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TRON: Legacy.
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Disney's neon-infused sequel
to the 1982 classic
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includes a particularly egregious
example of a trope
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that has bothered me for years.
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"I'm Korra."
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It's a gendered convention
that will be instantly familiar
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to science fiction fans.
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The convention shows up
over and over again
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in speculative media,
but it didn't have a name.
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So I gave it one.
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I call it "Born Sexy Yesterday".
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"She's an ISO."
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The character of Korra is
an isomorphic algorithm, or ISO.
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Basically, she's a sentient computer
program in the shape of a woman.
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"She's the miracle, man."
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"Everything I've ever worked for."
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"A digital frontier
to reshape the human condition."
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As the last of the ISOs,
Korra is described in this way:
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"Profoundly naive."
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"Umimaginably wise."
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If that sounds vaguely like something
someone might say about a child,
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it's no accident.
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Because that's exactly how
TRON: Legacy portraits Korra.
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"But between you and me,
Jules Verne is my favorite."
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"Do you know Jules Verne?"
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"Sure."
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"What's he like?"
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She has the mind of a naive,
yet highly-skilled child,
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but in the body
of a mature, sexualized woman.
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She also serves as
our hero's love interest.
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"Profoundly naive, yet unimaginably wise"
captures the essence of this trope.
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"Born Yesterday" is an idiom meaning
extremely naive, inexperienced, or ignorant.
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"He thinks I'm too stupid, huh?"
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"Uh, no..."
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"He's right. I'm stupid and I like it."
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"You do?"
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"Sure! I'm happy. I get everything I want.
Two mink coats. Everything."
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"Activate it."
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As a media trope, Born Sexy Yesterday
has both the figurative,
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and in many cases, a literal meaning.
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The 1997 sci-fi cult classic
The Fifth Element
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is probably the most quintessensial
example of Born Sexy Yesterday.
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"I told you. Perfect."
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Like Korra, Leeloo is whimsical and naive.
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But she's also deliberately framed
in a sexualized way.
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"They really made her-"
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"Perfect. I know."
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The female characters
that this trope is built around
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are defined by their innocence of
and inexperience with worldly things.
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"Pretty!"
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Especially when it comes to sex, romance,
or basic social interaction.
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"Would you mind if I kiss you?"
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"Does it hurt?"
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Though the use of
science fiction conventions,
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they're brought into the human world
already fully formed.
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The mind of a child manifests
in a mature female body.
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She may be an android, a computer program,
a mermaid, an alien, a magical being,
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or otherwise raised in an environment
isolated from the rest of human society.
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Many of these female characters
have one very specific thing in common.
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They're all deliberately written to be
completely unaware of their own sex appeal.
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This stance provides filmmakers with
an excuse to include at least one scene
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in which she disrobes in front of men.
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And because she's so naive, she doesn't
understand the implication of this action.
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"Morning! Come on in."
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"Didn't bring my bathing suit."
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"What's a bathing suit?"
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"Ho oh, murder."
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And you might imagine, there's
quite a bit of overlap here
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"Oh, good morning Robert!"
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with the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope,
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"This is a magical room.
Where did the water come from?"
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"Uh, oh, well, the...
The water comes from the pipes."
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"Where did the pipes get it?"
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although characters who
were Born Sexy Yesterday
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are often highly skilled at something
that men will respect.
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Frequently, that thing is combat.
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Now, so far, we've only focused on the
female characters associated with this trope.
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But it isn't really about them.
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"That doorway spins."
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Like most things in Hollywood,
Born Sexy Yesterday is written for men.
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And ultimately, it's a relationship trope.
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"5'9".... blue eyes...
long legs... great skin..."
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"You know...
Perfect."
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So that means we need to talk
about the other side of the equation.
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The male heroes.
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Typically, he's a straight, red-blooded man
who has, for a variety of reasons,
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found himself alone,
or unsatisfied in love.
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He finds himself disenfranchised,
or otherwise directionless.
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He either can't find, or doesn't want,
a woman from his own world.
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A woman who might be his equal
in matters of love and sexuality.
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He does have one thing
going for him though.
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He knows all about living life
as a normal human being.
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"Too bad you don't eat food."
