History Main / FemininityFailure

* ''Manga/KurokosBasketball'': Riko and Momoi are the only prominent girls in the series who appear regularly, yet their cooking abilities are beyond bad. This is juxtaposed by some of the male characters being able to cook really well. Even when Kagami teaches Riko how to cook, the unnecessary extra step of adding supplements ruins the good food immediately.
* ''Manga/LoveHina'' has {{Samurai}} girl Motoko forced to try becoming more feminine after Keitaro (more or less accidentally) defeats her in a duel. She's too violent to be good at it, though. She then feels that she has "failed" Keitaro, so she announces that she will commit ''{{seppuku}}'', ritual suicide. Ironically, she intends to commit suicide by slitting her stomach open. This is the traditional ''masculine'' version of ''seppuku'' since a YamatoNadeshiko kills herself by [[SlashedThroat slitting her throat]]. If Motoko were to actually go through with her suicide, she would have failed at femininity ''again''.

* ''Manga/SPYxFamily'': Yor Briar is constantly struggling to balance her roles as a contract killer and being a loving wife and mother. One chapter has her secretly visiting her friend to practise cooking and coming home with bandaged fingers.

* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak Darling Charming is shown to have been this way as a child in ''Fanfic/YouBuiltThisHouse''. It took a while for her "girly streak" to develop. When she was younger Darling used to bow instead of curtsey and she wasn't used to dressing up.

* Aveline in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' [[TheBigGuy embodies an archetype]] more commonly associated with men, something frequently and gleefully noted by her [[VitriolicBestBuds Vitriolic Best Bud]] Isabella, who at one point calls her an "awkward, mannish, ball-crushing do-gooder." Interesting in that Kirkwall's gender mores are fairly loose, and Isabella herself [[TheLadette isn't what you'd normally consider "feminine"]] - Aveline is just ''so bad'' at all things womanly that she has trouble establishing her girl cred even under those forgiving circumstances.

*** The LadyOfWar Reina openly admits that despite being [[TeamMom rather motherly]], she's really bad regarding traditional feminine tasks (like [[LethalChef cooking]]). [[spoiler: It's explained in her supports with the Avatar that she's estranged from her noble parents who wanted her to be a traditional bride, so she didn't train for it.]]

* ''Manga/SetonAcademyJoinThePack'': To the dismay of his father and brother, Yena Madaraba the spotted hyena grew up identifying as a boy and reacting violently to anyone who calls him a girl.[[note]]Male animals are drawn as {{Civilized Animal}}s while females are a LittleBitBeastly, Yena being drawn as the latter.[[/note]] Upon Jin Mazama mockingly informing him that female hyenas have pseudopenises, Yena starts questioning his identity and briefly attempts to be more feminine before [[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} deciding to keep being true to himself]].

* The plot of ''Film/MissCongeniality'', where Gracie Hart is a tomboy FBI agent who doesn't have any interest in more feminine pursuits but is forced to glam up and go undercover as a beauty pageant contestant. While she gets the look down, with the help of an army of stylists, she has trouble fitting in with the more girly contestants she has to blend in with.

* ''Manga/MonthlyGirlsNozakiKun'': While Sakura isn't lacking in femininity, the fact that her crush Nozaki, who is otherwise very mainly, outshines her in anything where her femininity matters, such as cooking.

** To that point, there's an entire chapter in the manga where Youko engages in a "sexiness battle" with [[ChristmasCake Akari-sensei]] and [[OlderThanTheyLook Principal]] [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Akane]], with a tied-up [[UnluckyEverydude Asahi]]'s {{Nosebleed}} serving as their "gauge". All three of them fail so spectacularly that Rin (Asahi's [[KidFromTheFuture Granddaughter from the Future]] and a rather literal {{Moral Guardian|s}}) approvingly declares it a "sex-free sexiness battle".

** Azula makes an attempt at being a typical teenage girl during the BeachEpisode, complete with coaching from resident GirlyGirl Ty Lee, only for her efforts to literally crash and burn at the end.

* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'': Yor Briar is constantly struggling to balance her roles as a contract killer and being a loving wife and mother. One chapter has her secretly visiting her friend to practise cooking and coming home with bandaged fingers.

