I think, she's supposed to be the prettiest girl and get attention from guys a lot.
Probably not a major issue, but should this trope maybe be renamed "Mean Girl"?
I mean, putting aside any actual issue with Alpha Bitch as a trope name, "Mean Girl" seems to be what this trope is referred to as outside of this site. I don't know if TV Tropes really cares about what a trope is called popularly, but Mean Girl is such a widespread name for this trope that it was literally the basis of naming the movie Mean Girls, and I think generally if you refer to someone as a Mean Girl character, they know exactly what you mean. That seems to be it's name everywhere besides this site.
"Alpha Bitch", meanwhile, isn't a bad name since I do think it conveys what you mean, but it isn't necessarily the most accurate of names. Not all characters who fit this trope are actually the alpha of their school, as noted by someone else in the discussion. At it's core, this trope is just a female Jerkass who antagonises the main character(s) in a school or school-like setting. Being the social alpha seems to just be kind of a common trait or subtrope (which I think is fitted under The Cheerleader), but not always the norm. It's like how The Bully is just that, the bully, but Jerk Jock is a specific type of bully, who's also a popular Big Man on Campus despite their terrible personality.
Like this isn't a big deal, but I was just wondering if the site prioritises naming tropes based on how they're referred to in public lexicon or not.
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You have a good point. I think sometimes TV tropes likes to come up with names that sound cool. Calling someone an Alpha is cool. But yeah, maybe they should go with a name that's recognisable. I think they were just trying to be different.
General
Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Description is entirely too long
, started by MegaJ on Aug 19th 2011 at 8:04:46 PM
Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Ambiguous Name, started by Strategia on May 24th 2012 at 12:03:19 AM
Two questions: Why are so many Alpha Bitches named Brittany/Brittney/Britney, and why are so many bitches these days Chinese?
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Firstly, Brittany and its variance is just a very WASP-sounding name. Secondly, I would say that's probably not really that much of a pattern, but if I had to hazard a guess, it's down to wanting to avoid the Asian and Nerdy cliché by casting the Asian character as a popular-but-mean average-intelligent type, and also trying to create more Asian roles (though why they don't just have more Plucky Girl leads who are Asian is up for questioning).
Queen Bae
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Edited by antimisa THIS PROFILE IS GONNA BE BANNED BECAUSE OF "RUDENESS". SEE THE DICTATORSHIP IN THIS CENTURY. 👀
Older name of Alpha Bitch. A character in some show that was the Trope Namer.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Specifically the character from Sabrina the Teenage Witch
Working on cleaning up List of Shows That Need Summary
This trope should not have a Real Life folder and should be added to No Real Life Examples, Please!.
While girls like this do exist in real life, the Alpha Bitch trope easily falls under several evil and morality tropes (more the latter than the former), and the site's policy is not to call real life people evil.
Edited by Gsueagle31049
PaperMaster
The redirect has more than 1000 inbounds. No reason to cut.
"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer
Because someone pushed the argument that not all readers would be familiar with the name "Libby", or willing to read the first paragraph to find out what the trope was about before using it. If you feel that means this site is in a race to the bottom as far as standards go, well that is up to you. But non-instant recognition was the reason.
I'm shocked it went through - but I approve. The Libby reference was just not widely enough known. Even know I ... can't remember the trope namer. (Now if it had been The Cordelia...)
How important is it for these characters to be popular? It seems like many examples are either never actually said to be popular or are disliked by most people (and the hero seems to be more popular). Is it enough if they just act superior?
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