History TheUnfairSex / LiveActionTV

** Elliot sleeps with JD then immediately dumps him the day after because her old boyfriend came back; JD's jealousy is depicted as petty and he's advised to "be a good friend". Later, JD convinces Elliot to leave her boyfriend but realizes that he doesn't love her. After struggling over his dilemma, he admits this to her; she physically assaults him and carries a grudge for the entire next season.

** In the early-'90s on ''Series/AllMyChildren''. Adam Chandler discovers that his ex-wife Dixie has been sleeping around and that her latest conquest is a barely-legal teenage boy who just graduated from high school. At this, he decides to file for full custody of their son. ''Everyone'' blasts Adam for his actions and as a cruel, evil bastard when he has every right to be concerned about Dixie's mental stability and her fitness as a parent, and ''absolutely no one'' calls Dixie out for her irresponsible and promiscuous behavior. Especially bad since Dixie would try to wrestle custody from Adam over anything he did.

* ''Series/AgentCarter'': Howard Stark has a lot of one night stands, so everyone assumes he is a user who is incapable of respecting women. In fact Howard was perfectly capable of respecting women (as evidenced by his decades-long platonic friendship with Peggy), and the women he sleeps with are all consenting adults who were promised nothing. Still, the women felt so entitled to revenge that they thought it was acceptable to slap Howard's butler in the face, while Peggy stood idly by and enjoyed the show.

* Played with in ''Series/TheShannaraChronicles'': At one point, Eretria accuses Wil of being a [[ImAManICantHelpIt typical man]] by [[spoiler: supposedly seducing her and then throwing her aside after he got what he wanted.]] What actually happened was that [[spoiler: [[FemmeFatale she seduced him]] by claiming to want to change her ways (and implying strongly that [[SexFaceTurn having a good guy like him]] in her life [[LoveRedeems would make that possible for her]]), then stole the Elf Stones and [[NotStayingForBreakfast sneaked out while he's still sleeping.]] When she got caught, she rubbed their night together in Amberle's face in front of Wil, ensuring that Wil's and Amberle's already rocky relationship got even rockier.]] She's ''probably'' just doing it to mess with his head, though. [[note]]There's also an undertone of her being [[GreenEyedMonster genuinely jealous]] of whatever's between Wil and Amberle and resentful of being treated like "the other woman" in that Wil lied to Amberle about how Eretria got hold of the Elf Stones, as if he was hiding an infidelity from his girlfriend... but regardless, she ''really'' doesn't have the moral high ground in the situation.[[/note]]

* Played with in ''Series/TheShannaraChronicles'': At one point, Eretria accuses Wil of being a [[ImAManICantHelpIt typical man]] by [[spoiler: supposedly seducing her and then throwing her aside after he got what he wanted.]] What actually happened was that [[spoiler: [[FemmeFatale she seduced him]] by claiming to wanted to change her ways (and implying strongly that [[SexFaceTurn having a good guy like him in]] [[LoveRedeems her life would make that possible for her]]), then stole the Elf Stones and [[NotStayingForBreakfast sneaked out while he's still sleeping.]] When she got caught, she rubbed their night together in Amberle's face in front of Wil, ensuring that Wil's and Amberle's already rocky relationship got even rockier.]] She's ''probably'' just doing it to mess with his head, though. [[note]]There's also an undertone of her being [[GreenEyedMonster genuinely jealous]] of whatever's between Wil and Amberle and resentful of being treated like "the other woman" in that Wil lied to Amberle about how Eretria got hold of the Elf Stones, as if he was hiding an infidelity from his girlfriend... but regardless, she ''really'' doesn't have the moral high ground in the situation.[[/note]]

* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'': Sabrina cheats on Harvey with Josh and there's a subsequent three episode arc of her eventually apologising and being forgiven. She however still continues to work with Josh and hang around with him, even though he's the one who made a move on her and was even sending her Valentine's cards when he knew she had a boyfriend. Harvey is expected to be okay with this, and Sabrina even resorts to magic to try and make him and Josh get along...until Harvey finds out about her being a witch and dumps her offscreen.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Subverted in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E11BoomTown "Boom Town"]], when Rose meets up with her boyfriend Mickey. She wants to take up where they left off, but Mickey reveals that he's started seeing another woman. When Rose reacts poorly to this, Mickey explodes, pointing out that she unhesitatingly abandoned him for another man like he was "nothing" with nothing but a smile and a kiss, disappeared for a year (albeit inadvertently) resulting in everyone suspecting him of murder, and even now is quite happy to disappear out of his life for lengthy periods at a time to be with the Doctor while still expecting him to obediently hang around waiting for her. While Mickey hasn't exactly been the perfect boyfriend himself throughout the season, it's understandable why we're clearly supposed to side with him about Rose's behaviour being selfish and unreasonable, and Rose has no response to this.

