The Unfair Sex: Difference between revisions

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This trope most commonly appears in long-running series -- shorter works rarely deal with the characters long enough for the disconnect to be very obvious. This trope is also highly abstract in execution -- expect the target of the discontent to either be a [[Girl of the Week|Guy Or Girl of The Week]].

For a look at affairs in general, see [[Good Adultery Bad Adultery]]. Interestingly, the more involved [[Nominal Importance|named characters]] a work has in any given adultery plot, the closer the [[Sympathetic Adulterer]] ratio between men and women reaches 1:1. [[I'm a Man I Can't Help It]] overrides this trope, but only with sympathetic male characters. The [[Inverted Trope]] of [[My Girl Is Not a Slut]], for the post-Women's Lib era.

For a look at affairs in general, see [[Good Adultery, Bad Adultery]]. Interestingly, the more involved [[Nominal Importance|named characters]] a work has in any given adultery plot, the closer the [[Sympathetic Adulterer]] ratio between men and women reaches 1:1. [[I'm a Man, I Can't Help It]] overrides this trope, but only with sympathetic male characters. The [[Inverted Trope]] of [[My Girl Is Not a Slut]], for the post-Women's Lib era.

'''Note: [[The Unfair Sex]] only relates to [[Double Standard|Double Standards]] against men ''in relationships'', nothing else. If ''anything'' relates to abuse, please see [[Double Standard Abuse Female On Male]].'''

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Yes this happens for real, like ''alot''. But still [[No Real Life Examples Please]]

== Anime and Manga ==

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** Perhaps the most unfair example would have to be that whenever Keitaro walks into the girls baths (always accidentally) he is [[Megaton Punch|punched right into the sky]] no questions asked, but when Naru suddenly walked in on Keitaro bathing and '''jumped into his bathtub''', Keitaro could do nothing. Afterwards her clothes became see-through and she decided that it was somehow his fault and punched him for her stupidity.

* Similar to the above example, in ''[[Seitokai no Ichizon]]'' main character Ken frequently refers to [[Harem|the girls]] they're his harem, that they'll end falling for him and fantasizes with them. Naturally, [[Slapstick|they punish him for that]]. So far it's normal, perhaps a bit more focused on this than your average [[Harem Series]] but not too bad. However, one episode has [[Gamer Chick|Mafuyu]] reveal herself as a [[Yaoi Fangirl]] who writes [[Slash]] [[Real Person Fic|of Ken and]] [[Incest Is Relative|a fictional brother of him]]. Naturally Ken complains, and not only ''he'' gets punished for that, Mafuyu's sister [[Hot Blooded|Minatsu]] ''makes him write slash of himself with said brother''. When two minutes later he writes a story where they're his harem, he still gets treated as a pervert, and nobody even points out ''it's the same thing Mafuyu does''.

** In addition, Ken spends half an episode with his eyes covered by a mask that ''tazes him if he tries to remove it''... so he can't see the girls in their swimsuits (In fear of what? At worst he would say pervy comments, but nothing beyond the usual. It's not like they can't kick his ass, they do it on a daily basis anyway), and once the mask breaks by sheer luck, they lock him on a closet ''and leave him there overnight''. Basically, they treat him like if he was a super-pervert of sorts who would, well, do ''really bad things'' to them if let unguarded even one second, even though he's more of [[All Men Are Perverts|a generic pervert]] at worst and he genuinely cares for them. However, and now comes the "unfair" part: [[Tall Dark and Bishoujo|Chizuru]] [[Lolicon|acts MUCH worse towards]] [[Token Mini Moe|Kurimu]], but the attitude of Mafuyu and Minatsu is... stares and lifted eyebrows, but that's it. Definitely she doesn't gets treated to half the crap Ken is put through, for no apparent reason at all, even though she IS more dangerous ''and they're aware of that''.

