The trope that bothers me is when they make the single minority character also the lead female character and also the gay/bisexual character.
Conveniently squeezing all the required diversity into one convenient character.
As always, no such thing as a bisexual man.
Yep! Extra points if she’s not white
That was what I meant by “Minority”
Ahhh sorry Delphia missed the word in your comment
They don’t often show people scavenging toilet paper or toothbrushes either, it’s just something they skip, not necessarily people not knowing how to write women
Sure ok but if they made movies with stats without make up and hairy legs and gross teeth, all about finding hygiene products in post apocalyptic society… not many people world watch it.
There was a really good Swedish detective true crime drama with the lead female detective or anyone wearing makeup. Yeah they looked wrinky as shit, and yeah they still looked beautiful. It gave the show an open honest feel.
Hairy legs can be bypassed by just having a scene showing a little normal leg hair from time to time with shaved legs from time to time. The audience will figure it out.
Gross teeth I’m not sure what you mean by this. Yes they won’t have perfect american overly whitened tictacs, but have you never met someone with dull crooked teeth and still thought they were still pretty?
I would.
I might be wrong and I’m happy to be corrected here. Isn’t it possible to stop getting your period because of high stress on your body? I would guess living through a post-apocalyptic situation might merit that level of stress. But I could be wrong; I have a pretty cushy life all things considered so it’s not like I have direct experience with this kind of thing.
Humans lived in an environment similar to a post apocalyptic situation for 1000s of years and still reproduced just fine. I’m not saying it isn’t a thing at all, but I don’t think it would be common or widespread.
I’m not an expert either but yeah stress and poor nutrition can mess up your cycle but I don’t think indefinitely.
As in, you might not have a period for several months but sooner or later your endometrium will shed.
Endometrium shedding and taxes, like I always say.
I feel part of the reason pads are discluded would be the same reason taking a shit is. It’s basic function that adds nothing of plot or interest if included, unless it was an actual plot device. Like bears that are attracted to periods. The other tropes though I agree with, and have commented on previously when watching movies. Even non-apocalyptic when women wake up in bed with perfect hair and makeup makes me laugh.
Hi Bosht thanks so much for your interest! It’s a women’s only sub so I’ve had to politely ban you. Have a great week!
That’s fucking ridiculous.
Ban me too then 🙏Posting a meme about how women should be more understood, then banning men for participation and interest. Stupidity.
Thanks for your comment and all the best 😊
Tbf the jackets are usually oversized but the rest is true
I recently got one of those IPL hair removal machines. Hopefully it’ll remove body hair permanently 🤞
(realistically it’ll get rid of most of it, and grow back slower)
That also bothered me about LOST. Well, that and the fact that the obese character stayed just a obese while being stranded on an island on a fish and fruit diet.
I guess we have to watch people take a shit too, every episode.
I only disagree with the middle comment. You can see the image I linked OP it’s fucking exactly the complaint here lmao.
While all of it makes little sense in movies, short hair doesn’t. Reason why military cuts hair short is so your hair doesn’t get tangled in trees, bushes or fences, compromising you. It’s really of practical nature. But given how many cockups they make elsewhere in movies, I don’t think they were going for that kind of realism.
Either short cut hair, or at the very least, done up in a very tight bun, or fairly short ponytail or braids or cornrows or something.
As you say, tangling with the environment or your gear… in a hand to hand fight, you do not want hair that can be pulled or wrapped up, you don’t want long hair getting in the way of reloading a gun, longer bangs blocking your view through binocs or iron sights or a scope…
Also… for tampons and pads…?
The ‘old ways’:
Lint wrapped around wood. Knotted ropes. Papyrus. Paper. Moss. Animal skins.
These were all used before the tampons and pads, with some more … unique solutions beginning to be mass produced in the late 1800s, eventually leading to modern tampons and pads.
So… I guess uh, assuming a post apocalyptic woman’s ‘survival’ stat is high enough, presumably they would return to much more locally sourceable, less complex to produce, decent enough solutions, after the last box of tampons gets looted from the last dilapidated Walgreens.
So… if your character is a postapoc woman badass… you could just add this into your own headcannon as an explanation, of sorts.
… I wonder how many post apocalyptic movies pass the Bechdel test lol.
EDIT: Going a bit further, and arguably off topic…
Common ammunition calibers, cigarettes, condoms, and possibly bandage/compress packs, tampons/pads, bic lighters… maybe also small sewing needle kits?.. would be pretty good candidates as physical commodity psuedo-currencies…
Basically for the reason that they are small, light, easily transportable, roughly standardized, are generally durable if stored properly… and are no longer in mass production… and basically everyone would either directly have practical use for them or know someone who does.
