History Main / SpaceShipGirl

* Nimue, the AI from AtopTheFourthWall counts. She not only has the box in Linkara's apartment to communicate with him, but she also is Comicron 1's mind and ethical controls. We also see her have a "physical" body in her confrontation against [[spoiler:Lord Vyce's pure data self]] during the most recent review of a 2001: A Space Odyssey comic.

** The German Kriegsmarine averts this trope with the battleship Bismarck. Admiral Erich Raeder insisted the Bismarck be designated as a 'male' vessel at all times.

** The German Kriegsmarine averts this trope with the battleship Bismarck. Admiral Erich Raeder insisted the Bismarck be designated as a 'male' vessel at all times.

* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Love and Rocket", where upgrading the Planet Express ship's computer caused it to become a love-obsessed and unbalanced female voiced by Creator/SigourneyWeaver, no less!

* Franchise/RatchetAndClank has the Lombax ship the Aphelion.

* The Aphelion in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank''.

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* This tropes naturally applies to the spaceships touched on in the ''FanWorks/SeaQueens'' project, but even ocean-going ships have a living avatar among the crew.
[[/folder]]

* As mentioned in the introduction, the British, Americans, and other English-speaking nations have for hundreds of years referred to their ships as a "she." More to the point, during the [[WoodenShipsAndIronMen Age of Sail]] it was not uncommon at all for sailors and captains to view their ships as living members of the crew--providing a historical foundation for this trope. Naval historians like Ian W. Toll have provided accounts where captains would carry on conversations with their ships. One such captain was reputed to have said that "a ship can do everything but talk, and sometimes she can do even that."

** Among Russians, the rule is to "use the pronoun (adjective, past tense form) that is grammatically correct." Therefore, the ship's gender can vary according to what ''type'' of ship it's called. For example, the missile cruiser ''Moskva' is considered male, but is female if referred to as a cruiser. The Oscar-class submersible cruiser ''Tomsk'' is male, but female if called a submarine. The research vessel ''Vityaz'' is male, but is neuter if referred to as a steamship.

** Among Russians, the rule is to "use the pronoun (adjective, past tense form) that is grammatically correct. Therefore, the gender of the ship according to the word used for its type. For example, ''Moskva' is considered male if called a missile cruiser, or female if simply a cruiser. The Oscar-class submersible cruiser ''Tomsk'' is male, but female if called a submarine. The research vessel ''Vityaz'' is male, but is neuter if referred to as a steamship.

* AirRivals has the Akron First Fleet Flagship, which can be owned by the brigade of a certain nation after a war that takes place every 6 days. The main computer of the battleship manifests itself as a hologram of a seemingly female robotic head. The hologram itself doesn't interact with you apart from giving you management options for the base you own, though. Although one has to admit, according to the storyline, the Akron was built by Barkians, and Bark city was destroyed around 140 years prior to the player's timeline, [[FridgeLogic which means that the poor hologram girl has been trapped alone for 140 years]], maintaining an abandoned ship that gets some nasty wars between ANI and BCU every 6 days and then it has to cope with brigade members that are possibly not nice people ''over and over again''. I would probably not enjoy it very much.
* Indie game ''AnalogueAHateStory'' introduces the archivist AI projection of a GenerationShip early on in the form of *Hyun-ae. Later, the protagonist gets to load up and meet *Mute, [[spoiler: who really takes the "sexist analogies" part of the trope description seriously.]]

* Americans and British have for hundreds of years referred to their ships as a 'she'. This carried over into the aviation age as well.
* The Russians dodge it entirely. Russian ships can be female, male or neutral, depending on which grammatical gender the ship's name falls into.
** As the rule is "use the pronoun (adjective, past tense form) that is grammatically correct", the gender of the ship can vary depending on what you call it. For example, missile cruiser "Moskva" can be denoted with male pronoun if you call it cruiser, or female if you call it "Moskva". Oscar-class submersible cruiser "Tomsk" can be denoted with male pronoun, if you call it submersible cruiser or "Tomsk", and female if you call it submarine. Research vessel "Vityaz" can be denoted with male pronoun, if you call it "Vityaz" or steamship, or neutral, if you call it vessel.
* Military computers (when required) are almost universally female voiced. It seems sensible that this would continue when we develop [=AIs=] and they get personalities and avatars. Research showed that pilots pay better attention to an annunciator when the voice is female. Hence the female voices.
** Air Force tests also indicate that a female voice is easier to hear and understand under high stress situations (like getting shot at while doing mach 1).
** There is also research that claims people find a female voice 'safer' because of the male voiced HAL from 2001, a case of culture bleeding strongly into the public psyche.
*** More recent research suggests that, regardless of what crews find comforting, a CreepyMonotone may give the best chance of recognition and understanding.
** These voice alarm systems, when female, are sometimes referred to as Bitching Betty.
* Similarly, the majority of commercial computer systems (like GPS) use female voices.

