Does Not Like Men - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): Psycho Misandrist; Misandry

Yasuna has it so bad, she can't even see men.

"She seemed to view guys the same way she viewed potatoes."

— Kyon, The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya

This rather vague phrase leads to tricky interpretation that's sometimes actively milked by the writers. Usually the assumption is that the character doesn't like machismo, or she has bad luck with men in her life, like her father or other relatives. That is, traits associated with men manifest into a dislike of men as a whole. This can pose a problem for any male lead trying to woo her, making it take much longer than suspected to win her over.

Generally, the author portrays the woman in question sympathetically, and vilifies whatever man drove her to hate the rest of his gender. A more sympathetic gender-flipped version of this is usually the backstory to the emotional Rescue Romance the heroine of a story provides. See Celibate Hero. (And, for younger male protagonists, Girls Have Cooties. Though heaven forbid an adult man isn't fond of women....)

Other times it's just lampshading to explain why a character isn't even seen with guys (not even offscreen), to entice shippers, or just to extend the possibilities of romantic entanglement you can put into a story. It's frequent that eventually one character comments on this and takes it in its most literal interpretation. Conversely, bifauxnen and 'mundane' lesbian characters never seem to use this trope.

Examples:

Anime and Manga

In most versions of Sailor Moon, Rei Hino is usually completely uninterested in romance and men in general, a lot of it coming from unresolved resentment of her emotionally distant father since he abandoned Rei's Ill Girl of a Missing Mom in a clinic during Mrs. Hino's last days, as well as her unrequited love for her father's assistant Kaidou who married another woman, despite her love for him. Late in the manga, when the villains torment her with this fact, Rei remembers that in her past life she had actually made an oath of chastity to Princess Serenity and is able to fully accept this part of herself. Her actual dislike of men dies down for the most part overtime.
- Amusingly, nearly ever other adaptation of the story ignores that convoluted explanation as part of the adaptation (Whether that's Distillation or Decay is up to you), especially the famous anime series where Rei is explicitly fond of flashy boys. None of this ever changes her apparent dislike though, so there are actually more jokes at her expense about 'not liking men.'
In Maria-sama Ga Miteru, Sachiko's dislike of men stems from snotty society men and a mutually uninterested early fiancé. This played up to the comedic point she can't even be around overly masculine men without being distressed.
- One of the DVD extras makes fun of this, when the neighboring boy's school is allowed to do a version of the show's opening credits until Sachiko arrives in a conniption fit and the girls scramble to change the scenery.
Akane Tendo from Ranma 1/2: Being attacked by all of the boys at school every morning because they think they have to defeat you to have a chance to date you can do this. After being chosen to marry Ranma:
Nabiki: "Well... you hate boys, don't you?"
Kasumi: "So you're in luck! He's half girl!"
- Though this seems to only apply to boys not men as she's okay with Genma and Tofu.
  - At the beginning, she was more than okay with Tofu.
- She's also fairly nice to Ryoga, despite the fact that he's nursing an all-consuming crush on her (and masquerading as her pet). Lucky for him he Cannot Spit It Out and therefore seems to avoid triggering her, although it doesn't earn him any success in the romantic department.
A more extreme version is Asuka Mizunokoji from Urusei Yatsura, who has a phobia of men based on the fact that she was kept isolated from men until she turned 16 to keep her pure. As luck would have it, her handmaids explained the concept of males very badly, and the first one she ever encountered was major-league pervert Ataru Moroboshi. Go figure.
Hiro from Wa ga na wa Umishi is a rather unconvincing example. It comes out later that she hates men due to her abusive father, but prior to that revelation she's been getting along extremely well with the other guys on her team. I guess it should be qualified that she hates 'some' men.
Hinako Aikawa, the lead female character in the manga Bitter Virgin, is unsettled by being around men and flinches if one happens to touch her — she is (at first) totally repelled by men, due to the huge trauma of having been constantly raped by her stepfather and impregnated twice, even giving birth once and having to give the child in adoption, all before high school. Ouch. (And guess who the lead guy, Suwa Daisuke, has to fall for?)
Sakurako Tenmaku from Ai Kora is known for being "stingy" toward men, stemming from an incident in middle school, where her friends turned on her because all the boys fell for her, though through no machinations on her part.
