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On average, men have greater upper body strength than women. Because most people [[You Fail Statistics Forever|don't actually understand concepts like "average" very well]], in a lot of people's minds this turns into "any given man is always much, much stronger than any given woman." And since a true hero never uses his strength against the weak, and all women are supposedly weak compared to him, it follows that a hero must never use physical violence against any woman, ever.
 
When applied to ordinary [[Bar Brawl|bar fights]], schoolyard throwdowns, [[Let's Fight Like Gentlemen|duels of honor]] and so on, the trope is well-meaning if also rather sexist (against both [[Men Are the Expendable Gender|men]] and [[Stay in Thethe Kitchen|women]], albeit in different ways). However, when characters keep invoking it in situations where their female opponent poses a really serious threat that might only be preventable by violence, it quickly becomes absurd. The [[Sliding Scale of Cynicism Versus Idealism|cynical]] might point out that, rather than being motivated by pure nobility of spirit, this philosophy functions as a convenient way for the male character to avoid [[I Was Beaten Byby a Girl|the humiliation of being beaten by a woman]]; if he refuses to fight against women, there's no way for a woman to ever prove she could defeat him at his full strength.
 
Since ideas about gender roles are in flux these days and tend to vary widely, modern media can be highly inconsistent about whether this trope is portrayed as a good or bad thing. If a villain refuses to fight a heroic [[Action Girl]] on these grounds, it's a toss-up whether this will be portrayed as [[Pet the Dog|a sign]] that [[Affably Evil|he has]] [[Even Evil Has Standards|at least a warped sense of honor]] [[Family Values Villain|after all]], or as [[Stay in Thethe Kitchen|profoundly insulting]]. Of course, the villain might be not sure of his chances and the refusal to fight might be just a trick. If a hero can't bring himself to strike a [[Dark Action Girl|villainess]], it either means that he's a [[Ideal Hero|chivalrous guy]] with [[Lawful Good|strong values]], or that an [[Fair for Its Day|old-fashioned]], patronizing attitude toward women is [[Noble Bigot|one of his few character flaws]]. Occasionally you'll even see both at once, particularly in heroic cases; the character's reluctance to hit women may be portrayed as [[Good Flaws, Bad Flaws|a sympathetic flaw]] – stupid and sexist, but ultimately born out of an admirable desire to behave ethically and avoid being a bully.
 
Action heroes (or villains) who invoke this trope even though they face female opponents find various ways to get around it. At minimum, they'll make a quip along the lines of “I normally hate hitting women, but in this case I'll make an exception” or "I don't hit ladies, [[No True Scotsman|but you're no lady]]" before they start to strike back. They might try to find creative ways to [[To Win Without Fighting|defeat her nonviolently]], perhaps through [[Guile Hero|trickery]]; they might try to [[Martial Pacifist|minimize the necessary violence]] by using grapples or pressure point attacks rather than actual blows; or they might [[Technical Pacifist|get off on a technicality]] by doing something that indirectly results in physical harm to the female opponent without actually striking or firing a weapon against her. In supernatural settings, the problem may be resolved by the male character temporarily [[Gender Bender|turning into a woman]], voluntarily or not, thus freeing him from a gentleman's obligations toward the fairer sex. Probably the most common solution, however, is for the male character to simply [[Designated Girl Fight|defer to a female ally]] who faces no such moral dilemma.
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Due to [[Media Watchdogs]], this trope is often quietly applied without being explicitly invoked, especially in cartoons and other media aimed at children. This is often noticeable even when actually feeling obligated by the trope would seem completely out of character, or when the overall message of the work seems to undermine the whole “women are weak and need protection” idea that forms the justification for the trope. Sure, the work never says or really even implies that the female characters' combat skills are [[Purely Aesthetic Gender|in any way different from their male counterparts']], but somehow by ''pure coincidence'' the [[The Chick|token female team member]] is always the one who ends up fighting the female villains.
 
Sometimes the reason is pure [[Hero Withwith Bad Publicity|PR]]: Even if a guy is justified and doesn't mind hitting a girl, chances are he will be seen as a thug if he does. [[Truth in Television]], many a man defending himself in real life has been attacked by bystanders, mobs and even the police upon being seen hitting a girl, context be damned.
 
Often a form of [[Heroic Vow]]. May be a form of [[Innocent Bigot|Innocent Bigotry]] when it's portrayed as sexist, but the male character genuinely had no idea that some people would see it that way. Compare [[Would Not Shoot a Civilian]], which encompasses this in settings where women are not combatants. See also [[Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil]]. A [[Wife-Basher Basher]] lives out this trope with righteous fury.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Maken-ki!]]'' The main character has this philosophy. He also feels that women shouldn't even fight amongst themselves for any reason.
* Used brilliantly in the ''[[Hellsing]]'' manga and OVA. After assisting Integra in a fight against [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazi]] vampires, some Iscariot members insist on her coming along as their prisoner. She refuses to do so, and, baffled about what to do, they propose knocking her out or tying her up. Integra points out that attempting this would be unfair because they outnumber her, and implies that there would be something thuggish and perverse about them attempting it because she's a woman. Anderson agrees, and instead the group settles on escorting her wherever she wants to go.
* ''[[Ranma One Half]]'' has the titular character, who [[Fanon]] usually considers averse to fighting women no matter what the cause is. In canon, not so much; while there are one or two times he expresses the sentiment that he doesn't particularly like to fight girls, it mostly seems to be fans reading too much into the fact that Akane and his [[Love Dodecahedron|unwanted girlfriends]] can all give him the "total beatdown" version of the [[Armor-Piercing Slap]] despite being inferior martial artists. [[Overshadowed Byby Awesome|Compared]] to [[Can't Catch Up|him]]. Perhaps fuelled by heresay about a comment Ranma makes to Akane the first time in the series that the two of them are sentenced to [[Standing in Thethe Hall]], where he mildly suggests that the reason Akane always beats Kuno is because when a guy is fighting a girl he likes, he might decide to let her win. The reality is that Ranma is [[Would Hit a Girl|quite willing to fight women]], will leap into battle with them without thinking, and only fights them on a relatively "low level" because:
## They are invariably less powerful than he is (barring Cologne, Kiima, Herb before [[The Reveal]], and [[Monster of the Week|Rouge]] in her [[Physical God|Ashura form]]).
## He usually has to face them in goofy [[Martial Arts and Crafts]] challenges where he can't use his best attacks.
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** Luffy himself has no such qualms, as Alvida, Ms. Valentine's Day and especially Hancock's sisters Marigold and Sandersonia found out. Though due to the sisters' [[Scaled Up]] Devil Fruits, [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]] possibly kicks in.
*** Luffy also punched Vivi.
* ''[[DragonballDragon Ball]]'' In the first Martial Arts Tournament featured, Ran-Fan's entire strategy revolves around this. That, and stripping.
* ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' Completely inverted with Bandou, who proves himself an asshole by immediately back-handing a random female secretary for approaching him from behind, calling her a "stupid bitch" afterwards. In fact the only opponents that the man ever has in the series are girls (albeit super-powered girls). He even lampshades it at one point, telling a girl that he is assaulting that he really doesn't give a crap whether she's a little girl or not.
** The manga introduces a character that is more abusive and cruel towards women than even Bandou, far surpassing the boundaries of sexual predator. Luckily though {{spoiler|he ends up getting decapitated by Lucy when he offers to protect her}}.
* In the manga ''[[Kenichi: theThe Mightiest Disciple|History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi]]'', the title character refuses to hit a girl, saying that it's not something a gentleman would do. This becomes a problem twice, once with Miu who he trains with (but is told that if he does not try to fight back then it just hurts both of their chances of getting stronger) and with Kisara who HATES it when people don't fight her because she's a girl.
** Later in the series, when faced with this situation, Kenichi learns to compensate by using Jujutsu. Possessing many grappling-style techniques, it allows Kenichi to disable female opponents without striking them and with minimal violence.
*** And then he has an opponent that's a little girl who is far, far better at him with Jujutsu and he'd have a real tough time fighting even if she ''wasn't'' a girl. {{spoiler|The fight is completely avoided when his friends distract her with a birthday party and make her forget the scheduled duel, meaning she lost her 'turn' to fight him.}}
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** Also, since they ''are'' [[Professional Killer|ninja]], even at the start any case where they used girl-hitting to establish bad character had some other nastiness trope in play, too--for example when Neji handed Hinata her ass, it was brutally unfair, a betrayal, and dereliction of duty, and would still have been had she been a boy of comparable skill.
