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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"I didn’t create this show for little girls, I created it for little girls and their parents —- including male parents. It only stands to reason that adult animation fans without children may like it too.''
''The belief that boys shouldn’t be interested in girl things is the main reason there’s hardly anything decent for girls in animation -- or almost any media for that matter. It’s a backwards, sexist outdated attitude."''
|'''[[Lauren Faust]]''', former executive producer of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]''}}
Mainly, the [[Double Standard]] most people have regarding media: that women's entertainment should only be enjoyed by women with [[Peripheral Demographic|no crossover allowed]]
▲{{quote|''"I didn’t create this show for little girls, I created it for little girls and their parents —- including male parents. It only stands to reason that adult animation fans without children may like it too.''<br />
▲''The belief that boys shouldn’t be interested in girl things is the main reason there’s hardly anything decent for girls in animation -- or almost any media for that matter. It’s a backwards, sexist outdated attitude."''|'''[[Lauren Faust (Creator)|Lauren Faust]]''', former executive producer of ''[[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]''}}
▲Mainly, the [[Double Standard]] most people have regarding media: that women's entertainment should only be enjoyed by women with [[Peripheral Demographic|no crossover allowed]] -- despite it being okay for women to watch shows primarily marketed towards men -- keeping in mind [[Most Writers Are Male|most media is male-focused.]] Not to mention the stigma that media specifically tailored for women is of inferior quality.
This line of thinking is very clear in most creators and executives' minds (though not without warrant considering many [[Real Life]] instances and attitudes). Men and women could watch shows meant for men/starring a man, only women could like a female-centered, never mind "girly", show. Watching a girl show would be unmanly and be subject to ridicule. Just watch any show and the guy who's the more [[The Chick|sensitive]], [[The Heart|caring]] member of the cast is usually the [[Butt Monkey]].
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Unfortunately, women-targeted entertainment has a [[Lifetime Movie of the Week|reputation of not being as good as other shows]]. Common criticisms are that women's media is overly touchy-feely, simplistic, poorly-written, and shallow. This is mostly due to the aesthetics of the media (and not to mention a lot of it is fashion-based). The men can be the [[Badass]] heroes and problem solvers, and women are rarely shown in those roles even in women's media.
Some [[Merchandise
This attitude isn't as prevalent as it once was, but it's still rather pervasive. Since [[Most Writers Are Male]], they're going to go for the greatest audience available (or at least, what they ''think'' is the greatest audience) and the stigma is still entrenched not only in entertainment, but in [[Real Life]] as well.
Compare [[Real Women Never Wear Dresses]], [[What Do You Mean
See also [[Real Men Wear Pink]].
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== Anime and Manga ==▼
* ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura (Manga)|Cardcaptor Sakura]]'' was a quintessential girls show, but when it was released for [[Kids WB]] the dub saw heavy edits to turn one of the male characters into a Protagonist along with Sakura, which included having half the episodes (mainly the ones without him) cut. Broadcasts outside the US aired the remaining episodes (save for two in Canada and the U.K.), thus clearly establishing Sakura as the protagonist.▼
