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Baby Got Backstory - A trope creation thread

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Several of us in another thread were kind of derailing it with talk about whether or not a trope existed. Unable to find one, we started to draft our own, and miffy delivered the perfect name:

 

Sorry I'm a bit late to this, but c'mon guys. It's obviously "Baby Got Backstory".

 

:clap: :clap: :clap:

 

So, Baby Got Backstory is when creators use backstory or other explanations primarily to justify the hypersexualized design of a character in-world.  It's particularly obvious if the sexualized design matches modern beauty standards even if it's in a fantasy or sci-fi setting that could easily have radically different standards for attractiveness.  (Feel free to disagree or edit, I'm just trying to provide a baseline)

A good rule of thumb to identify it would be exactly what started this conversation. Person A says the hypersexual design of a character feels out of place. Person B replies, "Yeah, but it's because XYZ." Person C points out that a spade is still a spade, and a convoluted backstory doesn't exempt the design from really just being about having a super sexy design.

 

I was going to spoiler all the original posts from the thread, but it won't let me have that many quote boxes in one post. Just click the link above and it's at the start of the discussion.

 

So, does this exist?  Did we miss something obvious searching?

 

Also, anyone on here have a TVTropes account that can create new articles?  You can always make a burner Thumbs account if you don't want to admit to us that you have this power. 

 

Possible examples that several people identified (I'm not claiming any of these do or don't fit the trope, just ones people threw out as possibilities)

 

Mass Effect is full of them:

  • Edi - In ME, robots tend to follow a very form=function design philosophy.  So in order for Edi to have the rockin' sexy body she does, Cerberus has to design a sexy fembot to infiltrate a research facility.  The fembot is then captured by Shepard.  And when Edi examines the body, she gets into a force of will contest with the resident AI, which results in her gaining control of her new, sexy body. 
  • Miranda - Genetically engineered to be "perfect", this includes her physical appearance.  (Miffy)
  • Asari - An entire species of attractive, pansexual people who look female who will procreate with any species.  Naturally attracted to erotic dancing during their "Maiden" stage of development.   (SuperBiasedMan)
Bayonnetta
  • Bayonnetta - Has magic that is powered by her hair which is also her clothing, which steadily uncovers her more and more as she uses her powers.
One Piece
  • Twig pointed out the tendency in some animes to justify a characters increasing sexualized design simply because that character is aging, like breast size increasing 1000 percent.  (Twig)
Knights of Sidonia
  • The humans are able to photosynthesize (except for the main character because he isn't part of the genetically engineered crop, so to speak), which gives the anime an excuse to showcase lots of naked ladies. Not one naked dude in sight ever, though. (Ozzie)
Farscape
  • Like KoS above, does something similar with Zhaan, and she can actually "photogasm" from light.  But, she's also a sentient plant and her plantness is something pretty core to the character design that would have existed with or without the photogasming.  Worth mentioning though
Jesica Rabbit
  • "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way." (SuperBiasedMan)

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This is an excellent way to respond to all the tedious, pedantic technicalities that sexists will rely on to deny misogyny in media, as though a contextual rationalization for one portrayal undermines the entire argument - which you run up against a lot on NeoGAF, etc. I'd love to contribute to this list as examples occur to me; for now, what comes to mind and is most dear to my heart isn't yet a totally known quantity, only a promise that once Metal Gear Solid V is out and whatever nonsense excuse for Quiet's appearance is canon, those of us who took issue with it will be ashamed of our words and deeds.

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Those Mass Effect examples made me feel really skeezy when I played the game. I would include all the different ways Joss Wheddon invents to include totally happy and content or brainless prostitutes in his shows.

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Maybe this trope needs to be more focused on the plot justification of hypersexualized characters who's reason for existence is primarily to titillate. Right now it seems kind of scatter shot and maybe a little pearl clutchy. Like, Zhaan's sexuality is pretty important to her character and she exists on a show with a ton of other good female characters, Jessica Rabbit is a deliberate subversion of the sexy noir femme fatale but Nami's tits are twice the size of her head because

  :naughty: ... I mean, she's getting older. 

