Gender-Restricted Ability: Difference between revisions

When you get down to it, there's not much difference between what men and women can do. Even if on average one gender or sex is more suited to the role, as long as it doesn't involve reproduction, there will be exceptions to the rule. And sometimes [[Mister Seahorse|even then]]. Even with physical appearance, if nudity isn't required, there are some people who can convincingly pass themselves off as the other gender.

 

 

This trope doesn't apply to cultural gender divides, only to times when certain magic or supernatural powers are restricted to one gender. In the case of magic, sometimes the sexes will both have access to it, but [[Functional Magic|use it in a fundamentally different way]] - in this case expect a case of [[Un-Equal Rites]] as they disagree over which system is better.

 

 

* In ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' only female holders of Sailor Crystals/"True Star Seeds" can be Sailor Senshi. Men born with them do get powers a la Tuxedo Mask but aren't really Sailor Senshi. Also, this is why there is no Sailor Earth as Mamoru has that Sailor Crystal. Male holders of Sailor Crystals are very rare.

* This is a major plot-point in ''[[Mnemosyne]]''. {{spoiler|When a time spore enters a woman's body, she becomes immortal. When a time spore enters a man's body, he becomes a mindless [[Winged Humanoid|winged]] killer (called "angels") whose survival prospects are rather grim. Yeah, sucks to be a guy...}}

* Intentionally subverted in ''[[Shitsurakuen]]''. Only men are allowed to wield the Weapons, while women are forced to be their submissive Contracts that supplies the Weapons. The protagonist is seemingly a [[Big Bad]]-approved [[Spanner in the Works]], a girl with the determination to rescue the girls from their fate, given the tools necessary from the academy that instituted the male-dominating rules.

* In ''[[Freezing]]'', the [[Action Girl|girls]] have extreme speed and strength with the ability to summon weapons while the [[Non-Action Guy|boys]] are debuffers and hold down the enemy. No explanation really comes forth as to why, [[Clothing Damage|excepting of]] [[Panty Fighter|course the]] [[Fan Service|obvious ones]].

** [[Justified Trope|Justified]] {{spoiler|Which is because the race that made them put them in gender lock for females only. . . except for the fact that the male pilot also is a male mech. It also restricted certain functions in the mechs as well.}}

* Downplayed in ''[[Claymore]]''. Claymores are all women not because men can't be given the same yoma-infusion, but because it's a bad idea; women are statistically less likely to go insane and become Awakened Beings than the men given the same treatment (which is not to say it doesn't happen).

* In ''[[Shikabane Hime]]'' only young women within a certain age range can be made into Shikabane Hime.

 

* In ''[[The Sandman]]'' certain forms of magic (such as walking the moon's road) are exclusive to women; even a male to female transsexual can't go.

** Somewhat justified, in most neo-pagan interpretations 'the path of the moon' is based on the connection between moon and womb, which of course she didn't possess.

* For the most part only women can wear the [[Witchblade (Comic Book)|Witchblade]], though there has been at least one male case.

 

* The time machine invented by the famous [[Masked Luchador]] hero [[El Santo]] in ''[[Santo en el Tesoro de Drácula|Santo En El Tesoro De Dracula]]'' has an unusual limitation. Santo determines that only healthy young ''women'' are strong enough to survive the trip.

 

* Jean Auel's ''[[Clan of the Cave Bear]]'' is a dual literary example. The neanderthals featured in this novel live their lives along sharply divided gender lines, and due to how their brains are structured, cannot do otherwise. It's not tradition that says male neanderthals hunt and females take care of the kids. Rather, they are literally hardwired into these roles and cannot function when taken out of them. Ayla, being a modern human, can and does, deeply disturbing them in the process. Yet, ''her'' jaw almost drops when she sees Jondalar, a man, cooking.

** Ironically in Real Life it's believed that Neanderthals had ''less'' of a gender divide than Cro Magnons.

*** Quite a lot of these distinctions is drawn from the philosophy of Yin ("soft" control, passiveness, air, water, etc.) and Yang ("hard" control, aggressiveness, fire, earth, etc.).

** Interestingly, we've seen [[Satan|The Dark One]] resurrect two of the Forsaken in opposite-sex bodies, without any change in their power type or strength. So either souls have an innate sex or this is the ''[[Eldritch Abomination|Dark One]]'' we're talking about and further speculation is pointless.

