http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AllAbusersAreMale

Roger Ebert on A Thousand Acres (1997) on A Thousand Acres (1997) "All white male patriarchs must be guilty of something in modern women's fiction, preferably the sexual abuse of their children."

If you learn about Domestic Abuse, rape, or other forms of interpersonal violence from dramatic works or Very Special Episodes, you may come away believing All Abusers Are Male. Most works that address the seriousness of abuse frame it as something committed only by male perpetrators, usually against female victims. This isn't just when an individual work depicts a male abuser or rapist; this is an aggregate trope that exists through many works depicting male abusers and not female ones, creating the impression that abuse never has female perpetrators. Ongoing series may have multiple episodes depicting abusive men and none with an abusive woman. Some works have male victims, but still have male abusers without female-on-male abuse. Belief in this trope is implied when characters are anti-rape and anti-violence as male-only problems.

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This trope is different from Double Standard: Rape, Female on Male, Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male, and Double Standard: Rape, Female on Female. Those tropes acknowledge that women commit acts of domestic violence and acts of rape, but treat them as less harmful and easily forgive or dismiss them based on their gender dynamics.

Straight examples must imply or explicitly state that abuse or rape is only perpetrated by men, and women are either never abusive or never to the same extent as men. The most common aversion of this trope is the Wicked Stepmother. Most of the subversions and aversions listed on this page are intended to be a Plot Twist in the story — meaning that even when the trope is not enforced, the writers still expect the audience to believe in it and be surprised when an abuser is female.

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Please avoid Take That! edits due to the nature of this trope.

Examples:

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Advertising

Two anti-domestic violence bus ad by the Family Place of Dallas takes this to the extreme by showing a picture of a cute little boy saying that "when I grow up I will beat my wife" and one with a cute little girl said "one day my husband will kill me". The message given in the rest of the add is if you raise a boy in a house with the abuse he will become an abuser but if you raise a girl in the same environment she will become a victim. Statistically, both are much more likely than in a regular home, regardless of gender. An Australian ad campaign features a series of women describing abuse and/or men justifying said abuse, with the tagline "to violence against women, Australia says NO". Given that it is intended to be a general campaign against rape and domestic abuse, the sex-specific nature is puzzling.

Similarly, an American ad campaign featured a small boy witnessing what was obviously his father abusing his mother off-screen, with the tagline "End the cycle. Teach him that violence against women is not okay." There was, unsurprisingly, no concurrent campaign about teaching him not to abuse men, or teaching your daughter that abuse is not okay. This advertising campaign to end rape. Ends with the tagline 'rape is a hate crime against women.' Implying both that only women can be victims and only men can be aggressors. Subverted in this ad, in which the end reveals that the abuser is a woman, and the victim is a man.

ad, in which the end reveals that the abuser is a woman, and the victim is a man. The "Men Can Stop Rape" ◊ ad campaign. It's in the title, but in three out of the four depicted relationships the partner who may have been raped is female, and the one relationship that features a potential male victim is gay.

ad campaign. It's in the title, but in three out of the four depicted relationships the partner who may have been raped is female, and the one relationship that features a potential male victim is gay. A 2015 Ad Council campaign: "You taught him how to hit the baseball. You taught him how to hit the catcher... but how much time have you spent teaching him what not to hit? Teach him early. Violence against women is wrong." Apparently, little girls innately know not to hit boys.

Anime and Manga

Kannazuki no Miko Zig-zags this. Chikane rapes Himeko as a part of her gambit, and she also is sexually harassed by Miyako . But the female abusers are not treated as such or given irredeemable status. The male Orochi who also tries to rape Himeko, however, is actually also treated sympathetically and given a happy ending like everyone else.

. But the female abusers are not treated as such or given irredeemable status. The male Orochi who also tries to rape Himeko, however, is actually also treated sympathetically and given a happy ending like everyone else. Subverted in Fruits Basket. Akito, the head of the Sohma family, abuses the Juunishi in every way imaginable, but he's actually a she . In fact, most abuse is parental and Ren, the Yandere Big Bad - who's responsible for turning Akito into a villain- is female. issues. Overall, the series shows its female characters as a roughly even mix of bad (the above) and good.

