Troperville
Editing Help
Tools
Toys
|
"That's not a double standard. It's a standard for men, and a standard for women. That's two standards. A double standard would be what I just said, but twice."
— George Lopez
Double standards for the genders are Older Than Dirt; separate roles gender roles have existed for hundreds of thousands of years, stretching back to the dawn of humanity. The world has changed since then, of course, but writers (and the tropes they use) can take a long time to catch up. A double standard trope exemplifies this; these are tropes whose persistence reveals our collective assumptions about gender roles, drawing in one fashion or another on enduring, often unspoken assumptions that men should be like this and women should be like that.
Tropes can reveal these assumptions in odd and unintuitive ways. Inverting accepted gender roles in having our rough, tough Big Damn Hero turn out to be female in a shocking plot twist or sight gag can still be Double Standard, since the effect relies on the idea that it's surprising that a woman should be doing these things.
Women are not the only ones confined into gender roles by the assumptions underlying these tropes. Everyone knows that A Man Is Not A Virgin or that Men Are The Expendable Gender, after all. Other tropes reveal gender assumptions in a more complicated fashion; Rape Is Ok When It Is Female On Male reveals assumptions about both men and women — women are assumed not to have any sexual potency (so they can't hurt men with sex), and men, unlike women, are not considered 'defiled' or 'deflowered' by sexual acts (so men can't be hurt by sex, unless it's done by another man).
Remember that Tropes Are Not Bad, and that many of these tropes are only noteworthy because of their prevalence across entire genres or societies; one example in a particular work doesn't automatically mean anything on its own. It is only the fact that these tropes appear time and again that calls attention to them.
Tropes
open/close all folders
Sexist against men
- Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female On Male: In fictionland, women are weak, ineffectual and Closer To Earth. Consequently, women can inflict physical violence to men all they want, it can't be that serious. And if it is, it's "justified" since women are morally superior, hence use violence more wisely than men. As for psychological abuse, it doesn't count since it's Unmanly for a male to have feelings aside from fury and urges to kill so...yeah.
- All Gays Are Promiscuous: The homosexual version of All Men Are Perverts. But while female sexuality in the absence of men is a beautiful, chaste thing and lesbians are portrayed as loving and maternal, male sexuality in the absence of women is sexually predatory and insatiable. Add in some AIDS and the story becomes a metaphor for how male sexuality in the absence of women is not only dirty and filthy but lethal. One disturbing Unfortunate Implication of this trope is that gay men can't be raped by other men.
- All Men Are Perverts: No male is able to keep it in his pants. Male sexuality is often portrayed as "dirty", "stupid" and "demeaning to women".
- A Man Is Not A Virgin: Or if he is, he's inappropriate and pathetic.
- A Real Man Is A Killer: Justified historically and in tribal societies but elsewhere it implies that men ought to enjoy gratuitous violence if they want to be considered "manly". Non-agressive, peaceful guys are just pansies.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Goes hand in hand with Men Are The Expendable Gender.
- Bumbling Dad: "My dad's got no brains and I will NOT hesitate to tell him how much he SUCKS! But if I told that to my mom, I'd be skinned alive, and not only by her!"
- Closer To Earth: In modern domestic comedies and often in other shows, the woman is the more sensible, rational and spiritually inclined character to the oafish, impulsive, shallow man. In general, women are seen to possess automatic moral superiority to men. High Heel Face Turn is a related trope in which female antagonists come to their senses and join the good guys and gals more often then male.
- Compensating For Something: When was the last time you heard a woman being accused of having a wide vagina and trying to compensate for it?
- Crossdresser: The Reaction when people find out. How dare a man act feminine! A woman in trousers, shirt and tie is cool though.
- Does Not Like Men and He Man Woman Hater: Women who dislike men are portrayed way more sympathetically than men who dislike women, because men obviously deserve being hated.
- ...and consequently Licensed Sexist (A male sexist must have an excuse. A female sexist's excuse is men themselves.
- Domestic Abuse: Under the Primary Aggressor Laws (basically, arrest the bigger one aka 'the one with the penis') of over two dozen states in the US, if the police responds to a domestic abuse call, the man is arrested and taken to jail. Even if he is the abuse victim who called for help. Some domestic violence advocates
 explicitly tell men not to get the authorities involved unless their lives are in immediate danger as some men get arrested for domestic violence even as their wife is assaulting them in front of the police they called.
- In Spain, a husband-beater gets half the sentence of a wife-beater. By law.
- The Dulcinea Effect: The stupid husband of lame Distressed Damsel.
- Gendercide: Almost always applied to men and the world will often be shown as a Utopia without them. And if women are wiped out, men's only concern will be to simply finish the job and massacre themselves until there's no a single human being left. (With maybe some anal rape thrown in.)
- Girls Hit Harder Than The Villains: Relationship violence by women is almost always Played For Laughs. And if not, it's "justified".
