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| 7 | [[quoteright:300:[[Webcomic/ArlokkTheAtrocious https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/muh_explosions.png]]]] |
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| 9 | -> ''"Let's be very honest about something. The quickest way for any work of art, fiction, or other pop culture ephemera to cease being taken seriously is for the broader culture to intuit that it was made for or enjoyable by women, especially teenage girls. This is not up for debate, we're not adding a feminist argument here, all you need to do is live in the culture and look around a little, and you already know this is a fact."'' |
| 10 | -->-- '''Creator/BobChipman''' discussing the backlash to ''Film/Titanic1997'' |
| 11 | |
| 12 | There is a prevalent DoubleStandard most people have regarding media: that women's entertainment should only be enjoyed by women with [[PeripheryDemographic no crossover allowed]] -- [[MenAreGenericWomenAreSpecial despite it being okay for women to watch shows primarily marketed towards men]] -- keeping in mind almost all media is male-focused. Not to mention the stigma that media specifically tailored for women is 100% guaranteed to be of inferior quality, no exceptions. This line of thinking is very clear in most creators and executives' minds. Men and women could watch shows meant for men/starring a man, but only women could like a female-centered, never mind "girly", show. Watching and enjoying a "girl" show would be unmanly and be subject to ridicule, which brings in homophobia to the mix. Most shows with [[TheMerch merchandise]] usually focus on the male characters being represented way more than female characters due to the double standard. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Women-targeted entertainment also has a [[LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek reputation of being worse than other shows]]. Common criticisms are that women's media is overly touchy-feely, simplistic, poorly-written, and shallow. The men can be the badass heroes and problem solvers who go on [[TheQuest quests]], [[MenActWomenAre but women don't do much except entangling themselves in their relationships and wallowing in a soup of hormonal emotions.]] |
| 15 | |
| 16 | This attitude isn't as prevalent as it once was, but it's still rather pervasive. It's still taught at some film schools and since MostWritersAreMale, they're going to go for what they ''think'' is the greatest audience. The stigma is still entrenched not only in entertainment, but in RealLife as well. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | This may also be in play when women writers are encouraged to adopt a MoustacheDePlume, which may be seen as increasing their marketability in a male-oriented genre. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | Compare RealWomenDontWearDresses, WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForLittleGirls, UsefulNotes/TheBechdelTest, DoubleStandard, TheSmurfettePrinciple, WhiteMaleLead, RaceLift, AnimationAgeGhetto, MinorityShowGhetto, LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek, DaytimeDramaQueen, ChickLit, ChickFlick, ExtrudedBookProduct, FeministFantasy, WatchedItForTheRepresentation. For when the series itself avoids the ghetto but the merchandise falls into it, see UnisexSeriesGenderedMerchandise. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | Contrast TestosteroneBrigade, when a work ostensibly aimed at girls has a surprisingly large number of male fans. See also RealMenWearPink and OutOfTheGhetto for aversions. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | ---- |
| 25 | !!Examples: |
| 26 | |
| 27 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 28 | |
| 29 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 30 | %%* MagicalGirl series tend to be viewed more critically in [[AmericansHateTingle western territories]]. This especially hits the classical kind or CuteWitch varieties the hardest; most mentions of titles like ''Manga/HimitsuNoAkkoChan'' or ''Anime/CreamyMamiTheMagicAngel'' will be in retrospections on the genre rather than as series in their own right. Because of this, it's usually the MagicalGirlWarrior shows, parodies, or [[MagicalGirlGenreDeconstruction darker, more serious]] fare that get translated and exported, causing lighter or less actiony series to be looked down upon as "weaker" in comparison. Some ValuesDissonance also comes into play, as Japanese children's programming is more gendered in comparison to Western children's programming. While Western programming tries to aim at all children's demographics, Japanese children's programming are stricter about marketing to its primary demographic. |
| 31 | * ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'' is a quintessential girls show, but when it was released for Creator/KidsWB the dub saw heavy edits to turn Syaoran Li (Li Showron in the dub) into a main protagonist along with Sakura, which included having half the episodes (mainly the ones without him) cut and promoting the show as "Card Captors," removing her name altogether to make it seem more unisex. Broadcasts outside the US aired the remaining episodes (save for two in Canada and the U.K.), thus clearly establishing Sakura as the protagonist. Funny enough, the Creator/{{Toonami}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJTkt14EQxY promo]] made it abundantly clear that Sakura was the protagonist. |
| 32 | * ''Franchise/SailorMoon:'' |
| 33 | ** 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 territory. |
| 34 | ** It is suspected that the WesternAnimation/ToonMakersSailorMoon pilot was meant to be the girl show equivalent to ''Franchise/PowerRangers''. The pilot's quality was fairly poor, with wooden acting and a great deal of recycled animation from the original anime. Furthermore, compared to the original ''Anime/SailorMoon'', the girls seemed heavily flanderized, with every girl being depicted as a fashion-conscious party animal despite the main cast being undercover alien warriors. |
| 35 | * This was also an issue in Fox TV's ill-fated showing of ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne''. The first episode focused on Hitomi and her crushing on a schoolmate with all of the action-y stuff (featuring the male main character) at the end. So Fox (wanting the show to appeal to a young male demographic) just cut out the girly stuff and began the series with the action stuff, forcing them to chop up and rearrange huge sections of the show to fit their viewing format. |
| 36 | * Though it's since proven to be a massive success [[TestosteroneBrigade with even some male fans]] and showed the anime industry just how much buying power female anime fans have, ''Anime/{{Free}}'' received substantial TaintedByThePreview from male otaku when it was first announced, primarily because [[Creator/KyotoAnimation the studio that made it]] was mostly known for {{moe}} SchoolGirlSeries. Some, however, hated the fact that it catered to the FemaleGaze at all, regardless of who made it. |
| 37 | * Hiromi Arakawa uses the male pen name Creator/HiromuArakawa because she thought that male readers wouldn't want to read a {{shonen}} manga written by a woman. |
| 38 | * Naoko Yazawa, the creator of ''Manga/WeddingPeach'', went by the pen name Nao Yazawa in order to disguise that she was a woman in order to be taken more seriously as a mangaka. |
| 39 | * Although the Fox Kids promotions were gender neutral, with one [[Anime/DigimonTamers season 3]] ad focusing on Rika even directly targeting girls with a "girl power" theme, the toyline for Franchise/{{Digimon}} was affected by this trope. Kari was the only ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'' character to not get a digivice toy, simply because hers was pink. And while some of the female Digimon like Birdramon and Kyubimon got digivolving toys, they were never the ones shown in the commercials. According to WordOfGod, Rika Nonaka and Renamon were specifically designed to try and break out of the ghetto the toyline had, by making them badass [[ActionGirl action girls]] that would appeal to boys as well as girls. Defied with ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri'', which has had many promotions and merch aimed directly at women, and Kari ''finally'' got her pink D-3 toy! |
| 40 | * ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'' was picked up by 4Kids in the United States (under the English title "Magical Doremi") primarily because they wanted to expand their channel demographics, as the shows on their roster at the time only attracted boys. When the show still failed to draw in female viewers, they promptly dropped it, even though it was followed by two other female targeted shows: ''WesternAnimation/{{Bratz}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub''. Their other attempt, ''Manga/TokyoMewMew'', known as ''Mew Mew Power'', actually got good ratings, but the dub had to be cancelled midway through due to [=4Kids=] being unable to find a toy deal. |
