Line #65 Main/AggressiveCategorism


1	[[quoteright:182:[[Webcomic/{{xkcd}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/doublestandard_630.png]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:182: [[DoubleStandard The Battle Continues.]]]]
3
4	->''"Call this an unfair generalization if you must, but old people are no good at everything."''
5	-->-- '''Moe Szyslak''', ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', when Mr. Burns wants to join the bowling team
6
7	Bob knows that Alice is stupid: She's a woman, and women are stupid - never mind that Alice has a [=PhD=] and an IQ of 150, she's still a woman... and women are stupid, thus Alice is stupid. If Bob finally accepts that Alice is indeed smart, he might resort to [[NoTrueScotsman claiming that she is not really a woman]]. Bonus points if Bob uses Alice [[LogicBomb not being stupid as an example of the principle that women are stupid]] — either because [[NoTrueScotsman she's too smart to be a real woman,]] or as [[InsaneTrollLogic "the exception that verifies the rule".]] Also bonus points if "Alice" isn't even a woman, and Bob [[StrawAffiliation simply assumed a neutral Internet nickname to be female because he thinks the person is stupid]]. Alternatively, Alice actually does something stupid one single time — and Bob draws the conclusion that she is (and all other women are) ''always'' stupid.
8
9	Of course, this is all simply Bob doing some really bad categorism: Racism if it's about race, sexism if it's about gender, ageism if it's about age, homophobia if it's about homosexuals, and so on. If Alice listens too much to him, she may come to suffer from InternalizedCategorism.
10
11	This trope can come into play in two ways: Either ''establishing'' or ''upholding''. The first is often in the form of making a raging overgeneralization about a group - one that cannot possibly be true in all cases, and is often so outrageous that it might even be hard to find a valid example. The second is upholding the prejudice in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, often with the help of ConfirmationBias, TheoryTunnelVision, InsaneTrollLogic, and/or IRejectYourReality.
12
13	Sometimes combined with StrawAffiliation to make it extra insane: If you have Trait X you belong to group Y, and everyone in group Y are Z. For example, if you are a man who has long hair, you obviously turn over gravestones and nail live kittens to church doors. Because men with long hair are Satanists, and Satanists do that kind of stuff. Compare NonsenseClassification and InsaneTrollLogic. When used by characters rather than the narrative itself, tropes such as DepravedHomosexual, BondageIsBad, and AllGaysArePedophiles are often played as aggressive categorism. With the first two tropes, this come in the form of reducing people to their sexuality and reducing the sexuality to the sex. With the last two tropes, it comes in the form of deciding that everyone who have a certain quality X also has the unrelated quality Y.[[note]]For example, in the case of AllGaysArePedophiles, homosexuality is the X quality, while pedophilia is the unrelated-but-bundled-together quality Y[[/note]] This line of thinking easily leads to an AbominationAccusationAttack. When the aggressive categorism grows into being mentally unhealthy, it often takes the form of [[CategorismAsAPhobia a phobia]] or a tendency to [[BlackAndWhiteInsanity see everything in black and white]].
14
15	Often done by the RacistGrandma, the HeManWomanHater, the female character who DoesNotLikeMen, the StrawFeminist, the WindmillCrusader, the StrawLoser, or the NobleBigot, and is often used to highlight how shallow the character's thinking is. This is often PlayedForLaughs at the character's expense or as a joke in its own right. Rarely done by more nuanced and PlayedForDrama characters, such as the TroubledSympatheticBigot. May lead to IrrationalHatred. Note that "ThereAreTwoKindsOfPeopleInTheWorld" is usually ''not'' this: Even when it's not a joke or metaphor, it's usually restricted to one parameter. In a school scenario, this leads to an AbsurdlyDividedSchool.