* In ''[[Black Lagoon (Manga)|Black Lagoon]]'', while the main character is a male, this doesn't stop all the ladies from stealing the limelight with their guns, swords, and/or freakish strength. In fact, characters like Revy, Roberta, Eda, and Balalaika continue to front the action and receive the most character development then all the male characters combined, all without having to dress like a sexy schoolgirl. And here's the kicker: the primary audience is ''adult Japanese men''.▼
* According to [[DiC Entertainment]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEXqoPgbH0c pitch reel] for ''[[Sailor Moon (Manga)|Sailor Moon]]'', attempts to sell the show in America included informing networks that the dub was distributed by the studio that made ''[[Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego]]'', a show that earned fans of both genders despite its female leads, and also assuring the networks that, "boys will love the non-stop action!"▼
* Males who enjoy [[Shoujo Demographic]] works are often looked at askance. Sometimes inverted with women that like [[Shonen]] being treated like they're all [[Yaoi Fangirl|Yaoi Fangirls]].▼
* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Anime)|Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' originally suffered from a [[Audience Alienating Premise]] due to this trope by starting off as a mostly normal-looking cutesy [[Magical Girl]] show, causing many people to [[Tastes Like Diabetes|stop watching it in disgust]] before the real, [[Cosmic Horror Story|much darker premise]] took shape. Of course [[Late Arrival Spoiler|once everyone learned what the show was actually about]], fans started flocking to the show.▼
== Stuck in the Ghetto ==
* [[Wonder Woman]] has had this problem. She's supposed to be one of DC's Big Three superheroes next to [[Batman (Franchise)|Batman]] and [[Superman (Franchise)|Superman]], yet she hasn't had a Live Action Film yet (infamously in [[Development Hell]].) She hasn't had an animated series yet. ([[Batman the Animated Series (Animation)|Batman the Animated Series]] [[The Batman (Animation)|has]] [[Batman the Brave And The Bold (Animation)|had]] plenty in recent years, and [[Superman the Animated Series (Animation)|Superman got his own show, too.]]) and the last time she's been out of the comics solo (besides the [[Wonder Woman (Film)|animated film]]) is [[Wonder Woman (TV)|the 70s live action series]]. The closest she's gotten to another franchise was a failed pilot in 2011 that was rather poorly received outside the industry (though no reason has officially been given for why they dropped it). And even within the comics, she's never been on the same level of sales as Batman and Superman.▼
▲=== Anime and Manga ===
** The sad irony here is that Wonder Woman ''was'' created for girls, but for the specific purpose of ''having a female action hero who was equal to her male counterparts''. But, apparently, being a literal Amazon still doesn't make you as "manly" as the most [[Badass Normal]] male hero. ▼
▲* ''[[
▲* In ''[[
▲* According to [[DiC Entertainment]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEXqoPgbH0c pitch reel] for ''[[
▲* Males who enjoy [[Shoujo Demographic]] works are often looked at askance. Sometimes inverted with women that like [[Shonen]] being treated like they're all [[Yaoi Fangirl
▲* ''[[
=== [[
▲* [[Wonder Woman]] has had this problem. She's supposed to be one of DC's Big Three superheroes next to [[
* Some [[Fan Fiction]] writers hypothesise that [[Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls]] is the reason why 'fanfiction' is considered to be so viscerally disgusting by so many people. It's worth observing that on this wiki, most of the fanfiction included in tropes lists is either adventure-based stuff written by boys (''[[Shinji and Warhammer 40 K (Fanfic)|Shinji and Warhammer 40 K]]''), or relationship-based stuff that's legendarily bad (''[[My Immortal (Fanfic)|My Immortal]]'').▼
▲** The sad irony here is that Wonder Woman ''was'' created for girls, but for the specific purpose of ''having a female action hero who was equal to her male counterparts''. But, apparently, being a literal Amazon still doesn't make you as "manly" as the most [[Badass Normal]] male hero.