| 41 | * The very much for girls ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' and ''Anime/PetitePrincessYucie'' underperformed so badly for Creator/ADVFilms that when they licensed the male-targeted ''Manga/UfoPrincessValkyrie'', [[MarketBasedTitle they changed the title]] to ''Ufo Ultramaiden Valkyrie'' out of fear that just having the word "Princess" in the title would scare away male buyers. |
| 42 | * Not only are children's shoujo anime the least likely to be licensed in an era where almost everything else is automatically licensed soon after it's announced, they're often unlikely to be license ''rescued'' should they be dropped. For instance, most of the shounen series in 4Kids' lineup was rescued by Funimation as soon as it could be (with Pokémon already having been transferred to TCPI), but ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'' and ''Anime/TokyoMewMew'' are still unlicensed to this day; after the fall of Creator/ADVFilms, ''Manga/WeddingPeach'' and ''Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'' are also unlicensed, and the latter didn't even get a Western release at all since they couldn't find a TV distributor. In the modern era, ''Anime/{{Aikatsu}}'' has sat listlessly since Daisuki went under yet the ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' series that had also been Daisuki exclusives got physical releases, while the shoujo titles licensed by Anime Sols weren't rescued like ''Manga/BlackJack'' was. |
| 43 | * ''Anime/PrettyCure'' actually defies the ghetto in its native Japan. Despite being a traditional magical girl series aimed at young girls first and foremost, it doesn't talk down to its audience, in particular with its action-packed fight scenes reminiscent of ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. The series has strong MultipleDemographicAppeal, so it isn't hard to find adult ''Precure'' fans; the creators have listed "men aged 16-35" as a primary audience alongside "girls aged 4-12". However, the ghetto is in full force when it comes to exporting the show [[AmericansHateTingle outside of Japan]] -- a casual Western viewer is more likely to gag at the bright colors and sparkles than give it a proper shot, and every attempt at localization (such as the rebranded ''Glitter Force'') has flopped due to being perceived as a "''Sailor Moon'' clone" meant exclusively for young girls. This is in spite of ''Precure'' having a small but passionate international fanbase consisting mostly of teenagers and adults. |
| 44 | * The lack of faith in shows with a female protagonist, [[ShoujoDemographic let alone a show explicitly aimed at girls]], may have been why ''Manga/SallyTheWitch'', despite being practically tailor made for American tastes of the time, was one of the few anime of the 1960s (that weren't too violent, controversial, or overtly Japanese) to not receive an English dub. Outside of theatrical animation like ''WesternAnimation/BettyBoop'' and the various Creator/{{Disney}} heroines, American television cartoons with female leads were not really a thing until the turn of the 1970s with titles like ''WesternAnimation/ThePerilsOfPenelopePitstop'' and ''WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussyCats'', and by then ''Sally'' might have been a tough sell due to being partly in black and white. |
| 45 | * ''Anime/LaSeineNoHoshi'' did terribly in the West for two reasons, 1) it never had a proper dub, and 2) it's often called a ''Anime/TheRoseOfVersailles'' rip-off. In it's native Japan, it's nearly forgotten, with Italy being the only country where it's fondly remembered. And even then, most fans of the show are female. Despite the superhero aesthetic, it never attained a male fanbase, likely because the focus on the drama of French society and Simone's life was too "shojo" for them. |
| 46 | [[/folder]] |
| 47 | |
| 48 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 49 | * Franchise/WonderWoman has had this problem. She's supposed to be one of DC's Big Three superheroes next to {{Franchise/Batman}} and {{Franchise/Superman}}, but [[Film/SupermanTheMovie they]] [[Film/Batman1989 have]] [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries had]] [[WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries regular]] [[Series/{{Smallville}} TV]] [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold and]] [[Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy movie]] [[Film/ManOfSteel adaptations]] while Diana's had a total of ''two'', [[Series/WonderWoman1975 one TV series]] and [[Film/WonderWoman2017 a live action film]] and [[Film/WonderWoman1984 its sequel]] (with a grand total of five solo works if you count direct-to-video animated features in [[WesternAnimation/WonderWoman2009 2009]] and [[WesternAnimation/WonderWomanBloodlines 2019]]). Batman beats her full count using either his live action ''or'' animated adaptations. She's never been on the same level of sales as Batman and Superman and suffers from less PopCulturalOsmosis compared to them (most people would instantly recognize the name "Wonder Woman" easily enough, but not her supporting cast or RoguesGallery.) The irony here is that Wonder Woman ''was'' created for girls, but for the specific purpose of ''having a female action hero who was equal to her male counterparts''. But, apparently, being a literal Amazon still doesn't make you as marketable as the most BadassNormal male hero. This wiki alone has pages for ''three'' WW shows which were cancelled or called off at the last minute apparently due to concern over [[ComicBook/WonderWomanAndTheStarRiders market]][[Film/WonderWoman1974 ability]] and/or [[Series/WonderWoman2011Pilot quality]]. [[note]] An equal reason that is ''not'' sexism related has to do with the tangled mess of legal rights to the character and any ''related'' characters. Dr. Marston was an established and well-off scientist (he had already co-invented the blood pressure cuff and the polygraph), not a StarvingArtist. Unlike most creators who sold their creations to DC for a one time fee, Dr. Marston was clever and ''leased'' the character to DC with him (and/or his estate) having final say over and taking a cut from DC on anything from movies to merchandise. Rather than deal with the {{MadScientist}}'s estate, some tie-ins like the 2003 WesternAnimation/TeenTitans series, end up bypassing the Wonder family entirely. [[/note]] |
| 50 | * A prime example of this would be the critically acclaimed and fairly successful pre-ComicBook/{{New 52}} version of ''ComicBook/{{Batgirl|2009}}'', written by Bryan Q Miller, who at the time was new to the scene and as such didn't have a following that would help most books start off. The series is ''still'' recommended by comic book stores due to being fun and awesome, but its been reported that more than not, the book gets turned down because it's 'a girl book'. |
| 51 | ** The same thing happened to ''Comicbook/BatgirlRebirth''. As ''Podcast/HouseToAstonish'' put it, it was criticised for "pandering to Tumblr fandom", and if you spent some time deciphering this code, it turned out "pandering to" meant "is enjoyed by" and "Tumblr fandom" meant "girls". |
| 52 | * ''ComicBook/JemAndTheHologramsIDW'' was cancelled after 26 issues due to low sales and was specifically left out of the massive Hasbro property crossover ''ComicBook/Revolution2016'' for being a girl-targeted series. |
| 53 | * Despite being praised for its art and reimagining of the series, ''ComicBook/RainbowBrite'' was CutShort after five issues. |
| 54 | * ''ComicBook/AmethystPrincessOfGemworld'', a MagicalGirlWarrior character that has been around since 1983 (and one of the first examples of such a trope in the West), has traditionally done very poorly with readers despite several attempts at ongoing series' and miniseries. Interestingly, the runs themselves have done everything in their power to avoid tropes associated with the MagicalGirl and MagicalGirlWarrior to escape the Ghetto with focus on things like horror, adult content, and politics, but not only has this failed to bring in male readers, it served to alienate people who would want to read a MagicalGirl story that didn't seem to be embarrassed about its premise. |
| 55 | [[/folder]] |
| 56 | |
| 57 | %%[[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 58 | %%* Some FanFiction writers hypothesize that MostFanficWritersAreGirls is the reason why 'fanfiction' is considered to be so viscerally disgusting by so many people. It's worth observing that on this wiki, most of the fanfiction included in tropes lists is either adventure-based stuff often written by boys (''Fanfic/ShinjiAndWarhammer40k''), or relationship-based stuff that's legendarily bad (''Fanfic/MyImmortal''). |
