Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality: Difference between revisions

True equality, which is near the center of the scale, is rare. The edges are taken by positions where the opposite sex doesn't exist, or exists in only a contemptible form. Note that Level 1 is not the exact reverse of Level 9, as there are far fewer works in which the writer simply fails to include male characters, or in which a setting is intentionally created as a female-free paradise.<ref>The ''[[Lexx]]'' episode "Nook" features a "monastic paradise" of male-only clones who believed that they could only have true harmony in a world without women. There are a few other all-male groups in other works as well.</ref>

 

 

== Level 1: There are no women ==

There are no female characters in the story, or there are very few, but they serve as nothing more than background for the male character, and don't do anything of note. None of them are more than a minor character. There may be nothing sexist about it - there can be a legitimate reason for the lack of women, such as stories being set in places where women are not allowed (a [[The Shawshank Redemption|men's prison]], a [[Das Boot|WWII era military submarine]], etc.)

 

* In general, the majority of [[Boys Love Genre]] anime and manga have very few and / or largely insignificant female characters.

** Used in ''[[Ai no Kusabi]]'' to justify its [[Cast Full of Gay]].

* Both ''Crows'' and ''Worst'' by Hiroshi Takahashi feature no females whomsoever aside from occasional mentions (one of the main characters has no less than 6 girlfriends). This is a seinen manga about inter-school fighting and manly friendship and, despite the premise, even the most rabid [[Yaoi Fangirl]] would be hard-pressed to get any [[Ho Yay]] out of it.

* ''[[Kaiji]]''. There is one woman on the show, but she only appears in a single scene in one episode and says no more than two lines.

* ''[[Akagi]]'' has zero women onscreen in the entire show.

 

* Most ''[[Tintin]]'' books feature no significant female characters and in the series as a whole only Bianca Castafiore can be considered an important female; and she's relevant to the plot in only a few of the stories.

 

*** Also Susan Turner, who built several of the models used in the film including the spaceship in the opening scene and {{spoiler|The Blairmonster.}}

** The prequel goes up a few levels, seeing as the base had [[Two Girls to a Team|two women]] - one a professional French scientist and the other an American student of paleontology.

** But in the 1951 film version ''The Thing From Another World'' one of the main characters is a woman (and in fact the actress who plays her, Margaret Sheridan, is topbilled - although admittedly the real stars are Kenneth Tobey and James Arness).

* ''[[The Good, the Bad and the Ugly|The Good the Bad And The Ugly]]'': A prostitute appearing in a single scene is the most important female character and the only one given a name. ''Every last'' woman in the film besides her is someone's wife, and all their appearances are within the first hour of the nearly 3-hour film. Rape, incidentally, is on Tuco's [[Long List]] of prior offenses, which is entirely [[Played for Laughs]].

** This happened with a lot of [[Sergio Leone]]'s films. Out of his main body of work (which consisted of two trilogies), only three had women in a notable role. The first one (''[[A Fistful of Dollars]]'') had two women in supporting roles - except neither got much screentime. One was running the gang whom the story puts less focus on, and the other is just a [[Damsel in Distress]] whose only purpose is to give [[Clint Eastwood]] a [[Pet the Dog]] moment towards the end. The only two films of his that actually had strong women in significant roles were ''[[Once Upon a Time in the West]]'', which had the nerve to include a female protagonist, and ''[[Once Upon a Time in America]]'', where the love story plays a major part in a much larger epic. As for the others, [[For a Few Dollars More]] has one credited women who only appears in two brief scenes, and one girl who only appears in a flashback and has no lines, and [[Duck You Sucker]] again has one women who appears in flashback with no lines, and the only other woman is an annoying racist who is out of the picture in the first 15 minutes.

* ''[[Lawrence of Arabia]]'', famously.

*** ''[[Operation Petticoat]]'' blatantly subverts this, albeit in a patriarchal way.

**** Actually, the movie pretty much goes up the scale as the story progresses. It starts off at Level 1, with an all-male submarine crew (which is [[Truth in Television]], as women weren't, and in some places still aren't allowed to serve aboard submarines), then once the nurses are introduced the story reaches Level 3 before gradually progressing towards to Level 5.

** There was originally a scene involving a female cop, but it ended up on the cutting room floor.

* ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' has precisely one female in the movie, a secretary, who is also a [[Playboy]] centrefold.

** Some modern versions try to correct this by making the judge a woman. Others simply opt to retitle the play "Twelve Angry Jurors" just so that some of the jury can be women.

 

* The stories of [[H.P. Lovecraft]]: there are virtually no female characters across such a vast body of work. Only one of his seventy-plus stories has a female protagonist.

* ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'', chronicling the adventures of the students from an all-boys school.

