Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Difference between revisions

'''Roxie''': "You're just a pussy, Pilgrim!"|''[[Scott Pilgrim|Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together]]''}}

 

 

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 the 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 by 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.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* 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 ½]]'' 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 by 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 the 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:

** Even the "turn into a girl to be able to fight a girl" thing gets played with; though one anime episode has him lampshade this type of thinking, he usually does it either because he ''has to'' in order to fight in the first place (competing in Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics or Cheerleading, for example) or because the fight was started specifically because of his being in female form (first fight against Shampoo, or the manga version of the Martial Arts Tea Ceremony where he was abducted ''because'' he appeared to be a strong female martial artist). He even daydreams of bitchslapping Akane into shutting up and listening to him when he plans out how to explain being caught naked in the tub with Shampoo in the manga. Most tellingly, before [[The Reveal]] about Herb's [[Gender Bender|true gender]], Ranma was perfectly willing to go all-out with devastating attacks by ambushing ''a naked woman in the bath'' --and Herb barely had time to block and divert a kick that pulverized a boulder. So yeah, if you prove you're a threat, and you prove you can take it, Ranma ''will'' fight back with everything he's got, regardless of age, gender, or size.

** That said, the general attitude that guys shouldn't hit girls does seem to have some place in the background of the series. Akane tries to stop Ryoga from fighting back against Ukyo, who is attacking him for attacking Ranma, by yelling out that [[Wholesome Crossdresser|she's really a girl]], clearly expecting Ryoga to back off at that. [[Embarrassing First Name|Pantyhose Taro's]] revelation that he [[Would Hit a Girl]] is used to emphasize just what a ruthless person he is and confirm his nature as a villain.

* ''[[Inuyasha]]'' Jakotsu, the flamboyantly gay villain with a crush on Inuyasha, was originally supposed to be female. The author changed him to male because she didn't want Inuyasha to kill a girl. The numerous minor female villains always either transform into monster form(Looking at you Mistress Centipede) during the fight or are dispatched by the female cast, like when Kagome killed Yura of the Hair by destroying the red skull that was her true form. Similarly, the two major female villains (Kagura and Kanna) get hit by the heroes' combined weapons only a handful of times despite being introduced very early in the series, and being dispatched very late in the storyline. In the end {{spoiler|Kagura is murdered by Naraku for betraying him, and Kanna is killed by taking the damage from the monster she was controlling while the heroes were pleading with her to not die for Naraku. Both deaths are treated as an example of what an abomination that Naraku was}}.

** Against Abi, Inuyasha remarks that he doesn't like fighting women, but she's so evil he'll make an exception. However, Naraku "gave" Abi a trident (made from his bones) that creates a defensive barrier. Eventually, it is Naraku who kills both Abi and her mother.

** Notable occurrence in Usopp's fight with Perona. Usopp never actually hit Perona, instead using his various tricks and gadgets to frighten her into unconsciousness. Well, he did hit her with an inflatable hammer, but it didn't actually hurt her.

*** He tried to hurt her though at the start of the fight. Then, till the very end, she was not even tangible.

** Tashigi ''thought'' this trope was in action when Zoro didn't kill her after their fight, [[Averted Trope|but doesn't seem to understand]] that due to her resemblance to his childhood friend, doing so would probably would have caused him to have a [[Freak-Out]] of epic proportion.

** Played with, if not subverted, in Impel Down when [[Transvestite|Emperio Ivankov]] uses his hormone-based powers to turn himself female before facing the prison's top female officer.

*** 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]]'' 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]],

* ''[[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.

** 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 ''[[Hime-chan no Ribon|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.

* 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.

** 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}}.

** 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.

** He had definitely gotten over this by the videogame based on the third movie; not only can you pummel Shriek, there are also Apocalypse Gang Grenadiers, who are female, and there's nothing stopping you from catching them in a web line and slamming them at high speed into the pavement.

** Used again in another comic. A supervillain and a supervillainess have escaped from prison. Long story short, Cap hits her with his elbow hard enough to knock her out briefly while saying "Sorry, lady!"

* ''[[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 with 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.

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', book version. Harry is almost absurdly chivalrous. He knows it, and considers it a weakness (he's definitely met his fair share of evil women), but can't seem to do anything about it. He has been able to make himself attack women in very extreme circumstances, but it requires him being pushed right to the wall before he can overcome his chivalrous reflex enough to even defend himself properly from a female attacker.

** So, so averted in the later books, though. [[Our Vampires Are Different|Vampires of either sex are fair game]], for starters.

* ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'' (by Edmund Spenser, published first in three books [[Older Than Steam|in 1590]]): While a pervert torturing a helpless [[Damsel in Distress]] for his own sadistic pleasure is despicable, a knight refusing to fight a [[Dark Action Girl]] Amazon queen who's trying to kill him [[What an Idiot!|is just stupid]], as Artegall, the Knight of Justice with a strict code against fighting women, learns the hard way. Good thing [[James Bondage|his girlfriend comes to his rescue]].

* 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.}}

* 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.

* 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".

* It's Madeline Bassett's good fortune that [[Jeeves and Wooster (novel)|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.}}

== [[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.

*** 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.

* ''[[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.