16
17	Compare DoubleStandard.
18	----
19	!!Examples:
20
21	[[foldercontrol]]
22
23	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
24	* ''Anime/CrossAnge'': In a world where mages are commoners, every muggle is treated ''worse'' than a witch; not only are muggles forced to a deserted island where they secretly fight an invasion force of alien dragons in highly unstable cool mecha with a disturbingly high death rate, but the friends and family who actually cared for them slowly erode in opinion until it's as if they hated their muggle companion all along. Including ''Ange's beloved little sister'' Sylvia. (In her possible defense it might have been [[CorruptTheCutie her older brother Julio]] convincing her Ange was to blame for the death of their parents.) Muggles are treated like devil spawn even if their behavior doesn't change or they show exceptional merit and mercy. [[spoiler:Though this is only partly their fault: it's revealed near the end that the mana they use is like meth, only it makes them obedient to an abusive thousand-year-old pervert]]. In response to this, said muggles have no qualms with opening fire on civilians for their past torments (said civilians usually shown having guns, and planning to use them first), but show mercy to traitors in their ranks for harsher war crimes.
25	** One major exception: Momoka is a mage who never loses her loyalty to Ange, even though she thinks that most muggles are scary dangerous. This is explained by her abnormally high willpower, [[spoiler:which allows her to use magic on the pervert ''who invented mana and controls it like a computer'']].
26	* Growing up as an orphan, Fuka from ''Anime/VividStrike'' has developed a strong distaste for rich people. While this generally applies to anyone who looks down on her because of her poor background, she specifically dislikes rich people for being the ones to change [[ChildhoodFriend Rinne's]] personality after they adopted her. She slowly starts to get better through interacting with Team Nakajima, but she was still hostile at first after realizing they went to a "rich girls' school."
27	--> '''Fuka''': I don't think you rich girls understand how us commoners struggle to live each day.
28	* Many of the boys in ''Manga/InnocentsShounenJuujigun'' display this when it comes to the "infidels" (aka anyone who isn't the ''exact'' right kind of Catholic), assuming that anyone who doesn't share their religion is going to be a literal demon. Many of them even express shock that people from other religions don't have horns and other animal features. Nicolas and Michael are the worst offenders.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Comic Books]]
32	* In ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'', protagonists are likely to do this to Christians or non-Christians depending on whether they are Saved or not. [[StrawLoser Those who do it to Christians]] are always proven wrong (and either get Saved or go to hell), while the Christians who do the same thing [[TheUntwist always turn out to be right]].
33	* In ''ComicBook/BitchyBitch'', Midge's insufferable [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalist]] coworker does this all the time. For example, she "knows" that the recently hired temp is a witch who can put curses on people, because she has a necklace with a pentagram.
34	* ''ComicBook/BitchyButch'' does this all the time, living in her own unhealthy little world where all men (and all heterosexual women) are total {{Jerkass}}es. The only time she managed to see a guy for the nice person he really is, she refused to see that he's male.
35	* In the 4th album of ''ComicBook/WhateverLoveMeans'', The rant about Jihad Jane plays this trope on two levels. First, Liv accuses mainstream society of doing this to Arabs and Muslims, assuming that they are all terrorists. Second, she focuses on the fact that Jihad Jane was blond, female, middle aged and dressed in a certain style common among western women. Having established that, she moves on to portray a scenario where all western women with this style are treated as if they were terrorists.
36	* In one ''Samir'' strip, one white woman try to get the protagonist (a brown man) arrested for trying to rape her. He didn't come closer than 20 yards, much less touch her. But he ''did'' walk on the same street as her. This comes as the comedic punchline after a long angry InternalMonologue of his, complaining about prejudice against men and against non-whites. The woman is portrayed as being totally honest in her analysis of the situation.
37	* ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' used to run a recurring feature called ''You can't win with a bigot'' which alternated examples of bigots contradicting themselves in ways that ensured their interpretation of events always conformed to their prejudices.
