When, if ever, can we use stereotypes in our stories and jokes?

[MyBareTorso]

Full disclosure: I write whatever stereotypes turn me on. Hot MILFs; sexy Latinas; comely (eight)teens; drunken Irish party girls; prim Indians; brash Americans (sorry)... they're certainly not designed to offend, and I always hope to add in a little something interesting, but in porn, I just find certain stereotypes highly arousing. As my stories are simply my sexual fantasies in print, it's just part of the deal...

 

[AG31]

Full disclosure: I write whatever stereotypes turn me on. Hot MILFs; sexy Latinas; comely (eight)teens; drunken Irish party girls; prim Indians; brash Americans (sorry)... they're certainly not designed to offend, and I always hope to add in a little something interesting, but in porn, I just find certain stereotypes highly arousing. As my stories are simply my sexual fantasies in print, it's just part of the deal...

And I do love your unabashed exuberance.

 

[EmilyMiller]

But I do love Em's idea of flipping it.

My she-demon / angel couple, Emma & Lily, both have superhuman strength. But it is Lily, mild, innocent-seeming Lily, who is the stronger. Emma just talks a good game.

I had fun with a female friend of theirs throwing guys around a room in a recent 750er.

Of course there is a debt to Buffy and River Tam here.

Emily

 

[EmilyMiller]

[..] brash Americans (sorry)...

How about rash Americans? I have eczema .

Emily

 

[EmilyMiller]

When, if ever, can we use stereotypes in our stories and jokes?​

My first attempt at anything other than a simple stroke story was called Fragile. It’s actually about a lot of different things, but a theme of stereotypes runs through it.

It’s the story that showed me that I could actually write a little bit.

Pertinent to the other thread you mention, it was my first attempt to write a male narrator.

Emily

 

[AchtungNight]

Times they are a changin, though. Anymore it's the gay cop that's the stereotype.

I've known cops of all sexual orientations. Comes from having worked in the business.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I’m kinda thinking of stealing Whedon’s Dollhouse idea (and keeping the original sex theme that I assume the network got him to drop). Instead of Dolls, there can be an undercover corps of girls called Emilies. Who can be programmed to fulfil any role.

Sounds like my kinda story.

Emily

 

[EmilyMiller]

I've known cops of all sexual orientations. Comes from having worked in the business.

The only cop I know is a retired family member. He always has the best fireworks on Fourth July.

Emily

 

[AchtungNight]

I’m kinda thinking of stealing Whedon’s Dollhouse idea (and keeping the original sex theme that I assume the network got him to drop). Instead of Dolls, there can be an undercover corps of girls called Emilies. Who can be programmed to fulfil any role.

Sounds like my kinda story.

Emily

My advice is to make them actual androids rather than humans and not allow forced reprogramming when it’s not wanted by the characters. I think that was the problem most people had with the concept. That and Whedon’s tendency to be just plain unnecessarily rude to his characters and employees.

 

[EmilyMiller]

My advice is to make them actual androids rather than humans and not allow forced reprogramming when it’s not wanted by the characters. I think that was the problem most people had with the concept. That and Whedon’s tendency to be just plain unnecessarily rude to his characters and employees.

Leaving Whedon’s personal behavior to one side. Dollhouse embodied another trope: that women have to be programmed to enjoy sex. It’s the Madonna / Whore thing. Only a woman paid to be “dirty” will fully please a man, will know the special “tricks.” Women will only do certain things if paid / coerced / mentally controlled. It’s BS of course.

My idea would be that the Emilies would have massively high libidos, but given specific “skills” for each mission, which would enable them to get off more, or do something they hadn’t tried before. The missions would be as much about them exploring sexually as gratifying a client. Indeed it might not be clients, but regular guys and gals that they pair with.

So the Emilies are not playthings, the people they “target” are.

Needs some thinking through.