- On top of that, the only boy she really was interested in tried to rape her...
Galaxy Angel Rune's Apricot Sakuraba plays this trope in an unusual sense; she can interact with men without difficulty, but if a man touches her, her super-strength kicks in and she literally reflexively kicks the man's ass.
In Mahou Sensei Negima, Nodoka seems to have mild case of androphobia (greatly exaggerated in the anime), and an early manga bio states that she "dislikes men". However, this seems to be do to the fact that she's extremely shy to begin with, and, being a student at an all-girls school, has very limited experience with men. She seems to be getting over it though, thanks to a massive crush on Negi.
Love Hina also had this in the form of Motoko (at least early on, until she started falling for Keitaro), and at one point she's mistaken for a lesbian by a disguised Kanako. Who then proceeds to try and molest her.
Nao Yuuki from the Mai-HiME anime is a teen prostitute who uses her CHILD to rob and injure the men who call her up for dates, taking advantage of their lust for her. She's been doing so after a gang killed her father and left her mother (and more important person) comatose.
- Nao really isn't a prostitute. She may use enjo kosai, which can be considered a form of prostitution, but it doesn't have to go any further than a simple date. She even says that she doesn't let the men touch her.
Hisui of Tsukihime does not react positively when a male touches her, it's originally explained as her being germophobic. But in reality it's because after seeing her sister reduced to a broken shell after years of sexual abuse, she swears never to let a man touch her until Kohaku returns to normal. Naturally, Shiki quickly becomes an exception.
Yasuna of Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl has a hard time around men. It extends to the point she can't even see the face of a male clearly. This is most clearly seen in a sketch of her classmates she made, in which the girls' faces are fully drawn while the guys' don't go beyond basic lines. Pre-Gender Bender Hazumu, though, stands out as having some detail. This is partially due to the fact Yasuna accidentally mistook him for a girl when he was still a "he" and was able to see him.
- Oddly, though, we still still can't see male Hazumu's face, and in fact do not through the entire series.
Kanako, the protagonist of Maria Holic, does not like men to the point of breaking out in hives when she comes in contact with them. To alleviate this problem, she goes to an all-girls' school. As chance would have it, her ideal girl is in fact a crossdressing boy.
Eva from Karneval thinks that they suck. Cute, soft girls are her thing.
Kureha of After School Nightmare REALLY does not like men. This affects her dream state as she takes the form of her wearing a raincoat and stabbing everyone with umbrellas, since she was brutally raped during a storm when walking home from school alone. Her mother not picking her up because the father was beating her and getting yelled at because Kureha was now 'spoiled goods' didn't help. Her reason for becoming friends with Mashiro in the first place was specifically because of how he was half boy/halfgirl. She does eventually get along with some guys.
- What's screwed up about the premise here is that the main character's hermaphroditism is described as 'lower half female, upper half male,' which since the top halves of children's bodies betray nothing of their sex means he should have been taken for a normal girl until puberty. But he was raised as a boy instead. Bizarre.
  - This is explained in the last volume: All the characters are really souls waiting to be born. Mashiro is actually a pair of male and female twins, competing to determine which of them will survive birth.
In the Mai-Otome manga, Erstin Ho gets severe panic attacks around men, partially because she's also madly in love with fellow classmate Nina Wang. Awkward situations abound when the princess they've been designated to help protect (and who shares a dorm room with them) is actually a boy in disguise.
Kira of the series Mars has this reputation at school and at one point even states outright that she hates men due to being raped by her stepfather.
Usio of Shinshi Doumei Cross.
Azuma Hazuki of Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito doesn't seem to like anyone very much (except Hatsumi, whom she melts into a shivering puddle of yuri around), but it can be inferred she has a particular distate for men. On the other hand, when the only men you interact with are a perverted cockatiel, a dimension-warping madman, a few assorted spies, a demonic ninja, and someone trying to steal your love interest, that's no real surprise.
Mahiru Inami of WORKING!! has a deep-seated fear of men, believing they will attack her, though she seems alright around Souta. Except for the fact that she reacts to him like she does any man. With a punch to the face.