- Groin Attack: Women will never be attacked here - other than Rape As Drama - but it's played for laughs with men.
- He Had It Coming: A Woman Scorned kills her husband for cheating on her, and is seen as absolutely justified.
- Found in Real Life, where women guilty of murder in such circumstances may retain media sympathy. Inverted in some cultures where women are disproportionately punished or killed for being unfaithful while men get off much lighter.
- Henpecked Husband: No one will take them seriously, but if they were women, everyone would SCREAM.
- Her Heart Will Go On: A man gets killed off to show off how much of a Plucky Girl his girlfriend is, and the audience will go "awww, she's so great." Rather like a genderflip of "Disposable Woman", but fewer people seem to get upset about disposable men.
- The Leisure Suit Larry: Unattractive tacky guy wants to get laid, hilarious! (The far rarer female equivalent would be an Abhorrent Admirer or just a slut, depending on how unattractive and tacky we're talking here.)
- Macho Disaster Expedition: Men are inherently idiotic once they take off to the country.
- Men Are The Expendable Gender: Unlike female characters, male characters don't start with audience sympathy, they have to earn it; male deaths aren't portrayed as being as significant or emotionally impactful as female deaths.
- While the trope is doubtlessly sexist against men more than against women, it has Unfortunate Implications for women as well. Think of the commonly associated dramatic phrase, "women and children" (as in "women and children first," or "the Complete Monster attacked women and children!"), which equates the self-sufficiency of women with that of young children. In general, this trope comes with the implication that the reason male deaths are more acceptable is that men are expected to be able to take care of themselves, while women are expected to be weak and to require protection.
- Men Are Uncultured: Because...Yeah.
- Men Don't Cry: Because if they do, they're less manly.
- Mistaken For Gay: Very few straight men admit to engaging in anal play, and even fewer will say they enjoy being on the receiving end. Because if you're a male who likes having a sex toy up the butt, even if said toy is handled by a female partner, then you must be gay, right? Because, you know, ASS = GAY.
- Mommas Boy: A woman dominated by her father is a poor victim. A Daddys Girl might be annoying, but not necessarily. A man dominated by his mother is an instant Butt Monkey and an Acceptable Target.
- Non Action Guy: Or rather, fan reactions to it. See A Real Man Is A Killer above.
- Parenting The Husband: because men (boys?) never grow up.
- Pedo Hunt: Male pedophiles are eviscerated and burnt at the stake by society. Female pedophiles? Hardly ever mentioned and given a "free pass" despite being guilty of the same depravity. In addition, guys seen talking to children who are not family members are automatically thought of as pedophiles due to this and All Men Are Perverts.
- Also, male victims of pedophilia perpetuated by females are actually lauded, and any trauma he may experience is completely ignored, especially if the perpetrator is attractive and young (ex., "hey, he nailed his hot Social Studies teacher, lucky bastard"). Conversely, female victims are always recognized as victims and handled with much more compassion, and this time even if the perpetrator is another female.
- In fact, that very perspective (the first part, about male victims being lauded) was pointedly mocked in an episode of South Park.
- Prison Rape: The "real" punishment of daring to break the law. Both sides are overwhelmingly male.
- Also Played For Laughs far more often with men, while in case of women's prison rape outside of pornography it's almost always played for drama.
- Rape Is Funny When It Is Male On Male: A subtrope of Rape As Comedy. Supports that a) Only a man can hurt another man by sex b) The victim is an Acceptable Target for not having been able to defend himself c) Unless it's Black Comedy, laughing at a female victim of rape is being a complete asshole.
- Rape Is Ok When It Is Female On Male: Women can't 'really' rape men, it is implied, so he must have wanted it or been so weak he's not worthy of sympathy.
- Runaway Bride: If a man leaves a bride at the altar, he's an asshole. If a woman leaves a groom, she just values her independence against men or has found her true love elsewhere.
- Sissy Villain: Masculine women are often heroes with suitably heroic deaths; feminine men? Evil incarnate.
- Turn Out Like His Father: Somehow, sons always take evil traits after their father. Some daughters do as well. But any good they may have in them always comes from their saintly mother.
- The Unfair Sex: To some writers, whenever a relationship goes wrong, it's always the man's fault, no matter if it's the case or not.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: A man going there is likely to be clobbered, whereas a woman who goes down the Trouser Space is at most frowned or yelled at.
- Water Works: Men's tears are more likely to be viewed as weakness, while a woman's Tender Tears are more likely to appear as proof of a tender heart. Manly Tears, if acknowledged to exist, must be used very sparingly.
- Why Did You Make Me Hit You: Male characters who employ this trope against female characters are evil; female characters who employ this trope against male characters are just really frustrated and upset.
Sexist against women
- All Amazons Want Hercules: Strong women can only find their fulfillment with stronger men.