* In ''Series/DesperateHousewives'', [[spoiler:Mary Alice]] and her husband Paul [[spoiler:kidnap a drug addict's child, murder said drug addict when she comes back for her child, and dismember her corpse]], and though this does lead to [[spoiler:Mary Alice]] committing suicide after someone finds out and sends her a poison pen letter, she is still remembered fondly by the four main characters, while Paul is perceived as a very unpleasant person for doing the exact same thing.

* In ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' [[spoiler: Mary Alice]] and her husband [[spoiler: kidnap a drug-addict's child, murder said drug addict when she comes back for her child and dismember her corpse]], and though the latter does lead to [[spoiler:Mary Alice]] committing suicide after someone finds out, she is still remembered fondly by the four main characters, while her husband is perceived as a very unpleasant person for doing the exact same thing.

** Phoebe treats Cole as if his FaceHeelTurn in Season 4 was his fault - when he was unknowingly possessed by the Source. She expects a free pass for her actions in joining him due to being influenced by a demonic baby she was carrying.

** Faith. Her frequent statements that men are nothing but sex objects to be used for fun and then abandoned are treated as less egregious than male characters who talk about women in the same objectifying terms and are rightfully portrayed as creeps and misogynists, such as Parker who sleeps with and ditches Buffy in Season 4 and a number of antagonists and asshole victims throughout the show. Even when she sexually assaults Xander in "Consequences" (by throwing him on a bed and forcing herself on him while he protests before deciding to switch to strangling him) and Riley in "Who Are You?" (by [[BedTrick bed tricking]] him while [[FreakyFridayFlip body-swapped]] with Buffy), it's never actually called sexual assault and Faith isn't labelled a rapist. Following the latter, Buffy is mostly worried about what the fact that Riley didn't realize it wasn't Buffy says about their relationship, even though she does acknowledge that this is an irrational fear, and never shows concern for how Riley himself might have been affected by being taken advantage of this way.

** There was a situation during the mid-'90s on ''Series/GeneralHospital'' that was very similar to the ELR example mentioned with SuperCouple Sonny and Brenda. Throughout their entire relationship, Brenda acted very inappropriately with her friend Miguel -- hanging all over him, suggestively dancing with him, going on and on about how hot and sexy he was, etc. But if Sonny dared to complain about any of this, Brenda would blast as him as a controlling pig who didn't know how to trust her. Meanwhile, Sonny befriended Miguel's fiancee Lily, only for Brenda to go ballistic everytime she saw the two of them talking. As far as she was concerned, her provocative behavior with Miguel was perfectly okay, but Sonny merely talking to Lily was on par with him cheating on her -- to the point where not two seconds after giving Miguel a long, lingering hug, she blasted Sonny for taking a few minutes to greet Lily. This continued even after Sonny and Brenda broke up, when Brenda jumped into bed with Miguel within 48 hours then did everything she could think of to throw it in Sonny's face, but still got ticked off everytime she saw Sonny and Lily together. At no time did it ever occur to Brenda how hypocritical and irrational she was being, and the writing was constantly skewed to make it seem as though ''she'' were in the right.

* Inverted in ''Series/OnceUponATime'' when David Nolan and Mary Margaret's affair was discovered, Mary was the one given the cold shoulder by the entire town while David was mostly ignored. Justified since David was amnesiac and the townsfolk thought she took advantage of him.

* In ''Series/SavedByTheBell'', two [[RecycledScript occasionally-reused plots]] throughout the high school ''and'' college years were (a) "Zack pays a little too much attention to another girl and Kelly gets mad," and (b) "Kelly sees another guy and drops Zack like a hot potato." In cases of A, Zack having to figure out how to make it up to Kelly (or realizing he needed to) would be the focus of the plot. However, in cases of B, Zack would ''still'' be made the villain, for standing in the way of [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy Kelly's happiness]] for his own selfish needs. Apparently, NegativeContinuity is in play and you're not supposed to notice this pattern, but it's hard not to. The GrandFinale of the original students' saga is Zack and Kelly's wedding. What led Zack to pop the question? He was afraid that Kelly would meet another guy on an upcoming trip that Zack wasn't going on. [[SarcasmMode Aw, how romantic]].