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"You might find it
to be quite pleasurable."
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"How do you get pleasure out of food?"
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"Here."
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"No, thank you."
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"If you want my secret,
you'll eat my sandwitch."
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Of course, so does
every other guy on Earth.
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Which should make him unremarkable.
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"Chew! Chew!"
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Except, to a woman Born Yesterday,
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because she's presumably
never known another man,
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he would seem like the smartest,
most amazing guy in the entire universe.
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"Mm, this is fun! What is it?"
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"Ham and cheese on rye with mayo."
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And here where we start to see how
the trope is constructed as a male fantasy.
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It's precisely her naivety
and her innocence
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that allows her to see
something special in him.
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Something that other less innocent
or more experienced women cannot.
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"System: normal. Estimated resuscitation
time: 600 seconds. Commencing countdown."
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Now we don't have time
to go into it here,
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but Born Sexy Yesterday is absolutely
everywhere in Japanese anime.
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Now I should note that Born Sexy Yesterday
is not a modern trope.
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In fact, it's been a fixture of
classic Hollywood science fiction films
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since the beginning of the genre.
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"This was intriguing."
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"I wonder just how far
women would permit this to go."
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"It's nothing really personal,
just a kiss."
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"Hmm. But why should people
want to kiss each other?"
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"It's an old custom."
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"All the really high civilizations
go in for it."
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"But it's so silly."
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"But it's good for you, though."
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"It stimulates the whole system."
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"As a matter of fact, you can't
be in tip-top health without it."
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"Really? I didn't know that."
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"I'd be only too happy to show you."
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"Well, thank you very much, Lieutenant."
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"No trouble at all."
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Forbidden Planet in 1956 is one example.
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The Time Machine in 1960 is another.
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"Well, what's your name?"
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"Weena."
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"Weena?"
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"How do you spell it?"
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"Spell?"
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"Spell! Write! Can't you write?"
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Then there's a character of Nova
from the original Planet of the Apes.
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"Look at that. I..."
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"I taught you to smile."
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who is the protagonist's love interest
despite not understanding
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the concept of language.
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The trope usually involves a white woman,
but Born Sexy Yesterday is an offshoot
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of a much older media convention.
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One in which white adventurers
discover indigenous women.
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Although in this case,
science fiction replaces colonialism
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as the mechanism driving that narrative.
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"Big... Bada big boom."
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"Big! Boom!"
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"Yeah, big badaboom."
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"Badaboom."
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"Big boom. Big badaboom."
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Still, sometimes it's a little of both.
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Born Sexy Yesterday fetishizes
the stark power imbalance
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between a wiser, more experienced man,
and a naive, inexperienced woman.
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It's the ultimate
teacher - student dynamic.
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"It's the custom of my people to
help one another when we're in trouble."
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Star Trek is famous for making
frequent use of this trope.
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Perhaps, "infamous" is a better word,
because the trope shows up
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in the original series, and then
in every other series afterwards.
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"And this.
Is this also helping?"
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"You could call it that."
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"Please, help me once again."
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"Let's start by doing something
different with your hair."
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Seven of Nine's relationship with
The Doctor on Star Trek: Voyager
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is a prominent example.
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Especially as depicted in the episode
Someone to Watch Over Me.
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"Try shaking your head a little bit."
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"Is this more appropriate?"
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Fans of that series will remember that
The Doctor's own social naivety
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is never framed by the show
as something sexy.
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"How shall I choose?"
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"I think you'd look very nice
in this one."
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"I am uncertain how to wear
such a garment. Assist me."
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"Oh, I, I, I'm sure you'll manage.
I'll go prepare the Holodeck."
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"Remember, the idea is
to have fun tonight."
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"I'll expect a full report
in the morning."
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Although Born Sexy Yesterday was
a major part of Seven's character,
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at least to begin with, she is ultimately
made much more than than that.
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And outside of a handful of
rather cringe-worthy episodes,
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Seven's story is largely one of
self-realization and self-discovery,
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which manages to transcend
the constraint of the trope.
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To a large degree, this is also true of a
character like Sonmi-451 from Cloud Atlas.
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Like Seven, her romantic relationship
is downplayed,
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while her character development
is made central.
