Straw Misogynist: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Shar-teel, [[Because Destiny Says So|your lot in life is to]] [[Stay in the Kitchen|bake cookies]] [[Baby Factory|and bear children]], now shut up."''
|'''Eldoth Kron''', ''[[Baldur's Gate]]''}}
A character drawn as having hateful views of women so that he can be proven wrong.
The
Almost any male character can become this without warning, like a twisted version of [[Epiphany Therapy]]. If a male character is set up in opposition to a female character who's meant to be viewed positively, the easiest (read: laziest) way to show him as wrong (especially if [[Author Tract|someone has an axe to grind]]) is to have them "reveal" a hatred of women that was supposedly hidden just beneath the surface all this time. Need to have the heroine's relationship end for whatever reason? Boyfriend suddenly turns into a ranting misogynist. Heroine is about to face off against the final boss, who's a man? He'll make a few statements revealing he thinks it's impossible a weak, stupid, pathetic ''woman'' could beat him, even if he hasn't uttered a single other opinion on gender during the entire work, thereby making the heroine's defeating him pure catharsis and a supposed feminist statement.
This trope often relies heavily on a pro-male, anti-female, version of [[Mars and Venus Gender Contrast]]. Compare [[He-Man Woman Hater]], for a generally less extreme (and often more rounded) version, [[Effeminate Misogynistic Guy]] for especially feminine varieties of misogynist, and [[Licensed Sexist]] for the comedic version.
If you are unsure if a character is a
Related to [[Straw Feminist]], though '''take note it is not an [[Inverted Trope|inversion]]''', though a Straw Misandrist is certainly possible.
{{Noreallife|real people are not crafted for a specific purpose.}}
{{examples}}
*
▲== Anime & Manga ==
▲* ''[[Shitsurakuen]]'': Pretty much every male student or staff member at Utopia Academy.
▲* ''[[Freezing]]'': Louis El Bridget certainly comes across as one. {{spoiler|Witness his treatment of his adopted sister Satellizer and his partner Holly.}}
* The demon Salamander from ''[[Yondemasuyo, Azazel-san]]'', as a stab at [[Samurai]] culture.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Most [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] ''[[Wonder Woman]]'' villains fit this category, notably Ares, who kept women in chains as slaves. Dr. Psycho, in his first story, was a phony medium who could summon the "ghost of George Washington" and used this fake psychic projection to denounce the inclusion of women in the US Armed Forces.
** This has very much seen a revival in recent years, where it seems the only reason ''anyone'' opposes Wonder Woman anymore is if they hate all women.
* When the writers decided to take Thor's powers away and give them to a woman, much like the above example, every single male opponent she faced became a complete misogynist, with one even making a nonsensical rant that was clearly intended as a straw representation of the female character's critics. The male character then had his jaw broken by his female partner (and wife), who surrendered to the female character wielding Thor's powers as a show of "female solidarity". The female wielding Thor's powers then knocked the other woman out, apparently just to establish pecking order.
* Marvel villain the Mandrill (who has fought Shanna the She-Devil, the Thing, [[Daredevil]], and many other heroes) has the mutant power to control women using pheromones. He doesn't even try to deny that he's a misogynist, and has often used his female brainwashed henchmen as [[Sex Slave]]s... Probably a big reason why he has not been the [[Big Bad]] of any stories since 1990, usually appearing since then as a henchman of another villain.
== [[Fan
* Played with in ''[[Total Drama Chris]]'': One challenge has the campers pretending to be ''other'' campers. {{spoiler|Justin}} is assigned Ezekiel, and takes advantage of this to rattle off a constant litany of sexist remarks, based off the ''[[Never Live It Down|one]]'' [[Never Live It Down|sexist comment]] Ezekiel had made in ''[[Total Drama Island]]''. (Meanwhile, the [[Alternative Character Interpretation|Zeke seen here]] is a [[Fish Out of Water]] [[Nice Guy]] who's mortified at this portrayal.)
* In the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' fic
** Ron also becomes one of these in ''[[The Last War]]'', where he [[Domestic Abuse|abuses]] [[Chickification|Hermione]] [[Complete Monster|and the kids]] before suffering a [[Karmic Death]], and ''[[Dark Secrets]]'' where he does the same to [[Mary Sue]] and is killed by the literal [[Draco in Leather Pants]]. It's a [[Ron the Death Eater|far too common fate for him.]] ''The Last War'' also goes [[Up to Eleven]] by revealing ''the entire wizarding world'' [[No Woman's Land|to be made up of this character type.]]
== Film ==
* In ''[[Red Eye (film)|Red Eye]]'' [[Cillian Murphy|Jackson Rippner]] holds some rather sexist views about women.
{{quote|
* In ''[[Mulan]]'', this is the trait that justifies Chi-Fu's treatment as a minor villain. He's otherwise [[Good Is Not Nice|unpleasant but well-meaning and loyal]].
* ''[[300]]'' makes the Persians into a race of these. Which is such a blatant case of [[Artistic License]] that it's ironic, since the Persians, by the standards of their time, were pretty progressive about women's rights, and the Spartans were probably the most rampantly misogynistic culture in human history.
** Actually, the Spartan women had an incredible amount of agency, given the time. The highest honor was to have a child, sure, but girls were educated and trained in ways paralleling the boys in order to make them physically strong - they would even compete against each other and practiced in the nude like the boys did, separating themselves from every other Hellenistic polis. And the women could choose not to reproduce if they wished not to risk their life, which was more than a male soldier could do - he would be forever labeled a Trembler and ostracized.
