History Main / PositiveDiscrimination

->''"See, it's not enough for the new black kid on the team to be just as competent as everyone else on the team, oh no. He has to be Super Negro and beat the snot out of everybody else in the entire gymnastics world."''
-->-- '''Website/TheAgonyBooth's [[http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Mister_T/Mystery_of_the_Golden_Medallion.aspx?Page=2 recap]]''' of the ''WesternAnimation/MisterT'' episode "Mystery of the Golden Medallion".

When the TokenMinority and/or [[TheSmurfettePrinciple Token Female]] character can do no wrong. They will never bumble or make a mistake, even in a show where the majority of the cast does. They will be much smarter and have more common sense than average, they have more knowledge and skill than they have any reason to possess given their professional background, and they will ''definitely'' be of [[CloserToEarth superior moral character]].

They may not be the star who saves the day (or they may be but will simply not get public credit for it, but since they're [[HumbleHero so selfless]] they [[ThinkNothingOfIt don't really care]]), but they will never hinder the progress of anyone else. In fact, this trope is far more blatant if they're in a relatively minor role but are consistently better than the male, non-minority lead at damn near everything.

You will virtually never see Native Americans in 21st century works without this trope being present in spades, usually in a hybrid of the MagicalNativeAmerican and NobleSavage tropes. The individual in question will be depicted as having a much stronger/more active connection to God or spirituality than whites are supposedly capable of, and will therefore automatically be morally superior as well.

Though this trope is more common with women, racial minorities, and gay/bisexual characters, it is sometimes applied to disabled people as well. This often leads to DisabilitySuperpower, HandicappedBadass, IdiotSavant, InspirationallyDisadvantaged, and other tropes that, done wrong, will imply that disability actually makes a person superior to non-disabled people. Unlike with other minorities, it has not yet become generally recognized that disabled people can be portrayed just about any way non-disabled ones can be. In an effort to compensate for a history of stigmatizing the disabled by using them as {{Morality Pet}}s, objects of pity, or the subjects of miraculous cures, writers will often completely overshoot the mark, going from "inferiority" to "superiority" and skipping "equality" altogether.

Sometimes the writers are being deliberately {{Anvilicious}} about equality and discrimination. Other times, they're just concerned about looking racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist etc. if the only X on the show does something wrong, since X isn't on the list of AcceptableTargets, and they overcompensate the other direction. Rarely do they come across the solution of simply having more than one X, which is, of course, half the problem of the TokenMinority and TheSmurfettePrinciple in the first place. Just like all tropes by their nature, this one has its own inertia and thus adding more X doesn't always solve the problem. Instead, often ''all'' of the X will still be unfailingly more competent and better than the others, essentially giving the message of "X is superior in every way to Y" explicit. Contributing to this is that [[EverythingIsRacist there are people out there who will indeed call the show racist/sexist/ableist/whatever if any of the multiple X on the show has any kind of flaw or suffers any kind of hardship]], and the writers may end up taking these accusations to heart if there is a significant number of them.

SpeculativeFiction can create a culture where [[LadyLand women]] or groups that are minorities in RealLife are in positions of power and no one thinks it's unusual (invoking FantasticRacism optional), but sometimes they dip into this trope anyway.

You would think stories with all-minority casts would be exempt from this trope, but not always. You'll notice that characters in such stories tend to have upper-class dream jobs. They won't just be a journalist, but the executive editor of their publication; a lawyer will be a partner at their law firm; a teacher will be a college professor ''and'' head of their department; and so on. Not only that, but such characters will be inexplicably young in these positions as well; such an achievement would be worthy of a movie in its own right. Rarely will you see a middle-class office drone or tradesman unless their job is central to the story. Needless to say, WishFulfillment may be involved.

The issue of Positive Discrimination can lead to a case of UnpleasableFanbase. On one hand, lack of Positive Discrimination, as stated above, puts the writer in danger of being called racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. just because they gave the TokenMinority [[FelonyMisdemeanor something as heinous as a common flaw]]. On the other hand, it puts the discriminatee in danger of becoming the CreatorsPet, since he/she will often be seen as a MarySue or MartyStu in the eyes of the audience that is blatantly shilled one too many times and it leads to implications that someone from X isn't equal, but superior and can do [[PuritySue no wrong]]. Even worse, in RealLife it tends to set the victim up for a dizzying fall: if they are assumed to be so hypercompetent, then their making even the slightest mistake will be seen as disgrace or, worse, hypocrisy. (To quote Creator/BillCosby: "If a white man falls off a chair drunk, it's just a drunk. But if a black man does it, then it's the whole damned Negro race.")

Some media may be shrewd enough to place the odd token flaw or NotSoAboveItAll moment, but usually dilute it as much as possible ([[InformedFlaw occasionally to the point of near non-existence]]), or at least emphasize the fact it is rare. In other cases they may actually indeed be just as flawed as the rest of the cast, but [[SelectiveEnforcement treated]] [[TheUnfairSex as better]]. In the long run, however, their shortcomings will usually at the very least be [[IdiotBall far less]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero detrimental]] than others'.

Compare CloserToEarth and TheUnfairSex. If a LadyLand is a utopian paradise, it's probably running on this trope. Almost all instances of YouGoGirl are this, when women are displayed as superior to their male competitors in sports or other traditionally male domains. The InnocentBigot may display Positive Discrimination, but in this case it will be {{lampshade|Hanging}}d as a bad thing. YouAreACreditToYourRace is a related trope. Taking the polar opposite tack leads to MightyWhitey. Almost always leads to a RightWayWrongWayPair.