38	* ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'': Superheroes, marines, are all the same imperialist crap for Thor.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Fan Works]]
42	* In ''FanFic/SonOfTheDesert'', Havoc, Breda and Fuery believe that all Ishvalans are fanatically religious. Edward tries to call them out on generalizing an entire group before snapping and outting himself as Ishvalan.
43	* From ''FanFic/SaviorOfDemons'':
44	-->Goku: "It's simple, Frieza. I don't like to see anyone, regardless of who they are, getting hurt. Not even someone like you. If you can't fight back, well, fighting's no fun." He shrugged.
45	-->Frieza: "Th-that's impossible!" Frieza spluttered, "You're a Saiyan, and as such you are [[BloodKnight bloodthirsty by nature!]]"
46	*** This is actually ''true'', but Goku hit his head on a rock as a small child, altering his personality just enough to lose the bloodthirstiness but keeping the love of fighting.
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
50	* In ''Film/TwelveAngryMen'', Juror #10 is one of the last holdouts for a guilty verdict. As time goes on it becomes clearer and clearer that he doesn't care about the evidence; the kid is guilty because "there's not a one of them that's any good" (referring to the [[AmbiguouslyBrown ambiguously ethnic]] defendant). The 1997 version, as well as specifying the defendant's ethnicity as Latino, is far more explicit in this regard: Juror 10 delivers an angry rant about how "those spics stay high on dope and fight all the time" and "these wetbacks are multiplying like rabbits." He's not at all concerned about guilt or innocence, he's just wants to "get him before his kind gets us."
51	* ''Film/TheManWhoKilledDonQuixote'': Javier is under the delusion that he is Don Quixote and film director Toby is Sancho Panza. When Toby wants to read something, Javier refuses because, as a peasant, Toby is illiterate.
52	* Franchise/MonsterVerse:
53	** ''Film/KongSkullIsland'': In [[Characters/MonsterVerseSkullIslandExpedition Packard]]'s eyes, there's only "allies" and "enemies" and nothing inbetween, ''anywhere'' in the world, and just being a journalist who contributed to the Vietnam War's end is enough to mark you as an enemy in his book.
54	** ''[[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters]]'': Two ways with the divorced Russell parents' respective attitudes on the {{Kaiju}} at large. Mark believes that ''all'' the Kaiju, up to and including the one who saved the day outright in [[Film/Godzilla2014 the franchise's first film]], are omnicidal monsters that will kill everyone if they aren't killed while they're dormant, and even that belief is predicated just as much on personal bias over his son's death as it is on realistic pointers about the sheer destructive capacity that the creatures have shown. Emma believes that the Kaiju are actually good for the world, [[spoiler:to such a point where she refuses to see anything overly dangerous about setting ''all'' the creatures loose on the world indiscriminately as part of her plan to save the world by force]]. Ultimately, the film demonstrates that the truth is somewhere in-between: some of the Kaiju really are forces of protection for the world and humanity (Godzilla and Mothra), while others are hostile forces of pure destruction (King Ghidorah), and the majority of Kaiju's moral alignments depend on whether they're being led by Godzilla or Ghidorah at the time.
55	* In ''Film/ShowMeLove'', Markus is the obvious case, with his inane rant about how women can't possibly understand cellphones and men can't possibly understand makeup. However, it's implied that the people in general are just as narrow-minded, they just don't flaunt it like he does. Life in a small town is hell.
56	* In ''Film/TuckerAndDaleVsEvil'', Chad gets all of his friends to believe that the local hillbillies are trying to murder them. He hates hillbillies because a hillbilly murdered his parents. [[spoiler:Eventually he discovers that his father was the hillbilly after all. Not all of them are evil psychos, but this one was and it seems to have been passed on to Chad]].
57	[[/folder]]
58
59	[[folder:Literature]]
60	* At the beginning of ''Disenchanted: The Trials of Cinderella'', Ella Coach's most closely kept mindset is "Working class = Good" and "Aristocracy and Upper Class = Evil," because of her FreudianExcuse: Her beloved mother worked in a sweatshop, and died of illness because she was couldn't afford time off. After Ella's father's inventions make him rich and he remarries his business partner, she holds his new wealth and status against him and attempts running away.