* ''[[Foundation]]'' by [[Isaac Asimov]]. Later books in the series have female characters, including a female protagonist in ''Second Foundation''.

* ''[[The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]''. The original story had practically no women aside from the unnamed witness who saw Mr. Hyde commit a murder. A huge difference from most, if not all adaptations, which usually tack in a [[Love Interest]] for Dr. Jekyll.

* In ''[[World War Z]]'' by Max Brooks there are 37 men yet only 5 women in what is presented as a UN report.

 

* ''[[Thomas the Tank Engine]]'' used to be like this until characters like Daisy, Mavis, and Emily came along. Apparently, as the show goes on, it goes up a few levels in the scale.

* ''[[Deadliest Warrior]]'' - Being a show about historical warriors battling to the death that's [[Rated "M" for Manly]], it's to be expected. Briefly became a type 4 in one episode of Season 2 (CIA vs. KGB), where both sides had one female operative, and one of them ({{spoiler|The KGB}}) kicked quite a bit of ass.

* Most beer ads, where women exist solely as sex objects/status objects for men.

 

* The infamous ''[[Mad Bull 34]]''.

 

* Level name comes from an infamous [[Memetic Mutation]] that sprung up around [[Frank Miller]]. Most of his works, especially ''[[Sin City]]'', are set either here, or at Level 3.

 

* ''[[Naruto Veangance Revelaitons]]'' is among the most extreme examples of Type 2, to the point of being openly misogynist. It is stated at several points that Sakura is nothing without Ronan, and while everyone from canon suffers [[Badass Decay]] [[Overshadowed by Awesome|compared to]] [[God Mode Sue|Ronan]], Sakura is completely unable to even try to fight after losing the first battle against Orochimaru, addicted to sex and dependent on Ronan. Mei, the Mizukage, is defeated in one attack, with Ronan [[Politically Incorrect Hero|stating that it's no surprise she can't defeat him because she's a girl]]. Among the original characters, while Taliana has special powers as an antagonist, she's unable to defeat Ronan, and ''even gets beaten up by Sakura'' when the author was going through a breakup with the girlfriend he based her on. Two out of five (later retconned to four) of the [[Big Bad|Council]] [[Omniscient Council of Vagueness|members]] are female and somewhat more vocal than the males, their being feminists is portrayed as evil.

 

 

=== [[Web Comics]] ===

* The [[Ciem Webcomic Series]] and its [[Ultimate Universe]] counterpart both have shades of this. Yes, the women outnumber the men, and get to have more adventures. But a lot of their adventures can best be described as "almost got raped/killed/whatever today, but got away in the nick of time." Men hold nearly all the positions of authority, and the few women that have any authority are either useless or psychotic. With exception of a small handful of good guys, all the men are either [[All Men Are Perverts|mindless sex addicts]] or [[Complete Monster|depraved sadists]] or [[Manipulative Bastard|sleazy manipulators]], all bent on enslaving women and usually abusing them sexually. The women are [[All Women Are Lustful|completely obsessed]] with their [[Slave to PR|romantic/sexual reputations]], and the damage done from all the times they're raped and/or nearly killed.

 

Women are useless and most of the time don't contribute anything. If they are in trouble, they can only wait to be rescued. Also, they are never in control of anything - males are always patriarchal leaders and their actions can be questioned only by other males. Most of the purest and straightest (which means those that will never change) examples of [[The Chick]] and [[Damsel in Distress]] are here.

 

* ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'', definitely.

* ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]''

** Dothraki culture is very patriarchal, but the dosh khaleen, the religious leaders of the capital Vaes Dothrak, are all widows of the male Khals.

 

* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Seriess]]'' straddles the line between this and Level 4 below.

 

At this level it looks like both sexes are equal. Then why do only males have all the cool and most offensive powers and equipment, while their female teammates do things like providing first aid, being [[Mission Control]], working in the laboratory and you would be damned if you will ever see any of them in an actual fight? And even if they go into a fight, they end up either defeated easily, insignificant in the overall victory, [[Designated Girl Fight|or end up fighting another girl]]. Every unlucky [[Action Girl]] that lives in a world set at this level will suffer from [[Chickification]] and eventually turn into or be revealed as a [[Faux Action Girl]]. At this level, men and women are equal, but [[Stay in the Kitchen|some things are still a man's job]].

 

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' - Most of the time a girl wins in Duel Monsters, it's an unimportant duel that we see only in a cut-scene, and those on which the plot is focused and have been won by girls can be counted on one hand.

** Similarly in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (anime)|GX]]'', where Asuka is considered among the seven best duelists in Duel Academy, [[Informed Ability|but we see her having a victory in a plot-important duel only twice]].