** However, this trope was notably averted in one episode where Tim and Jill go to a couple's workshop. After Jill tells the group about her frustrations with Tim's inability to understand her feelings, the therapist and all the other women tell her that it's ridiculous for her to think that Tim should be able to read her mind and know how she feels all the time and she's way too demanding and critical of him.

* In ''Series/WhatWouldYouDo'', there was a skit where two actors played a couple having a domestic spat in the park. When the man was the "abuser" in the situation, several people called the police and even just seeing him yelling at the girl without even laying a finger on her enough to elicit a response. Then they {{Gender Flip}}ped the situation, and over hours of filming, 150 passerbys ''completely ignored'' the escalating situation and even ''laughed'' at the poor guy, completely assuming without context that the man must have something to deserve it. The female actor ended up having to beat the men over the head with a newspaper before anybody intervened, and even then it was only a pair of female joggers took the woman aside and warned her to stop doing that - they called the police when the actress started hitting him again. Disturbingly, another woman [[DoubleStandard called the female abuser a "role model" to women while admitting openly that she would have stepped in if the situation was reversed]], and one of the men who ignored her ''was an off-duty cop''.

** Faith. Her frequent statements that men are nothing but sex objects to be used for fun and then abandoned are treated as less egregious than male characters who talk about women in the same objectifying terms and are rightfully portrayed as creeps and misogynists, such as Parker who sleeps with and ditches Buffy in Season 4 and a number of antagonists and asshole victims throughout the show. Even when she sexually assaults Xander in "Consequences" (by throwing him on a bed and forcing herself on him while he protests before deciding to switch to strangling him) and Riley in "Who Are You?" (by [[BedTrick bed tricking]] him while [[FreakyFridayFlip body-swapped]] with Buffy), it's never actually called sexual assault and Faith isn't labelled a rapist. Following the latter, Buffy is mostly worried about what the fact that Riley didn't realize it wasn't Buffy says about their relationship, even though she does acknowledge that this is irrational, and never shows concern for how Riley himself might have been affected by being taken advantage of this way.

** Faith. Her frequent statements that men are nothing but sex objects to be used for fun and then abandoned are treated as less egregious than male characters who talk about women in the same objectifying terms and are rightfully portrayed as creeps and misogynists, such as Parker who sleeps with and ditches Buffy in Season 4 and a number of antagonists and asshole victims throughout the show. Even when she sexually assaults Xander in "Consequences" (by throwing him on a bed and forcing herself on him while he protests before deciding to switch to strangling him) and Riley in "Who Are You?" (by [[BedTrick bed tricking]] him while [[FreakyFridayFlip body-swapped]] with Buffy), it's never actually called sexual assault and Faith isn't labelled a rapist. Following the latter, Buffy is mostly worried about what the fact that Riley didn't realize it wasn't her says about their relationship, even though she does acknowledge that this is irrational, and never shows concern for how Riley himself might have been affected by being taken advantage of this way.

** Faith. Her frequent statements that men are nothing but sex objects to be used for fun and then abandoned are treated as less egregious than male characters who talk about women in the same objectifying terms and are rightfully portrayed as creeps and misogynists, such as Parker who sleeps with and ditches Buffy in Season 4 and a number of antagonists and asshole victims throughout the show. Even when she sexually assaults Xander in "Consequences" (by forcing herself on him despite his protests before deciding to switch to strangling him) and Riley in "Who Are You?" (by [[BedTrick bed tricking]] him while [[FreakyFridayFlip body-swapped]] with Buffy), it's never actually called sexual assault and Faith isn't labelled a rapist. Following the latter, Buffy is mostly worried about what the fact that Riley didn't realize it wasn't her says about their relationship, even though she does acknowledge that this is irrational, and never shows concern for how Riley himself might have been affected by being taken advantage of this way.

** Faith. Her frequent statements that men are nothing but sex objects to be used for fun and then abandoned are treated as less egregious than male characters who talk about women in the same objectifying terms and are rightfully portrayed as creeps and misogynists, such as Parker who sleeps with and ditches Buffy in Season 4 and a number of antagonists and asshole victims throughout the show. Even when she sexually assaults Xander in "Consequences" (by forcing herself on him despite his protests before deciding to switch to strangling him) and Riley in "Who Are You?" (by [[BedTrick bed tricking]] him while bodyswapped with Buffy), it's never actually called sexual assault and Faith isn't labelled a rapist. Following the latter, Buffy is mostly worried about what the fact that Riley didn't realize it wasn't her says about their relationship, even though she does acknowledge that this is irrational, and never shows concern for how Riley himself might have been affected by being taken advantage of this way.