** In addition, Ken spends half an episode with his eyes covered by a mask that ''tazes him if he tries to remove it''... so he can't see the girls in their swimsuits (In fear of what? At worst he would say pervy comments, but nothing beyond the usual. It's not like they can't kick his ass, they do it on a daily basis anyway), and once the mask breaks by sheer luck, they lock him on a closet ''and leave him there overnight''. Basically, they treat him like if he was a super-pervert of sorts who would, well, do ''really bad things'' to them if let unguarded even one second, even though he's more of [[All Men Are Perverts|a generic pervert]] at worst and he genuinely cares for them. However, and now comes the "unfair" part: [[Tall, Dark and Bishoujo|Chizuru]] [[Lolicon|acts MUCH worse towards]] [[Token Mini-Moe|Kurimu]], but the attitude of Mafuyu and Minatsu is... stares and lifted eyebrows, but that's it. Definitely she doesn't gets treated to half the crap Ken is put through, for no apparent reason at all, even though she IS more dangerous ''and they're aware of that''.

* In general, this happens way too often on most [[Harem Series]], where the guy will get treated as a pervert even when he's completely innocent (Or simply get mistreated for anything period), but girls doing the same thing or worse results in... nothing at best, the guy being punished anyway at worst.

** Notable exception is the [[Tenchi Muyo]] multiverse, where the guy is usually a genuine [[Nice Guy]] and the girls are less temperamental towards him (though the same can't be said towards each other at times).

* In [[Dragonball]] Bulma openly flirted and at one point literally drooled over other men(who were also [[Hot Guys Are Bastards|Hot Bastards]]). Yet if her boyfriend Yamcha would have to beg for her forgiveness if he just looked at another women. She even pulls a gun on him in [[Dragonball Origins (Video Game)|Dragonball Origins]] despite earlier flirting with the evil Colonel Silver.

** [[It Gets Worse]]. According to Future Trunks, Bulma found reason to believe that Yamcha wasn't faithful, and steadily grew attracted and a fling with Vegeta. As in ''the man who previously killed Yamcha, and was partially responsible for the journey to another planet just to revive him with their Dragon Balls''. The anime somehow makes this even worse during the filler when the Z-Fighters were supposed to be training to prepare for the Androids, and Vegeta's stubbornness, coupled with him overtaxing himself while training, made Bulma more and more concerned about his well-being, to the point where Yamcha started to notice and get jealous. Later, she ends up marrying Vegeta, having two children with him, and, to give her some credit, playing at least a sizable part in his redemption story.

* Comically slightly subverted in ''[[Futari Ecchi]]'' with the relationship between Rika and Yamada. ''Both'' of them cheat on each other (having, as the Japanese say it, "sex friends" on the side), ''both'' of them are angry when finding out that the ''other'' one cheated, ''both'' of them (especially Rika) are viewed as hypocritical because of this and ''both'' of them are quarrelsome but occasionally have a [[Aw Look They Really Do Love Each Other]] scene, although Rika is presented as [[Closer to Earth]], and thus slightly more positive.

* Comically slightly subverted in ''[[Futari Ecchi]]'' with the relationship between Rika and Yamada. ''Both'' of them cheat on each other (having, as the Japanese say it, "sex friends" on the side), ''both'' of them are angry when finding out that the ''other'' one cheated, ''both'' of them (especially Rika) are viewed as hypocritical because of this and ''both'' of them are quarrelsome but occasionally have a [[Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other]] scene, although Rika is presented as [[Closer to Earth]], and thus slightly more positive.

* Averted in ''[[GE-Good Ending|GE - Good Ending]]'', where you get called out if you really screw up, regardless of your gender, and you're expected to work to deal with the consequences of your actions.

* A rather low-key example of this is during the ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' episode, ''Ganayme Elegy'' where Jet visits his ex-girlfriend Elisa. When they were dating, she walked out on him without so much a word of explanation. Just a letter with the words "Goodbye" and a broken stopwatch. Jet tries to get her to answer why she would leave, explaining that he doesn't blame her for leaving him just wants to know why she did. Elisa just dodges the question altogether once again leaving him with no closure. It isn't until her current boyfriend has a bounty put on him and Jet chases them down that she ''then'' tell him why. The reason: Jet made the rightful decisions on their relationships and she couldn't stand cause "she wanted to make her decisions".

