Annoying Plot Conventions, Devices, Contrivances

Plot Devices that Make You Roll Your Eyes

• a woman character is raped or is in danger of being raped -- the eternal rapability of female characters

• a female character dies in childbirth

• "convenient" circumstances prevent a female character from going through with her decision to have an abortion (cf. Robin in V, whose alien hybrid fetus's invasive vascularisation made it impossible to remove without killing her; spontaneous miscarriages and so forth) -- therefore rendering women's reproductive choices inconsequent when that oh-so-controversial subject is broached

• using female characters to voice misogynistic and/or patriarchal ideas because it would be "too obvious" to use male characters -- victim-blaming, in short

• using evolutionary biology or the selfish gene theory as the primary reason a male and female character are drawn together sexually (Darwin's Radio by Bear), or why a female character cannot possibly resist the man's man that will make the best sire of her children (Lucifer's Hammer by Niven)

• perky secretaries that are more competent than any of the male authority figures but who are happy to remain assistants, though it's the year 2500 and in space...

See also Archetypal & Stereotypical Female Characters in SF