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Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2022: Week 47
Manpain, (alternative/original spelling "man pain") sometimes also referred to as Mangst (from "Male angst"), is a term used by fans, particularly slash fans, encompassing a set of narrative devices that span literature, film and television. When a main character in a story (always male, generally white) is written with a particular kind of psychologically painful history that causes him to behave in specific ways, he is often said to have manpain.
From Man Pain: Fact or Fiction?, a short X-Files essay by AdrianneFF in September 1999:
"Man Pain." You've heard the term bandied about, you may even presume to know a bit about it. Maybe you have seen it, maybe you have experienced it. [...] Man Pain is, in its most simple terms, the awesome pain of being a man. [...] You may also be suffering from the ill-effects of Man Pain if you have ever done the following: Given your daughter to a bunch of aliens. Given your wife to a bunch of aliens. Written to letters to your estranged son while sequestered in a remote cabin somewhere in Canada. [...].
Unfortunately, manpain sometimes goes hand in hand with harming women characters, or downplaying their suffering to concentrate on the main male protagonist's suffering, as highlighted in Urban Dictionary's definition:
A term coined by fans who understandably got tired of seeing male characters' douchebaggery excused by a dark, tragic past, especially when the past involves hurting & dehumanize female characters solely to motivate the male hero.