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' Kotarou does not like having to hit girls. The series also subverts it, in that after Kaede utterly kicks his butt due to his refusal to hit her, everybody (Kaede included) treats his dislike of hitting girls as a stupid idea that he needs to get over in order to be a better fighter. This particularly hurts him since [[Improbably-Female Cast|95% of the cast is female]]. Including at least half the villains. Although, he seems to be getting over it lately, at least when defending girls from other girls. At one point he [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v21/c188/11.html kicks Tsukuyomi in the face.]
** Jack Rakan seems to be like this too. Up against female opponents, he [[Defeat Byby Modesty|defeats]] them [[Panty Thief|by stealing their panties]]. Although that might be because he's a [[Dirty Old Man]]. [[Chivalrous Pervert|Or both...]] Although he ''did'' get serious later in the story. The results were <s>[[Curb Stomp Battle|not]]</s> [[Clothing Damage|pretty]].
* ''Natsuki Crisis'' Subverted/parodied. Natsuki's fellow karate club members claim that this is the reason they won't practice against her... but it's obvious that the ''real'' reason is that [[Action Girl|she can kick their butts]], and they're too scared.
* ''[[Flame of Recca]]'' The normally extremely proud Mikagami fakes an injury (or rather, exaggerates a very mild one), to get out of facing a female opponent.
** If it was the fight against the Ura Uruha, then they didn't have any female members. I can't remember why he sat out that fight, but he didn't really show any problems fighting the all-female team in the previous fight (even almost killing Neon, if not for Recca gaining a new power).
* ''[[Saint Seiya]]'' Apart of having the Bronze Saints consider an horrible crime to even point a finger against Saori aka Athena (though this is more for her being their Goddess and a non-combatant), Seiya refused to fight the female Silver Saint [[Woman Scorned|Ophicus]] [[Stalker Withwith a Crush|Shaina]] often. When she specifically sought after him and tried to force him to fight, he specifically told her he wouldn't fight her because she was a girl, prompting Shaina to go into a [[Motive Rant]] to explain why she wanted to fight him. {{spoiler|Also... When she attempted an [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save him from Leo Aiolia, a part of feeling horribly guilty for Shaina's self-sacrifice, Seiya also was pissed off because Aiolia lifted a hand * against a female* . And the same happened with Saori tried a [[Batman Gambit]] to win Aiolia's favor, by letting him strike her with his most powerful technique: Seiya ''caught Aiolia's projectile'' with his hands, then told him "You wanted to hit a defenseless female? [[What the Hell, Hero?]]?!"}}
** Ironically, one of the filler episodes of the anime has Seiya kill a female warrior by attacking her while she's lying on the ground with her back turned to him.
*** And his [[Sexy Mentor]] was a girl, Aquila Marin. He seems quite confident on her skills, too.
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* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'': Greed refuses to fight Izumi, saying "I don't fight women, it's not my style." This doesn't stop him from making the side of his face as hard as diamond when Izumi tries to punch him, causing her to break several of her fingers.
* ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'' The Deimon Devil Bats go up against the Teikoku Alexanders, whose quarterback is female. Hiruma senses misplaced chivalrous intent in his team and cuts the problem off at the knees by making up a story to them about Karin, the female quarterback-- her name's really Karinrou and she's a man, so you'd better go all out on her. It works.
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'' There's a rather curious variation where the one refusing to duel against [[The Chick|Asuka]] [[Hello, Nurse!|Tenjouin]] was... ''another woman''. Sure, Taniya is a [[Amazonian Beauty|buff]] and scarred [[Hot Amazon]], but she's still a female yet says she doesn't duel against other females.
** Then again, given [[The Red Sonja|she was dueling in part to find a husband]]... though if they had duelled anyway... [[Les Yay|it would've been HOT]].
*** Even worse, when Taniya activated a card that made images of the duelists strike each other and Jaden thought he'd fight her for real and tried to invoke the trope, she didn't take it for an insult.
* ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya (Light Novel)|Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' Subverted in the second season (and the second novel), during the production of the Brigade-movie. Haruhi did her worst [[Kick the Dog]] act to Mikuru and then said to Kyon's face that it was okay for her to do such things. Kyon went ballistic on her... but then Koizumi stopped his punch. After that event, Koizumi also remarked that he "always thought [Kyon was] a calm person", and Kyon notes [[Not Himself|that it was not in him to be violent]],
** One of the most well-known (if not THE most) Haruhi hentai doujins involves Kyon, after watching Haruhi performing even MORE heinous acts to Mikuru, not only goes through with punching her, but he then proceeds to beat the crap out of her when she fights back, and culminates the beating by showing her the same kind of humiliation Mikuru went through. His method of choice? Well, it's [[Hentai]], so take a guess.
* ''[[Bleach]]'': Aramaki feels guilty about knocking Orihime out when she tries to bite him in order to go back and assist Uryu. Mayuri suggests that part of the "honor of the Quincy" involves protecting women- even enemies- after Uryu protests his mistreating his female lieutenant and "daughter," Nemu.
** Lampshaded and then averted by Renji. {{spoiler|Jackie}} asks him if he's not attacking her just because she's a woman, but Renji calmly says it's not about gender but about him not being willing to attack first. {{spoiler|Considering both his [[Curb Stomp Battle]] ''and'' [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]] against her...}}
** During his training with Uruhara, Ichigo shows a lot of reluctance to spar with Ururu, which overlaps with [[Wouldn't Hurt a Child]] because Ururu looks like a young girl. He quickly changes his mind when he finds out she's a lot stronger than she looks.
* When Hime-chan from ''[[HimechanHime-chan no Ribon (Manga)|Himechan no Ribon]]'' asked Daichi to hit her (because she hit him earlier and she felt guilty) he refused to hit a girl. So she grabbed his fist and punched herself with it.
* ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' Mostly played straight with Light - he has no qualms whatsoever about killing women (at times brutally) with the Note, but he never physically harms them in person.
** Only because it's too risky to be justified. He considers using physical force against Naomi Misora, for instance, but decides against it because it would be too likely for him to be seen doing so, or for him to make a mistake and let her escape, and that would really ruin his reputation as a model citizen. (It wouldn't have worked anyway: Misora was an expert martial artist... but Light didn't know that.)
* ''[[Kongoh Bancho]]'' Partially averted, where the protagonist Akira Kongoh has no problem fighting a girl, but often either underestimates them or intentionally holds back because of their gender. Although in both cases shown so far it's proven to be a rather bad idea, and he doesn't actually win until he goes all out.
* ''[[Durarara]]'' Subverted: Izaya isn't one for hitting girls -- That's why he makes it a hobby of his to stomp on their cellphones instead.
** Shizuo, on the other hand, is a straight example, with rather tragic reasons for why: {{spoiler|through the majority of his adolescence, Shizuo tended to develop one-sided crushes on girls and women that inevitably ended with him trying to protect or save them... [[Hero Withwith an F In Good|and accidentally hospitalizing]] [[Does Not Know His Own Strength|most of them in the process]]}}. The consequences drilled the idea of "hurting girls is bad" so deep into his head ([[Heroic Self-Deprecation|at the cost of any sort]] [[I Am a Monster|of self esteem he might have]]) that even his [[Hair-Trigger Temper]] can't stand against it.
* ''[[Change 123]]'' Played with. Most characters in this manga don't have a problem hitting girls, including a biker gang that [[Blood Knight|Hibiki]] must confront to save her [[Non-Action Guy]] [[Love Interest]]. After the other [[Split Personality]], [[Lady of War|Fujiko]], takes care of the underlings, Hibiki confronts the leader and puts him in the hospital for a few weeks. Much later, the gang leader's girlfriend asks them to beat up this annoying girl she ran into... [[Oh Crap|who happens to be Hibiki]]. [[Crowning Moment of Funny|The entire gang spontaneously decides they don't hit women]].
** Aizawa plays this trope straight. Although he is a [[Japanese Delinquents|"Yankee" Delinquent]] who fights very ungentlemanly against guys, he is unwilling to hit a girl, even if a girl (usually unintentionally) offenses him. The only exception is when he deals with the tomboyish Ginga, whose fighting skills are, however, on par with his.
* In ''[[Bakuman｡ (Manga)|Bakuman｡]]'', when Miyoshi demands that Mashiro and Takagi let her into their office, Takagi reluctantly decides to answer the door, saying that she would beat him up later. He says that he would fight back and win, but can't because she's a girl, and Mashiro doubts this statement.
