just not my [arche]type

Today I was thinking about a conversation recently on Boundless about the ways that romantic comedies threaten the healthy expectations of young women when it comes to their interactions with the men in their lives.

On reflection, I don't feel very threatened by chick flick romances.

I do feel defrauded by superhero love stories.

Superhero stories give a girl hope to keep on believing (for decades, if necessary) that the boy she likes -- even if he acts like a jerk and seems to notice her rarely, if at all -- is only keeping his distance because he is (1) secretly devoted to her -- really really devoted -- like he stays up all night most nights slaughtering bad guys on her behalf, and he almost certainly keeps a diamond ring or a book of poetry or something in his closet that he is always meaning to give her except that he keeps getting interrupted by global crises; (2) just about the noblest guy on the planet, willing to live in cold isolation, loneliness, and misunderestimation for the benefit of everybody else, even for any slightly-less-noble guy who is also interested in the girl but the noble guy is too noble to do anything mean to him just for that; (3) living a double life purely as a sham to keep the bad guys away (especially away from her), so that the more outrageous his insensitivity or obliviousness, the more obvious his nobility.

This is so so much worse than the Mr. Darcy types who wear their nobility (and their utter devotion) on their sleeves.

(Actually, the travails of the superhero's intended parallel Agnes in David Copperfield, and I always liked her better than all the Jane Austen heroines. I guess if I ever write an epic novel hope against hope will be one of my requirements for auditioning heroines. It's heaps more interesting than straight-up fairytale endings.)