Basic Trope: A character is mistakenly thought to be bigoted against women.
- Straight: Alice hears Bob tell Carol that he doesn't think she should be rock climbing. Alice then chews out Bob for being sexist, but it turns out that Bob is quite nervous about safety and disapproves of rock climbing in general, regardless of gender.
- Exaggerated: Alice mistakes Bob for a He-Man Woman Hater, but really he's very passionate about women's rights.
- Downplayed: Bob's views are slightly insensitive but mistaken for being more bigoted. He compliments the well-muscled six-foot-tall Carol for her impressive physique saying that most women aren't strong enough for this line of work (being direct combat infantry) but she certainly is. Alice, of a smaller, more compact build, overhears interprets that as him thinking women like her shouldn't be in military combat roles at all.
- Justified: Alice is a bit on edge as she's had to deal with sexist men before, and she has only just met Bob.
- Inverted: Bob is a misogynist, but Alice thinks he isn't.
- Gender Inverted: Alice hears Carol tell Bob that she doesn't think he should be cooking. Alice thinks that Carol has a stereotyped view of men and believes that men can't cook, but it turns out that she just hates Bob's cooking.
- Subverted: It turns out that Bob really was sexist and was using the safety-consciousness as an excuse.
- Double Subverted: He was embarrassed about being safety-conscious so he used the sexism line as a sort of double excuse. He's not sexist, just awkward.
- Parodied: Any statement about women is viewed as appallingly sexist no matter how benign, like "the incoming class is fifty-two percent female". Even women suffer from it for saying things like "it is hard to find women's jeans don't have large enough or sufficient pockets". All played for absurdist humor.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice thinks Bob is sexist because he told Carol that he didn't think she should be rock climbing. However, it turns out that he just thinks rock climbing is too dangerous for everyone. However, he does say that Carol in particular should be careful...but it turns out that it's because she's his sister and he's especially protective over family members.
- Averted:
- Bob is openly sexist.
- Alice does not mistake Bob for sexist.
- Enforced: It's only the second episode, so the viewers don't know the characters very well yet. In the first episode, Bob disapproves of Carol rock-climbing so the writers make this plot so the viewers don't go thinking Bob is sexist.
- Lampshaded: "Oh my gosh, she's gonna think I'm prejudiced. Look, it's not because you're a lady!"
- Invoked: Charles tries to discredit Bob to Alice by encouraging him to talk to Carol about rock climbing safety in a way that might be misinterpreted as sexist.
- Exploited: Carol dislikes Bob and uses this to pretend he is sexist so that Alice will also dislike him.
- Defied: Bob says to Carol, "And I'd say this to anyone, rock climbing is just too dangerous!" He then shows this by turning to Charles and saying, "Don't climb this wall; you'll probably get hurt badly or killed."
- Discussed: "What if they think I'm sexist or something?"
- Conversed: "That character's in trouble. Someone thinks he's being sexist."
- Implied: Alice is seen giving Bob a Death Glare after he tells Carol that he doesn't think she should be rock climbing, but we don't know why.
- Deconstructed:
- The full ramifications are played out in detail as Bob gets an undeserved bad reputation.
- The bad treatment Bob receives causes him to hate women legitimately.
- Reconstructed: Bob salvages his reputation and takes the scorn in stride as a necessary yet regrettable risk to stop actual sexists.
- Played for Laughs: Cringe Comedy happens when Bob tries to explain that he's not sexist but accidentally makes himself appear sexist in different ways.
- Played for Drama: Alice scorns Bob.
- Played for Horror: Alice has nightmares about the apparently sexist Bob humiliating her.
Back to Mistaken for Misogynist.
