: Re: Is the "hero guy saves girl" trope misogynistic? (Question about my hacker (hacking??) novel.) Just an FYI, I am a woman. Edward is a cyber spy and works with an organization named Vox Populi

Sexism is by definition, "prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination on the basis of sex."

So, yes, technically the use of the Damsel in Distress trope when played straight can fall under sex-based stereotyping. At the same time, Tropes Aren't Bad and it's only because this is a trope that is Older Than Dirt that it gets put into such a critical light, because it has had more opportunity to accrue more examples of men saving women as opposed to women saving men or even same-sex salvation. But one trope a sexist story does not make. Take that trope and think of all the different ways you can play with it. Does Lily play the part of the helpless girl? Is she kidnapped because they wrongly believe SHE was the white-hat who foiled them? Perhaps she pretended to be the hacker so that she could protect her brother knowing he would find her. Or she isn't actually kidnapped at all, but went with them willingly because she agrees with their ideology, and it was her idea to convince her brother that she's in trouble to trick him into being coerced into working for them, or at least that was her plan before they decided to actively use her to make Edward behave regardless of her cooperation. You can even make it so Edward doesn't want or need to save Lily because she's also a talented spy, but he hid part of an important cipher to an encrypted program he designed in a necklace he gave to her for her birthday and he doesn't want to risk the bad guys getting their hands on it, so it's less about saving Lily who is capable of taking care of herself and more about giving her some backup so that she doesn't lose the necklace to them.

Just because a trope can be seen as sexist, the work it is used in should not be seen in that way unless the purpose is to show and enforce prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination on the basis of sex.

Please forgive the abundance of TVTropes links. I find Wiki Walks are great for aiding in research on these kinds of dilemmas.

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: Re: Is the "hero guy saves girl" trope misogynistic? (Question about my hacker (hacking??) novel.) Just an FYI, I am a woman. Edward is a cyber spy and works with an organization named Vox Populi

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: Once written down it's set in stone What's the strange property/disease/habit called in which you need everything you write down to be 'the truth' once it's written down. Even while drafting,

: Split up the section or flow straight through Is it a good idea to â€œsplitâ€ the action/setting to show actions of other characters elsewhere, or make it flow straight through? Example: My

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: How to shorten a prologue? I understand that a prologue is meant to open up a story and introduce characters, themes, and the world to my audience. It is not supposed to be a long length

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: Re: Is the "hero guy saves girl" trope misogynistic? (Question about my hacker (hacking??) novel.) Just an FYI, I am a woman. Edward is a cyber spy and works with an organization named Vox Populi

More posts by @Moriarity138

: Once written down it's set in stone What's the strange property/disease/habit called in which you need everything you write down to be 'the truth' once it's written down. Even while drafting,

: Split up the section or flow straight through Is it a good idea to â€œsplitâ€ the action/setting to show actions of other characters elsewhere, or make it flow straight through? Example: My

: Protagonist Goal and achieving it My MC is a famous singer/songwriter who is bad at writing lyrics. Her goal is to write commercially successful, deep, serious songs. How do I design the character

: How to shorten a prologue? I understand that a prologue is meant to open up a story and introduce characters, themes, and the world to my audience. It is not supposed to be a long length

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0 Comments

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: Split up the section or flow straight through Is it a good idea to â€œsplitâ€ the action/setting to show actions of other characters elsewhere, or make it flow straight through? Example: My