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* In ''[[Saved By the Bell]]'', two [[Recycled Script|occasionally-reused plots]] throughout the high school ''and'' college years were (a) "Zack pays a little too much attention to another girl and Kelly gets mad," and (b) "Kelly sees another guy and drops Zack like a hot potato." In cases of A, Zack having to figure out how to make it up to Kelly (or realizing he needed to) would be the focus of the plot. However, in cases of B, Zack would ''still'' be made the villain, for standing in the way of [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy|Kelly's happiness]] for his own selfish needs. Apparently, [[Negative Continuity]] is in play and you're not supposed to notice this pattern, but it's hard not to. The [[Grand Finale]] of the original students' saga is Zack and Kelly's wedding. What led Zack to pop the question? Kelly was drooling over another guy ''again'' and there was an upcoming trip. Zack wasn't going on it, but Kelly and the other guy were, and Zack was ([[Genre Savvy|rightfully, given history]], though nobody said that) concerned about what would happen. [[Sarcasm Mode|Aw, how romantic]].

* Used regularly on ''[[Friends]]''. From Ross and Rachel's breakup in season 3 to the beginning of season 5, when Ross was in a relationship, Rachel would become jealous, distressed, and often seek to make everyone around her miserable until he was inevitably single again; while this behaviour wasn't necessarily condoned, she was often given a great deal of sympathy from her other friends over it. Meanwhile, if Ross ever displayed the slightest bit of jealousy over any of Rachel's relationships, it was met with utter exasperation and being told the relationship was over and he needed to move on. However, from season 5, they became more comfortable with the others dating.

** Though one episode finally seemed to put this in some perspective with Rachel latching on to a complete stranger on a plane and telling him her entire sob story, only for him to eventually get fed up and [[What the Hell Hero|tell her how immature, selfish, cruel and petty she was being]] (especially in going to ruin Ross and Emily's wedding - calling her a horrible, ''horrible'', person), and "By the way, it seems perfectly clear to me that you ''were'' on a break!" What made that moment even more glorious was the fact that the stranger was played by none other than [[House (TV)|House]] himself, Hugh Laurie. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXNd99IhdmA Here it is, by the way!]

** Though one episode finally seemed to put this in some perspective with Rachel latching on to a complete stranger on a plane and telling him her entire sob story, only for him to eventually get fed up and [[What the Hell, Hero?|tell her how immature, selfish, cruel and petty she was being]] (especially in going to ruin Ross and Emily's wedding - calling her a horrible, ''horrible'', person), and "By the way, it seems perfectly clear to me that you ''were'' on a break!" What made that moment even more glorious was the fact that the stranger was played by none other than [[House (TV)|House]] himself, Hugh Laurie. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXNd99IhdmA Here it is, by the way!]

** This is kind of [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in an episode where Rachel borrows Monica's expensive car. We say borrow, but we really mean steal. Ross does his best to keep her from taking it, but ends up going along with it to make sure she brings the car back in one piece. Long story short, Rachel speeds, and gets pulled over by a cop. She shows him her license, which expired ''ten years earlier''. Rachel flirts with the cop more than a little, and the cop let's her go without even a slap on the wrist, advising Ross to drive, since she doesn't have her license. Later in the same episode, Ross is pulled over--for driving too ''slow''--and gets a ticket. He tries the same tricks as Rachel did, which is really more pathetic than effective.

** [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Notably]] averted in ''The One that Could Have Been'' when Rachel is making excuses for why it would be okay for her to cheat on her husband with soap-star Joey, only for Monica to cut in, saying "Nothing you say could make me think it's okay for you to cheat on your husband!"

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* ''[[Greys Anatomy]]'' just... ''[[Greys Anatomy]]''

** Not always. Sometimes it's inverted, too! Men cheating (Alex with syph nurse, [[Mc Dreamy]] with Meredith, George with Izzy) is forgiven much, much faster than when Meredith (single person) has a one-night-stand with George (single person) and is blamed by everyone else for being heartless, using him, and just not loving him.

