History Main / YouGoGirl

#Outplaying/equaling her male counterparts in an athletic competition

** "Bart Star" subverts this: Lisa boldly declares her intent to join her brother Bart on his football team, but becomes reluctant when coach Ned Flanders welcomes her with open arms, mentioning the three ''other'' girls on the team, who are also welcoming. Lisa tries to salvage her mold-breaking intentions by decrying the footballs for being made of animal parts, but learns that they're synthetic, with the profits donated to charity. Unable to cope with not being on the [[SoapboxSadie moral high(er) road]], she runs off sobbing.

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''. Katara's skill at waterbending did manage to impress Pakku, who believed that women shouldn't learn combat-bending, when she instigated a fight with him, but he still refused to teach her until he learns that Katara's grandmother is actually his long-lost love, whom he drove away with his attitude.

* In the ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' episode, "Fight The Power" a few girls really look up to Jane for joining the football team. At the same time, she ends up being violently bullied by the rest of the team, the cheer leaders, and even ''the principal''.

* Subtly deconstructed in ''Series/ParksAndRecreation''. After Pawnee's boy scout group refuses to include girls, Leslie starts her own group called the Pawnee Goddesses in order to prove that girls can be good outdoorsmen too. However in practice she ends up [[{{Hypocrite}} reinforcing the very stereotypes she's claiming to be opposing]], having her group never do any actual difficult activities and instead having them laze about, doing stereotypically feminine things like "puppy parties" or pillow fights. She also [[NotSoDifferent tries to keep boys out of the club just like the boy scout group did to girls]], and when she does let boys in, they only join because in her club they get to screw around and play instead of doing work. When she makes Ron acknowledge that "GIRLS CAN DO IT TOO" it comes off less like an empowering victory and more like a somber, KickTheDog moment where she makes Ron feel like crap, and Leslie is visibly unhappy about it afterwards.

* Children's book example: inCreator/ GordonKorman's [[Literature/MacDonaldHall ''The Zucchini Warriors'']], schoolgirl Cathy Burton disguises herself as a boy to lead [=MacDonald=] Hall's thoroughly inept football team to victory.

* Children's book example: in GordonKorman's [[MacDonaldHall ''The Zucchini Warriors'']], schoolgirl Cathy Burton disguises herself as a boy to lead [=MacDonald=] Hall's thoroughly inept football team to victory.

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* This is the outcome in the film ''Film/LittleGiants''. Becky's dad was pissed that she wasn't chosen for the town's football team because she was girl and so he [[StartMyOwn started his own team]] and challenged the official team.

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* [[TheAmazingChanAndTheChanClan Anne Chan]] gets several little moments like this, usually in response to Alan or Tom claiming she can't surf, climb trees or follow a crook as well as them because she's a girl. They're both miniature [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome crowning moments of awesome]] and PlayedForLaughs at the same time.

* Quite a few eps of ''RocketPower'', with Reggie Rocket as the girl. For instance, "Major Scrummage", where she scores the winning points in a game of rugby. Justified, since she's the oldest by two years and the only one who has reached puberty.

* ''TheSimpsons'':

* ''CloneHigh'', "Shot in the Dark", where "John Dark" turns out to be the Joan of Arc clone in a cap and mustache. She hits a free-throw to score the school's first point against their competition and win a bet principal Scudworth had made against their rival's principal... and then the team treats the Abe Lincoln clone as a hero (on the grounds that his stirring speech convinced all in attendance to let her shoot in the first place), leaving Joan feeling completely betrayed.
* In ''GormitiTheLordsOfNatureReturn'', Toby's boasting about being better at judo are summarily shot down by Jessica beating him by ''one'' point at the school tournament. She was quite smug about it, too...

* Subverted in an episode of ''WhatsNewScoobyDoo'' where the culprit turns out be a girl who was sabotaging the skateboarding tournament. She claims she was rejected because she's a girl (even though there is another girl there), but it turns out she was rejected because she genuinely sucks.

* ''SofiaTheFirst'': One episode featured a race where first and second prizes were places at Royal Prep's derby Racing team. Sofia entered the race despite being told that sport was for Princes and not for Princesses.

* In Wrestling/{{CHIKARA}}, [[Wrestling/SaraDelRey "The Queen of Wrestling" Sara Del Rey]] pinned her former BDK stablemate Tim Donst to win the Torneo [=Cibernetico=] at ''Cibernetico: The Animated Series'' November 12, 2011, making her the first and so far only woman to do so. Earlier in the match, she had eliminated the BDK's monster Tursas.

* Speaking of women in CHIKARA defeating Tim Donst, "The Intergalactic Luchadora" Saturyne did just that at ''The Ghost of You Clings...'' on May 4, 2013. The night before, at ''Battle Not With Monsters,'' she defeated Missile Assault Ant. A month earlier, at ''The Shoulder of Pallas'' on April 6th, she defeated Kobald of the Batiri.
* Heidi Lovelace becoming the first woman to win Chikara's Young Lion's cup in 2015, taking out two members of Colony Xtreme Force on the way, who still hadn't moved passed [[HeManWomanHater their misogyny]].

