Chickification: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"[[Lampshade Hanging|That little firecracker wife turned out to be a real school marm, didn't she?]]"''|'''Kame Sennin/Muten Roshi''', ''[[Dragon Ball]] Z''}}

 

 

 

This trope is not about any [[Action Girl]] [[Real Women Never Wear Dresses|who shows those icky and bad 'female' emotions]]. Remember, being [[The Chick]] is ''not'' [[Tropes Are Not Bad|automatically a bad thing]].

 

 

May involve the [[Standard Female Grab Area]].

 

 

If this is done to a male character in a [[Slash Fic]], it may be part of [[Wimpification]].

{{examples}}

 

* The ''[[Corrector Yui]]'' anime. Played straight and [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|memorably subverted]] in the second season.

** Played straight: Freeze, the [[The Smurfette Principle|only female of the Corruptor team]], was an extremely efficient [[Dark Action Girl]] with ice-based powers. When she switched sides for the second season, she walked the thin wire between [[Action Girl]] and [[Faux Action Girl]], with more emphasis given to her [[Dojikko|clumsiness outside of the battlefield]] and [[The Chew Toy|comical inability to keep a stable work in the Com.Net]], {{spoiler|which ultimately makes her liable to be manipulated by her more stable boss... who was working for the [[Big Bad]]}}.

* Hikaru Hazama of ''[[Beyblade Metal Fusion]]'' goes from [[Action Girl]] to Secretary in the second series.

 

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

** Storm was relegated to background scenery and occasional artillery when the romantic/heartbreak subplot got dumped.

** Psylocke was mostly just [[The Worf Effect|Worfed]], but it's worth noting that the villain who eventually gutted her was someone she'd previously defeated even before she'd learned martial arts.

* Black Canary is still capable, but not in her own book. While ''[[Birds of Prey]]'' and ''[[Justice League of America]]'' which she is the leader of both feature her kicking ass, ''Green Arrow/Black Canary'' treats her as a perpetual [[Damsel in Distress]] for Green Arrow to rescue.

* Similarly, the Wasp's intelligence, combat effectiveness, levelheadedness, and leadership abilities seem to vary inversely with the degree to which the writer plays up her relationship with her ex-husband Henry Pym. After a few years as more or less [[The Load]], they apparently gave up and [[Stuffed Into the Fridge|stuffed her in the fridge]] so Hank could have more guilt.

* After being depicted as a reckless, fiery [[Badass Damsel]] throughout the 1940s, Lois Lane was chickified into a useless [[Damsel Scrappy]] who constantly needed saving and couldn't handle anything on her own in the [[Silver Age]]. Even attempts at improving her character during the [[Bronze Age]] fell flat, with her Earth-2 counterpart Lois Kent far outstripping her in badassery. Fortunately, the [[Post-Crisis]] reboot of the Superman mythos restored her [[Golden Age]] persona, with an added side order of army brat and combat training.

* Princess Sally Acorn of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' was hit with this ''hard'' after King Acorn took control of the kingdom again, and didn't really come out of it until Ian Flynn took over writing duties.

 

 

* '''''Extremely''''' common in [[Die for Our Ship]] fanfiction. Basically, if you like a more or less psysically/mentally capable woman ([[Action Girl]], [[Passionate Sports Girl]], [[Badass Damsel]], [[Plucky Girl]], [[Silk Hiding Steel]], etc. among other female archetypes) but don't like a certain couple involving her (whether canon or not), you can easily break up said couple via [[Ron the Death Eater|making her love interest]] a [[Domestic Abuser]] ''and'' stripping the female character of her spine and/or fighting skills. That way, it's ''totally'' justified to have the other half of the [[Fan-Preferred Couple]] rescuing her!

* [[Cori Falls]] ''loves'' doing this to poor [[Pokémon (anime)|Jessie]] in her fics. Sure, the girl's still allowed to kick some ass, but more often than not, she's crying or swooning in James's arms or needing to be rescued from perverts.

* There's an entire disturbing Fanfic community dedicated to doing this to [[Valkyrie Profile|Lenneth]] so that Lezard can be the dominant one of the [[Rape as Drama|"relationship"]]. Odlly, it leaves Hrist and Silmeria alone.

* The infamous ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia|Hetalia]]'' fic ''[[All He Ever Wanted]]'' pulls this on the aforementioned Hungary, whom [[Complete Monster|Prussia]] rapes to both force her into a [[Face Heel Turn]] ''and'' "teach a lesson" to her beloved ex-husband Austria, whom Prussia is holding hostage.

