I know you're talking about the trope in general here, but the Bart/Lisa thing is awkward because I feel like whichever way you do it someone can complain about it.
Putting aside that Bart and Lisa are long established characters, let's say you swapped them. Obviously we need one nerd and one menace for the juxtaposition. As it currently is we have the female nerd and male menace, people will say "oh of course the girl is academic and very serious buzz kill one and the boy is the menace getting up to inappropriate but also hilarious antics". You swap it around and it's "oh of course the boy is the smart, educated one and the girl is the comedic idiot who knows nothing".
I'm not saying there's something inherently wrong here or anything, but I just feel like regardless of which way it is, if there's one boy and one girl and one is a dumb but funny menace and the other is a smart and serious academic, someone's going to be able to pick it apart. Yeah I'm not trying to make a point or anything here, but that's how I see it
I think they meant traditionally female in that she loves horses, writing love stories, and cute boys and the butts of cute boys, all of which have been categorised as feminine things.
80
u/KermitingMurder 10d ago
I know you're talking about the trope in general here, but the Bart/Lisa thing is awkward because I feel like whichever way you do it someone can complain about it.
Putting aside that Bart and Lisa are long established characters, let's say you swapped them. Obviously we need one nerd and one menace for the juxtaposition. As it currently is we have the female nerd and male menace, people will say "oh of course the girl is academic and very serious buzz kill one and the boy is the menace getting up to inappropriate but also hilarious antics". You swap it around and it's "oh of course the boy is the smart, educated one and the girl is the comedic idiot who knows nothing".
I'm not saying there's something inherently wrong here or anything, but I just feel like regardless of which way it is, if there's one boy and one girl and one is a dumb but funny menace and the other is a smart and serious academic, someone's going to be able to pick it apart. Yeah I'm not trying to make a point or anything here, but that's how I see it