** The [[Spin Off]] series ''[[Private Practice]]'' invariably follows suit, taking this to the extremes, to the point that one character dates two men at the same time, sleeping with/cheating on both of them regularly, gets pregnant, refuses to allow a paternity test while ignoring ''both'' men during her pregnancy, ''abandons'' her child after birth, sleeps with Addison's ''father'', and when confronted about it tells Addison that she doesn't regret it because "It was a wonderful experience". Most of the other characters act like she's completely insane and very selfish but they just aren't mentioning it to her face, because she's so traumatized.

** The [[Spin-Off]] series ''[[Private Practice]]'' invariably follows suit, taking this to the extremes, to the point that one character dates two men at the same time, sleeping with/cheating on both of them regularly, gets pregnant, refuses to allow a paternity test while ignoring ''both'' men during her pregnancy, ''abandons'' her child after birth, sleeps with Addison's ''father'', and when confronted about it tells Addison that she doesn't regret it because "It was a wonderful experience". Most of the other characters act like she's completely insane and very selfish but they just aren't mentioning it to her face, because she's so traumatized.

* ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'' is a pretty bad case: The ladies get away with crap that they'd be crucified for if it was a man. Anywhere between throwing your spouse outside the window of the top floor when you find out he found out you were trying con him out of taking all his money (Gabrielle), to {{spoiler|keeping your deceased spouse literally [[Stuffed in The Fridge]], albeit to avoid tax (Karen)}}, to {{spoiler|kidnapping a drug-addict's child, murdering said drug addict when she comes back for her child and dismembering her corpse (Mary Alice)}}, and though while the latter does lead to {{spoiler|Mary Alice}} committing suicide after someone finds out, she is still remembered fondly by the four main characters while her husband, is perceived as a very unpleasant person for doing the exact same thing.

* Averted in ''[[Bones]]'', when Brennan has been dating two men; one she has the sex with, the other intellectual conversation. At the end of the episode, both men show up at her workplace at the same time, realize what's going on, say they wanted what the other guy is getting as well as their "specialties", call her out on it, and break up with her.

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** Hell, whenever there is a female suspect or perpetrator, there will usually be something to throw the blame on a man, or a man actually did it, or something will happen to rob the man of his sympathy.

** In the same show, whenever there's a female victim (unless it's a child) there will sometimes turn out to be a twist in which the woman actually did it, or did something else evil to cause her to be in the situation. That show just likes screwing with the audience.

** One particular episode begins with a woman claiming to have been raped by a rich (married) man and had his baby, and he denied ever sleeping with her, typical set-up...until it turns out she's a con artist who drugged men and uses an anal probe to force them to ejaculate while unconscious so she could impregnate herself. The poor sap she accused is one of many rich, successful men she did this with and his swimmers just happened to be better than the competition. [[But Wait There's More|Oh, and that was just one part of a two-part scam she was running with her mother]]. Once the reversal is revealed Benson and Stabler are much more sympathetic to the male victim and treat the woman like a [[Complete Monster]], though she gets away with it until she and her mother were later arrested in a Crossover with Law & Order, avoiding a potential [[Karma Houdini]].

** One particular episode begins with a woman claiming to have been raped by a rich (married) man and had his baby, and he denied ever sleeping with her, typical set-up...until it turns out she's a con artist who drugged men and uses an anal probe to force them to ejaculate while unconscious so she could impregnate herself. The poor sap she accused is one of many rich, successful men she did this with and his swimmers just happened to be better than the competition. [[But Wait! There's More!|Oh, and that was just one part of a two-part scam she was running with her mother]]. Once the reversal is revealed Benson and Stabler are much more sympathetic to the male victim and treat the woman like a [[Complete Monster]], though she gets away with it until she and her mother were later arrested in a Crossover with Law & Order, avoiding a potential [[Karma Houdini]].

* ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'' generally avoids this problem. Males and females being treated equally (and having equal shares in drama). Use of schoolyard morals also means that if a male has two girls its okay, but if a girl has two guys she's a slut. Except when Hazel suggests it is the male's place to be afraid of and completely obedient to their girlfriends. Something akin to a puppy, or a faithful manservant. The instance itself is less of an example, as Spinner was cheating on Paige (or getting ready to).

** Even then, it was a bit of a [[Subverted Trope|subversion]] because Spinner implied the whole "loyal puppy" thing was the reason why he almost cheated. Either way, the whole concept of the guy being subservient to his girlfriend is never brought up again thankfully.

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** She is indirectly called out to this, as Mia's mother says during a conversation that it is just plain rude to not return somebody's calls.

* The [[Anita Blake]] series practically runs on this trope after Narcissus in Chains. The main character has about 8 official lovers and sleeps with many other man during the course of each book, yet, except, Richard who's treated as the resident Jerkass, none of her main lovers are allowed to even look at another person, and she has dumped some lovers for being unfaithful. The author tries to justify with Magical Addiction to sex.

* Some people say that ''[[Their Eyes Were Watching God]]'' has this trope written all over it. [[Your Mileage May Vary|Your Mileage May REALLY Vary]], however, because while Janie ''did'' leave her first husband with another man and then condemned her second husband while he was on his deathbed, the narrative makes it clear that she was an extremely naive, too-romantic-for-her-own-good girl whose hasty decision to run off with Joe Starks was probably '''not''' the best of decisions considering that Joe Starks turns out to be an [[Crazy Jealous Guy|insanely possessive]] [[Jerkass]] who tried to [[Stay in The Kitchen|emotionally control her as a submissive housewife]], which also most likely indicates that her [[The Reason You Suck Speech]] to him wasn't ''entirely'' unjustified. Plus, she never acted "bitchy" toward Tea Cake who mostly treated her like an equal (not even when she thought that he had left her or when he slapped her after she was set up on a date with another man), and the very fact that Tea Cake was shown to be a fairly decent and sweet husband ''should'' be a good indication that this book wasn't aimed at painting the entire male gender as abusive jerks. Any [[Unfortunate Implications]] here probably fall under [[Men Are the Expendable Gender]] or [[Her Heart Will Go On]] better than this one.

* Some people say that ''[[Their Eyes Were Watching God]]'' has this trope written all over it. [[Your Mileage May Vary|Your Mileage May REALLY Vary]], however, because while Janie ''did'' leave her first husband with another man and then condemned her second husband while he was on his deathbed, the narrative makes it clear that she was an extremely naive, too-romantic-for-her-own-good girl whose hasty decision to run off with Joe Starks was probably '''not''' the best of decisions considering that Joe Starks turns out to be an [[Crazy Jealous Guy|insanely possessive]] [[Jerkass]] who tried to [[Stay in The Kitchen|emotionally control her as a submissive housewife]], which also most likely indicates that her [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]] to him wasn't ''entirely'' unjustified. Plus, she never acted "bitchy" toward Tea Cake who mostly treated her like an equal (not even when she thought that he had left her or when he slapped her after she was set up on a date with another man), and the very fact that Tea Cake was shown to be a fairly decent and sweet husband ''should'' be a good indication that this book wasn't aimed at painting the entire male gender as abusive jerks. Any [[Unfortunate Implications]] here probably fall under [[Men Are the Expendable Gender]] or [[Her Heart Will Go On]] better than this one.

