Be Your Woman (2007), Last Chance Harvey (2008), and It's Complicated (2009). They are part of a phenomenon called the "Girling" of older women, where the protagonists and celebrities are portrayed as being just as excited and entitled to be going out on dates as younger women. Abuse Heterosexual romantic relationships in media, particularly in film, often romanticize intimate partner violence wherein the woman is the victim. Film like Once Were Warriors (1994) is an example of film in which abusive behavior, such as manipulation, coercion, threats, control and domination, isolation, excessive jealousy, and physical violence, are all exhibited by the male romantic lead. A 2016 study on women's interpretations of abusive behavior found that many women see the sort of abusive behaviors shown in popular films as romantic or desirable. In Netflix's popular hit show, "You," the male main character justifies and romanticizes stalking, emotional manipulation, and even murder as his way of protecting his one true love. This conflation of abuse and romance is widely attributed to the prevalence of abusive tropes in popular media. Female characters as plot devices for male characters Referred Pain In media featuring a male protagonist, women's pain, suffering, or even death are often used as plot devices to further the male protagonist's narrative arc. This is known as the “referred pain” plot device. It involves a situation wherein a woman undergoes a traumatic event, often (but not always) of a sexual nature, but her pain is referred to a male character. This male character's grief and anger due to the trauma experienced by the female character are explored in depth. The female character's emotional or physical response is only addressed briefly or cursorily. This trope is featured in such films as Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), Moulin Rouge (2001), as well as in the Shakespeare play Titus Andronicus and books like Oroonoko. Disposable Woman The Disposable Woman trope refers to a trope in which a woman is included in a story for the sole purpose of dying, thus putting the male protagonist through emotional development or inspiring him to embark on a revenge quest. The woman who dies in these situations is referred to as "disposable" because she does not serve a purpose beyond her death. The disposable woman trope in present in many films, including Braveheart (1995), The Matrix Revolutions (2003), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), The Dark Knight (2008), The Amazing Spider-Man