Clumsy Heroines

A few months ago, I picked up Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and Other Concerns).  Although I didn't find it quite as funny as Bossypants, I thought Kaling was spot-on with her description of stereotypes in rom-coms: 

"When a beautiful actress is cast in a movie, executives rack their brains to find some kind of flaw in the character she plays that will still allow her to be palatable. She can’t be overweight or not perfect-looking, because who would pay to see that? A female who is not one hundred per cent perfect-looking in every way? You might as well film a dead squid decaying on a beach somewhere for two hours.  

So they make her a Klutz. 

The hundred-per-cent-perfect-looking female is perfect in every way except that she constantly bonks her head on things. She trips and falls and spills soup on her affable date (Josh Lucas. Is that his name? I know it’s two first names. Josh George? Brad Mike? Fred Tom? Yes, it’s Fred Tom). The Klutz clangs into stop signs while riding her bike and knocks over giant displays of fine china in department stores. Despite being five feet nine and weighing a hundred and ten pounds, she is basically like a drunk buffalo who has never been a part of human society. But Fred Tom loves her anyway."

I don't think this is limited to rom-coms, though:  I've seen the same trope in chick lit novels.  It's a much longer story as to why I'm reading it, but every time the heroine of Fifty Shades of Grey falls, trips, or somehow injures herself, I can't help but rolling my eyes.  (I also felt this way about Bella in the Twilight series).  Granted, Fifty Shades is making me want to roll my eyes for a whole long list of other reasons.


(You can find the full Kaling piece here.)