More Deadly Than the Male: Difference between revisions
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''He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.
''But the [[Mama Bear|she-bear]] thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.
''For the female of the species is [[Trope Namer|more deadly than the male]].
|'''[[Rudyard Kipling]]'''}}
Oh, look, a [[Proper Lady]]. She is calm, always ready with a [[Stepford Smiler|genuine smile]], and [[Sacred Hospitality|the perfect hostess]]. Oh no! The audience is wincing; here come the bad guys, [[Stuffed in The Fridge|she doesn't stand a...]]
This is when men are physically strong and quite capable of violence, but females are characterized as having a [[Beware the Nice Ones|hidden, but apparently bottomless capacity for lethal mayhem]].
Remember, this does ''not'' describe a situation where men are weak and women are strong. This is when females are depicted as far more ruthless, more cunning and ultimately more bloodthirsty than their [[Spear Counterpart
To help this trope along, expect the bad guys to totally ignore the female, [[Genre Blindness|dismissing her as a threat]]. She may even appear to [[Double Agent|capitulate or collude]] with the enemy, suffering indignities no one would expect her to tolerate, all in order to get a better [[Best Served Cold|shot at revenge]].
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{{examples}}
== [[Anime]]
* In ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', Ikari Gendo is a [[Magnificent Bastard]] and the [[Trope Namer]] for [[Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive]] who commands a force of [[Humongous Mecha]]. His son Shinji pilots one of these mecha. Gendo's wife and Shinji's mom, the [[Yamato Nadeshiko]] Yui? She is {{spoiler|the soul of said mecha that Shinji pilots, prone to [[Unstoppable Rage]] [[Mama Bear|in order to protect her son]] [[Beware the Nice Ones|and RIPPING HER OPPONENTS LIMB FROM LIMB BEFORE DEVOURING THEIR ORGANS! It's also quite likely that she is the actual mastermind behind the whole Instrumentality project and the Evas. Gendo really only takes over command because she is no longer able to.]]}} By the way, Ikari is ''her'' birth name, not Gendo's.
* In a flashback in the first episode of ''[[Moshidora]]'', Minami, at bat in the bottom of the ninth with the scores tied in a junior baseball game, makes a wild swing at the first pitch that convinces everyone she is a hopeless batter. It turns out that her wild swing was done ''intentionally'' to lull the pitcher into a false sense of security, and on his next pitch she is able to get a hit and score the winning run.
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* In ''[[Species]]'', the decision was made to make the alien hybrid female "so she'd be more docile and controllable". A female scientist observes that "[[Genre Savvy|You don't get out much, do you?]]"
** The sequel subverts this, however; it turns out that a male hybrid is much more dangerous (and can turn tame female hybrids to its side pretty much just by existing).
* In ''[[Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken]]'', only female members of the royal family (including Ruby, her mother, and grandmother) can [[Catch Phrase|"Go Big"]] and assume their giant true kraken form, although that doesn't mean the males can't fight if they have to.
== Literature ==
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* ''[[Discworld]]'': Sybil has hints of this. She was raised properly, but that basically means that she almost ''never'' has a chance to let off steam, and is occasionally very interested in violence...
** Also, compare the male wizards and the female witches (ESPECIALLY Granny Weatherwax).
** In particular amongst the witches we have [[Granola Girl|Magrat Garlick]], who is compared to a small furry animal in overall demeanor, and she isn't easily
* ''[[Blood and Chocolate]]'': The male fights for alpha are planned meticulously and widely announced. The fights for the alpha's ''mate'', on the other hand, begin with no ceremony and are expected to be lethal.
* Madame DeFarge and Miss Pross in ''[[A Tale of Two Cities]].''
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* ''[[In Death]]'' series: ''Rapture In Death'' has {{spoiler|Reanna}} brag about this trope to Eve. Eve refutes it, however, saying that she thinks ruthlessness and viciousness have no gender.
* The [[Rudyard Kipling]] line is referenced quite a few times in the works of [[P. G. Wodehouse|PG Wodehouse]].
* The works of [[James H. Schmitz]]
* In [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Heralds of Valdemar|Owlsight]]'', the local lord and his son head out into the field to assist in commanding the defense against a possible barbarian invasion, leaving the lady of the keep behind to oversee the village evacuees. This is for two reasons: she can keep the refugees busy helping plan her son's wedding, and she's as good or better at castle defense than her husband, "and that's why I married her." Their son is rather surprised to hear that one.
* Ruth from ''[[Someone Else's War|Someone Elses War]]'', full stop.