Comic Books

Man Killer from the Marvel Universe. Has no problems working with men who don't lie to her, but she still doesn't like them.
Y The Last Man. Victoria, leader of the Daughters of the Amazon, is an unsympathetic version of this trope, presumably because she is 'balanced' by every other female character (as just about every man on Earth has died, that's a lot of characters).
This is the general attitude of the inhabitants of the alternate reality Femizonia in the Marvel Universe.
Katchoo in Strangers In Paradise. Since she is also a lesbian this leads her to be described as a rampant Straw Feminist and bull dyke by unsympathetic characters.

Literature

Dilara in The Assassins Of Tamurin, due to being abused by the son of the foster family she lived with before being taken in by Makina Seval. The Despotana eventually uses this to manipulate her into "willingly" joining her Amazon Brigade at Three Springs.
Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. After getting jilted at the altar by a conman, she spent the rest of her life in her wedding dress (to remind her of what had happened) training her adopted daughter Estelle to hate men as well, inititially to protect her from them, but subsequently with the intent of using her to break men's hearts as revenge. Which is where Pip comes in...
The first Red Adept of the Apprentice Adept series. Stile uses this to trigger a Villainous Breakdown .
- Red was so widely misconstrued as a bad lesbian stereotype that Piers Anthony deliberately introduced a sympathetic lesbian character in a later volume. Which, in turn, made it look like he was just covering his ass.
  - Since when does Piers Anthony need to cover his ass? Most of his readers know to give him the benefit of the doubt (or correct him) when he shows his Cloud Cuckoo Lander side.
In The Wheel Of Time, the mission of the Red Ajah, a group within the most prominent society of female magic-users (channelers) in the setting, is to hunt down and "sever" male channelers from their power to prevent them from going insane and wrecking havoc. However, most Reds have extended this to massive antipathy toward all men, far above and beyond the "battle of the sexes" business that permeates the setting. A strict unwritten rule in the Red Ajah bans its members from bonding Warders like the other Ajahs; one Red was even beaten for suggesting it.

Live Action TV

Dr. Luisa Mercedes "Lu" Delgado from Strong Medicine. She often treats the men in her life (no matter if they're her love interests or not) real bad whether they're jerks or not, and that turns even worse after she's raped by a colleague and becomes a borderline Straw Feminist.
Emma Kennedy, Stacie's Jonas Quinn in season 5 of Hustle, tells Mickey she doesn't date, due to some bad experiences with men. Which doesn't stop there being a Will They Or Wont They by the end of that episode.
The part about this being more sympathetic than men who hate women was brutally deconstructed in an episode of Law And Order. A clearly sociopathic girl gets off on abusing and murdering boys younger than she is. The judge lets her off easy anyway because of this trope and the episode ends with the girl very creepily staring at another boy, clearly imagining toturing and murdering him.

Theater

Beatrice and Katherine, in Much Ado About Nothing and The Taming Of The Shrew respectively, are notorious man-haters. Although Beatrice is not so much a "Man Hater" as a "Benedick Hater."
- Katherine, the titular shrew in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew (and Kat in its update, 10 Things I Hate About You) is sharp-tongued, bad-tempered, and bitchy to pretty much everyone, until she is tamed by Petruchio (and his counterpart, Patrick Verona).
  - In Kiss Me Kate, the character even gets a musical number called "I Hate Men".

Video Games

In Baldur's Gate, Shar-Teel is one of the NPCs you can get on your team—but if you, the protagonist, are male, she insists on fighting a male from your party in combat and will only join if he defeats her. She had a horrible childhood, including slavery and rape, as noted by her backstory—but on the other hand, the game makes no bones about it and describes her attitude as Chaotic Evil.
In Morrowind, there's a female mage lord who is described as disliking men, though nobody knows why. She rules over an all female town, and if you're playing as a male, it's harder to get her cooperation for the game's main quest. If you're male, you have to hurl yourself on the ground and beg, or just kill her; if you're female, she immediately agrees to help you, makes approving comments about the Nerevarine being a woman and gives you some powerful summoning scrolls.
Dallas Wyatt from Valkyria Chronicles developed androphobia as a result of growing up attending an all-girls school before joining Gallia's Squad 7 as an engineer. This translates to a fighting penalty in-game (in the form of the "Man Hater" trait), where her stats will go way down when paired up with male squadmates. Conversely, she has a strong attraction to girls (especially heroine Alicia Melchiott), so pairing Dallas with female soldiers will cause her to start fighting better in order to impress them.
The first official English Fire Emblem game had Florina, the adorable Pegasus Knight who is incredibly shy around men. They Wasted A Perfectly Good Plot in regards to Sain's advances on her.
- There is some compensation, though.
It's not that Saber doesn't like men. It's just that as far as she's concerned, she's also basically a guy. And she can't be a male lesbian!