* In the ''[[House of Night]]'' series, Zoey initially was slightly hesitant about having a relationship with Erik because he had previously dated Aphrodite. This is after (A) she walked in on Aphrodite all but ''raping'' Erik (trying to force a blowjob on him while he repeatedly asked her to stop) and (B) it was made pretty obvious that Aphrodite and her friends made use of Erik and other boys in such a way. Zoey does hook up with Erik...and dives into a relationship with a teacher at the school, while rekindling a relationship with her human boyfriend. {{spoiler|At the end of the third book, we're apparently supposed to think Erik's such a mean guy for not being so kind and understanding that Zoey had sex with said teacher and just had "We share a bond" as an excuse.}}

* Averted in [[Harry Potter]] [[Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince|and the Half-Blood Prince]]. After Ron found out that Hermione might have kissed a guy who asked her out two years prior while she was single AND getting told that [[My Sister Is Off Limits|his overbearing watchdog tendencies about his sister]] where due to his own inexperience with girls, he gets into an extremely shallow relationship with basically the first girl to give him the time of day, largely out of spite. He is portrayed as insensitive and, giving how publicly he flaunts the relationship, pretty hypocritical, and quickly gets his own comeuppance by means of [[Clingy Jealous Girl|his “girlfriend” being utterly insufferable]]. Hermione [[Operation Jealousy|attempts to retaliate]] by asking out the [[Jerk Jock]] who had been eyeing for most of the book… only for the plan to implode immediately since she genuinely can’t stand the guy. Harry, and by extension the narrator, are quick to point out that they’re both idiots, though he’s slightly more overtly critical of Hermione, possibly owing to the fact that Ron was being an impulsive idiot who didn’t think things through, whereas Hermione was being consciously and deliberately petty.

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** And note that this was written by a woman.

** Ironically, despite the book's point, a good deal of the fanbase blamed the whole shebang entirely on either Ron or Hermione. Usually Ron.

* Played with all the time in most [[Danielle Steel]]'s novels. It is played straight whenever there is a [[May December Romance]]. A villain (usually male, of course), is said to look ridiculous dating/marrying a younger woman, and the woman in question is always made out to be a gold-digging, airheaded tramp. Meanwhile, her heroines, can easily date or marry someone up to ''40'' years older with no one batting an eye. (In all fairness, her male protagonists are often granted this privilege too). But this trope is usually averted in the case of adultery. Usually no matter what, a protagonist and his/her True Love's adulterous relationships will be portrayed as good, while their cuckolded spouses will be portrayed as horrible excuses for human beings.

* Played with all the time in most [[Danielle Steel]]'s novels. It is played straight whenever there is a [[May-December Romance]]. A villain (usually male, of course), is said to look ridiculous dating/marrying a younger woman, and the woman in question is always made out to be a gold-digging, airheaded tramp. Meanwhile, her heroines, can easily date or marry someone up to ''40'' years older with no one batting an eye. (In all fairness, her male protagonists are often granted this privilege too). But this trope is usually averted in the case of adultery. Usually no matter what, a protagonist and his/her True Love's adulterous relationships will be portrayed as good, while their cuckolded spouses will be portrayed as horrible excuses for human beings.

* ''[[Robert A. Heinlein|The Notebooks of Lazarus Long]]:'' From his "ingredients for a happy marriage":

{{quote| In a family argument, if it turns out you are right--apologize at once! }}

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* [[Shakira]]'s "Don't Bother" is a woman talking to her boyfriend, presumably in his absence, about the affair she knows he's having, and how she would do anything to keep him, and passive-aggressively saying that [[Blatant Lies|she'll be fine]]. "She Wolf" is Shakira bragging about how her beau is not keeping her satisfied, and how she goes out (or plans to go out) and sleeps with hot dudes, possibly to spite him. And she's going to tell him about it.

* Back in 2001, Blu Cantrell released "Hit 'Em Up Style." When she finds her boyfriend cheating, she maxes all his credit cards, ''sold everything he owned'', and brags that she completely ruined his life. A man doing this to a woman would be the plot to a [[Lifetime Movie of the Week]]. Although, even she admits she doesn't like the song.