- All Lesbians Want Kids: A so-called Truth In Television that is just not one. At all. But enforced many times and focused mainly on the difficulty of finding a semen donor, that invariably turns out to be a Straight man. Which proves one more time that Most Writers Are Straight Males, having only Fetish Fuel knowledge of relationships between women, and wanting to reassure themselves (and the male audience) about their own importance in women's lives, regardless their sexual orientation.
- Asian Airhead: An Asian woman? She must be a stupid bimbo, easy to manipulate and good service in bed for the Mighty Whitey!
- Chick Flick: According to media and those in power, women ought to enjoy romantic films and nothing else. Also, men who have watched such a film are Acceptable Targets or pansies. Women who don't dig such a genre are abnormal.
- Chickification: An extremely common trope that strips strong female characters from their independence, assertiveness and self-confidence as soon as they show a glimpse of femininity. Or simply because there is no other female on the main cast and someone has to be saved at one point. So Yeah...
- Clarke's Law For Girls' Toys: Toy adverts often contend that little girls are inherently mentally retarded while little boys are the epitome of intelligence.
- Cat Fight, Designated Girl Fight: When men fight each other, it's serious. When women fight each other, no matter how brutal and gory the battle gets, it is considered cute and arousing, thus dismissed as a Cat Fight.
- Disposable Woman: Women serve as plot devices in service of male character development or backstory, and are killed off or Put On A Bus as soon as their usefulness in this regard has ended. Usually the result of Executive Meddling, though plain old Bad Writing is sometimes to blame.
- Dumb Blonde: Although subversions are fairly common.
- Fag Hag: Women who associate closely with Gay men often suffer the same bias as Yaoi Fangirls and, as the title suggests, are more often than not portrayed as unattractive, overweight spinsters that are just desperate for male company but too ugly to get laid. Attractive portrayals DO exist but are less common. However, Heaven forbids they actually enjoy watching Gay men getting it on!
- Faux Action Girl: She supposedly kicks ass but we never get to see her doing it. Similar in theory to Miles Gloriosus, but in practice the latter boasts of his own prowess and his shortcomings are entirely due to his ego and cowardice, while the former is shilled by her compatriots and her inadequacy in combat carries the implicit message that a woman is too weak and too emotional to fight.
- Female Success Is Family: According to media, a woman just can't achieve major success/strength/power/badassery, in short anything important, without the help of an Always Male mentor/family member/friend/lover who is automatically stronger and cooler than she is. She will always be a superior man's daughter/ward/sister/lover/student before anything else.
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Home cooking is the quintessence of femininity. In the real world, however, professional cooking had only very recently began to open its doors to women. That women are by and large considered to be too weak, both mentally and physically, to handle the professional kitchen is still shockingly prevalent despite the recent emergence of female celebrity chefs.
- GIRL: How many males get this much scrutiny over their gender?
- Girl Of The Week: An Always Female Shallow Love Interest that often ends up in the fridge.
- Girls Are Really Scared Of Horror Movies
- Girls Need Role Models: Many depicted lean toward those that girls don't exactly need. And guys don't need any role models because they're not expected to challenge the gender role given to them by society.
- Give Geeks A Chance: Funny how only male geeks end up with the babes. This may be largely due to the cultural perception that there are no female geeks in the first place.
- God Save Us From The Queen: Women in positions of power are usually portrayed as shrill, PMS-ing, Manipulative Bitches or all-along incompetent rulers.
- Heir Club For Men: Justified by historical accuracy in period dramas, but still completely Truth In Television in many places.
- Hollywood Homely: Merely ordinary looks, never mind actual ugliness, is the ultimate no-no in Hollywood for women. However, unattractive males can have successful careers. Honestly, how many female equivalents of Woody Allen, Mike Myers, Jack Black, Edward James Olmos, Joe Pesci or Danny De Vito can you think of?
- Hysterical Woman: Holds that women must be more temperamental and neurotic than men, and therefore less capable, simply because they are women.
- Mars Needs Women: Goes hand in hand with Monster Misogyny. See below.
- Monster Misogyny: Women, being weak and easily frightened, make better victims than men. Carries even more Unfortunate Implications if the killing is intended to titillate.
- Most Common Super Power: There's nothing inherently bad with big boobs. The problem comes when there's excessive focus on them and not on more important aspects of her character.
- Most Writers Are Male: The source of many double standards.
- Moustache De Plume: The price to pay for female writers if they want to be taken seriously.
- Ms Fanservice: If the character is well-developed in other ways, it's not a serious problem; but often she'll be objectified and used for fanservice and very little else. And the male equivalent Estrogen Brigade Bait is nearly always a functional character as well as providing fanservice.
- My Girl Is Not A Slut: The boy, on the other hand, can be easy like Sunday morning and not get any flack from it.
