History Main / GirlShowGhetto

* Parodied by ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' in [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GySXuvrh_8k this sketch]], where the third ''Series/SexAndTheCity'' movie has been turned into a ridiculously violent sci-fi action flick in order to attract more male viewers. The men whose girlfriends dragged them to see the latest Creator/KatherineHeigl movie certainly aren't complaining when this trailer plays before it.

* In-universe, in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Bart's Friend Falls In Love", Milhouse takes his girlfriend to the treehouse. When she asks if Bart has any girl comics for her to read, Bart says he doesn't but his sister has a wide collection of crappy comics.
* In-universe, one episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' features Lois dragging Peter to a ChickFlick, which he thinks might turn him gay.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Bart's Friend Falls In Love", Milhouse takes his girlfriend to the treehouse. When she asks if Bart has any girl comics for her to read, Bart says he doesn't but his sister has a wide collection of crappy comics.

* The first ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' movie nearly experienced this. The idea that female moviegoers alone could turn a film into a blockbuster hit was considered so unthinkable that, when Paramount was adapting the movie, [[ExecutiveMeddling they tried to make it far more action-heavy]] (a high school version of ''Film/Underworld2003'' or ''Film/{{Blade}}'') in order to attract the male audience that they thought was necessary. [[http://www.hollywoodlife.com/2010/09/23/twilight-saga-almost-turned-into-action-film-summit-paramount-robert-pattinson-kristen-stewart-stephenie-meyer-mark-morgan/ This page]] goes into detail on the changes that would've been made. These plans were [[ExecutiveVeto vetoed]] by Creator/StephenieMeyer, leading to Summit's far more faithful adaptation.

* Some Disney Animated Canon movies like ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' and ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet'' invert this trope: those movies were intended for boys, despite the former also having a princess in it, yet those movies both flopped because of this and are mostly forgotten except for being considered cult classics.

** In a subversion, some geek blogs pointed out that unlike, say, the Marvel movies; there ''was'' [[http://gizmodo.com/the-coolest-star-wars-rey-toys-that-you-can-actually-bu-1751552945 a decent amount of]] [[http://www.ign.com/videos/2016/01/10/6-awesome-rey-toys-you-can-buy-right-now-rebel-base Rey merchandise out there]] -- it was hard to find not because of low supply but because of ''high demand''.
** By the time ''Film/TheLastJedi'' was released, ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsForcesOfDestiny'' had been launched; a toyline specifically aimed at girls and featuring heroines across the franchise, in the same vein as ''Toys/DCSuperheroGirls''. While this did help get more merchandise out there, the fact that it was specifically and blatantly girl-focused made it fall into the non-merchandising version of this trope; as some people viewed it through the lens of "media aimed at girls sucks". (Plus, the toys just weren't very good.)

* Gillian Armstrong's [[Film/LittleWomen1994 1994 adaptation]] of ''Literature/LittleWomen'' was given a very low budget because studio execs told her it was a "little girls' movie" (although there were two successful adaptations in 1933 and 1949). She recalls a screening of a rough cut for the men in suits, in which they were moved to tears and immediately offered more money for re-shoots. [[SubvertedTrope It grossed a respectable $50 million worldwide, as well as three Academy Award nominations.]]

* Inverted by ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch''. To cash in on Sabrina's popularity, ABC produced two further UrbanFantasy series, ''Series/TeenAngel'' and ''You Wish'', though with male protagonists. Both shows ended after a season, while Sabrina lasted for years and had a few spin-offs. There in fact seem to be more male fans than female of the sitcom. Unsurprising, since Creator/MelissaJoanHart's previous sitcom ''Series/ClarissaExplainsItAll'' had broken out of the ghetto and gotten her a big male fanbase.

