History Main / BlamingTheVictim

* ''Literature/TheHouseOfNight'': In one of the later books, a girl named Becca starts flirting with Aurox with the intention of having sex with him. When he [[WrongNameOutburst inadvertently says Zoey's name]], though, Becca is put off and bites him, then becomes afraid of him after sensing he's an otherworldly creature and tries to leave. Aurox ends up pinning her against a tree and ignores her pleading to leave her alone, but is stopped from going further when a teacher intervenes. However, the teacher tells Becca that it was partly her fault for leading Aurox on and that she's "crude" for turning him down just because he's attracted to Zoey.

This is the favorite tactic of a ManipulativeBastard. Compare and contrast with AssholeVictim (although the perpetrator might try to cast their victim as such) and KickTheSonOfABitch, which is where a character is thought to deserve what happens to them but isn't necessarily blamed for it. TheSocialDarwinist may also use this tactic, blaming any victims as being "weak" or otherwise unworthy of survival. Villains that are PlayingTheVictimCard might also accuse those who confront them of this to discredit them if they’re feeling desperate; it is not uncommon, however, for psychological abusers to cast themselves as the victim while shifting the blame to the real victim at the same time.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'': In "[[Recap/BeavisAndButtheadS7E33Breakdown Breakdown]]", Principal [=McVicker=] gets institutionalized after getting harassed by Beavis and Butt-Head one too many times. Upon seeing them enter his facility, he has another FreakOut. In response, the staff smack him and condemn him for his actions. Of course, they are ignoring that not only were the two responsible for his predicament in the first place, but they continued to harass him during their visit. The staff then has [=McVicker=] set up for [[ElectroconvulsiveTherapyIsTorture electroshock therapy]] as punishment.

** In "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS10E3ScreamsOFSilenceTheStoryOfBrendaQ Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q.]]", Quagmire stages an intervention for Brenda, who's been [[DomesticAbuse abused by her boyfriend Jeff]]. He gives her a tearful speech, saying that she's chosen to make her life a living hell by staying with Jeff and that she's not a "woman" since he believes a woman wouldn't tolerate this kind of treatment.
** In "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS8E21PartialTermsOfEndearment Partial Terms of Endearment]]", the family debate the subject of abortion with a newly pro-life Peter.

* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'': In "[[Recap/RegularShowS03Ep17Eggscellent Eggscellent]]", after Rigby has a near-fatal allergic reaction to an omelette he consumed at a restaurant, [[MeanBoss Benson]] claims that Rigby could have avoided this if it weren't for his own stupidity. In response, Mordecai [[TalkToTheFist punches Benson in the face]] and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech lays into him for his callous behavior]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TangledTheSeries'': In "[[Recap/TangledTheSeriesS1E02RapunzelsEnemy Rapunzel's Enemy]]", Uncle Monty is the one person in the kingdom who doesn't like Rapunzel, his reasons being that he's a holder of traditional values and Rapunzel herself isn't a traditional princess. But what else is he expecting when Rapunzel was stolen from her parents and locked in a tower for eighteen years? Of course, she can't be a traditional princess after suffering emotional abuse and constant isolation. It's not like the circumstances of Rapunzel's upbringing are unknown to the public; the tale of the Lost Princess spread, and the celebration of her return lasted a week according to Eugene. Monty's is negatively judgemental towards Rapunzel because of her quirks, even though said quirks are the result of her trauma. It certainly doesn't help his case that he likes to throw tomatoes at a statue of Rapunzel ''for fun''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', Emperor Belos [[NeverMyFault justifies every bit of the harm he's caused]] this way.

* In Season 21 of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', after Heidi breaks up with [[TheSociopath Cartman]], her friends start to mock her for having ever dated him, disregarding the amount of trauma Heidi endured from the relationship. In turn, [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom Heidi goes back to Cartman]] and becomes his DistaffCounterpart. Despite this, [[NeverMyFault her friends still wonder why she decided to go back to Cartman after finally dumping him]].

* In ''Literature/StartingANewLifeForTheDiscaradedAllRounder'', the country protagonist Roa hails from has a ''systematic culture'' of victim blaming. Whenever there's a conflict between the mentor and apprentice of the highly touted apprenticeship system, the legally powerless apprentice is always held to blame, regardless of the actual circumstances. In this culture '''80%''' of apprentices wash out of the program, and the top brass is strangely proud of this, thinking their country has somehow mastered a system of separating the wheat from the chaff. Any time there's evidence this is wrong, ''assassins'' are sent to "clean it up." (Ie, eliminate the apprentice who provides hard evidence of the system's flaws, just by existing.)

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'': In "[[Recap/BeavisAndButtheadS7E33Breakdown Breakdown]]", Principal [=McVicker=] gets institutionalized after getting harassed by Beavis and Butt-Head one too many times. Upon seeing them enter his facility, he has another FreakOut. In response, the staff smack him and condemn him for his actions, ignoring that the two not only were the ones responsible for his predicament in the first place but continued to harass him during their visit. The staff then has [=McVicker=] set up for [[ElectroconvulsiveTherapyIsTorture electroshock therapy]] as punishment.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'': In "[[Recap/BeavisAndButtheadS7E33Breakdown Breakdown]]", Principal [=McVicker=] gets institutionalized after getting harassed by Beavis and Butt-Head one too many times. Upon seeing them enter his facility, he has another FreakOut. In response, the staff smack him and condemn him for his actions, ignoring that the two not only were the ones responsible for his predicament in the first place but continued to harass him during their visit. They then have [=McVicker=] set up for [[ElectroconvulsiveTherapyIsTorture electroshock therapy]] as punishment.

