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| - Ranging from physical violence to political hate-mongering in their war against sexual minorities, characters cast in the role of Heteronormative Crusader are a diverse lot. They can be anything from specialized Moral Guardians or Principles Zealots, to any bloodthirsty mob equipped with Torches and Pitchforks. Sometimes it is ideologues from one of the first two groups who use hate-mongering to bring decent people under their influence by turning them into the third group. Might use a bad kind of pity as one of their primary weapons, trying to impose a negative self-image on the non-normative characters. In fiction, the wars on homosexuality and sadomasochism is more and more often played for laughs or as a way of highlighting how unsympathetic the antagonist is. Such an antagonist is likely to either be a Straw Hypocrite, who uses a rival's sexuality as an excuse to attack him, or a hypocrite of the Sex Is Evil and I Am Horny kind. The latter kind is often a more or less sympathetic Anti-Villain or Anti-Hero, maybe even a victim of his own prejudice. Might perceive all homosexuals and kinky people as parts of Everyone Is Satan in Hell, or passionately feel that every woman ought to be a Housewife. If a Heteronormative Crusader of this particular kind is female, she's very likely to also be a Stepford Smiler. If religious, the character is likely to be sufficiently Wrong Genre Savvy to believe himself to be a Soulsaving Crusader. In certain works, the character might even be right. For a character to be a heteronormative crusader, it's not enough to have heteronormative values at a heterosexist level. The character must also be aggressive, open or confrontative about these values. Indirect or mild sign of having a heteronormative worldview is not enough. The character may:
* Condemn intersexuals and transsexuals for not being "real" men/women or for "practicing abhorrent behavior."
* Condemn male homosexuals and bisexuals for being attracted to the "wrong" gender. Females are either condemned in the same way, or claimed to not really exist.
* Condemn fetishists for being turned on by other things than people.
* Condemn male-on-female and male-on-male BDSM as being physical abuse. Female-on-male and female-on-female BDSM is more often either claimed to not really exist or accused of being some kind of gender role blasphemy.
* Condemn male asexuals for "not being real men." Women, on the other hand, are expected to be asexual but have sex with their man anyway. Note that a Heteronormative Crusader is not necessarily unsympathetic. In some works, a father who disowns his child for being homosexual or otherwise "perverted" is likely to be heartbroken rather than villainous in spite of being totally misguided in his judgement. Depending on the setting, compare or contrast Windmill Crusader. Same goes for Soulsaving Crusader. If a character goes Heteronormative Crusader against himself, it's usually Internalized Categorism or Boomerang Bigot. In many settings, a Heteronormative Crusader is likely to resort to Activist Fundamentalist Antics. See also Armoured Closet Gay, which a Heteronormative Crusader is sometimes revealed to be. Today in the LGBT community and their close straight allies, it has actually become common wisdom that Heteronormative Crusaders are likely to be gay, because their extreme personal insecurity is a heavy Gaydar trigger. This is not to say that every Heteronormative Crusader is gay, but that it's increasingly anticipated by a gay audience. And scientific studies have shown that homophobes are more likely to also be having same-sex attractions. This trope is practically absent in Anime and Manga (as their absence in this page's examples demonstrates), where the cultural priorities are fundamentally different -- a person's sexual orientation and its perceived rightness is rendered almost completely moot by the more commanding question of filial piety and societal expectations. As such, the depiction of various sexual orientations has less stigma and more acceptance as simple Truth in Television, because ultimately love and chemistry do not necessarily have anything to do with a socially-acceptable traditional Japanese marriage. No Real Life examples. They would only be Flame Bait. Examples of Heteronormative Crusader include:
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