Well, I don't think sleeping with two guys over 4 years is all that promiscuous :)
But yes, it is interesting and a bit worrying writing a story which ends up skirting certain cliches and tropes without that being the primary intention. I realised with horror recently that one of my characters is, on paper, a cliched "male character in fantasy written by women": he's had an angsty past, is stuck in a (matriarchal!) society that doesn't respect him, has supernatural powers, and is charming and attractive but still has lots of enemies since he refuses to fit in. But there's more to him than that, and I try to both avoid and poke at the common cliches (and poke fun at him, which doesn't usually happen if they're a sympathetic main character)
So I guess the trick is to question the usual assumptions and only apply them when they really do fit the character. Good writing can rescue even the most tired or problematic situation. I've recently been reading a lot of Octavia Butler, and she has a lot of situations like that, ie Fledgeling, the story of a 50 year old vampire who looks like a small child and is cheerfully sexual. I mean, it was creepy, but not weird anime creepy :)
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But yes, it is interesting and a bit worrying writing a story which ends up skirting certain cliches and tropes without that being the primary intention. I realised with horror recently that one of my characters is, on paper, a cliched "male character in fantasy written by women": he's had an angsty past, is stuck in a (matriarchal!) society that doesn't respect him, has supernatural powers, and is charming and attractive but still has lots of enemies since he refuses to fit in. But there's more to him than that, and I try to both avoid and poke at the common cliches (and poke fun at him, which doesn't usually happen if they're a sympathetic main character)
So I guess the trick is to question the usual assumptions and only apply them when they really do fit the character. Good writing can rescue even the most tired or problematic situation. I've recently been reading a lot of Octavia Butler, and she has a lot of situations like that, ie Fledgeling, the story of a 50 year old vampire who looks like a small child and is cheerfully sexual. I mean, it was creepy, but not weird anime creepy :)