Line #59 Main/CategoryTraitor


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10	[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/{{Superman}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/race_traitors_9.png]]]]
11	[[caption-width-right:350:[[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain What a nice fellow.]]]]
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13	->''"Blood-traitor is next to Mudblood in my book."''
14	-->-- '''[[AxCrazy Bellatrix Lestrange]]''', ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows''
15
16	Bob belongs to a certain group, or at least Alice considers him to belong to it, and thus she demands that he stay "loyal" to this group. It's beside the point whether the group [[StrawAffiliation actually exists as a relevant group and whether Bob actually sympathizes with it or not]].
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18	Consequently, Alice will consider Bob a "traitor" or similar whenever he does something she considers to be against the group. This also includes anything that might be beneficial to any other group, based on the assumption that helping others is the same as damaging the group. She gets to decide what's good for the category, and she assumes any disagreement comes from treachery. Note that words such as "traitor" or "betrayer" do not necessarily have to be invoked, as long as Alice makes her position clear one way or another.
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20	This group ''can'' be exactly anything. In real life, psychological experiments have shown that people can quickly be made to develop group identity over ''any'' dividing lines, no matter how arbitrary and superficial. However, some dividers are more common than others. The classics are race, gender, class, religion, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking what sports team you're cheering for]]. "[[UncleTomFoolery Uncle Tom]]" is a common mainstream term for people who are perceived as betraying their own group in order to gain the favor of an outside, usually more powerful, group.
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22	Branding someone a Category Traitor is usually SeriousBusiness... at least for the character who does it, even if the narrative doesn't agree -- the accuser can be portrayed as justified or at least as a good kind of bigot, but can also be portrayed as a StrawCharacter or someone doing ActivistFundamentalistAntics. In either case, being branded as a Category Traitor might cause InternalizedCategorism. In [[Administrivia/InternalSubtrope cases where the accusation itself is an obvious strawman]], this trope can be called StrawTraitor. A CulturalRebel is especially prone to being branded as a Category Traitor. Can bring up accusations of being a {{Hypocrite}} ([[StrawHypocrite Straw]] or otherwise) on Alice's part, especially if Alice's category normally stresses the importance of things such as freedom and individuality (the obvious implication being that Alice hypocritically only pays lip service to these values). If Alice is prejudiced enough, she may label Bob a traitor ''even if she hates the things that non-traitorous members of the group supposedly do'' -- because how can you justify hating someone if he doesn't have the good taste to conform to a hate-worthy stereotype?
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24	Usually overlaps with WithUsOrAgainstUs, when Alice gives Bob an ultimatum regarding whatever activities he may be doing that Alice considers traitorous. May overlap with EntitledToHaveYou, if "loyal to the group" means "having sex with/marrying me", or TheQuisling if they actively adhere to the category's oppressor in the process. Often includes the use of an OutsideInsideSlur. Compare BoomerangBigot, BlackRepublican, TheWhitestBlackGuy, FemaleMisogynist, GayConservative, and MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch. Can sometimes lead to DefendsAgainstTheirOwnKind. Contrast StopBeingStereotypical, when a character is criticized for the opposite behavior.
25
26	''This is not an Audience Reaction entry: only examples where one character is in-universe accused of betraying his category are allowed. Whether or not the accusation is portrayed as justified is worth mentioning, but not relevant to whether or not it counts as an example.''
27
28	[[noreallife]]
29	----
30	!!Examples:
31	[[index]]
32	* CategoryTraitor/AnimeAndManga
33	* CategoryTraitor/ComicBooks
34	* CategoryTraitor/FanWorks
35	* [[CategoryTraitor/LiveActionFilms Films - Live-Action]]
36	* CategoryTraitor/{{Literature}}
37	* CategoryTraitor/LiveActionTV
38	* CategoryTraitor/VideoGames
39	* CategoryTraitor/WesternAnimation
40	[[/index]]
41
42	[[foldercontrol]]
43
44	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
45	* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': When they're holding meetings at their [[HeManWomanHater anti-girls club]], the former sometimes accuses the latter of being a traitor to the male sex because he actually finds women attractive.
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
49	* In ''Animation/SheepAndWolves'', the dark wolves certainly see Grey and his pack as traitors to their kind for bucking the natural order and living in peace with sheep. In fact, Gark's whole motivation in the film for targeting Grey is his bigotry towards prey animals and disgust towards his fellow alpha wolf for 'lowering himself' to their levels, wanting to either teach him a lesson or make an example out of him to other wolves.
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Radio]]
53	* Appears a few times in ''Radio/TheSpaceGypsyAdventures''. DC Bones, as well as being a Federal Alliance officer, is also a Space Gypsy, like protagonist Gemma. This doubles as a MortonsFork for him, because he knows that to side with the Alliance would label him as a traitor to his clan, but to side with his clan would label him as a traitor to the Alliance. More often than not, he'll let his devotion to the Alliance preside over his loyalties to the Space Gypsies. This means that poor Bones is unable to try and reach out to Gemma, and convince her that he's not ''entirely'' bad, when he tries to talk to her in ''The Christmas New Arrival''.
