The ‘Damsel in Distress’ is a trope where the protagonist is presented with a situation in which another character (or plot device) needs to be rescued.

The Damsel in Distress trope is incredibly versatile, as you’ll see, as any character (regardless of gender) can become a ‘damsel’ in any kind of story.
Now, this trope has a negative connotation…an unfair negative connotation. Notice that this trope doesn’t really imply much of anything besides one character needing to be rescued by another.
Of course, the Damsel in Distress trope is treated as ‘sexist’ due to the fact the ‘damsel’ is female most of the time. But if we step back and think about this…why is it bad to portray a woman in trouble needing to be rescued? There are all kinds of rationalizations given for this, but I’d ignore most of them because we all know it’s just SocJus.