- No Guy Wants An Amazon: Unless they resort to All Amazons Want Hercules, strong women are doomed to celibacy since they don't need to be protected.
- Quickly Demoted Woman: So a man can take the position.
- Really Gets Around: As usual with sexual activity, if it's a man, he's expected to be promiscuous and admired if he is. If it's a woman, she's just a slut.
- Real Women Never Wear Dresses: To many fans, it's impossible to be strong/badass if you're feminine! You must be a macho man in the body of an Action Girl, throw out your miniskirts, piss on men and insult any woman less "badass" than yourself, if you want some respect and be seen as a "strong female", else you're useless.
- Note that the trope deals with women displaying femininity always being negative characters, not with the fact of wearing a dress/skirt to fight which is another matter.
- The Red Sonja: Similar to All Amazons Want Hercules, it implies that a strong woman cannot feel fulfilled in a relationship, and/or that the man must be the one in charge.
- Right Through His Pants: Female nudity in media is far more prevalent than male nudity, particularly during sex scenes. This trope is very slowly becoming discredited as the perceived audience for current media expands.
- Ryona: Fan-made videos that fetishize violence dealt to women in fighting and survival games. The phenomenon carries many Unfortunate Implications and marks a particularly sadistic brand of misogyny. Related to Stuffed Into The Fridge and Monster Misogyny.
- Screaming Woman: A woman stands screaming and helpless as the monster advances on her. Cue her square-jawed male rescuer, arriving in the nick of time with his trusty sword/shotgun/other phallic symbol to pull her out of danger. Goes hand in hand with Monster Misogyny, and, as such, was far more prevalent in the black-and-white era.
- The Smurfette Principle: Count the male and female speaking parts in the cast of the top ten grossing movies in any year. Or in Tolstoy. Or Shakespeare. Or the Bible, Koran and Torah. Or the Greek myths.
- Sobbin Women: An Always Female kidnapping is love scenario.
- Standard Hero Reward: Doesn't take into account the princess's desire to marry or not to marry the hero. "Giving" her to the hero as a reward also implies that she is property.
- But genderflipped examples aren't that uncommon.
- And no one asks the hero if he wants her as a reward, either. Maybe all those heros were gritting their teeth and secretly thinking, 'Don't insult the king. Don't insult the king. Don't insult the king.'
- Standard Female Grab Area: Female Badasses are often subdued far more peacefully — and improbably — than their male counterparts like, oh I don't know, a hand on the side of the arm? Apparently it's enough to stop an Action Girl from doing something "silly"...
- Stay In The Kitchen: Can be played off as noble, if misguided, chivalry. But when it comes from male fans judging female characters, it's nearly always flat out misogyny.
- Straw Feminist: Because it distorts the real-world ideology of feminism into misandrism/female supremacy. There are self-proclaimed feminists who fit the trope, but they are relatively few and far between. In the media, however, all feminists tend to be portrayed in such a fashion.
- Stripperiffic: And its sub-tropes, such as Breast Plate and Thong Of Shielding - scant, usually impractical armor designed to show as much skin as possible. Common in RPGs, but notably less so in other genres and media; averted in some cases and with both genders fitting the bill in others. Frank Frazetta, who might be considered the grandfather of this trope, was about as fond of the Loin Cloth as he was the Fur Bikini, although he generally adhered to the standard convention that man in loincloth = Badass, woman in fur bikini = Fanservice.
- Token Minority: Women are often treated and included in media as if they were a minority that needed to be "included" on much the same basis as ethnic minorities. In reality, females make up a small majority in most developed industrial nations, and their low-and-only-slowly-increasing participation in media is an artifact of long-term social exclusion. On the other hand, this slowly changing phenomenon may be due to such reasons as a lower percentage of female actors, or a subconscious expectation by both sexes to see a certain distribution of sexes in media which naturally takes time to change. So Yeah...
- Twofer Token Minority: A non-white woman is treated as ticking two "minority" boxes. See Token Minority above.
- Vasquez Always Dies: Tough, badass women are more likely to die before the end of the story because a) No Guy Wants An Amazon, especially not one that isn't after Hercules and b) their deaths is often played off as a condescending aesop to female viewers about women who have the gall to leave the kitchen.
- White Dwarf Starlet: Getting older is forbidden for actresses. Male actors are just given different roles when they get old, and allowed go on playing romantic leads even when it gets a bit creepy. (Roger Moore in A View to a Kill was older than co-star Tanya Roberts' mother.)
- Slowly being worn at, with such actresses like Dame Judi Dench, Julie Andrews, Meryl Streep, and Maggie Smith. Still in force, in that all three women have extensive work history and acclaim.