** {{Subverted|Trope}} in the episode where Zoey joins the male's wrestling team. All of her male opponents choose to forfeit rather than wrestle her, because if they won, [[WouldntHitAGirl they would look like a jerk for beating up a girl]]; but if they lost, [[IWasBeatenByAGirl they would look like a wimp for losing to a girl]]. It turns out that the coach only let Zoey join the team [[GenreSavvy for this exact reason]], so that he could save his best wrestler for the final match of the tournament. His plan ends up failing when Zoey goes up against a JerkJock with no hangups about fighting a girl, and [[CurbStompBattle he wipes the floor with her]].

* ''{{Doug}}'': The school baseball team rejects Patty from the school team just for being a girl, she forms her own team, with some other rejects and girls. In a game against the school team, Doug represents the game winning run for Patty's team after finally getting a hit... But what do you know, Roger makes the game winning catch from her at-bat and wins for the school. Patty then decides to [[OffTheTable turn down]] the school coach's offer to let her join the school team.
* ''TheProudFamily'', the one where Penny plays on the school football team, single-handedly turns the homecoming game from a blowout loss into a game they have a chance to win... and drops the ball on the final play.

* In the ''AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'' episode, "Girls Knight Out," Princess Calla joins a competition in disguise in a contest of who would be her Royal Protector to prevent being shackled with one, which includes a surprise challenge by her own father in disguise. Eventually, after winning, she comes clean to her father the King and he notes that he was deeply impressed by her fighting skills and publicly announced that she needed no bodyguard after all.

* ''LizzieMcGuire'' plays with the trope in an episode. Lizzie tries out playing football with the boys and discovers she enjoys it. Uniquely the guys have no problem with her playing, once she shows how good she is at it. The conflict instead comes from the other girls who mock her for being "one of the boys". Lizzie then learns AnAesop that it's possible to be a GirlyGirl and enjoy roughing it up. Their BrawnHilda of a coach reveals that she likes to sew her own dresses and go line dancing on weekends.

* ''ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'': Dee took part in the football try outs in one episode just to prove that she was more athletic than Mac and Dennis who were also competing. Despite the fact that she had a "spine made of glass", she made it farther than any of the other guys, but only because they were completely out of shape. At the end of the episode, [[spoiler: she injures her foot just kicking the football]].

* ''{{Doug}}'': the school baseball team rejects Patty from the school team just for being a girl, she forms her own team, with some other rejects and girls. In a game against the school team, Doug represents the game winning run for Patty's team after finally getting a hit... But what do you know, Roger makes the game winning catch from her at-bat and wins for the school. Patty then decides to [[OffTheTable turn down]] the school coach's offer to let her join the school team.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'', princess Merida holds an archery tournament between three clans to see who is worthy of having her hand in marriage. Only one succeeds in hitting the bullseye, but Merida isn't impressed. She hits all three bullseyes easily, including [[ImprobableAimingSkills splitting the arrow that hit the bullseye down the middle]]. HilarityEnsues [[RealityEnsues and reality]] between her and Queen Elinor; [[spoiler: Merida broke tradition, embarrased the three clans, and almost provoked a civil war because she didn't chose a husband.]]

* Not sports but definitely a physical competition: in the ''SoulCalibur'' game series, Seung Mina's entire motivation for seeking the Soul Edge is to find it before her father's star pupil Hwang can. She hopes this will prove she's as valuable in a fight as any guy. (According to the official storyline, neither of them ever get close. [[spoiler: In Hwang's SC 2 ending, though, Mina still gets a not-so-small reward by [[BigDamnHeroes saving his life after his battle with Inferno]] ''and'' having Hwang openly thank her and acknowledge her strength.]])

* ''SmallWonder'', where Joanie, Harriet and Vickie go camping with the guys and prove superior in pitching tents, fishing and cooking - even at the end, it rains on the guys' camp and not the ladies who are ''five feet away''.
* ''PunkyBrewster'', with radio-controlled model cars.
* ''TheBradyBunch'', "The Liberation of Marcia Brady." Marcia says in a news interview that girls can do anything boys can. She joins the Frontier Scouts to prove it. Peter retaliates by joining the Sunflower Girls. [[DoubleStandard While Marcia holds her own with the boys, Peter is humiliated.]] This was a recurring theme in the show. Any time the boys and girls had a contest, [[DoubleStandard the girls would win.]]

A girl participates in an athletic competition to show that girls can be as good at it as the boys are. She then makes good by a) outplaying/equaling her male counterparts in an athletic competition, or b) joining another team, and winning a game for her team. Sometimes this happens in retaliation to being called "[[StayInTheKitchen just a girl]]". Nine times out of ten, the girl is treated as a hero (with the "being carried on the other athletes' shoulders" treatment) upon winning the game.