| 59 | %%* This opinion has even been documented in academic analysis of FanFic by ethnographer Camille Bacon-Smith and [=MIT=]'s Henry Jenkins. Jenkins goes as far to postulate in ''Textual Poachers'' that FanFic in general is a reaction on the part of a female audience trying to find their own pleasures in predominantly-male media. |
| 60 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 61 | |
| 62 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 63 | * ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' did okay at the box office for Disney, but not nearly as well as its reviews and hype suggested that it would. Disney determined that this trope was the reason and was rumored to [[http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/21/entertainment/la-et-1121-tangled-20101121 completely shut down adapting fairy tales into movies.]] For the marketing of their ''Literature/{{Rapunzel}}'' adaptation the following year, they completely downplayed the fairy tale-ness of the movie, changed the title to the somewhat more [[VerbedTitle comedic-sounding]] ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'', [[http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/09/business/la-fi-ct-disney9-2010mar09 put the male hero character front and center, and marketed it like a DreamWorks comedy film.]] The advertising brought a whole lot of backlash but paid off -- ''Tangled'' went on to become Walt Disney Animation Studios' first movie since ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' to break the $200 million mark domestically. |
| 64 | * At least one ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' ad completely downplayed Belle's role and the romance ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nOEH1Fy5vI this one]]). However, that's only one of the six trailers included on the DVD and Blu-Ray, and the actual theatrical trailer made no bones about the movie being about a woman and a romance. |
| 65 | * ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'' managed to avoid the ghetto for the most part, despite its female main characters, and was the most profitable Disney film of this period. However, this may be due to the marketing focusing exclusively on Stitch, a presumably-male alien. |
| 66 | * The ''Franchise/DisneyFairies'' movies are often criticized as Disney's answer to Barbie, though advertising, the toys, and the [[CoversAlwaysLie movie covers]] can understandably lead people to this conclusion. In fact they were originally set to be a lot more girly than they are before Creator/JohnLasseter stepped in. |
| 67 | * The original story treatment of ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle'' had a female protagonist, but Michael Eisner suggested a movie about a male Chicken Little would appeal to more people. The final film became a black sheep of the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon, though it seems hard to tell whether or not the original plan would have fared better. |
| 68 | * Some DVD sets of ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH'' that include its direct-to-video sequel, ''Timmy to the Rescue'', have a cover that does not feature Mrs. Brisby, the main character of the older and more beloved of the two movies. Instead, it has her son, Timothy, the central character of the sequel. The original film, itself, is a very loose adaptation of ''Literature/MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH''; the leading lady had her name dropped from the title for the same reason. |
| 69 | * ''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 [[MisaimedMerchandising misrepresents her by making her appear girly and sparkly]]. |
| 70 | * While ''{{WesternAnimation/Frozen|2013}}'' broke out of the ghetto, it's found itself repeatedly compared to its successor ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'' over which is 'better'. While some of this is HypeBacklash, a good portion involves the fact that ''Frozen'' has female leads and a large fanbase of young girls. |
| 71 | %%* Compare [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/8/88/Superman_Batman_Supergirl_TP.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080619105410 this cover]] for the comic ''The Supergirl from Krypton'', and [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f2/SBApocalypse.jpg this cover]] of the animated adaptation, ''WesternAnimation/SupermanBatmanApocalypse''. |
| 72 | * ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' was denied a wide theatrical release ostensibly because of COVID-19. However, many fans suspect that it was due to this given that the protagonist and the majority of the supporting characters are female. |
| 73 | [[/folder]] |
| 74 | |
| 75 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 76 | * Generally, if a female-led and/or female-oriented film underperforms at the box office, expect a VocalMinority to pin its lack of success on the female focus driving away audiences even if there are other factors in play. For example, ''Film/TheMarvels'' (a sequel to the below-mentioned ''Captain Marvel'') suffered from a combination of audiences being fatigued by rapid-fire releases from [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse its parent franchise]], fears of ContinuityLockout (since it followed the stories of multiple Creator/DisneyPlus-exclusive shows as well), and a lack of promotion caused by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes, yet when it bombed multiple people pinned the blame on the fact that it had three female leads (two of whom [[MinorityShowGhetto were non-white]] to boot). |
| 77 | * When ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' received a new 2-Disc DVD, fans could choose between two gender-specific covers: the pink "Buttercup Edition" with a cutesy synopsis on the back, or the aquamarine "Dread Pirate Edition" with an action-packed synopsis. Later, the first Blu-Ray came with a compromised cover: The bottom half featured Buttercup with Wesley, while the top had Buttercup with the Dread Pirate Roberts. |
| 78 | * Creator/WarnerBros producer Jeff Robinov declared in 2007 that [[http://www.deadline.com/2007/10/warners-robinoff-gets-in-catfight-with-girls/ "we are no longer doing movies with women in the lead."]] This was after the poor box office reception of ''Film/TheBraveOne'' (starring Creator/JodieFoster) and ''Film/TheInvasion'' (starring Creator/NicoleKidman). He even reportedly expressed that a male has to be the lead of every script in order to get broader audiences. |
| 79 | * The combined under-performances of ''Film/Catwoman2004'' and ''Film/{{Elektra}}'' also made studios extremely reluctant to make female superhero movies, even as superhero movies became a huge, reliable box office draw a few years later. It took a '''massive''' push-back from fans (who frequently pointed out that those movies flopped not because the leads were female but because they just weren't good movies) to get the studios to finally throw audiences a bone and announce ''Film/{{Wonder Woman|2017}}'' and ''Film/CaptainMarvel2019'' movies for their respective franchises, both of which were massive financial successes. |
| 80 | * The first ''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga 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. |
| 81 | * The ghetto, along with the huge popularity of actor Creator/JohnnyDepp, is probably why ''Film/AliceInWonderland2010'' 1) turned out to be an ActionizedSequel of sorts to the nonsense stories of [[Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland its source material]], and 2) focused its marketing campaign on Depp's Mad Hatter, although Alice is clearly the protagonist throughout the film. |
| 82 | * ''Film/OzTheGreatAndPowerful'' is a prequel to ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' that focuses on a male character in a [[Literature/LandOfOz universe primarily defined by female protagonists and power-wielders]]. And the guy, unlike the gals, can't even wield magic! |
| 83 | * ''Film/JohnCarter'' was originally titled ''A Princess of Mars'', the title of the first John Carter story. But that was seen as too girly. Despite the remarketing, it became a massive BoxOfficeBomb because of other factors. |
| 84 | * ''Film/{{Whiteout}}'' lost its second female lead because executives feared men would not go see a movie with two female leads. Carrie herself was turned into a much less dynamic character in order to give her male co-stars adequate supporting actions. This is ironic given the LesYay subtext in the graphic novel and the GirlOnGirlIsHot trope, but perhaps they were worried about losing potential female audience members with too much LesYay and no handsome male lead. |