** This opinion has even been documented in academic analysis of [[Fanfic]] by ethnographer Camille Bacon-Smith and MIT's Henry Jenkins. Jenkins goes as far to postulate in ''Textual Poachers'' that [[Fanfic]] in general is a reaction on the part of a female audience trying to find their own pleasures in predominantly-male media. ▼
===
▲* Some [[Fan Fiction]] writers hypothesise that [[Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls]] is the reason why 'fanfiction' is considered to be so viscerally disgusting by so many people. It's worth observing that on this wiki, most of the fanfiction included in tropes lists is either adventure-based stuff written by boys (''[[Shinji and
* ''[[The Princess and The Frog (Disney)|The Princess and The Frog]]'' did okay at the box office for Disney, but not nearly as good as their previous animated films. Disney determined that this trope was the reason and was rumored to [http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/21/entertainment/la-et-1121-tangled-20101121 completely shut down adapting fairy tales into movies.] For the marketing of their "[[Rapunzel (Literature)|Rapunzel]]" adaptation, they completely downplayed the fairy tale-ness of the movie, changed the title to the somewhat more comedic-sounding ''[[Verbed Title|Tangled]]'', [http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/09/business/la-fi-ct-disney9-2010mar09 put the male hero character front and center, and marketed it like a Dreamworks comedy film.] The advertising brought a whole lot of backlash, but in the end it paid off; ''Tangled'' went on to become Walt Disney Animation Studios' first movie since ''[[The Lion King (Disney)|The Lion King]]'' to break the $200 million mark domestically.▼
▲** This opinion has even been documented in academic analysis of [[Fanfic]] by ethnographer Camille Bacon-Smith and MIT's Henry Jenkins. Jenkins goes as far to postulate in ''Textual Poachers'' that [[Fanfic]] in general is a reaction on the part of a female audience trying to find their own pleasures in predominantly-male media.
** This ignored the fact that alleged "girly" films such as ''[[The Little Mermaid (Disney)|The Little Mermaid]]'' and ''[[Beauty and The Beast (Disney)|Beauty and The Beast]]'' were the highest grossing animated films of their times. Clearly there were at least some boys out there watching them. (On the other hand, the [[Disney Princess]] franchise hadn't yet been established, so boys back then probably didn't associate watching both of those movies as being girly.) And ''Princess and the Frog'' was released the week before ''[[Avatar (Film)|Avatar]]'', with ''[[Sherlock Holmes (Film)|Sherlock Holmes]]'' and the ''[[Alvinandthe Chipmunks (Film)|Alvinandthe Chipmunks]]'' sequel following on its heels, which could have been the ''real'' reason audiences didn't turn out in huge numbers.▼
* Some ''[[Beauty and The Beast (Disney)|Beauty and The Beast]]'' trailers completely downplayed Belle's role and the romance, such as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nOEH1Fy5vI this one.] However, the fact only one of the six trailers included on the DVD and Blu-Ray uses such techniques suggests Disney didn't rely on them as heavily as for ''Tangled''.▼
=== Film ===
* In the early 2000s, Walt Disney Animation Studios started to make boy-oriented movies, such as ones focusing either on [[Tarzan (Disney)|men living in jungles with gorillas]], [[Dinosaur (Disney)|dinosaurs]], [[The Emperors New Groove (Disney)|emperors]], [[Treasure Planet (Disney)|pirates in space]], and [[Brother Bear (Disney)|bears]], but [[Atlantis the Lost Empire (Disney)|one particular film released during this era]] had a princess in it.▼
▲* ''[[The Princess and
** ''[[Liloand Stitch (Disney)|Liloand Stitch]]'' managed to avoid the ghetto for the most part, despite its female main characters, and became one of the more profitable Disney films of this era. Although, the marketing tended to focus exclusively on Stitch (presumably male), which may be why.▼
▲** This ignored the fact that alleged "girly" films such as ''[[
▲* Some ''[[Beauty and
▲* In the early 2000s, Walt Disney Animation Studios started to make boy-oriented movies, such as ones focusing either on [[Tarzan (Disney film)|men living in jungles with gorillas]], [[
▲** ''[[
* The ''[[Disney Fairies|Tinker Bell]]'' movies are often criticized as Disney's answer to Barbie (usually by [[Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch|people who haven't seen them]]), though advertising, the toys, and the [[Covers Always Lie|movie covers]] can understandably lead people to this conclusion. In fact they were originally set to be a lot more girly than they are before [[Pixar Regulars|John Lasseter]] stepped in.