* In ''[[Stationery Voyagers]]'', Viola's first feature episode is also the very rare girl power episode. While all the girls [[Reluctant Warrior|can deliver heaping abuse if forced to]], they are all uneasy about using violence. (Viola [[Sassy Black Woman|the least so]].) The men tend to be ''a little'' [[A Real Man Is a Killer|more free to use violence as an option]]. Both sexes prefer the [[Guile Hero]] approach whenever possible. After landing on Mantith, the women have significantly more to do. But they also seem to have a harder time holding their own against [[Torches and Pitchforks|the mobs that chase them everywhere]]. The men have it hard too, with [[Walking Wasteland|Liquidon]] and [[Shock and Awe|Cybomec]] having it less hard.

 

* ''[[The West Wing]]'' is here. The vast majority of the important characters are male, and one of the select prominent female ones is sometimes known as a "sex kitten". Others include the first lady's Chief of Staff who's then director of legislative affairs, the president's executive secretary, the [[The Chick|deputy chief of staff]] who's Josh's love interest, and a prominent one as press secretary who manages to pull it out of Level 3. But at the end of the day it's the men who are the leaders who most of the action is around.

 

=== [[Toys]] ===

 

=== [[Video Games]] ===

 

== Level 5: Almost Perfect Equality ==

 

* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's]]'', you have a Faux Action Boy and two Action Girls who actually show they can win duels.

* In ''[[Shugo Chara]]'', later on they {{spoiler|let the boys transform}} but occasionally focus issues come up. {{spoiler|Nagihiko gets focus but he's Nagihiko!}}

 

=== [[Fan Works]] ===

** ''[[Ultimate Sleepwalker|Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams]]'' doesn't apply quite as much, given that the protagonist is male, but several of his enemies are [[Dark Action Girl]]s and Sleepwalker has no compunctions about hitting them just as hard as he would any of his male enemies. The female characters in Rick Sheridan's and Sleepwalker's supporting casts also get a considerable amount of development in their own right.

 

* ''[[The Millennium Trilogy|The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo]]'' depicts a lot of evil men, but Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist share time as co-protagonists and are both skilled.

 

* The crew of Serenity in ''[[Firefly]]'' appears this way. Zoe, the first mate, is just as respected as Captain Mal, and perfectly capable of leading if he is indisposed.

** Also, no bones are made at all in the show that she's an [[Action Girl]], nor is her [[Non-Action Guy]] husband treated as being any less of a man just because his wife could kick his ass.

** In some cases, they're even more open-minded than modern society. For instance, public restrooms, at least on Galactica, are unisex. Also, in one episode Sam mentions to Apollo that Kara proposed marriage to him, and there is no indication that a woman proposing to a man is unusual in their society.

* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' at its best is around here.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]],'' which has a female protagonist and competent male and female characters, though Slayers are always female. The Scoobies are typically fairly gender-balanced.

 

=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===

** D&D has an interesting relationship with this trope. As explained in the v3.5 ''Dungeon Master's Guide II'', the makers of the game have gone out of their way to ensure gender equality, both mechanically and within the (generally assumed) game universe—even when this clashes with players' initial expectations of a medieval-ish society. There is a simple and compelling reason for this: they don't want barriers for female player characters. However, since D&D is possibly the biggest [[Trope Codifier]] of the fantasy genre, a lot of other fantasy works that didn't have the same practical need for egalitarianism picked it up anyway. The result is that today, completely gender-blind fantasy worlds are the norm, unless this trope is actually discussed in the work. This applies even if the world is otherwise based on a medieval or otherwise non-gender-equal real-world culture.

** 1st Edition AD&D, sadly, [[Old Shame|fell firmly into Level 3]] for this trope. Females' Strength scores had a lower ceiling than males', which effectively barred them from being fighters by making them undesirable, and ''literally'' barred Small female demihumans from classes with a high minimum Strength score.

* In the ''[[Fallout]]'' world it´s pretty common to see women as soldiers, carrying weapons (and knowing well how to use them), in charge of units and fighting like their male counterparts, you can even see female raiders and bandits, and female ''ghouls''. Looks like that, when you live in a [[Crapsack World]] full of mutant animals, merciless criminal gangs, radiation, enormous and scary super mutants and extremely deadly creatures like the deathclaws, sexism is a stupid and pointless thing and every human able to use a weapon must do the work.

** Though there are few if any female Enclave soldiers. Most of them are given seemingly safer jobs as scientists and leaving the dangerous wasteland duties to the men. Most likely because of their wish to preserve the human species.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' is somewhere between here and Level 4, depending on how you look at it. On one hand, player characters are of [[Purely Aesthetic Gender]], having all the same abilities and playing the same roles. On the other hand, most faction leaders and important NPCs are male; although there are some major female characters as well, like Jaina Proudmoore and Lady Sylvanas. Basically, [[WoW]] tries their best to be Level 5, but opinions vary on whether they succeeded.