** That's barely the only one. In many, ''many'' Prussia/Hungary works, the sweet and gentle [[Meido]] who managed to ''avert'' this trope in canon is portrayed as a weepy mess who secretly pines for Prussia after being forced to marry Austria via the Austro-Hungarian Compromise and/or is abused in many ways by [[Ron the Death Eater|Austria]] so Prussia must hop in to rescue her and show her what true love is. Yes, Hungary has been shown to be physically more powerful than ''both'' Prussia and Austria, but in these fanfics she wails and wangsts endlessly before even ''trying'' to do something to defend herself. For worse, considering the main couple in these fics, it's mixed with [[Die for Our Ship]] since Austria is portrayed as a [[Jerkass]] or even a [[Complete Monster]] to make Prussia look better.

* In ''[[Digimon]]'' fanfiction, you'll be hard-pressed to find a fic that has Rika/Ruki acting anything like herself, preferring instead to make her a weak, weeping wallflower who can't handle ''any'' aspect of life without being rescued by Takato/Jenrya/Ryo. Even people who don't like [[Yuri]] or [[Interspecies Romance]] wind up preferring stories pairing her with Renamon because they're the fics in which she's more likely to be capable of being in a romance ''and'' acting something like herself at the same time.

* While it's safe to say that the entire casts of both [[Mass Effect]] games experience varying degrees of chickification in fanfiction at some point or another; Garrus Vakarian ([[Wimpification|in a rare male example]] of this trope seen near exclusively in het fic where he's paired with Female Shepard), Commander Shepard (usually Female Shepard, though Male Shepard is not immune either), Tali'Zorah and Liara T'Soni experience the heaviest levels of this trope more often than the others.

** Pulled on Katara too. She goes from an [[Action Girl]] [[Team Mom]] with mood swings and [[Hidden Depths]] into a whiny, weepy, selfish bitch whom everyone mollycoddles, who cares more about being Zuko's pasted-on love interest and babymama than anything, and only shows her [[Action Girl]] skills when she {{spoiler|bloodily and horribly kills Mai in [[Revenge]]}}.

* All characters in ''[[Touhou]]'' are prone to this due to their [[Moe]] qualities, but [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampire|Remilia Scarlet]] and her sister [[Person of Mass Destruction|Flandre]] are particularly common targets due to fanartists' tendency to exaggerate their childishness.

 

== Film - Animated ==

* [[Mulan]] got both this and a [[Girliness Upgrade]] in all the film's spinoff stories and tie-in merchandise. (Of note is that she's ''always'' seen in a pink dress, and that she's never seen fighting, or indeed doing much other than hanging out with her friends and/or thinking about her boyfriend.) At least she's still tough in [[Kingdom Hearts|crossovers]].

** The same is already happening in the merchandising for ''[[Brave]]'' (although Mérida is at least allowed to use a bow and arrows.)

 

== [[Film]] - Live-Action ==

* Mina Harker in the many film adaptations of ''[[Dracula (novel)|Dracula]]'', but most drastically in the [[Dracula (1931 film)|Bela Lugosi version]], which she spends most of weeping hysterically.

* ''[[Gone Baby Gone]]'' shamelessly Chickifies Angie, who was much tougher in the novel.

* Jane in ''[[Johnny Mnemonic]]'' isn't exactly weak, but she's not nearly as hard-assed as her counterpart Molly in the original story.

* [[Greg Rucka]], the author of ''[[Whiteout]]'', complained about Carrie Stetko being made weaker in the film adaptation so as to prop up the male characters. "At least they got rid of the scene in the script where she - a U.S. Marshall - hears someone following her and ''runs away''. What's she gonna do, call the cops?"

* An odd variant happens with Mystique in ''X-men: First Class''. Fans familiar with the character in the original trilogy (which ''First Class'' establishes loose continuity with) will probably find it jarring that she goes from being [[The Dragon]] to Magneto and a [[Dark Action Girl]] to being an awkward if [[Adorkable]] girl. Given that the movie is a prequel and that there are certain scenes (for example, Mystique bench pressing an impressive amount of weight), it's likely it's being set up for future badassery.

