


The media to which TV Tropes is devoted generally exhibit greater sensitivity now than in the past. Even when authors are being careful with story elements, though, it's impossible for them to know every single person in the world's opinion or how certain tropes may be construed as offensive. Especially when you consider just how diverse human beings really are. When a work's content offends a large enough audience in a way that the author did not expect, you get this.
This is a highly subjective Audience Reaction, and since in the past this page became bogged down in arguments about some tropers believing that concerns about such matters simply relate to Political Correctness Gone Mad, and other tropersseeing the entire "political correctness" argument as a plausibly deniable defense of racismvehemently oppose it, no example may be added in this article or on a work article without proof that it's not just one person's thinking. Citations are done as follows:
- Blah Story Blah Blah Circumstance Blah Blah Implication Blah. Example Website
- The citation needs to record the opinions of several people; a citation that mentions only one person isn't enough.
- The citation should be in a reputable source. We'd prefer you cite something a bit more formal than someone's Tumblr blog. Anyone can write a blog post and then call it a "citation".
- Also, citations stuck behind paywalls or mandatory logins don't count. If people can't see your proof, then it doesn't prove much.
Keep in mind that Unfortunate Implications are unintentional. An intended offensive message (for example, a piece of Axis propaganda about Jews) does not belong here, nor does natter about the author's true intentions. Also, for something that may not be offensive to you personally but may offend others in a different culture or time period (or vice versa), see Values Dissonance.
If you came here looking for unfortunate implications of the Nightmare Fuel variety, rather than the hopefully accidental offenses with which this trope concerns itself, see Fridge Horror. If something with this kind of content offends everyone, regardless of audience or time or place, then it's an Audience-Alienating Premise. If unfortunate implications are caused by the modern audience by once-innocent words changing meaning over time, it's Have a Gay Old Time. If a work's unfortunate implications become more famous than the work itself, then it's Overshadowed by Controversy.
To avoid these pitfalls, please see So You Want To Avoid Unfortunate Implications.
Subjects susceptible to Unfortunate Implications include:
- Highly controversial topics such as politics, religion, and sex.
- Subject matter related to race, ethnicity, and class.
- Anything related to the Sexual Harassment and Rape Tropes, especially those that seemingly blame a victim for their own assault.
- Allusions to historical atrocities like the Holocaust, 9/11, and the Kennedy assassination.
- Anything related to Nazi Germany and (for some) the Soviet Union.
- Stereotypes of any kind.
- Double Standards and sexism.
- Sexual orientation and trans-related material.
- Parallels between fantasy/science fiction works and the real world, especially with Fantasy Counterpart Cultures and Space Jews.
- Subject matter related to disabilities and handicapped people.
- Lifestyle choices, such as being childless, having a large family, being single or being married.
- Anything cultural, especially when handled clumsily.
- Any words that are supposed to mean one thing, but may or may not be misconstrued as another.
- A lot of Glurge tends to fall into this category, too.
- Mockery of Unacceptable Targets and Once Acceptable Targets, as well as undeserving Acceptable Targets.
- Glorification of widely reviled cultural figures.
Index
- All Gays Are Pedophiles [1]
- Cure Your Gays [2]
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male [3]
- Double Standard: Rape, Female on Male [4]
- Insane Equals Violent [5]
- MadonnaWhore Complex [6]
- Missing White Woman Syndrome [7]
(although this trope can be discussed in relation to gender, it is less focused on than its racial aspects)
- Monochrome Casting [8]
- Repressive, but Efficient [9]
- Sassy Black Woman [10]
- Scary Black Man [11]
- this trope has led to dark-skinned men being killed in Real Life, apropos of nothing else
- White Man's Burden [12]
Examples
- One Piece
- The Dressrosa arc has been criticized
for how it treats its female characters, from Rebecca being sidelined in the fight against her mother's killer, to multiple cases of female characters being killed off to develop male characters (in addition to Rebecca's mother, Doflamingo's mother, Law's sister and Senor Pink's wife).
- The Grand Line Review made a video on what it terms "The Princess Problem"
in One Piece. The phrase refers to times when a female character, usually a princess of some sort, serves more as a plot device than a character, being eye candy for male readers, generate sympathy from readers and a source of motivation to inspire other characters to fight.
- The Dressrosa arc has been criticized
- While Sister Krone of The Promised Neverland is a popular character with a complex backstory, some readers
were made uncomfortable by her less-than-flattering depiction as a black woman, with her cartoonishly grotesque features, expressions and somewhat animalistic demeanor in some scenes that are seen as reminiscent of old racist caricatures.
