[ SECRET POST #3556 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3556 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.
[Lord of the Rings trilogy]



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02.
[pride and prejudice; unnamed others]


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03.
[Endeavour]


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04.
[Tim Curry / Movies: IT, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Clue, Legend]


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05.


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06.
[Loud House]


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07.


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08.
[MST3K]














Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 19 secrets from Secret Submission Post #508.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Interesting. I actually think the two tropes you listed ("woman as force of nature that overwhelms man and inspires him to change" and "woman's love redeems man") are pretty much the same trope to me. Or more like, most of the stories that people think of as the second type basically fit the first type.

When I think of stories/pairings that have strong appeal to women, it's never really the type of "simpering woman loves a problematic man and her pure and selfless love changes him" -- it's always "problematic man is super duper impressed by author-avatar female character (who may be simpering or may be completely not; it doesn't really matter), and HIS LOVE FOR HER inspires him to improve himself."

At the heart of stories like Mr. Darcy and Lizzie Bennet, Hades and Persephone, Beauty and the Beast, Buffy and Spike, Bulma and Vegeta, Rey and Kylo, and even Bella and Edward (although the execution is lackluster) is a power fantasy for women (IMO). The appeal lies in this idea that the main character (who is the reader stand-in) has this ability to bring a man to his knees by virtue of being so remarkable, so larger-than-life, so surprising, so challenging, so modest-and-thoroughly-unaware-of-her-virtues, or whatever. A man who never felt more than a vague distaste for women suddenly finds his world turned upside down because now he finds he cares about THIS particular woman. A man proudly living a flawed life, never seeing what's wrong with it, suddenly sees with clear eyes after being challenged by a particularly outspoken woman. The fantasy never lies in the woman being able to effect change by loving; it lies in the woman being able to effect change just by BEING.

That's my view anyway. It always confuses me when people are like, "This example of the Love Redeems trope is GREAT and this one is a BAD MESSAGE," when they're, like, both examples of the same wish-fulfillment fantasy. Which is okay. I happen to like this trope. But neither of them are realistic or relationship goals or anything like that. They're both just self-serving power fantasies, which is sometimes something you want in fiction.

[(Anonymous)]

This exactly!