* Surprisingly, Arika invokes this trope in ''[[Mai-Otome Zwei]]''. After Yukino offers herself as a hostage in order to convince the terrorists to let the passengers of the hijacked bus go, she asks them to do the same for Arika, only to be told that they're keeping her since she's one of Nagi's greatest enemies. When Yukino warns them that Windbloom will become their enemy if any harm comes to Arika, one of them is prepared to hit her, but Arika intercedes, telling them that her grandmother said that men who hit women are terrible people. The terrorist reluctantly stops himself.
* [[Fist of the North Star|Of all types of lowlife Kenshiro]] had to face, he never had to or would fight a woman who isn't the helpless wastelander type.
* ''[[Daily Lives of High School Boys (Manga)|Daily Lives of High School Boys]]'':
** In ''High School Boys and the [[School Festival|Cultural Festival]]'', [[Student Council President]] says this near the end of his fight with Ringo-chan. {{spoiler|But it's obvious that [[Non-Action Guy|he's just not that good at fighting]].}}
** Played straight in the ''High School Girls are Funky'' skit ''Resentment'': Facing Yanagi and Ikushima's attacks, Karasawa didn't in fact hit any of them a bit--the closest to this he did was to turn 180 degrees so that Yanagi kicked Ikushima's butt instead. The entire thing was, instead, ended by him showing {{spoiler|his scar}}.
** [[Subverted]] in ''High School Boys and Seniority'', Motoharu didn't hit his sister's classmates that are bullying him...not because they're girls, but because they're [[Sempai-Kohai|senior to him]].
* Even though Guts from ''[[Berserk]]'' [[Would Hit a Girl|averts this]] when it comes to VERY LETHAL female apostles, he fiddles with this trope at best. You see, Guts isn't exactly the poster child of a [[Knight in Shining Armor]] and has done a BIG share of morally questionable actions, but he's still too decent of a guy to sink to level of battering women and girls just because. At most, he'll just hurt their feelings, traumatize them, threaten them, or hold them hostage, and in those instances, that was back when Guts was almost a [[Villain Protagonist]] before [[Morality Chain|he found his light again.]] A good example would be with his own future [[Love Interest]], Casca. When they were stranded in the rain after a battle and Casca feel ill (which was induced by her fighting during her period), [[Intimate Healing|Guts had to save her life by taking off their clothes and warming her.]] Casca, who didn't like Guts back then, didn't take too kindly to this gesture the next morning and attacked him. In his aggravation, Guts began to yell at her and told her that had she been a man, he would have dislocated her jaw. [[Stay in Thethe Kitchen|Guts said a bunch more pretty hurtful things to Casca]] - which resulted in her crying and him feeling sorry for doing so - but it was most likely because he was hurt that he always tried to get on Casca's good side but she never approved of him, so he just popped.
* In the [[Mai Hi ME-HiME]] manga, this is averted when Yuuichi tries a [[Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!]] punch on a brainwashed and insane Shiho, but this only makes things worse.
 
 
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* In the 70's, the Avengers fought against the "Lion king", an African deity who wanted to capture the Black Panther. He defeated all the other Avengers, but refused to fight against the Black Widow: instead, he summoned a pair of common lions to deal with her. The Widow pointed that she was glad that she did not belong to the tribe of such a machist god.
* ''[[Scott Pilgrim]]'' The titular character is called out by his own girlfriend as being a pussy for not hitting girls. She ends up grabbing him by the arm and hitting the girls who were attacking them with his fist, because [[Foreshadowing|"you've got to learn how to hit a girl, Scott."]]
* ''[[Wonder Woman]]'' volume 3 #20, Diana ticks off [[Beowulf (Literature)|Beowulf]], and he attacks her. After she punches him in the face, Beowulf apologises and says he doesn't fight women. Then they see Grendel's worshippers approaching, and Diana asks him if he ever fights ''beside'' women. Cue the pair readying themselves for battle.
** Which is odd, because in the original Legends, one of the monsters Beowulf kills is Grendel's ''mother''.
*** ...who was less a woman, and more a man eating monster who just happened to be female.
** ''[[Green Lantern (Comic Book)|Green Lantern]]'' When Kyle Rayner went on a Hero Quest (asking established heroes questions on being a hero), one of [[Wonder Woman]]'s lessons to him was "never underestimate a woman." (The comic opens with Kyle beating Wonder Woman in a staged fight.)
* The first time [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]] encountered a female villain, he said that he couldn't hit a girl. Few of his villains even today are female.
** He gets over this later. In ''[[Secret Wars]]'' especially when he takes on Titania (who was about kill [[She Hulk]]) and throws her through a wall.
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* ''[[Shazam|Captain Marvel]]'' In a 1970s comic, the Marvel Family storms Hell itself. They fight various mythological monsters there; when they run into Lamia, neither Billy nor Freddy dare hit her, despite her being a half-snake monster. Luckily the brought Mary Marvel along. * Pow*
* ''[[The Punisher]]'' -- for a while. Prior to Garth Ennis, Frank had a habit of going easier on women than men. He once laments that he doesn't know why, given all the evil women he's met. They usually try to kill him despite his mercy, making it a moot point.
** Both subverted and played straight in a fairly recent ''[[The Punisher|Punisher]]'' Christmas Special (2005, I think), wherein a [[Dark Action Girl|hitwoman]] is hired by the wives of New York mafiosos killed by the Punisher. She has a decoy gun down civilians at Times Square on New Years Eve to draw Frank out, then they engage in brutal fight. Frank wins, and the hitwoman reveals she has a bizarre [[Stalker Withwith a Crush]] attitude towards Castle. She reveals her employers, Frank apparently kills her by tossing her out a window, and then confronts the wives. The lead one pulls a gun and is killed, while the others plead with Castle, who agrees to let them go, as long as they leave the country after donating money to the victims of the Times Square massacre.
* Played straight, but for laughs in the non-canon [[Planetary]]/[[Batman]] crossover comic. Several versions of Batman are encountered, including the Adam West one, who uses "Bat-Female-Villain-Repellent" on Jakita. The other versions have much less trouble hitting her.
* "''The Mad Adventures of Captain Klutz''" by Don Martin. Parodied in the short story "Chicken Soup", the [[wikipedia:Captain Klutz|titular hero]] bemoans the fact his superhero code prohibits him from hitting the evil woman villain turning everyone into zombies - but it doesn't say anything about not SHOOTING her!
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== Film ==
* ''[[Small Soldiers]]'' Chip Hazard references the trope, but he's very selective about how he applies it. His statement is in reference to a bunch of Barbie dolls he and his fellow toys roboticized. He really has no problem killing human women if necessary.
* ''[[Batman Returns (Film)|Batman Returns]]'' When Batman and Catwoman are fighting for the first time, she pummels him and he refuses to counterattack - for a moment. When finally he does punch her out, she whimpers, "How could you? I'm a ''woman!''" Immediately contrite, Batman moves to help her up... and she knocks him off the rooftop. "As I was saying, I'm a woman, and can't be taken for granted!" In later encounters, Batman has learnt his lesson and does hit her.
** On the other hand, it's obvious that one of the reasons Batgirl was introduced in ''[[Batman and Robin (Filmfilm)|Batman and Robin]]'' was to have one of the main heroes being female for the [[Designated Girl Fight|obligatory hand-to-hand combat with Poison Ivy]].
* ''[[Romeo Must Die (Film)|Romeo Must Die]]'' [[Jet Li]]'s character is attacked by a female assailant, and fights back by holding his love interest Aaliyah and manipulating her arms and legs so that ''she's'' technically the one beating up on the attacker. This scene inspired the famous dance between the pair in Aaliyah's music video for "Try Again".
* ''[[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Film)|Scott Pilgrim vs. the World]]'' features a scene where Scott must fight Ramona's fourth evil ex, Roxanne Richter. Scott protests, saying he doesn't want to hit girls. "They're soft." Instead, Ramona manipulates his limbs so she's the one actually fighting. Ultimately Scott must fight his own battles, but he manages to defeat Roxanne without hitting her by touching her erogenous zone behind her knee. Scott's chivalry stands in contrast to the final villain Gideon, who very pointedly [[Would Hit a Girl]].
** Actually, it was the other way around - Ramona manipulated Scott's hands, although Scott delivers the final hit. Additionally, while Gideon decidedly is willing to hit a girl, the issue first arises with the third evil ex, Todd. Quite a big deal is made about this event, as it is the last straw that Scott is willing to put up with and ultimately is the catalyst for that particular fight.
