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Because the victimization of female characters has more emotional impact with audiences, their deaths are often used to drive plots, motivate protagonists and present touching denouements. Male characters may also serve this purpose--after they've earned audience sympathy--but expect a far higher proportion of anonymous and meaningless male death for every one inspirational male death. In general, if a female character dies, it emphasizes the tragedy or horror of a situation. If a male character dies, it emphasizes the danger or functions as [[Gorn]].
When the nameless masses die off, a character will often comment that the villain killed innocent women and [[Children Are Innocent|children]]. Male deaths seem to be considered regrettable but not nearly as tragic, as though men are automatically considered to be [[A Real Man Is a Killer|combatants]] who died in battle - even if they were actually innocent bystanders who had absolutely no chance to defend themselves. Sometimes villains will defend themselves by saying that they only target men, as if actions that result in the death of men are morally neutral. (Note that being [[Kick Them While They Are Down|wounded, disabled or very elderly]] trumps being a man, as it takes one out of the "combatant" category.) [[Wouldn't Hit a
A male character can elevate himself to the status of a female extra through sympathetic characterization--thus earning himself a noteworthy death--but female characters always start with audience sympathy. Conversely, a female character can lose audience sympathy through actively unsympathetic characterization. Even so, villainous female characters are often treated as less genuinely evil than male villains, scoring more [[Karma Houdini|Get Of Jail Free cards]] and [[High Heel Face Turn|convenient redemptions]]. Female characters also have to act far worse to lose this kind of sympathy, and are more often given [[Freudian Excuse|an excuse]] for their bad behavior. Namely, a female character only crosses the line if she [[Would Hurt a Child|targets children for death]], especially if she does the killing herself, or if she openly admits to [[Good Girls Avoid Abortion|have had an abortion]] and isn't constantly angsting about it.
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Media with [[Gorn]] will still kill off female characters, except in far more sanitary ways. Men may be being hacked apart by the [[Big Bad]], but women will simply scream and slump over. Or scream and the scene cuts away. Or if men are being brutally beaten to death, women will be strangled instead. Female characters will die, on screen, in a way that will not result in a closed casket funeral. If there is female [[Gorn]] death, expect it to be described or implied rather than shown.
A subset of this trope relates to the treatment of male vs. female bodies. It is more acceptable to show all aspects of male death, from brutal mutilation to the corpse itself. It's also more acceptable to [[Due to
On the other hand, and related to the above "Death As [[Emotional Torque]]" point; a woman's [[Gorn|gorny]] death will usually be considered worse than if a man were killed in the exact same manner (even if it is only the audience that considers the scene more harrowing).
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Villains who target female characters for death, even anonymous female characters, will be viewed with far less sympathy than villains who target male characters, even important and likable ones. Sympathetic male characters will lose audience sympathy if they target women. Women lose no sympathy for targeting men, and only a little if they are targeting men out of misandry. Men will be cast into the role of [[Moral Event Horizon|irredeemable evil]] if they target women just for being female.
Females who target other females have to be unusually brutal in their violence to lose sympathy since the audience often considers female-on-female violence ([[Double Standard Rape (Female
Protagonists and antagonists can thus be easily determined from any scene of violence, without any context, if the actors are of different genders - women fighting men are usually the good guys, men fighting women are usually the bad guys. After all, if he was really a good guy, he [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl
Female characters are also expected to treat ''themselves'' as less expendable than male characters. Female characters do not lose sympathy for preserving their own lives or safety at the cost of adult male characters' lives and safety. (They are sometimes expected to do so [[Mama Bear|to protect children]], however, if there are no male characters available to take care of it.) Male characters lose considerable sympathy if they don't at least try to bend over backwards and help save female characters' lives, even if the cost is their own. (Imagine the climactic death scene in ''[[Titanic]]'' with the genders reversed.) If the woman is or might be pregnant - or if she even has older children - this can be brought forward as an excuse, softening the trope: she must save herself to protect the child. Fathers much more rarely bring up parenthood as a reason to avoid putting themselves in danger when they would otherwise be morally obligated to, although a childless male character might invoke it as a reason why the father should allow him to sacrifice himself instead.
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== [[Unfortunate Implications]] ==
Being viewed as less sympathetic than women by default has obvious [[Unfortunate Implications]] for men: in general, it is more socially acceptable for women to seek help or support from others, and they're more likely to actually get it. More than that, though, this trope contributes to systematic social problems that disproportionately affect men. Men are more likely than women to be homeless, to be victims of violent crime, and to be injured or killed in workplace accidents. Many countries, though no longer all, refuse to officially assign female troops to combat units (although non-combat troops frequently do end up in combat anyway); not only is every army in the world willing to put men on the front lines, men are often considered to have [[A Real Man Is a Killer|an obligation to defend their country in combat]] and may be pressured to join up, or even conscripted. Outside of war, men are often [[What Measure Is a Non-Badass?|viewed as cowards]] if they [[Non-Action Guy|shrink from fistfights]], and if a man and woman are attacked by a criminal, he tends to be viewed as [[Always Save the Girl|responsible for protecting her]], regardless of whether she's actually more capable. A man who faces a problem like [[Domestic Abuse]] is often either [[All Abusers Are Male|actively disbelieved]] if he goes to the authorities, or told that [[Henpecked Husband|he ought to be able]] to [[Men Don't Cry|handle it on his own]]; if he does get help, he's likely to [[I Was Beaten
However, the trope also has subtler [[Unfortunate Implications]] for women. Women get automatic audience sympathy for the same reason children do: they're viewed as fundamentally helpless, passive and innocent as well as incompetent and ineffectual in any given situation, not as adults who can take care of themselves. Crimes against women are considered especially horrific because it's assumed that [[Stay in
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* [[Missing White Woman Syndrome]]
* [[Sacrificial Lion]]
* [[Stay in
* [[The Unfair Sex]]
* [[White Knighting]]
* [[Women in Refrigerators]]
* [[Wouldn't Hit a
You can also see a somewhat similar dynamic playing out with portrayals of racial and other minorities, who, like women, are often portrayed as perfect politically correct saints and victims, and are therefore reduced to passive props in stories about more dynamic white/able-bodied/middle-class/heterosexual/etc. protagonists: compare [[Token Minority]], [[Magical Negro]], [[Magical Queer]], [[Black Best Friend]], [[Gay Best Friend]], [[Going Native]], [[Inspirationally Disadvantaged]], [[Positive Discrimination]], [[Disposable Woman]] and [[Mighty Whitey]]. However there is a subtle distinction with the portrayal of minority characters: if they are male they still aren't afforded the same physical protections as female characters. See [[Black Dude Dies First]].
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