* In a Literature/{{Discworld}} fic by Creator/AAPessimal, an [[AmoralAfrikaner Assassin]] who normally favours comfortable [[AdventurerOutfit Veldt-chic]] of tunic, britches and boots faces her biggest challenge. Dressing up as a conventional young woman. Dressed by her friends in Ankh-Morporkian fashions including high-heeled boots and a suitable dress-skirt, she stumbles awkwardly and demands to know how the bleddy Hell a woman is expected to be able to ''walk'' in these things.

** The gag is repeated later on in the series with the introduction of Saki Minagawa, a [[HornyDevils succubus]] whose major RunningGag is her horrendously warped sense of sexiness. She came to the school hoping to challenge the daughter of the legendary Charismatic Pervert... and ends up mistakenly thinking Youko is said daughter (it's actually Shiho). Saki and Youko end up engaging in an impromptu sexiness battle, and once again Rin remains completely unaffected.

* In ''{{Series/Miranda}}'', large-boned Miranda attempts to glam herself up with hilarious results. First, she's oblivious to the fact that the only shop stocking glamorous clothing in her size is actually crossdressers' shop. Then she's flattered to get hit on by a genuinely nice guy who clearly (to everyone except Miranda) thinks she's in drag. Her bubble is finally burst by her best friend's astonished:

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* ''Manga/LoveHina'' has {{Samurai}} girl Motoko forced to try becoming more feminine after Keitaro (more or less accidentally) defeats her in a duel. She's too violent to be good at it, though. She then feels that she has "failed" Keitaro, so she announces that she will commit ''{{seppuku}}'', ritual suicide. Ironically, she intends to commit suicide by slitting her stomach open. This is the traditional ''masculine'' version of ''seppuku'' since a YamatoNadeshiko kills herself by [[SlashedThroat slitting her throat]]. If Motoko were to actually go through with her suicide, she would have failed at femininity ''again''.
* Generally the case with Akane in ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf''. Played for laughs, of course, whenever [[GenderBender Ranma]] shows up and turns out to be immensely better than her at any feminine task.
* In ''{{Manga/Kashimashi|GirlMeetsGirl}}'', {{tomboy}}ish Tomari tries to [[DifferentForGirls teach]] the [[GenderBender recently-female]] Hazumu how to act like a girl. Although she does impart some wisdom, mostly all she manages to do is prove that even when she was in a male body, [[MasculineGirlFeminineBoy Hazumu was more girly than Tomari]].

* In one late episode of the first season of ''Anime/SailorMoon'', Usagi joins a club designed to help create "princesses", thinking that she could be more lady-like after the revelation that she was Princess Serenity. She flops with flying colors; the only thing she was good at was Frisbee throwing. The other girls join in and the only other people who flop are Rei (too stressed and {{tsundere}} to dance well, almost mauls her partner) and Minako (too ditzy and hyped-up for it, pays no attention to the dancing classes). Which is a good thing when it stands revealed that the club was a trap by Kunzite, [[BadassInDistress and Ami and Makoto need saving along with the other girls there]].

* The third episode of ''Manga/SteelAngelKurumi Encore'' had Kurumi attempt to be more ladylike when she believes Nakahito isn't attracted to her anymore. Nakahito is more worried about her safety as she gets more and more desperate before she finally suffers a HeroicRROD and faceplants on the floor.

* One issue of ''ComicBook/{{Archie|Comics}}'' has Veronica teaching Betty to be more ladylike (which was essentially her teaching Betty to be identical to her mannerisms.) Everything is going well until she spots a couple of kids playing catch, which ends with her joining them and landing in a tree in retrieving the ball when it gets stuck up there. While Veronica is annoyed with the turn of events, the kids all laud Betty as a hero.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Film/ThePrincessDiaries'' has the awkward Mia who takes princess lessons and gets a makeover to which her friend tells her that she sold out. She's still clumsy after the lessons.
* The titular protagonist of ''Film/CalamityJane'' has a friend help her become more feminine in order to attract her crush. Jane is too rough-and-tumble for pretty dresses, however. Soon after her GirlinessUpgrade, she ends up falling in a lake and getting covered in mud.
* In ''Film/{{Sam}}'', HeManWomanHater Sam underdoes a GenderBender and has no idea how to act feminine. When being taught how to be more presentable by Blondell, her MakeoverMontage includes her making such mistakes as putting a skirt on backwards.

