Bastard Girlfriend

Surely, he's happy to be at her feet. And if not, the audience will not care.

This woman is a rapist, torturer, or Domestic Abuser. Her abusiveness makes her sexy, just like her male counterpart. Like him, she is based on the Rule of Sexy.

She is more likely than her male counterpart to be a temporary sexual encounter rather than a long-term girlfriend. And while the victim of a Bastard Boyfriend tends to come across as a lovable Woobie or sexy Love Martyr, some stories with a Bastard Girlfriend make her victims come across as deserving whatever they get, or that sexual acts done by females don't really count. There's also sometimes a naive attitude that such a thing can never happen for real anyway.

Abusively sexy women often come off as one of three character types that are distinct but too specific to have pages of their own:

In any variation, she may be a Manipulative Bitch as well as a Magnificent Bitch. If she gets called out on her actions, don't be surprised if she pulls a Wounded Gazelle Gambit to get "rescued" from her victim.

One type of Romanticized Abuse, and thus a subtrope of Playing to The Fetishes: sexual abuse not designed to be sexy and appealing is not this trope.

Also, it's not a matter of personal preference: when adding or editing examples that you personally don't consider sexy, please abstain from snarky comments about the authors/actors.

In many cases, also a subtrope of Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male). Compare and contrast Casual Kink as well as Safe, Sane, and Consensual, for characters who live out BDSM fantasies and show the kind of ethical restraint needed in Real Life. Fictional characters who do not show such restraint are usually not intended to send a message that Bondage Is Bad.

Also compare to Dominatrix, who keeps the "abuse" strictly in the bedroom. Contrast Domestic Abuser and Unsexy Sadist. Strongly related to All Women are Doms, All Men are Subs.

No real life examples, please; this is a rape trope, and All The Tropes does not care to squick its readers. Also, calling real-life people "bastards" is a bad idea.

Examples of Bastard Girlfriend include:

Anime and Manga

  • Louise and Saito's relationship from Zero no Tsukaima. Whipping, groin attacks, explosive magic, etc. - you name it, Louise gives it to Saito.
  • Deconstructed with Asuka Langley Soryu in Neon Genesis Evangelion. She is accused of being this to Shinji Ikari, but her really bad treatment of Shinji is not shown as glamourised abuse, but rather as a sign of how deeply messed up both of them are. And everyone else.
  • Akane and Shampoo in Ranma ½ tend to fall into different variations of this. Shampoo often doesn't hesitate to transform herself into a cat while clearly knowing Ranma is deeply scared of cats, and seems to enjoy treating Mousse miserably. In regards to Akane she's more of an explosive type, beating Ranma without mercy when he presses her Berserk Buttons.
  • Early Haruhi Suzumiya. Using false incrimination as a means of blackmail for exclusively material gains is pretty despicable.
  • Athena of Hayate the Combat Butler used to teach Hayate with kicks to the gut (he complained), when he had to be able to support her for the rest of her life when they were both around 6 years old. Athena is of the ASB variety, who does get better and shows Hidden Depths (in her case, she's a girl driven into almost complete despair for being trapped in a Gilded Cage, and later, is the victim of Demonic Possession).. But her haters love to ignore it for the sake of Ship-to-Ship Combat.
  • Haruka Hasegawa from Moyashimon constantly pummels Misato and Kawahama for being slackers or otherwise annoying her. However, while Misato and Kawahama both consider her hot, they're turned off and intimidated by her bad temper.
  • Adiane the Elegant from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is horrendously abusive to Viral when he becomes her subordinate. This is treated like part of his Badass Decay and played for laughs.
  • Mio of MM! intentionally plays this role towards Tarou in order to help him deal with his Masochism "problems" (though it doesn't seem to be far from her standard self). Mio physically and verbally abuses him in every way possible as a sort of "Shock Treatment".
  • In Tiger and Bunny, Karina's sponsors like to play her Blue Rose superhero persona up as a sexy dominatrix. Being a relatively normal teenage girl in reality, she's not exactly comfortable with this.
  • Practically the entire plot of Domina no Do. Hikari, the main female lead, was raised with two very rich parents who are also into BDSM, and who make no effort whatsoever to hide this, even from their young children. This has colored her entire outlook on life—for example, she once offered let the main male lead kiss her foot to cheer him up, and is flabbergasted when he reacted poorly.
  • Araragi's relationship with Senjogahara in Bakemonogatari. She verbally abuses him often and threatens physical violence or even death if the thought of cheating crosses his mind. At the start of the sequel series she kidnapped and tortured him as her way of trying to protect him from her Arch Nemesis. It's implied she found enjoyment in his torture.
  • In a chapter of the manga Torikago Gakyuu, one of the characters wins a contest to have a date with his favorite model. Except, he's too shy to actually go through with it, so he gets protagonist Mikage to take her out for him while he watches. Mikage gets the surprise of his life when the model puts a collar and leash on him and forces him to walk on all fours and eat from the floor. Turns out, the model isn't actually a Dominatrix; it's just her image. At the end, it's revealed that she was extremely uncomfortable treating Mikage that way.
  • Subverted with Celty and Shinra in Durarara!!. Sure, Celty punches Shinra and wraps him up in her shadows all the time, but it is outright stated that Shinra actually enjoys the abuse and tends to goad her on for it. It's a very symbiotic relationship.