* Despite a semi main event women's title match being an important part of getting the annual event started, Wrestling/WrestleMania isn't such a good place to look for women's wrestling. After Wrestling/WendiRichter's banishment a single match [[SquashMatch ending in under two minutes]] was all the second event had to offer with the next eight events having no women wrestling at all, followed by another eight events that alternated between nothing and short underwhelming matches. Finally 18 and 19 had fairly good, well built up and promoted women's title matches back to back but there was only a third at ''[=WrestleMania=] XX'', the one right before WWE started gutting its women's division in favor of diva searches, because Wrestling/MollyHolly volunteered to have her head shaved. Tellingly her shaving got more focus than the match itself as WWE was more interested in "The Playboy Evening Gown" match between former playmates. Following XX a single, often short, match featuring as many women contracted as plausibly possible and/or promotional titillation became increasingly more common than serious title matches when there was a women's match at all. Made more noticeable in that a second belt, The Divas Championship, stated on camera to have been introduced so one half of the women's roster would no longer be sitting on the sidelines, took six years to find its way on a [=WrestleMania=] card. This was ''dramatically'' averted at ''[=WrestleMania=] 35'', where the main event was a three-way match in which Wrestling/BeckyLynch took ''both'' the ''[[Wrestling/WWERaw Raw]]'' and ''[[Wrestling/WWESmackDown SmackDown]]'' titles, respectively from Creator/RondaRousey and Wrestling/CharlotteFlair.

* Inverted example in ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' as ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' as the character of Raiden was devised when Creator/HideoKojima overhead two teenager girls complaining that military games “were full of old men” and thus created Raiden as a {{Bishounen}} to appeal to them. Despite his good intentions, Raiden was mainly seen by gamers as a ReplacementScrappy to the better liked and more masculine Snake and it took Raiden TakingALevelInBadass for him to be celebrated by both male and female fans alike. Ironically ''Metal Gear'' had already amassed a female following thanks to the FemaleGaze being just prominent as the MaleGaze and the HoYay shipping of Snake and Octacon and Big Boss and Ocelot, which in turn garners a hatedom from the male fans who mainly enjoy the series for its SpyFiction and RatedMForManly elements.

* Everyone knows that SamusIsAGirl these days, but back in the late '80s the manual for the original ''VideoGame/{{Metroid|1}}'' deliberately tricks the reader into thinking she is male, even going so far as to refer to her with "he" and "him"; the reveal of her actual sex was supposed to be a TwistEnding. Apparently, it was assumed no one would buy the game about the badass running around a distant planet in super-powered armor, gunning down aliens right and left, if they knew the protagonist was a woman. However, it's been averted since then, as even with the knowledge of her gender the games generally don't treat her any differently and she's still popular as a power-armored, alien-gunning badass and [[FollowTheLeader spawned Japanese sci-fi games with a playable female character]] (even if in the end the trend only lasted like a month or three).

* Naughty Dog was pressured to move Ellie to the background or completely off the cover of ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' due to this trope, but the dev team held firm.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'' was an attempt to break out of the ghetto that didn't quite take, although its notoriously TroubledProduction may have had something to do with that. The advertising for the film focused nearly as much on Merida's three brothers -- comic relief characters with very little screen time -- as her. While early fears that the first Creator/{{Pixar}} film with a female lead would flop despite the company's stunning financial track record proved unfounded, it's perceived SoOkayItsAverage quality confirmed it suffered with this at least slightly, with a common complaint being they didn't let its feisty heroine set off on an epic adventure. Instead, she's involved in a plot that boils down to she and her mother learning to understand each other better in the process of [[spoiler: breaking an enchantment that turned the latter into a bear]] -- bringing up the stereotype that "women's stories" just deal with emotions rather than actions (which isn't always the case, but even so, stories that center on emotional dynamics and internal character growth are not bad or lesser). Its Best Animated Feature Oscar win over the more popular, better-reviewed (and perhaps not coincidentally, male-oriented) ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'' was controversial and accused of being virtue signalling on the Academy voters' part. To make matters even worse, Merida becoming a Franchise/DisneyPrincess meant that not only is virtually all of the film's merchandising aimed only at girls, but [[MisaimedMarketing misrepresents her by making her appear girly and sparkly]].