- My Hero Academia: Chapter 259 revealed the Doctor(the evil scientist assisting All For One and Tomura Shigaraki)'s name to be Maruta Shiga, with many people noting that the name "Maruta" was likely a reference to project Maruta
, a project done by Unit 731 of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II that involved inhumane experimentation on various people which included live vivisection, weapon testing, and forced pregnancies. While this name fits Horikoshi's tendency to give his characters punny/meaningful names, the "unfortunate" part comes in when you realize that "Maruta", meaning "logs" in Japanese, was the name given to the test subjects as the official cover story for the facility was that it was a lumber mill. Fans were very upset with the idea of a character as vile as the Doctor being named after the victims of a horrible experiment instead of the perpetrators, especially the ones from Chinanote and South Korea where the scars are still prominent. Horikoshi later apologized for this on his Twitter account
, where he clarified that the reference was unintentional and that he would change the Doctor's name in future chapters.
- There's an article
about the Attack on Titan franchise titled "The Fascist Subtext of Attack on Titan Cant Go Overlooked''. Writer Tom Speelman claims that the manga and anime are "full of anti-Korean, nationalist, pro-Japan subtext, parallels to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and subtextual references to Nazi Germany." It centers on plot points late in the story that reveal the answers to the central Ontological Mystery, particularly comparions between the depiction and treatment of the Eldians, especially the ones who become Titans and anti-Semitic propaganda.
- DARLING in the FRANXX: Jacob Chapman has written a Twitter thread
on what he regards as the show's "harmful worldview": "The targets of fear and derision in FRANXX hop from aggressive women to gender-nonconformity to childless or infertile adults to Literally An Alien Hivemind", which, according to the show, are "...evidence that the world 'went wrong'". Chapman points out that the show's stances concerning gender roles and human relationships give it a misogynistic, homophobic and transphobic bent, and have been used to oppress sexual minorities. He also points out the show's reactionary tone in that it "... takes current-day societal anxieties, exaggerates them, and poses that the solution is to double down on the status quo even harder, framing oppression of others as *true* rebellion."
- Bleach faces criticism for its handling of female characters
. Nearly all of them crave approval from a male figure (and in the case of Sui Feng, a female figure). Any female character that wields god-tier powers seldom uses them so as not to overshadow the male characters who mostly just use melee weapons to win fights, or in the case of Yoruichi are given upgrades at the expense of her sentience and reduced to being the pet of her male contemporary. A character that's a confirmed lesbian does little outside of sexually harass the other girls, which is treated as a Running Gag. Finally, Unohana is revealed to be one of the most powerful Soul Reapers in existence shortly before being killed by Kenpachi, with the main complaint being that her only purpose in the plot was to give an already relevant male character even more relevance.
- Carole & Tuesday: Many
articles
have pointed out
that the show's depiction of Dahlia, an intersex character, can be transmisogynistic and racist, as she is portrayed as a violent brute.
- An Australian political cartoon depicting Serena Williams' infamous outburst at a 2018 grand slam attracted considerable controversy
for depicting the tennis star as a large black woman with big red lips having a tantrum (one commentator described her depiction as "unnecessarily Sambo-like"). It didn't help that her opponent Naomi Osaka, a dark-skinned Japanese woman, and the umpire Carlos Ramos, who is also dark-skinned albeit Portuguese, were both depicted as white with the former having blonde hair.
- Dennis the Menace (US): Hank Ketcham attempted to integrate the strip in 1970 by introducing Jackson, a black playmate for Dennis. The result
flooded Ketcham with angry letters, saying Jackson was an unnecessary Sambo-like stereotype. To Ketcham's credit, later issues of the comic book and an animated series from The '80s had Dennis interacting with much more positive examples of minorities.
- Garfield: Jim Davis got himself in hot water with this strip
where a spider taunts Garfield about becoming a decorated hero if Garfield lays the newspaper on him. The final panel has the spider getting his wish in the form of "National Stupid Day". Complaints ensued that it was insensitive to the military (the strip was posted on Veterans Day no less), and Davis later apologized for it.
- A Rugrats newspaper comic strip had caused some controversy
for featuring a scene where Tommy Pickles was wondering about the true meaning of a traditional Hebrew mourning hymn while attending a Synagogue with Grandpa Boris. Many readers had accused the comic strip of showing Antisemitism as the strip seemed to be patronizing such a solemn prayer. Also, readers had complained about how Grandpa Boris seemed to be shown as a stereotypical Nazi-era depiction of Jews because of his big nose (although Ashkenazi Jews are are quite fond of Boris and his wife Minka).