** Faith. Her frequent statements that men are nothing but sex objects to be used for fun and then abandoned are treated as less egregious than male characters who talk about women in the same objectifying terms and are rightfully portrayed as creeps and misogynists, such as Parker who sleeps with and ditches Buffy in Season 4 and a number of antagonists and asshole victims throughout the show. Even when she sexually assaults Xander in "Consequences" (by forcing herself on him before deciding to switch to strangling him) and Riley in "Who Are You?" (by bed tricking him while bodyswapped with Buffy), it's never actually called sexual assault and Faith isn't labelled a rapist. Following the latter, Buffy is mostly worried about what the fact that Riley didn't realize it wasn't her says about their relationship, even though she does acknowledge that this is irrational, and never shows concern for how Riley himself might have been affected by being taken advantage of this way.

** This trope is even more prominent in the episode "Bound" where Lex having a series of one night stands is considered MoralEventHorizon both in an out of universe. The episode tries to paint him as TheCasanova despite the fact the only two women shown to have a problem with the arrangement is StalkerWithACrush and the woman who killed her and tried to [[FrameUp frame Lex for it]]. Keep in mind that by this point in the series every woman who Lex has gotten close to has betrayed him ([[BlackWidow Helen Bryce]], [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Claire Foster]], even his own mother) so its perfectly understandable why he would opt for meaningless flings yet the charecters are still more willing to trust Lionel over him because of this (a man who tried to kill Clark's family not two weeks before). Finally murderer WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds who wanted revenge on Lex for ruining her engagement, even though her fiancée left her because she slept with some random guy she met in a bar.

** In a rather disturbingly straight case of this trope, a 14 year old is on the show with his mother to determine if he fathered a child with a 21 year old woman. He was only ''thirteen'' at the time and the woman was well aware of his age. Incredibly Maury begins to lecture a young boy on not thinking with his penis and being more careful. The fact this is clearly statutory rape and that a 13 year old was seduced by a 20 year old isn't actually brought up at all. Several detractors pointed out the absurdity of this [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale double standard]] as no-one would ever entertain the notion of lecturing a 13 year old girl who had a child to 20 year old man about her self-control. Nevermind that a male in her place would most certainly be serving time as a child rapist.

** For the most part, the audience immediately switches to being on the man's side if, and only if, he is shown to not be the father/not cheating. Even if they were booing and heckling him literally seconds earlier. If the man is the party in the wrong, however, this trope is played completely straight. Another tragic aversion to this trope had a recently separated married couple arguing over the wife's latest child, whom the father of her other two children claimed could not be his. Despite an inital frosty reception the man was proven right and the crowd cheered. However it was soon revealed that both the children he had no reason to doubt were his proved not to be his children either. The disgust and shock from the crowd due to her betrayal was palpable and she received no sympathy whilst her husband called her out on it.

** There was a situation during the mid-'90s on ''Series/GeneralHospital'' that was very similar to the ELR example mentionewith SuperCouple Sonny and Brenda. Throughout their entire relationship, Brenda acted very inappropriately with her friend Miguel -- hanging all over him, suggestively dancing with him, going on and on about how hot and sexy he was, etc. But if Sonny dared to complain about any of this, Brenda would blast as him as a controlling pig who didn't know how to trust her. Meanwhile, Sonny befriended Miguel's fiancee Lily, only for Brenda to go ballistic everytime she saw the two of them talking. As far as she was concerned, her provocative behavior with Miguel was perfectly okay, but Sonny merely talking to Lily was on par with him cheating on her -- to the point where not two seconds after giving Miguel a long, lingering hug, she blasted Sonny for taking a few minutes to greet Lily. This continued even after Sonny and Brenda broke up, when Brenda jumped into bed with Miguel within 48 hours then did everything she could think of to throw it in Sonny's face, but still got ticked off everytime she saw Sonny and Lily together. At no time did it ever occur to Brenda how hypocritical and irrational she was being, and the writing was constantly skewed to make it seem as though ''she'' were in the right.

** Also during the early years of the show, Mark's wife Jen constantly bitched at him about being friends with another woman (Susan). Despite the fact that she herself was friends with another man. Her hypocrisy goes UpToEleven with the revelation that she's been having an affair with him and planning to leave Mark for him. She acts completely remorseless about this, continuing to make snide comments about Mark's friendship with Susan.