* ''[[G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra]]'' featured Courtney "Cover Girl" Krieger, who in comic-continuity is a former high-fashion model who enlisted and became a missile-tank driver. Who is fond of doing all the [[Wrench Wench|upkeep and repair work on her own tank]]. In the movie, she's Hawk's [[Girl Friday]]. This is a [[Justified Trope]] though, as its explained in the prequel novel that sometime prior to then, she was critically injured during a mission and is no longer physically capable of serving combat duty.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* ''[[Days of Our Lives]]'' Stephanie Johnson is one of the most blatant cases. When the character first returned to the show as an adult she was played by redhead Shayna Rose and appeared as a [[Wrench Wench|tough girl race car driver]]. After Rose was fired, the character was recast with brunette former beauty queen Shelley Hennig as a rather uninteresting fashion plate character with little or no real character.

* ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]'' Saeko went from stoic villainess to [[Clingy Jealous Girl]] as soon as her love interest Isaka appeared on the scene, with bonus [[Unnecessary Makeover]] to boot. Some would also argue that Akiko underwent this after her [[Last-Minute Hookup]] with [[Sixth Ranger|Terui]].

* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'''s Guinevere in the BBC version. She kicks some serious ass for the first season, teaching Merlin how to put Arthur's armour on properly, going into battle to defend Ealdor, facing her own execution bravely; but the moment Arthur notices in season two that he might just fancy her, she gets kidnapped and can do nothing but trip over her own feet and foul up two attempts to rescue her.

** Gets her [[Badass Normal|normal badassery]] back in Series 3.

* ''[[Sanctuary]]'' has an unusual male version of this, not surprising, since the show likes to [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|genderflip]] [[Badass Longcoat|tropes]]. Will starts out as a [[Badass Bookworm]] and ends up the [[Designated Victim]]. Strangely, only slightly less annoying than the usual way around.

 

 

** She lost a lot of her muscle mass and is now doing hardcore porn.

* [[Natalya Neidheart|Natalya]] suffered from this. She debuted as a powerful heel and was put into contention for the new Divas' Championship but was quickly dropped from that and eventually became a manager for the Hart Dynasty where the most she usually did was slap her guys' opponents a little. This got reversed when they brought in The Usos to feud with them who had a woman as their valet. When they split, Natalya became a prominent part of the women's division and even won the title.

* It could be said that this is consistently happening to WWE's ''entire women's divison'' ever since [[Trish Stratus]] and [[Lita]] retired. [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here|Upon leaving WWE for the second time]], [[Gail Kim]] has claimed, among other things, that WWE wants the division to be more "girly" and have barred the Divas from things like punching and kicking.

** Barring them from kicking and punching? Then what else are they gonna do!?

*** These "rules" would change week to week, actually. But the chickification of this once great women's division is painfully obvious.

** Painfully obvious in the segment that had the entire locker room confront COO [[Triple H]] for an unsafe working environment. [[Beth Phoenix]] spoke for the Divas and what did she say "we're girls". So forget that she's gone toe-to-toe with the men and any attempt by most of the roster to do anything to her would land them in a full body cast, at the end of the day she's just a girl apparently.

** Although that's probably a bad example because this is ''[[Kane]]'' we're talking about, who even main eventers like [[John Cena]] or [[Randy Orton]] acknowledge as a legitimate threat whether he's a heel or a face. And that's ''without'' the fact that Kane's character is basically a slasher movie serial killer (replacing murder with assault, of course) and has a tendency to pop out of ''anywhere.''

 

* ''[[Altered Beast]]'' A meta-example: In [[Greek Mythology]], Athena is the goddess of wisdom and [[Lady of War|war]]. Here, she is Chickified into a standard [[Damsel in Distress]].

* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (video game)|Knights of the Old Republic]]'' Inverted: Bastila spends most of Taris in an enemy prison, but once you rescue her she becomes an actual [[Action Girl]].

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has done this to [[White Magical Girl|Jaina Proudmoore]]. In ''Warcraft III'' and its expansion, she was one of few people who listened to the Prophet's [[Cassandra Truth]] and led people across the sea to escape the Burning Legion. She even helped ''kill her own father'' when she decided there was no other way to secure a peace between the Alliance and the Horde. In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', her role until Patch 3.3 was limited to cheering up orphans, and in Patch 3.3 she decided to see if her ex-boyfriend the [[Evil Overlord]] was redeemable. [[Sarcasm Mode|Good luck with that]].

** She suffers from this very badly in the Arthas novel, too, where aside from setting a couple of granaries on fire, she mostly wibbles about said ex-boyfriend, when she's not making out with him.