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
64	* ''Series/ExtraordinaryAttorneyWoo'': The doctor who diagnosed Lee Sun-yeong has quite an... unsavory attitude towards North Korean refugees. BunnyEarsLawyer Young-woo casts doubt on his reliability by getting him to out himself as a bigot in court. Unfortunately, it costs Young-woo's firm a major client when it turns out said doctor was a high-ranking member of a seemingly-large doctors' association.
65	* PlayedForLaughs in an episode of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': Marshall's father needs an umbrella and suggests they ask Marshall's across-the-hall neighbors for one, because Koreans are always a well-prepared group. The punchline is that he's right: the neighbors do have an umbrella he can borrow.
66	* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': Jonathan Kent is firmly convinced that ''all'' Kryptonians are evil by nature. When Martha points out that [[InterspeciesAdoption their son]] is a Kryptonian himself, Jonathan simply replies that Clark is the exception because he was RaisedByHumans and with human values. To be fair to Mr. Kent, [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} most]] if not all of the Kryptonians that appear in the series are [[SmugSuper high-and-mighty assholes]] ''[[BewareTheSuperman at best]]''.
67	* ''Series/StreetJustice'': The race-prejudice variant forms part of the plot of "Black or Blue," where Willis is suspected of shooting a white pizzeria owner simply because he's a black man who happened to be in a predominantly white part of town at the absolute wrong time.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Music]]
71	* Parodied in Nanne Gronvall's song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfR58YVqTH4 Fördomar.]] The protagonist spends the song doing aggressive categorism against all kinds of people while [[IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance considering herself to be enlightened and free from prejudice]].
72	* Defied in Music/{{Prozzak}}'s ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yacVgQ89b2E Be As,]]'' which is about not letting people lock you into narrow categories such as white/black or straight/gay.
73	[[/folder]]
74
75	[[folder:Recorded and Stand Up Comedy]]
76	* Creator/GeorgeCarlin was quite fond of doing this in his {{rant\|Comedy}}s satirizing the InsaneTrollLogic that underlies this type of thinking.
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:Theater]]
80	* In ''Arne Anka'', the protagonist makes a [[{{Jerkass}} jerky]] attempt to flirt with a woman, who responds by exclaiming to her friend that all men are the same kind of pigs. This causes Arne to go on a rant about starting concentration camps for men, and giving the woman the "Sieg Heil" salute.
81	[[/folder]]
82
83	[[folder:Video Games]]
84	* In ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}: Legion'', [[SemperFi Colonel Barclay]] refers to ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' when discussing the Ceph. Gould is {{Mind Screw}}ed by this - he's a ProperlyParanoid ConspiracyTheorist who has feared TheGovernment and [[ArmiesAreEvil especially the military]] his entire life, and "lifers who read ancient science fiction don’t fit comfortably into his worldview."
85	* The Angels in the ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}'' series hinge in and out of this. Angels generally believe that Demons are pure evil [[FantasticRacism solely because they're demons]]. As Angels see themselves as harbingers of complete good, they lump every Demon into the category of "evil" just because. Recent games imply that they're slowly starting to change.
86	** In ''VideoGame/Disgaea5AllianceOfVengeance'', it's mentioned that Demons seem to suffer from a little bit of this toward Angels; explaining why [[spoiler:Christo hid his identity the way he did]]. To be fair, they have [[FreudianExcuse been the ire of every known Angel for who-knows-how-long]]. (Heck, it's even a voice option for the Male Angel class!) If the possibility of this being a prequel is true, however...
87	* Happens several times with [[ScaryDogmaticAliens the Qunari]] in ''Franchise/DragonAge'' due to their extremely rigid society.