* ''[[Kung Fu Hustle]]'' A woman, whose husband/gangboss was just killed by the [[Big Bad]] rival gang, pleads the rival gangboss not to kill her. [[False Reassurance|He tells her that he doesn't hurt women.]] She thanks him and starts to walk away...and then the gang boss takes a shotgun and kills her with a single shot. Yup, he didn't ''hurt her'', he ''killed'' her.
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* ''[[Rush Hour]] 2'' Played with. As Carter (Chris Tucker) has to fight [[Zhang Ziyi]]'s character, he says "I'm gonna pretend you a man. A very beautiful man with a great body that I'd like to take to the movies."
* ''Fighter'', a Danish film, the sensei orders one of the members of the [[Action Girl]] lead's new kung fu club to fight her. He protests that he doesn't fight women. The sensei tells him to fight everyone, or leave.
* ''[[XXX (Film)|xXx]]: State of the Union'' Almost averted. Darius had no problem punching or incapacitating [[Dark Action Girl|Charlie]], but seems cannot bring himself finish her off. [[Colonel Badass|His superior]] must do this for him, saying "I told you you should kill that bitch".
* ''[[Ghost Dog: The Way of The Samurai]]'' plays with this trope. Louie, despite being a mobster, won't take any action against a female [[Meddlesome Patrolman|traffic cop]] who pulled him over for speeding, even though she's needlessly holding him up from attempting to get his dying friend Vinny to the hospital. Vinny, however, (who is also a mobster) [[Would Hit a Girl|doesn't even hesitate to shoot her]]. When a horrified Louie calls him on it, Vinny responds by saying that he's just treating her like he would any other cop.
* ''[[The Good, the Bad Andand Thethe Ugly]]'' averts this trope in order to [[Kick the Dog|show how evil The Bad is]]. However, according to an interview with the actor in question (Lee Van Cleef), he [[Mean Character, Nice Actor|refused to actually hit her]], so they had to use his stunt man for that scene.
* ''[[Time Cop]]'', Van Damme's character Max, confronts a female double agent who attacks him. Initially he doesn't fight back and tells her "I don't want to fight a woman." The woman has no qualms with hitting a man, so she gets some free attacks on him without retaliation. Max then subverts the trope when he says "I changed my mind," and punches her back.
* ''Force 10 From Navarone'' A variation appears when the [[Reverse Mole]] tells [[Harrison Ford]] and [[Robert Shaw]] they have to hit her to make their escape from [[Those Wacky Nazis]] look genuine. They both balk, but finally comply. Then she berates them for not hitting her hard enough.
* ''[[True Romance]]'' An early example of a full aversion, in which a hitman repeatedly punches the female protagonist full-on in the face--hard enough to knock her down.
* ''[[Small Faces]]'' A Glasgow gang movie [[Deconstructed]]; the [[Ambiguously Gay]] friend of the protagonist is cornered by a gaggle of women who start pushing him around trying to get a reaction. A mob of [[Violent Glaswegian|Violent Glaswegians]] happen to see this, and despite his not having raised a finger to the girls, they dish out a [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]] that puts him in intensive care.
* ''[[Godzilla Final Wars (Film)|Godzilla: Final Wars]]'', [[Badass Normal|Gordon]] receives the whole "You wouldn't hit a girl, would you?" routine; only to pause, smile, ball a fist, and reply "Yeah."
*** No, you're right he slaps her, she said this ''after'' she was fighting him, making this more of a [[Finishing Move]].
* ''[[Sudden Death]]'' features a brutal fight to the death between [[Jean Claude Van Damme]] 's character and a female assassin, which ends with the villain being simultaneously strangled and boiled alive. This trope is averted somewhat by the fact that the assassin spends the entire fight ''dressed in a giant penguin costume''.
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* In ''[[The Great Brain|More Adventures of the Great Brain]]'', the kids all taunt a 12-year old girl named Dottie, who dresses like a boy and has never been to school before. Ringleader Sammy gets a little too close, so she punches him in the nose. He says he'd fight back if she weren't a girl, but she tells him to go ahead. Sammy ends up eating dirt, and once she learns to fit in, Dottie becomes a celebrity among the other girls for beating up a bigger boy in a "fair and square fight."
* In [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s ''[[Chalion|Paladin of Souls]]'', Arhys {{spoiler|kills seven enemy sorcerers before being defeated by the eighth. Ista tells the others that the last sorcerer was probably a young and beautiful woman, and Arhys couldn't overcome his chivalry in time to win the fight. His brother remarks sadly that it is an appropriate death for him.}}
* ''[[Harry Potter (Literaturenovel)|Harry Potter]]'' generally averts this as the majority of duels are done with wands instead of fists. Notable is from [[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix|the fifth book]] where Harry wants to outright kill Bellatrix and is able to knock her off her feet for a moment. However from the same book there is a DA session where Michael Corner appears unwilling to try and disarm Ginny though she is his girlfriend. Interestingly, this is subtly presented as evidence of his jerkassery, rather than chivalry.
* Subverted in ''A World Gone Mad''. Jerkass [[Anti-Hero]] Griffin, when confronted by teen [[Action Girl]] Tanya, raises his hands and tells her "I'd never hit a girl." He then promptly whips out his gun and shoots her in the head while she's occupied preparing to give him a "you sexist idiot" speech.
** He later tries to pull the exact same move on Kyra, but she's quick enough and smart enough to dive for cover before he can clear his holster.
* Played completely straight in another of [[David Weber]]'s book series, the [[HellsHell's Gate]] series where both empires have big, big issues with harming women.
* Lobsang Ludd from the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Thief of Time|Thief of Time]]'' met 3 humanly disguised auditors. He beat two of them, but he couldn't beat up the third one. Why? Obviously, for no other reason than that the auditor had dressed itself as a woman. Lucky Susan Sto-Helit took it out.
** Banjo, a brutish but childlike thug from ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Hogfather|Hogfather]]'', had deep objections to hitting girls because of his monstrously domineering mother's rules.
** The Librarian usually [[Berserk Button|gets aggressive]], when he's called a monkey, but when Ginger does it in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Moving Pictures|Moving Pictures]]'', he just pats her hand.
*** He also just wags a finger at Agnes in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Maskerade|Maskerade]]'', to which another character says "He likes you. He doesn't usually go in for warnings."
* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[GauntsGaunt's Ghosts]] novel ''Traitor General'', when the [[La Résistance|resistance member]] Sabbatine Cirk baits and snipes at the members of Gaunt's team, it is Ana Curth who finally slugs her.
* In [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s [[Ciaphas Cain]] novel ''The Traitor's Hand'', the colonel of the Tallarn regiment refuses to participate in an interregimental competition of unarmed combat because the women in the Vallahan regiment would participate, which is "unseemly." Whereupon their regimental champion was "promptly and informally challenged" by a female Vallahan.
** oh and ''he'' gets in trouble - not because she's female but because she's higher in rank.
* The book ''[[Friday the 13th]]: Church of the Divine Psychopath'' has Captain Hobb, the leader of the strike team sent out to kill Jason, getting into a fight with a female member of the group named Samantha, who hates his guts and wants to take over the operation. While at first reluctant to fight back, Hobb says "screw it" after getting hit really hard one too many times and knocks Sam out with the combination of a [[Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty|Boob Attack]] and knee to the face.
* ''[[Baccano (Light Novel)|Baccano]] Drugs & Dominoes'' features a humorous scene in which the Gandor brothers, a [[Power Trio]] of [[Neighbourhood Friendly Gangsters]], try to figure out a way to punish a waitress from one of their speakeasies for breaking one of their [[The Mafia|family]]'s rules. They can't just pardon her, but they have very strong opinions on the subject of violence against women: "Raising a hand against a woman is the worst!" The final solution is to force on her a (rather nice) [[Traumatic Haircut]], at which point [[Heroic Sociopath|Claire]] wonders how they can [[Neighbourhood Friendly Gangsters|even bother calling themselves Mafia]].
* In several books in [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Valdemar]]'' setting, there is a sword named Need that cannot be used against a woman, even if its bearer will die if they can't defend themselves. Needless to say, this can cause problems. The reasons for this are different than the usual justification - Need's bearers are usually women themselves. The sword was forged specifically for the purpose of stopping violence against women.