** 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.

'''Dan''': Hey! Are you at all interested in knowing where babies come from? }}

* A thug in the ''[[Lewis]]'' episode "Old School Ties": "He said he wanted me to give a student a slapping; he never said it was a woman. I mean, I'll give anyone a slapping, but never a woman."

{{quote|'''Raquel''':You wouldn't hit a girl, would you?

'''Eliot''':''[in Hebrew]'':Not unless she hits me first |She punches him- '''Eliot''':That counts [fighting commences]}}

* On the other hand, in recent years it became common for some male wrestlers to rough up obviously weak or non-wrestler women just to show what [[Complete Monster|Bastards]], [[Badass|Badasses]] and/or [[Jerkass|Jerkasses]] they are. Usually the assailant will be a heel. Once, just to be a dick, Armando Alejandro Estrada got his wrestler Umaga booked to fight the tiny Maria Kanellis. [[Captain Obvious|(Maria lost.)]] Then Charlie Haas and Viscera got into a feud over who would date ring announcer Lilian Garcia: after Haas raked Viscera's eyes, the giant, temporarily blinded, grabbed Garcia apparently mistaking her for Haas (absurd, Haas weighed twice as much) and Samoan Dropped her, nearly breaking her neck. At first Viscera appeared to feel chagrin of the [[My God, What Have I Done?]] variety, but then both he and Haas laughed and explained that they'd set it up as a "hilarious" joke at Garcia's expense. But one incident with particularly [[Unfortunate Implications]] had [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]] (a face at the time) hit Stacy Keibler (also a face) in a skit that was supposed to be ''funny''. Austin kicked Keibler in the stomach and then knocked her out [[Disproportionate Retribution|because she had declined his offer of a beer!]] [[Dude, Not Funny|(There are some things you just can't do, and beating up a woman half your size for comedy is one of them.)]] Keibler later was the victim of a similar assault (an RKO) from then-boyfriend [[Randy Orton]], but that was meant to show that the face Orton was turning heel.

* During the WWF's kayfabe era, this trope's most frequent use centered on Miss Elizabeth, the valet of [[Randy Savage]]. During Savage's heel run in 1985-1987, particularly when he was wrestling [[Hulk Hogan]], Savage would pull Elizabeth in front of him, using her as a shield while he had a chance to regroup; Hogan would simply pick Elizabeth and gently move her out of the way, giving Savage ample opportunity to blindside Hogan. Also during Savage's heel run, he came close several times to striking Elizabeth himself (usually when he perceived her to be paying too much attention to an opponent, not opening the ropes or folding his robe correctly or some other minor misdeed) but always stopped short of actually striking her. Apparently, Savage (and the WWF) agreed that they wanted him to be a heel, but not such an outwardly despicable one.

 

separate teams would get in some offence against their opposite gender. The likes of [[Lita]], Jacqueline, Molly Holly, Ivory and later [[Trish Stratus]] would have no objections to taking a few hits from the men.

** Bubba Ray Dudley completely averted this in a tag match in late 2002 where he dished out body slams and clotheslines to Victoria with no hesitation along with both her male partners.

 

== Video Games ==

* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series. Every character is willing to hit a girl, but there are a few exceptions;

** ''[[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.

* ''[[Sakura Wars]]'' The first game has a fairly bizarre example in the form of Miroku. She invades the Flower Division's base and begins wreaking havoc, ultimately confronting them in her spirit armor. The protagonists soundly kick her ass. Afterwards, however, she makes a dramatic teleporting escape... only to die seconds later when some rocks randomly fall on her head for no apparent reason. One can only assume the game was taking an extremely roundabout method of not hitting a girl.

* ''[[Final Fight]]'' This trope is a big part of the reason why Poison, the punk girl, [[Canon Discontinuity|was retconned]] into [[Villainous Crossdresser|not actually being]] [[Attractive Bent Gender|a girl]].

** And then the creator finally told Poison's true identity. [[And the Fandom Rejoiced]]. Kinda... Atleast not for some people.

* ''[[The Godfather (video game)|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.

* 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: The Wind Waker|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.

'''Crushestro:''' Ever since my re-divorce? Yes! }}

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in [http://missmab.com/Comics/Vol_666.php this] [[DMFA]] strip. No, Wildy, Jyrras probably wouldn't hit you if you were a guy either; but by all means jump to conclusions anyway.

* In ''[[Our Little Adventure]]'', [http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0131.html Lenny asks Julie to hit her sister for him, because of the double standard and everything.]

 

* ''[[The Cleveland Show]]'': A female character in one episode was beating down all of the male characters in Cleveland's house causing Donna to ask him why no one is fighting back. When he responds with "She's a woman", Donna steps in and wins the fight, saving the day.

* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' which usually averts this has one exception. Girls and guys regularly get smacked around. Sam of the [[Token Trio]] is just as likely to take damage as her friends. Danny, being a hero, constantly battles both male and female villains without clause. That also includes [[Anti-Hero]] Valerie whom Danny only avoids hurting her enough that she won't, ya know, ''die''.

{{quote|'''Darkwing'''"Quiverwing -- ''you'' do it." }}

* ''[[DuckTales]]'': 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.

** 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).

* [[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]]."

* ''[[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.