Huh. I mean yeah this really does drive home how stupid the trope is (and fun fact if you can make something seem stupid just by reversing the genders then maybe reconsider using the trope in the first place)
But it’s also genuinely genius. Playing with cliches and established tropes like this is what makes things stand out. And sure this is parody and satire but it still works. Knowing how to utilize them or break them is half of creative work.
I could honestly see this tweaked slightly in either direction of either comedy or straight laced and be used in a film or for a character.
But again using a trope in and of itself is not a bad thing if done correctly.
Like. Okay example that’s not insultingly sexist
Audrey Rocio Ramirez from Atlantis: the Lost Empire. Is the chief mechanic for the expedition and is genuinely a great character the entire time. And she is basically a “girl who knows cars” trope character.
She is playfully violent. “Two for flinching.”
She’s stubborn. Was trying to cut through the chains until the last possible second.
Has an older sister who is in the running for Mid-weight Boxing Champion
She is the Heart of the Group. She is the first one who goes to stand by Milo. Which causes the rest of our ensemble cast to do so as well.
And this is the most important part to me, she Looks like an Engineer. In big blue overalls with thick working gloves and a newsboy hat. You believe she’d get into an engine, get covered in oil and grease, and swear up a storm because a gauge is broken or pipe is leaking in these big machines before she actually goes and does exactly that in the movie.
She is a character with motivations and allowed to be more than just girl who happens to know cars.
And it serves the point of the character in the movie because the writers wanted a diverse set of characters from different backgrounds and reasoning to be on the adventure to showcase how Milo isn’t much as much of a weirdo or loser as he thinks he is in the beginning of the movie and that he belongs there just as much as they do.
Vs an example that is blatantly sexist.
What’s her name from the Transformer movie.
I had to go look it up - Mikaela Banes.
Who is primarily there to be sex appeal.
Has one scene where she “fixes” Bumblebee but not really because he is a magic tech car who causes and fixes the problem himself. But is primarily used in that car commercial way where she stretches over the car and our main POV character leers at her.
I think she hot wires a truck to slam into a Decepticon? And that is the extent her “mechanic knowledge” is used as far as I remember.
And she has such important narrative weight that she is immediately replaced in the second or third movie by another actress and I and several others didn’t even notice.
But the writers wanted a girl for the audience and Sam to ogle at and that’s all she’s allowed to be.
You can use tropes and cliches to your advantage and create something memorable. Or you can be forgettable. Choose to be better and make a story interesting.
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