* The original story treatment of ''[[
* Some DVD sets of ''[[
* When ''[[The Princess Bride (
* [[Warner Bros]]. producer Jeff Robinov declared in 2007 that [http://www.deadline.com/2007/10/warners-robinoff-gets-in-catfight-with-girls/ "we are no longer doing movies with women in the lead."] This was after the poor box office reception of ''[[The Brave One]]'' (starring [[Jodie Foster]]) and ''The Invasion'' (starring [[Nicole Kidman]]). He even reportedly expressed that a male has to be the lead of every script in order to get broader audiences.
* The first ''[[Twilight (
** The films' passionate fan base and huge box office success ''might'' have made the ''Twilight'' series one of the biggest refutations of the Girl Show Ghetto ever, but the marketing still focused more on the action scenes during the trailers for ''New Moon'' and ''Eclipse.'' And while they've proved that female-focused movies can dominate the box office, bad reviews and myriad parodies confirm that they haven't done anything to help promote the idea that women's media can yield quality entertainment. Part of the problem is the series' myriad [[Unfortunate Implications]]
* The ghetto, along with the huge popularity of actor [[Johnny Depp]], is probably why the 2010 ''[[Alice in Wonderland (
===
▲* When ''[[The Princess Bride (Film)|The Princess Bride]]'' received a new 2-Disc DVD, fans could choose between two gender-specific covers: the pink "Buttercup Edition" with a cutesy synopsis on the back, or the aquamarine "Dread Pirate Edition" with an action-packed synopsis. Later, the Blu-Ray came with a compromised cover: The bottom half featured Buttercup with Wesley, while the top had Buttercup with the Dread Pirate Roberts.
▲* [[Warner Bros]]. producer Jeff Robinov declared in 2007 that [http://www.deadline.com/2007/10/warners-robinoff-gets-in-catfight-with-girls/ "we are no longer doing movies with women in the lead."] This was after the poor box office reception of ''[[The Brave One]]'' (starring [[Jodie Foster]]) and ''The Invasion'' (starring [[Nicole Kidman]]). He even reportedly expressed that a male has to be the lead of every script in order to get broader audiences.
▲* The first ''[[Twilight (Literature)|Twilight]]'' movie nearly experienced this. The idea that female moviegoers alone could turn a film into a blockbuster hit was considered so unthinkable that, when Paramount was adapting the movie, [[Executive Meddling|they tried to make it far more action-heavy]] (basically, a high school version of ''[[Underworld (Film)|Underworld]]'' or ''[[Blade (Film)|Blade]]'') in order to attract the male audience that they thought was necessary. [http://www.hollywoodlife.com/2010/09/23/twilight-saga-almost-turned-into-action-film-summit-paramount-robert-pattinson-kristen-stewart-stephenie-meyer-mark-morgan/ This page] goes into detail on the changes that would've been made. These plans were [[Executive Veto|vetoed]] by [[Stephenie Meyer]], leading to Summit's far more faithful adaptation.
▲** The films' passionate fan base and huge box office success ''might'' have made the ''Twilight'' series one of the biggest refutations of the Girl Show Ghetto ever, but the marketing still focused more on the action scenes during the trailers for ''New Moon'' and ''Eclipse.'' And while they've proved that female-focused movies can dominate the box office, bad reviews and myriad parodies confirm that they haven't done anything to help promote the idea that women's media can yield quality entertainment. Part of the problem is the series' myriad [[Unfortunate Implications]] -- with Bella essentially giving up her entire life to be with Edward, some women have accused ''Twilight'' of setting women's rights back by 50 years.
▲* The ghetto, along with the huge popularity of actor [[Johnny Depp]], is probably why the 2010 ''[[Alice in Wonderland (Film)|Alice in Wonderland]]'' 1) turned out to be an [[Actionized Sequel]] of sorts to the nonsense stories of its source material, and 2) focused its marketing campaign on Depp's Mad Hatter.
* [[Historical Fiction]] author Nancy Rue said at a workshop that the reason all of her protagonists are male is that girls will read "boy books" but boys won't read "girl books".
