History Main / TheUnFairSex

** An early episode has Rachel having an affair with her ex-fiance Barry, who is at this point engaged to her best friend Mindy. When she confesses this to Mindy, she also reveals that during Rachel's engagement she was sleeping with him. In spite of the fact that they were all knowingly cheating on each other, Barry is the only person to get any abuse for it. Rachel's friends give her very brief notice of their disapproval, but in the end there is no comeuppance for her or Mindy.

** ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': According to Future Trunks, Bulma found reason to believe that Yamcha wasn't faithful, and steadily grew attracted and a fling with Vegeta. As in ''the man who previously killed Yamcha, and was partially responsible for the journey to another planet just to revive him with their Dragon Balls''. The anime somehow makes this even worse during the filler when the Z-Fighters were supposed to be training to prepare for the Androids, and Vegeta's stubbornness, coupled with him overtaxing himself while training, made Bulma more and more concerned about his well-being, to the point where Yamcha started to notice and get jealous. Later, she ends up marrying Vegeta, having two children with him, and, to give her some credit, playing at least a sizable part in his redemption story.
*** Yamcha [[spoiler: was actually killed by a Saibaman, which was planted by Nappa. All Vegeta did was bring up the idea of using the Saibamen.]]

* In a commercial for State Farm insurance featuring a boyfriend and girlfriend, the girlfriend uses the genie-like powers of the State Farm jingle to turn her boyfriend more attractive. When he then immediately does the ''exact same thing'', she's absolutely furious at him.

* This played out over a two part episode of ''TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir''. It starts when Phil decides to go into politics instead of retiring as was his original plan and Vivian gets upset at him, fair enough. But then her motive quickly shifts into "You know how I feel about politics" with no further elaboration on it. It came out of nowhere too and we never find out what her big problem is. This culminates in her [[DisproportionateRetribution threatening to divorce her husband]] for pursuing something that clearly makes him happy, no compromise, it's either stop pursuing politics and stay at home or divorce her. The show completely plays this on her side and in the end, Phil gives up his dreams for... the wife who threatened to leave him for no real good reason.
** The show does give a reason. He promised he would spend more time with his family but was taking a job that would give him even more time away from his family.
** Also sort of played with in the episode "It's a Wonderful Lie". Will lies to his girlfriend Lisa, saying that he's at a basketball game when really he went to a frat party. Lisa says that she'll just hang out with her girlfriends at home, but he sees her at the same party. Lisa is rightfully angry because he lied to her, but at the same time she also shouldn't be mad at him since he wasn't with any girls and she showed up at the same party.

* ''TheHangover'' is thankfully a subversion in this case with the character Stu and his eventually ex-girlfriend by movies end. Melissa is depicted as being that type of 'feminist' who mistakes equality for all genders as meaning supremacy for the feminine as she's been described as assaulting her boyfriend, cheating on him and then getting angry with him at the prospect of him watching strippers. 'Again' thankfully it's a subversion, because at the end Stu grows a spine, calls her out on previously described b.s. and sends her packing.

--> '''Aubrey:''' Like it or not, it's your fault she put you in a situation where you could only hurt her feelings or suffer through sex with her. It's how women are, and even when we're wrong, you're the one who's wrong.

** And another occasion she learns Tai Jitsu and becames drunk with power, [[AbusiveSpouse abusing Peter]] and raped him ''again'', upon which she blamed him for belittling her and not giving her a say in the household (granted Peter ''is'' a JerkAss but it's still DisproportionateRetribution). Later on, after slugging Peter hard and then ''outright gloating about it''. Peter finally snaps and slugs her back, upon which Lois immediately whines DoubleStandard. Peter however hands it back to her and ''both'' of them end beating each other into an equally bloody pulp. Peter negating Lois' attempt at a DoubleStandard also doubles as a CrowningMomentOfAwesome as well.

** In one episode, Lois becomes a surrogate mother, Peter is portrayed as completely selfish and ignorant for arguing with this (the same guy who is lectured over and over for ignoring their commitment and not giving Lois a say in anything). Later on Lois changes her mind and decides to abort the baby, to which Peter changes his mind and insists she keep it. Once again it is strictly Peter who is portrayed as wrong. An episode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' used a similar plot, with Stan being portrayed as inconsiderate for complaining about Francine having a surrogate baby ''behind his back''.

