women courting

[frayadjacent]

Ever since last year when I read Gail Simone's Wonder Woman run, where Diana tries (and fails) to court a man, I've been craving more stories where a woman really actively pursues a romance (with any gender person). I think this is the root of why I so often fail at shipping: writers are so rarely interested in showing me that a lady character is even interested in the other person, much less actively courting them.

What I'd really love to see is Lady Character pursing the object of her affection awkwardly -- with inappropriate grand gestures, for example. (But not Awkwardly Not Pursuing said object a la early season Willow and Xander, I've got plenty of examples of that.) And I'd love examples where she succeeds and examples where she doesn't.

Where do I find this? I had secretly hoped The Mindy Project would do it, but alas it didn't, not really. I get it occasionally from books (Rowan courted Fletcher in The Outskirters Secret, for example).

Comments

[silverr]

I also poked a bit at TV Tropes.

As expected, most of the "woman pursuing" tropes are skewed negative; the most positive one I found was Violently Protective Girlfriend.

(After further thought, I also think it's possible that this situation might be more prevalent when the pursuer is wealthy? -- and here I am thinking that Veronica Palmer from Better Off Ted is a good candidate acting this way.)

(And all this discussion is making me want to fic for this, because positive protrayals of Grand Gesture Wooing do seem to be sadly lacking.

[frayadjacent]

Yeah, I was thinking about the negative "woman pursuing" tropes, and how failed wooing could easily be written as "see she was too forward and unladylike, and she chased him away". At best, apparently. :(

You should totally fic it!

[silverr]

Oddly enough, though I can think of a number of RL m/f examples where the woman non-scarily yet boldly and successfully wooed a man, most of the fic I can think to write is f/f. (I suppose that means I need additional fandoms at some point. *g*)

[frayadjacent]

hahaha, me as well. Including well over half of my relationships with men. *eyeroll*

f/f fic is awesomesauce tho.

[silverr]

As I was falling asleep yesterday another possible came to mind: The Legend of Bold Riley

[frayadjacent]

ooh, thank you, this looks great!