The Trope Trap
Snidely Whiplash by Micah D Leigh Photography
TopCon Geek Expo (9/9 and 9/10, 2017) was an educational and, at times, eye-opening experience. It was my first convention, and as a beginning entrepreneur it exposed me to a number of elements I had really only considered as off-handed concerns.
One such concern was recognizing that some people might have an issue with the primary story arc of Ash to Ashes. In its most simplified form (and I mean strained-through-a-coffee filter simplified), the story is about a girl who gets kidnapped and the guy who goes to rescue her. It's a trope. It's been done to death, especially in the fantasy genre. The damsel in distress, the menacing monster, bold knights rescuing the princess from the dragon and such so they can live happily ever after. Add in a mustache twirling villain and it has more cheese than a box of Velveeta. More to the point, in our hyper-analytical (and easily offended) society, it's become easy to put emphasis on the notion that this trope reinforces the "women as weak victims" and men as "brave and strong heroes" mentality. *Insert chest-beating alpha gorilla for optimum effect.*
So when a middle aged woman made her way down the row to my table on the first day, read the back jacket synopsis, and made a snide comment about "Well, that's not a very feminist friendly story is it?", I wasn't especially surprised. More to the point, I had just overheard her dissing my buddy Lynn's entire genre (zombie horror/thriller), and offering her unsolicited $.02 to my artist friend Seth and his wife on the next table over. I'd have been curious to know what brilliant commentary she had for William, the next author after Seth's booth, but, seeing as he was a sci-fi and zombie/horror writer too, I could make an educated guess as to what she had to say.
I wish I could say this woman's commentary didn't bother me, and in all reality it didn't. I didn't know her in the slightest, and honestly I didn't really care what her opinion was. It was obnoxiously clear that her goal was to try and knock other people down (presumably) to make herself feel better. I'd almost feel bad for her sad, hateful existence if it wasn't such a shitty, self-serving thing to do to other people.
No, what bothered me was that I didn't have a proper response to her accusation of my being an anti-feminist man pandering to the patriarchy. My lead character happens to be a 21-year-old male. His primary story arc just happens to follow the abduction and rescue efforts of an 18-year-old female ally. I make no effort to state otherwise in my promotional material because it's true. But my purpose in writing the story had nothing to do with propping up antiquated notions of male superiority or the notion that a woman requires a man to survive. In all reality, my female characters in Ash to Ashes are actually stronger and more ready to unapologetically kick ass than many of my male characters. Where I got stuck, though, was that there was no way to express these facts without offering up spoilers to the story or sounding defensive (i.e. taking the bait) to the accusation. My book is 466 pages long. A good portion of that material is spent giving depth and realism to my characters, both male and female, as the story unfolds. But in that moment, looking this woman in the face, I couldn't think of a good, succinct way to express any of that. All I could think to say was, "Nope, I guess not." (Honestly, I could tell in that moment that saying anything else would just be a waste of breath, but it's the principle of the thing.)
So I've been giving consideration to the notion of tropes in general and here's what I've come up with so far:
F**k it.
Write your story. Tell your tale. If you hit every cliché and worn out trope known to man and woman as you do it, oh well. As long as you do it well and make it your own, that's really all that matters. Now don't get me wrong, I've seen people use clichés and stereotypes for all the wrong reasons. Some of it's lazy writing, some of it's because they have an axe to grind, some of it's deliberately included to be hurtful or controversial, and some of it's because they simply don't know or understand why certain tropes or stereotypes are problematic. But if a story and the characters are well-developed, even the most worn out concepts can still serve a purpose. If nothing else, they can demonstrate why these things are issues or problems in the first place. Do your thing! Make your art! Never apologize! And as my buddy Lynn stated in the opening of Zombie Waltz (part 2}, sometimes "...it's better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission."
REMINDER: Little Apple Comic Expo (LACE) is ONE WEEK AWAY!!! Saturday, September 23, 2017, 10 AM to 6 PM. Second Floor, K-State Student Union on the KSU campus in Manhattan, KS.