- A Valentine's Day post from the official Peanuts Twitter account had the caption, "You're one of the best people I know." Seems sweet at first...except the accompanying image shows Charlie Brown telling the Token Minority Franklin, "You're one of the good ones." Obviously, this tweet didn't stay up for long before people started calling it out,
and the Twitter account later deleted the image, explaining it was meant to be a "celebration of friendship" and not anything racist.
- An In-Universe example in Dear Diary: After telling her favorite childhood story, Opal acknowledges that, looking back, it has a lot of Unfortunate Implications, as it portrays wild Pokémon as weak and insignificant side characters who could never really understand the heroism and loyalty of a trained Pokémon.
- Stephen Krosecz of Animated Analysis argues
that the heroes of Cars 2 are prejudiced against the Lemon cars, that the film doesn't seem to treat this as a bad thing, and that one could interpret this as an ableist
message. Likewise, Jack Saint has observed eugenics undertones in the film
.
- Disney's Chicken Little didn't sit well with some viewers because of the way the story treats Foxy Loxy. She's a popular, athletic tomboy and a bully. And by the end of the film, not only is she the only real antagonist, but she's also mind raped into becoming docile and feminine after being trapped, terrified, in a featureless, black void. When a cure is offered, Runt exclaims "She's perfect!" and she instantly becomes his girlfriend. So her character arc ends with her being brainwashed into becoming traditionally feminine, and no one advocates for her right to her own personality because a boy likes her better this way. The issue of gender roles hasn't gone unnoticed.
- Anthony Pryor points out in
his review of Wizards that the director's words that the film's conflict between good elves and evil mutants is supposed to represent a real-life conflict in Israel gives bad implications. The Big Bad seemingly being born hideous and evil is also pointed as potentially giving a bad message.
- Hasbro's official synopsis for My Little Pony: Equestria Girls is "Learn all about the magical parallel universe with high schools instead of castles, where six pony friends become real girls with a love for fun and fashion." Amanda Duncil from Feminspire
was not amused at the implication that "real girls" must love fashion and fun (as opposed to just being human and not horses) and the fact that the girls have been given ridiculously thin bodies that reinforce the stereotypical and unrealistic idea of beauty.
- Because of all the praise regarding the same-sex parents in the trailer for The Boxtrolls, some people may be disappointed when they find out the film had some uncomfortable transphobic implications, including playing the reveal of the cross-dressing character as a textbook Unsettling Gender Reveal. This review
brings this issue up, complaining that there was only one female character in the movie "unless you want to count the man-in-drag figure, via whom the movie adds a dash of transphobia".
- In The Jungle Book, orangutan King Louie was originally intended to be played by Louis Armstrong (a fact made fairly obvious by his name) but they realized that casting a black actor as an ape (who sings a song about how he wants to be human) could be seen as this, so they chose Sicilian-American Louis Prima
instead,
which incidentally kept The Danza aspect of the original choice. However, critics have pointed out that the ethnicity of Louie's voice actor is irrelevant because the characterization of Louie himself still draws on stereotypes about African-Americans.
Not to mention that having a white man play a character who is, for all intents and purposes, a stereotype of black people is problematic on its own in other ways.
- The Incredibles:
- The movie has been compared to the works of Ayn Rand
and has an in-universe demonstration of Nietzsche's concept of Herd Morality.
It doesn't help that the villain does have a widely-recognized superpower (superintelligence and tech genius, of the Iron Man variety), but in-universe, he's considered a disgruntled mundane because he had to actually work for his powers where real supers' gifts are natural and effortless.
- There's an In-Universe example in the Pixar short film Mr. Incredible and Pals, the plot of which is Mr. Incredible and Frozone watching the unaired pilot of a show about them. Frozone (a black superhero) is highly upset that (among other things), they lightened his skin tone considerably, made him speak in Jive Turkey and made him the Distressed Dude while his (white) friend Mr. Incredible rescues him.
- When Brad Bird revealed that the reason Frozone's wife, despite having an unused character design, was never seen on screen was simply because she's funnier as a voice, people pointed out that
black women are already rarely represented onscreen in animation and her few lines, memetic as they are, painted her as just a Sassy Black Woman.
- The movie has been compared to the works of Ayn Rand
- Upon its release, Aladdin came under fire
by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee for the infamous lyric "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face" in the opening song "Arabian Nights". The line was changed to "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense" for the VHS release, and has been changed in every other adaption as well.
- Mars Needs Moms, as this Something Awful review points out,
risks coming across as one of the more alarmist tomes on parenting from the '50s. The Martian women, who assume the roles of societal leaders, need to abduct human mothers to serve as templates for maternal care because a powerful working woman apparently can't be a loving mother at the same time. The Martian men thus have no role in their society and become something between hippies and gay stereotypes. And the Martian girl explicitly says at the end that the only way for a child to truly feel loved is if they're raised by two parents, which must have been interesting for all the single parents in the audience to explain to their kids afterwards.