| 85 | * This was proposed with the sequel to ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', with Hicks being the hero because it was assumed he'd attract both male and female viewers (also because executives weren't sure Sigourney Weaver would be available for another movie). Fortunately Ripley is so identified with the ''Alien'' series that any movie with them in is expected to have an ActionGirl as a main character, even if it's not Ripley. |
| 86 | * Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse: |
| 87 | ** ComicBook/BlackWidow made herself known to moviegoers by becoming the first female member of ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', but it took ten years for her to get her own picture. Her only film appearances aside from the various ''Avengers'' movies consist of playing supporting roles in ''Film/IronMan2'' and two of the three ''Captain America'' movies, all of which have male leads. Marvel finally broke this streak and gave Black Widow [[Film/BlackWidow2021 her own movie]] in 2021[[note]]After multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic pushed it out of its original intended 2020 release date[[/note]] but many fans and critics were still rather frustrated that it took over a decade for the franchise to release a Widow movie, much less any movie with a female solo lead. It didn't help that over two years before the premiere of ''Black Widow'', ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' already seemed to end her story, [[spoiler:when she exchanged herself for the Soul Stone]]. |
| 88 | ** 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[[note]]It's often said she didn't have any at all, which isn't true; she had both a solo action figure and a Toys/{{LEGO}} minifigure[[/note]]. 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''. |
| 89 | * 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|MarvelComics}}, who didn't get involved in any action scenes, was included. |
| 90 | * ''Film/TheIntern'' was panned by a lot of critics. [[http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/01/the-intern-has-been-panned-by-male-film-critics-why-am-i-not-surprised One journalist noted]] that the majority of negative reviews came from male critics who disliked that the lead was female and worked in fashion. The director Nancy Meyers has frequently suffered this problem, with many of her films being dismissed with the "ChickFlick" label. |
| 91 | * Unlike the cartoon and comic, the ''Film/JemAndTheHolograms2015'' film fell into the ghetto. Compare the other times Creator/{{Hasbro}} properties have received live action film adaptations: ''Film/Transformers2007'' received a budget of $150 million. ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'' received $175 million. Even ''{{Film/Battleship}}'' received a $220 million budget. The one adaptation based on a girl-oriented franchise? $5 million. While the cartoon broke out of the ghetto, the movie fell straight into it - barely making $2 million worldwide, though part of this may be due to the UncertainAudience. Fans of the series loathe it for being all-but InNameOnly while the target demographic likely doesn't know what ''Jem'' is. |
| 92 | * ''Franchise/StarWars'': |
| 93 | ** The series has traditionally lacked a strong female presence in the merchandise, which got especially ridiculous with the sequel trilogy considering its main character is a woman. An absolutely JustForFun/{{egregious}} case with [[http://www.themarysue.com/hasbro-wheres-rey-figures/ a Target exclusive Hasbro set]] for ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', where they have main characters like Finn and Kylo Ren along with a generic Stormtrooper and TIE Fighter Pilot, all the while excluding [[ActionGirl Rey]] and [[DarkActionGirl Captain Phasma]]. While Phasma is a pretty minor character, Rey [[spoiler:''ultimately ends up TheHero of the film'']], making her exclusion mind boggling. Even Creator/JJAbrams, the film's director, isn't pleased with the lack of Rey merchandise. |
| 94 | ** When a ''Star Wars''-themed ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}'' set was released to coincide with the release of ''The Force Awakens'', fans weren't pleased that the only tokens in the game were Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, and Finn, and were confused by the lack of Rey. Hasbro released a statement that they wanted to avoid spoiling the film, which detractors found ridiculous, wondering how in the world her inclusion could spoil anything. Eventually Hasbro announced that a version of the game with a Rey token would be produced sometime in 2016. |
| 95 | ** 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 (and just wasn't very good) made some people view it through the lens of "media aimed at girls sucks". |
| 96 | * ''Film/Ghostbusters2016'' was OvershadowedByControversy that mainly (though not exclusively) revolved around the fact that the main cast was a mostly-female GenderFlip of the mostly-male [[Film/Ghostbusters1984 1984 movie]] and how the cast and crew handled criticism against it. Credit should be given to Sony for producing and marketing the film as simply a ''Ghostbusters'' reboot without making a big deal of gender, but it was still considered SoOkayItsAverage and wound up flopping at the box office. |
| 97 | * ''Film/{{Pollyanna|1960}}'' made less money than Creator/WaltDisney hoped, a misfortune he attributed to the story's feminine-sounding title scaring away men. The next movie Walt made starring Creator/HayleyMills, an adaptation of the book ''Literature/LottieAndLisa'', received a name that sounded more gender-neutral than that or ''Pollyanna'' -- ''Film/{{The Parent Trap|1961}}'' -- and earned a much larger gross. |
| 98 | * One of the more interesting trends that came out during the reviews and critical reception of ''Film/AWrinkleInTime2018'' was that female critics and moviegoers were a lot kinder to the film than their male counterparts. Granted, the film skews heavily towards a "girl power" message as well as sending positive messages to girls of color, but it was still noticeable. Creator/BrieLarson pointed this out when she complained about the lack of female and racially diverse movie critics, mentioning the film by name and saying that it didn't get a fair shake from the mostly white, male movie critics due to the fact that the movie wasn't intended for them, which itself was met with a mix of praise and backlash. |
| 99 | * ''Film/Titanic1997'' had to be marketed as a mix of a DisasterMovie and a thriller about a stolen diamond necklace, with the romance between Jack and Rose treated as a subplot by the trailers. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I2Dgu7mNto This episode]] of ''[[Creator/BobChipman Really That Good]]'' (which provides the page quote) argues that this was the reason why it received such a vociferous backlash from the emerging online movie geek culture of the time, with Creator/JamesCameron seen as having squandered his AuteurLicense on a ChickFlick, Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio being {{typecast|ing}} in PrettyBoy roles for the next decade, and the women and girls who made it the highest-grossing film of all time seen as a pack of screeching {{fangirl}}s who had no taste in cinema. While {{Genre Throwback}}s to old-fashioned sci-fi, fantasy, and monster movies were ''en vogue'' among the new generation of film geeks, the romantic epics and {{melodrama}}s of the past were still seen as off-limits. |
| 100 | * ''Film/NowAndThen'' was dismissed by critics as being "''Film/StandByMe'' for girls" because it was a ComingOfAgeStory with preteen girl protagonists. It has since been VindicatedByHistory. |
| 101 | * ''Film/PoisonIvy'' was met with disdain by a lot of critics both because its leads were teenage girls, and for being directed by a woman. It received some only vaguely connected sequels that went DirectToVideo and featured gratuitous nudity from noted actresses - which has led to the first film being dismissed as an erotic exploitation film (even though it has no nudity). |
| 102 | * Creator/AmericanInternationalPictures, makers of countless [[BMovie B-grade]] teen comedies and horror movies in TheFifties and TheSixties, relied on a mix of this and OlderThanTheDemographic as their marketing strategy. They codified it into a formula that they called "Franchise/PeterPan Syndrome": they figured that young children will watch anything that teenagers will but that [[AnimationAgeGhetto teenagers won't watch "kiddie" movies]], and that girls will watch anything that boys will but that boys won't watch "girly" movies, so therefore, to reach the widest possible audience, they should zero in on the 19-year-old male moviegoer as their ostensible target demographic. That way, in practice their ''real'' target demographic [[MultipleDemographicAppeal will also include his younger siblings and his girlfriend]]. |
