Wouldn't Hit a Girl/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Male characters refrain from using physical violence on a female.

  • Straight: Jim encounters the Dark Chick Veridian, but passes up fighting her because "I don't like hitting girls."
  • Exaggerated:
    • Even if it's in self-defense, Jim is just unable to bring himself to attack Veridian. So, he runs away from Veridian as she's dashing at him with guns blazing. She eventually corners him, but even so, he won't fight back.

Jim: "I'm so not gonna fight you even though I know you have no mercy for any one and wouldn't hesitate to kill me on the drop of a hat. No, ma'am, I'm not gonna defend myself because I'd rather be dead than be known as woman-beater."

    • Veridian is the human embodiment of U´Thul, Jim knows it and, even in this situation, is unable to fight back with this trope in mind, so she rips him to pieces.
    • Veridian is bitten by a zombie, Jim knows it and, even when she asks for a Mercy Kill, he outright refused, this results in Veridian losing her mind and she bites Jim.
    • Jim refused to fight Andy for being effeminate.
  • Downplayed:
  • Justified:
  • Inverted: Jim regularly beats women, but would never hurt another man.
  • Gender Flipped: Veridian refuses to fight males.
  • Subverted:
    • Veridian and Jim's exchange goes like this:

Veridian: What's the matter? Ya don't hit ladies?
Jim: You are no lady. *Cue beatdown.*

    • Jim tries to fight Veridian but he tries to rationalize it by using more indirect attacks namely having the mindset of something like "As long as I don't punch her face its okay."

Jim: I am against misogynistic violence but I am not against self defense, there is a difference.

    • Alternatively, Jim doesn't want to fight Veridian because he knows she'd kick his ass and laugh about it, and is trying to outsmart her instead.
    • Alternatively: Jim dodges Veridian's attacks, but doesn't fight back... Until she lands a blow, at which point he proceeds to beat the crap out of her. "You all saw she hit me first, right?"
    • Or...

Jim: What? Oh no miss you don't understand I am a pacifist by nature. Trust me even if you were a guy I would still prefer not to fight you.

    • Jim is hesitant in fighting Veridian but its for other reasons.
    • Jim decides he will not attack Veridian physically, but as long as he doesn't punch her, it doesn't count, so he can still use his other attacks on her.

Jim: "I don't hit women, but my Minigun does."

    • Jim estates that he won't fight a woman, and Veridian exploits it to the hilt right up until he clouts her with all his strength, and since her overconfidence meant her guard was down, the punch floors her.

Jim: You just couldn't pass up that easy win, could you? I knew I couldn't beat you in a head-on fight, so I had to try a different approach.

  • Double Subverted:
    • Veridian gives Jim Puppy Dog Eyes and he immediately relents.
    • Veridian convinces Jim on how thinking that indirect attacks being okay is a very stupid idea and Jim reluctantly agrees.
    • While Jim did mention he had other reasons why he wouldn't want to fight Veridian he eventually admitted that this trope is one of them.
  • Parodied:

Jim: Fight you? Oh I'd rather do a certain other type of "F Word".

    • "You're right, I wouldn't hit a girl. Alice?!" "Yeah?" "Hit her!" "Okay!"
    • When Jim is attacked by a bear, he insists on checking if it's female before he fights it.
    • Jim refuses to compete with Veridian in non-violent activities, such as Chess, Checkers, even video games.
    • And speaking of Chess, Jim insists on capturing all the pieces of the opponent, except for the queen.
    • Veridian is a female character in a Fighting Game, but Jim never, ever chooses her because "she could get hurt". He even protest when someone else shooses her, because he just can't bring himself to hit a girl, even as a game.
  • Zig Zagged:
    • Jim refuses to fight Veridian because she's a girl. However, he later discovers that 'she' is actually an alien who has taken the form of a human female. Just when he is about to attack the shapeshifter, she reveals her true form to be a Green-Skinned Space Babe.
    • With Loophole Abuse, Jim uses his machine gun to shoot all girls down. On one hand, he isn't physically hitting them, but on the other hand, well...
  • Averted: Would Hit a Girl
  • Enforced:
    • Violence towards women add to the esrb-like ratings, so the author won't add it because he wants his book to be accessible to younger audience too.
    • The writers don't show Jim and Veridian fighting because their afraid of offending viewers who would object.
    • Or the writers have little to no knowledge of men attacking women and being seen as a good thing while they are a little too use to all the times when it is very much a Kick the Dog moment from Would Hit a Girl trope using villains.
  • Lampshaded: Jim is getting stomped. In the middle of it all, he says "You bitch...you're cheating by beating on me while female!"
  • Invoked:
    • "People think Jim is too tough and heartless. Let's show that he's actually nice by making him against hitting girls."
    • Jim and Veridian are playable characters in a Fighting Game, and he's known for being very respectful to all women; so, in a very unusual case of Gameplay and Story Integration, he deliberately switches off all of his special and normal moves when confronting Veridian (or any of the other female fighters); this leaves the player unable to do anything, ultimately resulting in an automatic loss.
    • Alternatively, Jim can strike female opponents, but he receives a negative penalty for doing so, because it is considered Video Game Cruelty Potential.
  • Exploited:
    • The Big Bad knows Jim won't fight women, so he sends an Amazon Brigade to kill him.
    • Alternatively, the Big Bad is female.
    • The females abuse this and bully a guy since they know he can't hit them.
  • Defied:
  • Discussed: "It's not that Jim couldn't take Veridian in a fistfight; it's that his inconvenient chivalry would kick in."
  • Conversed:
    • "I wonder why some guys have no problem fighting a man, but wouldn't think of hurting a woman."
    • So he doesn't want to fight ladies huh? Let me guess is he one of those "will not fight back against a woman at all" guy? Or is he a "will not punch a lady in the face" kind of guy?
  • Deconstructed:
    • Jim's refusal to fight Veridian is seen as an insult by her because that means he views her as weaker than he. She responds by handing him his ass
    • Veridian tries to convince Jim to have a friendly fight with her to beat the sexism out of him. She is often seen egging him on and generally being aggressive toward him. She may or may not praise him for finally losing the sexist attitude if he caves and hits her.
    • Jim's refusal to harm a female makes him a greater threat to his True Companions than Veridian.
    • Jim comes to resent the discrimination and begins to advocate equality for men.
  • Reconstructed:
    • But before she can do so, Marci gives her an epic beatdown, and saves Jim in the process.
    • Jim's a Technical Pacifist. His fight style revolves around blocking attacks and jabbing nerve clusters to cause paralysis.
    • Veridian kicks at Jim. He catches her foot and uses it to steer her around like they're playing "whellbarrow".
    • Jim said nothing about shooting them.
    • The women of Jim's society accuse him of hurting them and Jim gets executed by other men. A somewhat brighter ending still employing this trope would be the entire world separating males and females, with the intent of sparing males of having to clash with females and facing either "dishonor" or death at the hands of their ovary-equipped opponent.
  • Played For Laughs:
  • Played For Drama:
    • The hero has to beat a woman to save his friends. Can he?
    • The hero´s enemy is a sadistic Dark Action Girl, he refuses to hit her, she completely beat the shit out of him with a Slasher Smile, insulting and toying with him and leaving the guy crippled at the end, with several bones of his body broken. He realises that the injuries in the body are so severe that he won´t be able to fight anymore, so he will be an invalid the rest of his life.

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