History Main / MenAreTheExpendableGender

** [[spoiler:Charlie Walker revealed himself to Kirby Reed as a Ghostface killer via stabbing her twice and expecting her to die. Ironically, he also got two-stab treatment from Jill Roberts, a fellow Ghostface and his accomplice, ans is much more severe in comparison. To further cement the irony of Charlie's last attack, Kirby was '''''confirmed''''' to have survived from his attack, unlike himself.]]
** [[spoiler:After Jill's revelation as one of the Ghostface killers just as she stabbed Sidney at the stomach, the former then kills both Trevor and Charlie, as well as attacking her cousin once more as she expects said causin to die, as part of a set-up for her to earn her fake SoleSurvivor status from the public. However, it's not just her who survived, but also Sidney, causing her to go all berserk during the climax.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen}}'': [[spoiler:After Prince Hans Westergaard revealed his true colors right in front of Anna and leaves her to die from a literally frozen heart, and later deceived Elsa into thinking that her younger sister is dead, he then tried to kill Elsa herself with a sword just so that he could take the throne of Arendelle all to himself, only for it to be thwarted when Anna sacrificed herself for her older sibling, albeit with the cost of her own life. Thankfully, Anna herself got revived from being literally frozen because "an act of '''true love''' can thaw a frozen heart" (which refers to Anna's own sacrifice for her sister Elsa), while Hans would later get his just desserts via imprisonment.]]

* In ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'' three out of five of the male main characters die. One out of three of the female main characters die. The women are routinely shielded from bad news by the men. During the climactic scene where the stowaways have to fix the mechanical problem, they created by stowing away illegally, only the male protagonist and his son attempt to fix it. Despite the fact that the female protagonist is just as responsible and, presumably, as an adult stronger and more competent than her ten-year-old son.

* In ''Film/BatmanReturns'', Catwoman was the only primarily focused villain in that movie to survive, albeit with the cost of her eight previous lives.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen}}'': [[spoiler:After Prince Hans Westergaard reveals is true colors right in front of Anna and leaves her to die from a literally frozen heart, and later deceives Elsa into thinking that her younger sister is dead, he then tried to kill Elsa herself (who briefly fell into depression after his deception) with a sword just so that he could take the throne of Arendelle all to himself, only for it to be thwarted when Anna sacrificed herself for her older sibling, albeit with the cost of her own life. Thankfully, Anna herself manages to revive from being literally frozen because "an act of '''true love''' can thaw a frozen heart" (which refers to Anna's own sacrifice for her sister Elsa), while Hans would later get his just desserts via being arrested.]]

* ''Franchise/ToyStory'': [[spoiler:Among the film series' primary toy villains, Gabby Gabby is by far '''the most''' sympathetic among them, as opposed to both Stinky Pete and Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear (or "Lotso"), which is why her fate has been treated ''a lot'' more tamely compared to those from the other two {{Big Bad}} toys before her.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'': King Candy tells to the titular character a reason as to why Vanellope Von Schweetz cannot race in ''Sugar Race'', stating that her glitching powers would affect the game's status, in which it would be plugged out from Litwak's Arcade and costing her life with it since she could not also get out of that game. [[spoiler:This all turns out to be a lie, especially after it's revealed that King Candy is really the infamous video game character '''Turbo''' (who inspired the concept of "going Turbo") in disguise. Ironically enough, ''his own life'' was lost while inside the game. Vanellope, on the other hand, was not only spared from losing her life thanks to him, but was also revealed to be the '''true''' star of ''Sugar Rash'' once she crossed the finish line of game of origin, resulting in her coding being restored after it was maliciously hijacked by Turbo.]]

* ''247°F'' features 2 women and a man trapped in the sauna. One of the women does nothing until the end, where she [[NiceJobBreakingItHero completely loses it and screws them all over.]] The other woman is just a complete bitch to everyone in the sauna and often suggests the exact opposite of what they should be doing. The man acts rationally and is often the sole voice of reason. [[spoiler: Both women live. The man dies. But you probably guessed that without reading this spoiler, considering the page this entry is on.]]