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"Knowledge is a mirror.
And for the first time in my life,
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I was allowed to see who I was,
and who I might become."
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Which brings me to this point.
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The problem with this trope
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is not necessarily with
the female characters themselves.
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If these were simply stories involving
naive, extraterrestrial women
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who learn about love, and humanity,
then that wouldn't be an issue.
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Likewise, if the male hero was also
inexperienced, and our two protagonists
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could discover love and sex together,
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then that would avoid most
of the troubling power dynamic issues.
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"What's going on?"
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"We need to understand how it works."
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"What?"
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"This chip. This body."
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So for example, Cameron from
The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV show
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fits the trope.
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But her relationship
with the young John Connor
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is framed as much more
of a mutual exploration.
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Since Born Sexy Yesterday hinges
on a lopsided power dynamic,
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it almost never portraits
the other way around.
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It's extremely rare for
a more experienced female character
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to teach a naive man about sex.
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"I think I better go home now, Mary Sue."
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"Why?"
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"I think I might be... ill."
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"Something's happening to me."
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"That's supposed to happen."
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"It is?"
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"Yeah, trust me."
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"Wait, no, no. No!"
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"That's your dessert."
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"You eat that with forks."
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Perhaps that's because
most grown women don't find the idea
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of dating an inexperienced
adolescent boy all that appealing.
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"No, no, erm... Leave that last.
Sandwitch first, dessert last."
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On the rare occasions
when the genders are reversed,
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male ineptitude then becomes
the butt of the joke.
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"Hi. This is the woman from
the baseball card store. Remember me?"
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"Oh yes! Hi! Hello! Hot-diggity-dog!"
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"Thanks for calling me on the telephone."
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She may even end up falling for him.
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But she falls for him despite
his inexperience,
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not because of it.
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"Oh I'm so sorry!
I forgot about the autowash."
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Born Sexy Yesterday is about
an unbalanced relationship.
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But it's also very much
connected to masculinity.
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The subtext of the trope is the rooted
in a deep-seated male insecurity
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around sex and sexuality.
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The crux of the trope is a fixation
on male superiority.
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The fixation with holding power
over an innocent girl.
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But in order to make that
socially acceptable,
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science fiction is employed
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to put the mind of that girl into
a sexualized adult woman's body.
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It's a fantasy based on fear.
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Fear of women who are men's equals
in sexual experience and romantic history,
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and fear of losing
the intellectual upper hand to women.
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In Woody Allen's 1973 comedy Sleeper,
the protagonist is frozen,
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and when he wakes up in the future,
he's suddenly, and very conveniently,
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the only man left on Earth
who still remembers how to have sex.
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That same exact thing happens
to Stallone's character in Demolition Man.
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"Oh my."
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"Are all fluid transfer
activities like this?"
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"Better."
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"Better?"
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"Oh my."
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So Born Sexy Yesterday is
a science fiction trope
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that's designed specifically
so male heroes get to automatically be
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the most extraordinary man
in a woman's life,
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again, because they are basically the
only man to have ever been in her life.
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As such, the trope rests on
some troubling patriarchal ideas
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about female purity and virginity.
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By definition, characters Born Sexy
Yesterday have no past lovers,
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and no previous sexual experiences.
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She's framed as pure and innocent,
sexually and romantically,
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unchanged and uncorrupted
by the attention of other men.
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The male hero therefore avoids
even the possibility of being compared,
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of being judged, of not measuring up.
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At the end of the day,
this is a male fantasy
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about escaping the humiliation
and projection.
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Since he's the first and only man
in this woman's life,
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he gets to be the best by default.
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Which means he doesn't even have to try to
be a better partner, a better boyfriend,
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or a better lover.
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"That's what we call a kiss."
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Of course, the reality is that
life experience is a plus,
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and not a minus in relationships.
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And we need more media to reflex that.
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We need media where men enthusiastically
embrace women who are their equals.
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Equals in everything, including
in matters of love and sex.
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So to all you would-be
science fiction writers out there,
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I'll leave you with this.
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Innocence is not sexy.
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Knowledge and experience,
on the other hand,
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now that, that's extremely sexy.
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related to media and manhood,
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