* There have been two very similar country music videos released in recent years, Toby Keith's "A Little Too Late" and Sugarland's "Stuck Like Glue." Both have roughly the same premise, the singer comes a little unhinged, kidnaps their ex and keeps them tied to a chair while they sing the song kind of like a [[The Reason You Suck Speech]]. One big difference, when Toby Keith ties up Krista Allen, it's treated like a [http://image.bayimg.com/happfaabh.jpg horror movie,] when Jennifer Nettles does it (to [[Chuck|Captain Awesome]]) it's [http://www.countrymusictattletale.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/sugarland-stuck-like-glue3_510.jpg a comedy.]

* There have been two very similar country music videos released in recent years, Toby Keith's "A Little Too Late" and Sugarland's "Stuck Like Glue." Both have roughly the same premise, the singer comes a little unhinged, kidnaps their ex and keeps them tied to a chair while they sing the song kind of like a [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]. One big difference, when Toby Keith ties up Krista Allen, it's treated like a [http://image.bayimg.com/happfaabh.jpg horror movie,] when Jennifer Nettles does it (to [[Chuck|Captain Awesome]]) it's [http://www.countrymusictattletale.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/sugarland-stuck-like-glue3_510.jpg a comedy.]

** In the former video, that's kind of the ''point.'' He's trying to do a ''[[Edgar Allen Poe|Cask of Amontillado]]'' on her the whole time. {{spoiler|It becomes a comedy at the end when it turns out he bricked ''himself'' in}}

* Refreshingly averted by [[Taylor Swift]], who seems to blame the boy (e.g. "Picture to Burn"), the other girl (e.g. "Better than Revenge"), or herself (e.g. "Back to December") according to the situation.

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== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

* ''[[Between Friends]]'' is the ''queen'' of this trope. The only major male character that hasn't been one the teenaged kids, a hunky waiter, or [[Author Appeal|Viggo Mortensen]] (don't ask -- ''please''), has been an abusive husband featured in a recent story arc which had the added benefit of sending the comic spiralling into [[Cerebus Syndrome]] territory. Lovely.

* A rare [[Gender Flip]] occured in ''[[For Better or For Worse]]'': when [[~~Creators~~ Pet]] Anthony was emotionally unfaithful to his wife Therese, readers were supposed to be perfectly okay with it because the other woman was Elizabeth, [[Protagonist Centered Morality|one of the Pattersons]]. This didn't work out so well... not simply because of the prevalance of this trope, but due to the ''massive'' [[Moral Dissonance]], and Anthony being a detestable [[~~Creators~~ Pet]].

* A rare [[Gender Flip]] occured in ''[[For Better or For Worse]]'': when [[Creator's Pet]] Anthony was emotionally unfaithful to his wife Therese, readers were supposed to be perfectly okay with it because the other woman was Elizabeth, [[Protagonist-Centered Morality|one of the Pattersons]]. This didn't work out so well... not simply because of the prevalance of this trope, but due to the ''massive'' [[Moral Dissonance]], and Anthony being a detestable [[Creator's Pet]].

* Subverted in ''[[Doonesbury]]'', when [[Cloudcuckoolander|JJ]] left [[The Everyman|Mike]] for scruffy bad boy Zeke, she was portrayed the entire time as a fool for doing so, for both her reasoning (She felt she had to "seize the moment" to acheive happiness) and for her taste (Zeke has never been portrayed as other than a [[The Slacker|dumb slacker]]).

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* Averted in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "Dangerous Curves". When Homer and Marge learn that they both nearly had affairs on the same night five years ago, Marge gets mad at Homer for nearly cheating on her. He proceeds to call her out on her hypocrisy, pointing out that she is just as guilty as he is.

** Sort of [[Inverted]] [[Played for Laughs|For Laughs]], actually--he claims she's actually ''worse'' than he is, because she did the same thing despite [[Women Are Wiser|starting out better]].

* ''[[Daria]]'' [[Averted Trope|averts]] or even [[Inverted Trope|inverts]] this--[[Cool Loser|Jane]] is ticked at both her boyfriend [[Tall Dark and Snarky|Tom]] and her best friend [[The Snark Knight|Daria]] when they kiss, but forgives Tom fairly quickly, accepting his apology and the fact that their relationship was on the rocks anyway. She is considerably more hurt by Daria's betrayal, though, which takes most of a TV movie to repair.