 

Starfire from DC's New 52 is a perfect fit, I think.

 

The Borg Queen from Star Trek:TNG probably belongs as well. 

 

However, I think ME's Miranda is a borderline case since it's actually pretty important to her character from the word go, but the way the camera ogles her probably pushes her over the edge. EDI's story is totally a flimsy excuse to have a sexy fembot tho. 

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Oh and how about Mystique in Xmen? Always naked because she's a shapeshifter.

Despite the fact that Mystique can shapeshift into someone wearing clothes.

 

Maybe this trope needs to be more focused on the plot justification of hypersexualized characters who's reason for existence is primarily to titillate. Right now it seems kind of scatter shot and maybe a little pearl clutchy. Like, Zhaan's sexuality is pretty important to her character and she exists on a show with a ton of other good female characters, Jessica Rabbit is a deliberate subversion of the sexy noir femme fatale but Nami's tits are twice the size of her head because

  :naughty: ... I mean, she's getting older. 

The thing is, the point of this was not that the excuses were poorly formed, it's that people are perpetuating similar beauty ideals and oversexualisation over and over and then using plot to justify it. Like any criticism of sexism, it's not an inherent damning of the work as bad, but it's calling out a way in which the work continues the sexualisation of women but contains a backstory intended to explain the design and make it 'acceptable' as a result.

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Is it possible for a female character to be justifiably sexy if her sexiness is conventional? If not, this trope will just get flooded with literally 99% of media. 

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Kill la Kill's entire premise is (and this is veering into spoiler territory, so I'll spoiler it i guess? no one who hasn't seen it likely cares though... also it's... well here)

that clothing has been coopted by evil world-conquering aliens and some people have used said aliens' powers to make super clothes that give people super powers. There's an entire faction of rebels calling themselves Nudist Beach who refuse to wear clothes. And then there's the super clothes that often, when activated, actually REDUCE the amount of skin covered, especially around the Sexy Spots.

 

And yeah I'm serious that's the anime. From an outside perspective, it's totally cringe-worthy, but it sort of makes sense in the context of Anime... i don't know why I'm trying to defend it - it is what it is... anyway yes.


 

I would include all the different ways Joss Wheddon invents to include totally happy and content or brainless prostitutes in his shows.

 
So all of Dollhouse? I can agree with that stuff being dumb, but I'm not so sure it fits this trope as we've laid it out.

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Kill la Kill is the perfect example of something that probably shouldn't be included in this trope even though it seems like it will be. 

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Kill la Kill is aggressively and unapologetically this trope. It comes off somewhat differently because they're so transparent about it (and because the trope is also its entire premise), but at a fundamental level it definitely applies.

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Kill la Kill definitely counts:

they justify the stripperific outfits by deciding that their alien clothing is dangerous if it's able to touch too much of the skin. Somehow this doesn't apply to the thighhighs and arms, though.

 

Anyway, if Kill la Kill isn't this trope, we need to define the trope more precisely.

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Yes, Reyturner, I had brought that up in the original conversation. Wasn't sure if we should be focusing only on body or also on outfit. Bayonetta was my original concern in that regard, but since it was still in that list up there, I figured KlK was fair game.

 

EDIT: Guys he's not saying KlK isn't guilty of a sexualization trope; he's just saying it maybe doesn't belong in the same category as Mirana's Ass. I'm inclined to agree, but also at the same time, maybe we should group them together until we have enough examples of BOTH types of tropes to make TWO!

 

My professional opinion.

 

EDIT EDIT: Well I actually went back and reread Reyturner's original post and now I'm not so sure what he's saying is what I said above. But I still stand by what I said above.

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This is my understanding:

 

Female characters can be sexualised it's not inherently bad or wrong.

If the writers feel the need to explain to the audience why they're allowed make the character sexualised (as opposed to just having the character look that way and not addressing it very much), then they're subject to this trope.

 

Each example is not necessarily bad but the fact that the trend exists points towards an intention to justify retaining sexist design choices rather than responding to social criticism with an actual change and development.