| 103 | * 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. |
| 104 | * Most of the [[NeverTrustATrailer misleading marketing]] for ''Film/JennifersBody'' was fueled by a belief in this trope and an attempt to pull it out of it. 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. |
| 105 | [[/folder]] |
| 106 | |
| 107 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 108 | * HistoricalFiction author Nancy Rue said at a workshop that the reason all of her protagonists are male is that girls will read "boy books" but boys won't read "girl books". |
| 109 | * The same thing was mentioned by Creator/JohnChristopher regarding ''Literature/TheTripods''. |
| 110 | * And so did Creator/DianaWynneJones, but she also said that things changed during her career, and started writing books with female protagonists. |
| 111 | * The ''Literature/InDeath'' series of sci-fi detective novels was published under the pseudonym J. D. Robb due to the fact that their author knew nobody would take them seriously if she put her real name, Creator/NoraRoberts, on the cover. She has kept it up even after it was revealed that she was the author, likely for this reason. |
| 112 | * When the book ''Strana horoshih devochek'' ("Land of obedient Girls") by A. Starobinec was going to be adapted as film, the producers doubted that a film about girls was going to attract large audience. As a result half of the girl charachters were changed into boys and the film was renamed ''Strana horoshih'' '''detochek''' , "Land of obedient Children". This then led to an AdaptationInducedPlotHole, as the children, now including boys, are still forced to do only typically feminine tasks such as washing and cleaning. |
| 113 | * In 2010, Jennifer Weiner set off a controversy in literary circles when she criticized ''The New York Times Book Review'' for showering praise on Creator/JonathanFranzen's novel ''Literature/{{Freedom}}'', seeing literary criticism in general as dominated by upper-class white men to the point of dismissing female voices and marginalizing "chick lit". As noted in [[https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/12/15/20991839/jennifer-weiner-jonathan-franzen-vida-count-2010 this article]] by Constance Grady for ''Vox'', this controversy marked the beginning of a sea change in literary criticism in TheNewTens that saw the breakdown of the ghetto, especially in YoungAdultLiterature. |
| 114 | * In 1987, Creator/TerryPratchett was able to get ''Literature/EqualRites'', a fantasy novel about a young girl mentored by an older woman, published without much difficulty. In 2019, Corgi rereleased the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' series with new covers which did a certain amount of violence to Josh Kirby's art, and the most extreme example was ''Equal Rites'', which had Esk and Granny moved to the back cover where they wouldn't scare male readers. Following complaints, they were restored in later printings. |
| 115 | [[/folder]] |
| 116 | |
| 117 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 118 | * ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': The show managed to be popular, in spite of starring love-lorn English teacher Connie Brooks. At the start of its run on radio, Colgate-Palmolive used the half-hour slot to sell articles to women, i.e. Luster-Cream Shampoo, "men folks love it too". Later, they made a 180, switching to promoting Colgate Toothpaste and (men's) Shaving Cream. Anason was a later radio sponsor, while the Armed Forces Radio Network played the program in reruns. On television, the program eventually was used to showcase products aimed for kids, like breakfast cereal and a new type of chocolate milk mix! |
| 119 | * In-universe, the premise of ''Series/ThirtyRock'' is that Jack retools the previously female-oriented ''The Girly Show'' into ''TGS With Tracy Jordan'', forcing female lead writer Liz Lemon to include a male comedian in a central role. |
| 120 | * A lot of women watch Creator/SpikeTV. In fact, one of the creators of Spike TV [[http://www.realitytvworld.com/index/articles/story.php?s=1001705 was FIRED]] because ''too many women were watching it''. However, their view has softened as they're now actually [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/spike-tv-sets-sights-women-172228 courting women to watch Spike TV]] [[NetworkDecay as the channel is shifting from the frat boy demographic.]] So much so, that Spike was rebranded as the Creator/ParamountNetwork in 2018 and will focus on shows targeted to both men and women. |
| 121 | * A lot of Creator/DisneyChannel's programming is aimed at girls, so Disney created a sister network (or should we say, ''brother'' network), Creator/DisneyXD, because they couldn't get boys to watch the main Creator/DisneyChannel's programming. Ironically, in 2009 it was discovered that more girls were watching Creator/DisneyXD than boys. |
| 122 | ** Strangely enough, when Fox and Saban owned [[Creator/ABCFamily Fox Family]], they tried the Creator/DisneyXD strategy first, way back in 2000 with two different digital cable channels, the "Boyz Channel" and "Girlz Channel''. They were gone within a year due to pressure from outside groups that segregating networks based on sex was a bad idea, and cable providers didn't want to alienate anybody (plus, most of the content was recycled from both Fox Kids and Fox Family, and many people didn't have digital cable at the time anyway, further limiting the networks' reach). |
| 123 | * Towards the fifth season of ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'', the producers, in the hopes of drawing in more male viewers, [[{{Fanservice}} started dressing the female leads in more revealing clothes and coming up with various episodes where the sisters would be transformed into magical creatures that would require a skimpy outfit.]] And when the actresses protested before the final season, they still introduced a younger character who could act as the MsFanservice. Thanks to the marketing focusing on the titillation, it's led to lots of people (''The Mary Sue'' infamously) dismissing it as a mindless JiggleShow - and the 2018 reboot marketed itself as a "smart, funny, ''feminist''" version of the original. This prompted actress Creator/HollyMarieCombs to snark on Twitter "guess we forgot to do it the first time." |
| 124 | * Some of the Brazilian children’s soap operas produced by SBT: |
| 125 | ** The 2015 remake of ''Series/ComplicesAlRescate'' is a very female oriented soap opera, with the main focus being the twins Isabela and Manuela as well as their talent for music, making it more popular with girls than boys, it was also the soap opera with the least amount of merchandising and most of it was strictly aimed at girls. |
| 126 | ** The 2016 remake of ''Series/CaritaDeAngel'' is a much bigger example, with more prominent male child characters being added to appeal more to boys because the original version was deemed too "girly". |
| 127 | ** This was also the main reason why in the 2018 series adaptation of {{Literature/Pollyanna}} named "As Aventuras de Poliana", [[AscendedExtra the character of Jimmy Bean gets a main role]] and shares near equal screen time as the titular character and the original title was actually "As Aventuras de Poliana and João Feijão". |
| 128 | * A combination inversion and example happened with ''Franchise/PowerRangers''. Originally, the creators tried to get girls to be interested in the show, by [[ShesAManInJapan adapting some male characters from the Japanese original as females]] and selling fashion dolls of the female Rangers. Eventually though, it became clear that the show had far more appeal for boys, and the straight example came into play for the toys - since boys were thought to not be interested in playing with toys of the female heroes, said females only get a few basic figures in the toy line while the males get all kinds of special vehicles and power-ups. |
| 129 | ** ''Series/PowerRangersJungleFury'' was one of the worse offenders, as it introduced a trio of male CanonForeigner Spirit Rangers that never existed in its parent show ''Series/JukenSentaiGekiranger'' and who only appeared in about a third of the episodes. When it came time to make the heavily-armored action figures with all sorts of gimmicks, the Spirit Rangers received these variants alongside the original male Rangers; while the Yellow Ranger, a main character and the only girl on the team, didn't get a single one and had to make do with her basic, un-gimmicked forms. |