88	** If a female Warden recruits Sten in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', a conversation will eventually ensue where he states that he doesn't believe you're a woman, because Qunari women cannot be warriors. Despite the deep cultural divide, you can eventually make him respect the Warden as a warrior. In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' The Iron Bull states that even though he's lived among non-Qunari long enough that the culture shock is less severe than Sten's he still mentally categorizes female fighters like Cassandra as men in his mind. He also states that Qunari women ''can'' in fact be warriors if the show particular talent in that area -- they just [[LoopholeAbuse get treated like men]] for all intents and purposes. This also means that they're very accepting of transgender people, because as they see it if someone's living life as a particular gender then they are that gender, biology be damned. They also have a deceptively precise definition of "warrior" tied into their caste system; several roles that can be of any gender also serve as active combatants, but since it isn't their main job they aren't technically considered warriors.
89	** In general mages are looked down upon [[FantasticRacism even more than in the rest of Thedas]], being treated essentially as animals that need to be leashed like mad dogs. If a [[PlayerCharacter Mage Hawke]] in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' manages to win their respect then clearly he/she isn't a mage, he/she is just a perfectly ordinary person who happens to have innate magical powers.
90	** [[EnslavedElves Elves]] get this treatment in human society. If a human does something bad, it's a lone wolf. But if an elf does something bad, their clan could be wiped out or their alienage will get a purge. Even doing the right thing can get all elves in trouble.
91	[[/folder]]
92
93	[[folder:Webcomics]]
94	* As with most other tropes, ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' did it: [[http://xkcd.com/385/ How It Works]].
95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder:Web Original]]
98	* One of the annoying customers in ''Website/NotAlwaysRight'' doesn't like the music. [[http://notalwaysright.com/this-strange-kind-of-woman-needs-to-hush/20308 She puts the blame]] for this on teenagers and their modern tasteless music... in spite of the music ''and'' the people playing it being older than her!
99	[[/folder]]
100
101	[[folder:Western Animation]]
102	* Played straight with Lampshade in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. See page quote.
103	** Shows up in regards to "Those lousy teens" as well. When Homer and his drinking buddies get wasted and cause a ''lot'' of damage with his car (with a blatantly visible trail leading to his car parked on the front lawn), the police conclude that it was the work of "punk kids", and enact a curfew.
104	* [[TokenEvilTeammate Cartman]] from ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' does this with just about any kind of minority, often in utterly bizarre ways ("[[RedHeadedStepChild gingers]] [[MemeticMutation have no souls]]," for example). However, sometimes he's portrayed as [[RuleOfFunny actually being right]] about some things, to the perpetrators' [[StopBeingStereotypical own annoyance]] (e.g. {{Token\|Minority}}'s ability to play bass, and Kyle carrying "Jew-Gold" around his neck).
105	* Peridot in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' initially displays a reductionist attitude towards the Crystal Gems ''en masse''. Garnet is a freak and a "filthy war machine" because she's a [[FusionDance permafusion]], Pearl is a [[BeautifulSlaveGirl brainless ornament]] who can't compete on Peridot's level in terms of technical skill (even though we've seen Pearl build a fully functioning battle robot in about thirty seconds, and a ''working space ship'' in a couple of days), and she "jokingly" calls Steven an "abomination" to his face because he's a [[HalfHumanHybrid human-Gem hybrid]]. Amethyst gets the benefit of being "the only ''real'' Gem" in the Crystal Gems, who gets tagged as "defective" by Peridot because of her size but still, by Peridot's lights, should be the Crystal Gems' leader... because she's a [[SuperSoldier Quartz Gem]].
106	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', Leela's old martial arts instructor told her that she'd never be a good fighter because, as a woman, she lacks "the will of the warrior". Many years (and [[TookALevelInBadass badass levels]]) later she encounters him again and challenges him to a fight; he says it's a foregone conclusion that she'll lose, thus he's already won without needing to actually fight her. She finally gets the chance to curb-stomp him at the episode's climax.
107	[[/folder]]

Context Main / AggressiveCategorism