'''Peter:''' [[[ComicallyMissingThePoint She should have thought of that before asking me for directions.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'': In "[[Recap/BeavisAndButtheadS7E33Breakdown Breakdown]]", Principal [=McVicker=] gets institutionalized after getting harassed by Beavis and Butt-Head one too many times. Upon seeing them enter his facility, he has another FreakOut. In response, the staff smack him and condemn him for his actions, ignoring that the two not only were the ones responsible for his predicament in the first place but continued to harass him during their visit. They then have [=McVicker=] set up for [[ElectroshockTherapy electroshock therapy]] as punishment.

'''Peter:''' She should have thought of that before asking me for directions.

* In 'Literature/StartingANewLifeForTheDiscaradedAllRounder'', the country protagonist Roa hails from has a ''systematic culture'' of victim blaming. Whenever there's a conflict between the mentor and apprentice of the highly touted apprenticeship system, the legally powerless apprentice is always held to blame, regardless of the actual circumstances. In this culture '''80%''' of apprentices wash out of the program, and the top brass is strangely proud of this, thinking their country has somehow mastered a system of separating the wheat from the chaff. Any time there's evidence this is wrong, ''assassins'' are sent to "clean it up." (Ie, eliminate the apprentice who provides hard evidence of the system's flaws, just by existing.)

* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'': In "Eggscellent", after Rigby has a near-fatal allergic reaction to an omelette he consumed at a restaurant, [[MeanBoss Benson]] claims that Rigby could have avoided this if it weren't for his own stupidity. In response, Mordecai [[TalkToTheFist punches Benson in the face]] and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech lays into him for his callous behavior]].

* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'': In "Eggscellent", after Rigby has a near-fatal allergic reaction to an omelette he consumed at a restaurant, Benson claims that Rigby could have avoided this if it weren't for his own stupidity. In response, Mordecai [[TalkToTheFist punches Benson in the face]] and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech lays into him for his callous behavior]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', Emperor Belos justifies killing [[spoiler:the Grimwalkers]] this way. [[spoiler:He laments to the Collector that it hurts every time they choose to betray him, though even ''questioning'' him can count as betrayal, as he demonstrates minutes later when he tries to kill Hunter for just asking him what he did to the other Golden Guards. Contrary to what he claimed earlier, Belos isn't even upset about Hunter's supposed death, just annoyed that he has to make a new one now -- in fact, he looks more upset after learning that Hunter ''survived''. The creation of the Grimwalkers also points to another disturbing bit of victim blaming -- all of the Grimwalkers are clones of Belos's brother, Caleb, who he ''murdered'' after finding out that Caleb had fallen in love with a witch. In "For the Future", when a dying Belos hallucinates Caleb's ghost, he outright screams at him that his death and everything that followed was Caleb's own fault, and tries to attack him.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', Emperor Belos justifies killing [[spoiler:the Grimwalkers]] this way. [[spoiler:He laments to the Collector that it hurts every time they choose to betray him, though even ''questioning'' him can count as betrayal, as he demonstrates minutes later when he tries to kill Hunter for just asking him what he did to the other Golden Guards. Contrary to what he claimed earlier, Belos isn't even upset about Hunter's supposed death, just annoyed that he has to make a new one now -- in fact, he looks more upset after learning that Hunter ''survived''.]]
** [[spoiler:The creation of the Grimwalkers also points to another disturbing bit of victim blaming -- all of the Grimwalkers are clones of Belos's brother, Caleb, who he ''murdered'' after finding out that Caleb had fallen in love with a witch. In "For the Future", when a dying Belos hallucinates Caleb's ghost, he outright screams at him that his death and everything that followed was Caleb's own fault, and tries to attack him.]]

** [[spoiler:The creation of the Grimwalkers also points to another disturbing bit of victim blaming -- all of the Grimwalkers are clones of Belos's brother, Caleb, who he ''murdered'' after finding out that Caleb had fallen in love with a witch. Belos describes them as "better version[s] of an old friend", the implication being that, in his eyes, Caleb had become so corrupted by proximity to witches that the only possible course of action was to kill and replace him with a version of Caleb that ''wouldn't'' make those same "mistakes".]]

This is the favorite tactic of a ManipulativeBastard. Compare and contrast with AssholeVictim (although the perpetrator might try to cast their victim as such) and KickTheSonOfABitch, which is where a character is thought to deserve what happens to them but isn't necessarily blamed for it. TheSocialDarwinist may also use this tactic, blaming any victims as being "weak" or otherwise unworthy of survival. Villains that are PlayingTheVictimCard might also accuse those who confront them of this to discredit them if they’re feeling desperate.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'': Slade justifies his manipulation and control of Terra this way.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': In issue #95, Artemis visits a shelter for women escaping abused relationships. Artemis asks one woman why she didn't fight back against her abusive husband. When the woman responds that the man would have killed her, leaving her children to starve, Artemis coldly responds "Good! Better they starve than have a mother who is a parasite and a coward!". Even a reporter doing a newscast on the shelter is appalled by this response.

* ''WesternAnimation/TangledTheSeries'': In "Recap/TangledTheSeriesS1E02RapunzelsEnemy", Uncle Monty is the one person in the kingdom who doesn't like Rapunzel, his reasons being that he's a holder of traditional values and Rapunzel herself isn't a traditional princess. But what else is he expecting when Rapunzel was stolen from her parents and locked in a tower for eighteen years? Of course, she can't be a traditional princess after suffering emotional abuse and constant isolation. It's not like the circumstances of Rapunzel's upbringing are unknown to the public; the tale of the Lost Princess spread, and the celebration of her return lasted a week according to Eugene. Monty's is negatively judgemental towards Rapunzel because of her quirks, even though said quirks are the result of her trauma. It certainly doesn't help his case that he likes to throw tomatoes at a statue of Rapunzel ''for fun''.