What Sterotypes do you hate?

[Ranger REG]

Somewhere I remember reading the actual reason behind women going before men was back before color was invented. If someone was hiding in the shadows ready to kill the man, the woman would take the hit but leave 'emself wide open for a counter like say in the narrow corridors of a castle.

Well, I can understand if we're trying to escape a besieging castle, or in moden-day analogy, there is a drive-by/sniper shooting. Then yeah, women and children first.

If you're trying to get to a lifeboat to escape a sinking ship, then either get on it, or if you don't know if it will float, drop a fat woman or child as a test. If the lifeboat is safe, jump aboard and roll the woman over to divert the sharks.

P.S. I am sooo going to remain single after this. :\

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Heck, I hold open doors for guys also, it's just a polite thing to do. In my post, I was talking about always opening the door for a lady - be it a car door, office door, etc.

The point of my post is this: women can be treated like "just one of the guys" or they can be treated "like a lady", but not both.

If you want to be treated like "just one of guys", be prepared to hear dirty jokes, get teased about your shortcomings, smell flatulence, and discuss topics such as beer, football, trucks, fishing, and which Hollywood actresses have the best T&A.

If you want to be treated "like a lady", then men will pull out your chair for you, avoid crude/vulgar talk when you're around, smile and nod politely while you talk about things like clothes and relationships, etc. But, by definition, being treated like a lady means that you'll be treated differently than a man (this does not necessarily mean that you'll be treated as an inferior - just different).

Well, I think many (not all) of your points are examples of appropriate/decent behaviour or general courtesy.

But that said, I don't care much about this ambiguity on how women want to be treated - I would pull out chairs or open doors and these things for guys, too, if I was into guys (and it might work on them).

 

[sniffles]

The 'my ex's new Significant Other is a jerk' stereotype. Especially if the ex had an affair with the SO prior to breaking up. I was watching Secret Window the other night and was really bored with how Johnny Depp's ex-wife's new boyfriend/husband was portrayed as an a**hole.

And speaking of that movie, the 'psycho killer who can act normal when he wants to' stereotype is annoying too. You can't just turn mental illness off with a switch.

The 'brilliant serial killer' stereotype. Serial killers in movies are always incredibly intelligent and/or crafty. They always have to have some bizarre theme for their killings, like the 7 deadly sins in 7even, or Buffalo Bill wanting to make himself a woman suit in The Silence of the Lambs. Apparently they're all independently wealthy, too, because they can afford all kinds of amazing gadgets or live in a mansion with a huge basement where they can live out their bizarre fantasies.

 

[Rystil Arden]

or Buffalo Bill wanting to make himself a woman suit in The Silence of the Lambs

Neither Harris nor Hollywood actually made that one up.

 

[drothgery]

The idea of Star Trekkian races would all look so similar to us not to mention be compatible enough to allow reproduction - half Klingons, half Bajorans, half Vulcans, half wits, etc.

That's okay; there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for that in Trek myth (most Trek humanoids are decended from the 'Preservers'). The problem is that they miss some of the implications, and so have races that are close enough to interbreed (humans, Klingons, Vulcans) having radically different physiology (green-blooded Vulcans/Romulans and redundant-internal-organ Klingons). And then they threw a monkey wrench in things by saying in DS9 that Trill/Klingon isn't likely to work when they'd already had Trill/human work.

 

[Brimshack]

"White Indians" You know the anglo that serves as the center of a story that is billed as being about Native Americans. And the story ends up being about his redemption when accepted by these simple and noble folk (who presumably know genuine nobility when they see it ...hence making them the perfect test of a man's soul.)

Cases in Point:

A Man Called Horse (and the sequal).
Dances with Wolves.
Wind Talkers (Billed as a story about the Code Talkers; really a story about someone who might have to kill one of them. ...great!)
,,,heh, The Last Samurai if you think about it. Only Tom Cruise couldn't entirely duplicate Dances with Wolves, so they just took the standard plot them on a trip to Japan.



I would exempt Little Big Man from the list, maybe because I am biased liking the movie so much. But part of the charm of that movie seems to me that the main character never does really prove himself. He generally screws everything up, and even though there are some who accept him, he never really does come accross as being fully assimilated.

 

[Dark Jezter]

How about "Typical Romantic Comedy Plot"? It goes like this:

"Guy and girl meet and become friends. Guy starts to fall in love with girl, but she's already got a boyfriend. Guy then finds out that girl's boyfriend is a jerk who cheats on her, but guy feels like he can't say anything because it will look like he's trying to break them up for his own benefit. After much angsting and soul searching, guy publically declares his love to girl, who then dumps her jerk of a boyfriend. Guy and girl kiss and live happily ever after."

The one that immediately comes to mind is The Wedding Singer, but I know that there are more romantic comedies out there that follow this basic formula (with maybe one or two alterations).

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I would exempt Little Big Man from the list, maybe because I am biased liking the movie so much. But part of the charm of that movie seems to me that the main character never does really prove himself. He generally screws everything up, and even though there are some who accept him, he never really does come accross as being fully assimilated.

Great movie, haven't seen it in years. But he does prove himself. He gets Custer killed by telling him the truth, knowing that he won't be believed.

 

[bodhi]

The 'brilliant serial killer' stereotype. Serial killers in movies are always incredibly intelligent and/or crafty.

I'm okay with this one for two reasons:
1) I like smart characters. I'm tired of stupid ones.
2) Stupid serial killers do stupid things and get caught. On the news the other night, I heard about a kid who got busted for calling 911 22 times in one night, harassing the operator, and insulting the cops. They knocked on his front door the next morning. A serial killer that dumb would not make a challening foil, and would be a limited plot device.

 

[Ranger REG]

I'm okay with this one for two reasons:
1) I like smart characters. I'm tired of stupid ones.

Yeah, but even brilliant serial killers turned stupid because they like to brag that they can get away with it, even to the point of offering law authority clues to what he's done or going to do. After all, smart people can't help but to show off that they're smarter than you.