History Main / NeverASelfmadeWoman

'''Narration:''' The girl thought about it, grinned and shrugged.\\
'''Drista:''' Sure. Why not?

** Carol is a SuperSoldier by inheritance from her great-grandfather, Steve, and is later given an energy-absorbing shield by Odin [[spoiler: that, after unwitting tampering by the powers of Monica, can turn into a suit that gives her varying degrees of her canon powers]]. However, her tactical and strategic acumen (noted by the Winter Soldier, among others) is all natural, her main mentors and role models are her cousin (Sharon Carter), grandmother (Alison Carter), and great-grandmother presumed great-aunt (Peggy Carter) -- Steve later becomes a mentor and ParentalSubstitute. She also has her own group of friends (at least one of whom is superpowered) and, apparently, history of interesting adventures prior to meeting Harry. Finally, she is chosen, twice, to wield the of Alan Scott's Green Lantern Ring based solely on her courage and strength of will (she is literally [[spoiler: too stubborn to die]]) - which is why explicitly why Odin gave her the shield.

-->'Well I'm not gonna just call you Dream's sister. That's a bit awkward.', Tommy tried to fix up his posture, getting back into his more confident persona. He had to keep up with this girl, somehow, and being confused wouldn't aid that much. 'How about... Drista? You know, like a [[{{Portmanteau}} combination]] of the words Dream and sister?'.\\
'So I'm [[LampshadeHanging completely defined by my brother and my relation to him]]?'.\\
'Uh... Yeah.'.\\
'And you’re going to call me by that nickname and nothing else?'.\\
'If you let me, yeah.'.\\
The girl thought about it, grinned and shrugged.\\
'Sure.', Drista responded. 'Why not?'.

->''Everybody knew you as the wife of a famous man, \\

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' Zig-Zags it with Carol and Diana.
** Carol is a SuperSoldier by inheritance from her great-grandfather, Steve, and is later given an energy-absorbing shield by Odin [[spoiler: that, after unwitting tampering by the powers of Monica, can turn into a suit that gives her varying degrees of her canon powers]]. However, her tactical and strategic acumen (noted by the Winter Soldier, among others) is all natural, her main mentors and role models are her cousin (Sharon Carter), grandmother (Alison Carter), and great-grandmother presumed great-aunt (Peggy Carter) - Steve later becomes a mentor and ParentalSubstitute. She also has her own group of friends (at least one of whom is superpowered) and, apparently, history of interesting adventures prior to meeting Harry. Finally, she is chosen, twice, to wield the of Alan Scott's Green Lantern Ring based solely on her courage and strength of will (she is literally [[spoiler: too stubborn to die]]) - which is why explicitly why Odin gave her the shield.
** Diana inherits a good chunk of her superpowers from her father, [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules Hercules]], she rarely sees him as she's fostered on Asgard (Hera kind of wants to kill her), and is instead mostly trained and mentored by her aunt Athena, Sif, and her 'auntie' Frigga.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog''; it's obvious to the viewer that Tiana achieves her goals with hard work, sacrifice, and dedication to her dream, but every character in the movie that knows about Tiana's father constantly links her success to his influence, including Tiana herself. Eventually this is even added on to as shown at the end when she finally does set up her restaurant it is shown to be green and frog-themed and named "Tiana's Palace", clearly based on her experience as a frog that she spent with her prince. In an earlier scene where she imagines her restaurant, it is done up in the yellow style her father had planned on using.

** The seven known burn marks on the House of Black's family tapestry fit this trope. The four males were stricken from the family tree for various reasons, the three females were all stricken from it because of whom they married (a Muggle, a Weasley, and a Muggleborn, respectively).
** It should be noted that Bellatrix and [=McGonagall=], the two main female characters who don't have children, do become successful in their chosen fields; Bellatrix is Voldemort's [[TheDragon Dragon]] and one of the most formidable Death Eaters, while [=McGonagall=] is Head of Gryffindor and later [[spoiler: Head of Hogwarts]]. We are told through Pottermore how she inherited her magical powers from her mother and shared many of her mother's favorite activities when she went to Hogwarts. While her father was mentioned a few times, very little is given on his influence on her. However, most of Bellatrix's actions are driven by FantasticRacism and her [[MadLove obsessive love]] for Voldemort.