- Women In Refrigerators: Male superheroes die noble, appropriately heroic deaths, and are often brought Back From The Dead for a second go at it. Female superheroes, and women who associate with superheroes, tend to die jarringly gruesome deaths, often paired with some manner of sexual humiliation, in order to motivate a male hero, and are far more likely to remain dead. At best, it's a cheap method of applying Emotional Torque utilized by bad writers, as something bad happening to a woman is supposed to pack more punch than something bad happening to a man. At worst, it comes across as a terrible sort of subconscious male power fantasy. Of course, not every female character death in comics fits the trope, but the number of those that do is deeply unsettling.
Sexist against either
- Acceptable Targets
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Compassionate, caring and intelligent men don't score girls-rugged bastards do. Likewise, women must only think with their vaginas and fall for said rugged bastards - often with the implication that said women either subconsciously desire to be treated like dirt, or are simply too naive to know what they really want.
- All Guys Want Cheerleaders: Cheerleaders are dumb, cruel and shallow by default, and if you like one of them, you'll never appreciate real good women.
- All Women Are Lustful: Should normally be the Distaff Counterpart to All Men Are Perverts but is currently a Forgotten Trope that is almost never used, almost never played straight and almost never treated as negatively as the above. Since women are supposed to have no sexual potency whatsoever, this trope only serves male desires better, even in porn.
- Amusing Injuries: Women are free to inflict comedic violence with impunity, especially against men, but injuries inflicted by men are rarely comedic, especially if they're inflicted on women. This is sexist against men in that it limits the roles male characters are allowed to take, but it's also sexist against women in that it carries a subtext that women are weak, and incapable of inflicting serious injuries.
- Be A Whore To Get Your Man: Modest, decent women never get the guy unless they start dressing and acting like wanton skanks. Because All Men Are Perverts.
- Beast And Beauty: ...and many other subtropes thereof, having a woman that must be hot and a man hat must be fugly.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Plain looking or truly ugly people are unlikely to be seen as good/redeemable persons. More often applied to females but males are also concerned. And if you're evil and hot, you must be redeemable somehow...
- Cute Monster Girl: The females are less monstrous than the males in any species, but sex appeal is only important for said females, not the males.
- Depraved Homosexual, Depraved Bisexual: More commonly applied to men - because lesbians don't exist except as decoration for men, or because 'depraved' refers in part to a sex drive, and in media, women don't have those. On the other hand, only men are capable of depravity, because women in the media are virtuous victims. Except when they're Lesbian Vampires.
- Different For Girls
- Dismissed Gender
- Girl On Girl Is Hot: But boy on boy is squick, and lesbians are only as good as the Fetish Fuel they provide.
- High Heel Face Turn: Due to the Closer To Earth rule, evil women are usually portrayed as more redeemable than evil men. Or as just too naïve, indecisive and emotional to choose their path by themselves and thus in need to follow a man. And this possibility of redemption is almost always proportional to the woman's attractiveness; ie if she's unattractive she's MUCH LESS likely to be redeemed.
- Hot For Student: It is acceptable for an authoritative adult, be male or female, to desire sex with minors; the minors should thank their luck instead of even thinking they were taken advantage of, as long as said authoritative adult is attractive. This applies more to female teacher/male student than vice versa.
- I'm A Man, I Can't Help It: Since All Men Are Perverts, having their way sexually is the only important thing to men in a relationship. And women have to deal with it, like it or not, else men are entitled to dump them or cheat on them.
- Lady Land: If it's portrayed as a Utopia because there are no men this is Straw Feminist times OVER NINE THOUSAND. On the other hand portraying it as a Dystopia because women should NEVER be in-charge of ANYTHING not related to household is extremely chauvinistic.
- Lifetime Movie Of The Week: The sexism against men by portraying them as perpetually greedy, perverted, selfish and cruel is a given. But it's sexist against women too, by portraying them as perpetual victims, both weak and virtuous, and telling them to expect this as their lot in life.
- Lolicon/Shotacon: If presented sympathetically, Lolicon objectifies little girls, and Shotacon is unlikely to be viewed as harshly by outsiders as Lolicon is— a la Dismissed Gender.
- Not always, of course. Some people view Shotacon with just as much revulsion as Lolicon. Its simply that such people are somewhat rarer than those who only hate Lolicon.
- Lysistrata Gambit: Where All Women Are Lustful and I'm A Man, I Can't Help It intersect. Played equally it's almost not sexist, showing both genders as slaves to their loins. More typically, it uses one of those two tropes more than the other.
- Men Are From Candy Bars Women Are From Shaving Products: A common assertion that exacerbates gender stereotypes to the point of absurdity in adverts.
- Most Gamers Are Male: Commonly held, much like There Are No Girls On The Internet, as a truism, when it isn't - now less than ever. On one hand, there is the assumption that females are rarely, if ever, interested in video games, a "male" form of entertainment. On the other, men are assumed to be interested in nothing but violence, titillation and explosions - when many, many story-heavy games have proven quite successful.