* Averted on the [[Discworld]], at least in the areas where most stories featuring wizards and witches take place. Wizardry and witchcraft are separate forms of magic which are mostly gender divided, but this is a social not biological split related to prejudices on both sides of the fence. Exceptions do exist, such as the early mention of wizards in Krull not caring much either way. [[Word of God|Terry Pratchet's opinion]], at least referenced in a narrative aside, is [[Mother Nature, Father Science|wizardry being systematic was more suited to men while witchcraft being initiative/emotional was more suited to women]]. Interestingly, despite her initial reservations, Granny Weatherwax is eventually convinced that Eskarina's mindset ''is'' wizard-like and that trying to shape it into witchcraft simply because she's female is a bad idea.

* Downplayed in Kelley Armstrong's ''[[The Otherworld|Otherworld]]''. Witches are female, sorcerers are male. They can use each other's magic, but not as well as the proper users can. Witch magic generally relies on incantations or healing brews, while sorcerer magic uses gestures. Witch and sorcerer genes are sex-linked and supposedly incompatible with each other, requiring them to breed with mundanes. However, there are hints in ''Dime Store Magic'' and ''Industrial Magic'' that witches and sorcerers may be more alike than they think, particularly the revelation that neophyte witch Savannah Levine is the daughter of a witch and a sorcerer, supposedly impossible. It is also pointed out that social stigma prevents sorcerers and witches from having sex together.

** ''Industrial Magic'' suggested that sorcerer magic and witch magic are branches of the same school. Witches only know the first level of their magic, as they eschew the second level spells (such as curing hiccups) as useless. Unfortunately for the witches, learning the second level spells is the only way to unlock the upper tier spells (contained in the witches' own [[Great Big Book of Everything]], but dismissed as unworkable). Most supernaturals dismiss witch magic as weak and useless, as both witches and sorcerers believe that the basic tier of witch spells is all there is.

* In ''Three Days to Never'' by [[Tim Powers]], one of the characters is a sorcerer who, it turns out, was born female and went to extreme lengths to gain access to male magic.

 

* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', Slayers are always young girls. Averted with witchcraft - though most practitioners are female, there are male users - Giles borrowed the power of an entire coven to take on Dark Willow, Angel and Xander are both shown to use spells, Oz and his bandmates accidentally summon the demon of fear, and there are a few guys in UC Sunnydale's Wicca group. On the other hand there are no real prominent good male dedicated spellcasters on the show to contrast with Willow, Tara and even Jenny Calendar.

* In ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'', while gender is apparently irrelevant for most professions, including the priesthood, oracles, who have prophetic abilities and can tell the will of the gods, have been women in every case we have seen or heard of.

 

* Amusingly averted in [[Norse Mythology]]. A majority of witches are female, but only because their magic [[Deus Sex Machina|relies on contact with another person's semen]]. Yes, that means the [[Uke]] can have magic powers too.

** It should be mentioned one of the ways for people whom today we would consider homosexual or trans-female could live openly and still be moderately tolerated in Norse society was to practice witchcraft (much like the Hijira of modern India). Of course, they were still shunned and ostracized, but people still sought their services, and not many would want to anger a witch.

** And to further make the point: Odin is a male witch. (He wanted to learn all the magic of the world...) This means exactly what you think it means.

 

** [[Justified Trope|Justified]], since the enhancements are based on the biology of the Primarchs, who were all men because they were cloned from the Emperor.

** Older source material also stated that acceptance of the implants and the ensuing muscle growth required the increased testosterone output in men.

** In at least some versions of the fluff, the lack of male Dark Elf wizards was related to a prophecy that one of them would topple the [[Evil Overlord|immortal Dark Elf king]]. Obviously, male study of magic was not encouraged.

* ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'' features the Qedeshah bloodline, a motherly lineage who draw their origins from a group of temple prostitutes. Part of their bloodline-specific curse is that after joining the bloodline, they can only Embrace females. Attempts to Embrace men result in the man experiencing agonising, incapacitating pain for 24 hours before they expire horribly, the Qedeshah "mother" suffering a portion of this pain through the sympathetic connections of their shared blood. Men are not barred from joining the bloodline from outside the family tree, but upon doing so their vitae is rendered sterile and they can no longer Embrace childer or create ghouls, earning them the position of eunuch.