Webcomics

Near the beginning of Avalon, Joe tells Ceilidh that the unashamedly misandric Phoebe "really hates guys." Ceilidh shrugs this off until he follows up that she "really likes girls," which sets off an "is she or isn't she" subplot that lasts throughout. (Not only is she, she's the one who gets Ceilidh.)
Susan from El Goonish Shive discovered her father's infidelity at a very young age and was subsequently raised in a broken home by her deeply embittered mother. She eventually realizes (with a little help from a Gender Bender) that people make their own choices and "they're all like that" may have been serving as a backhanded way of excusing her father's behavior.
One of the initial defining traits of Kate on Misfile is that she can't stand to have any guy claim to be the best on any track she races. She's raced and beat every man to make such a claim ever since her sister was killed in a racing accident caused by chauvinistic male drivers.
In Sluggy Freelance, Gwynn tends to be like this. She's turned the Groin Attack into an art form and puts jerk guys into headlocks as a conditioned response. In fact, this trope is the one thing both her good side and her evil side can agree on.
Yuki appears to be like this in Menage A 3. Admittedly she has some good reason to dislike Gary personally, but even before he got handcuffed to her she responded with attempted violence to something he was doing which was technically her fault. (She had knocked him to the floor and accidentally ended up straddling his head, and her response was to accuse him of "violating me with his nasty nasal boy parts".)
- After seeing his drawings and discovering that he liked the non tentacle-rape-hentai manga of her father, she became MUCH more friendlier...
Lisa Vangough of Venus Envy. "I don't understand. Violence against men ALWAYS cheers me up!"
- There was a reason for that. And frankly, Lisa's a Jerk Ass to everyone most of the time.
Uranus (or 'Ana' for short) from Star Guys.
Jesse from Loserz is Portrayed as one of these, and then She comes out as a lesbian and sleeps with Jodie

Western Animation

Mrs. Janet Barch in Daria hated all men due to her horrible former marriage and ensuing divorce. She eventually ends up involved with Mr. Tim O'Neill, a male teacher who is shy, feminine, and sensitive.
Numbuh 86 from Codename Kids Next Door absolutely hates boys. Apparently she thinks that girls are much smarter than them, to the point that her favourite member of the Decomissioning Squad is Numbuh 91, because she's female.
- As time goes on, she seems to lessen this and is generally a bitch to both boys and girls equally.

Web Original

Survival Of The Fittest's answer to this trope is Melina Frost. Heck, she founds a group with the sole objective of wiping out the male competition on the island. The portrayal isn't at all sympathetic: she comes across as a raging, psychopathic misandrist. It's worth noting that some believe she is a Flanderization of her handler, who while sane and not at all violent appears to be equally misandristic, talking to the male members of the board as if they were dogs at the very least.
Hippolyta of the Whateley Universe. She's a six foot tall Hot Amazon who can bench-press over eight tons (which is a lot in the Whateley scheme of mutants). Her usual reaction to being admired by fellow high school students is to beat the snot out of them. Her backstory makes her attitude a heck of a lot more understandable; it would be pretty hard to go through what she's been through and feel comfortable with guys.

Real Life

Truth In Television: I'm sure we've all run into at least one woman who's gotten disillusioned with men due to one too many bad experiences with them.
- So what do you call a MAN who's this way towards men for the same reasons?
  - "Misanthrope" It's in the dictionary.
  - Well, the general perception is that if a woman swears off man forever it means that she's a strong, independant woman. If on the other hand a man swears off women for the same reason it means that either he's really a closeted homosexual, or he's just a crybaby who doesn't know how to deal with women.
  - Yes, but the question above was about a man who's this way towards OTHER MEN.
  - It's not considered very discordant of the norm, so is not called anything, except homophobia sometimes.
  - Not discordant of the norm for a man to prefer female friends and associates? What planet are you from?
Or a lesbian who dislikes male companionship.