A walking, talking female avatar of a SapientShip.

Throughout history, ships and other seafaring vessels have always been referred to as "she" (at least in English), and spaceships are just an [[SpaceIsAnOcean extension of the metaphor]]. Knowing how to treat a ship is like knowing how to treat a woman, TheCaptain will say; take care of her and she'll take care of you. She may have to be tamed, or she may take a gentle touch. The analogies go on and on. Strangely, this even applies to ships named after men (e.g., the USS ''Ronald Reagan''). It also applies to aircraft. This has been reflected in the appearance of older sailing vessels and many military aircraft -- with scantily clad figureheads for the former and scantily clad women painted on the latter.

The tendency to see great vessels as female could have something to do with the crew and passengers feeling that they're being carried in its belly through hostile environment and subconsciously seeing it as motherly. [[AllPsychologyIsFreudian Maybe.]] Note, however, that the use of the feminine is not universal. Latin did, and thus romance languages directly and English indirectly do the same; on the other hand, in Russian, the word "ship" is masculine.

Nowhere do they go so far, though, as when the ship ''is'' a girl. She may be a [[{{Hologram}} holographic projection]] by the ship's computer, or she may be a physical manifestation created by BlackBox technology, she may be a WetwareCPU running the ship, or she may simply [[MacGuffinGirl turn into a human]] [[VoluntaryShapeShifting when she wants to]]; but she ''is'' the ship, and thus requires special handling. Spaceship girls range from the deadly serious to the outright wacky, but they are never just machines. Hint: don't make her angry when you're parsecs away from the nearest planet...[[ComingInHot Or even if you're close to a planet.]]

* Stella of the Huckebein in ''MagicalRecordLyricalNanohaForce'' is another example of someone who can synchronize with her ship, to the point where she seems to be able to use her HealingFactor to repair damage on the ship while they're linked. [[spoiler:This leads to disastrous consequences for her when the Huckebein's ship gets struck with the Zero Effect]].

** [[spoiler: In the Extended Cut of the Control Ending, after uploading herself, Shepard was recreated as an AI entity to provide the voice, avatar and moral compass for the Reapers]].

* VideoGame/SystemShock's Shodan is a space''station'' girl. The sequel gives us Xerxes, a spaceship ''guy''.

* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Love and Rocket", where changing the voice of the ship suddenly turned it female.
** She was voiced by Creator/SigourneyWeaver, no less!

* In an episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', an "upgrade" to the ''Enterprise'''s computer causes it to start talking flirtatiously and calling the captain "Dear". Kirk said that the folks the repairs had been outsourced to thought the computer needed a personality, "so they gave it one." Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration and Series/StarTrekVoyager both had female voices for the ships computer- logical, since they were voiced by Gene Roddenberry's wife. The ships were never completely sentient, though.

* If EpilepticTrees are to be trusted (and ridiculously advanced AI is a qualifying trait for this trope, natch), Yukikaze from SentouYouseiYukikaze can be this. That is, minus the human avatar and all.

** In the BigFinish short story "The Lying Old Witch In The Wardrobe" by Mark Michalowski, the TARDIS manifest a female avatar who [[spoiler: kidnaps Romana out of jealousy shortly before "Destiny of the Daleks" and acompanies the Doctor throughout that adventure, including faking the regeneration scene at the start.]]

* The Japanese PC game ''GadgetTrial'' has been described as a fusion of turn based tactics games and mecha musume, and has the player control tank, artillery, and other girls who personify military hardware.