love and we ourselves don't particularly want to die. Death is played out as if it isn't as terrible as it truly is.

Trauma

I feel like authors play a game of "who can give their protagonist the most tragic backstory." This is especially evident in Fantasy, I don't think I've ever read a book about a protagonist with a happy backstory. It's all death and destruction and pain. It gets to the point where in our real lives we don't feel validated in our sadness unless we have something that has caused it.

Mental Illness (Disorders)

This sort of loops back to the trauma. People don't feel validated with their unhappiness unless there is something outright causing it. I know people who have even faked eating disorders to try and gain that validation. In some books it's like the characters and the author are reveling in their problems. There are some really good books about mental illness out there, but then there are the ones that make you want to pull your hair out because they get the emotions and the feelings attributed with it so wrong, it's almost like they are glorifying disorders. Like, when a character likes things to be neat and they're like, "Oh my god, I am so OCD!!!" like no, Monica Geller is OCD, you just don't like living in a dump.

Being Mean (Rudeness)

In books there is a fine line between being sassy and sarcastic, and just being a mean person. Now, I am all for the sass, but there have been times where I was reading a book and just thinking to myself, "How can this person think that's okay?" or "This character is a total brat". Being rude doesn't make you superior. If someone is being rude to you go right ahead and sass them to death, but if you just decide you don't like them and they've done nothing to you and you're just sassing them to try and prove you are superior, you aren't, you're just a bitch. This honestly happens too often in books.

What things do you guys think are over romanticized in books?

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Why Romeo and Juliet Made Me Angry

I had to read Romeo and Juliet for school in the tenth grade. Let’s just say I was a little unhappy by the whole play. By unhappy I mean I hated everything about it, it was just such a stupid play, so I decided to rant about why I think it was a stupid play.

Also, if you haven't read or heard the story yet then SPOILER ALERT!

1. Juliet did not have to die

Friar Lawrence went to her and said something along the lines of 'yo, I can bring you to a convent, you can be a nun. You don't have to marry Paris.' And she was like “nah, I'm gonna stay with Romeo” and then she kills herself. It was so f*cking ridiculous I could not handle the levels of stupidity that this girl had. I was so pissed at her, and then the nail in the final nail in the coffin was the Friar just left her there. He knew what was going on and he just left!

2. Marriage

They literally got married after knowing each other for a day. A fricken day. This is absolutely ridiculous, I mean she didn't even know she was supposed to marry Paris yet. She saw him and was like 'He is so hot! I need to marry him' and fucking did exactly that. I can't deal with this, it makes me want to rip my hair out.. They are just so stupid. Plus, if they had lived through the play they probably would have ended up resenting each other so much. I mean what future did they have? He was an exile and she was 'dead'. I don't understand.

3. Friar Lawrence

If Romeo had just went and talked to the Friar about Juliet's death and all that jazz, he would have realized that it was all just a ploy. And, the Friar should not have given a 13 year old a potion to fake her death. 13 year olds don't make good decisions. He should have made sure that Romeo had gotten the message too. You can’t just help a girl fake her death so she can be with a guy and then not tell the guy about it.

4. Paris (guys Paul Rudd played him in the Baz version of the movie)

Honestly, Juliet should have just married Paris. She didn't even know Romeo more than she knew Paris. For all she knew she could have fallen in love with Paris and lived happily ever after, but no, she had to choose the rebellious teenager route and marry a guy her parents hate. Juliet is such a frustrating character.

5. Rosaline

Romeo was 'heartbroken' over Rosaline literally the day he met Juliet. Juliet was just the rebound. Does anyone else see the flaw? Romeo is such a player, literally anything to get into a girls pants. Romeo was the original fuckboy.

Did you like Romeo and Juliet? Did you hate it like I did? Tell me your thoughts down below!

Rant: The "Token Gay" Character

You may or may not have noticed this, but in most YA and definitely most romances, there is always the "token gay" character. The character placed specifically in the book to be a quirky side character or to show how open-minded the characters are. Usually, the token gay doesn't have much substance, pretty much all the author gives them is the fact that they are gay.

I'm honestly just pissed off because LGBTQ people should not be used as plot devices. Something to just add a little variety to the story. This has in fact happened in books that I do love, but this happens so often that it's become another trope that I can't stand.

Some authors do a great job with their LGBTQ characters such as Cassandra Clare who has about as many gay characters as she does straight. They all have their own plot lines and tragic back stories that will rival any of the straight characters and it feels very natural. She didn't just throw in one gay character and then call it a day. It might have seemed that way in City of Bones, but the lack of gay characters did tie into a plot line, so I forgive her.

It has become a trend not only in books, but in movies for there to be the gay best friend, *cough cough* GBF (it's on Netflix) that movie is great by the way, totally calls the gay best friend trope out. The gay best friend is just here to spur on the main character who isn't sure about hooking up with the hot popular guy who's totally in love with her and then he goes and does his own thing and we don't hear much else from them. The gay best friend always just seems so one dimensional and overall just bubbly.

This "trend" has gotten a lot better within the past couple years with a lot more representation and character depth, but there are still those few books with the "token gay" that just make me resent the book as a whole.

It's not as much of a problem recently, but please, if you are writing a book, try not to have a "token gay" because they honestly don't feel like people anymore.


What are your thoughts on the subject?



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