History Main / HystericalWoman

This trope characterizes women as [[WomenAreDelicate less rational, disciplined, and emotionally stable than men]], and thus more prone to mood swings, irrational overreactions, and mental illness.[[note]]The ancient Greeks believed that a woman's uterus would move out of place and attack other organs, causing all sorts of maladies, both mental and physical. The trope name comes from the Greek word ''hysteros'', womb or uterus. Which, incidentally, is why the removal of the womb is called a "hysterectomy."[[/note]] As a result, female characters may [[StayInTheKitchen be coddled]], their opinions undervalued, or [[UnstablePoweredWoman portrayed as incapable of holding power]].

This trope is a type of StrawmanEmotional.

* A sympathetic variant occurs in ''Anime/LucyMayOfTheSouthernRainbow'' in the form of Sylvia Princeton. When her daughter, Emily, was two, she died. Sylvia and her husband Frank have been mourning her ever since, especially as they can't have any more children. One day, Frank's carriage hits a 7 year old girl, causing her to pass out. Frank is so grief-stricken he takes her to his estate and has the family doctor tends to her wounds. When the girl wakes up, she becomes amnesiac, so Frank allows her to live and work in the Princeton's mansion. Sylvia sees Eamily in the girl, starts naming her "Emily" and offers to adopt her. However, once the girl recovers from her memory loss, she remembers her name is Lucy-May and she already has a family - the Popples. Upon hearing this Sylvia starts crying and begs Lucy-May to stay with them.

* Deconstructed in ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'': Joseph dismisses his wife's breakdown as her 'womanly emotions' getting the better of her and her becoming hysterical to the point of [[spoiler: him having her lobotomized]], but she's clearly in the throes of grief after losing her only son, and neither he nor a post-World War II society is equipped to-or particularly ''desire'' to-handle it, preferring to take the easy route to get her to a socially acceptable definition of 'better'.

* Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) in ''Film/{{Alien}}''. She's by far the most terrified and emotional member of the crew, and [[spoiler:completely freezes up when the Alien confronts her.]] She serves a {{foil}} to the other female member of the crew, the no-nonsense [[FinalGirl Ripley]]. This is an interesting case, however, because the characters were written such that any of them could have been played by a man or a woman, until they were cast.

* ''Airport '77'' where Lee Grant, hysterical following her husband's death, attempts to open the plane door while it's submerged in the ocean. However, she is stopped by the flight attendant who is also female, so it could be considered a one off. The Airport series, itself, actually had many female characters who remained in control and were instrumental in resolving the crises. There were also cases of panicking men, as well.

* Justified and deconstructed in ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', as it highlights another consequence of Casca's [[spoiler: rape trauma]] after the eclipse. Casca was mentally traumatized to the point where she was reduced to an infantile, almost animalistic state of mind. Therefore, Casca really has no logical drive and relies on her instincts to protect herself, so when someone poses a threat to her, she reacts violently. After Guts [[spoiler:[[NearRapeExperience almost rapes her but ends up biting her instead]], Casca's natural reaction is to stay far away from him at any means necessary (even jumping off a ledge) and to growl whenever he comes into her vicinity. This has taken its emotional toll on Guts, who is truly ashamed at what he did to her but desperately yearns for her emotional and physical affection. Making the situation worse, [[spoiler: his nasty EnemyWithin ''wants'' Guts to rape and kill her]]. However, some characters like [[GreenEyedMonster Farnese]] don't understand the extent of Casca's condition or backstory and think that her current behavior toward Guts is idiotic, irrational, and selfish.

* Justified and deconstructed in ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', as it highlights another consequence of Casca's [[spoiler: rape trauma]] after the eclipse. Casca was mentally traumatized to the point where she was reduced to an infantile, almost animalistic state of mind. Therefore, Casca really has no logical drive and relies on her instincts to protect herself, so when someone poses a threat to her, she reacts violently. After Guts [[spoiler:[[NearRapeExperience almost rapes her but ends up biting her instead]], Casca's natural reaction is to stay far away from him at any means necessary (even jumping off a ledge) and to growl whenever he comes into her vicinity. This has taken its emotional toll on Guts, who is truly ashamed at what he did to her but desperately yearns for her emotional and physical affection. Making the situation worse, [[spoiler:his nasty EnemyWithin ''wants'' Guts to rape and kill her]]. However, some characters like [[GreenEyedMonster Farnese]] don't understand the extent of Casca's condition or backstory and think that her current behavior toward Guts is idiotic, irrational, and selfish.

