Can tropes in books and visual media instigate stereotypes and prejudices?

Disclaimer- This post is a product of random thoughts and my opinion and not backed by any research. The books and movies/series are mentioned only for examples and I have no intention of condemning them.

Image Source - IMDb

With the humongous collection of books and movies & series, it's evident that similar narratives will be observed and followed in many books, especially contemporary works. While some may be looked down upon, many other tropes are even admired and recommended. 

Tropes here refers to elements in a story or relationship dyamics which is similar in many works of fiction across different authors and screenwriters. Example of tropes include grumpy × sunshine, fake dating, enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, marriage of convenience, ex-lovers runiting after long time etc. As a reader & viwer of mostly comedy and romantic genre, I can only mention similar narratives found in these genres. Here are examples of other tropes from various genres.

Sometimes this tropes or some stories can become problematic and lead to formation of stereotypes or prejudice, even if it is limited to a smaller audience.

Example can be the stories where a girl is confused between 2 boys and keeps shuffling between them and ends up hurting both. This is seen in series like 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' (inspired from book series), 'X. O. Kitty,' 'Never Have I Ever' and 'Mismatched.' This forms the stereotype or prejudice that girls are always confused, two-timing boys, and betrays them, ultimately becoming a red flag/carpet. This stereotype or prejudice can be seen in comment sections of posts & reels based on these series (like edits or rant videos). Belly's behaviour from The Summer I Turned Pretty has also led to people humorously changing the title to 'The Summer I Ruined a Family' while Kitty's actions are often viewed as cringe. 

Even I am so tired of this confused girl stereotype when many famous series follow the same narrative. Though not exactly, this is also observed in the movie 'Student of the Year' where Shanaya gets confused between Rohan and Abhimanyu (falls in love with Abhimanyu when not valued by Rohan, while not breaking up with him either).

This is one trope which leads to prejudice, though there may be a lot others. As not quite a fan of contemporary popular fiction (CoHo, Ana Huang and the like) which revolves around many of these stereotypes, I know aforementioned one most profoundly, after reading comment sections more than my academic syllabus (just kidding)😂. 

As a reader of romance coupled with other social, psychological, life or coming-of-age themes, I am not so well-versed with contemporary fiction where a lot of stories revolve around the tropes. 

To sum up, this is just what I've observed in series & comment sections, and formed a opinion based on it. It may not be acceptable to everyone, and that's just okay.