- Foodfight!:
- Many internet reviews
have pointed out that The Reveal that Lady X is an old prune mascot implies that "ugliness = bad". And that's only one example of Beauty Equals Goodness in a movie that consistently plays it straight (although you'd be hard-pressed to say that anyone in the movie is actually appealing, given the animation).
- Some people also consider the movie homophobic
due to Vlad Chocool's Depraved Homosexual behaviour (for the record, he's the only gay character in the movie). And then there's all the racist and sexist unironic caricatures...
- Many internet reviews
- The Angry Birds Movie has been accused of spreading a message that can best be summarized as: "Immigrants will come into your country, steal your resources, and destroy your home."
- Batman: The Killing Joke: The Adaptation Expansion that was supposed to be an Author's Saving Throw for Barbara's Stuffed into the Fridge treatment in the graphic novel is even worse than in the source material, as she's treated as Ms. Fanservice and given an arc portraying her as an emotionally needy girl seeking out a relationship with Batman rather than a platonic friend and heroic protégé
.
- Pocahontas has come under fire from numerous Native American groups (example
) for whitewashing history and turning a story of kidnapping, rape, and genocide into a family-friendly romance guaranteed not to make white Americans uncomfortable. There's also a lot to be desired
from the equivalency between Native Americans and the colonists in "Savages".
- Mulan: Some critics (for example, The Nostalgia Chick, Lindsay Ellis) dislike the fact that Mulan turns down the post as the Emperor's consul to go home to her family. They think it implies that while a woman can be a hero, she shouldn't have an actual position of power. They also sometimes criticize
the hint of romance with Shang, even though it's only a Maybe Ever After since they feel it implies that not even a woman who saves China can be complete without a man.
- How to Train Your Dragon 2: The Big Bad of the film, Drago Bludivst, being the first non-white character of the franchise, has attracted
some
backlash for unintentional racism.
- The AV Club article "We Care a Lot"
discusses various examples of the Charity Motivation Song, such as "We Are the World", "Do They Know It's Christmas?", and more obscure efforts, pointing out more than once that the songs and videos made for them wind up coming off as narcissistic by promoting the celebrities singing them as much as, if not more than, the cause.
- 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' in particular has been
criticized for
perpetuating a patronizing stereotype of Africa, with the offensively inaccurate lyrics not helping. Some lyrics were altered for the 2014 cover, but their replacements
were also considered pretty offensive
. Even the title is problematic, given the prevalence of Islam in the affected areas.
- 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' in particular has been
- Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" music video has plenty of these, a great many of which get called out in the Literal Music Video parody
of it. On the whole, the video promotes promiscuity while shaming more conservative outlooks while simultaneously flipping between two different stereotypes.
- Some early Taylor Swift songs can come off as slut-shaming and sex-negative sometimes (in "Fifteen" it's implied that her friend's virginity was all she had, and in "Revenge" it's implied that the person it's addressed to stole her boyfriend via being better at sex, just for two). See this article
for a much longer explanation.
- "The Christmas Shoes" is a contemporary Christian song (and movie) about a melancholy gentleman who helps a boy buy a pair of shoes for his mother, who is on her deathbed and expected to pass away shortly, so she can greet Jesus while wearing them. The singer then muses to himself that God sent the kid to remind him what Christmas is all about; in other words, God killed a little boy's mother on Christmas just to guilt some unrelated curmudgeon into appreciating the holidays. That observation has been made numerous times by various critics, but the Nostalgia Chick
and Patton Oswalt
probably put it best.
- The song "Blurred Lines"
by Robin Thicke is supposed to be an Intercourse with You song. However, the lyrics come off more like the perspective of a rapist. To illustrate, Todd in the Shadows did a juxtaposition of this song and "Sex Type Thing" by Stone Temple Pilots (a song explicitly sung from the perspective of a rapist) in his review
, while Sociological Images did a break-down of the song
by taking images from Project Unbreakable
(an online photo essay of survivors holding up placards with quotes from their rapists to bring awareness) to demonstrate how in a real-world context things like this aren't said in a consensual encounter. It's also brilliantly satirized in the parody "Lame Lines"
. This parody by Bart Baker
points out the rape overtones while still being comedic.