[[noreallife]]
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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Advertising]]
* Played ridiculously straight in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJXwFHAyAf4 this]] commercial for some sort of oven cleaning product. From the woman standing in the background with what can only be described as a scowl on her face, to the tagline "So easy...even a man could do it!". It's actually rather disgusting.
** Said advert received 663 complaints from men ''and women'' (men claiming it portrayed them as idiots, women claiming it supported out-of-date stereotypes regarding women and the [[StayInTheKitchen kitchen]]). Amazingly, they were ''not'' upheld - which sparked backlash from people saying an opposite advert would be shot down immediately. The ''Daily Mail'' had a field day.
** The natural outcome of a reverse example was when DIY chain B&Q jokingly advertised a product as being so simple even a woman could use it. As soon as any controversy flared it had to rewrite.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN5o1PtpXAM This]] Butterfinger commercial. It goes just like any other Butterfinger commercial, man tries to steal Butterfinger, and suffers the consequences from his friend. In the last three seconds, some random female appears and tells the men, "You guys are idiots." The line offers nothing to the commercial; there was no reason for its inclusion other than to be insulting.
* The ads for Flash in the UK seem to be aware of this trope such as one had the mother coming home to find the kitchen in a complete mess and storming all over the house looking for her husband. The husband uses this time to quickly clean the kitchen up and then position himself in the living room so that when the wife comes in to scold him about the mess she looks back to see it clean and is left speechless.
* Used in this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlu8zawoXTg Mario Kart 7 ad]]. [[spoiler: The incredible opponents are Japanese girls.]]
* Seen in one AT&T commercial, where four businesswomen (two of whom are minorities) and one white businessman are looking for a network provider and seek help from a female AT&T employee. Naturally, the women are the ones asking all of the 'smart questions' and displaying any business sense, while the guy is shown to be completely clueless and only going along with what the women are doing.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHYZtPA2Tss The "Take the Subaru" commercial]] features several white kids, ages 5-16, being told by a parent "you're not taking that," referring to some sort of household object (in one case, nunchucks) that was about to be used for a ''Series/{{Jackass}}'' style stunt. The lone African-American teenager at the end asks if he could go out in the rain, his mother approvingly tells him to take the Subaru.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* In ''Manga/Eyeshield21'', Patrick "Panther" Spencer, a well-known, dark-skinned individual, gets this treatment. By the final story, where a chapter or play doesn't seem to be able to go by without saying he's greater than everyone else due to "his black genes", it truly sticks out. Though early on, Panther's main trait was his being a {{Determinator}} (he worked hard to impress his racist coach, misinterpreted the racism as his not being good enough, and worked even ''harder''). While his race did come into it as described, it's not like they had the "he's awesome because he's black!" attitude the whole time.
* Nils Nielsen is the only genuinely black Gunpla Fighter in ''Anime/GundamBuildFighters'', and one of the precious few black people in the entire Franchise/{{Gundam}} world in general. He's a 13-year old ChildProdigy with several [=PhD=]s, as well as the son of a [[GreatDetective famous detective]] and a prominent female martial arts champion. On the other hand, he does mix up his Chinese and Japanese cultures when he builds a Japanese-themed Gundam that fights using the Chinese martial art ''fa jin'', something that gets {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by the show's Japanese cast members.
* Motoko Kusanagi of ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'', the sole female on her team, is the most skilled member of Section 9, being an expert hacker and skilled in both hand-to-hand combat and firearms. She even outdoes some of the other team members at their own specialties. Anyone fighting her will lose because the Major is a GeniusBruiser and will turn people's advantages against them.
* Shirow Masamune loves this trope. Deunan from his previous manga ''Manga/{{Appleseed}}'' is much less perfect and relies heavily on her much more level-headed partner/boyfriend Briareos. Yet she is still the only woman of the unit and by far the most badass officer on the force.
* Kirika and Mirielle from ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' are assassins who commonly use bumbling male thugs for target practice. Most male antagonists fall under the "bumbling thug" descriptor. When they go up against more elegant, dangerous, and skilled opponents, the opponents are almost always female. In an aversion, the only one who manages to successfully manipulate them into serving his goals and get away with it (read: live) is male.
* Played awkwardly straight in ''Manga/SoulEater''. Soul is a pervert, and Maka scolds him for it. Black Star is an arrogant asshole, and Tsubaki is often called the truly strong one in their partnership. Thankfully, the Kid-Liz-Patty trio seem avert this trope, as Patty is just as crazy as Kid is obsessive, and Liz, while the OnlySaneMan, is very easily disgusted or frightened, and keeps her mind on fashion and beauty.
* There are two female Espada in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', past and current. [[note]]And Cirucci but she isn't considered one anymore.[[/note]] Apart from Starrk, they're the only nice ones. They're also stronger with only two Espada stronger and [[spoiler:Harribel is the last Espada defeated, taken down personally by Aizen. And the two female Espada seem to be the only ones that actually get to live]].
* Tends to happen when an [[TheAnimeOfTheGame anime of a game]] that allows the player to pick between a male and female protagonist does a WhatIf episode showing what would happen if the female protagonist [[SchrodingersPlayerCharacter got to the plot first]]. ''Anime/YokaiWatch'' had one where Katie was shown to be better at collecting medals than Nate would have, befriend powerful Yo-kai, and was much more helpful and respectful to Whisper, while the last episode of ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'' had Djeeta blaze through the same plots Gran took the whole season to finish and accomplish near all the classes, with just enough time to have a BeachEpisode with her crew and team up with fan-favorite characters.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* A particularly common theme in comics is to have black scientists as well, especially circa the 1970s or 80s, where it would likely have seemed ironic and well-intentioned of the writers - Comicbook/{{Cyborg}}'s parents (and his love interest at STAR Labs), Bumblebee of the Comicbook/TeenTitans, and more. Marvel examples include Thunderball (the ''only'' black member of the universally idiotic thugs in The Wrecking Crew was the brilliant nuclear physicist), Vermin, and streetwise more standard-type geniuses like Hobie Brown, among others. There's also Chemistro (Hood's go to science guy) and Deadly Nightshade from ComicBook/{{MODOK}}'s 11. Also Mister Terrific, who is usually portrayed as the smartest member of the [[ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica JSA]] and the team's go-to science whiz. He's generally called the third smartest man on Earth.
* The reason that ComicBook/BlackPanther's African country of Wakanda should be lifting into the air and hovering far above the backwards, petty influence of all those...well, every other ethnicity there is...any day now. However, the country of Wakanda is shown to have its own problems, mainly infighting between other African nations, and that they're xenophobes, but taking into consideration the histories that other African nations have with foreign powers, you can't really blame them.
* When writing ''[[Comicbook/NewMutants New X-Men]]'', the creators were careful to avoid any African-American stereotypes when it came to Prodigy. Taking that idea to its natural conclusion, the character ended up as a genius with the superpower to absorb the knowledge of those around him. Thankfully, he's a well-rounded character, which kept him from becoming a CreatorsPet.
* There was a time in the 1980s when Creator/MarvelComics' two flagship ensemble teams, the Comicbook/XMen and ComicBook/TheAvengers, both had black female leaders. However, there's a reason why ComicBook/{{Storm}} caught on with readers and became a very popular character and [[CaptainErsatz Captain Marvel]] (yes, that [[ComicBook/{{Nextwave}} Captain Marvel]]) did not. The latter was a girl scout who was as close to being TheCape without actually wearing one, whereas the former actually had more than one dimension and is an interesting character in her own right.
* In addition to Storm of the X-Men and Monica "Formerly Known as Captain Marvel" Rambeau of Comicbook/TheAvengers and ComicBook/{{Nextwave}}, Slingshot naturally gravitated to the leadership role of ComicBook/{{Dynamo5}}, Skyrocket was the field leader of the Power Company, Misty Knight led Heroes for Hire, Comicbook/{{Vixen}} briefly gravitated to the leadership role of the Franchise/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}}, Jet of the Global Guardians, Vaporlock of Infinity Incorporated, Kid Quantum II of the ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}, Amanda Waller of the ComicBook/SuicideSquad... if you put a black woman on a superhero team, chances are she'll be running the show eventually. Oh, and Bumblebee ended up leading Titans East on the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' cartoon.
* Although in theory ''[[ComicBook/TheSimpsons Simpsons Comics]]'' (like ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' itself) is non-discriminatory in its negative stereotypes and ''everyone'' was supposed to be a blockhead, the Superior Squad (a superhero team led by Bart Simpson's favorite comic-book character Radioactive Man that fought supervillains between the 1950s and 1990s) mostly adhered to this trope. The team consisted of six men and two women - and guess which two were the most positively portrayed? One of the females, Lure Lass, was stereotypically perfect, while the other, Weasel Woman, did have ''some'' flaws but was braver and more badass than everyone else on the team, including Radioactive Man himself. (One reader even wrote in to comment that Weasel Woman really should have been named the team leader.) In contrast, the two most profoundly flawed Superior Squad members were male, as well as the two ostensibly most powerful: Purple Heart (who later changed his name to [[BourgeoisBohemian "Bleeding Heart"]], then to [[DarkerAndEdgier "Heart of Darkness"]], then to "Bleeding Heart" again, and finally to [[BloodyHilarious "Bloody Heart"]]), who was your standard [[SmallNameBigEgo Ted Baxter]] type, and RM himself, who was well-meaning but very much a WindmillCrusader and rather stupid. Weasel Woman being a female version of Wolverine (created well before X-23 came along) might explain her popularity, though in the "Simpsons" universe she doesn't seem subject to [[WolverinePublicity Weasel Woman publicity]].
* Amy in ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'' was made into TheLancer with ImprobableAimingSkills due to ExecutiveMeddling. She had few flaws compared to her very flawed male counterparts, and Tekno (another thoroughly competent female character). Ironically her initial persona was surprisingly close to the lovesick CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass Amy of the later games. While Amy herself is a much more abrasive character in the [[ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog American Sonic comics]], it plays this straight with a fair few other characters. Sally and Bunnie are usually more rational and CloserToEarth than many male Freedom Fighters, who are often harbored by significant flaws like arrogance or temper issues, meanwhile the female leads' shortcomings are often more minor or down to circumstance than deep personality issues (e.g. Bunnie's robotization, Sally's responsibilities as leader and monarch). Julie Su leans less into this vein, more or less acting as a DistaffCounterpart to Knuckles, though is still ''slightly'' more rational than him.
* Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya of the ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' universe are both Gotham City police detectives, and Commissioner Gordon always puts them at the forefront of any "major crimes" case. Bullock, who first showed up in the original comics in the mid-1980s, is a large white man (albeit a vaguely "ethnic" one, as he was voiced by an Italian-American actor in [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries the animated series]]). He was originally a plant installed in the police department by an underworld syndicate, only to perform a HeelFaceTurn and [[BecomingTheMask start working for Gordon for real]]. Despite this, Bullock is still a loudmouthed, hot-tempered, stubborn, self-important FatBastard type who [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking eats too many donuts]] -- and, to top it off, is also commonly shown to be a hypocrite, such as when he chides Batman for working outside the law but also regularly flouts police procedure himself (and in the comics, after Bruce Wayne has his back broken by Bane and is replaced by his apprentice Jean-Paul Valley, Bullock actually praises the new Batman for being excessively violent with criminals, even helping him by giving him files on suspects that the police can't finger). Then we have Montoya, [[CanonImmigrant a character created for the animated series who subsequently found her way into the original comics]]. She is a Latina, and (in the comics at least) a lesbian; she is also a much more pleasant person to be around than Bullock, is athletic and beautiful (although somewhat mannish in the early years of the animated series), always (with a few exceptions) obeys Commissioner Gordon, and has no flaws other than [[WideEyedIdealist being a little too idealistic about crime-fighting]]. The discrepancy between Bullock and Montoya was never worse than when the two of them battled the hulking vigilante Lock-Up hand-to-hand: Bullock did most of the work but couldn't quite bring the big guy down, only for Montoya to jump onto Lock-Up's back and easily knock him unconscious by hitting him in the head with her pistol; when the other cops arrived, Montoya got all the credit. This is subverted by the Bullock and Montoya [[{{Expy}} Expies]] in ''Film/BatmanBegins'' and ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', the first two movies of Creator/ChristopherNolan's ''Batman'' movie trilogy. It's not that the Bullock character here is depicted in a positive light (he's ''even worse'' in this version), but the Montoya character, Ana Ramirez, turns out to be a weak, weaselly woman who betrays two of her best friends to ComicBook/TheJoker (getting one of them violently killed) for her own purposes. She pays for it by being held at gunpoint and forced to submit to a [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech Reason You Suck Speech]] from [[EvenEvilHasStandards Two-Face of all people]] - and then, when Two-Face's coin lands with the "good" side up, sparing Ramirez's life, Two-Face just [[WouldHitAGirl punches her in the mouth]], knocking her in a heap.
** It should be noted that the comics version of Montoya underwent a large amount of character development in her time, developing a number of realistically unflattering character traits, including an extremely vengeful attitude and eventually alcoholism and a bad smoking habit.