* In the ''Literature/ChroniclesOfTheKencyrath'', heroine Jame is an ActionGirl ''par excellence'' and all around harbinger of chaos [[spoiler: being a nascent avatar of destruction will do that for you]], and needless to say, when she's forced to try and become a proper Highborn lady in the third book (translation: elaborate dresses, lots of sewing, power wielded primarily through political intrigue, and very little in the way of physical activity), hilarity ensues. And by hilarity, we mean "rampant anarchy".

* In ''Literature/AKindOfSpark'', Jenna once made Addie try to paint her nails during a sleepover. She just made a mess.

* Happens on ''Series/NaturallySadie'' when Sadie gets upset after being called 'son' and tries to become a girly girl. Her mother is away so she gets advice from Hal (of all people). By the end of the episode, she has managed to find a balance between tomboy and girly girl.

* Parker of ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' isn't usually charged with the girlie girl roles, since she's the thief and {{Cloudcuckoolander}} of the group, and they already have the quite feminine Sophie on the team for those cons. But in "The Runway Job" Parker has to go undercover as a supermodel. The audience is primed for a big reveal of how beautiful she looks dressed up ... except that Parker can't walk in heels, so she wipes out big time on the catwalk.

* In the ''Series/FrontierCircus'' episode "Stopover in Paradise", Ben romances the tomboyish owner of a local ranch. She attempts to become more feminine for him, but has trouble, especially with her high heeled shoes. Ben eventually tells her to take them off so he can teach her to dance properly.
* ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker'': Cara, a brusque, snarky {{action girl}}, is forced in "Princess" to go undercover disguised as a gentle {{proper lady}} in Rothenburg. There, women are oppressed and all noblewomen have to speak constantly in rhyming meter, only doing proper "feminine" things like crocheting. Cara, unsurprisingly, is poor at both of them and nearly found out. Zedd, ironically, is [[WholesomeCrossdresser far more convincing]] portraying her aged aunt. She's also quite unhappy to wear a gown, while he isn't.

* ''Series/TheOutpost'': Gwynn tried to bring out Talon's girly side by burning her clothes and putting her in a dress. Needless to say, that would be the last time she would wear one [[spoiler:until marrying Garret in the finale]]

* In ''VideoGame/Persona4'', Chie has this problem. She's obsessed with martial arts films, isn't scared to pick a fight when someone is in trouble and eats almost nothing but steak. She likes being who she is but doesn't like that the other sex treats her more like one of the guys instead of a girl. Her attempts to be more feminine usually don't end well, such as her cooking. [[spoiler:You can say that her fear of bugs is cute, however. This is actually the right choice to move the social link in a positive direction.]]
* Makoto Kikuchi from ''VideoGame/TheIdolmaster'' was raised like a boy and has a lot of female fans who admire her [[{{Bifauxnen}} looks]], but what she really wants is to be more feminine and get more attention from boys. Unfortunately, her attempts to be more girly rarely ever succeed.
* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'''s Citadel DLC, Female Shepard and Miranda Lawson, the former a marine for her entire adult life and the latter a reformed former member of a clandestine black-ops organization, both realize just how weird their lives are and attempt to act more normal by talking about traditionally feminine things. They can't even complete a single sentence. Eventually, they decide that they're "troubleshooting space divas" and just roll with it.
-->'''Shepard''': (calling a waiter) Space diva needs more wine.

* Aveline in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' [[TheBigGuy embodies an archetype]] more commonly associated with men, something frequently and gleefully noted by her [[VitriolicBestBuds Vitriolic Best Bud]] Isabella, who at one point calls her an "awkward, mannish, ball-crushing do-gooder." Interesting in that Kirkwall's gender mores are fairly loose, and Isabella herself [[TheLadette isn't what you'd normally consider "feminine"]] - Aveline is just ''so bad'' at all things womanly that she has trouble establishing her girl cred even under those forgiving circumstances.

* Sal Walters in ''Webcomic/ItsWalky'' attempts a femininity makeover with the intention to get her old boyfriend back, and fails miserably. When she tries again, later on, she deliberately skips the lipstick.

