I can't imagine how many times I've read a book/seen a movie which follows this plot: the protagonist is both unpopular and beautiful and has a crush on Mr Charming Pants who just happens to be the most popular guy in the school. PLOT TWIST--he's dating the bitchiest and, of course, the 'sluttiest' girl who has a personal vendetta against the protagonist. Bonus points if she's a cheerleader. I'm sure that everyone has something in mind when they hear this plot, and that each person is probably thinking of a different story.
There are so many things fundamentally wrong with that. For example, if Mr Charming Pants is kind, sensitive and supposedly holier than thou, why is he dating the school bully? If it's because she's actually nice when you get to know her, why isn't the reader shown this different side of her? Charming Pants always says she's not that bad when she's on her own or just give her a chance (seriously these lines are in everything) but the reader is hardly ever presented with someone three dimensional.
And if this girl is a bully, Charming Pants must know about this. I'm sorry, no matter how hot or 'nice' he is to the protagonist, he can't be such a saint if he's sympathising with a bully. Why is he still with her? Maybe he's using her for his popularity.
If the author wants to make this girl an antagonist because she is a bully, that's just dandy. Bullying is a serious issue that should be addressed. However, my problem is when the most unredeemable quality about this girl is that she is a slut. Supposedly. Notice how there are a handful of stories where the male love interest is a bit of a player, but over the course of the story he changes so he can be with the heroine. That's totally fine, because Mr Bad Boy (cringe) is charming and hot. When you change the gender around, Miss Bad Girl would be labelled as manipulative or, wait for it, slutty.
I know there are examples that go against this, but I'm talking generally here. Bear with me.
There is a ridiculous notion that having and enjoying sex makes women sluts. It isn't as common with men, and as soon as a female character is sexualised she gets degraded. Why do men get congratulated when they sleep with someone but women get judged?
Ugh ugh ugh... no.
When a girl I know slept with her boyfriend for the first time, people called her slutty, yet they said her boyfriend was a lad. If it's completely consensual/legal, both parties have equal part in it. That means that if he's not a slut, neither is she. And just for the record, how on earth is sleeping with someone you're in a relationship slutty?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this only applies to women and that men are devil worshiping, misogynistic monsters. Aside from slut shaming, one of the things that bothers me most is man hating. I'm just saying that it happens more frequently to women. That doesn't mean that these problems don't matter to both genders. In some instances, stereotypes are worse with men. Whilst it's getting increasingly more acceptable for women to have jobs which were previously considered 'mens' jobs, a man who wants to become a beautician, for example, is probably going to either be called gay (which is NOT an insult, fyi) or just laughed at. That's a post for a whole other day. As you can tell I have a lot of thoughts.
Equally, girls get insulted for being 'frigid. I hate that word with a passion. Sorry, just because I don't want to make out with you it doesn't make me frigid. It means I don't want to make out with you. It's as if there isn't a happy medium. Actually, I think that this is just as much as a problem for men. I haven't heard of them being called frigid as much, but I think there's a lot of pressure for boys amongst peers to lose their virginity, maybe even more so than girls. I'm not entirely sure but this is just... ugh.
Daniel Radcliffe knows what's what, though. This article is brilliant.
So what if someone has sex and so what if they don't? It doesn't make them a slut and it certainly doesn't make them frigid, either. If it really bothers you that much you should take advice from this and apply it to the context:
"Mr. Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business."*
On another note, I saw Cinderella last Saturday and I can't stop listening to this. It's just so sweet.
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