* Juliet Butler in the ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'' books could be an example of this trope - as well as the related trope if she were more of a character. She is characterized largely as "[[BattleButler Butler's]] little sister," and the great majority of her [[ActionGirl physical skills]] and knowledge of [[CuteBruiser bodyguarding]] comes from her [[IHaveBrothers brother/family]].[[note]]The argument can also be made that family is the only reason ''Butler'' has his position too.[[/note]] She doesn't seem to have a problem with this - in "The Eternity Code," she takes on Artemis as her Principal because she's explicitly [[FollowInMyFootsteps trying to fill her brother's shoes]]. She does utilize her own ingenuity (as well as some awesome tricks she picked up from ProfessionalWrestling and lucha libre) to become her own fighter, but whenever she is mentioned by other characters, it is always in the context of her relationship to Butler.

'''Please don't add any [[AvertedTrope "aversions"]] to the example list. Unless the trope is near omnipresent, examples where it's not used are not "aversions". For more info, see the AvertedTrope page.'''

'''Also note that male characters owing their success to more powerful women are generally not [[InvertedTrope "inversions"]] of this trope unless the setting carries the same implications (women are expected to be self-made while men are not).'''

* This trope is omnipresent enough that when Tsai Ing-Wen was elected president of Taiwan, media outlets pointed out that not only is she Taiwan's first female president, but the first female head of state in Asia not to come from a political dynastic family, ''and'' the first Taiwanese president of Aboriginal descent. [[note]]Tsai Ing-wen is of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paiwan_people Paiwan]] descent through her grandmother.[[/note]]

* This trope is omnipresent enough that when Tsai Ing-Wen was elected president of Taiwan, media outlets pointed out that not only is she Taiwan's first female president, but the first female head of state in Asia not to come from a political dynastic family.

* In ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', Kenshin's LoveInterest Kaoru Kamiya is introduced as the heir of a swordsmanship dojo, and her prowess in swordfighting is attributed to the techniques taught by her father.

** ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'': Cathy Glass is a ranking officer in the New U.N. Joint Chiefs of Staff and the correspondent between the Frontier government and [[PrivateMilitaryContractor S.M.S.]], but she's still the daughter of the Frontier president, former girlfriend of the S.M.S. commander, and fiancee of another prominent government figure, and few of her scenes or motivations don't reference at least one of these.

* One [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]]'' Franchise/{{Superman}}'' comic has ComicBook/LoisLane telling the story of how she got her job at the Daily Planet, telling Clark Kent "And I'll have you know I did it without your help!". Through the course of the story, we discover that Superman was secretly helping her all along. Remember, girls, even if you ''think'' you succeeded on your own merits, it's really because a man was helping you. Lois is usually an aversion, however: in most versions both before and after that story -- including Siegel and Shuster's original -- Lois was well-established at the paper (''Star'' or ''Planet'') before Clark and his costumed counterpart ever arrived in Metropolis.

** Earth-2 Supergirl (ComicBook/PowerGirl) was constantly trying to prove she didn't need her cousin's mentoring anymore, going so far as to tell him she ''couldn't'' listen to his well-meaning advice because she needed to follow her own path.

* Many superheroines with any recognition are a DistaffCounterpart to some more popular male (ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}, any given ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}, ComicBook/SheHulk) or gained powers due to their involvement with a male hero (ComicBook/InvisibleWoman of the ComicBook/FantasticFour, ComicBook/TheWasp of ComicBook/TheAvengers). Franchise/WonderWoman, the most notable exception, is one of the few female characters who can maintain a long-running title.

** The news during ''ComicBook/AllNewAllDifferentMarvel'' that [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] would be replaced by a woman was met with a mixed reaction. While many applauded Marvel's efforts to bring more female heroes to the fore, the fact that this one was doing so by piggybacking on the popularity of a male hero, rather than having her own unique identity, was a sticking point for some. Eventually, [[StatusQuoIsGod Jane Foster died (very briefly), and Thor got his title and hammer back]] - though Jane is now Valkyrie, carrying on a different heroic legacy.
* ''ComicBook/NewAvengers2015:'' Doctor Toni Ho gets very irate when Sunspot casually mentions she's the daughter of Ho Yinsen, asking whether she just inherited those three doctorates of hers from him. He apologises, somewhat chastened.