 

This would be a pretty broad trope, but frankly I thought that was part of the point? People in the previous thread remarked how surprised they were it wasn't a pre-existing TVTropes page since we immediately had a good few examples.

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I think a lot of it is about how extreme the lengths are the writers go through to justify the character showing skin or being super hot or whatever and how that actually holds up under scrutiny, adds to the story, or is at all necessary. Take EDI for example. Her body was originally designed to pass off as human, so why does it have giant metal boobs? I feel pervy for saying this but if anyone ever touched them, even just from bumping into her, there'd be some questions or at least weird looks. And why does she have high heels built into her feet? The whole thing is stupid. Miranda, on the other hand, was designed by her shitty dad. I think her body and her attitude about it and him are kind of interesting. Now the fact that the camera gets all male-gazey on her is another issue...

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I don't think how good the justification for sexualization is should have any weight in whether or not a trope qualifies. A trope is a trope, whether well done or not.

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So the trope is the presence of suspiciously exculpatory details included seemingly only to exonerate the author? Not just that there is a sexy character and that sexiness is a part of their backstory / overall plot. I think that's focused enough to be interesting.

In that case, I'd agree that Kill la Kill belongs, because they do go out of their way to pointlessly justify the sexy uniforms as Merus mentioned above. Do they do that in Bayonetta tho? Borg Queen is a sexist trope but I don't think they try to justify it in fiction so she wouldn't be included here?

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So the trope is the presence of suspiciously exculpatory details included seemingly only to exonerate the author? Not just that there is a sexy character and that sexiness is a part of their backstory / overall plot.

 

This might be the only definition where the venn diagram of this trope and simply "having a sexualized character design" isn't dangerously close to full overlap. I'd put it as having "a backstory that serves to legitimize a sexualized design" within the context of the fiction, and that the reason given isn't "because it's hot" (which is the real-world reason or course).

 

I agree, Bayonetta wouldn't qualify for the same reason a porno wouldn't. Unless there's some sort of "power of libido" conceit that I'm unaware of, Bayonetta's powers work the way they do because "it's hot" and I don't think it's ever argued otherwise.

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So all of Dollhouse? I can agree with that stuff being dumb, but I'm not so sure it fits this trope as we've laid it out.

 

Dollhouse most obviously, but Firefly has a character whose backstory is constructed entirely to create circumstances in the fiction in which buying sex is not morally suspect but taking part in some noble tradition. Sci-Fi is full of these well-adjusted prostitutes for whom offering sex to timid males is a service provided with a smile, as if turning your body into a commodity is of no consequence.

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Firefly has a character whose backstory is constructed entirely to create circumstances in the fiction in which buying sex is not morally suspect but taking part in some noble tradition.

I don't think it's a Baby Got Backstory situation since it isn't a throwaway detail that she's a special kind of sex worker, it's a huge part of her character that plays a major role in her relationship with Mal, problematic though it may be.

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I don't think it's a Baby Got Backstory situation since it isn't a throwaway detail that she's a special kind of sex worker, it's a huge part of her character that plays a major role in her relationship with Mal, problematic though it may be.

 

I don't think that's an exclusion criteria.  It doesn't matter if it's a minor detail or a major character trait, it's still an explanation of why she needs to be sexy.

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Yeah as I said earlier I don't think the QUALITY of the EXECUTION of the trope matters. All that matters is that it is a trope. Isn't that how TV Tropes works? It makes no judgment. It just presents examples.

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Wait, I thought the trope specifically was the random exculpatory detail that doesn't serve a purpose beyond explaining away distracting sexiness.

"Distracting Sexiness" being defined as sexualization that is present solely for titillation.

I don't know what to think now... :(

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I don't think it's a Baby Got Backstory situation since it isn't a throwaway detail that she's a special kind of sex worker, it's a huge part of her character that plays a major role in her relationship with Mal, problematic though it may be.

 

Isn't that exactly the point... It's not a throw-away detail when it comes to Miranda either. The characters were written by starting with the sexualization and filling in other details later.

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