* In issue ten of ''Franchise/{{Batman}} and Robin'' (Comicbook/New52 version), a BigBad gathers together various people that feel like they've been injured or wronged by Batman. Almost all of them were injured through the results of their own actions and stupidity, or in one case, were simply embarrassed. The lone female of the group is also the only one whose injuries were purely the result of Batman's actions towards her, thereby making her the only one with some small amount of legitimacy to her anger. Her injuries are also relatively minor and no more disfiguring than many body piercings... that apparently she simply decided to keep rather than have them removed.
* Black-a-Jack in ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen''. [[note]]who is named Galley-Wag in the story and based on the mischievous but gentle Golliwogg from the childrens book The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and Golliwogg written by Florence Kate Upton in 1895[[/note]] Where do we start? His oversized head houses a brain similar in density to a black hole. He has to step lightly so he doesn't crack Earth in half. He disables any humanoid opponents just by raising his voice. He builds himself a language of his own that seems to splice and synthesize English and Dutch at will, because saying just one word at a time is a dullinquent waste of vocablishment; he builds himself a spaceworthy flying ship seemingly powered by the scent of roses; he's the single most interesting, possibly most in depth, inarguably by far the most intelligent, most funny, outrageous, sexy, free-spirited and most phenomenally powerful being encountered in this work of infinite fiction; he doesn't even show up on the page very often as the writer probably realizes nothing could stop him from [[EnsembleDarkhorse stealing the show]] and depriving it of drama. ''And'' he has a '''huge'''...personality.
* Every single ''Franchise/{{Archie Comic|s}}'' ever printed that pits the boys vs. the girls in any way shape or form ''will'' have the girls completely and utterly destroy the boys in every conceivable way possible. Most common in sports stories, where the girls will either beat them directly or the girl's team will do ''much'' better in their games than the boys do in theirs.
** Similarly, is Riverdale's resident CanonSue Chuck Clayton. Said character has zero flaws whatsoever, is Riverdale's top athlete who plays on every team, a terrifically talented artist, an A student, has a hot steady girlfriend who he rarely (if ever) has any quarrels with, has his father on staff at school meaning he's guaranteed access to a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, and is basically beloved by the entire town. Really the closest thing to a "flaw" he has is he's not much of a ladies man... and that's only because for the longest time [[ValuesDissonance they didn't dare put him with anyone other than the one Black girl in school]].
* ''ComicBook/FutureQuest'' (the ComicBook/HannaBarberaBeyond cross-over of their 1960s action-adventure animated series) might be better named ''Invasion of the Mary Sues''. For example, Cobalt, a female [[TheImpossibles Impossible]] introduced in the series, [[SpotlightStealingSquad immediately proves more powerful and useful than all three male characters combined]] and frequently treats the trio condescendingly while [[BlaseBoast casually commenting about how easy it is for her to use her superior powers]]. Similarly, Professor Linda Kim-Conroy, a replacement for [[WesternAnimation/FrankensteinJr Buzz Conroy's]] conveniently dead 'dad-scientist', is [[SpotlightStealingSquad gratuitously retconned]] to have created the famous [[WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest spider-bot of Doctor Zin]], [[KillSteal gaining authority as a character]] [[CharacterShilling by theft from the character of Doctor Zin]]; in one issue, she is shown a number of times with Doctor Benton Quest and Doctor Zin, and in almost every scene, she looms in the foreground [[DemotedToExtra while even the famed Dr. Quest is relegated to a background character]]. This becomes even more noticeable because all the male characters respond to the female characters as unquestioned equals (or superiors) and do nothing to merit any contempt; not even the villains are sexist.
** Sadly, were it not for her [[KillSteal gratuitous theft of credit for Doctor Zin's spider-bot]] and PositiveDiscrimination aspects, Professor Kim-Conroy would otherwise be an interesting character.
** This gratuitious level of PositiveDiscrimination is a shame since it discredits some genuinely interesting new female cast members, such as secret agent [[FrontlineGeneral Deva]] [[TheAce Sumadi]], as well as a welcome reappearance of [[WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest Jezebel Jade]] and [[WesternAnimation/TheHerculoids Queen Tara]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* Scott Adams, the writer/artist of the comic strip ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'', has trouble including minorities in his central cast because he loves [[{{Jerkass}} deeply]]-[[ButtMonkey flawed]] characters, and doesn't want get angry letters by creating dumb, criminal or lazy minority characters.
** So he created Asok, an intern from India who's a foil to the rest of the cast. He's technically brilliant, hardworking, honest and nice. His only flaws are inexperience and wide-eyed naivete. He's TOO nice and TOO trusting. Adams still got letters.
** Following reader complaints that Tina the Tech Writer was too stereotypically female, he created Antina, the "anti Tina," a female character who had liking for sports, a muscular build, and short hair. Adams claimed that readers were not happy with her either, because they thought he was making fun of lesbians.
* Delta, the main black cast member of ''ComicStrip/{{Luann}}'', is the smartest and most level-headed of the entire group. Unless you count "being a workaholic" as an actual flaw, she's about as absurdly perfect as they get. (She was written out of the strip after the main characters graduated from high school. In an [[http://thecelebritycafe.com/2016/11/interview-greg-evans-creator-of-comic-strip-luann/ interview]], cartoonist Greg Evans explained why, saying, "Delta was always a hard character to write because she’s too good (giving a minority character negative traits is always problematic).")
* Dr. Liz Wilson, the female veterinarian of ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}, has it all. She's a hot babe, a caring doctor, and she's smart. Back when the strip played up the romantic antagonism between her and Jon Arbuckle (before she and Jon finally became a couple), Liz was consistently portrayed as a goddess whom Jon could never measure up to, and he was lucky to be even breathing the same oxygen as she. Really, her only perceptible flaw was her DeadpanSnarker behavior toward Jon (which Jon never seemed to notice). Just to make things even, though, she ''did'' shoot down Jon so many times, and so coldly, that after a while, people stopped laughing at Jon being idiotic and becoming resentful towards Liz for being so mean to him. Played more straight in ''WesternAnimation/TheGarfieldShow'', where Liz is far less snarky and irritable and willingly dates Jon from the get go. Jon, while not quite as brainless as his comic counterpart, is still pretty pathetic.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'', Astrid has established that she is not only the most competent trainee but the ''only'' competent trainee. The others (who are mostly boys) barely do anything to the dragons.
** Astrid's distasteful physical abuse of Hiccup is [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale treated as comedic flirting]] which he comes to accept as [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale her right]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/MrAndMrsSmith2005''. Jane Smith is professional and usually the one to be in control of the situation. John Smith makes bumbling mistakes and more than once seems to succeed purely on luck. He is also not as cold-hearted as his wife. It appears she paid for that skill with her charisma and wisdom stats.
* Occurs in [[TheFilmOfTheSeries the movie version]] of ''Film/GetSmart'' due to ValuesDissonance. Agent 99 being the competent and experienced professional while Maxwell Smart was a blundering incompetent was originally a surprising and subversive twist.[[note]]Remember that the tv series ''Series/GetSmart'' was a ''Film/JamesBond'' parody[[/note]] Today it just seems like this trope. In fact they seem to have made Maxwell ''more'' competent in order to compensate. This may be to rectify the fact that in the original, 99 ''admires'' Smart, likes him being in charge, and is prepared to completely ignore his lack of ability in favor of his experience, character, and tendency towards dumb luck. The modern 99 is clearly aware of Max's inexperience, so they had to give him at least some capabilities. The funny thing is that the experienced character is younger than the inexperienced one in real life - Creator/AnneHathaway is twenty years younger than Creator/SteveCarell. This is actually referenced in the film. 99 reveals that she recently underwent plastic surgery after botching a mission and had the surgeons make her look younger. Smart's inexperience is mostly due to him having been too obese to be a field agent until just before the events of the film.
* George A Romero's Film/{{Living Dead|Series}} trilogy played this fairly straight:
** Black Ben in ''Film/{{Night of the Living Dead|1968}}'' is not only the {{Final G|irl}}uy, but the only person in the film to be competent at both gunplay and tire-iron-to-temple combat. He was also smart and resourceful, and not stupid (Johnny or Mrs Cooper), emotionally unstable of incapacitated (Barbara and Karen) or just a plain {{Jerkass}} like Harry Cooper. Tom and Judy are fairly useful, but not as useful as Ben and they're the first in the house to die in an accident that was their fault. Keep in mind though, this was likely unintentional, as the script didn't call for Ben's character to be black, and Duane Jones was just the best actor to audition for the role.
** The rest of the trilogy plays it fairly straight. In ''Film/{{Dawn of the Dead|1978}}'' the African-American SWAT officer is both the groups' best fighter and savvy enough to not get overconfident, and the film's survivors are him and the only female of the group. The same goes for Film/{{Day Of The Dead|1985}}, as the female and/or non-white characters are both the most moral in the film, and its only survivors.
* A scene in ''Film/{{Dogma}}'' depicts two angels condemning a room full of businessmen for their ([[CorruptCorporateExecutive many]], many) sins such as child molestation, squandering family inheritance money, extramarital affairs, disowning gay kids, incest, etc. Every one of them are male, and the only female in the room is a secretary, whose worst sin was not saying "God bless you" when one of the angels sneezed. Well, that, and the golden calf.
* ''Film/TheBourneSeries''. All the important female characters are pretty unambiguously good; except for Bourne himself nearly all the important male characters are corrupt and/or outright sociopaths (except for Simon in ''Ultimatum'', but he ends up being [[spoiler: TooDumbToLive]]). Creator/JuliaStiles's character does spend the first two films trying to kill Bourne, but only because she was given false information. Averted in ''Film/TheBourneLegacy'' where the main villain has a henchwoman and one of the soldiers sent to kill Marta, and apparently the boss of the mission, is a woman.
* Much hoo-ha was made over ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle'' starring non-white main characters as stoned slackers, but the writers still went out of their way to mention how [[BrilliantButLazy both are brilliant students with near genius-level IQs who simply have a problem with staying motivated]], whereas various white characters are uniformly portrayed as total idiots and/or {{Jerkass}}es. Protagonists in other stoner comedies --[[OlderThanTheyThink including the non-white]] Creator/{{Cheech and Chong}}-- are freely made to be as stupid as possible without any [[InformedAbility "No, really, they're super smart!"]] qualifications, which are tough to reconcile with all the [[IdiotPlot boneheaded decisions]] that drive any good Stoner Comedy.
* This is one of the rules set down for ''Franchise/TheLoneRanger'': all villains had to be white to avoid accusations of racism. One might feel that, if it weren't for the historic setting, it would be almost hypocritical.
* Creator/SidneyPoitier's most famous starring roles in ''Film/LiliesOfTheField'', ''Film/ToSirWithLove'', ''Film/InTheHeatOfTheNight'' and ''Film/GuessWhosComingToDinner''. For the most part, all these roles have Poitier playing men who are nearly perfect specimens of humanity except for a bit of righteous anger at injustice. ''Dinner'' is the most blatant with character being less a man than an demigod of perfection.
** Stanley Kramer, the director/producer of ''Dinner'' argued that Poitier's character had to be perfect because the only objection to his marrying Spencer Tracy's daughter was his race.
** Lampshaded by Matt after he has someone check up on John. "I can certainly understand why he didn't have much to say about himself. Who would believe him?!"
** This is a bit of TypeCasting as Poitier is a demigod of perfection [[RealLife IRL]].
** Hilariously {{Subverted| Trope}} in ''Film/{{Sneakers}}''. For most of the film, Poitier's character is his typical eloquent, composed, genteel family man. During the film's climactic confrontation, however, he and Dan Aykroyd's character are kidnapped by a pair of mooks. Poitier turns to Aykroyd, says "Hey, you know why they kicked me out of the CIA? My temper." and proceeds to beat the crap out of one of the mooks, as he screams, "Motherfucker, mess with me and I split ya head!".
* Lampshaded in ''Film/TheAnimal:'' Miles, the only black man employed at the airport, is constantly complaining that, because he's black, the others treat him as if he could do no wrong, and ignore anything he does - such as smoking in a federal building - that would prove otherwise. This becomes a ChekhovsGun when Miles claims to be the monster to keep the mob from killing the main character. The mob immediately disbands to avoid getting charged with a hate crime, and Miles stands there as they walk off, screaming about 'reverse racism'.
* Cleverly {{averted| Trope}} in the otherwise forgettable Paul Hogan comedy ''Almost an Angel''. A wheelchair-bound man is being a JerkAss in a bar and Hogan calls him on it. When the other bar patrons get angry over Hogan coming down on a guy in a wheelchair, Hogan pulls a chair out, sits down in it, and then challenges the guy to a fist-fight since they were now on equal terms. And wins. This earns the respect of the JerkAss, who stops being such a JerkAss for the rest of the film.
* In the future of ''Film/{{Virtuosity}}'', the prisons are filled to overflowing with white people (who are all white supremacists). In fact, Creator/DenzelWashington's character may be the only black guy in prison in the future. And he's a cop. And it was a bogus rap.
** Not bogus. He did mow down the camera crew after [[spoiler:his wife and daughter were killed by a maniac]]. While they were TooDumbToLive, it doesn't justify ''not checking your targets'' before firing on full auto. It's not clear why he was put in prison instead of a mental asylum, though (YMMV on which is worse).
* Creator/GeorgeLucas's ''Film/RedTails'' does this with the African-American Tuskegee Airmen, not by making them unusually good, but by making their white counterparts incredibly incompetent, instead. It's not that they're incompetent, but that they're reckless and glory hungry and leave the bombers they're supposed to be escorting unprotected to go after shoot down German fighters.[[note]] Itself an instance of HollywoodHistory, inserted for dramatic effect[[/note]]The Tuskegee pilots are not above this, especially Lightning, but their commanding officer Col. Bullard orders them to stay with their bombers at all costs. There's also more of a risk for the Tuskegee pilots compared to the white pilots; if they don't do their jobs correctly, they'll be sent back to doing reconnaissance missions in rural areas so they need to be more competent and careful than the white pilots, to prove they deserve their jobs escorting the bombers.
* ''Film/InAWorld...'': In-universe, Lake Bell's Carol is straight-up told that she was given the part of voice-over in the ''Amazon Games'' trailer for this reason.
* Briefly discussed in ''Film/StandAndDeliver.'' The movie is about a teacher getting his below-average class to pass AP Calculus. When the Educational Testing Service comes in and accuses them of cheating, the teacher argues that they're only suspicious because the students are Latino. The (black) agent points out that "There are two kinds of racism: judging a group because they are a minority, and ''not'' judging a group because they are a minority."
* In ''Film/TheGamersDorknessRising'' a female joins the group and two of the guys flip out (the other two being the ex boyfriend and the DM who knew ahead of time.) And:
** In spite of being completely new to gaming, she's able to build a monster 9th level fighter using only the Players Handbook and a combination of feats that only exist in this movie that the {{Munchkin}} {{Powergamer}} RulesLawyer somehow missed. She's far more mature than the other players and after only one game session is able to give the GameMaster all the insight he needs to run his group correctly. The guys are a milquetoast, a {{Jerkass}}, and two emotionally stunted clowns.
** Circumstances are contrived to make sure her character is the most effective. She excels against several weak opponents, but her low hit points make her weak against a tougher foe and the group has no real tank due to this.
*** It's been said they've managed to alienate all the Male gamers (even the eleven year olds) with their {{Jerkass}}ery, so going outside NoWomansLand is their last option. Being a newcomer leaves her less jaded and still FunctionalGenreSavvy enough to appreciate the story the GM was working so hard to write. As evidenced by [[spoiler: using a very rare unlimited wish so that a dorky but lovable {{N|onPlayerCharacter}}PC could be resurrected and RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap. The resident {{Munchkin}} berates her for wasting her potential GameBreaker on puny CharacterDevelopment and says ScrewThisImOuttaHere]]. She's also Kas's former girlfriend, and seems to be pretty good at predicting his behavior.
* Done in the ''Film/HarryPotter'' films with Hermione Granger (much less so in the books). The film version of Ron is rather {{Flanderiz|ation}}ed, being much more cowardly and incompetent than he is in the books, with most of his good material being given to Hermione. One major example is in the first film, when the PowerTrio is caught by a man eating plant. Ron panics and is nearly crushed by the plant, while Hermione is the first to figure out how to escape, and subsequently saves Ron. In the book, while it is still Ron being crushed, Hermione is the one who panics and Ron has to yell at her to snap her back to her senses. She is still the one to save him, but if Ron hadn't kept a cool head (while being crushed to death), he might not have survived. Averted from the fifth film onwards. Notably, when the kids are being restrained by the Death Eaters, Ron struggles against his captor while Hermione just cowers in fear. And Ron is given a few CMOA in the seventh film to balance things out a bit.
* The early movies starring Creator/AdamSandler would often show not just Adam's character but practically everyone else to be annoying, bizarre, or just plain unpleasant (due to RuleOfFunny). The one exception would be the pretty young woman whom the Sandler character lusts after, who was always about as absurdly perfect as it could get: always did the right thing, never disgraced or embarrassed, and without any but the smallest flaws that could be easily ignored by the story. The implication was that Sandler didn't deserve such a perfect creature and had to spend the entire movie reforming his behavior to be worthy of her. As time went on, the usual Sandler formula began to be subverted. In ''Film/BigDaddy'', for instance, the girl Sandler is with at the start of the film is even more morally flawed than he is, and [[BreakTheHaughty receives her comeuppance in the final scene as most of the movie's characters (both male and female) laugh at her]]. And the remake of ''Mr. Deeds'' [[InvertedTrope turns the trope completely inside-out]]: the heroine of the story is actually a ''villain'' at the start of it (well, more of a DefectorFromDecadence) while Deeds (Sandler) is IncorruptiblePurePureness personified. The girl ends up having to suffer quite a few indignities (including a brutal TheReasonYouSuckSpeech) as part of her HeelFaceTurn and to prove to Deeds that ''she's'' worthy of ''him'' - and, just to add insult to injury, also discovers that in ''this'' film, SlapstickKnowsNoGender. ''Film/TheWaterboy'' subverts this, too: Sandler's love interest is good-hearted, but also somewhat trashy and a petty criminal to boot.
* ''Film/SawVI'' both plays it straight in the first trap and lightly lampshades it in two later scenes; the hanging trap, where the main character has to choose between two employees; an elderly woman with failing health but a family and a young man who's perfectly healthy but has no-one [[spoiler: he chooses the woman]] and the carousel trap, in which he has to choose two out of his six employees for survival [[spoiler: he chooses two women; one because she's a single mother (playing it straight) and the other who's suggested to have been ''written out of her parents' will'' chosen at random (lampshading it)]].
* Lampshaded in ''Film/MissCongeniality''. Victor the beauty-pageant coach is explaining to Gracie how he had a near-perfect record of the girls he coached winning the pageant. The one year his girl lost? The winner was a deaf-mute. [[InspirationallyDisadvantaged You can't beat that]].
* In ''Film/{{Flatliners}}'', medical students putting themselves through {{Near Death Experience}}s to try and glimpse the afterlife are tormented by the vengeful spirits of the people they have wronged in their lives; they can only stop them by CrossingTheBurntBridge. All the men in the group have to deal with some pretty serious sins, while the only woman in the group's only sin is [[spoiler:having a veteran drug addict father who committed suicide out of shame when she as a little girl walked in on him hitting up, through no fault of her own]]. In the original script, her character actually had an affair with her college professor; when she was caught out, she villainised him and claimed he was sexually abusing her.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Creator/DeanKoontz often does this with his disabled characters. Needless to say, this annoys actual disabled people.
* The saintly Uncle Tom in ''Literature/UncleTomsCabin'': Harriet Beecher Stowe intended him to be a model of a perfect Christian: he was portrayed in the novel as being young and strong but still aspiring to be nonviolent. It eventually backfired when later readers began to interpret Tom's [[StupidGood goodness as weakness]], and a different version of the character emerged in minstrel show adaptations (which Stowe neither approved nor profited from): an older, weaker man who groveled and kowtowed before whites and was essentially a slavery apologist. Thus we have UncleTomfoolery.
* Of the four protagonists of Patrick Tilley's ''The Amtrak Wars'', the two guys are pretty deeply flawed, get slightly better or a lot worse, and die. The two girls wind up more or less saints by the end, and truly live.
* Subverted in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'', where 71-Hour Achmed tells Vimes "''Truly'' treat all men equally. Allow Klatchians the right to be scheming bastards."
** The Watch series has this as a running theme, especially in ''Discworld/MenAtArms.'' Due to the [[FantasticRacism speciesism]] that pervades Ankh-Morpork, Lord Vetinari's demand that the Watch better represent the city's "ethnic" makeup means including a dwarf, a troll, and a [[RunningGag w]][[spoiler:[[DiscriminateAndSwitch erewolf]]]] on the Watch.
** ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}'' plays this trope absolutely straight with goblins.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/NewsRadio'' -- the sole black character, Bill's co-anchor Catherine Duke, was by far the least ridiculous person at the station. Also the dullest, which is why few noticed her departure in the middle of the fourth season. Dave and Lisa were also more or less normal, as well as more successful. Still, in one episode when Bill is listing the positive traits of all his coworkers, for Catherine he simply says, "You're a woman, and you're black, oh what I wouldn't give!"
* ''Series/TheOfficeUS'': Even though Stanley and Darryl have clearly been obnoxious or inappropriately insubordinate, Michael constantly ignores it for the cameras, fearing accusations of racism.
* ''Series/SpinCity'' averted this cleverly with [[TwoferTokenMinority gay black guy]] Carter. Carter was highly intelligent, extremely good at his job and often acted as the voice of reason, but he was a flawed character in other ways such as his neuroses and hyper-sensitivity to racial and sexual discrimination.
* In the BBC version of ''Series/RobinHood'', the character of Djaq is a [[TwoferTokenMinority double token minority]]- the one non-white outlaw and the only female member of the group. She is frequently shown to be more intelligent than the other characters and is usually the one to tell them off for being idiots, kicks butt while fighting, has incredible healing powers, and can always get herself out of a fix with her Saracen know-how. It got worse in S3, in which Djaq (whose TwoferTokenMinority status was at least alleviated by a likeable personality and a plausible backstory for her assortment of skills) is written out and replaced by Kate, whose characterization was a mess of {{Double Standard}}s. Essentially, the portrayal was a strange blend of [[DamselInDistress blatant sexism]] and [[FauxActionGirl wannabe feminism]]: on the one hand, the only female of the gang was invariably the one that was constantly getting arrested, kidnapped or injured (usually due to her inability to keep a lid on her emotions), her only objective on the show was to become Robin's girlfriend (with a LoveTriangle with two other outlaws on the side), and she was an otherwise completely useless member of the gang who contributed nothing and was in need of constant supervision. At the same time, Positive Discrimination played its part considering none of the male outlaws ever seemed to notice just how much of a liability she really was. Instead she was allowed to [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale abuse and criticize them constantly]], was never required to take responsibility for her actions, and had all the outlaws fall inexplicably in love with her despite her serious attitude problem. Too useless to be an ActionGirl and too obnoxious to be a worthy DamselInDistress, no one truly knows ''what'' the writers were trying to achieve with her.
* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d and then massively subverted in the ''Series/InspectorMorse'' episode "Twilight of the Gods." Nobody, including Morse, wants to believe anything ''too'' bad about Andrew Baydon--despite how unpleasantly he treats other people--because he has a Nazi concentration camp tattoo on one arm. In fact, the tattoo is a fake, designed to cover up what Baydon was ''really'' doing during WWII.
* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' had Sweet Dee, who started out in this trope but was quickly {{averted|Trope}} when the writers realized there was no reason Dee would hang out with such a horrible group of people if she wasn't just like them.
* It's been noted (half-jokingly) that the only people to get a definitively happy ending at the end of series four of ''Series/{{Skins}}'' are [[spoiler:the lesbians and the black guy]].
* Parodied in ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'':
-->'''Joy:''' We're gonna require a second opinion from a real doctor. You know, a Jewish one.\\
'''Doctor:''' I'm Indian. We're the new Jews.\\
'''Darnell:''' I thought that was Koreans.\\
'''Doctor:''' They wish!
* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' occasionally mocked this with Turk's history. Including the time he got 3rd place in the science fair without entering, and how he's photoshopped multiple times in his college brochure to make it more diverse. Then he's put as the face for an outreach project for the hospital.
** Turk himself really disliked this, saying that if he wanted to be portrayed as a role model for being just a good medic, fine, but being singled out as the token and being used for positive discrimination annoyed him.
* In-universe FantasticRacism version here: In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Dr. Pulaski is well-known for her casual dismissal of Data as anything other than a mere machine. However, she is shocked--''shocked''-- when Data is defeated in a chess-like game by a flesh-and-blood man, fully expecting him to ace the challenge. Pulaski may count as an aversion here since her FantasticRacism was a much bigger flaw than those of any of the rest of the main cast..... Only she was never called out on it and instead [[CharacterShilling everyone pays lip service]] to [[InformedAttribute what a loving and caring doctor she is]] (at least partially because some scripts were written for Gates [=McFadden=]'s Dr. Crusher, who actually ''was'').
* Parodied in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', where Marshall's father suggests he borrow an umbrella from the Koreans down the hall, since Koreans are apparently all wise enough to be [[CrazyPrepared prepared for any situation]] and compassionate enough to lend their things out to neighbors. Marshall is just as confused as everyone else. The Koreans ''did'' lend him an umbrella. Lily even lampshades it later by calling it "positive racism" in an attempt to cheer Marshall up.
* ''Series/KeyAndPeele'':
** [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] in the "Racist Zombie" sketch, where the planet is hit by a full-on ZombieApocalypse, with the narrative following two black guys and a white guy. In a subversion of the BlackDudeDiesFirst trope, the white guy is violently killed and eaten while the zombies ignore the two black guys, who eventually realize that the zombies are racist and refuse to eat black people. The sketch ends with a group of black survivors having a massive, jovial barbecue while the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt rest of the world goes to hell around them]].
** Another sketch, "Sex With Black Guys", has the duo overhear a pair of white women chatting about black people and what they must be like. Some of their assumptions, like that [[BlackIsBiggerInBed black guys have big dicks]] and are sensitive to women, make the duo feel flattered. But then the women also bring up stereotypes like black guys never having fathers or being inherently subservient to white masters, which gets the duo ''very'' offended. The two women flip-flop back and forth between praise and taunting, making the guys rather conflicted about whether it's worth trying to flirt with these girls or not.
* This has been a criticism of ''Series/GameOfThrones'' depiction of Brienne of Tarth. While she is still a credible badass in the books, the show drives this home by giving her extra fight scenes where she goes up against some of the best swordsmen in Westeros like Jaime Lannister and Sandor Clegane and wins. These scenes are not in the books, and generally serve little narrative purpose beyond the {{fanservice}} of the fight and reinforcing how awesome she is when she inevitably wins. From the other side, it's been pointed out that [[WorfHadTheFlu the men she beats in these fights are never at full strength]].
* ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'' has a relatively minor example. While the show is filled with well-rounded characters of almost every imaginable race, gender race and sexual orientation, it's somewhat noticeable that the most good-natured prisoner at Litchfield -- by a pretty wide margin -- is the sole transgender character, Sofia Burset. Tellingly, her closest competition in the niceness department is probably Sister Ingalls, the former ''nun''. While Sofia has her share of personal drama, she's one of the only prisoners who's consistently friendly to Piper from the beginning, she had one of the most stable pre-Litchfield lives of any of the prisoners, and her crime (stealing credit cards) is one of the most minor of any of them.
* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' has gotten some flak for trying a little too hard to push the ActionGirl trope. Originally the show had two combat-capable male characters (Coulson and Ward) and one female one (May) though May was generally regarded as the best of them. This got a little more complicated as the show progressed - Ward left the team, his replacement Triplett [[spoiler: was killed off]], and Coulson was promoted to Director and stopped doing fieldwork nearly as often. Meanwhile, Skye TookALevelInBadass (rather quickly, considering her rather lack of fight scenes the season prior) and Lance Hunter and Bobbi Morse were added to the team. Mack was also introduced, and eventually revealed to be pretty tough, though he dislikes fighting and won't do it unless forced (and in fact spent the first half of season 2 pretending he couldn't). This left a ratio of roughly one active male fighter to three female ones on the team, and again, the women were usually portrayed as better. When the agents fight each other, the fights have always either ended ambiguously (May's first fight with Ward), with the woman winning (May's second fight with Ward, Bobbi sparring with Mack), or otherwise shown her as the better fighter despite a loss (Bobbi's fight with Ward, where she manages to fight him evenly until Kara, another female character, joins the fight on his side, despite Bobbi having spent the last few hours ''being tortured'' and not being in any condition for a fight). Then Simmons, the female half of the team's science duo, starts training, while Fitz is content to remain a NonActionGuy.
* Deconstructed in ''Series/BrooklynNineNine''. Holt is both black and gay, which made his early police career very difficult as the 1970's through 80's were a much less tolerant time period. However , in the present the problem has swapped: he finally got the various promotions he had earned over the years, but only because his higher-ups want to make themselves look good. This infuriates Holt, as it makes him feel like he didn't truly ''earn'' his position. Not only that, but he had to constantly struggle with his superiors because they wanted to [[ReassignedToAntarctica shunt him off to a quiet but visible desk job]] so they could tout their progressiveness without putting him in charge of anything.