* In a similar vein, Triple H sometimes gets a lot of the credit for the success of the Four Horsewomen in NXT. While he oversaw the good booking that led to them getting more match times, by all accounts it was the hard work of Wrestling/SashaBanks, Wrestling/BeckyLynch, {{Wrestling/Bayley}} and {{Wrestling/Charlotte}} that even convinced him to do so in the first place.

* ''Franchise/MassEffect''
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' introduces Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, whose father is an Admiral of the Migrant Fleet. Played with in that it is made clear that being an admiral's child puts a ton of pressure on her to succeed and Tali makes it clear that Quarian Flotilla doesn't have enough resources for the "luxury of sexism" so her gender is basically a non-issue with her own people.
** This is what Miranda from ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' thinks she is. Her father genetically designed her to be "perfect", yet [[MagneticHero Shepard]] points out that Miranda was the one who decided what she did with her gifts.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' franchise has a few of these: For Jaina Proudmoore and Tyrande Whisperwind, their love triangles are more interesting than what they actually achieve in the conflicts. Alleria and Vareesa Windrunner, while capable fighters, lose all attention to their husbands.
** Special mentions go to Jaina Proudmoore who initially averts this trope in the original [=RTS=] game but then plays it straight in the [=MMORPG=] game, while does she achieve her position as leader of Theramore largely due to her father being the Lord-Admiral of Kul Tiras she was the only human leader to listen to the Prophet and single-handedly hauled what was left of Lorderon over to Kalimdor. In fact, she is even willing to help Thrall and the orc regretfully kill her father if it means to maintain peace between both the humans and the orcs. But then ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' she becomes much less proactive and becomes a submissive servant of Varian Wrynn, never questioning his actions nor even try to oppose him even after Varian declares war on the horde. Additionally, much of her time spent is instead on brooding about not being with Arthas causing many fans who did not play the original Warcraft to perceive her as a shallow love interest of Arthas who does not do anything but watch and weep.
** Yrel was [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally conceived]] as the wife of Vindicator Maraad, who died in the main timeline (hence Maraad [[spoiler: sacrificing himself to protect her in the ''Warlords of Draenor'' timeline]]) however this was scrapped due to backlash over this trope. Some argue she still qualifies, as in the finished version she starts out as a [[TheLoad somewhat inept]] ActionSurvivor who only evolves into a true leader and badass with a good deal of prodding from Velen.
* The director's cut of ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'' added this for Clair and Nel. Their respective fathers used to have the same jobs they did, and this is especially odd since they lived in a matriarchal kingdom.
* Koei's ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' and ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors'' games do this, although it would be hard to entirely avoid as they are set in historical China and Japan, where few women would be able to make names for themselves without being linked to a man. However, the Japanese series is as a whole better at dismantling this trope than the Chinese, since, though their connections to the men are still prominent, the women at least have plenty of interactions with others as shown in the game's sidequests and omake (while ''DW'' just flat-out ignores them).
* Similarly, Capcom's ''VideoGame/SengokuBasara'', with its female cast being mostly defined as being someone's wife or lover and [[SatelliteCharacter mostly defining their characters around their respective men]], until [[SubvertedTrope the third game]] introduced Saika Magoichi as a tough, no-nonsense, badass mercenary woman who is highly regarded by the other warlords. [[spoiler:Though the game implies she may have been the protege of the Saika's former (male) leader, who was killed by UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga. Which would make her a DoubleSubversion.]] In all honesty, though, most notable women from that period in Japan weren't self-made, being the wives or daughters of influential men.

