Aren’t you tired of seeing the same tired, damaging tropes play out again and again? As progressive writers, it’s long past time we dismantle the sexist norms women have been—and still are—held to.

The stories we consume shape our thoughts, attitudes, and lives, often more than we realize. Tropes and clichés often get dismissed as “just cringey” because they’ve been recycled forever. We can’t always avoid them—they’re ingrained in us from the books, movies, and shows we grew up with. Some may seem harmless. The others are often not.

It’s time we lift the veil and call out how damaging these tropes can be if left unchecked. Here are four sexist tropes—and how you can avoid them in your writing:

1) Women In Refrigerators Trope

Women in refrigerators are love interests or family members killed, raped, or brutalized just to advance a man’s character arc. Their suffering isn’t about them—it’s about him.

Ask yourself:

• Are women just there to motivate the male lead?
• Do they exist without real development? Are they denied development and depth?
• Is their trauma minimized to serve the man’s journey?

2) Manic Pixie Dream Girl Trope

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) is the quirky, whimsical woman built to rescue a brooding male protagonist and teach him life lessons—then disappear. She’s not a person—she’s a lesson.

Gut check:

• Is her trauma romanticized or glamorized?
• Does she exist just to save the male protagonist and then vanish?
• Is she portrayed as an unattainable or “ideal” rather than a real, flawed human?
• Are her dreams and struggles barely explored?

3) The Male Gaze Trope

The Male Gaze objectifies women, framing them through a lens designed for heterosexual male pleasure. It objectifies their bodies, sets impossible beauty standards, and flattens their stories into how they look, not who they are.

To fight this, ask:

• Are women described primarily through their looks?
• Does the story dictate beauty standards?
• Are women’s identities erased for eye candy?
• Are women judged harshly than men?

4) Villainizing Ultra-femininity Trope

This trope shows stereotypical depictions of ultra-femininity like makeup, fashion and gossip. It demonizes it by making “ultra-feminine” women vapid, catty and boy-obsessed, saying femininity equals evil, cringey and undesirable. They are scrutinized simply because being girly is not considered man enough to be taken seriously and accepted in a society that projects masculinity as superior.

Fix it by checking:

• Are you equating femininity with villainy?
• Are feminine characters treated as vain or mean by default?
• Are ambition and confidence portrayed negatively in feminine women?
• Must feminine characters “act masculine” to be taken seriously?

Tropes are sneaky—but we’re smarter. We can do better. Challenge lazy storytelling. Build better, richer worlds. It starts with calling this stuff out and leaving it in the past where it belongs.

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