* ''Series/RedDwarf'':
** The seventh season introduces a female crewmember who quickly proves the most competent of any of them (not a challenge given the competition, granted...) They thankfully backs off this some in later episodes. It should be pointed out, however, that she came from an alternate universe where the Red Dwarf crew were ''all'' more competent than their "regular" universe counterparts. A recurring theme has Kochanski berating Lister for not being as competent as ''her'' Dave. However, there is a lot of implication that they were more competent ''because'' of her, so it still stands.
** A subversion is Holly from Series 3-5, played by Hattie Hayridge. The character admits in one episode to being a "deranged, half-witted computer" and in another can't even count without banging her head on the screen. That being said, Holly still seemed smarter as a female, especially in episodes like "Backwards" with her theory on "The Big Crunch" and in "Polymorph" she is actually able to recognize the creature (a shapeshifter) when even Rimmer (who is always insulting Holly's intelligence) is too distracted by its current shape (his mother).
* In the comedy ''Chalk'', Suzy Travis is the sarcastic, intelligent straight man to the rest of the teaching department's idiotic fools -- especially deputy headmaster Eric Slatt. However, this is subverted in the second season as she slowly turns into Slatt herself. Likewise, Eric's wife Janet is a typical CloserToEarth sitcom wife. However, it's averted entirely with Ms Trippley, a complete mess of a woman who ''sacked'' all the students at Galfast High School. Twice. There's still something to be said for the fact that while there are {{Straight M|an}}en amongst the female staff, all the male staff have individual quirks and flaws.
* In the short-lived series ''Series/TheLoneGunmen'', Yves Adele Harlow was the lone female on the primary cast, and also the only fully competent one. The individual characters all got their moments to shine, but Yves owned almost every single time she was on-screen (and off-screen). Only exceptions: in the pilot, Frohike managed to outwit Yves, and Jimmy manages to save the day often as well. (Yves was also dark-skinned and a foreigner, making her a threefer.)
* ''Series/CoronationStreet''. Any male character that isn't a gormless twat or a henpecked husband, or has any type of backbone, is some kind of villain. Be it a wife beater, serial killer, con artist, womanizer or just your average JerkAss. In affair storylines the woman will almost always be the sympathetic one.
* ''Series/ICarly'' has the episode "[=iHireAnIdiot=]" where Carly and Sam hire a male intern based on the fact that he's handsome, despite him being idiotic. For revenge, Freddie hires an attractive female intern who is also idiotic. At the end of the episode, it turned out that she was actually a brilliant college student intentionally pretending to be stupid.
* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'' does this with Bonnie, who is always lauded, never judged. She betrays Elena by pretending to de-curse the vampire weapon, knowing it will affect Stefan and Damon, and no one pulls her up on it. Season two, when [[spoiler: Caroline becomes a vampire]], Bonnie immediately snubs/judges her instead of being a friend - again, this is never addressed. She also {{Mind Rape}}s a sorta friend and no one who matters in the show bats an eye. The creators always try to force TheWoobie card, too. When something bad happens to Bonnie, she's treated like her life is a cesspool. Most notably in season three when her [[spoiler: Mum -- who she doesn't really know ''or'' like - is vamped up.]] This quoted by a character who had been [[spoiler:murdered and turned into a vampire, tortured twice (once by her own ''father''), and whose boyfriend is magically bound to the enemy]].
-->'''Caroline:''' Bonnie's always the one who gets hurt.
* ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'': Averted with Detective Kay Howard, who was initially the only woman on the Homicide squad. Although she never failed to close a case, was the only homicide detective with a perfect record, eventually taking the sergeant’s exam--and getting the highest score ever recorded, she still had somewhat of an inferiority complex who constantly felt as the only woman on the squad, she constantly needed to prove herself. Indeed, future fellow female regular Lieutenant Megan Russert would later chide Howard for this tendency. In addition, upon actually assuming the sergeant's role, she becomes very alienated from her fellow detectives. This happens in part because she seems at first to "micromanage" them, and also simply because her new position changes her relationship with them. Her friendship with Detective Meldrick Lewis, for example, grows especially stormy after she is promoted.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
* Pro wrestling had this problem from the very beginning.
** When wrestling shows first began to appear on TV, Westerns were popular, so it was perhaps inevitable that "Indian chief" characters would appear. The promoters were aware that depicting a member of America's smallest minority group as a cheating, savage, murderous heel would be, to put it lightly, kind of mean - so they set out to subvert the negative stereotype and overdid it. Every Native American wrestler between the 1940s and the 1990s - Chief Jay Strongbow most famously - was the NobleSavage incarnate and always a hero, with the exception of Apache Bull Ramos, who even then had to fight for the right to work {{heel}} but had a successful feud in the western Wrestling/{{N|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA territories with Mil Mascaras which would pave way for Wrestling/{{Tatanka}} (a real-life Lumbee from North Carolina, [[FakeNationality although he depicted a Lakota]]) to turn ''spectacularly'' heel in 1994, joining [[Wrestling/TedDiBiase Ted DiBiase's]] Million Dollar Corporation. (Later, when he returned to WWE in the mid-2000s, Tatanka would turn heel in a different way, this time painting his face with creepy makeup and claiming to be a "vengeful ghost warrior" - and his new gimmick was so powerful that it just resulted in [[DracoInLeatherPants Draco In A Leather Loincloth]]. Worse, he got only two matches with the new gimmick before [[PutOnABus mysteriously disappearing]].)
** Black wrestlers also faced this problem. Perhaps due to outbreaks of racially charged violence that tended to erupt in wrestling arenas in some parts of the country, promoters had to be very careful never to A) feature black athletes too prominently; or B) have them engage in behavior, even in {{Kayfabe}}, that could lead to race riots. The result was that guys like Art Thomas and Wrestling/BoboBrazil never got to depict anything more interesting than the standard boring good guy who didn't do anything extraordinary, at least at first. Not just the US, as Penny Banner recalled working in Mexico that Babs Wingo was stuck with the good girl role because even there the sight of a good blonde getting beat up by a "colored" woman could spark a riot. Ernie "Big Cat" Ladd was the first to defy the tradition in the 1960s, [[RefugeInAudacity transforming himself into one of the most obnoxious and bullying heels of his era]].
*** Even though WWE now features several prominent black wrestlers, traces of the hapless black hero of yore can still sometimes be seen, usually with Wrestling/KofiKingston, the only African-born (from Ghana) WWE Superstar. While he was always a {{face}} from his debut until 2015 and can more than hold his own with some of WWE's best (even defeating Wrestling/ChrisJericho for the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/ic.html Intercontinental Championship]] in his first pay-per-view appearance!), many of his storylines have seen him [[{{Jobber}} job]] to the heels or get stuck in the tag-team ranks. Probably one of Kingston's most degrading moments was when he was attacked by Wrestling/{{Edge}} just before the 2009 Raw Elimination Chamber Match and prevented from competing at all, for no other reason than so that Edge could win the World Heavyweight Championship (and get a good KickTheDog moment in the bargain).
*** Subverted, cut with a blade, bashed with a guitar, put through a table and generally beaten all to hell until there was nothing left of it by Wrestling/NewJack. The Gangstas (Jack and Mustafa Saied) debuted in Wrestling/{{SMW}} in mid-1994 as {{Angry Black M|an}}en whose [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain whole act was based on playing on the racial fears of [=SMW=]'s very white audience]]. That there have been so many different ''kinds'' of black heels, from [[Wrestling/RonSimmons Faarooq]]'s [[MalcolmXerox black power gang]] Wrestling/{{The Nation of Domination}}, to the aforementioned New Jack to ForeignWrestlingHeel[=/=]WrestlingMonster types such as Wrestling/AbdullahTheButcher and Wrestling/{{Kamala}} to LargeHam {{Jerk Jock}}s such as [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson the Rock]] also qualifies as a subversion.
* In all eras, female wrestlers almost never have the moral or psychological depth of their male counterparts. In the digital TV era Wrestling/{{WWE}}'s Divas and Wrestling/{{TNA}}'s Knockouts could be heels but they're more likely to [[PokeThePoodle commit petty or annoying misdeeds]] than to act truly evil. (In the case of the later, [[Wrestling/KatarinaWaters Winter]] clearly crossed the MoralEventHorizon - but even then, her doing that was met with [[Wrestling/AngelinaLove the woman]] she {{mindrape}}d being perfectly happy with what she did and taking her side against [[Wrestling/VelvetSky the woman]] who did [[HeroWithAnFInGood an admittedly poor job]] of trying to save her.)
* In intergender situations, it's almost always the man as the heel and the woman as the face, even if the woman is a heel as well (see Beth Phoenix). Wrestling/{{Chyna}} debuted in Wrestling/{{WWE}} in February 1997 as {{Heel}} Wrestling/TripleH's bodyguard, whose role was to beat up [[Characters/WWEDivas Marlena [Terri Runnels]]] during HHH's feud with Wrestling/{{Goldust}}, and, later, anyone else who got in HHH's way. She became a {{Face}} after Wrestling/{{DGenerationX}}'s collective [[HeelFaceTurn face turn]] in Spring-Summer 1998, not because of anything she herself did, and remained one for the rest of her run with the company. Wrestling/IvelisseVelez of ''Wrestling/WWEToughEnough'' fame successfully averted this as she competed in several intergender matches as a heel.
** In perhaps her most notable appearance, Wrestling/BethPhoenix was more of a WildCard than a straight face or heel. Still officially a heel at the time, she entered the 2010 Royal Rumble Match (which only two other Divas, Chyna and Kharma, have ever done) and foreshadowed her HeelFaceTurn by easily eliminating [[TheGiant the Great Khali]] (who was a face at the time, albeit not a very sympathetic one). She then attempted to eliminate then-heel (and her RealLife boyfriend) Wrestling/CMPunk, but he got the best of her. It's doubtful she would have won in any case, since one of the last entrants in that match (and the eventual winner) was Wrestling/{{Edge}}, who has demonstrated in the past that he WouldHitAGirl.
** A special case occurred early in 2004, when Wrestling/TrishStratus was a face and Wrestling/{{Christian}} was a heel, and Christian brutalized Trish with a submission hold [[ILied after promising to throw the match]]. But when Wrestling/ChrisJericho (Trish's boyfriend at the time) tried to come to her rescue, she [[ShockingSwerve inexplicably]] sided with Christian and became a heel herself (and yes, the UnfortunateImplications were thick).
* Look at how the backstage interviewers are treated [[{{Kayfabe}} (in story)]] by the wrestlers. "Mean" Gene Okerlund was (usually) portrayed in a neutral manner back in the day, but today the male reporters will [[ButtMonkey regularly be insulted, made the butt of jokes, or just wind up being in the wrong place at the wrong time and get their heads bashed]]. Worse, it's not unheard of for the Divas to hit on visibly uncomfortable male interviewers or even touch them inappropriately, just to humiliate them; [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale that would]] ''[[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale never]]'' [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale happen if the sexes were reversed]]. Female reporters, while they are often not respected by the heels - [[MoralDissonance and sometimes the faces!]] - will usually not be verbally humiliated, and ''certainly'' not physically attacked. If a heel ''does'' verbally trash a female interviewer, he'll wind up looking stupid or a {{Jerkass}} more often than she will (e.g., when Wrestling/PaulHeyman tried to embarrass Renee Young by discussing her sexual history on camera).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* While it almost certainly was FairForItsDay when the play was written in 1957, it's hard not to notice the discrepancy between how the two New York City street gangs - the Jets and the Sharks - are portrayed in ''Theatre/WestSideStory''. It's insinuated about the Sharks - the Puerto Rican gang - that, well, it's kind of excusable that they're a little violent, since they're homesick immigrants and victims of discrimination. The Jets, by contrast, are all from various white ethnicities and are never shown as anything more than {{Jerkass}} blowhards who feel entitled to a non-Puerto Rican neighborhood and lash out when things don't go their way. (True, in "Gee, Officer Krupke" they do make the case that [[FreudianExcuse they deserve to be pitied because they've been psychologically and sociologically scarred by big-city life]], but it's all just a satire.) After it's all said and done, the Jets serve as {{Acceptable Target|s}} {{Politically Incorrect Villain}}s, even though the Sharks kill exactly twice as many people as the Jets do (and the one Jet-on-Shark killing in the entire play could be rationalized as self-defense). Ultimately subverted, however, when the worst villain of the piece turns out to be a Shark: [[spoiler: Chino, who shoots Tony InTheBack]].
* Lampshaded and discussed in Max Frisch's play ''Andorra'', where, in a small Catholic town full of raving antisemites who despise [[spoiler:and eventually cause the death of]] the Jewish protagonist Andre, the priest seems to be the only decent person. He admires Jews and at one point even lists all the things that Jews can do ''so much better'' than Christians, just to show him that he bears no grudge against Judaism. He doesn't even notice that he begins playing this trope 100% straight as he still refers to Jews as "them" and generally describes them as 'different'. He is committing just a reverse kind of discrimination.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Toys]]
* In the Franchise/{{LEGO}} series ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'', each Toa team has only one female on it, the main three so far being Gali, Nokama and Hahli. In the latter two cases, they are the least flawed and the wisest members of their teams. Particularly noticeable in ''Legends of Metru Nui'' in which each Toa Metru is given a major character flaw which they must overcome to unlock their individual mask powers, such as Vakama's lack of confidence and Matau's inability to stop and think before rushing in. Not only is Nokama's flaw relatively small (not admitting when she's wrong), [[InformedFlaw it is only referenced once and she overcomes it very early on, extremely quickly.]] Note that this stopped applying to her after her team's transformation into Turaga elders.\\\
As for Gali, this is kind of zigzagged depending on the story, as Onua, a male, was just as wise and never argued with the others, whereas Gali frequently argued with [[HotBlooded Tahu]] and [[IneffectualLoner Kopaka]], although that was mainly trying to get the two to stop their own fights. Notably, Gali was also the only Toa who properly heard the vision about the Toa Kaita (the others tried to fight it) and the only one to protest the Toa Nuva going solo before all went wrong (proving to be wiser than Onua), however in TheMovie, Gali became just as arrogant to Tahu as he was to her.
** It gets better after a ReTool that switches settings to focus on a world with GladiatorGames. The one girl there, Kiina, is brash, aggressive, and blunt; traits that help her in the arena but make her a pain to deal with outside of it. Though, TheMovie actually shows her as a GenkiGirl with a little {{Tsundere}} thrown in the mix.
** Partially justified with Hahli in the Mahri Nui Arc; she is stronger, faster, and more aggressive ("Hahli the barbarian") because she is literally in her element, while the team leader Jaller is severely weakened by being constantly submerged in water.
* Natalie Breez of ''Toys/HeroFactory'', the only female Hero ever to be featured prominently, was for the most part a minor character who didn't have much to her. Suddenly, in the animated special ''Invasion from Below'', she becomes the most competent of the bunch: She defeats a giant beast all by herself when the rest of the Heroes can't deal with them even in their mechs, learns that the beasts can communicate, finds out why they are attacking by reading ancient carvings (the others dismiss her), and at the end saved the day by offering peace to the beast queen. [[spoiler:After that, the beasts attack again and the Heroes kill them, but that wasn't her fault.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Coco Bandicoot of the ''Franchise/CrashBandicoot'' series is significantly more intelligent and CloserToEarth than her brother ([[IdiotHero though that's not much of a challenge]]) and [[ActionGirl not far off in terms of physical power either]]. Interestingly, as more female indvidiuals were introduced in later tiems, Coco seemed to gain more prominent [[TookALevelInJerkass obnoxious]] and [[TookALevelInDumbass idiotic]] tendencies (in addition to [[DamselInDistress getting kidnapped frequently]]), though still seems somewhat saner than her male comrades.
* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius'', FantasticRacism between humans and the shapeshifting beast-men races called the Laguz is a major theme. While there are many senselessly evil or stupid human characters, in the first installment, there was not a single evil Laguz. They were either outright heroic, brutally tortured and crazily brainwashed into attacking the heroes, or had a [[AntiVillain very good reason]] for opposing the good guys[[note]]Yes, this includes Naesala and his ravens, considering that all the piracy and mercenary work they do is for the sake of feeding their people at home.[[/note]]. It got a bit better in the sequel, with a few Laguz bandits, some Laguz too big on the whole BloodKnight thing, references to the days when they would [[BurnTheWitch burn]] the [[HalfHumanHybrid branded]] at the stake etc., but not exceptionally either.
* According to an official ''VideoGame/EpicMickey'' profile, "whether she's busy fending off unwelcome advances from the notorious Pete or wishing that Oswald would spend more time with her and their copious children, Ortensia is - in every way - Oswald's better half".
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Reincarnation}}'' series of games, the Reincarnys (sinners who have escaped from Hell) have all been male up until the most recent mini-release. While the male Reincarnys have typically been serial killers, child rapists, and so on, the first female is simply a drug dealer. And unlike most of the other Reincarnys you recapture, her death occurs offscreen (though the bloody aftermath is shown) and there's no scene of "Luke" torturing her afterwards.
* D'arci Stern from ''VideoGame/UrbanChaos'' is the only [[TwoferTokenMinority female and non-white person]] working for the police and is the only competent officer - even though she's just a rookie for most of the game.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' used to have this issue, when the only female characters were Tex and Shiela, one of whom is canonically ''the'' best warrior in the series and the other is a tank's AI. Later seasons grew out of this to some extent, after introducing a female character who is just as laughably incompetent as the main cast (Sister), and giving real flaws to the more hypercompetent ladies (Tex).person.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Invoked as part of ''Webcomic/SweetBroAndHellaJeff'''s ever-present StylisticSuck. Most of the comic's humor comes from the protagonists' struggles with basic motor skills and their own rampaging stupidity. When the BlackBestFriend Geromy is introduced, he's too smart to get involved in that nonsense--so he stands around doing absolutely nothing for the rest of the comic. In the print edition, Dave's author's notes even acknowledge this:
-->'''Dave Strider:''' geromy is always the new friend. hes always there and adds much needed racial diversity to these two white assholes who fuck everything up. geromy doesnt fuck anything up because hes perfect. i love geromy.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Inverted in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imQSuJVFUSU this video]] by WebVideo/MachoSauceProductions where the only black guy of the team are dense and considerably less intelligent as the other 3 members (who are white).
* On the blog [[http://www.regretsy.com/ Regretsy]] (which mocks pretentious or ridiculous items on the craft site Etsy), people who leave honest criticism in threads full of fawning approval have their own name and avatar replaced by a default one made up by Regretsy and the name "[[OnlySaneMan The Only Sane Person in the World]]". The icon is of a black woman.
* {{Deconstructed}} in [[http://koritha.blogspot.com/2011/07/american-way-mediocrity-when-white.html this]] blog post. The author argues that having a single highly-competent black person in the company of many white people of varying competence only shows that black people have to work harder than white people for the same rewards. According to an article she quotes "...one of the ways in which we will know when black people in the United States are truly liberated and equal to their fellow white citizens will be when there are as many mediocre blacks in academia as there are currently mediocre whites."
* Mocked in Creator/HarryPartridge's "[[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/655933 ChangeTheBees]]". In it, Dr. Bees isn't allowed to make a comic cover that shows a woman getting attacked by bees (out of fear of offending women) but ''is'' allowed to depict [[DoubleStandard a woman gruesomely murdering a sentient bee]]. The video is a parody of the RealLife incident where a ''ComicBook/Batgirl2011'' cover was changed.
* In some Internet communities this is referred to as "the Galbrush Paradox". Someone complains about there not being enough female or minority characters, only to then complain when those characters are depicted as equally flawed as the straight white male characters. The result is a SelfFulfillingProphecy: creators using white male leads over and over because those are the only type of people they feel they can depict as realistically flawed without offending someone. The name is a reference to ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'', with the theory positing that if Guybrush was a woman named Galbrush instead, the writers wouldn't be able to depict her as the bumbling idiot Guybrush is without being [[EverythingIsRacist accused of sexism]].
* An early "parents'-guide" film review website, Screenit.com, invoked this trope [[UnfortunateImplications inadvertently]] in its discussion of film characters as "role models." At the beginning of each "content" analysis, the reviewer would list all the major characters in a film and determine whether each one was a good role model (while occasionally admitting the absurdity of considering fictional characters, some of them quite fantastical, to be role-model material). The male characters were judged entirely based on their moral virtues (or lack thereof), but the female ones (at least if they were supposed to be heroines) would often have to "prove" their ActionGirl status, with "ability to beat people up" listed alongside their moral strengths or failings. Apparently, a heroine's inability to punch out anyone even the slightest bit physically stronger than herself made her a borderline disgrace. True, there is [[ARealManIsAKiller a male equivalent to this "moral" hypocrisy]], but Screenit.com never invoked ''that'' one.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Gwen of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'' was TheLoad in the beginning. Later events generally portrayed her as smarter, more competent, and all around better than Ben, despite Ben being the main hero. It culminates in the TV Movie, in which Gwen is portrayed as selfless and Ben as pettily selfish, respectively.
** And when it's time to hand out AnAesop, Ben's always the one it's handed to (or [[{{Anvilicious}} beat over the head with]]). Despite Gwen almost always having just as big a part in her arguments with Ben as he did (being insulting, condescending, shrill, and, well, argumentative), no one ever seemed to express that this might be a bad thing, not even with a "catch more flies with honey" type thing.
** The sequels didn't help matters, as she's given the most reliable and versatile powers in existence, while Ben has to deal with the still occasionally unruly Omnitrix (and has it futz with his mind repeatedly), and Kevin's powers are only effective for hitting things (and he's constantly getting [[TheWorfEffect Worfed]] anyway). The only two times her powers were an actual drawback were when she had to deal with her grandmother, and when they threatened to make her [[GodModeSue even more powerful than before]].
* The major reason for the general fandom rejection of [[TheScrappy Lola Bunny]] in ''Film/SpaceJam'', who aside from being the only newcomer, she didn't follow any of the usual humorous slapstick conventions. For instance, at one point, Bugs pushes her out the way when one of the Monstars is about to squash her. It's as though she, unlike all the other toons and Bugs himself afterwards, will not just get flattened like a pancake or some other [[AmusingInjuries temporary cartoon injury]] that is easy to recover from. Even a ''human'' gets flattened and did not receive permanent damage. One could argue this is less a case of Positive Discrimination and more WouldntHitAGirl. That said, Lola exemplifies CloserToEarth, and she's the most talented basketball player of all the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes.
** She notably got ''much'' better when she [[CanonImmigrant made her way]] into ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow''. She's now an entirely free target to slapstick like all the other toons, and her DownToEarth MsFanservice personality has been traded in to make her a neurotic StalkerWithACrush ClingyJealousGirl who talks ''way'' too much, effectively [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap saving her from the scrappy heap]].
* Illustrated quite well in ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents''. Although (much like ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'') the emphasis on humor quickly turned the entire cast into irrational people, they are constantly reminded that Cosmo and Timmy's dad were ''far'' stupider than their female counterparts Wanda and Mrs. Turner.
** However, that's not to say Wanda and Mrs. Turner are consistently perfect (or even close). Wanda borders on being a complete bitch more often than not, while Mrs. Turner is still (usually) neglectful and not exactly a genius, even if she seems so in comparison to Mr. Turner. As for other female characters, Vicky is the embodiment of evil, Tootie and Veronica are borderline-psychotic stalkers, and Trixie is a bit bitchy and airheaded. In fact, the guys on average, sans Cosmo and Mr. Turner, probably have it better off. Despite some of their flaws (Timmy being a bit of a slow minded JerkAss, AJ being a bit of an InsufferableGenius, Chester being poorer than dirt), they're all otherwise relatively normal kids who are (usually) able to handle themselves.
** AJ starts off as Timmy and Chester's BlackBestFriend who happens to be a StraightMan to Timmy. Now he's an InsufferableGenius who (very rarely though) rubs his brain power in Timmy's face.
* With ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'', Butch Hartman was able to do it all over again with Danny's parents. In the early episodes, though goofy, Jack was portrayed as a visionary ghost-hunter whose over-enthusiasm often got in the way of common sense, while Maddie was soft-spoken and more of his assistant. By halfway into the first season, it completely flipped: Maddie became the bold action-oriented commanding ghost hunter, while Jack could barely even point a rifle in the right direction.
** Positive Discrimination was also regularly expressed by Sam, constantly the voice of reason to the perpetually IdiotBall-holding Danny and Tucker, and Jazz, the perfect student in contrast to her BookDumb little brother.
** Danny eventually averts this for the most part come Season Three through CharacterDevelopment. If anything, his only BookDumb moments occur as an excuse to give Sam a reason to nag, an act that is all but pointless by that point.
* In ''WesternAnimation/YinYangYo'', the two main leads are girl and boy versions of each other. Yin is the overly girlish girl who likes ponies and anything pink and naturally is the more studious, mature, and level-headed of the two. Yang is a crass, crude-humor spouting blue bunny who likes boyish things like monster trucks, mindless video games, fighting anything that moves, and not studying. Also, Yang is more likely to receive [[AmusingInjuries physical slapstick]]. Once again, the three shows share writers and directors, it is not much of a surprise. Subverted later on when Yin herself is more prone to the dark side because [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys she loves bad boys]] and that Yang shows that he's more competent and talented than he looks because he prefers to hide it so he can get away with his BookDumb status. FridgeBrilliance since Yin is the name of darkness while Yang is the name of light.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'':
** The two major African-American kids at Lawndale High, Jodie and Mack, seem to be the only ones outside a handful of others who have intelligence and integrity enough to earn Daria's respect. However, Jodie's parents are portrayed as horrifically mean-spirited snobs, and Jodie can have a bit of their high-handedness when she's pimping the latest extracurricular school activity that no one else cares about. Of course, this is lampshaded frequently with them. One time, they're voted King and Queen in a parade, and they point out that they win every year just because the school wants to look diverse. Jodie frequently points out that she feels ''pressured'' to be the perfect "queen of the negroes" as she puts it, because she and Mack are the only black people in their entire grade. In the series finale, she ends up wanting to go to a traditionally black college, just so that she can act like a normal person for once.
** The show itself does this massively with its female cast, notably Daria herself. In the series finale, both Daria and [[TallDarkAndSnarky Tom]] are getting into Bromwell University, and Tom is accepted with Daria rejected. Daria (and the writers) immediately blame this on the fact that Tom is a legacy student, and the fact that Daria has an utterly terrible interview is no longer brought up.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily,'' Penny dates Johnny, a wheelchair bound boy, out of pity. However, it turns out that Johnny is a genuinely rude and horrible person who intentionally uses his disability to his advantage to make people do things for him. Eventually, Penny has enough and tells him to take a hike.
* Foxxy Love of ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'', despite being half fox and half human, is consistently portrayed as the smartest, most moral character on the show (though that isn't saying much). She is even referred to in one episode as being "the only person in the house who isn't ''completely'' retarded". In contrast, the show's white characters (Hero, Clara, and Toot) are [[AcceptableTargets fair game for all kinds of abuse]]. (Xandir, who is AmbiguouslyBrown, vacillates between being a ButtMonkey and TheWoobie.)
** Foxxy's more responsible nature seems to come from her [[CaptainErsatz originator]] in ''WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussycats'' who is also an example of this trope.
* An AnimatedAdaptation of The Little Rascals in the early 1980's has Buckwheat going from Bad Stereotype to an example of this trope. He is now the group's resident GadgeteerGenius who can build anything from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc3Gczk4nLc junkyard parts]]. His speech impediment, of course, is no more.
* ''Franchise/XMen'':
** In ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen'', when Wolverine is unconscious after braving a fire to save a little girl, the little girl's parents want to help him (risking their whole family), but another member of the group wants to turn him in to the mutant registration forces. Fair enough. The little girl's parents are also a mixed race couple and the other guy is white. Okay, fine. Except the mixed-race couple are toned, young, attractive, and wearing fashionable clothes, while the white guy is fat, middle-aged, balding, and wears Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian shirts. Again an over the top mix of Positive Discrimination ''and'' an {{Acceptable Target|s}}.
** Also happens in ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution''. Humans in their area (who seem less ethnically diverse than the mutants) find out about the mutants and freak out. So the X-Men take a Caribbean cruise to "take a break" from the bigotry. They are exposed as mutants and treated as freaks/outcasts by the other passengers (almost all of whom are white) when Jean uses her powers to put out a fire. They visit an island where they are again revealed to be mutants, though the dark-skinned islanders are shown to be extremely friendly and actually admire them for their abilities.
** This is played straight with Amanda, a black(?) girl, but completely averted with her (also black) parents. She dates Kurt/Nightcrawler despite knowing his true appearance (and was actually initially more interested in him because of it) but when her parents find out, they want her to stop seeing him, though she doesn't listen to them.
* ''WesternAnimation/BarbieInAChristmasCarol'' has Barbie's BlackBestFriend Christi playing a living saint while Barbie is in the role of TheGrinch.
* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'':
