Mommy Issues/Headscratchers

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• Someone help me with this. Why in almost every fiction is the main character suffering from Daddy Issues? The dad's either abusive, abandoned the family, or just isn't around when the kid needs him (ie, he's at work 24/7). Are writers just that bitter with their old man? Why not their mom?
  • Because, Unfortunate Implications ahoy, the only male characters with Mommy Issues are either infantile Mama's Boys, Norman Bates, or Scarecrow. It's not acceptable for a main, good character to have Mommy Issues and still be awesome (unless of course said issues stem from her death). As for women ... well ... that really doesn't make sense, but I would argue it is somewhat more common to see women with mothers who left, were overbearing to the point of being psychologically damaging, or outright abusive. (Mary's mother on In Plain Sight is an alcoholic and a drama queen who gives Mary no end of problems, even as an adult, Splice feature a main character who was the daughter of an abusive mother and started acting rather abusively towards her sort of daughter as well, Olivia Benson from Law and Order: SVU had an alcoholic mother that she had a complicated relationship with, etc.) Maybe because Abuse Is Okay When It's Female On Male, even if the male is a little boy with no power in the relationship and the female is an adult. Like I said, Unfortunate Implications ahoy.
  • Speaking of Olivia, SVU did give her partner Stabler a bipolar Missing Mom that he eventually reconciled with. This is still fairly unusual for male characters though (unless of course Mom is dead).
  • Because in fictionland, no one gets to be happy, and it's apparently easier to pick on the father as the cause of problems than the mother. Also, Scarecrow didn't have Mommy Issues, he had Grandmother Issues. And Great-Grandmother Issues. And...well, he just had a whole lot of issues.
  • Also blame the outdated stereotype that mothers are just naturally better at parenting than fathers.
    • Plus, some writers actually do have fathers who abandoned the family or worse, were abusive. Writing about their characters with not-very-nice dads is a way for them to work out that pent up anger and frustration that no doubt lingers deep inside them.
  • There might be a certain amount of Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas at play: even if the resident Evil Matriarch is clearly the cause of everyone's problems, they (and the writers) aren't as likely to blame them.