- Justin Timberlake was criticized by the Take Back the Night Foundation, an anti-rape group, for his song "Take Back the Night." Timberlake claims that he was unfamiliar with the organization when he wrote the song and that the similarity between the title and lyrics and their name is unintentional. However, certain lyrics such as "come on, surrender," "your love's a weapon," and especially, "they gon' try to shut us down, Ill be damned if we gon' let them take back the night" read as very disturbing when viewed through this lens. He has since apologized and made a statement in support of the group, and for their part, they have decided against taking legal action. Read all about it
at Wikipedia.
- Lily Allen's video for the song "Hard Out There" met with controversy
over alleged racist undertones, such as Allen using predominately black backup dancers while singing about how she doesn't need to shake her booty because she "has a brain". Allen claims the fact that dancers were mostly women of color was an unfortunate oversight, and that they just happened to be the most talented women who auditioned.
- Similarly, Lorde's single "Royals" became the subject of controversy
because she criticizes the materialism and alleged "vapidity" in genres like rap and hip-hop, which are primarily populated by black and Latino artists. She even ended up issuing an apology
to Drake and Nicki Minaj after claiming their music was irrelevant.
- Cover Band Sambô's take on U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" got
some
heat
for making a cheery samba version of a song about a massacre remembered today as an Irish national tragedy. The performance
, full of smiling, giggling and cheering basically throws the point of the original version through the window, as if the group was making fun of what happened, or if the performers never bothered knowing what the lyrics were about. In an interview
, when faced with the accusation of making the dissonant version, the group responded that the rhythm didn't make the song any less sad, and blamed Misaimed Fandom for the awkwardness.
- "Rhythm Is a Dancer" by the Eurodance group Snap! has the line "I'm as serious as cancer when I say rhythm is a dancer". This has been referred to as "the worst lyric of all time
" and it drew controversy from family and health groups in spite of the analogy being used in rap music since the late '80s.
- "Word Crimes" by "Weird Al" Yankovic created minor controversy
with Al's usage of the word "spastic". Once informed that it's a derogatory term in the United Kingdom for people with cerebral palsy, he quickly apologized on his Twitter.
- "Happy Ending," the second single from the 2017 Hopsin album No Shame, is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: it tells the story of a man who gets a Happy Ending Massage at an Asian massage parlor already embodying a rather egregious stereotype. It's bad enough that some of Hopsin's vocals, which take the POV of the Asian masseuse, are incredibly broken English sung in a high-pitched Funetik Aksent that almost certainly comes across as Yellowface. But what really takes it Up to Eleven is the video, which was taken down from YouTube for nudity. The titles are written in stereotypical "wonton fonts," and in one scene that drew particular ire from critics, the masseuse dances around with tip jars covering her breasts that say "Suckee" and "Fuckee." Controversy
ensued
, with critics including a member of the House of Representatives
and the Director of Disruption Strategies at the anti-sex trafficking organization Polaris
, while Pitchfork gave it special mention in their review
of Hopsin's No Shame, and The Needle Drop was so disgusted
by the song and its unfortunate implications that he not only called it the worst single of 2017
, but the worst of the 2010s as well
.
- The Christmas carol "Baby, It's Cold Outside"
(originally written by Frank Loesser, sung here by James Taylor and Natalie Cole) has in The New '10s drawn fire from listeners leading to it being banned by some radio stations
for what sounds like Questionable Consent on the part of the female speaker (the line "Say, what's in this drink?" especially can raise eyebrows). As this article explains
, Values Dissonance is largely to blame here: the woman is actually consenting, but a "good girl" in The '40s wasn't supposed to actually say yes to sex.
"Its a song about a society where women arent allowed to say yes...which happens to mean its also a society where women dont have a clear and unambiguous way to say no."- This eventually led to John Legend and Kelly Clarkson recording a new version
with less unfortunate lyrics, but even that led to criticism
for changing the popular lyrics.
- This eventually led to John Legend and Kelly Clarkson recording a new version
- The Maroon Five song "Animals" was criticized
by RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), who said that the song promotes domestic abuse and the dehumanization of women.
- Noted on Lethal WOW
about how WWE has a history of favouring white Divas as their top babyfaces. Any women of colour either don't become stars or else get pushed as heels (and make what you will of their opponents usually being heroic white girls). Likewise, many women of mixed heritage have a history of downplaying it and being presented as white or Ambiguously Brown. Especially of note is Sasha Banks taking ages to achieve anything, despite her clear popularity - when her white contemporaries received pushes far quicker.
- Cewsh Reviews noted here
and here
the disturbing tendency for WWE to portray their Faces as mean-spirited bullies who are supposed to be in the right purely because the audience cheers for them. Sheamus is particularly notorious for acting like this whenever he's face.