* ''Franchise/ToyStory'': [[spoiler:Among the film series' primary toy villains, Gabby Gabby is by far '''the most''' sympathetic among them, as opposed to both Stinky Pete and Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear (or "Lotso"), which is why her fate has been treated ''a lot'' more tamely compared to those from the other two {{Big Bad}} toys before her.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'': King Candy tells to the titular character a reason as to why Vanellope Von Schweetz cannot race in ''Sugar Race'', stating that her glitching powers would affect the game's status, in which it would be plugged out from Litwak's Arcade and costing her life with it since she could not also get out of that game. [[spoiler:This all turns out to be a lie, especially after it's revealed that King Candy is really the infamous video game character '''Turbo''' (who inspired the concept of "going Turbo") in disguise. Ironically enough, ''his own life'' was lost while inside the game. Vanellope, on the other hand, was not only spared from losing her life thanks to him, but was also revealed to be the '''true''' star of ''Sugar Rash'' once she crossed the finish line of game of origin, resulting in her coding being restored after it was maliciously hijacked by Turbo.]]

* ''247°F'' features 2 women and a man trapped in the sauna. One of the women does nothing until the end, where she [[NiceJobBreakingItHero completely loses it and screws them all over.]] The other woman is just a complete bitch to everyone in the sauna and often suggests the exact opposite of what they should be doing. The man acts rationally and is often the sole voice of reason. [[spoiler: Both women live. The man dies. But you probably guessed that without reading this spoiler, considering the page this entry is on.]]

* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Female abusers and male victims are not treated as seriously as male abusers and female victims.
* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: A woman raping a man isn't treated as seriously as a man raping a woman.
* DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale : Nor is a man getting raped, period.

* ''Film/WreckItRalph'': King Candy tells to the titular character a reason as to why Vanellope Von Schweetz cannot race in ''Sugar Race'', stating that her glitching powers would affect the game's status, in which it would be plugged out from Litwak's Arcade and costing her life with it since she could not also get out of that game. [[spoiler:This all turns out to be a lie, especially after it's revealed that King Candy is really the infamous video game character '''Turbo''' (who inspired the concept of "going Turbo") in disguise, and ironically enough his own life was lost while inside the game, and that Vanellope was spared and had restored her own coding within that game.]]

[[caption-width-right:1000:Looks like one of these mentioned antagonists is ''really'' happy with their fate.]]

* ''Franchise/TheIncredibles'': Both Mirage and [[spoiler:Evelyn Deavor/Screenslaver]] have managed to survive further than Syndrome ever did.

* ''Franchise/ToyStory'': [[spoiler:Among the film series' primary toy villains, Gabby Gabby is, by far, '''the most''' sympathetic among them, as opposed to both Stinky Pete and Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear (or "Lotso"), which is why her fate is also ''a lot'' tamer than those from the other two {{Big Bad}}s before her.]]

* ''Franchise/TheIncredibles'': Both Mirage movie and [[spoiler:Evelyn Deavor/Screenslaver]] managed to survive further than Syndrome ever did.

* MenActWomenAre: Male characters are defined by their actions, females by their personalities and appearances.

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Mulan}}'': The destruction of the village and loss of life is conveyed with an EmpathyDollShot that is said to have belonged to a little girl.

[[caption-width-right:1000:Looks like one of these toy villains is ''really'' happy with their fate.]]

* FemalesAreMoreInnocent: Women tend to on the better receiving end, especially if they're asking for the audience's sympathy for them.

* AllAbusersAreMale: Villainy, or immorality in general is perceivably more prevalent on men, especially in pop culture, so the level of sympathy that's implemented on them are relatively limited.

[[quoteright:1000:[[Franchise/ToyStory https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/men_are_the_expendable_gender_toy_story_example.png]]]]

* FemalesAreMoreInnocent: Women tend to have the better receiving end when asking for the audience's sympathy for them.

* ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' has every male member of Thor's Asgardian team get slaughtered (most completely offhandedly) by [[Characters/TheMightyThorGiants Hela]]. The sole female member is not only absent (allowing her to avoid being killed) but is simply never mentioned, to avoid any questions of why she didn't turn up to help. Also neither Hela nor Valkyrie, the only female main characters, even take a single injury in the course of the film (barring Hela's final death by bloodless vaporization); the same definitely could not be said for the male characters.

* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}''[='s=] demons killing men is usually done with no fanfare, unless it's one that the sisters know. However, when a female innocent is killed, the TearJerker aspect is played up a lot more. This is exploited in a StrawFeminist themed episode where Zira has her master lure Billie out by attacking an innocent, stressing that it must be a female.

* In the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series, 99% of generic {{mooks}} are male, and any female enemy is either recruitable or a plot-critical antagonist. ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776'' are the only games to have common female mooks outside of classes that are exclusive to females (pegasus knights and troubadours), even with occasional female mooks sprinkled among the enemy forces, they were still vastly outnumbered by their male comrades. The subsequent ''Fire Emblem'' games would end up dropping the concept of liberal use of female mooks altogether. Similarly the concept of [[VillainOfTheWeek minor]] female bosses was only seen in ''Genealogy of the Holy War'' before vanishing for good, though they would later reappear in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses''.

* ''Literature/{{Another}}'' manages rather oddly to [[ZigZaggingTrope both subvert and play this straight]]. It's subverted in that, in a class with roughly equivalent male and female ratios, only a handful of onscreen deaths are male, and by the end of the series (the novel as well; the manga subverts this slightly) only ''one'' of the main female characters is still alive (in fairness, she's functionally the only female character in the novel, so this isn't hard). It's subverted in that, when male deaths ''do'' occur, their repercussions are generally downplayed or flat-out not brought up: the first major onscreen death is a girl, which leads to one of the main conflicts in the final episode; a male student's death midway through is ''implied'' to have caused a SanitySlippage for a female student, but this is never outright stated, while her own death is the main thing that sets the two main groups at odds. In a series which features two rather gruesome and bloody throat injuries and dismemberment by ''boat motor,'' the only GoryDiscretionShot is also reserved for one girl, who bloodlessly (but still painfully) is strangled to death.

* Surprisingly present in Creator/TeamFourStar's ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'': Cell's absorption of the male Android 17 is shown in its entirety and played for laughs, with 17 complaining about how "not cool" a death it is the entire time, while Cell's absorption of the female Android 18 is played as tragic, using dialogue that equates it with rape, and happens ''off-screen.'' Of course, [[RefugeInAudacity being Team Four Star]], they ''immediately'' subvert it with an alternate scene where Krillin accidentally blows 18's head clean off her shoulders with a bomb.

* In ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror,'' characters who are meant to be in the right, such as [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Ahrek]], treat killing a woman under a given set of circumstances as a much bigger deal than if she'd been a man. It might be worth mentioning that the author is Mormon.

* ''Series/GenerationKill'': The main characters are passing a series of corpses lining the road. One of the characters points out a particularly mutilated corpse and says, with glee, "Dude, look at that guy!" Another character says "That's not a guy," and a horrified silence descends as they realize it's a young woman.

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E20TheMaquis The Maquis]]," a ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' two-parter, the [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters Maquis]] are shown to be about equally male and female in the first part, but in the second part, when Captain Sisko and crew raid a Maquis base and shoot several Maquis in a firefight, there are no female Maquis.

