History Main / FemininityFailure

* ''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 do graceful ladylike (although the real princess is not much better).

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

--> '''Yui & Mugi:''' Sit like a lady!
--> '''Ritsu:''' I can't do that while I'm playing the drums!
* ''Manga/MyMonsterSecret'' 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 missed 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.

** 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.

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

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', 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.]]

* WebAnimation/{{Hololive}}: During her debut and some time after that, one of Mori Calliope's biggest concerns was that because of her clumsy and awkward nature combined with her tendencies to show a more "hardcore" side, she wasn't cut out to be the cute and "seiso" idol everyone wanted her to be. Turns out [[BeYourself her fans generally tend to enjoy her more when she's just being herself]], and since then, she's become leagues more comfortable talking on-stream.

* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick tried to invoke {{kawaiiko}} for a while, but could never pull it off. Now she's settled for being a ladette [[PsychopathicManchild Psychopathic Womanchild]]. Her friend Nella was given a visit by the makeover fairy. She resisted and the fairy ended up putting a bag over Nella's face because there was nothing she could do for her.

* ''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 do graceful ladylike (although the real princess is not much better).

** Toph and Katara's minisode in "Tales of Ba-Sing Se", Katara takes Toph to a spa, and Toph is so stand-offish about getting dolled up they need to get a hulking spa worker to hold her down, [[BlownAcrossTheRoom and then they touch her feet]]...

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' with both girls. [[TheLadette Spinelli]] is entered against her will into a BeautyContest and is initially awkward with the femininity - but ends up as one of the finalists. Similarly, bookworm Gretchen gets convinced into going to the beauty salon with Ashley A and enjoys it.
* Also subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheWeekenders''. Lor is given a makeover by two Valley Girls when they hear a popular guy likes her. She shows up wearing a skirt and a girlier hairstyle. Though the reactions of her friends (and the guy in question) is a straighter example. Lor backs out when she hears she's supposed to get made over even more - including plastic surgery. It helps that the two Valley Girls are explicitly basing their look and Lor's look off a model whom nearly everyone believes is unnaturally thin (Tino and Carver are both creeped out by her photo, and the guy Lor is crushing on thinks she looks freaky too).

DifferentForGirls is a closely related trope that plays on the same gender conventions from another angle, when the pretty girl trying to perform the feminine tasks and having trouble with it [[AttractiveBentGender is really a guy]]. Such a "girl" might also suffer another kind of feminity failure, resulting in an UnsettlingGenderReveal.

* ''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 comes home with bandaged fingers.

* In ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'', the towering and intimidating Misato Gori attempts to prove her love to [[TallDarkAndHandsome Koutarou]] [[ObliviousToLove Amon]] by baking him sweets. While she admits the final product doesn't ''look'' very cute, she remains oblivious to the wave of food poisoning her cooking causes to every single office she visits. When she finally presents Amon with her [[ThroughHisStomach gift]]....he mistakes it for a test of courage.

** 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 ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Korra decides to try out that "powdering your nose" thing she's heard about. The ensuing cloud of powder leaves her coughing.

* 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 comes home with bandaged fingers.

SuperTrope of FeminineWomenCanCook and MaternallyChallenged.

Contrast GirlinessUpgrade and SheCleansUpNicely, for when the attempt at being feminine works.

* [[{{Meganekko}} Ami]] from ''Series/PrettyGuardianSailorMoon'' tried makeup when having a slumber party with Usagi and Naru, however, due to her status as the CuteBookworm of the show, she didn't have much experience, so she naturally over did. Note that her failure wasn't fueled by being a {{Tomboy}} as she is a normally feminine girl, but it was rather a result of her [[{{Adorkable}} dorkiness]] and preference toward intellectual activities (And the fact she didn't have any friends until she met Usagi).

** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', TomboyPrincess Hinoka set aside almost any girly tasks to favor her ActionGirl training and sometimes is pretty lost in anything not related to fighting. She can gum up pretty badly [[LethalChef in the Mess Hall]], in the ''Conquest'' path her much girlier sister Sakura says she hasn't been doing too well with [[spoiler: her training to become the Queen of Hoshido]], and in [[spoiler: the [[GoldenPath Revelation]] route]] another woman ([[spoiler: her GirlyBruiser {{foil}} Princess Camilla]]) offers to teach her [[TextileWorkIsFeminine how to sew]] but takes her a long while to do it well.
*** Also in ''Fates'', 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.]]