. In fact, most abuse is parental issues. Overall, the series shows its female characters as a roughly even mix of bad (the above) and good. As good as Confidential Confessions was about showcasing tough issues, it was unfortunately guilty of this trope. All abuse, be it physical, emotional, or sexual, was committed by a man. The worst a female could be was a "mere" bully.

Comic Books

Subverted in Impulse, where one of Bart's classmates is terrified of disappointing his father and is showing signs of being abused. Bart naturally suspects the father, but it turns out to be the boy's mother, who is mentally imbalanced and is keeping her actions a secret from her husband. As soon as the father discovers this, he intervenes to protect his son; Bart is not needed. The Flash himself, Wally West, also plays with this. While his father is physically abusive and generally a Hate Sink, his mother is nearly as bad, as she manipulates Wally for her own financial gain and went out of her way to crush his dreams as a child.

The DC Reboot very jarringly changed Jonathan Crane's Freudian Excuse from being abused by his fanatically religious great-grandmother to being experimented on by his Mad Scientist father (the father had been previously shown as an ex-military type who abandoned him, with no indication he was a scientist).

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Fan Works

Film

Though She Stole My Voice, a documentary about lesbian rape, averts this trope overall, the interviews uphold it. Many people state that women cannot rape or that they would much rather see their girlfriends raped by women than by men since men are more of a real threat. Zig Zagged though: the lack of acknowledgement of female-male rapes implies only women can be victims of rape. Although the rapist can be a woman as well as a male.

It seems every Lifetime movie is about a woman being abused in some way by a man, except for the 1993 TV movie Men Don't Tell, which features Judith Light abusing Peter Strauss. Naturally enough, no one believes that Strauss's character is being abused until his daughter tells police that she "doesn't want Mommy to hurt Daddy anymore." In 2008, 15 years after Men Don't Tell was broadcast, one New York Times reviewer did a special article about Men Don't Tell. In this article, the reviewer pointed out that while many Lifetime Movie of the Week featuring battered women had, since their initial broadcast, been repeated over and over and over and over and over, Men Don't Tell had only ever been broadcast once. She (the reviewer) specifically cited this trope almost by name as the reason why. In response to the review, Lifetime rebroadcast the film. But only once. The lack of rebroadcast before was apparently due to protests by women's groups.

Although not every man in the Bollywood film Lajja is abusive, all the abuse in the film is committed by men. The women in the film are all presented as pure and innocent, and many have been abused by the men or policies created by them.

In A Wrinkle in Time, the Happy Medium shows a vision of Calvin being verbally abused by his father. In the book, the vision was of his mother physically abusing one of his siblings.

Literature

Live-Action TV

Music

The Canadian bluegrass group The Dead South have a song entitled "In Hell I'll Be in Good Company." It tells the story of a man who was horribly abused by his wife for years until finally she stabs him with a knife, intending to kill him. Instead, he manages to kill her in self-defense. Despite the fact that he was continually the victim, and despite the fact that her death was self-defense, the song ends with the man sitting on death row, awaiting execution for her "murder."

The video for John Legend's "Ordinary People" includes a mutually abusive couple. While at one point the man does slap the woman with the back of his hand, she is the one to instigate by being verbally abusive and pushing him. (Not that this is an excuse, mind.)

Stand-Up Comedy

Theater

In the The Vagina Monologues, a thirteen-year-old girl is assaulted by an adult man, and its presented as horrific. But when a woman does the same thing, its somehow portrayed as some sick comeback. The protagonist even says "if it was rape, it was a good rape." Eve Ensler, the person who wrote it, even admitted that until the horrors of Abu Ghraib she didnt think that woman could possibly be abusers.

Video Games

An aversion of this forms the heart of The Binding of Isaac — Isaac's mother is completely unhinged. Played for extreme Black Comedy.

A major plot point in Among the Sleep is an aversion of this, as the kid's mother is an abusive alcoholic. However, to the displeasure of many players, the DLC reveals that it's also played straight because the father is abusive towards her.

Web Original

In one Whateley story, during what's a private pool party with undertones of an informal recruitment drive, the notional leader of Poe cottage's "lesbian" faction drops the "without men, rape comes to a screeching halt" bombshell at one point. OTOH, at least two female sexual predators are seen, and another is accused of being one but later shown to be innocent (of that, at least; as Songbird herself said, no one who worked for Freya had clean hands).



Western Animation