* In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[John Carter of Mars|A Princess of Mars]]'', this is the rule among the Green Martians. However, Tars Tarkas warns a murderess:
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* ''The Survivalist'' series by Jerry Ahern. Sarah Rourke takes a [[Dirty Communists|Soviet officer]] hostage and forces him to release members of [[La Résistance]]. She later discovers that he'd been carrying a concealed pistol all the time, but had been unable to bring himself to shoot her.
* In the short story "[[The Living Daylights]]" [[James Bond]] [[Blasting It Out of Their Hands|shoots a rifle out of the hands]] of a female Soviet sniper rather than kill her, endangering the defector he was covering. Given that no-one would believe that these days, it was changed in the movie to Bond noticing the sniper was an obvious amateur and realising something was wrong.
* This trope is mocked in Gerald Morris' series ''[[The Squires Tales|The Squire's Tales]]''. In one book, Sir Gawain finds out that his younger brother (Gareth, I think?) informed a potential (male) opponent that he would "never raise a sword against the skirts of womanhood." The other guy showed up in a skirt, and the poor, dumb brother let him win. Gawain is very disgusted with him.
** Has to be Gareth. Agrivaine is a boor and Gaheris is a pragmatist. And Mordred isn't in this continuity.
** Variations on this trope come up a couple of times. ''The Princess, the Crone, and the Dungcart Knight,'' an adaptation of [[ChretienChrétien Dede Troyes (Creator)|Chretien De Troyes]]' ''The Knight of the Cart'', features a girl with a sword, who has to cope both with the fact that she's about eleven and that she's female in terms of getting taken seriously. Although people not taking her seriously is the only reason she survives the book, given all she ever gets trained to do is quickdraw.
* The Sisters of the Light attempt to invoke this with Richard in the [[Sword of Truth]] book, Stone of Tears. He promptly tells them off for how stupid that idea is.
* Played straight in ''[[Never Let Me Go]]''. [[Hair-Trigger Temper|Tommy]] is horrified when he accidentally whacks Kathy across the face. Later, when he apologizes to her, he states that he'd "never hit a girl".
* In ''[[Goosebumps|Monster Blood III]]'' , Evan and [[Gender Blender Name|Andy]] can't stop laughing after drinking a formula they were given. When [[The Bully|Conan]] thinks they are laughing at him, he beats up Evan. Since he doesn't hit girls, he sticks Andy on a tree branch.
* It's Madeline Bassett's good fortune that [[Jeeves and Wooster (Literaturenovel)|Bertie Wooster]] is too much of a proper Englishman to knock some understanding into her in ''Right Ho, Jeeves''.
{{quote| The exquisite code of politeness of the Woosters prevented me clipping her one on the ear-hole, but I would have given a shilling to be able to do it.}}
* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: Harry Wong in ''Lethal Justice'' apparently has this attitude towards Yoko Akia when they spar against each other. She non-hesitatingly kicks his ass, but she is still willing to have a relationship with him anyway!
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Star Trek]]'' plays this straight a lot. Which is weird, since the Federation (especially from the TNG era on) is generally portrayed as a liberal utopia free from all gender prejudice.
** ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV)|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' In the episode ''Dax'', [[Dogged Nice Guy|Dr Bashir follows Dax to her quarters]] and sees her being kidnapped by a [[Terrible Trio]]. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|After punching]] [[The Scrappy|their leader]], one of the other two goes for him. He is about to punch when the hood comes down and he sees it's a woman. Needless to say, the poor guy got his ass handed to him.
*** Later in the same episode, Sisko (who knew the Dax symbiont's previous host, Curzon Dax), gets really frustrated with Jadzia's unwillingness to stand up for herself at her hearing. "Dammit, if you were still a man!"
** Another ''Deep Space 9'' episode ''Paradise Lost'' Odo breaks {{spoiler|Captain Sisko}} out of jail in Starfleet Headquarters. There are two guards in the room where the cell is located: one male, one female. He first punches the male guard, then does a sort of Vulcan neck pinch on the female guard.
** The ''Original Series'' episode ''Charlie X'', plays this straight, with Captain Kirk telling the titular character "There's no right way to hit a woman." In the episode "[[Star Trek (Franchise)/Recap/S3 E24 Turnabout Intruder|Turnabout Intruder]]" an ex-lover of Kirk's, while in Kirk's body, hit Kirk, who was in her body. This shocked the crew and provoked suspicion, as Kirk would never do such a thing...except in ''Star Trek VI'' when he did.
* Spoofed in an episode of ''[[Get Smart (TV)|Get Smart]]'':
{{quote| '''Evil Female Agent''': You wouldn't hit a lady, would you?<br />
'''Agent 13''': Well, no.<br />
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* ''[[MacGyver]]'' In the episode, "Phoenix Under Siege," Mac Gyver has a fight with a female bomber. Well, not exactly. She does all the hitting, he doesn't even try to hit her and she eventually plummets to her death after missing during an attempted flying kick. By going out through the window.
* Both played straight and subverted in a single episode of ''[[Highlander the Series]]''. An immortal former lover of Duncan's, (a [[Psycho Ex-Girlfriend]] sort) with a penchant for trying to ruin his life (or the lives of people around him) including by murdering potential [[Love Interests]] shows up. When they duel, Duncan disarms her but cannot bring himself to kill her. At that point Methos, a friend of Duncan's and a 5,000 year old [[Anti-Hero]] immortal with no qualms about saying [[I Did What I Had to Do]] steps in, introduces himself to her as a man born long before the age of chivalry, challenges her to a fight and beheads her in about 30 seconds.
* ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' the 1960s series. The villains' girlfriends never got involved in the fights, Batgirl never got hit, and in one especially goofy moment, the villain uses a ''gang of schoolgirls'' to capture Robin, knowing that he's 'too much of a gentleman' to hit a woman.
** Revealing exception: In "The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra," Batgirl actually takes several punches... all from invisible opponents.
* ''[[Lois and Clark]]'' (a.k.a. ''The New Adventures of [[Superman]]'') In one episode a female villain yells at Superman "You can't hit a lady can you?". She is then, however, promptly hit on the head by one of her male victims. The lady in question had just acquired Superman's powers and was just as strong and tough as him.
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*** Actually, it's a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] / [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] for Alex. Gene calls her, among other things, a bitch, and first, she slaps him. He patronizingly asks her "you feel better now?". She uppercuts him, knocking him back, and grins, quipping "no, better ''now''".
* ''[[S Club 7]] in L.A.'' (aka L.A.7) in the episode "Fall Out," after Jo and Bradley were fighting, Tina is shocked that Bradley had hit a girl, while Jon is more concerned that Jo had half killed Bradley.
* ''[[Walker, Texas Ranger]]'' rarely features female villains presumably for this reason. The few times they do appear in the show, another way around it is generally found, such as the female ranger they introduced in a [[Very Special Episode]] showing up to stop her.
** In the episode "Forgotten People", a nursing home is run by a sinister group experimenting on Alzheimer's patients. The group is headed up by a woman, and at the end of the episode, after Walker and company beat up the Mooks and the villain's sidekick, the villain herself has to be punched out by an old woman introduced in this episode, who had previously masqueraded as a [[Cloudcuckoolander]].
** Apparently averted at least once... because Conan used that clip on his show, acting shocked after it was over.
** [[Would Hit a Girl|The exact opposite of this trope]], however, was regularly used with the villains, who frequently batter women in many episodes, always without fear of the consequences. (Children and elderly people have also been known to be hit and injured by the bad guys in episodes.)
* ''[[Firefly (TV)|Firefly]]'' Given a speech about 'shooting girls' Mal gives in the pilot, you'd think that this is alive and well in the Old West [[In Space]]. {{spoiler|Right up to the end of 'Our Mrs Reynolds', when he corners would-be ship thief and title character Saffron. He asks her what her real name is in a moment that seems full of emotional tension. She pauses, starts to speak ... and he slugs her. Then again, this is well after she poisoned him and left him and his crew to die, so he's probably feeling a mite justified.}} The brawl at the start of 'The Train Job' suggests that this doesn't apply anyway. (And seeing what usually happens to people who so much as threaten Mal's crew, let alone put them in actual danger, {{spoiler|Saffron}} really got off lightly.)
* Subverted in ''[[The Wild Wild West (TV series)|The Wild Wild West]]'': The second (In Color!) [[Animated Credits Opening]] changed a scene of Jim West incapacitating a female assassin with a kiss to incapacitating her with a right cross. That's right: Woman-punching was specially added for the new-and-improved credits sequence. Though given he shot all other opponents, it's still a step down on violence: [[Double Subversion|James West wouldn't shoot a girl.]]