* Hilarious example in ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment'' by Creator/TerryPratchett, where an entire platoon of women pretending to be men have to go undercover in "drag", and fail miserably at it. For extra hilarity, the one actual male in the group has ''no trouble whatsoever'' passing as female.

* Also subverted in ''WesternAnimation/TheWeekenders''. Lor is given a makeover by two Valley Girls when they hear a popular guy likes her. She shows up wearing a skirt and a girlier hairstyle. Though the reactions of her friends (and the guy in question) is a straighter example. Lor backs out when she hears she's supposed to get made over even more - including plastic surgery.

* ''Disney/{{Mulan}}'' has the title character screwing up the traditionally feminine "matchmaker" process, because she's too nervous about meeting the high standards of proper behavior and at the idea of getting a husband, and goes through it more to please her parents than out of her own will.

* ''Manga/MyMonsterSecret'' 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 [[http://bato.to/read/_/294473/jitsu-wa-watashi-wa_v7_ch57_by_underdog-scans/3 sexy pose]] looks like it came from a Franchise/SuperSentai show, and several characters completely missed 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.

* The plot of ''Film/MissCongeniality''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Korra decides to try out that "powdering your nose" thing she's heard about. The ensuing cloud of dust leaves her coughing.

* 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 terrorist 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.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' with both girls. [[TheLadette Spinelli]] is entered against her will into a BeautyPageant and is initially awkward with the femininity - but ends up as one of the finalists. Similarly, bookworm Gretchen gets convinced into going to the beauty salon with Ashley A and enjoys it.

Nowadays, it's considered much more acceptable for a girl to be tomboyish than it was years ago. Still, sometimes, TheLadette will give femininity a try, even if it's just for one episode. Maybe she wants to look and act elegant for a special occasion, or she's aiming to fit in with her friends, or she wants her {{Love Interest|s}} to see her as more than just "OneOfTheBoys". She may take it upon herself to learn ladylike behaviour, or she'll have a [[TomboyAndGirlyGirl feminine friend]] teach her to act [[ProperLady prim and proper]].

* ''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''.

* 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]].

* 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 for her safety as she gets more and more desperate before she finally suffers a HeroicRROD and faceplants on the floor.

* 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 gets covered in mud.

* Several decidedly unfunny examples happen with [[BrawnHilda Brienne of Tarth]] in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. She is so huge and ugly that attempts to dress her in a feminine way make her look worse than she does in armour, and while it provides some amusement for other characters, it only increases her feelings of being a freak unloved by all. Arya Stark has some examples as well, like tearing new dresses and being terrible at needlework.

* 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:

* [[{{Meganekko}} Ami]] from ''Series/PrettyGuardianSailorMoon'' tried make up when having a slumber party with Usagi and Naru, however, due her status as the CuteBookworm of the show, she didn't have much experience, so she naturally over did. Note that her failure wasn't fueled by being a {{Tomboy}} as she is a normally feminine girl, but it was rather a result of her [[{{Adorkable}} dorkiness]] and preference toward intellectual activities (And the fact she didn't have any friends until she met Usagi).

* 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 terrorist 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.

* 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/{{Arthur}}'': Francine tries to be feminine for one day, picture day, where she goes to school in a dress and doesn't play kickball during recess so she'll be presentable for her photo. But she ends up playing anyway, and being scruffy in the picture.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' with both girls. [[TheLadette Spinelli]] is entered against her will into a BeautyPageant and is initially awkward with the femininity - but ends up as one of the finalists. Similarly bookworm Gretchen gets convinced into going to the beauty salon with Ashley A and enjoys it.

* 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.

If she takes [[FeminineWomenCanCook cooking lessons]], she'll end up [[LethalChef burning water]]. Any attempts to apply makeup will leave her looking [[CosmeticCatastrophe like a clown]]. Walking in high heels will result in her taking a tumble. Even after she learns polite manners, you can bet she'll swear/gobble her food/belch at the worst possible moment. Old habits die hard indeed.

This can lead up to AnAesop of the BeYourself variety, that it's okay for a woman to be masculine if she's most comfortable doing so, and she shouldn't change herself to please others.

* ''Disney/{{Mulan}}'' has the title character screwing up the traditionally feminine "matchmaker" process because she's too nervous at the idea of probably getting a husband and is into it more to please her parents than out of her own will.