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* Most of the [[NeverTrustATrailer misleading marketing]] for ''Film/JennifersBody'' was fueled by a belief in this trope. The film was a HorrorComedy about a PseudoRomanticFriendship between two teenage girls, one of them the protagonist and the other the villain, with a lot of feminist themes and [[HomoeroticSubtext sapphic subtext]], and it was very much geared towards teenage girls and young women. The studio, however, was afraid that men wouldn't want to see such a film, and so they crafted an ad campaign designed to sell it as a sexy teen horror flick geared towards teenage boys, the trailers and posters emphasizing the villain's [[LiteralManeater man-eating]] {{succubus}} ways and her actress Creator/MeganFox's [[MsFanservice sex appeal]]. (One idea that director Creator/KarynKusama vetoed was to use an ''amateur porn site'' to promote the film.) The result was that ''both'' audiences were left alienated. Women skipped the film sight unseen expecting just another horny sex romp, and men were disappointed that it didn't deliver the sex that the trailers promised. It was only on home video that it was VindicatedByHistory, and a lot of the discourse surrounding it concerns the failures of the marketing team and how this trope kept it from finding an audience.

* Gillian Armstrong's 1994 adaptation of ''Literature/LittleWomen'' was given a very low budget because studio execs told her it was a "little girls' movie" (although there were two successful adaptations in 1933 and 1949). She recalls a screening of a rough cut for the men in suits - in which they were moved to tears and immediately offered more money for re-shoots. [[SubvertedTrope It grossed a respectable $50 million worldwide, as well as three Academy Award nominations]].

* Gillian Armstrong's 1994 adaptation of ''Literature/LittleWomen'' was given a very low budget because studio execs told her it was a "little girls' movie" (although there were two successful adaptations in 1933 and 1949). She recalls a screening of a rough cut for the men in suits - in which they were moved to tears and immediately offered more money for re-shoots. [[SubvertedTrope It grossed a respectable $50 million worldwide, as well as three Academy Award nominations and widespread critical praise as one of the year's best films]].

** The 2016 remake of ''Series/CaritaDeAngel'' is a much bigger example, with more male child characters being added to appeal more to boys because the original version was deemed too "girly".

* This trope might be the reason the North American box art for ''VideoGame/SurvivalKids'' omitted the female protagonist, only showing the male one.

* Women's sport (especially outside of designated "girl's sports" like tennis, gymnastics and figure skating) rarely receives the same level of coverage and sponsorship as men's sport. The situation has improved somewhat in recent years, as companies have come to regard sponsoring women's sport as good for PR, but women's leagues still tend to be far less prominent than men's leagues.

** According to Creator/{{DiC|Entertainment}}'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEXqoPgbH0c pitch reel]] for ''Manga/SailorMoon'', attempts to sell the show in America included informing networks that the dub was distributed by the studio that made ''WesternAnimation/WhereOnEarthIsCarmenSandiego'', a show that earned fans of both genders despite its female leads, and also assuring the networks that "boys will love the non-stop action!" Whether or not ''Sailor Moon'' has stayed in the ghetto after being VindicatedByHistory is unanswered. The series has its problems (and the first English dub didn't help), but its longevity and its substantial influence on the anime fandom have taken it out of {{Acceptable Target|s}} territory.

* ''VisualNovel/ChoicesStoriesYouPlay'': Overall, the large amount of romance novels with female-only player characters is a major source of criticism from fans, who believe these stories alienate anyone who isn't a straight female romance fan, while stories in which the player character's gender can be customized tend to be more well received. Fans also believe that in stories where women's issues are not the focus, there could still be dialogue variations that match the player character's gender.

* ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' (and its 2004 movie adaptation) often garners a hatedom for the melodramatic gothic LoveTriangle as its central element. The titular antagonist gets no small amount of DracoInLeatherPants {{Squee}}ing from primarily female fans along with the glorification StalkingIsLove and Christine being simple enough [[AudienceSurrogate for women to project themselves onto]] making the whole musical like a proto-''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]'' according to some. In some fairness to the detractors the main irritation is that LighterAndSofter and HotterAndSexier musical and film adaptations are generally catered towards a female-favoured sensuality that ultimately files in the face of the story’s genuinely creepy GothicHorror origins e.g the scary Creator/LonChaney Phantom obviously doesn’t cause the stir that the Michael Crawford, Ramin Karimloo or Gerald Butler do — even though he’s TruerToTheText to the book. Ironically Gaston Leroux’s [[Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera original novel]] was intended to be enjoyed by both male and female readers alike, having the love triangle interwoven into a horror thriller adventure and literary Christine has great independence something that is far more appreciated with female characters today than it was back then. Sadly though this has all been LostInTranslation.