* Played with in ''[[Chuck]]'':
{{quote| '''Enormous bully:''' I don't fight girls.<br />
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** However, especially in the early episodes, it's notable how many times he gets weakened by [[Kryptonite Is Everywhere|conveniently placed kryptonite]] and gets his ass handed to him by a female villain who then gets conveniently defeated by happenstance, whilst he's allowed to throw around male villains who are a lot weaker than him. Perhaps the most obvious example is the Tina Greer episodes, where she has to morph into a male form before Clark's "allowed" to fight her.
** Averted somewhat when a Kandorian woman brings blue Kryptonite (which takes away Clark's powers but doesn't cause him pain like the green variety) with her and tries to kill him. Clark defends himself quite handily, even though he hasn't had the military combat training his opponent had.
* ''[[Malcolm in Thethe Middle]]'' In one episode Reese is terrorized by a four-year-old girl who loves to bite him, but when he can't bring himself to hit her, he concocts a [[Zany Scheme]] to run her and her family out of town.
* ''[[The A-Team (TV)|The A-Team]]'' Face would never, ever hit a girl, but he once punched a girl in the jaw [[Playing Withwith a Trope|on accident]] because he mistook her for one of the villain's [[Mook|Mooks]]. He felt bad about it.
* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' Not spoken outright, but in "After Hours" Chase goes to considerable lengths to warn Thirteen that he's going to move her out of the way when she refuses to allow him to take her stab victim, parolee friend to the hospital (even though she'll die if he doesn't). When she still refuses, he moves her out of the way without hurting her, prompting her to attack him. After several very weak looking punches and one that looked like it might have hurt, Chase easily overpowers her (with a distinct look of [[Oh Crap]] on her face as he does) and she ends up on the floor. Later in the episode, she's putting ice on her neck and he apologises for having hurt her - even though she nearly killed her friend and assaulted him in the process.
* In ''[[Community (TV)|Community]]'' episode [[Community (TV)/Recap/S1 E24 English As a Second Language|English as a Second Language]] after Annie sabotages the study group, Troy voices his frustration with this rule.
{{quote| '''Troy:''' Someone make her a dude so I can punch her!}}
* Played with in an episode of ''[[Roseanne]]'', when Dan is trying to explain to DJ why he got arrested for beating up Jackie's abusive boyfriend:
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**** Part of it may be that Spike also airs the program in Canada.
* Hilariously averted on an episode of ''[[WWE Raw]]'' where Santino Marella, [[Beth Phoenix]], JBL, and [[Randy Orton]] are all arguing before [[Batista]] comes out and challenges Santino, JBL, and Randy to a fight at the same time. He then apologizes and tells Beth Phoenix he'd gladly kick her ass too. After Santino comes at Batista and gets dropped, Beth slaps him and gets slammed on top of Santino.
** This might be considered one of those "Chyna exemption" moments, because Phoenix is in incredible shape, certainly by [[WWE (Wrestling)/Divas/Characters|WWE]] standards. (Her nickname is "The Glamazon"-- the glamorous Amazon.)
** Also as much a part due to her training and background. Unlike even the most athletic of her contemporaries who may be at best, fitness models, dancers, or gymnasts, [[Beth Phoenix]] has a background in collegiate wrestling. As a result, it's something of a truth in television that she's generally tougher than the other women. On the flip side, it also means her matches tend to be fairly lopsided since a dancer or model isn't likely to be willing to actually engage in any real wrestling beyond basic bumps.
* [[ECW]] blatantly averting this would have to have been one of the reasons it became so infamous in the 90s. The biggest example would be [[Beyond the Impossible|the Pitbulls putting Francine through a table with a Superbomb]]. And the crowd went nuts for it!
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== Video Games ==
* ''[[Bully (Videovideo Gamegame)|Bully]]'' allows you to hit girls, but your alert bar goes to maximum and prefects spawn out of nowhere to attack you. Justified, since it's a Western game, after all. This has a side-effect of turning Zoe {{spoiler|who doesn't appear until very late in the game and fills the conspicuously-empty Bully clique girl's slot}} into a [[Faux Action Girl]], because although she's stated to a formidable fighter and really likes to fight, you can't fight her; the girl-type AI has them run away if struck.
* The ''[[Final Fantasy (Franchise)|Final Fantasy]]'' series. Every character is willing to hit a girl, but there are a few exceptions;
** ''[[Final Fantasy VII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VII]]'' Cloud can be taken as this, when Elena confronts you about allegedly doing in her boss, you can either dodge her punch or letting her clean your clock, leaving her to wonder why you just let it happen.
** ''[[Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VIII]]'' Raijin. During the three boss fights with him, he will refuse to attack if there are only female characters left standing in the player's party, claiming "I don't hit girls, ya know?" His partner Fujin is female and has no such reservations.
** ''[[Final Fantasy IX (Video Game)|Final Fantasy IX]]'' Zidane has an ability called 'Protect Girls', in which he will take the damage for the female characters in your party, and in [[Dissidia Final Fantasy (Video Game)|Dissidia Final Fantasy]] says when up against [[Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)|Terra]] 'A girl? This'll be tricky...', though this doesn't affect his gameplay. He also once picks fighting a man over fighting a woman in the storyline. In his own game he has no compunctions about fighting and killing the Alexandrian soldiers when they're invading Cleyra or trying to stop him from rescuing Dagger.
*** As proven with General Beatrix and Lani, he ''will'' fight women without a problem, and in some cases flirt with them too.
** During a particular boss battle, the boss will refuse to attack Princess Garnet. However, he has a good reason - he was sent to kidnap her. If Garnet is the last party member alive, the boss will attempt to put her to sleep, and ''that'' counts as being defeated. So while she won't be attacked, she doesn't have to die for you to still lose.
*** In a later boss battle with this character, however, takes place while the character in question is... not well. He will still not hit Garnet/Dagger, but, should all other party members be incapacitated, it will proceed to attack ''itself''. Apparently, when constructing magical death machines, chivalry comes bofore sanity.
* The ''[[Guilty Gear (Video Game)|Guilty Gear]]'' series. Ky Kiske has the traditional chivalrous aversion towards fighting women all-out, as evidenced by his post-fight quote against Millia Rage. If she ends up beating him, she also notes that he held back. This attitude probably ends up being more counterproductive than not, especially considering his run-ins with hair-trigger powerhouses like Baiken and Jam Cloudberry.
* ''[[Puzzle Quest]]'' Optional party member Princess Serephine makes use of this trope as her support ability, improving the player's battle skill against good opponents that "wouldn't strike a lady." Which invokes a nice bit of [[Fridge Logic]] when you're playing ''as'' a female.
* ''[[No More Heroes]]'' During the first half of the game, Travis Touchdown has no problem with beating on his female opponents with his [[Laser Blade|beam katana]] during the ranking match battles but chokes when it comes time to actually kill them. He gets called out on this by Holly Summers, the sixth ranking assassin, before she {{spoiler|eats one of her own grenades to spare Travis the experience of dispatching her}}. After this, Travis never shows any hesitation in finishing the job in subsequent fights against female assassins. Helps that the female combatants he encounters happen to be completely psychotic to some extent or another.
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* ''[[Sonic Adventure Series]] 2'' Mostly averted and referenced. Following Knuckles' fight with Rouge, she shames him for attacking a lady (despite her [[Hypocritical Humor|trying to kick, electrocute and at one point even strangle him]]). She's forced to eat her words when {{spoiler|he saves her from dying seconds on}}.
* ''[[Freedom Force]]'' When you first encounter the Ice Queen enemy, Minuteman says "I can't hit a woman!". The Ice Queen replies "Good darling, as I'll happily hit ''you!''" Naturally, you can kick her ass without restraint.
* ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'' two female villains, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, appear. Even though {{spoiler|Poison Ivy is the second-last boss in the game}}, you don't actually get to fight either hand to hand despite having pummeled, dropped, tossed, hung, and concussed in various amusing ways a horde of (male) mooks. Although, you see Batman tossing {{spoiler|Harley}} into the protection of the pit, driving her to semi-unconsciousness, and then {{spoiler|throwing her inside the prison cell}} like she was just a strap doll.
** This is still the trope played straight though as if it were any other boss in the game, the act of fighting Harley and trapping her would be a boss fight instead of a cutscene.