* This trope is why there are no magical boys in the world of ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''. [[spoiler:The MagicalGirl system is revealed to be an alien plot to harvest the boundless energy of highly emotional teenage girls in order to stave off the heat death of the universe. Not targeting boys for the same purpose would have little justification if they didn't assume girls were inherently more hysterical.]]

* ''Film/{{Jaws 2}}''. After the shark attacks them, one of the female teenagers eventually goes hysterical, screaming like crazy and having a panic attack when their rafts get stuck at the bottom. Another one [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan tries to shut her up by shaking her violently]], but is told by his friends that this won't help.

* ''Film/{{Jaws 2}}''. After the shark attacks them, one of the female teenagers eventually goes hysterical, screaming like crazy and having a panic attack when their rafts get stuck at the bottom. Another one [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan tries to shut her up by shaking her violently]], but is told by his friends that this won't help. Not all the women are like this, but it stands out because by contrast the guys are all portrayed as practical and goal-oriented, and none of them breaks down to the same degree. Even the much younger Sean holds it together better than her, who by all accounts has far more right to be freaked out due to being a kid.
** Sean was catatonic for a period of time until stern (vaguely threatening) words snap him back to reality. He simply freaked out in a different way.

* The narrator of ''Literature/TheYellowWallpaper'' was diagnosed with hysteria. The whole point of the work was that isolating and babying women who became mentally ill was ''not'' the way to treat them; the narrator doesn't start out insane -- at worst, suffering from postpartum depression, but she's slowly driven to madness after being more or less imprisoned in order for her to rest.

* Mrs Peacock in ''Film/{{Clue}}'' seems to be this. [[spoiler: She's ObfuscatingInsanity, at least in one of the MultipleEndings.]]
* In ''Film/{{Pulp Fiction}}'' during the diner robbery, Honey Bunny is this when Jules points a gun at "Ringo".
* Sandra from ''Film/{{Waydowntown}}''.

* In ''Film/TheFugitive'', as the US Marshals conduct a raid on a home looking for an escaped prisoner, his girlfriend begins shrieking and screaming. She stops briefly when he's shot, then starts up again almost immediately, leaving the unsympathetic, fed-up Gerard to point his gun at her and snap at her to "Shut up". She does.
* In ''Film/BlueJasmine'', this is the essential character trope of the lead character who becomes more and more emotionally unstable until the end [[spoiler:when she is reduced to a homeless tramp babbling to herself about her troubles]].
* ''Film/HighPlainsDrifter''. Callie Travers, the town prostitute, is understandably pissed off about being raped by the Stranger in broad daylight and tries to incite the cowardly townspeople to stand up to him. When her complaints are dismissed as hysteria, she sarcastically reminds the man who said this (implied to be a client) that, "I can remember some hysterics one night not too long ago!"

* In ''Film/{{Clue}}'', Mrs. Peacock freaks out when, after thinking she drank poison, she starts screaming. Mr. Green delivers a slap. Later, when Wadsworth is recreating the events, he uses Mr. Green instead.
-->'''Mr. Green:''' Well, I had to stop her screaming!

* The narrator of ''Literature/TheYellowWallpaper'' was diagnosed with hysteria. The whole point of the work was that isolating and babying women who became mentally ill was ''not'' the way to treat them; the narrator doesn't start out insane -- at worst, suffering from postpartum depression, but she's slowly driven to madness after being more or less imprisoned in order for her to rest.

* Sue Bridehead in ''Literature/JudeTheObscure'' appears to be a walking bundle of neuroses who is nonetheless trying to live life as an enlightened, liberated woman. It doesn't end up working for her.