| 130 | ** During the 2010 ReCut of ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'', a vehicle clearly designed for the (female) Yellow Ranger was packed in with a figure of the (male) ''Green'' Ranger when the usual practice is to have a vehicle and its rider match. |
| 131 | ** Female ''villains'' have it even worse toy-wise. Not only were Rita Repusla and Scorpina absent from the ''Mighty Morphin[='=]'' toylines, but starting from ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'', villain representation in general had been on the downturn for several years. Villain toys started to pick up again starting with ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'', but villainesses are still in a tough spot; Poisandra from ''Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge'' and BigBad Madame Odius from ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaSteel'' ended up sold only in two-packs with a Ranger, while a handful of MonsterOfTheWeek characters got single-carded figures. |
| 132 | %%* This has an interesting effect with shows in syndication. A lot of shows that were very gender-neutral during their original run can be put into reruns on networks that are considered exclusive to women (NetworkDecay aside, networks like Lifetime, Oxygen, and We have a long reputation of being solely for women.) A lot of shows that were gender-neutral and incredibly popular with men and women, like ''Series/WillAndGrace,'' ''{{Series/Frasier}}'', and ''{{Series/Roseanne}}'', now air on such channels in syndication and have to overcome a stigma that they're shows for women. |
| 133 | * ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' is a weird example in that it was mostly marketed to young men, but it still attracted a significant PeripheryDemographic of women. Creator/{{Syfy}} has a difficult time accepting that its scripted shows have a tendency to attract viewers in addition to/other than the ones they planned on, and ''Atlantis'' ended up getting cancelled to make way for ''Series/StargateUniverse'' ... which then got a lot of flak for having significant elements of soap opera [-[[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace IN SPACE]]!-] |
| 134 | * In-universe example: in an episode of ''Series/{{Friends}}'' Ross makes a comment about a time when he was reading Spider Man comic and Monica immediately [[CoughSnarkCough coughs "Wonder Woman"]] in an attempt to embarrass him. |
| 135 | * ''{{Series/Taina}}'' was a sitcom about a girl who wished to become a professional singer. Despite getting Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} its highest ratings in three years, it was cancelled because network execs believed it only appealed to girls. |
| 136 | * Parodied in a "Scenes We’d Like to See" segment of ''Series/MockTheWeek'', where the topic was "Unlikely Things to Hear on a Consumer Program": |
| 137 | -->'''Andy Parsons:''' Dear ''Watchdog'', I’m extremely pissed off with this product. I bought "Just for Men", my wife used it, and now I am gay. |
| 138 | * An early review of ''Series/GameOfThrones'' was an inversion; the writer accused the series of being alienating to a female audience, on the reasoning because she didn't know [[SmallReferencePools any women]] who enjoyed {{Fantasy}}, no woman would possibly want to watch the show. |
| 139 | * The reason ''Series/NewGirl'' changed its iconic theme song going into season 4 was because executives feared the hand-crafted aesthetic and cutesy lyrics would turn off male viewers. |
| 140 | [[/folder]] |
| 141 | |
| 142 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 143 | * Music/TaylorSwift has been fighting a massive uphill battle to break out of this mold. In many respects, she's succeeded: her music is taken seriously by critics, she sells to a pretty wide audience, and her business savvy has been praised by many. Nonetheless, she still has a pretty sizable {{Hatedom}}, largely spurred on by the fact that she writes songs specifically aimed at young women. |
| 144 | * Music/{{Evanescence}}'s lead singer is Amy Lee, but ExecutiveMeddling demanded that their single "[[https://youtu.be/3YxaaGgTQYM Bring Me to Life]]" incorporate male vocals by Paul [=McCoy=] from the ChristianRock band [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_Stones 12 Stones]] so the song wouldn't end up in the ghetto. Hence the famous {{Call and Response|Song}}[=/=]SopranoAndGravel chorus with [=McCoy=] calling as the gravel and Lee responding as the mezzo-soprano. The band later released a [[https://youtu.be/HWFnlfDpnLE version]] with only Lee's vocals, which is apparently closer to her own intent. |
| 145 | * Music/{{Vocaloid}}: |
| 146 | ** Producer Oster Project did not reveal her gender until years after she debuted because she wanted listeners to view her work under a gender neutral lens. |
| 147 | ** The ghetto, mainly the idea that only women would require a male Vocalist or would want to buy software with a hot guy on the box, is one reason why male Vocaloids generally don't sell many copies or achieve the same levels of popularity as the female ones in Japan, and are rarely ever made compared to the legions of female Vocaloids. The only one to achieve success on par with Miku or IA, Kagamine Len, was bundled with a female voice bank, and while Kaito is modestly popular now he tanked hard when first released. Though this is not the case in the west, as male English Vocaloids usually outsell their female counterparts and Oliver is ''the'' most popular English-only Vocaloid in terms of sales, use, and view count. |
| 148 | * Before the rise of the poptimist school of music criticism in the 2000s, not only female pop singers, but female musicians in general, had trouble being taken seriously by male rock critics. |
| 149 | * Boy bands are seen as an example of this, because they are seen as manufactured pretty-boys aimed at young heterosexual females to scream at. Things have gotten better with the rise of K-pop, but the stereotypes persist. |
| 150 | * {{Music/Poe}} ran up against this while trying to promote her 2001 single "Hey Pretty" - modern rock stations were reluctant to add songs with female vocals, as there was something of a perceived backlash against women in the genre and a trend towards more "masculine" subgenres like PostGrunge and NuMetal - after one such station suggested a radical remix , she got her brother MarkZDanielewski to read passages from his novel ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'' over the verses, with her own vocal presence being reduced to singing the chorus. In part because of the concurrent popularity of the book, this version did become a moderate radio hit. |
| 151 | [[/folder]] |
| 152 | |
| 153 | [[folder:Professional Wrestling]] |
| 154 | * The Wrestling/{{N|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA's world women's champions were among of the biggest stars of the territorial circuit, on paper, often getting spots in the main event, but in practice few territories actually had a regular female presence outside of valets and managers, with the wrestlers most commonly being a rare attraction, and after Mildred Burke's banishment from the NWA none of the subsequent champions were ever promoted quite as prominently as their male counterparts. At least as early as the 1970s pro wrestling became one of the {{trope codifier}}s for CatFight as promoters concluded a lot of people liked the ''idea'' of women fighting/wrestling, but couldn't actually stomach seeing them get hurt, as tends to happen in matches, with the end result being the discontinuation of the women's world tag team belts and the women's world junior heavyweight division not even being around long enough for most people to remember, with only a singular belt remaining. |
| 155 | * This was unofficially {{enforced|trope}} in all of Mexico when the largest athletic commission in the capital banned luchadoras in 1959. While promoters outside of Mexico City were still allowed to book them, they increasingly didn't over the decades till the point "only one women's match a card" was practically law even after the ban was lifted in 1986. The exception to the rule was El Toreo de Naucalpan based Lucha Libre Internacional, which had the UWA sanctioned world women's and world women's tag belts, but they may have been the exception that proved the rule since these belts were increasingly defended outside of Mexico as time went on, the tag belts almost exclusively in Japan. At any rate non UWA luchadoras were outside of mainstream lucha libre until the year 1992 when [[Wrestling/{{CMLL}} EMLL]] took interest in Japanese women such as Wrestling/BullNakano to compete with local talent and give more legitimacy to it's then new international image. |