Comic Books

  • In Pondus, Jocke used to have a horrible love-life before he found Camilla. Sometimes, he found a sexy woman instead of the regular flood of Abhorrent Admirers, but he usually ended up getting tortured by her rather than having a good time.
  • Emma Frost, the White Queen of X-Men fame, is made of this trope, including rampant patchwork apologism.
  • Pictured above, Mistress Mary, an alternate version Mary Marvel who also happens to be a Dominatrix. She takes great joy in beating up Guy Gardner (the guy pictured).

Film

  • The librarian in Tomcats. The Jerkass protagonist seduces her, believing her to be a frail and naive little woman who he can use for sex (by pretending to care for her and want to become her boyfriend) and then discard. She turns out to be a crazy sadist with no interest whatsoever in playing Safe, Sane, and Consensual. So is her Grandma.
  • Gloria in Wedding Crashers has her methods: first, scare the shit out of him by acting crazy, then tie him up against his will and rape him. Of course, he eventually learns to like it, and their relationship seamlessly develop into normal roleplaying.
  • Haley in Hard Candy pulls off a lot of nonconsensual sexual sadism against Jeff.
  • In Psycho Beach Party, Chicklet's second personality is one of these, screaming at men for sex, and organises one of them to wear a corset, writes "Ann Bowman was here" in scars on his bum, and spanks him.

Literature

  • In Slave World, most female aristocrats qualify with Lady Isobel being the most prominent example. It should be noted that her attitude of cheerfully taking whatever she want without even wanting the partner to consent is what make one of the main characters fall in love with her in the first place.
  • Estella of Great Expectations is molded into becoming one by Miss Havisham.

Live Action Television

  • Amanda of the new Nikita, Division's resident Torture Technician.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • Vampire Willow and pretty much every other female vampire who doesn't get staked within an episode is this. (Okay, not Harmony.)
    • Faith especially, who (at the absolute nadir of her sanity) holds a protesting Xander down in her bed, and seems entirely undecided about whether she's going to rape him, murder him, or both.
    • Even Buffy herself with Spike in Season 6. Buffy actually breaks down crying when she discovers she didn't come back wrong, as it means that all the twisted things she's been doing for the past few months can't be blamed on some 'demon' part of her.
  • Grayza is an interesting case. Her treatment of Crichton is played as a major aversion of Double Standard Rape (Female on Male).
  • On the season two episode of Titus, Christopher goes to the funeral of his ex-girlfriend, Noelle, who, despite her verbal and physical abuse, he stayed with because "the booty was great".
  • Lila in S2 of Dexter. Completely abuses her position as addiction sponser with Dexter and even sets her own apartment on fire when she senses she's losing his attention in favour of Rita and the kids. Acts the doe-eyed damsel in distress when it suits her, but turns violent when thwarted, and is definitely the aggressor in any sexual relationships she indulges in. After Dexter leaves her, she engages in rough sex with Angel, dopes herself with Rohypnol, and files rape charges, telling Dexter she'll drop the charges if he takes her back.
  • The Evil Queen in Once Upon a Time: after finding out he let Snow White live, she strips the Huntsman of his free will and keeps him as a Sex Slave, promising to kill him if he ever tries to escape.

Music

  • Use Me by Bill Withers.
  • In the song "Poison" by Alice Cooper, the protagonist perceives his Love Interest as being this trope.

Your cruel device
Your blood, like ice
One look could kill
My pain, your thrill


I want to love you but I better not touch (Don't touch)
I want to hold you but my senses tell me to stop
I want to kiss you but I want it too much (Too much)
I want to taste you but your lips are venomous poison

  • Played for laughs in Tom Lehrer's song, The Masochism Tango.
  • The music video for Maroon 5's "Misery," appears to start as this and gets progressively worse for innocent bystanders.

Tabletop Games

  • Dungeons & Dragons: drow society runs on this trope. The race is comprised completely of sadists, but women rule. Women of noble houses have the right to take any man they want — consent doesn't enter into the equation. Men can be put to death for refusing advances.

Video Games

Dee Jay: "I´ve never seen a girl that scary!"

Web Original

  • Zaboo's girlfriend in season three of The Guild.

Web Comics

  • PeeJee and Aubrey in Something*Positive used to put their friends in hospital on a regular basis and sought out random strangers to assault when they got bored of that. Usually, they preferred to attack men, but they had no qualms against violence towards their fellow women. Both seem to have settled down somewhat recently, though. Rarely in the comic do men harm women, and usually, they got called out for it, but, admittedly, Davan did beat the two up with his cat once. Kim outdid them all, though, when she raped an unconscious Davan. He seemed remarkably calm about this, but then Davan remains astonishingly detached in a lot of situations.
  • Homestuck:
    • Vriska
    • Snowman/The Black Queen (both versions), particularly in her interactions with Jack Noir/Spades Slick. Very often, she abuses him in various ways, including putting a cigarette holder in his eye, removing an arm with a whip, forcing him into various costumes in the kids' section, and having a particularly violent "hate snog" with him. It's even flat-out said that they have a blackrom thing going.
    • Marquise Spinneret Mindfang has Non-Mammal Mammaries and is a psychotic, murderous pirate whose Establishing Character Moment is using mind control to have sex with a female slave.

Western Animation

  • This perfectly sums up Callie on Ugly Americans. Her relationship with the show's main character, Mark, basically involves breaking into his bedroom whenever she's in the mood to jump his bones and/or brutally torture him. In the first episode, she writes "See you in Hell" on his bedroom wall in his blood, and the wall is still stained whenever his room is seen in later episodes. Mark puts up with it because she's hot and it's sex. Of course, she's a succubus and literally from Hell, so it's possible she doesn't know how to be gentle. She's been working on not being like that.
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