** Played with and then mocked in a sketch where they play a skit once, then play it with the races reversed. Then they do something completely unrelated to the previous two skits. Each is bookended by a scientist asking what the audience feels about the skits, then concluding something completely nonsensical.
** Subverted in the short [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jiy40zwDICM 12 Angry Little People]] in which the only black juror starts to loudly complain about how the police once took his shoe-shine box and beat him with it while using a stereotypically unaware inflection. When the others stare at him in disgust he says, "What? Every black man on the TV gots to be a posi-a-tive role model?" Done again immediately afterwards when the other minority juror (a dog) gives a technical explanation and another juror interrupts him with, "Uh, you're a f**king dog."
* Abby from ''WesternAnimation/TheReplacements''. In addition to being rich, she also seems to be the StraightMan in her GirlPosse, and is rarely the butt of anyone's joke.
** Subverted in one episode with Terrance, a blind kid who bullies Todd and uses his disability to play the victim and make it look like Todd is bullying him.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
** Lois and Meg have their flaws, certainly, but they're certainly far more clever and competent than Peter or Chris.
** Joe, who is by far one of the most more competent male character characters in the show, despite being confined to a wheelchair.
** Cleveland as well; despite his rather boring nature he's also way more competent than Peter, and saner than Quagmire.
** Interestingly, upon getting [[WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow his own moment in the spotlight]], Cleveland became a much [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} zanier]] and [[TookALevelInJerkass more obnoxious character]] (if not nearly to the same callous extent as [[PsychopathicManchild Peter]]).
* Used to a similar extent in ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''. While Francine and Hayley are still very flawed human beings, [[StrawLoser they look far more stable and competent compared to Stan]] (and the other Smith males to a lesser extent). This is even more evident in later episodes where Stan, originally an experienced CIA agent, has suffered heavy BadassDecay and devolved into a brainless ManChild identical to Creator/{{Seth MacFarlane}}’s other {{Bumbling Dad}}s. Meanwhile Francine's experiences include becoming a fully fledged ActionSurvivor in a hurricane and proving pure enough to become ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext the girlfriend of Jesus Christ]]'').
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited:'' The most glaring use of this trope was when Superman and Wonder Woman were tricked into fighting each other and Diana beat him half to death. Though this might be justified in that Superman caught onto the illusion first and spent the majority of the fight trying to be as inoffensive as possible to try and find a way to snap Wonder Woman out of it. Wonder Woman (in the comics at least) is typically portrayed as being perfectly willing to kill a sufficiently dangerous enemy, in contrast to Superman's ThouShaltNotKill, meaning that she could well have been fighting lethally. Depending on how you feel about superheroes killing, this characterization in itself could be either a subversion or a straight example.
* Downplayed in ''WesternAnimation/CatsDontDance'', as Sawyer is subjected to quite a bit of humiliating slapstick in the opening. Played straighter in that her dance scenes lack the more comedic takes that Danny employs.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheGoodeFamily'' this was lampshaded with the quote "We can't hire minorities! That's racist! [[HypocriticalHumor It's whites only at the Goode house.]]"
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', and sequel series ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'':
** African-American Susie is the smartest of all the babies, her dad is the creator of a widely successful TV show and her mom is a doctor. Susie was a late addition to the original cast who quickly was utilized as a counter/foil to Angelica and to play a good 'big sister' role for the younger babies. It is likely that the intent was to add an older character that the babies could look up, so she would have had the same positive traits no matter what race she was given. She may very well be an example of an intentionally good character who just happened to also be black for diversity sake. Her earliest role, "Meet the Carmichaels", has her introduced as a [[BrattyHalfPint fickle crybaby]]. [[WhatTheHellHero "Tricycle Thief"]] also greatly subverts her CanonSue role. ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'' tries to undo some of the effects by adding realistic flaws to an older child. In the first episode she is easily conned by a woman into giving her $1000 thinking it's for a record deal, in another she completely buckles under pressure when she has to juggle an audition and a spot on her language team, she's shown to resent how the others look on her as perfect as well as sometimes acting rudely towards Angelica.
** In the first movie, the black female rookie park ranger is much more competent than the experienced white male park ranger.
** Susie's mother Lucy is an even more glaring example of the trope. From her very first episode, she's shown to be an incredibly talented artist and chef who studied in France and that's in addition to being a fully qualified doctor. ''All Grown Up'' also reveals that she was a successful blues singer at the age of eighteen.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** In one episode, the boys are forced to attend the Museum of Tolerance. One display shows a stereotyped young Asian with a calculator, to show that even ''positive'' stereotypes -- such as the stereotype that all Asians are good at math -- can have an overall negative effect on the stereotyped group in question.
** The blatantly named Token Black has few distinguishing flaws and is one of the more normal acting kids. One of the positive stereotypes that Token hates is that all black people can play the bass guitar. He's offended and reluctant when Cartman first states this but, after trying and succeeding (even though he's never played before), just says "Goddamn it!" and continues playing.
* While it's slightly more nuanced than her comics counterpart, Princess Sally Acorn of ''WesternAnimation/SonicSatAM'' was frequently emphasized as the most well rounded and competent Freedom Fighter, frequently having to keep Sonic in line or bail him out when his arrogance got the best of him. She is still a frequent DamselInDistress and has occasional ego trips and neuroses, but her strengths outweigh it and she is primarily the StraightMan of the team, to the point that by the Second Season she even begins to render other characters like Rotor redundant in her abilities. Bunnie and Dulcy are played more as comic relief, but still have less IdiotBall moments than Sonic or Antoine.
* Sandy Cheeks of ''WesternAnimation/{{SpongeBob SquarePants}}'' played this to such extremes early on she almost comes off as a [[ParodySue parody]] of the trope. Compared to the more flawed males cast, Sandy was much CloserToEarth and often acted as the [[CanonSue infallable voice of reason]] as well as being extremely talented in both intellectual and brawn levels, suggested to be [[GodModeSue both the strongest and smartest member of Bikini Bottom]]. Following the second season, Sandy was swayed from this trope, being granted her [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} own]] [[LargeHam set]] [[SmallNameBigEgo of]] [[JerkJock flaws]] and often having her overboard positive aspects parodied or Lampshaded. However, this came to be played straight again in later post-movie episodes, where the rest of the cast were Flanderized to extreme levels and Sandy ending up the only notable individual not to have her [[JerkAss callous]] or [[TooDumbToLive idiotic]] traits exaggerated.
* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TUFFPuppy'', which has ActionGirl Kitty Katswell as TheChewToy.
* Though she does have her flaws, Piper of ''WesternAnimation/StormHawks'' is the most competent member of the FiveManBand... she's also the token female, AmbiguouslyBrown...[[HoYay may or may not be a lesbian,]] [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar or at least bisexual.]]
* Kanga of Disney's ''Disney/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'' adaptations is presented as being [[CloserToEarth much more logical and mature]] than [[{{Cloudcuckooland}} the rest of the Hundred Acre Wood]] for the most part, albeit largely due to taking on a TeamMom role. This is why Kanga is often left OutOfFocus. The majority of Disney's attempts to bring in other female additions are similarly far less zany and have less distinct personality flaws than the male leads. This is interestingly subverted in the original novels, where Kanga is more equally idiot-prone as the rest of the cast while the unofficial sequel ''Return To The Hundred Acre Wood'' introduces Lottie the otter, who is actually one of the more obnoxious and scatter brained characters. ''Disney/WinnieThePooh'', the 2011 movie, returns Kanga to her original book portrayal.
* June is the only main girl in the wraparound shorts on ''WesternAnimation/KaBlam''. She's also (at least from season two onwards) the most competent of everyone. But has her moments of being wrong, and being a jerk.
* Villain example; [[DarkActionGirl Jinx]] is the only female member of [[QuirkyMinibossSquad the HIVE Five]] on ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', and is also the only one of them to both largely escape VillainDecay [[spoiler: and get to do a HeelFaceTurn]].
* ComicBook/BlackPanther of ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' is part of an 80% white team of superheroes, and he still manages to be one of the most impressive ones. He is [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower athletic and strong enough to fight the rest of the team to a standstill]], a genius comparable to [[Comicbook/IronMan Tony Stark]] except open-minded enough to accept magic and the supernatural, the ''king'' of a super-advanced country, and has a MorphWeapon made out of the rare and powerful Vibranium (which is almost exclusively found in the country he is ''king'' of anyway). He especially stands out because everyone has [[DysfunctionJunction huge personal problems that they deal with every day]], but Panther didn't get one until season 2. [[spoiler: ComicBook/NickFury lets the team know that Panther's friend ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} might actually be an alien spy. After Hawkeye denies this, the possibility that any Avenger could actually be an alien spy gives Panther paranoia that doesn't let up until the real Avengers ''twice'' save Wakanda.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' is renowned for using this at its most intense form, with Marge and Lisa often established as gifted, intelligent and sensible people, while Homer and Bart usually act like immoral idiots who instigate the dilemma of each episode. The show's long run (along with {{Flanderization}} taking its toll) has led to numerous reversals and deconstructions (Lisa has gained an ego complex due to this trope, sometimes condescending and underestimating Bart and Homer, while Marge's sensible demeanor was exaggerated to the point she needs Homer for any impulsive drive), but the trope's formula is still easily the most consistent.
** This is probably most prevalent in the future episodes where despite at least [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E11BartingOver two]] [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E5FatManAndLittleBoy episodes]] showing that Bart should be set for life. As well as him repeatedly being shown to be BrilliantButLazy. Despite this Bart is almost always shown to be a FutureLoser based entirely on the flaws he has as a ten year old. Lisa by contrast is always shown to have a RidiculouslySuccessfulFutureSelf inspite of her flaws. For example she repeatedly graduates early despite already showing that she can’t handle the stress of not being top dog. So Bart will always be the same while Lisa will just [[HandWave get over it]].
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** Azula is a villain more competent than Zuko, apparently quicker, smarter, and much better at firebending. Justified because Zuko is a NobleDemon, while Azula is a straight villain. Then again, she seems to be more competent than most other straight-up villains are, the ''possible'' exceptions being Fire Lord Ozai (who isn't seen employing very much strategy) and Combustion Man (who doesn't have an army under his command). Note that Azula is 14. [[spoiler:In particular, fans have noticed that aside from a temporary defeat by Aang (who she later not only gains victory over but almost ''kills''), no-one in the series ever beats Azula in a straight fight. Her defeat has just as much to do with her own decaying mental state as the heroes' capabilities, if not more.]]
** Averted with the members of the [[FanNickname Gaang,]] particularly Toph, who's smug, rude, and occasionally quite selfish (not to mention has lower standards of living than anyone else). Katara comes off as the ''least'' flawed member of the group, being kind, brave, mature, wise, and a competent fighter, but there have been episodes showing she can be jealous, vindictive, and a stick-in-the-mud.
* African-American woman Lana Kane and openly homosexual Ray Gillette from the series ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' are the only consistently competent agents in the show. Russian rogue Katya Kazanova is another straight example. She's seemingly the only female operative in the entire KGB, yet is skilled enough to take out an entire hit-squad and later on rises to the top, only because her male predecessors weren't focused enough to be leaders. Averted with the other female members of ISIS, who range from being a dim-witted gossip (Pam), a clueless pyromaniac with a loose grasp on reality (Cheryl) and a manipulative, underhanded abusive mother.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' episode "Boys vs. Girls", while battle of the sexes episodes usually at least try to teach the message that the genders are equal, it is not this case here, as Raven and Starfire outright beat Robin, Beast Boy and Cyborg by a landslide, 3 to 0.
* In a meta way this happened for ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}''. The creator wanted a Black member of The Misfits however ExecutiveMeddling ruined that. They weren't comfortable with having a dark-skinned antagonist, so they made Jetta into a White British woman. A future episode had a Black antagonist though, and thirty years later [[ComicBook/JemAndTheHolograms the comic reboot]] made Jetta into a Black British woman.
* Penny of ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'', the most down to earth person on the show and several times more competent than her Uncle Gadget and the entire police department combined, it is not rare for her to save the day almost single-handedly while the latter completely screw things up (she is a 10 year old girl). Granted Brain is near equally skilled, if far more blundering and neurotic in execution. Other female characters such as bumbling MAD agents appear but are rare. This probably has less to do with her gender than [[AdultsAreUseless her age]] and status as an AudienceSurrogate character. [[WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget2015 The 2015 series]] gives Penny more flaws, though she still looks far more competent than Gadget.
* In the eighties cartoon ''WesternAnimation/BionicSix'', the family started out with three children, two of their own (a boy and a girl) and an adopted child who was black. The male son was a jock, and [[ButtMonkey go-to guy for saying or doing anything stupid]]. The adopted black son was not only just as big of a school hero jock as the white son, but was a ''supergenius'' on top of that.
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* Tends to happen when an [[TheAnimeOfTheGame anime of a game]] that allows the player to pick between a male and female protagonist does a WhatIf episode showing what would happen if the female protagonist [[SchrodingersPlayerCharacter got to the plot first]]. ''Anime/YokaiWatch'' had one where Fumika was shown to be better at collecting medals than Keita would have, befriend powerful Yo-kai, and was much more helpful and respectful to Whisper, while the last episode of ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'' had Djeeta blaze through the same plots Gran took the whole season to finish and accomplish near all the classes, with just enough time to have a BeachEpisode with her crew and team up with fan-favorite characters.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN5o1PtpXAM This]] Butterfinger commercial. It goes just like any other Butterfinger commercial, man tries to steal Butterfinger, and suffers the consequences from his friend. In literally the last three seconds, some random female appears and tells the men, "You guys are idiots." The line offers nothing to the commercial; there was no reason for its inclusion other than to be insulting.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN5o1PtpXAM This]] Butterfinger commercial. It goes just like any other Butterfinger commercial, man tries to steal Butterfinger, and suffers the consequences from his friend. In literally the last three seconds, some random female appears and tells the men, "You guys are idiots." The line offers nothing to the commercial, and could have easily been omitted.

