Maligned Mixed Marriage/Playing With

Basic Trope: A relationship involving two people of different races recieves a negative reaction from those around them

• Straight: Society doesn't like that Alice, who is white, has gotten together with Bob, who is black.
• Exaggerated: Society doesn't like that Alice and Bob are together because she has blue eyes and he has brown eyes.
• Downplayed: Society doesn't like that Alice, who is white, has gotten together with Bob, who is black. They eventually relent once Bob is revealed to be not too black.
• Justified:
  • Alice and Bob come from cultures that were at war just a few years ago.
  • Bob's race has a poor reputation. Whether this reputation has any justification may be addressed in the story, but, as far as Alice's friends and family are concerned, they view themselves as trying to save Alice from marrying a monster.
• Inverted: Society doesn't like that Alice and Bob are of the same race.
• Subverted:
  • At first, it looks like Alice's parents don't like her being with Bob due to his race, but then they tell her it's because they wanted her to be with Charlie.
  • People don't appreciate that Alice and Bob are together. When an outsider, who believes this trope is in effect demands to know why it's a problem, the rest of the people point out that Alice and Bob are jerks who are even bigger jerks when they're together.
  • At first, the reason why Alice's family and friends frown on her and Bob's relationship appears to be because of their different races. In truth, Alice's family and friends could care less about race. They do care that Bob is in a lower social class than Alice, though.
• Double Subverted: ...Because he's white.
• Parodied: Society doesn't like Bob and Alice together, though it's because they're from different cities than that they're of different races.
• Deconstructed: The fact that people don't like people being in interracial relationships ultimately creates tensions that divide the society and cause everyone to suffer.
• Reconstructed: Eventually, the people learn that they just have to accept Alice and Bob's relationship. Or the couple moves to a different location, where interracial relationships are accepted.
• Zig Zagged: People don't like Alice (white) and Bob (black) getting together, but when Charlie (black) and Danielle (white) get together, no one has a problem with it.
• Averted: In a land full of racism, fantastic or otherwise, no one minds when Alice and Bob get together.
• Enforced:
  • The story takes place in the USA in the 1890s and is being historically accurate.
  • The story takes place during any period of time when racism was common, and is being historically accurate.
• Lampshaded: "And here I thought we were beyond such silly things like disliking mixed race couples."
• Invoked: Alice deliberately seeks out a partner of a different race to enrage her parents.
• Exploited: Frank knows that Alice and Bob are in an interracial relationship among very unaccepting people and uses this to bring both of them down.
• Defied: "Guys, really, who cares about their races? If they love each other, that's all that matters."
• Discussed: ???
• Conversed: ???
• Played For Drama: The fact that people try to keep Alice and Bob apart ultimately drives one of them to kill several of the people trying to keep them from getting together

---

Back to Maligned Mixed Marriage