* An early ''Dragon'' article for 1st Edition AD&D featured the "incantatrix" as a specialist wizard who could steal the magic of other spellcasters. Virtually all of them were female, although at least one male "incantator" was rumored to exist.

* In the 2E [[Ravenloft]] setting, the followers of Hala included female clerics and male wizards, ostensibly because the goddess taught that each gender was better-suited to that sort of magic. Subverted in the 3E Ravenloft products, which left its Halan prestige classes open to both sexes.

 

* In ''[[Bionicle]]'', only the female Skrall have psionic powers. However, it turns out that {{spoiler|these were given to them by an [[Eldritch Abomination]] purely for it's own amusement, and are not a natural ability at all.}}

 

* The Sorceress power in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' is only passed down through women, with each woman passing the power to someone else upon her death (it appears that it's usually the closest woman, so long as she holds the proper potential). This power is the central focus of the game, as every Sorceress is powerful enough to change the course of the world or control the fabric of reality itself. An in-universe legend posits that the Sorceress power is really the immortal spirit of a god who'd once gone to war with humanity and lost, and escaped by hiding himself in the body of something mankind instinctually wants to protect: women.

** In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', only female characters can be dancers, and only male characters can be bards. This is in spite of the fact that ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'', which used a similar class-changing system, had no such restriction. ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' wasn't restricted, either, so now we have to deal with [[Squick|Galka flamenco dancers.]] Thanks a ''lot'', SE.

** In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2|A2]]'', the [[Standard Status Effect]] preventing Ribbon accessory can only be worn by female characters. In A2 that means only [[One-Gender Race|Viera, Gria,]] Adelle, [[Optional Party Member|and]] {{spoiler|Frimelda}}, but Humes, Bangaa, and Nu Mou can learn a passive ability that lets them wear one anyway. In ''Advance'' all generic teammates but [[One-Gender Race|Viera]] have [[Ambiguous Gender]] so only Viera and Ritz (who is a Viera for gameplay purposes) can wear them.

* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' has female Dancers and male Bards, though they essentially do the same thing. In addition, only females can ride Pegasi, explained at one point as the weight (amusingly, generic enemy Pegasus knights count as male stats wise). Another explanation claims that it's because it's hard enough for a woman to get her Pegasus to trust, while a man is incapable of gaining a pegasus' trust.

** In Shadow Dragon, the spell Excalibur can only be used by men and the spell Aura can only be used by women(despite it being used by a male character used it in the games story). It is also noted that Falchion can only be wielded by male descendants of Anri.

* In the later ''[[Wizardry]]'' games, The Lord class is male only, while the Valkyrie class is female only.

* In the ''[[Ogre Battle]]'' series, males and females have entirely different classes available to them, with no class in common. The starting female class is Amazon, while the starting male class is Fighter. Some classes are obvious counterparts (The female Dragon Tamer and the male Beast Master for example). Some of the ''[[Tactics Ogre]]'' games however do not follow this formula, instead being like ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' where a handful of classes were gender-specific (like Dragon Tamer, Beast Master, Witch and Dragoon), others are shared amongst both genders (like Knights, Wizard, Clerics and Fighters).

* ''[[Achaea]]'' features the Siren, a female-only race who eventually get the ability to charm others with their good looks as they level up.

 

* ''[[The Wotch]]'': Wotches cannot be male, and cannot even be [[Gender Bender|turned male]] by magic. Although, that's not to say they can't have been male prior to their becoming the Wotch.

* In ''[[Sacred Pie]]'' the sacred objects can only be used by men, regardless of species. This is a side effect from Lucifer creating them for his own use.

* In ''[[Footloose (webcomic)|Footloose]]'', men's magic is (semi-artificially) restricted to the Fae realm, and there vastly weaker.

 

* The Trait Positives in ''[[Lonelygirl15]]'' are always female, for some unspecified genetic reason.

 

* In ''[[Trollz]]'', only the females are able to wield magic. It wasn't always the case, but the [[Big Bad]]'s attempt to take the magic for himself made it so only girls could use it. Males are left to their physical and mental skills, though older Troll males are able to use magic, still.

 

* Singing voices. While there ''is'' some overlap in the alto and tenor ranges, natural male sopranos (as opposed to castrati and singing falsetto) and female basses are extremely rare and usually due to a hormone imbalance.

* Giving birth.

** Though technology can get around those limitations.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Gender and Sexuality Tropes]]