Emily

 

[TheRedChamber]

A few days ago I got all smiley feeling as I watched a father having breakfast with a quite young toddler. I got visions of little tiny people having complete control over big tall executive types. The competent man not quite sure of how things worked, at least not like the mommy would be. It was heart warming and I entertained the idea of writing a post about it, perhaps in a different news group.

But then I stopped. I couldn't write such a little essay, because it would be stereotyping. Certainly lots if executive type dads are perfectly at home taking care of their toddler. Often way better acclimated than the mom.

I'll admit this stereotype annoys me. The worst offender probably being The Incredibles 2 where 'Superman' dad is thoroughly exhausted by one night looking after the same three kids he's been raising for years (Not that raising kids isn't exhausting.)

But it was such a smiley scene! And I thought about other stereotypes that I like to think have provided fun without much harm. The dumb blond. The hovering Jewish mother. The prim librarian. I suppose they have caused distress, but does that always trump fun? I think someone has observed that puns are the only kind of joke that don't involve putting someone down.

When, if ever, can we use stereotypes in our stories and jokes?

I think you should think more in terms of archetypes rather than stereotypes. Especially when we're writing short stories it sometimes helps to start with some shorthand that implies characteristics in the mind of the reader and then start filling in a more unique personality once your story gets underway.

People like the prim librarian (by people I mean me, although I'm actually more 'slightly hippy librarian') so start a story there and then see who she is once you take her out of the library.

(Alternatively, flip it around and have the librarian gossip, very quietly but at great length, with everyone who comes in and give her an encyclopedic knowledge of the dirty bits of every romance novel in the library...wait, plot bunny, be right back...)

For what it's worth, I've currently got a story sitting in draft about a guy returning to his hometown after some success in life who suddenly realizes that he can now date the 'dumb blonde' from school. I'm still feeling out exactly where to go with it, but it is going to try and make the blonde a proper character (and, no it's not going to go with the 'she actually really smart in her own way' trope - I've already done that)

 

[AchtungNight]

Don’t get me started on the whole Madonna/whore crap. I don’t like it either, to say the least.

 

[Bramblethorn]

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en

"...the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story."

 

[Britva415]

That’s a fake name

Spelled wrong, anyway. It should always be either "Meegan" or "Meggan" so there's no doubt about how to pronounce it.

I know both, but it seems shocking to people who only know one or the other that there's more than one way to say it.

And, no, spelling it with an H does not help.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Do it. Make the stereotypes, make the jokes.

As far as Emilies go; I only ever knew and met one. 4th grade. She was a blonde and we were friends briefly. Hope your ears are burnin' miss Mcbride.

 

[AchtungNight]

Women I know with the name usually pronounce it May-gan.

 

[LadyLibido]

Technically speaking, you can write whatever you want. That being said, anything you write will have consequences, some good, some bad. Writing careless stereotypes with no regard will get you people that want/lean into those stereotypes, and alienate those that do not want them, possibly even upset depending on the framing. If you are fine with that outcome, then that's your choice. But if that's not what you want, if you want to intriguing and provocative in ways that do not invoke stereotypes, then do that. Take perceived conventions and turn them on their head, buck the stereotype for fun.

There are plenty of stereotypes for women in porn that I detest, and I simply leave if they're present, I won't waste my time on a comment just because I didn't like something. My life isn't going to change by convincing someone to not write those things and I don't have to stick around for it. But I can also be frustrated at the pervasiveness of the stereotype, and the act of people being upset that a stereotype existing isn't always a call for everyone else to stop writing the thing, it's a lonely wish that there was more of what you are looking for and not wanting to 'settle' for the same thing over and over again.

If you want to write the stereotype, then do it. If you want to experiment and buck trends and explore new options, then do that. Writing, like all creative outlets, should be a mode of expression, whatever that means to the individual. If you're not writing for a challenge or assignment, why wring your hands over what you can or cannot write and write things you're ultimately unhappy with, stressed by, or lock yourself into not writing at all? At the end of the day the only thing that REALLY matters, is treating real living people like individuals and not stereotypes. If you already do that, who really cares if the fiction you write is loaded with stereotypes.