The frequency of this character, and her apparent appeal in fictional works of entertainment media, lies perhaps in the passivity that seems to accompany this particular brand of on-screen, glamorized sadness. This passivity become a plot point for the objectification of the character, their vacant-ness, fetishized. From sexual assault portrayed glamorously on-screen to titillate viewers, to women engaging in promiscuous sex as a means of self harm, numerous story-lines hinge on the character’s passivity, and demonstrate the mythology of an archetype renowned for a specific brand of objectification. The saddened and fragile demeanor of this character slots conveniently into narratives of female submission. The need for someone to save this ‘hot mess’, creates narratives to enhance the perceived masculinity of the male hero who attempts to rescue her. Her existence demonstrates the stereotype of womanhood centering on internalizing feelings of hatred and directing them towards the self, in contrast to the male stereotype of externalizing feelings of hatred and enacting them on others. These narrative considerations are used to enhance the attractiveness of the female characters, whose often unkempt appearance (the result of an apparent “wasting away in sadness”) is never shown as falling outside the parameters of the limited 21st century beauty ideal (for example, this character would not ever be depicted as overweight, despite binge eating being as legitimate a form of eating disorder as the stereotypically depicted anorexia and bulimia.) Thinness is so often a defining physical characteristic of this archetype, and the concept of extreme thinness, and the kind of lifestyle necessary to achieve it, has inexorable ties with the concept of female submission, subordinance, and repression. On a more obvious note, fragility and thinness are perceived as attractive traits for women within our culture, and are therefore desirable within a female character, making her a popular consumer choice for the contemporary viewer.