Bottlecaps as a currency would represent some level of general social cohesion beyond and above that, lol.
EDIT 2: … having long hair could …probably become something of a status symbol, as it would only really make sense if you were not roughing it all the time.
Men would also presumably keep their hair and beards short generally as well, and longer hair/beards could also become something of a status symbol as well.
Bottlecaps as a currency would represent some level of general social cohesion beyond and above that, lol.
Yep. Currency is usually backed by something, like the US dollar used to be backed by their gold reserves, caps in the wastes are backed by The Hub and its Water Merchants.
As I understand it… this is somewhat theoretical, and somewhat backed by fairly scant historical, prehistorical/anthropological data…
Caps, being accepted … broadly, regionally… implies, as you say, the infrastructure of The Hub’s water merchants and traders.
This would be a greater level of … general social cohesion and trust… because the caps, a cap itself… is not really a directly useful commodity in and of itself.
Cigs and tampons and condoms… things like these often naturally arise as psuedo currencies in situations like prisons, PoW camps… and part of the theory on why that seems to fairly consistently happen is that, in addition to having other attributes of a good money, a good currency… is that they do have a generally applicable direct use as an actual good.
So basically, the more inherent trust and level of technological development in society… the more likely you are to find that society with a currency/money that is further removed from being a directly useful or consumable good.
There are a good number of historical exceptions to this though, so… just a theory hehe.
Nah it’s pretty well proven I think, barter and trade has always been an informal method of…well…barter and trade lol, when currency can’t be used for some reason (like prison, or trading rifles for land from the Native Americans, etc, many examples throughout history). Sure there’s exceptions, but I’d call it common enough that it’s true, personally anyway.
The problem is it doesn’t scale well, eventually it gets to the point where you need bullets and have chickens but the bullet guy has chickens too and he needs more lead for casting and brass to reload, so you have to go find out what the lead and brass guys want, and it becomes a whole thing, where having something as an abstraction of value means we can all just get what we want easier. That and you eat/smoke/drink/consume your “money” somehow by necessity if it’s usable goods, or it rots etc, whereas if there’s an abstraction of value that is only used for that purpose it’s easier to save, transport, etc. It’s absolutely human nature to use trade/barter when money isn’t an option, but due to all that bullshit that comes with barter, money eventually gets reinvented by society because it’s just so handy, like The Hub using caps backed by water.
Everything you’ve said is generally true, but I say… not 100% or confirmed or without exception…
Because we keep finding exceptions.
Some cultures… actually do seem to have skipped the commodity-currency phase, and gone straight to things like specific shells, or beads, or something else that has no practical utility.
Some other cultures just… didn’t do currency. Basically at all. Gift economies, handled by frequent communal sharing events and/or parties/feasts/festivals.
You’ve got things like tally sticks, though those are ultimately backed by a formal social structure… they dynamics of how they work as currency is significantly different than most others.
I didn’t want to sound too certain about it because I’ve already made jokes about evo-psych in this thread.
A lot of economists like to project their modern worldviews backward, and are then slapped in the face by anthropologists/ancient historians/archaelogists, telling them the actual evidence shows that economist’s thought experiments are often overly simplistic, lack nuance, and functionally try to cram a limited framework onto what increasingly seems to have been a much more diverse and varied, and localized and unique actual human history.
Also I think beard hair is not permitted in military due to gas masks needing to have a good seal so perhaps it would he a good reason for not having long hair as well
This is something I’ve always found a bit perplexing - US female combat troops often have long hair, which they keep up and tight while working.
Both me and my other half often do physical work (I’m a volunteer firefighter, she does arbourist work on the side) and neither of us can stand having long hair … if I were doing military work, I can’t imagine how needlessly uncomfortable that long hair is!
Same goes for women MMA fighters.
In other news, my other half looks like Sinead O’Connor when she shaves her hair, while I look more like a Gulag escapee for some reason … so I have to live with a pixie cut or longer.
The Expanse has the justification of it meaning that they don’t have to deal with representing long hair in microgravity situations, but they still have variety like Camina Drummer’s ultra-tight braids and Naomi’s curls which solve the problem without everyone having a crew cut
In universe, short hair also makes sense in zero gravity. James S A Corey are just on another level when it comes to such details both in the show and in the books. They actually talk about female hygiene products in The Mercy of Gods.