| 156 | * 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. |
| 157 | * The Ladies Professional Wrestling Association's one [=PPV=], ''LPWA Super Ladies Showdown'' on February 23, 1992, was held at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, MN. The sports facility, the Taylor Arena, has a capacity of '''7200'''. The [=PPV=] only drew '''400'''. This event, which featured [[Wrestling/TerriPoch Terri Power (Terri "Tori" Poch)]] winning the [[http://www.solie.org/titlehistories/stllpwa.html LPWA Title]] in the main event, was the LPWA's final show, as the company shut down soon after. |
| 158 | * Part of what led to Wrestling/AllJapanWomensProWrestling's downfall was that in spite of being among the most successful promotions in the history of the industry the promoters believed they were still too much of a girl show. People of multiple demographics enjoyed watching on television but most of the fans attending live were schoolgirls. Perhaps because the more coed crowds of Wrestling/{{FMW}} were starting to draw similar numbers in the 1990s, AJW began pandering to male ticket buyers, which may or may not have led to bigger gates but for the most part didn't lead to bigger crowds. Money was still being made but the lack of little girls in the crowd translated [[PromotedFanboy into a lack of women becoming wrestlers for AJW]]. It took time, but after fourteen years the lack of new talent their absence led to hit AJW pretty hard. Out of context, reascending "the retire at 25" rule could be interpreted as progressive but it was really a drought relief measure that proved too little too late. Not only did AJW's bookers and promoters now have the new [[WagTheDirector problem]] of [[TallPoppySyndrome tenured wrestlers]], one every other fed of comparable size had decades more experience dealing with, other feds like GAEA largely built from outgoing AJW wrestlers also found their talent pools becoming shallower. While there were far more things than talent issues that led to the Japanese women's wrestling scene nearly imploding during 2005, it's common, jokingly or otherwise, [[FranchiseOriginalSin to say trying to get men into the arenas is where it all went wrong]]. Many women's cards continued to run after the shock of AJW and GAEA's closure, occasionally one gets mainstream attention, but none of the promotions contemporary to AJW or GAEA, nor any starting up later, manage to rise above indie level until Wrestling/WorldWonderRingStardom in the mid-2010s. Since the 1950s, Japan has consistently managed to have a men's feds operating on a national level, often two or four. |
| 159 | * Wrestling/{{WCW}}'s first shot of their so called "Monday Night War" was fired after Wrestling/{{Madusa}} jumped at the opportunity to wrestle for them since the WWF women's division was drying up and WCW boasted an ''amazing'' talent pool that included most of GAEA. Madusa was so ready to get women's wrestling back on TV she agreed to drop the WWF's hunk of plastic and metal into a garbage can, even though she really didn't want to disgrace their title belt. It turned out to be just a [[RatingsStunt publicity stunt]], as WCW [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves rarely gave her matches, much less wins]], the highlight of her stay perhaps being a feud with an offensive Wrestling/JimRoss knockoff for the cruiserweight title belt. Akira Hokuto, despite actually winning the WCW Women's title, did not fare any better as getting it meant losing her spot in CMLL and she'd never do much of anything in Mexico again. WCW did a lot of nothing with Hokuto or her belt before vacating it and then scrapping it after a year that saw GAEA try to get a run with Devil Masami going. And their women's cruiserweight belt lasted even less time. WCW had two women's belts but somehow managed to not use the large majority of the women it boasted to have, a link in a chain of events that nearly ended with the deaths of every major women's division left on North America. |
| 160 | * In general, {{Smart Mark}}s would often label any women's match as a 'piss break'. This is partly due to WWE's terrible use of women solely for {{Fanservice}} in the Attitude Era, and the Women's Championship being defended in various T&A style matches. And when the Divas broke out of the ghetto in the Ruthless Aggression Era, the division was [[AuthorAppeal suddenly buried]] with Diva Searches - that reduced the division to T&A once again and resulted in a lot of genuine wrestlers getting released in favour of models. But since about 2008, many Divas who began as models faced an uphill battle despite training to wrestle, and they would often be dismissed or labelled as using WWE as a stepping stone for other avenues. Only a handful managed to completely break out of the ghetto (Wrestling/MickieJames, Wrestling/BethPhoenix, Wrestling/NatalyaNeidhart, {{Wrestling/Melina}} - the wrestlers established outside of WWE lucky enough to win a title belt) and reviews of Diva matches would tend to be rated very low, outside of websites like ''Diva Dirt''. This attitude seems to be dying off as of the popularity of NXT and many former Divas revealing just how hard things were for them [[ExecutiveMeddling behind the scenes]] - but you still find plenty of smarks who claim that women shouldn't be allowed to wrestle, citing the Diva matches as proof. |
| 161 | * This is at least partially an EnforcedTrope, at least under the watchful gaze of WWE. Wrestling/VinceMcMahon has made it clear on multiple occasions that he believes women's matches are and should always be of piss break quality, good for cheap T&A (ha, not [[Wrestling/{{TNA}} that one]]) and nothing more. The 2004 Diva Search that stunted WWE's women's division was the brainchild of Kevin Dunn, a talented producer who unfortunately isn't too big on wrestling despite working for a pro wrestling company. Since the 2004 contest got good ratings it was used as justification for taking divas in a "new direction"(less athleticism, more softcore posed photos) until the diminishing returns of further Diva Search contests and vocal disapproval from live crowds led to a slow return to form in 2010. Gail Kim revealed in a 2011 interview that the girls were apparently told off for getting "[[TallPoppySyndrome too good]]" and were forbidden from punching one week and kicking the next. [[Wrestling/JohnLaurinaitis Johnny Ace]] apparently demanded more girliness in Diva matches. Similarly to Gail, Michelle [=McCool=] revealed that a spot where Wrestling/{{Melina}} was given a DDT onto the security wall got them yelled at backstage for being too "high risk" and "better than the guys", and the two of them had to ''retape'' one of their matches because Vince thought their punches were "too good." |
| 162 | * The Puerto Rican versions of the World Wrestling Council and (later) International Wrestling Association are bizarre examples, as they collectively had one of the most badass women's divisions in the world. One of WWC's top baby {{face}}s hitting La Tigresa with [[ShovelStrike the trademark weapon]] of WWC's [[Wrestling/CarlitoColon other top baby face]] only slowed her down for a few seconds before she choke slammed him, initiating a group beating that another woman had to save him from. IWA's first women's champion Amazona meanwhile had already knocked off the violently insane [[Wrestling/DeanAmbrose Moxley Mox]] for their [[GarbageWrestling hardcore]] title. Neither enterprise had any problem portraying its women as threats to nothing less than their top stars and yet, even that unbiased [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} other wiki]] said they had one division, as the two rivals seemed to arbitrarily shuffle most of the female wrestlers between themselves (behind the scenes wrestlers jumped ship based on changing paychecks and it was rare for both companies to be paying women well at the same time). By the 2010s, IWA was on its deathbed and WWC lost interest in its women's belt, so women's wrestling was only regularly seen in indie companies like EWO and CWS. |
| 163 | * On ''Wrestling/WWEToughEnough'' Season 5, [[Wrestling/{{Cameron}} Ariane]] was eliminated after she said her favourite match was Wrestling/{{Melina}} vs Wrestling/AliciaFox. Her fellow contestants up for elimination were Eric, a guy who hadn't shown up in shape and Michelle, a girl who had claimed to have eleven years of experience but demonstrated no flair at all. Apparently liking a Divas match is a much worse crime. Even other contestants later noted the UnfortunateImplications behind this, especially with consideration that Michelle had admitted to auditioning for four other reality shows around this time too (and ended up quitting the contest two weeks later). |