- Paige has attracted a couple:
- In one Smackdown segment, she referred to Tamina Snuka as Naomi's "boyfriend" and suggested that she belonged in the wrong division. Critics
pointed
out the negative implications of a face making sexist and transphobic remarks.
- She and AJ Lee were the faces going up against the heel Bella Twins. The face team had two Tomboys, while the heels were Girly Girls. This wouldn't have been so bad if Paige hadn't claimed that she and AJ were automatically better because they weren't girly, and that the Bellas somehow weren't 'real' women. ''Diva Dirt''
criticized them for that.
- In one Smackdown segment, she referred to Tamina Snuka as Naomi's "boyfriend" and suggested that she belonged in the wrong division. Critics
- After losing her Divas' Championship, AJ Lee - again meant to be a Face - insulted the Bella Twins by claiming "talent isn't sexually transmitted". Resorting to Slut-Shaming as a way of insulting her opponents was called out
.
- In the sixth season of WWE Tough Enough, contestant Amanda accused Sara Lee of being a "ring rat". Mick Foley criticised
Amanda's Slut-Shaming Sara Lee in an attempt to sway fan votes. He also had a problem with none of the judges calling Amanda out for her bullying. He later wrote a retraction once it was explained that Amanda was playing the part of the heel in the final, though still said she shouldn't have resorted to slut-shaming to get cheap heat.
- The character of Muhammad Hassan, an Arab-American wrestler who was angry at the United States for discriminating against him following the 9/11 attacks. It was a powerful gimmick that touched upon the real-life social issue of Islamophobia. There was just one problem: the character was portrayed as a heel, which essentially meant that the Islamophobes were essentially the good guys in his storyline. Things were only made worse after the terrorist angle that aired the day of the London terrorist bombings in July 2005. Aside from being obviously insensitive, it perpetuated the "All Muslims are Terrorists" stereotype and completely contradicted the original character of being an ordinary American standing up to discrimination. Hassan explained his thoughts on it here
. Ultimately, Hassan was written off when the Undertaker put him through the stage.
- Ronda Rousey, meant to be a Face was criticised
for again resorting to Slut-Shaming in a promo against the Bella Twins. Her comments about the 'Diva Era' making her "sick to my stomach" were also noted to be Undermined by Realitynote
"Ronda Rousey is the main eventer of this all women's PPV, the all-women empowering event. She's the face of this women's event and she's the one taking issue with Nikki Bella being in a relationship with a man."
- The German companion shows Benjamin Blümchen and Bibi Blocksberg, which have the ridiculously innocent premises of a talking zoo elephant and a boy going on all sorts of adventures, and a young witch girl getting herself into all sorts of magical kerfuffles, have been accused by the German Federal Agency for Civic Education
of essentially indoctrinating kids with a very Straw Liberal worldview where all authorities are automatically evil or incompetent, industry is eponymous with dishonesty and corruption, journalism is always right and PR is all-powerful no matter how exploitative, defaming, or outright libelous it can get, and environmental protection ranks higher than progress, science, prosperity, safety, personal freedom, free speech, the democratic process, or plain common sense, and are practically the only issues that really deserve airtime.
- Dungeons & Dragons has been
regularly accused
of explicit sexism
when it comes to the drow race: the only civilized race to function entirely on a matriarchal system (at least before the serpentine lamia were added), composed almost entirely of Always Chaotic Evil Social Darwinists with a Chronic Backstabbing Disorder and who treat their men like garbage. The lamia are almost as bad but didn't generate much outrage, most likely because they don't have Wolverine Publicity like the Drow do.
- This was a major factor in Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition being embroiled in controversy:
- First, the play-testing adventure Enlightenment in Blood not only had a sample PC who was strongly implied to be a paedophile, but the first scene was set up to encourage said PC to feed on a baby. Needless to say, there was backlash
.
- Later on, White Wolf were accused of marketing the game line to the alt-right and neo-Nazis
. This prompted them to release an AMA
where they took a very unambiguous stand against fascism, explained that some of the perceived dogwhistles (such as the 1-4-8-8 dice roll) were due to a lack of knowledge and apologised for others (such as one of the Brujah clan's abilities being named "triggered").
- The Camarilla sourcebook attracted controversy and triggered an international incident when it referred to the Real Life persecution and genocide of Chechnya's LGBTQ+ population as "a clever media manipulation" to hide the existence of vampires. The controversy led to Paradox restructuring and integrating White Wolf
, thus ending them as an independent company.