** In the sequel, ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]'', she charges at Batman again and this time you get to take the controls. Once again, she proves that she is absolutely not a match for him. Averted later when Batman is given female assassins to fight. When you fight Poison Ivy, you can throw batarangs that look like they are hitting her between the legs and causing her to scream like she is having the mother of all orgasms.
* The ''[[Batman]]'' games.
* ''The Adventures of Batman & Robin'' made by [[Konami]] and released on the SNES in 1994. In Poison Ivy's level Batman has to fight his way through female mooks, and the game is designed in such a way as to not allow him to beat them up, only incapacitate them with some sort of gas. On the other hand, in Konami's previous Batman game for the SNES (''Batman Returns'', 1993), Batman treats the female knife-throwers just like everyone else. Both games were made by the same team.
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** To explain, Poison (and her orange-haired palate swap Roxy) were originally just women. Then, the SNES version of ''[[Final Fight]] 2'' took them out and replaced them with two male characters, Sid and Billy. That was when all the nonsense about Poison being transgendered started.
** And then the creator finally told Poison's true identity. [[And the Fandom Rejoiced]]. Kinda... Atleast not for some people.
* ''[[The Godfather (Videovideo Gamegame)|The Godfather]]'' In the second game your crew has no objections to wantonly murdering anyone who so much as looks at you funny but if you attack a female npc they twiddle their thumbs on the sidelines.
* In ''[[Mafia II]]'' attacking male pedestrians will engage you in a bout of fistycuffmanship but female pedestrians can only be shoved and sent fleeing in terror. If you run after them they remain immune to attack, nor can they be kicked whilst they cower, huddled in a ball.
* Played with and discussed in ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'': Zero [[Would Hit a Girl]], but in his first fight against Leviathan she accuses him of this when she isn't immediately killed by his final strike. She adds that she told him not to show mercy, making it rude of him to invoke this trope. He remains silent throughout, so we never find out whether this trope is actually in effect. <ref> Since the male Guardians are not immediately killed either, it's unlikely.</ref>
* Ganondorf, [[Big Bad|King Of Evil]] in the ''Zelda'' series, has an interesting tendency to ignore the princess Zelda when she takes part in the final battle, and take minimal steps to restrain her even though she is occasionally instrumental to Link's victory. In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: theThe Wind Waker (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker]]'', although he does give her a heavy backhand, he goes out of his way (even sheathing his swords) to avoid seriously harming Zelda, while she's actively trying to kill him.
* In [[Fallout 2]], if your Chosen One is female, Enclave patrols will occasionally express their displeasure about having to kill a woman. Doesn't stop them from tearing her a new one with their hi-tech weapons though.
* In ''[[Blaz Blue]]'', this is one of the [[Pet the Dog|nicer traits]] of [[Badass|Ragna]] [[One-Man Army|the]] [[Anti-Hero|Blood]][[Jerk Withwith a Heart of Gold|edge]]. Granted, he won't hold back if a woman attacks him or tries to apprehend him, but he states several times that he doesn't enjoy fighting them, and when he does defeat them, he is usually quite sympathetic and regretful.
 
 
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Justified in the [[Web Comic]] ''[[Fans|Fans!]]'' with Will Erixon: {{spoiler|he feared becoming like his father, who beat his mother to death.}}
* Noted in ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]'': when a dire situation requires heroic warrior Roy Greenhilt to magically [[Gender Bender|change his gender]], and his friend Haley gives him some grief about it, he/she warns her: "[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0236.html You know, technically it's now OK for me to hit a girl. I'm just saying.]"
* ''[[Ozy and Millie (Webcomic)|Ozy and Millie]]'' plays with this trope [http://www.ozyandmillie.org/d/19990310.html here].
* Used straight in ''[[Misfile]]'' [http://www.misfile.com/index.php?page=33 when Emily slaps Ash and tells her she can only hit back if she's willing to accept being a girl.] Semi-averted later when Ash picks a fight with Tom and he fights back (offscreen) until they're pulled apart. (It's not a true aversion since Tom is never actually shown striking Ash.) Naturally, the [[Double Standard]] ensures that Tom gets punished and Ash doesn't even though she started the fight, which both relieves her and annoys her to no end. Fully averted later [http://www.misfile.com/?page=1312 here], when Ash loses her cool and actually ''does'' hit a girl full-force in the face, only to freak out about it afterwards.
* '''So''' averted in [http://bukucomics.com/loserz/go/155 this] ''[[Loserz]]'' strip. Fortunately, Jodie isn't one to take things laying down, as seen [http://bukucomics.com/loserz/go/157 here].
** Played with later on as well, when Jodie wants Ben to hit her as payback for her having {{spoiler|slept with Ben's long-time crush Jessica, who had just come out of the closet}}. Ben [http://bukucomics.com/loserz/go/513 plays the trope straight] at first... then immediately [http://bukucomics.com/loserz/go/514 subverts] [http://bukucomics.com/loserz/go/515 it].
* Mostly averted in ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]''. Elliot refuses to go all out when sparring with Nanase but he claims it's only because he's afraid to go full out against anybody. Tedd becomes extremely upset when he learns that Damien used to hit Grace but that's probably because he loves her. However, the fact that the comic uses women hitting men with a hammer as humour and shows no real consequences when, for example, Susan slaps Tedd, does show that the double-standard is in play.
** Mr. Verres, however, follows this trope completely as shown [http://egscomics.com/?date=2010-11-01 here.] Even though he knows that the "girl" in question is [[Gender Bender|normally a guy]] he still won't deliver the much-deserved [[Dope Slap]].
* The [[Villain Protagonist]] Hunter Ravenwood of [[Suicide for Hire]] claims that [[Even Evil Has Standards|"I draw the line at the unwarranted violent abuse of the fairer sex."]] This does not stop him accepting female clients of the eponymous business, however, nor did it stop him from planning the most grotesque death yet for a female client. {{spoiler|His plan involved, in Arcturus' words, "having metal hooks shoved up [her] ass to forcibly remove [her] innards". When Arcturus argued that this was too close to rape, Hunter amended the plan and shoved the hooks down her throat instead.}} Evidence suggests he tries not to think of the clients as people in the first place.
* Parodied in ''[[Girly]]'' in [http://girlyyy.com/go/511 this strip].
* ''[[Last ResortRes0rt]]'', being a (reasonably) egalitarian [[Cyberpunk]] future setting, sees very few problems with women fighting alongside men on the show, or shoving people into a pit full of [[Mecha -Mooks|robotic chickens]] for a job interview... but when [http://www.lastres0rt.com/?p=53 Jason slaps Daisy upside the head], almost every other woman in the room is still shocked and appalled, to the point that Jigsaw's overly dramatic [[Freak-Out]] is [http://www.lastres0rt.com/?p=54 dismissed as a bad reaction to the scene], ignoring the [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|dead eyes]] she just showed off... Daisy was chained to the wall by her hands and foot, and was helpless when it happened. She was trying to provoke him at the time anyway...
* Played straight AND averted in [http://gunshowcomic.com/347 this] [[Gunshow]] comic
* [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' when the [[Super Villain]] Crushestro (who normally kills his enemies by crushing their skulls with his bare hands) [[Even Evil Has Standards|refuses to do so to a female opponent]]. [http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20101111 Instead he proposes a much gorier solution.]
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== Web Original ==
* Sarge of ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'', despite his usual willingness to shoot or hit anything Blue (or Grif). In Reconstruction, when the blue soldiers of Blood Gulch consist of only Sister, Sarge insists that he can't attack Sister because she's a woman, and thus they are locked in an 'epic stalemate'.
* In ''[[Epic Rap Battles of History]]'', [[Ludwig Van Beethoven]] says this is why he won't smack [[Justin Bieber (Music)|Justin Bieber]].
 
 
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' By and large averted but played with in-story [[Kayfabe]] no less, in the episode "The Blind Bandit":
{{quote| '''The Boulder:''' [[Third Person Person|The Boulder]] feels conflicted about fighting a young, [[Disability Superpower|blind]] girl.<br />
'''[[Cute Bruiser|Toph]]:''' Sounds to me like you're ''scared''.<br />
'''The Boulder:''' * Beat* [[Nobody Calls Me Chicken|The Boulder is over his conflicted feelings, and is now ready to bury you in a Rockalanche!]] }}
** That said, what makes people feel bad about the idea of hitting Toph (before they realize she's [[Little Miss Badass|an unstoppable badass]]) is primarily that (a) she's ''blind'' and (b) she's twelve years old and on the small side for her age. Gender comes ''way'' down on the list.