- Mother Nature Father Science: A specific subtrope of Harmony Versus Discipline where the Closer To Earth, kind and nurturing but squeamish and emotional woman plays along the logical, more analytical but assholish and conceited man who scorns anything not related to science.
- No Accounting For Taste: Mismatched couples almost ALWAYS make the man the less conventionally appealing one, as in Ugly Guy Hot Wife. This seems to incorporate a) it's much funnier to laugh at pathetic men and b) no one would EVER marry a woman who wasn't conventionally appealing no matter what. Sucks for both sides.
- No Guy Wants To Be Chased: Supports three Unfortunate Implications : a) Men are depraved sexual predators b) Women have no real sexual drives and those who do are inappropriate c) The social unacceptability of a woman asking a man out instead of the other way around.
- Otaku Surrogate: A woman interested in comics, gaming or science fiction? She must have been invented by a man.
- Rape As Redemption: Can happen for either gender - though for women, it reinforces traditional gender ideals by having her be 'mastered' by a man and therefore made into a good person; for men it is intended to destroy macho, usually chauvanistic pretensions. Essentially, a Take That to uppity men who fail to respect women as they should.
- Rape Is Love: When one character rapes another character to show how much s/he loves him or her. Seen most often in Romance and Yaoi fiction.
- Selective Squick: The practice of many Heterosexuals of dismissing as Squick any type of Fanservice that isn't supposed to appeal to them. In other words, Lesbian scenes and naked women to Straight females, Gay scenes and naked men to Straight males.
- Ugly Guy Hot Wife: Heavy Unfortunate Implications: a) Women are expected to overlook appearances and love men for who they are, regardless their sex-appeal b) Women MUST be attractive before anything else since men are too shallow and too sex-crazed to go past this c) The inverted version is only acceptable for comedic purposes d)Ugly men can still score more women than they would points in a shmup but ugly women shouldn't even exist.
- Wouldn't Hit A Girl: Women can hit men but men can't hit women. Women are too weak to be hit; Men Are The Expendable Gender.
- View Domestic Abuse about how Man hitting a Woman (especially face punching) is quite a Kick The Dog moment while a Woman hitting a Man is rarely ever seen this way.
Frequently sexist in execution or delivery, but not sexist in nature
- Action Girl: The trope was supposed to try breaking gender stereotypes, but now these sexist standards are very often enforced. Many media writers believe that an Action Girl needs no real personality aside of her fighting skills and often make them Flat Characters without any or few mental/emotional development, whereas Fan Dumb puts them in an incredibly high pedestal and then bashes other "weaker" female character types. And should an Action Girl fail to fulfill such stupidly high standards, she's slammed by almost everyone in fandom for the sin of "showing girly, weak emotions". See Tsundere and Real Women Never Wear Dresses.
- Affirmative Action Girl, Positive Discrimination: The effort is admirable, sort of, but it still leaves a sour taste.
- Anything That Moves: In theory applicable to both but much more often applied to females - especially in porn - since a male sex-crazed omnisexual is often much too threatening for the heterosexual male audience.
- Basement Dweller: Always male.
- The Bechdel Test: Not in itself but it highlights the fact that, in full-length films, women are a) rare, and b) mainly concerned with romance or the male lead. You will be shocked by the sheer number of films that fail at it...
- Bishoujo: There's nothing bad per se about characters who happen to be Bishoujo; however, they are frequently Ms Fanservice and show up in shows otherwise littered with other reminders that Most Writers Are Male.
- Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: Alien women are created almost the exact way as beautiful women but Alien men are created as monsters.
- Candlelit Bath: Equating to a dead person and often a woman, natch.
- Clothing Damage: At first only girls got their clothes ripped off, but the male examples are increasing. However, sometimes for men this is a drama or atmosphere thing, while for women it is nearly always a Fan Service thing.
- Coitus Uninterruptus: Applicable to both but almost always played in favour of the male not bothering to stop having sex while being given crucial info. Females will stop altogether or at least act embarrassed.
- Dead Little Sister: Most examples are obviously female. Also, the older siblings who become the heroes/villains are overwhelmingly male, and their reaction to dead above-mentioned sister is more important than the death of the sister itself
- Death By Childbirth: A mother's often a Disposable Woman otherwise unimportant. Could actually be said to look like a women-only version of Dropped a Bridge on (Her), depending on how much relevance the trope and character have in the plot.
- Death By Sex: Either of them will die, but most likely a woman.
- Deliver Us From Evil: If not set up right, makes for a High Heel Face Turn (with all implications in place) of Character Derailment proportions. That, and a man is much less likely to make a Heel Face Turn simply for being a father.
- Designated Victim: Often accompanies Chickification.
- Die For Our Ship: Females are way more often subject to this than males since romance is hardly ever as important to male characters as it is for female characters.