- First, the play-testing adventure Enlightenment in Blood not only had a sample PC who was strongly implied to be a paedophile, but the first scene was set up to encourage said PC to feed on a baby. Needless to say, there was backlash
- The Las Vegas Sun's review
of Criss Angel BeLIEve points out that in the original (subsequently retooled) story "[T]here's a continual struggle over [Criss's] usually shirtless bod between his stage assistants, Kayala, an angelic ever-receding woman in white and Crimson, a devouring, demonic black woman. (Not even going there.)"
- When Tootsie was given a Broadway adaptation in 2019, it received
several
criticisms
for the story (a struggling actor masquerading as a woman to get a role on a big Broadway show) having transphobic undertones without the excuse of Values Dissonance that the original movie has. Some lines do try to address this (with Michael's agent flippantly supporting alternate pronouns and using whatever bathroom you want), but for many it comes across as a weak hand wave. Even more controversial was several pieces of merchandise that featured the quote from the show: "Being a woman is no job for a man." While this makes sense in the context of the show, it received much backlash from trans people for sounding eerily close to a transmisogynistic slogan, resulting in the merchandise being pulled.
- The play All in a Row, which premiered in London in 2019, faced some serious
backlash
for portraying an autistic child as a puppet, as it implied that autistic characters could easily be replaced by props. Not helping was the puppet's design as "grey and mawkish" and the flimsy excuse that it would have been too hard to get consent from an actual nonverbal autistic child (since verbal autistic children exist and are often capable of tasks like acting).
- Miss Saigon was written in the 1990s and, despite initially casting some actors in yellowface (already a highly problematic move), brought major roles for Asian American actors during a time when there were few. However, many
modern critics
have denounced the show for its misogynistic and racist overtones. The love story between the white American soldier Chris and Kim, a Vietnamese escort he sleeps with, is seen as highly questionable, with most of the story putting sympathy towards Chris in what many see as unchecked White Guilt.
- The Epcot ride Habit Heroes was heavily criticized
for fat-shaming, as it focused on literally fighting obesity. The article also notes that one of the "villains" seen in the old attraction's site was an embodiment of insecurity. Yes, insecurity is a bad habit that must be cured like a sweet tooth or excessively gossiping. Thankfully, Disney closed the ride and remodeled it to be a bit gentler, to a much warmer reception.
- This was invoked purposefully on one occasion by 8-Bit Theater. When Bahamut decides that Red Mage and Black Mage are Fighter's slaves, and Fighter starts referring to Red Mage as Red Slave, Black Mage points out that this would make him Black Sla"GOOD NIGHT, EVERYBODY!
"
- Shortpacked! lampshades this trope in this strip.
To explain, a LEGO Space Policeman is showing a diagram of a variety of aliens and identifying them as inhuman criminals in a lecture to a bunch of human trainees. There's a pause and one of the trainees says "Anyone else uncomfortable with this?"
- Ménage à 3: Zii has a habit of tossing people into sexual situations and otherwise violating personal boundaries willy-nilly. The audience is apparently supposed to be on her side, and she was never punished for it for a long time. (To be fair, the comic shows a disregard verging on contempt for the concept of karma for anyone.) This is in addition to a lot of fanservice and some stereotyping in the comic generally. For more detail, see these
reviews
. However, things grew a little more nuanced as the plot continued, as one of Zii's conquests turned into a comedy Stalker with a Crush who was largely responsible for her first serious relationship for years crashing and burning.
- Moon over June is pretty
notorious
in general and there's very little about its plot that doesn't carry unfortunate implications; the most commonly cited ones are Hatsuki's ability to 'try out' eating disorders and her deciding to become a lesbian to piss off her parents, Summer having such extreme misandry as to seriously consider putting any son she may end up having up for adoption, and Summer's career as a gynecologist being solely based on her desire to grope vaginas all day, which is totally fine.
- Sticky Dilly Buns: Ruby has a degree-level education, is looking for an appropriate job, and considers this a higher priority than dating. She's also a screaming neurotic who seems permanently stressed out, and the best advice she receives in her job search relates to how she should dress. Amber is a former porn actress who got her current job (and her apartment) by sexually manipulating a man; she's also relatively well-balanced and comfortable with her life. This has inspired some
comments
on the comic's discussion boards; readers think that the comic is implying that women who seek to get an education and use it to earn a good living are doomed to be desperate virgins who need to get laid, and the best way for a woman to get on in the world is to exploit her appearance and sexuality.
- The Nostalgia Critic's review of Sailor Moon was heavily criticized
for being sexist. The article goes into detail about how Usagi shouldn't be called stupid, cowardly, or slutty, and how the message of girls accepting their sexuality and femininity, as well Usagi as being allowed to be flawed instead of being perfect and unrelatable was lost on him. The same review got another article
about how it was filled with Victim Blaming. The author dedicated a special section of scorn for the dick-talking scene.