* This even extends to the authors themselves, as the many women who have used a [[Moustache De Plume]] can attest.
** [[
** The same goes for S.E. Hinton. In one interview, she said that she went by her initials because she thought no one would even want to publish ''The Outsiders'' if they knew it had been written by a woman.
** And ''[[
=== [[Live
* A lot of women watch [[Spike TV]]. In fact, one of the creators of Spike TV [http://www.realitytvworld.com/index/articles/story.php?s=1001705 was FIRED] because ''too many women were watching it''. However, their view has softened as they're now actually [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/spike-tv-sets-sights-women-172228 courting women to watch Spike TV] [[Network Decay|as the channel is shifting from the frat boy demographic.]]
* [[Lifetime Movie of the Week|Lifetime and the Lifetime Movie Network]] are "television for women" that often convince many female and male viewers that female-directed media is lesser.
* A lot of [[Disney Channel]]'s programming is aimed at girls. It got bad enough that Disney created a sister network (or should we say, ''brother'' network), [[Disney XD]], because they couldn't get boys to watch the main [[Disney Channel]]'s programming.
** It didn't work as well as Disney had hoped: similar to the Spike TV note above, in 2009 it was discovered that more girls were watching [[Disney XD]] than boys. So yeah, the plan backfired.
* Towards the fifth season of ''[[
** In an aversion, male and female fans openly dislike the show's sixth season because of how childish and girly it is.
* A combination inversion and example happened with ''[[Power Rangers]]''. Originally, the creators tried to get girls to be interested in the show, by [[She's a Man In Japan|adapting some male characters from the Japanese original as females]] and selling fashion dolls of the female rangers. Eventually though, it became clear that the show had far more appeal for boys, and the straight example came into play for the toys- since boys were thought to not be interested in playing with toys of the female heroes, said females only get a few basic figures in the toy line while the males get all kinds of special vehicles and power ups. This got to the point where a vehicle for the (female) Yellow Ranger from ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' was packed in with a figure of the ''Green'' Ranger in the reversion's toyline.
* This has an interesting effect with shows in syndication. A lot of shows that were very gender-neutral during their original run can be put into reruns on networks that are considered exclusive to women ([[Network Decay]] aside, networks like Lifetime, Oxygen, and We have a long reputation of being solely for women.) A lot of shows that were gender neutral and incredibly popular with men and women, like ''[[
=== [[Music]] ===
* Happens in music quite often. [[Boy Band
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* This trope is the reason ''[[Panel
* Many gaming review sites/magazines ''refuse to cover'' games that are openly aimed at girls. If you're a parent looking to buy something cute for a young female gamer you can have a difficult time telling the difference between games that truly are terrible and games that are simply dismissed because they are girly.
* The game industry is ''notorious'' for refusing to break out of the idea that all gamers are 18-25 year old white men, at least if you're planning on making a non-casual title. Activision famously told a studio pitching a game set in Hong Kong with an Asian female lead to "[http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29719/InDepth_No_Female_Heroes_At_Activision.php lose the chick, they don't sell.]" [http://kotaku.com/5424441/girls-night-with-the-most-male-game-of-2009 A.J. Glasser] once noted in an editorial for Kotaku that the only role presented for women in ''[[
** The reason there are no female playable characters in the ''Call of Duty'' games is a reflection of the fact that women [[Men Are the Expendable Gender|do not serve in the roles portrayed in the game in real life]].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131003175825/http://sweetupndown.tumblr.com/post/15242399360/dear-customer-who-stuck-up-for-his-little-brother This story] made the rounds in late 2011, in which a young boy was threatened with actual violence by his father for wanting to buy ''[[Mirror's Edge]]''. Entirely because, well, it ''must'' be a girl's game, it has a woman on the cover!
=== [[Web Original]] ===
* The raison d'etre of [[
** What makes this even better is that she's [[The Ladette]] while the Critic is a [[Sissy Villain]]. ''Obviously'' she was going to revolt at some point.
