4 Overdone Female Tropes
This is not a guide to avoiding these styles of characters entirely if you are a writer or creator, but a cautionary warning to push yourself to be more creative.
Hollywood has capitalized on these tropes, boring and unimaginative is hardly the main issue here, it’s limiting. All people, women, and men are unique and fascinating and need more representation and variety in writing and television. Characters can and need to be more relatable, dynamic, realistic, and a little less cliche.
So, without further ado, these are only the 4 most common tropes that have been overdone.
The Cool Girl
This is the woman who is strong in the traditional sense, which is physically capable, has a tough attitude, and is a bit bossy, yet can hang with the guys. She is most definitely comfortable with her body and her sexuality. No shame. She knows she is beautiful, yet it’s effortless on her part as she can wake up, take a whisky mouthwash, and finger her hair into a beautiful style from the night before. You know this kind of woman is popular with the guys and just envied by the women who can’t hack it.
What makes her cool? Well, she can take a joke. She is not too uptight about being sexual with other dudes. She is comfortable showing things off. Yet she can swear like a sailor and make your father blush. Furthermore, she is great under pressure and naturally very capable of handling any situation she finds herself in. End of the world? no problem, the cool girl can handle it.
This is pretty much the definition of a man’s fantasy of a woman. She doesn’t need anyone, but you know she wants it and she always brings a good time because she is a cool girl. She has power in the fact that she is comfortable with her sexuality and her effortless abilities.
Think Charlie’s Angels, Jessica Jones, Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23. Wonder woman, Black widow, Lara Croft, and even Percy Jackson’s Annabeth Chase. The list goes on. These aren’t hated characters, in fact, quite the opposite. Much like the popular cheerleaders or Instagram girls, both athletic and attractive. They are cool for a reason, but they can set unrealistically high and false standards for women and girls to judge themselves from.
A woman shouldn’t have to be sexualized and then be expected to be okay with it to have power. She shouldn’t be judged if she can’t take a joke or be cool about things that make her uncomfortable. Those are toxic standards, maybe some people are the cool girl, but it is not and should never be a standard to give someone power.
It’s not sustainable to expect greatness from someone like the cool girl and strong characters shouldn’t rely on the fact that they are sexy.
The Bossy One
She is large and in charge and she lets everyone know it. This trope probably stems from insecurity in women being in charge, so naturally, she is shown as a pushy control freak.
She is always right; you know her by her overbearing attitude and her self-righteous stance. She can either be the Queen B mean girl or the outsider who is cast out because she is just too pushy.
She has an opinion about everything and has to assert herself in the most annoying way possible to let you know that she is there, and she is important.
Remember powerful women don’t have to push others around. Yet, it’s seen again and again throughout literature and pop culture. Some examples are What If — Captain Marvel. Harry Potter — Hermione Granger. Friends — Joanna, Rachel Green’s Boss, you know the one that had to have everything her way or she would be all pissed off.
Now, before you hate, I don’t think these characters are necessarily bad IF they are given MORE than a pushy attitude. Take Hermione Granger, for instance, is a prime example of a pushy character done right. This is because she is given a backstory to WHY this is the case. How she is always the first on everything because it stems from insecurity. She is made into a dynamic and well-thought-out character who happens to also be a trope from an outward appearance. This is broken down within the first book and helps Ron and Harry understand her better because of it.
This goes to show even tropes can be well done or broken down into more complexity because your characters are more complex. Just like people who may seem one thing on the outside, they can be much more than first impressions.
The Mean One
She is similar to the pushy one, except she isn’t just right she is also unnecessarily cruel. This can be to assert her dominance because it goes off the belief that;
“women who are not mean are not taken seriously in a man’s world.”
They are most importantly a badass boss and they will stop at nothing to prove it to the world. They act untouchable and care for no one more than themselves. This is literally the definition of a narcissistic sociopath, yet it is almost always the fallback to how a woman ruler would be in power.
This is usually the bad guy, Cruella Deville, Snow-white — evil Queen Grimhilde, Game of Thrones — Cersei Lannister.
I feel this maybe had first come about in a more outdated time when the world was more sexist and thought all women who wanted power — are power-hungry and crazed. Because obviously there is no such thing as a confident yet kind ruler when it comes down to women. If a woman is ambitious, she must be a crazy bitch. Sadly, this is how many politicians are displayed today as well, but we won’t get into that.
The Tough One
Do not mistake this for the Cool girl, the tough girl is strong in all the traditional masculine traits as the cool girl may also exhibit. However, the difference is, the cool girl is sexually appealing yet aloof about it. Whereas the tough girl is more like a man, so much so she doesn’t necessarily have to even be attractive. This strips away any sexuality as a woman. Because, if the cool girl could hang with the guys, the tough girl is one of the guys. Think Game of thrones — Ser Brienne of Tarth.
On the surface this seems harmless, she isn’t sexualized, and she is tough! She is elevated by the mere fact that she is tough and strong and nothing like a typical woman, more like a man. But I’m saddened by this and it’s the very reason it’s a trope. Because it both makes it seem that more feminine traits are weak while encouraging one-dimensional characters with little or no growth. God forbid a tough girl to be multifaceted. Have more of a variety of likes or interests that may even vary into more feminine traits.
Another character that comes to mind is Miss congeniality and how her character was displayed in the beginning. That being one of the guys means you also judge and think others are “weak” because they don’t carry the same masculine traits. Obviously, spoiler alert, if you watched the movie you will know her character went under development, and I don’t mean the physical part, but mentally, she gained a new perspective of how people can be more than skin deep. This was a great transformative moment with her speech in the end.
What To Do If You Have A Trope?
Even if Tropes are a bit overdone, they can be still used with a new twist or spin on them to keep it interesting. Many of the examples I stated of trope-style characters are extremely engaging and interesting characters because even if they started as a trope, that didn’t determine where they ended up.
It’s all about making the characters able to adapt and maybe change from who they started as. Don’t lock them in stone. Or, have an interesting backstory that gives them a reason why they are the trope.
It’s not the end if you find yourself in another cliche trope. The world is so filled with them it’s practically spoon-fed to us from birth. Brainwashing us into thinking tropes are the way to go.
But, with some creativity, it’s possible to break free from the cycle, write something new and different. There are as many different types of characters out there as there are people. It’s limitless.