** In one case in particular, a male character is blamed by another for not protecting one of the women who died, despite the fact that he's a NonActionGuy, was a young rookie at the time, and she was his far more capable and experienced {{Mentor|Index}}. However, the character blaming him ([[spoiler:Godot/Diego Armando]]) is revealed to be [[spoiler:the boyfriend of the deceased who is projecting his own self-loathing for being unable to protect his girlfriend (despite the fact that he had been in a coma during her death and was thus physically unable to do anything to prevent it) onto Phoenix Wright, who was ''technically,'' by Godot's reasoning (i.e. he was alive and conscious), in a position to have stopped it]]. It is neither of their faults that the victim died, and the game makes it quite clear that [[spoiler:Godot]] is sorely misguided -- by having [[spoiler:the victim herself, a channeled Mia Fey]] point it out to him, thus saving him from himself. It's also worth noting that [[spoiler:Godot]] is a character with established sexist tendencies, hence his belief that men need to protect women at all costs.

* Both ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2'' and ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare3'' feature missions where random civilians can be seen running around during shootouts with various enemies. Despite these operations taking place in heavily populated areas, the only time women are present is in the ''Modern Warfare 2'' mission "No Russian," where the player is directed to participate in a terrorist attack. Hungarian Resistance fighters who assist the player during ''Modern Warfare 3'' are all exclusively male, despite seemingly able-bodied female civilians also being present during most encounters. Female mooks wouldn't appear within the franchise until ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsIII'' though by then they are simply present, and not treated as overly remarkable.

* Most of the zombies you encounter in half the games in the ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' series are male. This is averted in the second and third games, as well as the ''Outbreak'' spin-offs since the T-Virus escaped in a midwestern city. In the original game and ''Code: Veronica'', the virus infected an isolated laboratory without any listed female personnel and an isolated South American prison complex that either had no female prisoners at all, or stored them on a part of the island that you never visit during gameplay. That being said, female characters are ''far'' more likely to survive than their male counterparts, even when the men are far more skilled; of STARS Bravo team, Rebecca Chambers is the squad's rookie and least competent member, yet also the only survivor, and the only woman. In fact, it wouldn't be until ''Code Veronica'' that a named female character with actual dialogue would be killed (Ada's death had been implied in ''Resident Evil 2'' but that same implication was undone by the end of the game), and the female character in question also manages to be a ''villain.'' It wouldn't be until ''Resident Evil 6'' that named female heroes would be killed, and to date, no canon ending involves a female player character not surviving.

* {{Discussed|Trope}} in ''WebVideo/VampireReviews''' episode on ''Film/UnderworldAwakening.'' Protagonist Selene is shown killing normal humans for the first time, and the movie clearly does not expect this to make her less sympathetic. [[VampireVannabe Maven]] notes that all of her victims were male, and wonders if the filmmakers would have played a female character's death in the same way.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A15v4tTab0Y ''Bring Me The Head of Charlie Brown'']] is a ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' fan film made by animator Jim Reardon when he was an animation student. Virtually all of the cast, male and female, get brutally gunned down Peckinpah-style, but [[JerkAss Lucy]] gets the worst of it by far...

* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' its common to see women die or get killed in gruesome manners (equal as men) when the masses die in some episodes. Also, one episode shows Music/BritneySpears shooting herself in the face onscreen [[FateWorseThanDeath and she didn't die]]. Well, [[HumanSacrifice not yet at least]].

* Walter shoots, Phyllis in ''Film/DoubleIndemnity,'' disgusted at her manipulation of him, shortly before dying himself. Despite the fact that he did all the actual killing and most of the cover-up, the film makes sure to [[FemmeFatale depict Phyllis as a shady lady right from the beginning]] and thus make her look like an evil manipulator and Walter look like a [[ThisLoserIsYou helpless schmuck.]]