- Feminist Frequency: In the video about Watch_Dogs, the show makes the claim that the scene where the player investigates a sex-trafficking ring was used for fanservice. This has been a controversial statement
as it seems to imply that the average player would find violence against women arousing. Liana Kerzner in her series examining Feminist Frequency's critique of video games. pointed out
that Anita's arguments also seem to back-handedly slut shame and generalize all sex workers as either victims or objects.
"Anti-rape advocates have spent years making the distinction that rape is a crime of violence, not of sex, and yet Feminist Frequency insists that video games use the victimization of women to titillate players. Most men do not get turned on by rape. To imply that they do demonizes male sexuality, and that's not fair critique." - On Columbus Day in 2017, Ben Shapiro's The Daily Wire tweeted out a cartoon depicting pre-Colombian Native Americans as cannibalistic savages. Christopher Columbus and other Europeans come along and teach them agriculture and build modern cities. Mediaite
accused the video of "excusing ethnic genocide by depicting Native Americans as cannibals and savages who weren't tamed until white Europeans came to America and took their land." He eventually took it down and apologized.
- The Onion: The "Autistic Reporter" series caught some flack
for furthering stereotypes of autistic people, such as Lack of Empathy, Schedule Fanatic, and Literal-Minded. While most articles parody, subvert, or invert stereotypes, this series seems to play them entirely straight as a source of humor.
- During the Lavender Town episodes of Pokémon World Tour: United, the characters participate in the Festival of Life, a celebration that winds up resembling Día de Muertos, the Day of the Dead. In episode 35's intermission, Jake, who plays Rose Jenny, states that he realized as they recorded that they may have strayed into culturally insensitive territory without meaning to and requests feedback on the matter. Episode 37 opens with Jake explaining that they got that feedback, with reactions ranging from "It's okay, don't worry about it" to statements that they felt uncomfortable for reasons such as the cast treating the celebration too frivolously. Jake makes special note of one response which explains that because the character Tsubaki, who opposes the Festival of Life and who the hosts themselves regard as the villain of the arc, came off Unintentionally Sympathetic, it appeared as if the hosts themselves regarded the Festival, and by extension Día de Muertos, negatively. The hosts assert this was not their intent, apologize to those left offended or otherwise uncomfortable, and retcon some of the details of what's been happening, such as toning down the decoration of skull masks the characters got, to try and better regard the celebration with the respect it deserves.
- Screen Rant Pitch Meetings, often mocks the various ways movies and TV shows fall into this trope, often followed by a "Whoops!" "Whoopsie!" exchange between the Screenwriter and the Producer. One example is The Big Bang Theory pitch meeting, in which the Producer realizes that making fun of Raj being Indian might be racist, insinuating that he and Howard are a gay couple and having those insinuations Played for Laughs might be homophobic, and making Penny less intelligent than the guys might be sexist.
- RWBY has been noted by several
people
to have a very poor understanding of racial politics. Among other issues, the core cast is all-white with the one marginalized member Blake being talked over by the others, the criticism of the White Fangs' violent methods falling flat when the show demonstrates no effective alternative and seems to damn fighting oppression in general, and the people of colour shown on the show often resort to stereotypes and end up getting voiced by white actors.
- Lampshaded in the Death Battle episode "Batgirl VS Spider-Gwen'', in which Boomstick points out that Batgirl's hero name makes it sound like her role is defined by her relationship to the male Batman, as opposed to Robin, who gets a name that makes him sound independent.
Boomstick: You know, how come she's called Batgirl when Dick gets to be Robin? Her identity and individuality shouldn't be anchored to the patriarchal idea that women are publicly defined by the men in their life.
Wiz: Uh, well said, Boomstick. - Lampshaded and Played for Laughs in SMP Earth. When Wilbur Soot and SootCharlie make an alliance with TommyInnit, Wilbur names their trio "Cummie Squad". This does not sit well with 15 year-old Tommy, and the name is quickly changed to "Cumin Squad".
Tommy: Wilbur, when my mum asks me what I was doing tonight, and I say "I was participating in "Cummie Squad" with a 23-year-old man", how do you think she'll feel then?
- Fashion designer Kimhekim has gotten flak
for his collection, which was first shown at Paris Fashion Week, called "Attention Seeker". At the show, models went down the catwalk wearing white shirts with the word "sick" across their chest and pushing along an IV stand. Those who require intravenous medication, such as cancer patients and people with chronic illnesses, were appalled
at how their condition was treated as a fashion accessory, and the name was also viewed by some as an accusation that the chronically ill are just "seeking attention".