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Blaming
- 63 statements
- 10 feature instances
- 10 referencing feature instances
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A character or work perceives oppression/inequality in society. Where does it come from, and who or what is causing it? "The Man" is a label used to describe an ambiguous yet powerful authority figure who controls - or at the very least guides - society in order to maintain a status quo perceived as unfair by those applying the label. Other ambiguous or ill-defined substitutes like "the system", "the establishment", and "the order" may also be used. What "The Man" is can range from a single person like an Evil Overlord or Corrupt Corporate Executive, to a small cabal of people, to a powerful organization or institutional body like The Government. In other words; whoever or whatever is likely to have the motive and means to enforce their will on society. Whether or not this oppressive force actually exists is debatable. To some extent, this nebulous authority figure is used as a stand-in or placeholder for VERY real systemic issues that are pervasive in the unfair status quo: Capitalism, sexism, racism, liberalism or "PC culture", conservatism, militarism, and many more. In that sense, "The Man" does exist, albeit more as a concept or ideology than a physical entity, so the term anthropomorphizes real-world injustices and gives them a face for people to rally against. As this extensive and contradictory list of systemic issues indicates, what's perceived as oppressive can be subjective and is often dependent on a person's own identity, as well as the ideologies/beliefs they (and the creator in question) hold. Often, characters who use this argument are portrayed as paranoia-stricken individuals (Properly Paranoid, Conspiracy Theorist, The Paranoiac, Improperly Paranoid) or as Windmill Crusaders, constantly seeing oppression where it doesn’t necessarily exist and equating their ideals' lack of mainstream acceptance with oppression itself. To them, the only reason others aren't in agreement with their perspective is because they are being actively silenced by a higher authority hellbent on preventing any societal change that upends the status quo. Straw Characters like Malcolm Xerox, Straw Feminist, Straw Misogynist, Soapbox Sadie, and Heteronormative Crusader are likely to rely on this framing. When done well, this trope can be useful for making intangible and difficult-to-solve social issues easier to visualize, thus easier to mobilize against and reform. When done poorly, it can easily come off as fearmongering and scapegoating, even being used by a Straw Hypocrite to deflect from their own hidden agenda. Compare The Conspiracy, Government Conspiracy, and Corporate Conspiracy, which are about actual oppressive forces that might be called "The Man". See also The Man Is Sticking It to the Man and The Man Is Keeping Us Down, which use a similar understanding of the term, and Inherent in the System, which places the blame specifically on flawed social/political systems. Not to be confused with The Man Behind the Man, which is about a defined villain who is actually the one giving out orders to the person previously introduced as the Big Bad. Examples |
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Dropped link to BenFolds: Not an Item - IGNORE | |
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Dropped link to BigBad: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to JohnLennon: Not an Item - IGNORE | |
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Dropped link to RuleThirtyFour: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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| Blaming / int_498b77e9 | type |
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| Blaming / int_498b77e9 | comment |
In Tigerlily Jones's personal reality in Skin Horse, the eponymous "black ops social services" organisation is The Man. Despite their leader, a female uplifted Spitz, insisting "I am not The Man! For several reasons!" | |
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| Skin Horse (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
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The kids in Bryan Lee O'Malley's Lost at Sea decided to head for another diner when they couldn't find a Wendy's, because "sometimes it's good to give your money to someone other than The Man". Cue laughter. | |
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| Lost at Sea (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
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| Blaming / int_b40554c8 | type |
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The second issue of the Black Dynamite comic sees the titular hero taken in and offered a job by a bald (white) individual who, when asked who he was, answered "I am The Man". More specifically, The Man is the representative of the Illuminati, the (predominantly white) elite who secretly run the world. | |
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| Blaming / int_b9fa3a7 | type |
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Parodied (like everything else) in Undercover Brother, where the main character has been fighting against the idea of "The Man", but is astonished to learn that there is in fact an actual person who is formally identified as "The Man", as the head of an organization which is dedicated to oppressing the African-American community. | |
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Spirit of '77: This being a game about The '70s, all characters have a common goal of sticking it to him. | |
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| Blaming / int_d4f4d313 | type |
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Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood: Ashtray and Loc Dog enter a convenience store owned by a Chinese couple and are immediately followed and harangued in a case of racial profiling. Meanwhile, a milquetoast looking white guy is actively stealing from the store. When he takes from the cash register, the male owner stops him only to give him change on his way out. The situation inside escalates with the Loc Dog pulling a gun on the store owners treating them poorly and them doing the same in turn only for shots to be fired. The shooter is the robber from earlier who laughs before tossing the gun at Loc Dog and Ashtray to frame them, who both exclaim "The Man!" The robber then proceeds to cross off Loc Dog's name from a list that includes Mike Tyson, Michael Jackson, O. J. Simpson, and Tupac, implying that the conspiracy is true. | |
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Barney Miller: In "The Harris Incident", Detective Harris is enraged when two NYPD beat cops arrive at the scene of a robbery, take him for the armed robber because he is black, and shoot at him. He gets a lot angrier when Barney tells him that nothing will happen to the two cops right away, that Barney will file a report and things will go "by the book". | |
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Jack Black's character in School of Rock rambles about The Man, prompting the kids to stick it to The Man. This leads to one of the kids telling the principal that "[she's] the Man." She thinks it's a compliment. | |
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| Blaming / int_f90f1b9f | type |
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According to Dale in The Rod Squad, his girlfriend Foxy Glove is "[t]he chick who's protecting the people from HASSLES and RIP-OFFS by the MAN". | |
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| Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers | hasFeature |
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Eddie from Super Fly blames The Man for the existence of the drug trade that he and Priest are enmeshed in. | |
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
| Blaming | processingCategory2 |
Authority Tropes | |
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Older Than Television | |
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The Index Is Watching You | |
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Villains | |
| Black Dynamite (Comic Book) / int_5154aeb0 | type |
Blaming | |
| Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood / int_5154aeb0 | type |
Blaming | |
| School of Rock / int_5154aeb0 | type |
Blaming | |
| One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest / int_5154aeb0 | type |
Blaming | |
| TV Tropes Superhero Team / Sugar Wiki / int_5154aeb0 | type |
Blaming | |
| Kingdom of Loathing (Video Game) / int_5154aeb0 | type |
Blaming |
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