* ''VideoGame/{{Rift}}'' mostly averts this, but has one major double subversion in the form of Dacia Ultan, the daughter of a clan of renowned artisans. She first broke her poor mother's heart by setting out to be an adventurer...then brought her family even more honor by ''kicking more ass than some entire tribes''. (It's hinted that the Ultans are now as renowned for their kinship to Dacia as for their crafting skills.)
* A common complaint about ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' is that Professor Juniper is the first female Pokémon Professor to appear in the games, and she's also the first Pokémon Professor stated to have learned her trade from her father, who goes on to have a more important role than his daughter does. Which is a bit unfortunate, given that the character was originally meant to be a male and ''still'' have the whole 'inherited trade from father' aspect.
** Also played straight by Clair and Janine in the games whom both attain their roles as gym leader because of their male teacher, Lance and Koga respectively, Flannery and Skyla in the anime, and Winona in the manga.
* [[spoiler: Subverted]] in ''VideoGame/{{Infamous}}'' with Moya, who introduces herself as an FBI agent and the wife of an agent, John, who has gone missing, who she wants you to find. [[spoiler: She's lying for sympathy. She only wants John for the information he can give her about the Ray Sphere.]]
* All the original female characters from ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'', with the exceptions of [[FlatCharacter Olette]] and [[WeHardlyKnewYe Kairi's grandmother]], tend to play this one depressingly straight as their roles and relationships in the story are pretty much associated with the vastly outnumbered males.
** Kairi initially averted it as her status as a Princess of Heart and her backstory living with her grandmother in Radiant Garden had nothing to do with male characters. However, starting from ''Chain of Memories'', the writers started writing her as Sora's LoveInterest and nothing more. Although not passive, she has almost no powers of her own, and her main role in the ''II'' is to be kidnapped by the male villains and then rescued by the male heroes. She does eventually get a Keyblade of her own, but instead of manifesting it like all the boys, she has it literally handed to her, and she uses it for all of one mostly off-screen fight against random mooks. [[spoiler: And even if she is going to be trained to be an ActionGirl by ''III'', she still plays this straight as she gains her talents ''only'' because of her new teacher; Yen Sid, though it should be noted the only known female Keyblade Master isn't in any position to be training anyone right now]].
%%** The same also applies to her Nobody Namine: starting from the middle of ''Chain of Memories'', her sole motivation becomes to help Sora, then later his own Nobody Roxas, in any way she can. Also to note is the fact she always owes male characters for anything, such as Axel helping her to escape Organization XIII or Riku's BigDamnHeroes when she and Kairi are threatened by Saix. This also applies to the time she was working for Diz, where all she was seen to do was obey his orders, never speaking him out in any way despite his own racist remarks regarding Nobodies.
%%** Not only is Larxene the only truly female member of the villainous Organization XIII, but her only goal is to follow the plan set out by her superior, Marluxia, and ride his coattails to leading the Organization.
** Xion is the series' first playable female character, but [[spoiler:everything she is and everything she has, from her weapons to her very existence itself, was stolen from Sora. She's an imperfect clone of him, made as a tool by her all-male superiors. Note however that she could be a subversion as she gets very much aware of it and ends up derailing her creators' plans, although not for too long given that one of those creators is a master at XanatosSpeedChess]].
%%** Despite being a badass along with being a talented and level-headed fighter, Aqua's achievements owe it all to her male master Eraqus, and her sole motivation is all about her two male friends, while these two friends' have motivations of their own [[note]]Terra wants to investigate regarding the matters with Xehanort and Unversed, Ventus wants to see the outside world and make new friends, Aqua...Well, she just goes because she wants to see if the two are alright[[/note]]. Even the fact that she's the only one who earned the title of Keyblade Master is somewhat downplayed when we learn that Terra is also Keyblade Master level and failed only because of Xehanort's meddling during the trial.
* A ''VideoGame/{{Tomb Raider|2013}}'' title, a prequel that focuses on Lara Croft before she became the badass ActionGirl that was such a staple of gaming culture in the '90s, has Roth reminding her that "she can do it, because she's a Croft". This was {{averted|Trope}} in the earliest games; Lara had actually been ''disowned'' by her family because they found her globe-trotting adventures, which she undertook entirely on her own, an embarrassment. Only later did they add the idea of her father having been an archeologist too. It's averted for her actual combat/acrobatic skills, which are self-taught.

* ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon''

** Some games, such as ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonBackToNature Back to Nature For Girl]]'' and ''3'' for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor, showcase this trope. The male character's "goal", denoting the end of the game and the point at which the credits roll, is to run a successful business out of his farm. The female character's goal is to get married. Other games in the series allow female characters to continue playing past marriage.
* Awkwardly played with in ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles''. The Valkyrur are apparently an all-female warrior race/matriarchy, subverting this trope, but the two who actually appear in the game are subordinate to their love interests, [[HystericalWoman too ruled by their emotions]] to make rational decisions about their powers on their own. [[spoiler: Welkin saves Alicia from a wholly-unnecessary suicide attack with a CooldownHug and a marriage proposal, and Selvaria goes through with her suicide attack out of love for Maximillian, but only after making sure the only credible threat to his victory is spared.]]

%%* In ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'', Jennah may be the queen of Kryta, but the most important NPC for humans is Logan Thackeray, and his loyalty to the queen is due to him being in love with her and little else - effectively, Jennah is a {{Love Interest|s}} with a high position rather than queen with a love life.
* Zig-zagged by the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' series, due to the large cast. Technically, most of the characters owe their position in the army to the usually male main character, because the main character recruited them.
** A minor example in an optional Spotpass part of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', where characters from previous games appear with a handful of lines. The first lines for Ethlyn and Altena have them introduce themselves as the wife and daughter of Quan, while Quan's son Leif does not mention him.
* Defied in ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}''. The title character bears [[TheSacredDarkness the Left Eye of the World,]] a power that represents the true power of darkness and boosts her own magic severalfold. Her father, Balder, bears the Right Eye of the World, which is a light-aligned counterpart to the left. Balder's whole plan in the first game was to ensure Bayonetta reached her full power, and he killed all the other witch candidates save for one that he enslaved. All of this suggests that Bayonetta is only so powerful because her father made her so... until later cutscenes revealed that she received training from Jeanne, against the Umbran Elder's wishes. [[VideoGame/Bayonetta2 The sequel]] builds on this: Not only was Bayonetta allowed to spar with Jeanne, but we find that Bayonetta's mother was an extraordinarily powerful witch in her own right. Bayonetta inherited her power from ''both'' her parents, and it shows.

* An odd example happens in ''Franchise/{{Tekken}}'' with Anna Williams. All of her stories involve her big sister Nina Williams and pretty much all of her official descriptions involve Nina as a comparison despite Anna's own accomplishments while Anna is rarely mentioned in Nina's case and Nina even gets to have her own stories that Anna isn't a factor in at all.
** Asuka Kazama is mostly known for being a Kazama in the story and her association with Jin. She has even become a FauxActionGirl who only sticks to {{Designated Girl Fight}}s with Lili despite her strong and promising start to the series.
** While Lili is usually self-standing in the fighting department of the game, her social status and etiquette are often considered to be solely because of her father.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime''
** An interesting case happens to Flame Princess who initially enters the plot as an alternative LoveInterest for Finn [[spoiler: after his heart has been broken by Bubblegum's rejection]] along with the Flame King's "evil" daughter. However, over time she began diverging from this trope as she starts having more personality as Finn introduces her to the outside world. All this eventually culminates when she became [[spoiler: the Flame Queen without any input from her father or Finn whatsoever, the former she overthrew while the latter she dumps him for manipulating her]]. In fact, the last episode where she is featured is "The Cooler" where her entire plot has nothing to do with Finn or Flame King at all.

* Despite the writer's "best" attempts to avert this trope Barbara in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheKillingJoke'' ultimately comes off as this trope played depressingly straight as her personality in that movie comes across as a whiny StalkerWithACrush whose only role in it comes across as a LoveInterest for [[{{Squick}} Batman]] without any semblance of independence or heroism whatsoever.

* Of the first fourteen women to serve in the US Senate, many were widows of established politicians. Those who weren't were either appointed to the position or were elected to placeholder, month-long terms. It wasn't until 1980, when Paula Hawkins was elected to the Senate from Florida, that a woman without a prior family connection in politics was elected to a normal six-year term.
** Similarly, the first two women governors -- Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming and Miriam A. Ferguson of Texas -- were preceded by their husbands, William Ross and James Ferguson, in office. It wasn't until 1974 when Ella T. Grasso was elected governor of Connecticut that a woman who had never been married to a prior governor was elected.

