Women Prefer Strong Men
There's All Amazons Want Hercules for the idea that strong women want men stronger than themselves, but an even older stereotype goes even further; that the crucial part isn't even just being significantly stronger than the woman he's trying to win over; it's being strong, period. In turn, even a weak woman isn't going to be impressed by a guy merely stronger than her; he has to be fairly strong as far as guys go, too.
It all goes back to the old stereotype that women prefer strong men, at least as far as dating goes, no matter how weak or strong the woman herself is.
Note the phrase "as far as dating goes." Even works applying this assumption may still portray women as befriending weak guys, or perhaps even considering them "cute" in a very literal sense of the word; but it will still present a major in-universe obstacle to weak guys looking for a date.
Contrast Weakness Turns Her On.
Anime and Manga
- Possible with Bulma in Dragon Ball, which might explain her falling for Vegeta, recently a genocidal villain, in Dragonball Z.
- Also Chichi with Son Goku, Earth's most powerful warrior.
- Videl with Son Gohan.
- A de-aged Mai with Trunks.
- Launch has a huge crush on Tien Shinhan.
- Once he gets over his fear of girls, Yamcha becomes a Chick Magnet.
- Ryo Fujihashi becomes the girlfriend of Souma Mizuno in Fire in His Fingertips.
- Casca ends up falling in love with Guts in Berserk.
- Rekka has sex with three different girls because of this in Blood Shadow.
- After Yukiha Serizawa from The Girl in the Library: Until The Pure You Falls From Grace becomes Masami's Sex Slave of her own free will, she calls him a strong man by Chapter 6.
Comic Books
- This is the premise behind Charles Atlas ads in comic books.
Film
- The pictured example from Toy Story 3 is more of a parodical example.
- In Beauty and the Beast, Gaston was admired by the village because of this, especially with the Bimbettes. Belle was the sole exception.
- In Hercules, Hercules gets a following because of this. He only loves Meg though.
Live-Action TV
- In The Big Bang Theory, all of Penny's ex-boyfriends are dumb, muscular people.
- In the Louie episode "Bully," the middle-aged Louie is on a date with a middle-aged woman. It goes well until a teenager whom Louie asked to quiet down comes over and threatens to beat Louie up. Louie backs down and his date explains in brutally honest fashion that while she understands intellectually that Louie made the sensible, adult choice, at some gut level for her he's simply not a sexual or romantic prospect anymore because he wasn't "strong." They exchange awkward, mutually unhappy goodbyes, with both of them acknowledging that this is a screwed up situation, and the date ends.
- This is a major point in an episode of Noah's Arc. When Wade and noah briefly live together for the first time, Noah sees all the beauty products Wade uses. Noah later comments with his friends about how the whole "metrosexuality" thing is a bit of turn off and prefers a strong, rugged man.
Video Games
- Muzét becomes quite flirty towards some of the male characters in Tales of Xillia 2, especially Gaius. If you build up her affinity and work on her sidequests, in one of her dialogues, she asks Ludger if he built up some muscle.
- This trope comes into play if you pursue Alex as a romantic interest in Stardew Valley.
Web Comics
- In Sailor Sun, after a Gender Bender transformation Bay is rather disturbed to discover she is now apparently really attracted to muscular guys.
- The Scandinavia and the World strip "Different Flavors" plays this trope straight in the first panel, but then invokes Small Reference Pools to avert it in the second.
Western Animation
- In the Daffy Duck short "Muscle Tussle," Daffy's girlfriend is swept off her feet by a muscular beach hunk.
- This short has a cruel subversion though. Daffy makes himself stronger, and beats up the rival. Daffy's girlfriend still stays with the rival because she feels sorry for him now that he's weak.
- A central trope throughout all Popeye cartoons, with Popeye and Bluto trying to perform greater feats of strength to impress Olive Oyl.
- Luanne Van Houten chooses the American Gladiator Pyro over her ex-husband Kirk at the end of the Simpsons episode, "A Milhouse Divided." Downplayed in that it's not because Pyro's a strong man, but because she and Kirk were miserable in their marriage.