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* The first two adult companions of [[Doctor Who|the Doctor]] were Ian Chesterton and Barbra Wright. That said, while Ian had his awesome moments, Barbra was such a [[Badass]] it's a common fan joke that the show could have been renamed "Why Barbra is Awesome", and no one would have noticed.
* ''[[That '70s Show]]'': The guys taunt [[Girl Next Door|Donna]] and [[Rich Bitch|Jackie]] with claims that while men can entertain themselves with play-fighting, girls get too angry and begin to fight for real. Cue the girls beginning a nice, playful fight that [[It Got Worse|quickly descends]] to barbed words and [[Cat Fight|legitimate violence.]]
* In the ''[[iCarly
* In ''[[Buffy]]'' and ''[[Angel]]'', women usually end up more vicious in similar roles than men, particularly vampires Darla and Drusilla. Note also that Angelus originally got in touch with his sadistic side just to impress Darla.
* A running theme in ''Chinese Paladin 3'' is women being willing to strike first, fight dirty, and take no prisoners if they or their loved ones are threatened. A prime example is Zixuan's ''setting a monastery on fire'' as a distraction when her lover is arrested.
* One of the Marines in ''[[Generation Kill]]'' says this when he observes the women of a town doing backbreaking labor to clear the streets and their yards of debris, while the men lounged on the lawns smoking.
{{quote|"If we had to fight the women, dawg, we wouldn't stand a fuckin' chance."}}
== [[Music]] ==
* The 1996 song by the group Space, "Female of the Species", is about the overwhelming effect the unnamed subject of the song has on the singer, and emphasizes it by invoking the Kipling poem with the repeated line "The female of the species is more deadly than the male".
== [[Toys]] ==
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** Considering they're the only enemies that will accept surrender rather than just killing him, wouldn't that make them ''less'' deadly?
* In [[Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time|Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time,]] there are 2 thwomps that the Bros. encounter on top of Yoshi Mountain, Mr. thwomp and Ms. thwomp. Mr. thwomp does nothing but make passive-agressive taunts at you and help you throughout the following stage. Ms. thwomp, however, challenges you to a full-on boss fight against her, and it's [[That One Boss|certainly not an easy fight.]]
* In the ''[[Pokémon]]'' world, both Combee and Salandrit are species where only the female can evolve, into Vespiqueen and Salazzle, respectively, and as fully-evolved Pokémon are much more powerful than the pre-evolved forms, this Trope applies to them. Also, Tauros and Miltank are male and female equivalents of the same species; while Tauros is pretty tough, Miltank (as [[That One Boss| Whitney]] and anyone who challenges her Gym can attest) is much tougher.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Monique in ''[[Sinfest]]'' tried to imitate "[
* Grace from ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' used to have only two modes: complete pacifism and Unstoppable Flying [[Spike Balls of Doom|Clawball Of Doom]]. However, this may have more to do with being a hybrid of a herbivore (squirrel) with a really monstrous alien while having rather limited experience. Later martial artist friends, including ladies, convinced her that it's not always a good idea and she got to learn more controlled ways of violence.
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* The ''tricoteuses'' of [[The French Revolution]] (as Burke called them, "All the unutterable abominations of the furies of hell in the abused shape of the vilest of women"), which inspired the creation of Madame Defarge in [[Charles Dickens]]' ''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]''.
* Wendi Deng Murdoch protecting her husband from a dangerous pie-thrower, and going for his throat.
* Female domestic abusers of male partners are statistically more likely to use weapons than male domestic abusers of female partners.
* In military basic training, female drill sergeants seem far meaner than male drill sergeants. And if they're also short, ''[[Oh Crap|well...]]''
* Common among any wild animal with [[Mama Bear]] tendencies.
* Under the leadership of [https://web.archive.org/web/20140927132513/http://www.badassoftheweek.com/index.cgi?id=454977124513 Blenda] women prepared a feast for an army that was going to invade them, with plenty of booze. Once the army arrived, they accepted the feast. Once the army was thoroughly drunk or otherwise incapacitated, they slew the army with improvised weapons.
* In the only troop of Chimpanzees that make weapons to hunt, female Chimpanzees make use of weapons more. [http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/innovative-female-chimps-may-have-pioneered-tool-use-hunting This might have been the case with primitive humans too].
* The iconic [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] ''Rosie the Riveter'' representing American female munitions workers in [[World War II]]. Maybe not personally dealing death and mayhem, but the tons of ruinous ammunition, weapons, and weapons platforms that were built by Rosie definitely qualifies her.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Gender and Sexuality Tropes]]
[[Category:Badass]]
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