** Wrestling/MollyHolly once knocked out The Hurricane with a FryingPanOfDoom at ''Wrestling/{{WrestleMania}} X-8.'' She then pinned him to win the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwf-hc.html WWE Hardcore Title]].

* After being involved in a six person tag team match for Wrestling/{{All Japan| Pro Wrestling}} in Taiwan involving Bushi and Wrestling/UltimoDragon against Black Bushi and Dark Dragon, Makoto and Wrestling/CheerleaderMelissa had a one on one rematch without their male partners billed as the first women's match in the country.

A girl participates in an athletic competition to show that girls can be as good as it as the boys are. She then makes good by a) outplaying/equaling her male counterparts in an athletic competition, or b) joining another team, and winning a game for her team. Sometimes this happens in retaliation to being called "[[StayInTheKitchen just a girl]]". Nine times out of ten, the girl is treated as a hero (with the "being carried on the other athletes' shoulders" treatment) upon winning the game.

** {{Subverted|Trope}} in the episode where Zoey joins the male's wrestling team. However, all of her male opponents choose to forfeit rather than wrestle her, due to the fact that, if they won, [[WouldntHitAGirl they would look like a jerk for beating up a girl]], and if they lost, [[IWasBeatenByAGirl they would look like a wimp for losing to a girl]]. It turns out that the coach only let Zoey join the team for this exact reason, so that he could save his best wrestler for the final match of the tournament. His plan ends up failing when Zoey goes up against a JerkJock with no hangups about fighting a girl, and [[CurbStompBattle he wipes the floor with her]].

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* The end result in the book ''There's a Girl in My Hammerlock''.
** IF you feel like being generous. The main girl ONLY wins when the opponent forfeits because shes a girl, she never wins in a straight up match, the best she can hope for is not sucking. The only reason she actually participates is because the only other one in her weight group is even worse than her and the other one was withdrawn by his father who was insulted by her participating.

* The ending of ''GirlGotGame'' definitely counts, complete with the whole manga being about a the protagonist [[PersonAsVerb pulling]] a SweetPollyOliver.

* This is the outcome in the film ''LittleGiants''. Becky's dad was pissed that she wasn't chosen for the town's football team because she was girl and so he [[StartMyOwn started his own team]] and challenged the official team.
* In ''ShaolinSoccer'', [[spoiler:Mui shows up at the end of the championship game in a BigDamnHeroes moment to counteract the Evil Team with [[ChekhovsSkill her Tai-chi skills]]]].
* ''ShesTheMan'', the modern re-imagining of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'', centers around this trope. The girl's soccer team is cut, the girls are denied the chance to try out for the guys' team because "girls can't beat boys," so Amanda Bynes transfers schools in drag and HilarityEnsues.

* In Wrestling/{{TNA}} there's been [[Wrestling/KiaStevens Awesome Kong]](put Wrestling/BillyGunn Cute Kip]] on a stretcher among other things), ODB(who trained Cody Deaner) and Hamada...(who lost to Eric Young? She was at least offered a spot on World Elite). Before being picked up by TNA, Kong was in a middle of a campaign to get a Wrestling/{{N|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA World Heavyweight Title shot, a campaign that saw her pin [[Wrestling/SethRollins Tyler Black]].

* Both [[Wrestling/{{Madusa}} Madusa Miceli]] and Wrestling/{{Jacqueline}} won the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-c.html Cruiserweight Championship]], the former in WCW and the latter in WWE. Jacqueline also won her second [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwf-wm.html WWE Women's Championship]] from a man (don't ask).

* In Wrestling/{{TNA}} there's also been [[Wrestling/KiaStevens Awesome Kong]], ODB and Hamada.

** That was more about remain able to meet the Gummies without exposing them to whoever became her bodyguard.

* In the ''{{Wishbone}}'' episode, "Bone Of Arc" Samantha joins the boys' soccer team and her team mates love her for it.

* Briefly played with in an episode of ''MalcolmInTheMiddle'': Reese joined in a wrestling team and had to fight a girl.

* Parodied in "Big Time Jobs," an episode of ''BigTimeRush.'' Carlos takes the position of Gustavo's production assistant, and is forced to deal with an espresso machine named C.A.L. (a parody of a [[ASpaceOdyssey certain famous A.I.]]) that [[ItMakesSenseInContext eventually becomes sentient and attempts to take over the world by flooding it with foam.]] Kelly, Gustavo's assistant manager, tells Carlos that he'll have to deal with the problem on his own--until C.A.L. starts spouting sexist rhetoric ("WOMEN ARE WEAK"). She then takes a baseball bat to the machine.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': Billy wouldn't allow Mandy in his baseball team because she's a girl. Trying to teach him a lesson, she disguised herself as a boy named "Manfred" by donning a baseball cap. That'll prove to Billy girls can play sports as soon as he sees through her ClarkKenting. (That means ''never'') Not to mention that the team constantly beating his is entirely composed of girls. Billy is basically just an idiot.