Man, Cara Gee, the actress that plays Drummer is just so stunning. Aside from her being so much my type, I enjoyed her portrayal of the character. Very commanding on screen presence.
I absolutely love basically every scene she’s in. Especially with how much she committed to the Belter accent
Same. Swoooooon much.
She’s the definition of perfect casting. I also liked how they just kept extending her role because Cara Gee is so good. Drummer’s role in the books is much smaller
same same
Fa sho, beltalowda
Reason why military cuts hair short is so your hair doesn’t get tangled in trees, bushes or fences, compromising you. It’s really of practical nature
Also gas masks really don’t seal that well with too much hair in the way.
Yep i agree! In movies it’s a way to make a woman look strong, because obviously a man’s haircut gives us some of the magical powers of a man.
a man’s haircut
That’s a little sexist. I also completely disagree. Short hair, especially in a military setting, is not about a borrowed appearance of strength, but utility and competence. Early episodes of Stargate SG-1 had some infamously awful commentary about emancipation, but Carter’s (Amanda Tapping) short haircut never compromised her femininity: she wore it like that because she was a frontline soldier and accomplished USAF pilot, and that’s what the circumstances demanded. It would have been weird and against her character to participate in missions with long hair.
Just for fun, this is the “”“improved”“” scene where Carter is introduced, without the part where she talks about her reproductive organs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gR-ouftevE
I think that’s what OP is getting at, that this attitude of “male” haircuts has been used in such a way. They’re not defending it, they’re pointing it out, alongside military doctrine.
Unless I can’t read…?
Yep that’s what I meant
Apologies I should have put an eyeroll or something to indicate tone. What I was getting at is that it’s seen as a man’s haircut so that’s why it’s given to the character.
I still firmly disagree with that point. Maybe it’s just a cultural thing that I’m not getting. I’ve never seen short hair as exclusive to men (other than as a result of male pattern balding because that’s just a weird thing the human body does), nor think that it makes women look masculine. I know and have known plenty of women with short hair and men with long hair, and never thought it anything other than a stylistic choice (barring other practical considerations).
OK thanks for giving me your perspective
The zero body hair always gets me. “Oh god, zombies! Pass me my razor I need to do my legs, underarms and of course my bikini line”
I’ll do you one better!
I’ve extracted and manipulated certain glandular fluids from zombie corpses, experimented… and found that it actually topically removes hair, permanently!
I call it… Ozombic.
… Eh? Eh?
I love it!! You may have the last known tube of toothpaste as a reward. In post apocalyptic society that’s a great honour
… Could I perhaps be allowed back into your community to occasionally discuss women’s fashion instead?
(puppy eyes)
Do you wanna dm me? I’m not sure what you mean
2 tbsp coconut oil 1 tbsp baking soda 15-20 drops of organic peppermint essential oilYou’re welcome.
Not a movie, but Dying Light 1 made my friend group giggle seeing this NPC quest giver:
Edit: Zombie Apocalypse is the context I should’ve mentioned.
Honestly so lucky that they had all those laser hair removal sessions a year before the world ended 🤭
Absolutely! Even luckier than having a neverending supply of entirely smudge proof make up
It’s simply survivorship bias. The only women who survive these situations long enough to get a movie are the ones who have short hair on their heads, no visible body hair, and makeup somehow welded to their faces. It’s probably quantum, or something.
… ‘quantum evolutionary psychological natural selection theory’ implies that women will naturally evolve… makeup excreting facial glands.
rofl
It’s the only possible explanation for all those future documentaries we’ve seen. Occams razor and all that. Mens’ beards also undergo some sort of evolutionary change that causes them to stop growing at the ‘ruggedly manly’ length, rather than just keeping on going to ‘a bird could, and may be, nesting in it.’
Post Apocalyptic Male Evolutionary Convergence End Point:
I am genuinely not sure if this is viral marketing for The Last of Us or not.
🤷 Didn’t they have a whole scene in the first season where Ellie was trying to discretely get a box of tampons in a store Joel stashed stuff in? And uhh, things got out of hand? I could be misremembering.
That said, if it doesn’t bring anything to the story, why bother with it? You rarely see people go to the bathroom in movies/shows regardless of the setting.
Just rewatched that episode. She goes into the cellar of a convenience store and finds a trapped zombie and cuts into its skin, then comes out with a box of tampons. Nothing really too crazy happens even though they make you think it will.
The scene is pretty much 1 to 1 with the game though.
Does have to add to the story/Plot, could be for flavor plus its a TV show so no issue of limited runtime or a chore to get through like a book