** It is sometimes pointed out that sexism was indeed prevalent in the past. Aegwynn is revered for being the first recognized female mage and faced an uphill battle for that, and Warchief Thrall personally declared the sexes equal in the New Horde.

* Pretty much any TV advertisement for household products, which tend to feature men being idiots and women being competent. Still plays into all the old sexist tropes by reinforcing the idea that women should be the ones who do the housework and/or are particularly suited to housework.

 

** The most prominent example of this is ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', with Mamoru helping by just encouraging Usagi to never give up (and actually being more of a liability to the Sailor Senshi by being [[Dude in Distress|repeatedly brainwashed or kidnapped]]), and three boys who help Sailor Senshi via turning into magical girls themselves. Later in the series, Mamoru becomes more of a [[Badass Normal]], but still lacks the sheer power of the Sailor Senshi.

*** In the manga (which is the source material) the Star Lights never turn into women, they are women. They are simply cross-dressing in an effort to find their princess faster. Mamoru also gets his own attack and crystal making him basically equal to the other Senshi (excluding Moon, who is on her own level) in the manga.

* [[Sheri S. Tepper]] ranges from Level 6 to Level 9 in her work. A good Level 6 example is [[The Arbai Trilogy]], starting with ''Grass''. Men are consistently shown to be either too incompetent and ineffectual, or self-important and arrogant, to figure out what is really going on on the eponymous world. Most of the females are little better; but the few that the novels actually focus on, particularly the protagonist, are far and away more competent and effective than the men.

 

* ''[[Charmed]]'' has the most powerful witches in the world and the eponymous characters as women.

* ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]''

 

 

=== [[Web Original]] ===

** Then subverted when we later learn that {{spoiler|Tex is actually an AI modelled after someone her creator once knew, and because of a few factors riding on that distinction, she's hardwired on a psychological level to always snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.}}

** Further exemplified by Agent Carolina, who was recognised as the best Freelancer before Tex came along. And boy does she kick ass.

* ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' epitomizes this level. Though one episode featured a villain who was a [[Straw Feminist]] trying to convince the girls that all men are dogs and that women are superior, as a lesson that this ''isn't'' the case.

* ''[[Kim Possible]]''. The eponymous [[Extraordinarily Empowered Girl]] "can do anything" while her [[Sidekick]], Ron, is mainly used for [[Plucky Comic Relief]], although he does have a few [[All Up to You|heroic moments]]. Meanwhile, her main [[Arch Enemy|nemesis]], [[Mad Scientist|Dr. Drakken]], is far less competent than his [[Dark Action Girl|sidekick]], Shego.

 

 

* [[Melanie Rawn]]'s ''Exiles'' series.

 

* In ''Incredible Hercules'', Artume almost turned Earth into that kind of place, with women in charge since the beginning of time, most males as second-class citizens and the few men that survived, including Hercules, labeled as terrorists.

* In the [[Gene Roddenberry]] TV-pilot film ''[[Planet Earth]]'', the PAX team led by Dylan Hunt encounters a society where the women rule the man, and in many ways, reverse 20th Century gender roles, attitudes and behaviors.

 

=== [[Web Comics]] ===

 

=== [[Web Original]] ===

 

 

Women rule the world, men are all either castrated slaves or [[Gendercide|extinct]]. Women live in a [[Straw Feminist]] Utopia with superior technology or some kind of [[Scenery Porn|nature paradise]] to emphasize how women are [[Closer to Earth]], and are either happy lesbians or simply celibate. Genetics takes care of procreation. On occasion, there is nothing sexist about it when the fiction takes place in a realistically women-only setting (like a realistic, non-[[Fetish Fuel]] women's prison), but this happens far less often than in Level 1.

 

* Many [[Yuri Genre]] works often have no male character of note, especially in works aimed at older readers or at actual lesbians.

* ''ICE – The Last Generation'' takes place in a setting where all men died and remaining women fight over ideological differences (if they should or shouldn't bring men back) and an ICE (which is an only thing that can help them reproduce).

Men and women live separately. There are two divided communities, each with members of only one gender. There are only homosexual relationships (if any at all) and neither gender needs the other to survive. Even the procreation problem was somehow solved.

 

* ''[[Vandread]]''

* The Zentraedi in ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' do this in the first series as men (Zentraedi) and women (Meltrandi) are kept in completely separate social systems.

 

=== [[Western Animation]] ===

** Ditto one episode of ''[[Duckman]]''.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Sorting Algorithm of Tropes]]

[[Category:Gender and Sexuality Tropes]]