- Distressed Damsel and James Bondage: If they exist only to be rescued, it's sexist. While it's more likely to happen to a woman, when it happens to a man it's to showcase how badass the Action Girl who goes to the rescue is.
- Domestic Abuse: Male on woman violence is always bad. Woman on male violence is sometimes presented as ok. In anime, it's further justified if she's a Tsundere: Remember kids, she's actually flirting if she's verbally or physically abusive!
- Evil Matriarch: Because you almost never hear of a good matriarch, this is another trope full of underhanded sexism against powerful women.
- Fan Service: There's nothing inherently wrong with fanservice, be it a Walking Shirtless Scene or a woman sporting Absolute Cleavage - but if there's more of one than the other, you can bet the opposite gender will be annoyed.
- (There is also an unusual Double Standard in the perception of Fan Service. A scantily clad man is less likely to be seen as such - even when he is - while a scantily clad woman is almost always assumed to be there for no other purpose - even when she isn't. Male nudity, for example, is often filed under Fan Disservice on this wiki. Just take a look at the picture and quote on the page.
- Fragile Flower and Shrinking Violet: Women get depicted as painfully shy and weak much more often; however, they have a greater chance to grow out of it, and attacking them openly is seen as unforgivable in-story. When a man is depicted as such, though, he's an Acceptable Target and Played For Laughs, and no one will sympathize with him or be good to him, even if they are genuinely scarred by such an abuse.
- Gonk: Female gonks rarely show up with major roles in works of fiction, are less likely to portrayed with sympathy and way more susceptible to Fail Polish.
- The Ingenue and Man Child: Both describe adults with a childlike demeanor, but the former (female) has been considered a wholesome archetype for much of literature; and the latter (male) usually has negative connotations and is probably on its own less famous than its villainous subtrope (and although the Psychopathic Manchild trope is in practice gender-neutral, said characters are most likely to be male as can be seen from its mere name...). Because it's okay or even desirable for women to be naive, childish, and in need of protection, but men are fully expected to be mature and take care of themselves or there's something seriously wrong with them!
- Male Gaze: Focusing the camera on a woman's body, sometimes to the literal exclusion of her face, to define her by her physical appeal first and foremost. Comparable shots for men are likely to cause much whining from male viewers. However, note that Male Gaze is only sexist if it's meant to be the audience's view. If it is a POV shot, it's characterization.
- Funny how male characters who ogle females are much more likely to be "characterized" in this particular way than female characters ogling males...
- Mary Sue: The threshold for labeling a female character a Mary Sue is often lower than that for a male, and therefore a female will be more likely to have fans hissing "Sue, Sue, Sue!".This is pretty much due to the fact that Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls - teenagers mostly - and thus not always aware of the blatant Mary Sue-ness of their characters due to inexperience and immaturity.
- ... which leads to Jerk Sue (An assholish and violent character presented as ideal. Will almost always be hated by fans if female but not so much if male.
- Really depends, since a big part of the female Fan Dumb seems to love twisting female characters into Jerk Sues and presenting them as "ideal women".
- Millionaire Playboy and Rich Bitch: Both are filthy rich and fear not to display it. But the latter has much more negative connotations associated with it than the former and, obviously, is much more likely to be female, whereas the former is always male. (Unless the guy is also a Jerk Jock. Then he'll be the type to flaunt his cash and be completely stupid, but his dad will buy off the authorities whenever he does anything horrible.)
- Moe: Moe characters are frequently stupid, clumsy, naive, and female... And this is supposed to be cute and make the
male audience want to take care of them!
- No Bisexuals: Much more applicable to men, especially in the past few years. Selective Squick you know.
- Rape As Drama: Usually featuring a male rapist and a female victim, but sometimes inverted. Sometimes Truth In Television, but depending on portrayal, it can be sexist against men by making them all seem abusive, or sexist against women by making them all seem like victims.
- Samus Is A Girl: As explained in the introduction, having a badass, violent Big Damn Hero that turns out to be a woman all along is a Twist Ending because it relies on the general assumption that women are not supposed to take action in the first place, let alone be Badass, and even less be successful.
- Shock And Aww Couple: Applicable to either but almost always applied to women since this trope comes from the belief that women only seek romance out of convenience and self-validation.
- The Shrike Team: A team of female characters dying isn't sexist alone and shows they can die too, but this one is often put hand in hand with Women In Refrigerators.
- The Slacker: A nearly always male character that is not by itself sexist, but can easily be against either men or women because he is usually paired with a decidedly non-slackerish girlfriend - either he comes across as a lovable goof lumbered with a joyless, career driven Ice Queen or she comes across as an intelligent, responsible adult dating a moronic, willfully immature loser.
- Stalker With A Crush: Unwanted male stalkers are dangerous, cruel and irredeemable psychos (except in romantic comedies where they're seen as Dogged Nice Guys); unwanted female stalkers are inconvenient, pathetic or warmed up to in the end.