* This is a problem that existed well before the MCU, unfortunately. For instance, [=ToyBiz=]'s action figure line for ''Film/X2XMenUnited'' didn't have any of the women in it. To put that into perspective, characters involved in major action sequences like ComicBook/{{Mystique}} and Lady Deathstrike were left out of the line, while ComicBook/{{Iceman}}, who didn't get involved in any action scenes, was included.

* While Creator/AksysGames is the one western company to consistently license the most [[OtomeGame otome games]] and many of their titles such as ''VisualNovel/{{Hakuouki}}'' and ''VisualNovel/CodeRealize'' have broken out of the ghetto, the company has still attracted some criticism and accusations of believing in this trope from western otome fans due to their tonedeaf and condescending attitude towards much of the genre and their own audience. Much of the advertisement for their otome titles are misleading and downplay the romance elements, and the company mostly localizes DarkerAndEdgier or more action-oriented otome games in order to not alienate a potential male audience while completely ignoring more lighthearted and flowery titles regardless of how popular they are or how much they're requested, a representative even outright dismissing these types of otome games in one interview. Reading some of these interviews, its apparent they seem to believe that any game that's "Too girly" is inherently inferior, which is utterly ridiculous as otome games by definition are a genre by and for women, and the customers for Aksys's otome localizations consist mostly of women. What's even more baffling is that Aksys does not treat their shovelware games aimed at little girls with this sort of contempt.

* While Creator/AksysGames is the one western company to consistently license the most [[OtomeGame otome games]] and many of their titles such as ''VisualNovel/{{Hakuouki}}'' and ''VisualNovel/CodeRealize'' have broken out of the ghetto, the company has still attracted some criticism and accusations of believing in this trope from western otome fans due to their tonedeaf and condescending attitude towards much of the genre and their own audience. Much of the advertisement for their otome titles are misleading and downplay the romance elements, and the company mostly localizes DarkerAndEdgier or more action-oriented otome games in order to not alienate a potential male audience while completely ignoring more lighthearted and flowery titles regardless of how popular they are or how much they're requested, a representative even outright dismissing these types of otome games in one interview. Reading some of these interviews, its apparent they seem to believe that any game that's "Too girly" is inherently inferior, which is utterly ridiculous as otome games by definition are a genre by and for women, and the customers for Aksys's otome localizations consist mostly of women.

** Due to Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter doubting that toys of female characters would sell, the MCU was [[http://io9.com/marvel-has-a-serious-problem-merchandising-its-female-c-1682014327 hit with this, merchandise-wise]], and Black Widow was barely featured in ''Avengers'' merchandise. It took ''four years'' since ''Film/IronMan2'' for Black Widow to get a solo action figure. She remained missing in a lot of the team's group shots and barely present aside from a few toys -- a Quinjet toy based on her ''[[Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron Age of Ultron]]'' action scene in Seoul [[http://toybox.io9.com/black-widow-absent-from-a-toy-based-on-one-of-her-coole-1703705181 even swapped out her action figure for Captain America's]]. ''Age of Ultron''[='s=] other heroine ComicBook/ScarletWitch also suffered from a lack of merchandise (but then again so did her brother ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}}). The same applied to ComicBook/{{Gamora}} in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014''; she was absent in the merch to the point where fans had to start a Website/{{Twitter}} hashtag ([=#WheresGamora=]) to get Marvel to pay attention, and the "#Wheres____" format has caught on to call out a lack of girl merch in other films and shows. After Marvel Studios cut ties with Perlmutter, the [=#WheresNatasha=] movement succeeded in giving her a wider presence in merchandise and advertising, starting with ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar''.