* UsefulNotes/EleanorOfAquitaine is an interesting subversion. While she was queen consort of both France and England during her lifetime and ruled as regent for her son UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionheart, she was ruler in her own right of the Duchy of Aquitaine, which made her a formidable (and very rich) power player in medieval Europe.

* Subverted historically by women whose success was attributed to their male relatives or husbands. Mary Shelley, for example, whose [[Literature/{{Frankenstein}} novel]] was published with no stated author, but it had a preface by her husband, so most people assumed that he wrote the whole book. Then the sales of the book dropped dramatically when its true author was made public, and Mary was widely criticized for writing about such an "unfeminine" subject matter. [[VindicatedByHistory It would be decades before the book was judged by its own merits, rather than by who wrote it.]].
* This was essentially unavoidable for many pioneering women in order to learn a trade that was considered "men's work" or get higher education before the 20th century, a woman usually had to rely on a male teacher (because there usually would not be a female one around) and often enough on the support of her father and/or husband. Even those women whose mother could have taught them a thing or two about their chosen profession might be unlucky like Mary Shelley, whose mother Mary Wollstonecraft died eleven days after giving birth to her, or UsefulNotes/MarieAntoinette of France, whose mother Maria Theresa of Austria ruled an empire but decided that little Maria Antonia needed less of an education than her elder sisters.
** Meanwhile, by a not untypical DoubleStandard, male prodigies, geniuses, etc. are frequently celebrated as if their achievements had come out of thin air, downplaying or downright ignoring the important roles played by their parents, teachers, sponsors, advisors, etc. A lot of people talk about the achievements of, e.g., UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat as if he had not inherited his kingdom and the best army in the world from his father and a supernatural mystique from his mother (who put about that Alexander had been fathered by a god and also accelerated his inheritance) as if he had not been educated by Aristotle and been surrounded by experienced and highly competent generals. And how many men's reputation was really diminished by the saying "behind every great man there is a great woman"?

* This is rather common in ''Series/KitchenNightmares'' where women tend to only be the focus of the show when they alone are in charge rather than them being partners to the male (whether it be a son or husband). It overlaps with FemalesAreMoreInnocent sometimes as even when they are just as guilty as their partner Gordon and even the comment section of the youtube video go after the male much more often. One of the biggest examples is the Cafe Tavolini episode where Gordon and even the comment section go after Keith much more than Lisa despite her being just as guilty.
** Though this was averted mostly in [[Recap/KitchenNightmaresS6E15AmysBakingCompany the Amy's Baking Company episode]], where despite Sammy's own psychotic tendencies, Amy tends to get most of the flack and she is mostly the one notorious for the show's infamy.

** ComicBook/CarolDanvers zig-zags this trope. Her superhero career began when a Kree device, the Psyche-Magnitron, transferred the powers of the male ComicBook/{{Captain Marvel|MarvelComics}} (Mar-Vell) on to her and she became ComicBook/MsMarvel, wearing a costume that looked like Mar-Vell's costume [[GenderedOutfit retailored to show more skin.]] She later got different costumes, powers, and code-names (Binary, Warbird), but now, as Captain Marvel, she is once again [[LegacyCharacter using the code-name]] of a well-known (in-universe, at least) male superhero - though with the intention of making it her own. Likewise, her origin has got a retool, and it turns out that she's always been half-Kree (on her mother's side) and had the potential for powers, the Psyche-Magnitron just woke them up. Also, on a meta-level, she started out as a non-powered supporting character to Captain Mar-Vell in his feature, and yet in-universe and in some alternate continuities like the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe, she averts this trope by being a BadassNormal Air Force Captain whose career is entirely self-made.

* Franchise/WonderWoman was originally designed specifically to avert this, with her powers, strength, and skills derived fully from women and her interactions with them. The [[ComicBook/WonderWoman2011 New 52 version of her]] plays this straight, with her powers and allies all derived from her father Zeus. This was undone by Creator/GregRucka in ''ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth'', but James Robinson brought it back.