* In ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', the mothers of the four brats each fall into panicky screaming as one by one their offspring meet various absurd fates in the factory, though both Violet and Mike's dads are similarly upset. (In the case of Veruca's parents, Mr. Salt is deliberately presented as ''ridiculously'' calm about her potential fate compared to his wife - likewise, Mr. Gloop refuses to jump into the chocolate river to save Augustus because he has his best suit on.) Two mothers are usually DemotedToExtra and/or AdaptedOut in adaptations, and the remaning moms sometimes get more rounded personalities in the bargain (Mrs. Beauregarde becomes an icy StageMom in the 2005 film and averts this trope, and Mrs. Teavee's anxious StepfordSmiler nature in the 2013 musical stems partially from her having to deal with an EnfanteTerrible son). Still, Mrs. Gloop always comes off as this when her son goes up the pipe, owing perhaps to their limited stage/screen time (they're the first tour group to be eliminated) superseding in-depth character development, and Mrs. Teavee is definitely this in the 1971 film.
* ''Literature/LuckyJim'': Margaret is very emotional and emotionally fragile, provoking feelings of obligation in Jim, who feels like he has to take care of her. At one point she actually goes into a fit of hysteria, and has to be slapped and given whiskey to snap out of it.
* In C.S. Lewis's book ''That Hideous Strength'' from ''Literature/TheSpaceTrilogy'', a woman begins to laugh uncontrollably in fear and nervousness in response to Horace Jewels' speech while he was under the influence of the CurseOfBabel. She stops when Wither forces him to sit and clears his throat...only to begin again when Wither is under the same CurseOfBabel, at which point she's joined by ''another'' woman!

* Soolin gets to [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan slap]] a particularly annoying one of these in ''Series/BlakesSeven''.
--> '''Tarrant''': You enjoyed that, didn’t you?
--> '''Soolin''': There are two classic ways of dealing with a hysterical woman. You didn’t really expect me to [[ShutUpKiss kiss]] {{h|oYay}}er, did you?
** [[spoiler: Leveraged because the hysterical woman was in fact a DecoyDamsel feigning her distress.]]
* Spoofed in ''Series/GarthMarenghisDarkplace'' where Liz gets [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan punched in the face]] for being 'hysterical', yet her acting is of the DullSurprise kind.
* The trope is alive and well in ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'', at least when it pertains to extras. If somebody gets killed and there is people to see it or find the body, you can guarantee that there will be a woman screaming, while all the men remain silent or are, at least, far less noisy.
* A lover of a victim in ''Series/TheCloser'', was this in spades. The second that she saw the body, she started screaming hysterically. She kept on screaming causing the investigators to wear earplugs around her.

* Blanche, one of the maids on ''Series/AnotherPeriod'', recently spent time in an insane asylum and is still a bit...er...high-strung. Both her employers (the Bellacourt family) and her fellow servants take great pleasure in startling her into screaming fits.
* In ''Series/KitchenNightmares'' wives/girlfriends/sisters/female owners often times have a degree of this, often times pairing with NotMyFault. One of the most infamous times was with a female customer who literally cried when her burger arrived in sourdough bread rather than the regular bread used when the kitchen ran out of said style of bread.
* In ''Series/FawltyTowers'': In "The Kipper and the Corpse", the elderly Miss Tibbs screams hysterically when she sees the dead Mr Leeman, and eventually faints.

* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'''s female population was almost entirely these or LaughingMad women. {{Justified|Trope}} by the fact that enemies hunted down, killed, mutilated, and revived you as one of them.
** Soundly averted in [[ActionGirl Ellie's]] case, however.

* ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXTekken'' has a subdued version for all of the girls in the game. In stage transitions a male on anchor looks more composed when his ally loses the round but the ladies all look [[https://i.imgur.com/cZl0g3j.mp4 visibly upset]] and appear to be scolding and reprimanding their allies.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius''. One of the Jägermonsters is ordered to accompany Agatha home, after she was expelled from the university, and she thinks that it will eat her as soon as no one can see them. She proceeds to scream hysterically for several panels, while the Jägermonster tries unsuccessfully to assure her it has no intention of eating her. She finally shuts up when it considers eating her just to get some quiet. (After Agatha TookALevelInBadass, she very much averts this trope.)
** There's also the fact that her level in badass involves [[spoiler:having the Jägermonsters as effectively her private army]]. You're going to become FAR less hysterical when you realise that they [[spoiler:work for you because they actually WANT you to succeed]].

* Mocked in, of course, ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. Marge foils a burglar and Homer arrives far too late (being unable to maintain the same running speed as Marge). Marge says how exhilarating it was, to which Homer responds that it's always exhilarating to watch the police get their man and save "a hysterical woman."

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* ''VideoGame/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'': Ellen Wyatt from the DLC case has a pronounced tendency to break down sobbing whenever something goes wrong. Though to be fair, she's also been accused of murder on her wedding day and the true culprit has been gaslighting her, so she's probably earned the right to a FreakOut or several.

This trope can also be subverted by a female character who only pretends to be hysterical. If she's the SocialExpert, she may use it to gain immediate sympathy and help from other people. If she has a SecretIdentity or is BruceWayneHeldHostage, she may fake being hysterical to keep anyone from suspecting her other persona.