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
57	* One of the reasons Radiant Rain hated Wrestling/MercedesMartinez was that Rain viewed Mercedes as a "fake Puerto Rican". Rain herself is neither Puerto Rican, being a woman from Minnesota who relocated to Hawaii, nor does she hate "real" Puerto Ricans, as she flirted with [[Wrestling/NelsonErazo Homicide]] and recruited Wrestling/IvelisseVelez for one of her {{power stable}}s. Rain's against Mercedes specifically for being unfamiliar with island culture, deeming Mercedes a fake "[[BigRottenApple Newyorican]]" who [[KnightTemplar must be destroyed]] during a [[SanitySlippage psychotic episode]] in Wrestling/{{WSU}}.(Mercedes is from Waterbury Connecticut, but among Rain's other targets was [[Wrestling/TheaTrinidad Divina Fly]], who IS a Puerto Rican from New York...and Niya Barela, a Rican from Las Cruces, New Mexico). Even after Rain calmed down and stopped trying to kill Mercedes for [[SevenYearRule a full decade]] she still expressed her dislike and mistrust of Mercedes every chance she got, while a [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter blissfully unaware Mercedes]] acted like she and Rain had become [[VitriolicBestFriends best friends]]. Martinez herself described Velez as "the wrong Puerto Rican" to represent Shine, but this turned out to be {{subverted\|trope}} in her case, as Martinez still considered Velez a Rican worth backing up if ganged up on by outsiders, she just disliked Velez as an individual...[[FireForgedFriends for the time being]].[[/folder]]
58
59	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
60	* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', it's hard not to find a faction of humanity that others have labeled as "traitors" or "heretics". In particular, the Chaos Space Marines descended from the Emperor's traitorous sons. And as for humans who joined the Tau Empire voluntarily or involuntarily and their descendants, all Imperial factions get a bonus to close combat against them -- many of these "Gue'vesa"[[note]]Literally "Human helpers"[[/note]] fight for the Tau not because they admire the Greater Good ideology of their alien overlords, but simply because they know full well that the Imperium will ''brutally'' torture them all to death should it capture them due to their direct or [[SinsOfTheFathers ancestral]] sinfulness.
61	* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': The Dwarfs [[FantasticRacism hate many races]] in the world - goblins, greenskins, ratmen, [[ElvesVersusDwarves elves]], but their greatest ire is reserved for the ''Dawi Zharr'', the Chaos Dwarfs. It is one thing to murder a dwarf, it is one thing to burn down Josef Bugman's brewery and drink all the beer, [[DisproportionateRetribution and it is one thing to underpay the dwarf stonemasons who built your castle by twelves pennies]], and it is even one thing to ''[[BerserkButton shave]]'' [[BerserkButton a dwarf]]... but it is a ''special'' stinging affront for your own kin to turn their backs on the Ancestor Gods and everything that makes Dwarfs great to go off into the wilderness to muck around with magic and the setting's ReligionOfEvil. The Dawi Zharr are disavowed by their proper kin and it is an exceedingly poor idea to [[{{Unperson}} even mention them within earshot]].
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Religion]]
65	* [[Literature/EpistlesOfJohn 1 John 2:15]] warns Christians to not associate with nonbelievers.
66	-->''"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the [[{{God}} Father]] is not in him."''
67	* [[Literature/TheQuran Surah Al-Mai'dah 51]] tells Muslims not to align with Jews or Christians. Though many interpreters say it is only about spiritual advice and not simple friendship.
68	-->''"Believers! Do not take the Jews and the Christians for your allies. They are the allies of each other. And among you he who takes them for allies, shall be regarded as one of them."''
69	[[/folder]]
70
71	[[folder:Theater]]
72	* In ''Theatre/FiddlerOnTheRoof'', the protagonist Tevye (a good Jew in a really conservative society, who is struggling with [[TroubledSympatheticBigot his prejudices and social pressure versus the emancipation of his daughters]]) considers his beloved daughter Chava to be past the MoralEventHorizon simply for wanting to marry a guy who isn't Jewish. Of course, {{it makes sense\|InContext}} [[ValuesDissonance in the historical context]] of pre-revolutionary Russia, given the tension in that time and place between Jewish and Christian communities (who often violently harassed Jews or forced them out of their homes, and we see both in the musical). And considering that Chava had to [[ConvertingForLove convert]] to marry a Christian man, it makes sense for the devoutly Jewish Tevye to see it as a [[BetrayalByOffspring personal betrayal]] as well.