* ''IntolerableCruelty'' dances this trope all over the place. First, sleazy lawyer George Clooney helps an unfaithful wife to divorce her husband out of all his money. Then he helps an unfaithful husband to keep all his money in his divorce. Then there's a far more complicated plot where he falls in love with TheChessmaster serial divorcer from the second divorce. It's all treated with RuleOfFunny, you can discuss what the moral message of it is one your own time.

* Inverted on {{Literotica}}, where stories about cheating usually get the heaviest criticism from readers of the same gender as the person being cheated upon. Most of the site's users are male, so stories where women cheat on men often score two points lower than similar stories where men cheat on women. (And it goes even lower if [[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt they cheat on a white man with a black man]] . . .)

** According to Future Trunks, Bulma found reason to believe that Yamcha wasn't faithful, and steadily grew attracted and a fling with Vegeta. As in ''the man who previously killed Yamcha, and was partially responsible for the journey to another planet just to revive him with their Dragon Balls''. The anime somehow makes this even worse during the filler when the Z-Fighters were supposed to be training to prepare for the Androids, and Vegeta's stubbornness, coupled with him overtaxing himself while training, made Bulma more and more concerned about his well-being, to the point where Yamcha started to notice and get jealous. Later, she ends up marrying Vegeta, having two children with him, and, to give her some credit, playing at least a sizable part in his redemption story.

* [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19066_7-psychotic-pieces-relationship-advice-from-cosmo.html This Cracked article]] demonstrates how magazines like ''Cosmopolitan'' can take this trope to extremes. However innocuous his actions or behavior may be, the reader is encouraged to treat their partner with utmost suspicion and respond with over-the-top, vicious, humiliating and even ''abusive'' reactions. It also deconstructs them, by presenting them from the point of view of a man who's girlfriend subscribes to these attitudes -- she comes across as a temperamental, unstable and paranoid psychotic.

** The overall attitude to gender can perhaps be best seen in the fact that when the characters do stand up to Their wives and call Them out on their crap (e.g' Niles standing up to Maris after years of mistreatment or Frasier's truly epic chewing out of Diane when she comes back) it is treated as Moment of awesome and is quite glorious to watch.

* Possibly subverted on ''MalcolmInTheMiddle'' where Lois says she has no problem with Hal looking at other Women. Hal insists he never does. When Lois mentions that she looks at other Men, Hal is crushed. It's very much played for laughs and eventually it's revealed that Lois is more devastated than Hal. This is [[spoiler: because it means that he is even more in love with her than she is with him. Considering Lois' obsession with always being the better partner, its a hard hit to take]].

* Arguably worse on Steve Wilkos. At one point, a woman tackles her husband on stage while he, in turn, grabs at her ankles to pull her down with him. Steve threatens to arrest the man, treating him as the aggressor, while giving the woman a slap on the wrist. In another instance, a woman is beating up on a man after finding out he cheated on her and Steve asked the man why he should be surprised, even though Steve would have had her escorted out in handcuffs if the genders were reversed.

* Lois from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' is incredibly guilty of this. She frequently calls out Peter on his selfishness and lack of commitment, yet frequently displays selfish or nymphomaniacal behaviour ([[TookALevelInJerkass especially as seasons progress]]). Only very recent episodes have actually pointed out she is a hypocritical slut.

*** This is ''somewhat'' mitigated in that Peter's reasons for abstinence were horribly misinformed (e.g. "[[ScareEmStraight If you have sex, your penis will fall off, and land in another dimension, populated entirely by dogs, who will eat it.]]"), and [[TooDumbToLive Peter being Peter...]]

*** This is ''somewhat'' mitigated in that Peter's reasons for abstinence were horribly misinformed (e.g. "[[ScareEmStraight If you have sex, the Terrorists win!]]"), and [[TooDumbToLive Peter being Peter...]]

*** This is ''somewhat'' mitigated in that Peter's reasons for abstinence were horribly misinformed (e.g. "[[ScareThemStraight If you have sex, the Terrorists win!]]"), and [[TooDumbToLive Peter being Peter...]]

*** This is ''somewhat'' mitigated in that Peter's reasons for abstinence were horribly misinformed (e.g. "If you have sex, the Terrorists win!"), and [[TooDumbToLive Peter being Peter...]]