- Temporary Love Interest: Almost always female, almost always Stuffed Into The Fridge. The few male exceptions are backlashes or subversions.
- Tomboy And Girly Girl and Sensitive Guy And Manly Man: If either character type is presented as being better than the other, it's sexist.
- Tsundere: Goes both ways. On one hand, a Tsundere will be hailed and fetishized as a "strong female character" whether she truly is or not and used by the Fan Dumb to bash other female character types seen as "girlier, thus weaker". At the same time, said Tsundere will almost always be flanderized into being Ax Crazy or misandrist towards her love interest and/or other males, bringing up how violence against males coming from women is either "justified", "cute", or "for laughs."
- Unrequited Love: Not in itself but more often are female characters tarred with unrequited romance than male characters, for it is "manly" and normal for men to have no romantic desires whatsoever but all women should have feelings for at least one of the male characters.
- Why Would Anyone Take Him Back: Applicable to both but, as the title suggests, more often a man than a woman. Related to No Accounting For Taste.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: If the story makes a point of treating this as the only ideal behavior for a woman, it's sexist.
- Yandere: Relates to Stalker With A Crush above, and goes two ways: female Yandere are more common than male ones, but the female ones are less likely to be taken completely seriously, and are more often found in works with a semi-comedic tone, whereas male Yandere are nearly always found in serious drama. It is perhaps interesting to note that according to theory, the Yandere (or Yanderekko) may have started as a Deconstruction of some of the more stereotypical and impractical aspects of the Yamato Nadeshiko archetype (i.e., that women must always put their love first, etc.)
- Yaoi Fangirl: Media and viewers often depict them as shrill, brainless teenagers drooling over the villains and seeing subtext where there probably isn't any. If said "girls" are actually adult women enjoying man-on-man action, they are seen as utterly abnormal. Guys who think Girl On Girl Is Hot are considered much more "normal," though that in itself says something about perceived social norms. Further discussion goes here.
- It is true that the Yaoi fanbase has been deemed as quite a case of Vocal Minority (especially ever since they became infamous with Gundam Wing). Though ever since the Yuri fanbase is becoming more vocal, anyone who prefers Yuri over Yaoi has been accused of doing a Double Standard (regardless if they say anything bad about Yaoi) while the reverse is not as vocal. There is also on in the Media, while Girl On Girl Is Hot is a fairly popular sex fetish lesbians are still a bit more likely to be stereotyped as "ugly" than gay men. But still both the Yaoi and Yuri fanbases can be rather guilty of Selective Squick.
Non-Gender related
- Dub Text: While not in nature but there are certain types of Censorship that seem kind of questionable in more ways than one. While this can apply to gender roles such as the infamous censorship regarding Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune's relationship it can also apply to non-gender examples as well.
- A Million Is A Statistic: It doesn't matter what you do unless it involves established named characters regardless of whether if it actually should or not.
- Me Love You Long Time and Where Da White Women At: Interracial relationships are ALWAYS a touchy subject. These ones are no different. The former focuses on White man/Asian Woman, the latter on Black man/White woman. While the former seldom ever raises controversy, it's not the case AT ALL for the latter for reasons we shall not dwell on. And works that focus on the inverted gender versions (ie Asian man/White woman and White man/Black woman) are astonishingly rare and far between...
- It should be noted that this applies MAINLY to US works. European works are less prone (but not immune) to it, mostly because the ethnic mix is not the same.
- New Media Are Evil: Accentuate The Negative over anything bad about new Media regardless of whether if any older Media can be just as bad.
- Political Correctness Gone Mad: Plenty of examples such as how its Unfortunate Implications if a Minority is in a antagonistic or a pathetic role but it's OK if a Caucasian has such a role.
- Strawman Political: Namely for a Straw Liberal or a Straw Conservative namely if one side is given favoritism over the other.
- Vocal Minority: The more vocal one side of an issue is the more Demonization it gets regardless of whether if the other side can be just as guilty if not even more so of things like Fan Dumb. While this definitely can apply to Gender roles, it can apply to all sorts of other issues as well such as Race, Religion, to even things such as fanbases and more.
- What Measure Is A Non Human: If a show has averted Bloodless Carnage upon Humans it would be deemed FAR too graphically violent to be seen by children. But you can mutilate, smash and slice apart other types of creatures ESPECIALLY robots and that would be just fine though. To be fair creatures that are actual Real Life animals might be exempt but thats not always the case.
- Word Of Gay: Characters who never express sexuality are presumed to be straight, and if they're revealed to be gay it must be a scheme on the writer's part to manipulate the appeal of their work.
- On a related note, openly gay characters of either gender are more often than not assumed to be included by the writers as either a Token Minority or as Fanservice for the opposite sex, even when they are perfectly well-rounded characters.
TV Tropes
|
|