73	* In ''Theatre/WestSideStory'', Maria is pressured to marry Chino simply because they are from the same ethnic group. When she falls in love with an outsider, all hell breaks loose. Interestingly, Chino never gets any EntitledToHaveYou lines, but that's probably because he's such a minor role in the first place.
74	[[/folder]]
75
76	[[folder:Web Animation]]
77	* ''WebAnimation/FreedomToons'': When a black guest on ''The Echo Chamber'' disagrees with the racial victimhood narrative, Dr. Mac somehow finds a way to declare him a white supremacist.
78	* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'':
79	** Blake was a former member of the White Fang, an organization devoted to fighting for the rights of the faunus, a race of part-animal, part-humans. Blake ended up leaving the organization because they had slid into extremism and violence, and Adam, the leader of the branch she was in, declared her a traitor for leaving ...although he had [[StalkerWithACrush other reasons for being upset at her as well]].
80	** In Volume 5 when Blake's father Ghira tries to tell the people of Menagerie that the only way to stop Adam's plan to kill High Leader Sienna Khan and destroy Haven Academy is to protect Haven Academy (and therefore all the humans there), Ilia Amitola, an EvilFormerFriend of Blake's who works with the White Fang, publicly denounces the Belladonna family as traitors and "the worst kind of Faunus" for even suggesting that.
81	** The Branwen twins, Qrow and Raven, were raised by bandits before becoming huntsmen. Raven eventually left the huntsmen and returned to the bandits while Qrow didn't. As such, they both see the other as a traitor to the faction they're loyal to.
82	[[/folder]]
83
84	[[folder:Web Comics]]
85	* In ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'': Multiple characters call out the main characters for being monsters that took on adventuring, especially the part about leveling up like regular Player Characters. They usually counter with how badass class abilities and plot armor make them.
86	** Duv declares Dies-Horribly and Saves-a-Fox traitors to goblinkind when they refuse to submit to her goals of goblin supremacy.
87	* In ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'':
88	** Kevin says his family of rabbits considers him and his adopted hedgehog daughter Lindesfarne "traitors" because of his MalignedMixedMarriage to Kell, a predator. Kell's wolf family doesn't go this far, but it's clear that early on, they disapprove of Kevin. The rabbits eventually accept Kevin back as one of them when they realized his hybrid daughter Coney is an asset to them, and Kell eventually won them over when she banned the hunting of rabbits during her brief stint as CEO of Herd Thinner.
89	** When Fiona's ears came in (fennec foxes have rabbit-like ears, Fiona initially took after her red fox mother) she briefly joined the Fennec Pride movement but left when they objected to her being in a relationship with a non-fennec (Rudy). She almost got her ears shortened as a result, but Rudy convinced her that she could still be proud of who she is, even if the movement didn't accept her.
90	** Kevin's ex-wife Angelique eventually lost the right to call herself a rabbit altogether after she betrayed her species by revealing some of their secrets to R.L., CEO of Herd Thinners. She just had plastic surgery to look like a rat and claimed she was that instead. ''Years'' later, she shows that she's still a traitor by directing Herd Thinners to exclusively go after rabbits, forcing the main characters to literally scare her straight.
91	* ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'':
92	** Kieri, an angel, is considered a traitor for her companionship with Buwaro, a demon.[[note]]Buwaro was adopted by an angel, but nobody outside the group knows that.[[/note]] One particular KnightTemplar angel attempted to kill her after she merely protected Buwaro. Her brother Kazai tries to write the relationship off as 'not your fault, you've been through a lot', but freaks out when she starts questioning the motives of Kazai's superior officer because of her new outlook on angels and demons; angels have indoctrinated themselves into following all orders and arbitrary customs at all times. Soon after, [[spoiler:the superior officer reveals she turned ''actual'' traitor because following orders prevented her from deciding who she could love]].
93	** Buwaro is also ridiculed by his fellow demons for having an angel girlfriend, and the more fanatic demons are dismayed when they get to St. Curtis, the town they are supposed to [[RapePillageAndBurn sack]] and find their fellow demons have assimilated into its society.
94	* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': Ruffle's brother and the other older Inak in her village berate her for befriending humans, and when they lock her in a closet she reveals that by this point she wants to ''be'' human rather than Inak and sees herself as fitting in more with her human friends than her own people.
95	* Played with in ''Webcomic/TheWotch''. At the beginning of the feminist arc, Anne gets mad with [[GenderBender at-the-moment Sonja]] because she reminds her that he IS a man, and not "a woman that sometimes is a guy" as Anne was saying.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Web Original]]
99	* Phase of the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'' gets it going and coming. He '''was''' a scion of the mutant-hating Goodkind empire, until he manifested as a mutant. His family sees him as a traitor to their cause. Now he's at [[SuperheroSchool Whateley Academy]], surrounded by most of the teenaged mutants on the planet. Lots of them know he's a Goodkind and treat him as a traitor to mutant-dom.
100	[[/folder]]
101

Context Main / CategoryTraitor