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': [[ComicBook/TheNightGwenStacyDied The death]] of [[Characters/MarvelComicsPeterParker Spider-Man]]'s [[ILetGwenStacyDie girlfriend]] [[Characters/SpiderManLoveInterests Gwen Stacy]] in ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderMan1963'' #121 caused a huge outcry among fans (so big in fact, that Marvel brought Gwen back as a clone less than two years later to assuage them), her death is still seen as a deep injustice by a number of diehard fans, and many see it as the comic book {{Trope Maker|s}} of StuffedIntoTheFridge. Before her death, four supporting characters had been killed off in-story really without causing a ripple among readers, all men of various ages: [[DeathByOriginStory Uncle Ben]], Bennett Brant (Betty's brother, caught in the crossfire to provide a reason for her to hate Spider-Man), Frederick Foswell (''Daily Bugle'' reporter) and George Stacy (Gwen's father, died trying to save people's lives to provide an obstacle to her romance with Peter Parker). In later years ''The Death of Jean [=DeWolff=]'', the second female supporting character to be killed off, caused another major stir. The deaths of various male supporting characters -- Professor Miles Warren, Nathan Lubensky (Aunt May's fiancé), Ned Leeds (one of Peter's oldest ''Bugle'' colleagues), and even Harry Osborn (Peter Parker's oldest and ''best friend'' of the male persuasion) -- not so much. Harry Osborn who, as it turned out, could not well be replaced in his role in the cast, but that was fourteen years after his death. Even Aunt May (whose apparent death in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #400 was widely seen as a satisfying ending to a fulfilled life) was brought back to the living more quickly. And while only Uncle Ben is referenced in-story nearly as often as Gwen Stacy, quite a few of the dead male characters are all but {{forgotten|FallenFriend}} both by the writers and the fans.

* [[ComicBook/TheNightGwenStacyDied The death]] of [[Characters/SpiderManPeterParker Spider-Man]]'s [[ILetGwenStacyDie girlfriend]] [[Characters/SpiderManLoveInterests Gwen Stacy]] in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #121 caused a huge outcry among fans (so big in fact, that Marvel brought Gwen back as a clone less than two years later to assuage them), her death is still seen as a deep injustice by a number of diehard fans, and many see it as the comic book {{Trope Maker|s}} of StuffedIntoTheFridge. Before her death, four supporting characters had been killed off in-story really without causing a ripple among readers, all men of various ages: [[DeathByOriginStory Uncle Ben]], Bennett Brant (Betty's brother, caught in the crossfire to provide a reason for her to hate Spider-Man), Frederick Foswell (''Daily Bugle'' reporter) and George Stacy (Gwen's father, died trying to save people's lives to provide an obstacle to her romance with Peter Parker). In later years ''The Death of Jean [=DeWolff=]'', the second female supporting character to be killed off, caused another major stir. The deaths of various male supporting characters -- Professor Miles Warren, Nathan Lubensky (Aunt May's fiancé), Ned Leeds (one of Peter's oldest ''Bugle'' colleagues), and even Harry Osborn (Peter Parker's oldest and ''best friend'' of the male persuasion) -- not so much. Harry Osborn who, as it turned out, could not well be replaced in his role in the cast, but that was fourteen years after his death. Even Aunt May (whose apparent death in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #400 was widely seen as a satisfying ending to a fulfilled life) was brought back to the living more quickly. And while only Uncle Ben is referenced in-story nearly as often as Gwen Stacy, quite a few of the dead male characters are all but {{forgotten|FallenFriend}} both by the writers and the fans.

** Rand goes to considerable effort to remember every woman who died for him (including the one who died because he [[WouldntHitAGirl wouldn't fight back against the evil sorceress trying to kill them all]]).

** Rand goes to considerable effort to remember every woman who died for him (including the one who died because he [[WouldntHitAGirl wouldn't fight back against the evil sorceress trying to kill them all]]). The considerably more numerous men can apparently go hang. It's not really clear where this attitude comes from, seeing as the women of Two Rivers aren't exactly delicate flowers.

* In ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'', [[SantaClaus Father Christmas]] provides Susan and Lucy with weapons (a bow and arrows for Susan, a dagger for Lucy) but warns them that they are to be used only as a last resort because "battles are ugly when women fight". Their brother Peter gets a sword and shield and no such warning against using them proactively, presumably because it's somehow less "ugly" when it's men doing the fighting and dying. Or in this case, a ''boy'' doing the fighing and dying -- did we mention that Lucy is a ChildSoldier?