* ''[[Batman: Under the Red Hood]]'': [[Bad Boss|Black]] [[Ax Crazy|Mask]] goes off on a tangent and punches all of his lieutenants, ''except'' Ms. Li, despite the fact that she's a bit of a [[Deadpan Snarker]] towards him (emphasis on deadpan).
* Meanwhile, ''[[Batman: theThe Animated Series]]'' rarely showed Batman hitting the female villains even when he was forced to actually fight them. Notably, the episode "Two-Face", which featured one female villain in Thorne's henchwoman Candice, showed said henchwoman being taken out by Grace, Two-Face's untrained and unarmed fiancee. She shoved her face in a rose bush. ''Ouch''. A later episode showed Robin actually fighting Candice.
* ''[[Ben 10 (Animation)|Ben 10]]'': Ben won't hit or fight a female criminal, except when she has been transformed into an alien cyborg by accident; after she is transformed she tries to use the "I'm just a girl" defense only to be kicked in the head by Gwen.
** In addition, he also usually doesn't actively combat teenage villainess Charmcaster, leaving it to Gwen to defeat her (Well, Charmcaster ''is'' Gwen's arch-enemy, not Ben's, after all.)
* ''Birdman'': It turns out the titular hero refuses to harm women in "Empress of Evil," the one episode to feature a female villain. Fortunately, that's what non-injurious (and completely out-of-nowhere) "stun rays" are for.
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* ''[[Darkwing Duck]]'': In one episode, DW and Gosalyn (in her identity as Quiverwing Quack) are facing the villainess Splatter Pheonix. Splatter taunts Darkwing, saying that his code of honor would never allow him to hit a woman. Darkwing sighs, and admits she's right.
{{quote| '''Darkwing'''"Quiverwing -- ''you'' do it." }}
* ''[[Duck TalesDuckTales]]'': One episode has Gizmo Duck trying to get a robot to stop hitting him by disguising himself as a woman. When that doesn't work, he tries the same costume again, but with glasses. He still gets hit.
* ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'': Ed mentions that he is forbidden to hit girls. His younger sister Sarah, who knows full well that he can lift houses with ease, endlessly exploits this. Ed is an endlessly cheerful [[Cloudcuckoolander]], so she can get away with it. The one time he ''isn't'', she's genuinely frightened.
* ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'': An episode has Timmy and his grandfather transported to the world of classic cartoons. When Vicky tries to crash the party and complete her evil plan, Timmy can't hit her because in this era of cartoons, a man couldn't hit a woman. In response, Timmy merely wishes for his fairy godparents to [[Gender Bender|turn Vicky into a man]]. Problem solved!
** In another episode, when Mrs. Turner as [[Action Mom|Mighty Mom]] faces one of the Nega Chin's henchmen, he refuses to face her because he doesn't fight girls. She retorts with "I'm not a girl! I'm a soccer mom!" and hits him with soccer balls.
* ''[[Fantastic Four (TVanimation)|Fantastic Four]]'': In one episode of the 90s animated series, the Thing says he can't hit a lady when he meets Malice. It doesn't take her long to convince him that she ain't no lady. Since Malice is [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] and has no compunctions about how she uses her forcefield powers she shuts Ben down real quick. (After this episode, you'll never say [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|her powers suck again]].)
* ''[[Futurama]]'' [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] this in "Where No Fan Has Gone Before":
{{quote| '''Shatner:''' There's no right way to hit a woman.<br />
'''Leela:''' Then do it the wrong way! }}
* ''[[Justice League]]'': In a full on brawl between the Justice League and Gorilla Grodd's Society in one episode, Giganta, a woman the size of a several story building, causes Superman to pause by doing the "You wouldn't hit a lady, would you?" routine. So Wonder Woman announces that ''she'' would and promptly decks her.
** Superman ''has'' hit women in his own series, so that probably wouldn't have worked for long anyway. When he tackled Livewire through a wall on ''[[Superman: theThe Animated Series]]'', she incredulously goes, "At least we know you hit girls!"
** Justice League heavily averts this in general though. Hawkgirl in particular tends to get beat up on quite a bit.
* ''[[Ka Blam!]]'': Mr. Foot will NEVER hurt June (he'll hurt Henry enough to make him go to the ER however).
* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'': In the [[Freaky Friday Flip]] episode, Perry the Teenage Girl defeats his nemesis Dr. Doofenshmirtz even more easily than usual, because Doofenshmirtz can't hit a girl: "It's so, ''como se dice'', awkward!"
** For added points, he didn't even realize that he was (sort of) a girl, he thought it was a weird disguise.
* [[Popeye]] has to fight Bluto and the Sea Hag, but he will not strike a woman, so he gives Olive Oyl some spinach; he dispatches Bluto and she takes care of the Sea Hag.
** In the original ''Thimble Theater'' comic strip Popeye felt conflicted about hitting the Sea Hag at first, but then decided it was okay because her mean nature makes her "[[No True Scotsman|no lady]]."
* ''[[Tom and Jerry (Animation)|Tom and Jerry]]'': For some reason Tom will stop chasing Jerry if he disguises himself as a girl, presumably because of this trope.
* In ''[[Transformers]]: [[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'' even before he fell head-over-heels for her, Silverbolt's [[Ideal Hero]] personality prevented him from attacking [[Dark Action Girl]] / [[Femme Fatale]] Blackarachnia throughout the series. This fails to please anyone, as the other Maximals have no qualms over stomping her flat, and Blackarachnia herself is insulted by the idea that she's not a significant enough threat to fight.
* In ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', this version of Blackarachnia ''does'' take advantage of it. In "Along Came A Spider", she asks a gawping Bulkhead and Bumblebee "You wouldn't hurt a helpless femme-bot, would you?". {{spoiler|Then she poisons them both}}. There's no Silverbolt in this series, so it looks like Optimus Prime is going to be the one she uses most..
** Soundwave doesn't follow this trope, and with ignoring [[Wouldn't Hurt a Child]] too, attacks Sari with the power of rock, slamming her against a wall.
* ''[[The Venture Bros]]'': Brock Samson, the [[Made of Iron]] murder-happy bodyguard follows his mentor's rules to the letter -- he never kills women (he will fight them, however, with gusto). {{spoiler|Said mentor, on the run from the law years later, uses this to his advantage -- Brock hunts him down only to discover he's had a sex change, although he always wanted "big beautiful tits".}} It's purely out of his respect for him, as Brock seems to think the rule is silly, and tries to provide examples where killing a woman would be okay.
* The trailer for the ''[[Wonder Woman (Filmanimation)|Wonder Woman]]'' animated movie has WW saying "It's not polite to hit a lady." Some fans found it rather odd that she would say this, considering [[Lady Land|her native culture]] is a [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]. There's a good chance that line was deliberately taken out-of-context. (It was.)
* ''[[Xiaolin Showdown (Animation)|Xiaolin Showdown]]'' had an episode where Clay refused to fight the villain Kattnappe, but this was resolved when he decided crushing her in a bear hug was okay, because, you know, he didn't ''hit'' her. Well, it is just a hold...
* ''[[The Boondocks]]'' parodies this mercilessly in the episode where Tom and his wife have a fight and she kicks him out.
* ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures (Animation)|Jackie Chan Adventures]]'' had an episode where a villain who had been defeated by the J-team before created an anti-J-team made of [[Evil Counterpart|evil counterparts]] of the heroes: a martial artist to face Jackie; a master thief to face Viper; a wrestler to face El Toro; and the world's strongest woman to face Tohru. When Tohru and his [[Evil Counterpart]] first met, Tohru didn't want to fight a woman so he tried (and failed) to make an adversary of one of the others. After it failed, all he did was dodging her attacks until he tricked her into running downstairs, which made her fall into a similar fashion to the one he did twice in one episode before his [[Heel Face Turn]]. (Well, she was indeed his evil counterpart).
* Subverted on ''[[The Simpsons]]'' when Lisa has to deal with a bully and tries to hire Nelson, Jimbo, Kearney, and Dolph as bodyguards. They promptly decline as soon as they found out her bully is a girl, not because they don't believe in hitting girls, but because girls kick, bite, and scratch. And sometimes they fall in love.
* Judge Mills Lane subverts it during his fight with [[Judge Judy]] in ''[[Celebrity Deathmatch]]''. Although he does make it known that he doesn't hit women, he puts a blindfold on as a handicap and proceeds to fight her.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/908090"
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