* This is a big source of criticism for the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' series. Among them:

* ''Manga/HellsParadiseJigokuraku'': Played with in regards to Yamada Asaemon Sagiri, the [[{{Deuteragonist}} secondary main character]]. Born the daughter of the head of the Yamada Asaemon, a clan of executioners, Sagiri aspired from an early age to develop a cut on par with her father's. Despite her hard work and her excellent talent, however, she was looked down on for being a woman and was only accepted as an official member of the Yamada school when her friend Shugen threatened to step down unless she was allowed in. So while she worked very hard and has exceptional skill, she was only able to achieve her position with a man's intervention and even then still faces an uphill battle for her life choices. This is largely justified as the story takes place during a very patriarchal time period and, moreover, Sagiri's development throughout the series focuses on her finding her own path, both as an executioner and as a person.

* ''Literature/ACourtOfThornsAndRoses'' tries to set itself as a FeministFantasy with Feyre steadily becoming a competent High Fae, warrior, and High Lady in her own right who's on equal footing with her male partner. However, everything Feyre has, her life and powers as a High Fae, her skills as a warrior, her literacy, her title, even her trauma recovery, she only has because men give it to her. Her title of High Lady would imply she has some sort of power and responsibility in her court, but when all is said and done, however, once the danger's passed it seems to be little more than a ceremonial title as [[spoiler:Rhysand]] is the one doing all the political work, with her position and livelihood all hingeing on the fact that she's his wife. This reaches a head in the fifth book when Feyre becomes a passive trophy wife as soon as she [[spoiler:gets pregnant]], despite this being her biggest fear when she was with Tamlin. And [[spoiler:Rhysand ''conspire's to hide the dangers of her pregnancy from Feyre, because of how her knowing would affect [[ItsAllAboutMe him]]'']].

** Though this was averted mostly in the Amy's Baking Company episode where despite Sammy's own psychotic tendencies Amy tends to get most of the flack and she is mostly the one notorious for the show's infamy.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog''; it's obvious to the viewer that Tiana achieves her goals with hard work, sacrifice, and dedication to her dream, but every character in the movie that knows about Tiana's father constantly links her success to his influence, including Tiana herself. Eventually this is even added on to as shown at the end when she finally does set up her restaurant it is shown to be green and frog-themed and named "Tiana's Palace", clearly based on her experience as a frog that she spent with her prince. In an earlier scene where she imagines her restaurant, it is done up in the yellow style her father had planned on using.

-->'''Well I'm not gonna just call you Dream's sister. That's a bit awkward.', Tommy tried to fix up his posture, getting back into his more confident persona. He had to keep up with this girl, somehow, and being confused wouldn't aid that much. 'How about... Drista? You know, like a [[{{Portmanteau}} combination]] of the words Dream and sister?'.\\

'Sure.', Drista responded. 'Why not?'.''

* ''VideoGame/{{Rift}}'' mostly averts this, but has one major double subversion in the form of Dacia Ultan, the daughter of a clan of renowned artisans. She first [[BlackSheep broke her poor mother's heart]] by setting out to be an adventurer...then brought her family even more honor by ''kicking more ass than some entire tribes''. (It's hinted that the Ultans are now as renowned for their kinship to Dacia as for their crafting skills.)

** In animated domestic comedies (especially those with a BumblingDad and CloserToEarth mom), it is very rare to find a regular or even recurring female character without a familial or romantic relationship with a male character. In particular, the wife in the family (whether she works outside of the home or not) tends to have no friends or connection to the outside world outside of her husband's social circle. Homer Simpson has Carl, Lenny, and Barney. Marge has... Mrs. Lovejoy occasionally?

Doesn't entirely always mean it's handled badly tho.

%%** In contrast to the previous three female leads before her and having their own motivations and roles, in the [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry4 fourth game]], Kyrie's entire role revolves around being a DistressedDamsel in the hands of Sanctus for Nero and Credo to rescue. Her personality also revolves around her being Credo's sister and Nero's SatelliteLoveInterest and nothing more.

* Subverted in ''Manga/BambooBlade''. Tamaki mentions the strongest kendoist she's ever seen, and her teammates assume she's talking about her father, but she actually means her mother.