** Although in a way, she still keeps with this
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* ''[[My Little Pony
** The [[My Little Pony and Friends|other]] [[My Little Pony Tales|series]] [[My Little Pony G 3|count]] too. While the shows typically are quite popular it's almost always toward girls within the 2 to 11 year old age range. The series typically has no merchandise aimed at boys.
*** [http://www.equestriadaily.com/2012/02/new-merchandise-recap-post.html Until the adult male fandom of G4 happened.]
** One of the common fan theories about the introduction of a new, pink Alicorn Princess in the show, was to have a pink Princess character to sell that kind of toy, and yet allow Celestia toys to be Show Accurate White.
* In-universe, one episode of ''[[
* Compared to the show, which was basically ''[[He
* Even though ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[The Simpsons (
* [[Disney Channel]] commissioned ''[[
== Breaking Out of the Ghetto ==
=== General ===
* [http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/03/long-lost-fairy-tales.html#ixzz1pTLeGgbl As discussed here,] Fairy Tales as a whole tend to invert this trope hard. Fairy tales with a female protagonist, like Cinderella or Snow White, tend be much more popular and iconic than stories with a male hero.
* Another good way to transcend the ghetto is to create a capable action heroine, but then have her go on all her adventures in the [[Stripperific|skimpiest clothing imaginable]]. Then both women and men will watch, but men (presumably) for all the "wrong" reasons.
=== Anime and Manga ===
* [[Hayao Miyazaki]]'s frequent use of female protagonists hasn't stopped his movies from earning critical acclaim.
=== Film
* ''[[
** Female writers at Slate.com and other sites practically begged readers to buy tickets to convince studio execs to greenlight more female-driven scripts.
* The movie adaptation of ''[[The Hunger Games (
=== Literature ===
* ''[[Little House
* ''[[The Hunger Games (
=== Live-Action
* ''[[Clarissa Explains It All]]'' was groundbreaking not only in its content, but because it finally disproved the common (at the time) thinking for children's
** [[Melissa Joan Hart]]'s follow-up series, ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'' was even more succesful in that regard, having smart and funny female leads, running for 7 years and having almost equal popularity in both male and female demographics.
* ''[[
=== [[Professional Wrestling]] ===
* Despite many ignorant fans claiming that it's impossible for women's wrestling to draw, history provides several examples:
** Wendi Richter's partnership with [[Cyndi Lauper]] helped kickstart the "Rock N Wrestling Connection" and brought wrestling to mainstream success. This helped draw in both male and female viewers, judging from the crowd reaction to the match at the first ''[[Wrestlemania]]''.
** In 2003 while critics were slating the [[
** Similarly in [[TNA]], the Knockouts division in 2007 and 2008 proved to be a huge ratings draw for the feud between [[
** The success of various women's-only wrestling promotions such as ''SHIMMER'' and ''WSU'' proves that there are fans who want to see women wrestle.
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJtxSbmPlKk Watch this] indie match. Listen to when the male crowd starts chanting "best match ever!".
=== Video Games ===
* The ''[[
** However, one should note ''[[Metroid
* ''[[Portal (
==== [[Visual Novels]] ====
* ''[[Hakuouki]]'' has a decent-sized male fanbase, despite being an dating sim aimed at young women about [[The Ingenue]] finding love with a [[Cast Full of Pretty Boys|handsome, protective samurai]].
=== Western Animation ===
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|
* ''[[Raggedy Ann and Andy A Musical Adventure]]'' has become a cult hit for Generation X-ers and Generation Y-ers of both sexes, despite roughly half the protagonist characters being female (with the male lead mostly reduced to
* ''[[My Little Pony
* ''[[She
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* Although ''[[
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Audience Reactions]]▼
[[Category:Acceptable Hobby Targets]]
▲[[Category:Audience Reactions]]
[[Category:Double Standard]]
[[Category:
|