* ''[[X-Change|X-Change Alternative]]'', a [[Dating Sim]] gave an interesting variation on this trope when [[Badass]] [[Delinquents|delinquent]] Kaoru gets himself [[Gender Bender|changed into a girl]] and suddenly becomes completely useless in a fight, even against other girls. In his defense, the rather large breasts and substantial difference in weight would leave anyone a bit uncoordinated. By the end of the game, however, she gets used to it and takes down an entire gang (to which she earlier couldn't even hurt one member) in an [[Unstoppable Rage]].

* Terra Branford in ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]''. The mind control, the need for rescue and protection, the timidity about using her powers. These things all happened at least once in her original game, ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'', but weren't the be-all end-all of her character, and she was ultimately strong, capable and knew what she wanted. They also destroyed her [[Mama Bear]] qualities by having her protector be a boy over a head shorter than her.

 

== Webcomics ==

 

 

* ''[[Aeon Flux]]'' had this happen once, recoiling in terror from a man threatening to beat her with his wooden leg.

** Played with in the episode "A Last Time for Everything". Aeon lets Trevor create a copy of her for his own amusement and then switches places with her so she can experience a comfortable domestic life with him while the new Aeon takes over her old life. She then allows the copy to kill her, both to make Trevor miserable and because she was driven to despair by no longer being true to herself. Taken together with the above example (who was her boyfriend at the time) it's possible that being more vulnerable and "feminine" around men she cares about is just another aspect of her character, and one that she's not particularly proud of at that.

* ''[[Pepper Ann]]'' parodied this trope in an episode where a cartoon starring fictitious [[Comic Book]] heroine Tundra Woman turns her into a shopping-obsessed bimbo and her archenemy into her [[Shallow Love Interest]] boyfriend. Unfortunately, Pepper Ann's sister's protest campaign causes them to veer [[Real Women Never Wear Dresses|too far in the other direction]].

** Then again, Blossom and Bubbles ''are'' pretty girly in canon... and yet they're just as [[Badass]] as the tomboyish Buttercup.

* In ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'', Janine Melnitz underwent Chickification in the third season and onward to appease the [[Moral Guardians]]: [[The Other Darrin|a new]] [[Kath Soucie|voice actress]] who toned down her old Bronx accent, a softer appearance, and a less harsh personality. This was actually justified in the 5th season episode "Janine, You've Changed"; she had made a deal with a ghost to be made over to win Egon's affections, and the ghost had [[Somebody Else's Problem|hidden the changes from the cast]]. Ironically, the series had also found excuses to [[All Up to You|send her into the field]] more and more often, even as this was going on.

* In ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003]]'', Karai series receives this to a degree. In her first appearance, she defeated both Leonardo and Raphael, establishing herself as a formidable ninja to be reckoned with. After that, she became a punching bag for the turtles and never again defeated them in a fair fight. In her next appearance she lost to Leonardo after a short battle where he promptly disarmed her and knocked her down. Later on in the season three finale, she did stab Leonardo but only when the Shredder knocked him into her sword. Immediately after that, she's taken out by Raphael with two kicks. Come season four, Karai has undergone a makeover and became the new Shredder, establishing herself by invading the turtles' lair and defeating Splinter one-on-one... but gets knocked out by Donatello with one kick. Once Leonardo returns from his journey abroad, he faces off against Karai and defeats her soundly, even sparing her life when he could've slain her. In her final battle against the turtles over a mystical artifact which could be used to resurrect the Demon Shredder, Karai faces Leonardo and Michelangelo and is humiliated by them once more, with Michelangelo dodging all her attacks and the two turtles grabbing her and throwing her out of an elevator, causing her to crash-land in an embarrassing position. This isn't to say that Karai doesn't get her moments but against the four turtles, she became little more than a ''[[Jobber]]'' for them to show how advanced their skills were becoming.

* Parodied with Steve Trevor, love interest of [[Wonder Woman]] in his appearance at ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'': In all other incarnations (comics, animation, live action TV) he is a fairly proactive guy, in the [[Cold Opening]] of “Scorn of Star Shappire” he is a secret agent so confindent that [[Wonder Woman]] will come to her rescue that he doesn’t move a muscle to get out of a [[Death Trap]], left her do all the work, and gushes in her presence. And this immortal line:

 

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Women Are Delicate]]

[[Category:Bad Writing Index]]

[[Category:Gender and Sexuality Tropes]]

[[Category:Double Standard]]

[[Category:Chickification]]