* ''[[Daria]]'' [[Averted Trope|averts]] or even [[Inverted Trope|inverts]] this--[[Cool Loser|Jane]] is ticked at both her boyfriend [[Tall, Dark and Snarky|Tom]] and her best friend [[The Snark Knight|Daria]] when they kiss, but forgives Tom fairly quickly, accepting his apology and the fact that their relationship was on the rocks anyway. She is considerably more hurt by Daria's betrayal, though, which takes most of a TV movie to repair.

* [[Averted]] on ''[[Total Drama World Tour]]''--[[Well Excuse Me Princess|Courtney]]'s boyfriend [[Troubled but Cute|Duncan]] and her friend [[Perky Goth|Gwen]] kiss, but Courtney's wrath seems much greater for the latter than the former. Most of the D/C fanbase [[Die for Our Ship|followed suit]], but a notable minority wonders why Duncan should get a pass, especially since, unlike Gwen, he never seemed particularly sorry. He also went on to treat Courtney like dirt for the rest of the season, as if ''she'' was the one who had caused their breakup.

* [[Averted]] on ''[[Total Drama World Tour]]''--[[Well, Excuse Me, Princess!|Courtney]]'s boyfriend [[Troubled but Cute|Duncan]] and her friend [[Perky Goth|Gwen]] kiss, but Courtney's wrath seems much greater for the latter than the former. Most of the D/C fanbase [[Die for Our Ship|followed suit]], but a notable minority wonders why Duncan should get a pass, especially since, unlike Gwen, he never seemed particularly sorry. He also went on to treat Courtney like dirt for the rest of the season, as if ''she'' was the one who had caused their breakup.

== Web Original ==

* [http://www.cracked.com/article_19066_7-psychotic-pieces-relationship-advice-from-cosmo.html This Cracked article] demonstrates how magazines like ''Cosmopolitan'' can take this trope to extremes. However innocuous his actions or behavior may be, the reader is encouraged to treat their partner with utmost suspicion and respond with over-the-top, vicious, humiliating and even ''abusive'' reactions. It also deconstructs them, by presenting them from the point of view of a man who's girlfriend subscribes to these attitudes -- she comes across as a temperamental, unstable and paranoid psychotic.

* Inverted on [[Literotica]], where stories about cheating usually get the heaviest criticism from readers of the same gender as the person being cheated upon. Most of the site's users are male, so stories where women cheat on men often score two points lower than similar stories where men cheat on women. (And it goes even lower if [[Where Da White Women At|they cheat on a white man with a black man]] . . .)

* Inverted on [[Literotica]], where stories about cheating usually get the heaviest criticism from readers of the same gender as the person being cheated upon. Most of the site's users are male, so stories where women cheat on men often score two points lower than similar stories where men cheat on women. (And it goes even lower if [[Where Da White Women At?|they cheat on a white man with a black man]] . . .)

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRU8kj_yWUo Gears of War Versus Marriage] is a video depicting a man playing [[Gears of War]]'s [[Hold the Line|Horde Mode]] online. His wife asks him to find some information about their friends' wedding so they can use their airline miles to buy tickets before they expire. He responds in a distracted manner, and she leaves, only to return and confront him under the reasonable assumption he was ignoring her. He then cuts her off by providing the information she asked for, in detail, since he's playing the match with the groom in question. The wife goes the equivalent of "[[Touche]]."

** This trope kicks in not with the video, but with the response to it around the Internet; the husband is apparently still in the wrong for "being rude" and "ignoring" his wife (when he didn't) and not telling her that he was talking to "Mike" right then. He ignores her, he's wrong. If he accidentally makes her think he ignored her, he's wrong. Any response short of "Yes, honey, I'll get it done right away" or "I'm playing with Mike right now, I'll ask him" is unacceptable. What's more, the alleged rudeness is apparently ''[[Moving the Goalposts|more important than whether he actually ignored his wife]]''.

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