Asimech @Asimech@mastodon.social

Note that female characters tend to give away the BS the easiest:
Creators, or publishers, want women in their media to look attractive so they always give them make-up.
Male characters tend to get some kind of blemishes, though usually they're also the heavily stylised "inoffensive" kind. E.g. stubble, but their beard grows perfectly evenly. Wrinkles, but they're the sort that look good/masculine/"refined".

To expand: "Gritty" comes from "gritty realism" which refers to depicting life accurately, with all the blemishes.
However media described as "gritty" tends to go from anywhere to emphasising faults to revelling in them and also tend to be very stylised in their depictions of "grit".

Current Lara Croft is a good example of the milder case of this:
She has no or very few real-life blemishes on her face like she were wearing make-up, but instead is covered in grime and scratches/wounds.

"Well, *I* think this gritty take is a nice change of pace from all the cutesy saccharine stuff."

Dude. Where the hell have you been for the last 30 years? Increasing number of stories have been turning darker, getting "grittier" remakes, being "an inspiration for a grittier take" or what have you.
(The correct word for those is "grim" or "grimdark" though, not "gritty".)