** And the "progressive" nature of Persians is very much a case of [[Historical Hero Upgrade]] largely applied by people angry at the movie.
== Literature ==
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* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: A number of male villains are very much this. Mitch Riley from the book ''Hide And Seek'' and Henry "Hank" Jellicoe would be some major examples.
* The representatives to ASEAN in the [[Dale Brown]] novel ''Sky Masters''. Those that we see speaking anyway.
* Every single conservative male in the world is portrayed as this in the ''[[In Death]]'' novels. The Conservative/Republican party's only goals seem to be to strip away every single possible right they can from women and to (obviously) plunge the country back into war by un-repealing the Second Amendment.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
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** ''[[Angel]]'' had a character that unleashed the latent violent misogyny. Apparently, ''all'' men are these, they're just repressed. And that sociopathic vampires are above such petty concerns.
** ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]:'' Caleb; Warren Mears.
** ''[[Firefly]]:'' "Heart of Gold" included one of these as a villain. [[Anvilicious
*** Note that none of this has stopped feminists from declaring Joss Whedon to be a misogynist himself. Repeatedly, at any provocation.
* ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'': [[Subverted]] by the Sheriff of Nottingham. Throughout the series, Vaizey makes several disparaging remarks toward women, and often refers to them as "lepers". However, there was an interesting subtext that suggested that it was all a show for the benefit of his [[The Dragon|Dragon]], who he didn't want getting too close to any female who could threaten the influence Vaizey held over Guy. The only character Vaizey [[Pet the Dog|shows any love for is his sister]], and he never underestimates Marian, even when Guy and Robin do. When an Abbess comes to the castle and a guard argues against letting her into a room where the tax money is kept, the Sheriff's response is notably ''not'' "she's just a woman", but "she's just a nun."
** Admittedly since the abbess turned out to be {{spoiler|a thief who successfully stole all the money and escaped from a locked room}} in that case he did underestimate her, even though he clearly never trusted her
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* ''[[Star Trek]]'': The Ferengi, [[Fridge Logic|which is sort of strange]], because as Quark once points out, the Ferengi's love of money has actually made them largely immune to many ''other'' human vices, like racism. The end of ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' implies this will be reformed soon.
** They were probably looking for a way to reduce some of the competition on the planet. Instead of [[Planet of Hats|100% of the people being greedy merchants]] only about 50% can be.
*** More like the Ferengi were Straw Capitalists, and so other negative traits were tacked onto them to increase their strawman status.
* ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'': The Kazon.
* ''[[Royal Canadian Air Farce]]'' had a recurring character, Gerald Smythe-BiteMe, who was both a [[Straw Misogynist]] and a [[Straw Critic]].
* Al Bundy, from ''[[Married... with Children]]''. To be fair though, his attitude towards women often brings him into conflict with Marcie, whose [[Straw Feminist]] views are just as bad.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
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* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'''s villain [[Yellow Peril|Dr. Nofun]], is portrayed as extremely sexist; his beliefs are so over-the-top that it's clearly meant to be played for comedy. Recently, larger versions of his misogynist PSAs have been running as the weekend filler with the disclaimer: "The opinions expressed here are the views of a fictional two-dimensional villain and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Sluggy Freelance LLC, [[You Make Me Sic|it's]] subsidiaries, supersidiaries, and slightly less fictional avian representation in perpetuity, esquire." This is played even straighter when {{spoiler|it's revealed that his misogyny is all just an act to get a group of weak-willed women and terrified men that he can use the threat of the female bogeyman to control their every thought, so his minions won't rebel against him.}}
* New guy Wes in ''[[Between Failures]]'' is this, most certainly. He claims that Mike, being male, should have "put [Carol] in her place," and seems to think that, given enough time, he can seduce any woman (even one as weird as Brooksie), which is clearly the only reason women exist in his world.
* The [[Straw Fan]] in ''[[Shortpacked]]'' also doubles as this, among all his other numerous strawmannish traits.
* Amazingly, the side comic of ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' manages to turn the Legion from ''Fallout: New Vegas'' into this. How do you turn an explicitly sexist, slaving, patriarchal faction into a strawman for misogyny? Why, portray them as college fraternity-esque "dudebros", of course!
== Video Games ==
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** Cotton Hill as well, though he's just plain a [[Jerkass]] and an example of [[Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!|Screw Politeness, I Killed Fitty Men!]].
* ''[[Total Drama Island]]'': Ezekiel might be one of these (he was voted off before we could find out for sure). His father ''definitely'' is.
* ''[[Futurama]]'' has Leela's old martial arts master, a rather transparent parody of Yoda. He's so over-the-top that there's at least a decent chance he's a parody of this trope, but it can be hard to tell with ''Futurama'' sometimes.
** Generally all of the male characters turn into this any time the issue of men versus women comes up. Normally Fry is at worst just clueless about women, Bender doesn't care about gender at all, Zoidberg is from a species that doesn't even have the concept of romance, the Professor is just a cranky old man who's 95% beyond caring about sex at all, and so on. But the moment sexism comes up, they all turn into sneering, smirking sexists who can't wait to tell women to get back in the kitchen.
** And, of course, there's Zapp Brannigan. If you've seen an episode with Zapp Brannigan, you don't really need an explanation. If you haven't, no explanation would convey the full impact of his strawman status.
{{reflist}}
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