History Main / MenAreTough

* {{House Husband}}: A man who does the housekeeping while his wife is the breadwinner. This is considered atypical of gender roles.

* ManlyGay: An aversion of CampGay. These men are manly and love men.
* MachoCamp: Over-the-top, exaggerated manliness. Often portrayed as a gay stereotype.

* {{Househusband}}: A man who does the housekeeping while his wife is the breadwinner. This is considered atypical of gender roles.

* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: Because women are typically portrayed as more delicate or weak, situations where men are the delicate sex are considered odd, quaint, or scary. Alternatively, because men are so tough stick to beating things up while women use something like poison.

* TheSlacker: Men in a domestic or social setting are shown as do-nothing layabouts. Has become a more reoccurring trope in modern fiction, as the {{Everyman}} has gained popularity.

* CulturedBadass: An AlwaysMale trope whereas a man is both sophisticated and able to kick ass. In some ways, considered the apex of what an ideal man should be.

* FemalesAreMoreInnocent: Women are incapable of doing anything wrong or harmful unless influenced by a man.

* MenLikeDogsWomenLikeCats: Men like dogs because they're rowdy and often used for work, while women like cats because they're delicate and low-maintence.

[[folder: Played Straight]]

!!PlayedStraight
[[index]]

[[/index]]

[[folder: Aversions, Inversions, and Subversions]]
!!Aversions, Inversions and Subversions

[[folder: Zig-Zagged]]
!!Zig-Zagged (neither Played Straight nor Averted)

[[index]]

[[/index]]

[[folder: Played With]]

!!Played With

[[/index]]

%%%% Zero Context.
%%%* HollywoodActionHero: Almost always male to reinforce this trope.

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%%%* HotGuyUglyWife: Considered a rare and ironic inversion to the UglyGuyHotWife trope.

* BadassGrandpa: Age only makes men tougher (and the experience that comes with the years helps a lot).

* BestHerToBedHer: She's strong and he has to be stronger to win her

* HollywoodActionHero: Almost always male to reinforce this trope.

* RealMenTakeItBlack: Real men take their coffee without milk or sugar.

* WinHerAPrize: A boy tries to win his date a prize to impress her with his charity, cleverness or ability

* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: Because women are typically portrayed as more delicate or weak, situations where men are the delicate sex are considered odd, quaint, or scary.

* ActionHeroBabysitter: A man is cast in the nurturing role of caretaker, but using tough, badass skills to get the job done. PlayedForLaughs.

* HotGuyUglyWife: Considered a rare and ironic inversion to the UglyGuyHotWife trope.

* AllMenAreRapists: A very unfortunate and untrue extreme of this trope. Because men are so tough, they're always the sexual aggressors

* BastardBoyfriend: He mistreats his fragile girlfriend, but it's played for the titillation of a female audience.

An {{Omnipresent|Trope}} SuperTrope and SisterTrope to WomenAreDelicate. It can be assumed to exist in every form of media unless otherwise stated. For a number of reasons, fiction tends to treat men as the stronger, hardier, more reliable, and more resilient of the two genders. In most forms of human society, the assumption is that women are more suited for nurturing than the more aggressive roles undertaken by males of the species. This creates the assumption that ''every'' man is a natural badass. This may be because MostWritersAreMale, or the implication that MenActWomenAre.

#Bilateral: Men are stronger, tougher, or more blunt, dominant or aggressive '''than inferior men'''. In this form, even if a man shows more passive, submissive, or weaker qualities, he either shows less of them than his female peers, there is a weaker man to juxtapose with him (unless he ''is'' the weaker man), or [[CompensatingForSomething he compensates for it in some other area.]]

An {{Omnipresent|Trope}} SuperTrope and SisterTrope to WomenAreDelicate. It can be assumed to exist in every form of media unless otherwise stated. For a number of reasons, fiction tends to treat men as the stronger, hardier, more reliable, and more resilient of the two genders. In most forms of human society, the assumption is that women are the more delicate of the sexes or are more suited for nurturing than the more aggressive roles undertaken by males of the species. This creates the assumption that ''every'' man is a natural badass, or '''should''' be. This may be because MostWritersAreMale, or the implication that MenActWomenAre.

#Bilateral: Men are stronger, tougher, or more blunt, dominant or aggressive '''than women and/or "inferior" men'''. In this form, even if a man shows more passive, submissive, or weaker qualities, he either shows less of them than his female peers, there is a weaker man to juxtapose with him (unless he ''is'' the weaker man), or [[CompensatingForSomething he compensates for it in some other area.]]

* NonActionSnarker: A man who is not physical tough, but compensates for it in abrasive or cynical attitude.

* AllGaysArePromiscuous: The logic of this trope is that gay men are still ''men'', and thus still only want sex, but "marriage" is only for straight couples. Thus, gay men (and sometimes women) have "free reign" to act as promiscuously as they dare.

* {{Cuckold}}: A man whose woman is having sex with another person(s). The "Bull" (her lover) is almost '''always''' another man [[GirlOnGirlIsHot because otherwise the effect is lessened]]. Her infidelity is played for the humiliation and emasculation of the cuckolded man, the sexual depravity of the wife, and to portray the Bulls as "superior" men. The scenario is used for the titillation of the audience. The cultural implications is that any man who fails to satisfy his wife, and "tame" her, is less of a man while the men that succeed are "real" men.

* LightswitchSurprise: A husband sneaks home after doing some sort of activity his wife approves disapproves of and thinks he's gotten away with it until he hits the light switch and she's standing in wait. Simultaneously reinforces that husbands are untrustworthy/immature liars and cheats, and that wives are nagging shrews.

* WifeHusbandry: A much older man is involved in the raising/development of a young girl he plans to eventually take as a wife. It is widely ridiculed in most 21st century societies because of the inherent power imbalance and called an example of overbearing partiarchy.

* IWantToBeARealMan: A man who lacks any of the any stereotypical" manly" traits wants them in order to become a "real man".

* EngagementChallenge: A set of rules, tests or tasks that one must meet in order to prove worthy of a spouse as their prize. The prize is usually a woman, and the challenge is either imposed by the her parents, gender customs or some other group other than the woman herself. Part of the drama involved is that her feelings are irrelevant--she will be forced to both reject a suitor she loves if they fail, and to accept one she hates if they succeed. Can be gender-inverted, but not commonly.

#Bilateral: Men are stronger, tougher, or more blunt, dominant or aggressive '''than women and/or "inferior" men'''. In this form, even if a man shows more passive, submissive, or weaker qualities, he either shows less of them than his female peers, there is a weaker man to juxtapose him (unless he ''is'' the weaker man), or [[CompensatingForSomething he compensates for it in some other area.]]

'''[[ExampleSectionectomy No Examples Please]].''' This should be an index of tropes, and nothing else.

* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: Because women are typically portrayed as more delicate or weak, situations where men are the dangerous sex are considered odd, quaint, or scary.

Also, please keep in mind that the word chosen to represent this trope was "tough". In addition to physical force or power, "tough" also means resilient, stubborn, slow to change, dense, and inflexible, which are also ways men are stereotyped. We intentionally chose a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polysemy polysemic]] word for this trope because TropesAreFlexible, and like all stereotypes, this one has changed (and will change) a LOT as people attempt to use it or [[DownplayedTrope downplay it]].

!!Aversions, inversions and subversions

!! Zig-zagged (neither played straight nor averted)

* MyBelovedSmother: A son who is nagged, abused, or derided by his mother. It's implies that the man is weak-willed, and/or that his mother is irrational or bitter.

* TinySchoolboy: A preteen or teenage boy who's shorter than all the other kids his age and is embarrassed about it.