Friday, September 17, 2010

Fess Up Friday: Wanna Be Bad?

I promise today's question will make sense soon. Probably next week, when I manage to successfully V-E-N-T about the reason this topic is frustrating me. 

Tell me, friends: do you like it when the good girl falls for the bad boy?

The question isn't only limited to books--it can be movies or TV shows, too. 

I, for one, love bad boys. The more complicated, the better. But he also has to be sweet, considerate, and mature (not asking for much, right???). I loathe whenever writers make the good girl fall for the bad boy just to piss off the hero. That just plain bores me. Or when they give very few good qualities to the badass, and yet the good girl still drools all over him. Does that happen in high school? Yes. But there are limits. Some girls can crush from afar and get on with their lives. Most YA heroines don't, though. They pursue the jerk, or let him pursue her without really understand why he likes her. 

The worst part? Sometimes the reader doesn't understand it, either. 

My future rant (the one due next week) has to do with a good girl and a bad boy. But it's the kind of relationship that I want to see. It makes sense, at least to me. I won't vent because it's illogical or stupid. I'll just scream my head off for another reason (which I can't spill just yet...). 

Until then, make me a happy lil lady and share: love this type of relationship, or are you over it?

10 comments:

  1. Okay, I like bad boys, but I hate it when out of nowhere readers have to see they really have a heart just so we can root from him and the heroinne. I, for one, find Damon from Vampire Diaries a little annoying--but I dislike him even more when the writers try to show that he still has a "human" side. I say all writers should forget about redemption and just let bad boys be jerks.

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  2. I do like them but only if they're bad to the point of maybe being misunderstood or just misdirected. Not sure if that makes sense. My brain is mush by this point of the week.:)

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  3. I love a bad boy, but it's necessary for him to have redeeming qualities. Bad boy and jerk don't have to be synonymous.

    What I'm not really a fan of is the good girl. Oh, I'm not saying I only want to see bad girls. Just that to me, the good girls of books, television, and movies aren't true reflections of girls in the real world. They set this perfect standard that can make the girl reading/watching feel that she could never be "good" enough for the bad boy/hero/whomever.

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  4. I like bad boys, but I've seen this done horribly before, where I was like--okay, so she's insecure, but why is she letting him drool over her when he's so vile?

    Bad has to be limited to breaking the established rules. It can't mean treating her or other people like bugs to be squashed. So it comes down to degrees for me. How bad is he? Is he like Gale? Then it's great. Although honestly, I married a Peeta and have never regretted it.

    Great topic, Amparo. Can't wait to find out what your mysterious references are about!

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  5. I'm all for good girls falling for bad boys who turn out to have hearts of gold (not literally - well depends! LOL!).

    Oooh spill the beanz - go on you know you want to! :-)

    Take care
    x

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  6. I'm with most everyone else that the bad boy has to have redeeming qualities. On the other hand, I think Sarah Dessen is a great example of an author who is shockingly realistic about bad boys. In real life as in her work, sometimes the bad boy really is a bad boy and the good girl has to learn that painful lesson.

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  7. Girls...bad boys are BAD for a reason! The good girl always goes in thinking she's going to redeem the bad boy and turn his life around, which I guess makes for some good FICTION reading, but it doesn't happen in real life! *shakes head*

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  8. I've never understood why good girls are attracted to bad boys, unless it's just to really anger their parents. And yet I see it all the time in real life - sharp dressed, beautiful young ladies with skanky, tattooed-pierced, pants around the knees, ugly jerks.

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  9. GASP. How did I miss this - these pictures? *drools*

    I don't mind the bad boy, good girl thing, as long as the bad boy isn't a flat out jerk. If he doesn't care, EVER, about her, is constantly rude/rebellious/whatever, and there is another character who is constantly nice, and always ignored by the girl, yes, that really bothers me after a while.

    Give me a reason the girl likes the bad boy, something that makes his "badness" worth her affection. And it had better be more than a "oh he's so hotttttt."

    Jessica

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