Tropes in context
Tropes are recognizable patterns in storytelling that can be used to shape reader expectations for your story. Tropes definitionally exist outside the bounds of any one individual story; they rely on shared cultural context to be identifiable and useful to both writer and reader. But this cultural context can be a double-edged sword. Sometimes, tropes come with negative associations due to cultural context and history, and using a trope can inadvertently replicate or contribute to these negative cultural biases and narratives.
It’s easiest to talk about this using an example. Let’s look at the “white savior” trope. This is a cross-genre trope in which a story about racism is centered around a white character’s benevolent actions in the face of systemic oppression. The Help, and Green Book, and James Cameron's Avatar series all use the white savior trope. On the surface, this trope is positive: white people can and should be allies in the fight against racism, and it’s good to depict this struggle. However, the problem comes in the emphasis of this trope. This trope stresses individual white people’s positive actions on behalf of oppressed people of color. Ultimately, the struggle around racism in these stories belongs more to the white people who are the main characters, rather than to the people of color who experience racism. In white savior narratives, people of color do not even get to own stories about their own oppression, and preference is instead given to white people’s feelings and personal growth. Very real experiences of racism and oppression are reduced to a plot device for a white protagonist to react to, and the experiences of racialized people are erased from the story.
It’s important to note here that these stories do not intend to be racist. Indeed, they often aim to depict allyship. But because the writers are emphasizing white feelings over the experiences of people of color, these stories end up reinforcing on a broader level the very system of white supremacy they say they’re critiquing. Authors who use this trope might mean well, but the context and meaning of these narratives overtakes the author’s intent. The cultural context is more powerful than the individual narrative, and so the meaning is determined by that context more than it’s determined by the story itself. This is why it’s important to have a thorough grasp on the context of the social issues you’re writing about, especially if they’re not issues that directly negatively affect you.
Note: the following section contains discussion of some issues around consent we commonly see in Wattpad stories.
Even when we’re working well within our own experience, tropes can sometimes set us up for difficulty because of the implications, intentional or not, that they create in the text. Let’s take a classic Wattpad trope: forced marriage. In the forced marriage trope, the two romantic leads are forced by circumstances outside of their control to marry each other, regardless of their personal feelings. There is usually a high degree of conflict between them: they don’t like each other or want to be married to one another, though sometimes it’s just one person who doesn’t want to be married. This trope is exciting because it automatically introduces conflict into the relationship even as it locks the romantic leads into each other’s lives. There’s a lot of drama baked in! However, the very dramatic appeal of the trope also sets the stage for consent issues in the relationship if the author isn’t careful. Being unable to leave a relationship without serious consequences (either from the other person or from the people around you) is antithetical to good consent, where both parties are able to say yes or no without negative consequences.
This is particularly intense if there is some expectation in the story that the marriage will be consummated. Another common element of this trope is dependency: one party is dependent on the other for shelter, money, or protection. This creates a power dynamic between the characters where one character is incentivized not to say no to the other because of their material reliance, which once again complicates the consent. All of these factors can create a dynamic between the characters that is potentially toxic, coercive, or abusive. If your intention is to write a happily-ever-after romance, you’ll want to be more careful around these elements.
This is not to say you can’t write forced marriage. It’s a fun, spicy trope that can be done super well! But writing it well means attending very carefully to the nuances of the interactions between the characters to make sure it doesn’t cross a line into coercion. At minimum, making clear that both characters actively desire and are and are continuously consenting to intimacy is more important here than it might be in romances without this kind of trope.
All narratives exist within a cultural context that is outside of the author’s direct control. As writers, using tropes is a particular narrative choice we can make that cues the reader to a certain pattern they recognize from other media. Using tropes well is about being aware of the implications they have for your narrative, both within the context of the story, and within the context of society at large in order to convey your intended meaning.