* Lampshaded in ''Film/TheAnimal:'' Miles, the only black man employed at the airport, is constantly complaining that, because he's black, the others treat him as if he could do no wrong, and ignore anything he does - such as smoking in a federal building - that would prove otherwise. This becomes a ChekhovsGun when Miles claims to be the monster to keep the mob from killing the main character. The mob immediately disbands to avoid getting charged with a hate crime, and Miles stands there as they walk off, screaming about 'reverse uracism'.

* ''Film/IronMan'': [[BlackBestFriend The lead's buddy]] [[ComicBook/WarMachine James Rhodes]] is also much more responsible, level-headed, and reasonable than Tony, to the point that he really does seem to be a much better choice for keeping the Iron Man suit.
** The second film has Black Widow, who is introduced by beating the tar out of bodyguard Happy Hogan in a boxing match. Then later in the film, she takes out an entire building full of {{Mook}}s while Happy attempts to defeat ''one''.

** This is probably most prevalent in the future episodes where despite at least [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E11BartingOver two]] [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E5FatManAndLittleBoy episodes]] showing that Bart should be set for life. As well as him repeatedly being shown to be BrilliantButLazy. Despite this Bart is almost always shown to be a FutureLoser based entirely on the flaws he has as a ten year old. Lisa by contrast is always shown to have a RidiculouslySuccessfulFutureSelf inspite of her flaws. For example she repeatedly graduates early despite already showing that she can’t handle to stress of not being top dog. So Bart will always be the same while Lisa will just [[HandWave get over it]].