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomeness'': Tigress, in "The Princess and the Po", tries to pose as the princess to protect the actual princess from the bad guy. She tries to do the Princess Ceremonial Dancing Song. She can't sing, and she can't be graceful or ladylike (although the real princess is not much better).

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfTarzan'' has Terk wanting to be feminine to attract another gorilla. She realizes by the end that it's completely unnecessary.
* The ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' episode "Helga's Makeover". She does this to attend Rhonda's sleepover but reverts to her old self after refusing an avocado cream mask.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/CatDog'' had tough tomboy, Shriek, trying to make herself "a real woman" to get Dog's attention. After she is finally successful at looking and sounding more feminine, it backfires when everybody, except Dog, begins hitting on her.
* Played with on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger''. The girls use makeup for picture day and end up looking like clowns. Justified, however, because a) they are young and have not been taught how to use makeup properly and b) they made their own makeup out of things like gravy and cranberry sauce.
* Jo, from ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama: Revenge of The Island'' is so masculine that she is [[RunningGag routinely]] mistaken for a [[LadyLooksLikeADude boy]]. In one of the challenges, her team decides to put makeup on one of the members and she is very adamant to be the one who gets the makeover. Naturally, [[CosmeticCatastrophe it doesn't go well]].
* Downplayed in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpiritRidingFree'', ''Lucky and the New Governor'', in which the [=PALs=] go through a sort of charm school run by Aunt Cora in preparation for the Governor's Ball. As can be expected, they struggle at first, but eventually seem to get the hang of it, until the end of the episode when a pregnant horse's unborn child turns out to be breach, and the girls end up getting their ballgowns dirty before the ball.

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'''s Citadel DLC, Female Shepard and Miranda Lawson, the former a marine for her entire adult life and the latter a reformed former member of a clandestine black-ops organization, both realize just how weird their lives are an attempt to act more normal by talking about traditionally feminine things. They can't even complete a single sentence. Eventually, they decide that they're "troubleshooting space divas" and just roll with it.

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[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/HeyArnold https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/helgas_makeover_3.png]]]]

SuperTrope of FeminineWomenCanCook and MaternallyChallenged. Contrast GirlinessUpgrade and SheCleansUpNicely, for when the attempt at being feminine works.

* ''SylviaScarlett'' has the title character after only a short time of dressing up as a man somehow incapable of passing as a woman (she now has short hair, and masculine mannerisms so even wearing a dress is an EpicFail).

* The third episode of ''Anime/SteelAngelKurumi Encore'' had Kurumi attempt to be more ladylike when she believes Nakahito isn't attracted to her anymore. Nakahito is more worried about her safety as she gets more and more desperate before she finally suffers a HeroicRROD and faceplants on the floor.

* In ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' despite Guts' memorable reaction to [[SheCleansUpNicely seeing Casca in a dress]], the femininity is somewhat dampened a moment later when she elbows him on the jaw for staring. She does this in front of several noble ladies who are very embarrassed to have seen it.

* From ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'': Kat, the more tomboyish of the protagonists, puts on makeup for the first time in order to impress Alistair, a NewTransferStudent at her school. She fails horribly, and Annie's there to assure her that she's lovely just the way she is.

* In ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' despite Guts' [[http://www.mangareader.net/96-1128-163/berserk/chapter-8.html memorable reaction]] to [[SheCleansUpNicely seeing Casca in a dress]], the femininity is somewhat dampened a moment later when she elbows him on the jaw for staring. She does this in front of several noble ladies who are very embarrassed to have seen it.

** The manga does a version of this trope based around sexiness rather than traditional femininity. [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Youko]] isn't a {{Tomboy}}, but rather TheDitz, so her concepts of sexiness are questionable at best. She strives to become a "[[IceQueen Cool Beauty]]", but her idea of a [[https://mangaowl.com/reader/1139/620750#3 sexy pose]] looks like it came from a Franchise/SuperSentai show, and several characters completely miss the fact that she shows just as much cleavage as her [[TheVamp perverted]] friend Shiho because she has absolutely no idea how to properly flaunt her larger-than-average bustline.

* Series/TheLWord: In Season 3, Shane (who usually wears casual and/or traditionally masculine outfits) is given a dress to wear by her then-girlfriend's relatives, [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shane-dress_4600.jpg which clearly does not suit her at all.]]