| 164 | * After two seasons of WWE's NXT - a show where a series of rookies would compete for a potential contract - the third season was all females. Ratings declined immediately and the show went to WWE.com with many critics panning it. Likewise WWE gave the whole brand a GirlinessUpgrade for the season, featuring challenges such as dance-offs, simulated bull riding, Halloween costume contests and other girly things. Critics panned the male seasons too, mind you, but those seasons also had larger talent pools which included critically approved Wrestling/BryanDanielson and Wrestling/LowKi. Season 3 didn't just offer less wrestlers but wrestlers with less training and experience, suspiciously failing to provide another WCW era super veteran to ensure the audience could at least expect some diamond in the rough quality matches, as if they ''[[IntendedAudienceReaction wanted]]'' the show to fail. |
| 165 | * The World Wrestling League booked Puerto Rican women against opponents from Mexico, Bolivia, The Dominican Republic and Continental USA to create buzz before it introduced a Goddess title belt, won by La Morena. She gave an interview with Contralona PR expressing desire to use the belt to bring women's wrestling back into focus, but it and she were [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness not featured]] when WWL [[ChannelHop made the transition to Mega TV]]. WWL did eventually dig the belt back up for Wrestling/IvelisseVelez in the build up to their first ''Wrestlefest'' but put it back away not long afterwards. After the transition of power to Savio Vega, a woman would finally get a lasting title reign with one third of the trios belts when Justin Dynamite, the partner of Brown Sugar Daddy Excellent Mantel and White Shadow Mark Davidson, had to vacate his spot and La Perla Negra Allison, Davidson's girlfriend, took Dynamite's place in their "Los Favoritos" trio. Her reign is a bit of a mixed bag, as WWL was bashed on media platforms it used for fan outreach for pushing a woman (in Justin's spot, against men, at all) or, ironically, accused of copying the Gran-Fabi-Mari Apache trio of AAA and especially the Angelico-Son of Havoc-Iveliess Velez trio on Wrestling/LuchaUnderground (Wrestling/{{Konnan}} coming in around the time Vega took charge might have contributed to that), [[BrokenBase but]] the ticket buyers in the arenas still loved Los Favoritos and counted Allison among WWL's best competitors. |
| 166 | * Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling has a network mandate from Turner that they can only run one women's match per TV show, and that it generally goes in the "piss break" spot (wrestling-speak for the segment before the main event, allowing fans in the arena time to make one last bathroom run before the final match) at 20 minutes into the second hour of ''Dynamite''. Executives reportedly believe more women's segments than allotted would drag down the show's numbers, even when a match between Ruby Soho & The Bunny outdrew a segment with ''Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar'' when [=SmackDown=] ran an extra half-hour on cable in an attempt to stunt ''AEW Rampage'''s numbers with a rare head-to-head matchup. This has infuriated fans and talent alike, notably Wrestling/KennyOmega (who has had a heavy hand in recruiting respected workers for the division), who has told fans to let the network know if they wanted more women's segments on the show. |
| 167 | [[/folder]] |
| 168 | |
| 169 | [[folder:Sport]] |
| 170 | * Women's sport (especially outside of designated "girls' 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. |
| 171 | * In the late 1960s, volleyball was much more popular in the US among males than females. Then came Title IX, a federal law enacted in 1972 that outlawed sex discrimination in education, and significantly applied to sports programs. This led to high schools and colleges adding countless girls' and women's teams in multiple sports. With American football—the sport with by far the largest squad sizes, and also the cash cow for most college sports programs—being essentially all-male, schools were forced to drop numerous boys' and men's teams in lower-profile sports, and volleyball was one of the bigger casualties. By the time the NCAA began sponsoring women's sports championships in the 1981–82 school year, fewer than 70 schools ''in all three NCAA divisions combined'' sponsored men's volleyball, while more than 600 NCAA members sponsored women's volleyball. This trend was duplicated at the high school level, with more than four times as many girls playing high school volleyball as boys by the early 1980s. This led to volleyball being seen more and more as a girls' sport, [[https://volleyballmag.com/mens-boys-volleyball-060622/ arguably]] leading many boys to flee from it. Even after explosive growth in men's volleyball at the non-scholarship Division III level since about 2010, there are still nearly seven times as many women playing NCAA volleyball as men, with over 1,000 NCAA women's teams and fewer than 200 men's teams. The 2024–25 school year will be the first in modern times in which a majority of US states will officially sanction boys' high school volleyball. |
| 172 | [[/folder]] |
| 173 | |
| 174 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 175 | * ''Theatre/MammaMia'' despite being one big celebration of ''Music/{{ABBA}}'' (whose music was primarily written by two men and meant to be enjoyed by both sexes) gets a colossal amount of scorn and cringe from the male demographic for its unabashed corniness and feminine favoured sentimentality, which is further compounded by the popular 2008 film adaptation (wherein multiple of the actors weren’t trained singers or musicians). There’s also the fact the musical has pretty much no stakes and is just meant to be a breezy enjoyable time — making all the more just a theatrical ChickFlick according to a good amount of people. For the film’s sequel (which for the record is an improvement over the first) The Onion actually defended the property telling naysayers to just shut up and let women enjoy it. |
| 176 | * ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' has experienced this more than any other play by Creator/WilliamShakespeare. As the plot concerns two teenage StarCrossedLovers who die tragically, it's developed a reputation as something only teenage girls would enjoy. This phenomenon seems to be NewerThanTheyThink - as it's an easy play [[SmallReferencePools to reference in kidcoms and cartoons]], resulting in numerous fictional female characters {{Squee}}ing over the story while males roll their eyes. |
| 177 | * ''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 fangirl stir that the Michael Crawford, Ramin Karimloo or Gerald Butler versions 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. |
| 178 | [[/folder]] |
| 179 | |
| 180 | [[folder:Toys]] |
| 181 | * ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' was meant to be aimed at both boys and girls but quickly lost its neutrality. For well over 20 years it was strictly seen as only for girls between 5 and 12, and the decent sized mostly female collectors fanbase. [[Franchise/MyLittlePonyGeneration4 G4]] broke out of the ghetto, but it's unknown how future gens will fare. |
| 182 | * Franchise/{{LEGO}} was originally envisioned as a gender neutral toy, based solely around the love of building and creativity - with a lot of its early marketing featuring girls and boys. Around the 1980s, it became increasingly targeted towards boys - emphasising adventure and combat possibilities, as well as releasing packs themed around boy-oriented franchises. One marketing campaign focused on LEGO as a father/son bonding experience, while excluding girls completely. They eventually released a female-oriented spin-off titled ''Toys/LEGOFriends'' - which was routinely criticised for being a {{Franchise/Barbie}} knock-off. This set featured female LEGO characters with curvier bodies engaging in traditionally feminine activities such as cooking, hairdressing and nursing - complete with [[PinkProductPloy pastel colours]]. However, interviews and opinions on the set revealed this to be an enforced trope, as it played on parents' willingness to buy the sets for girls because of the more feminine dressing, even when it got less traditionally feminine builds (such as fantasy). |
| 183 | * Superhero fans did not react well to the reveal of the girl-aimed toyline ''Toys/DCSuperheroGirls''. Some criticism was understandable - such as complaints about the fact villains are given [[AdaptationalHeroism different roles]] or the designs resemble Franchise/DisneyPrincess characters too much - however a sum was because it was "too feminine". |
| 184 | * This in general happens to the merchandising of quite a few children's franchises. Most marketers of merchandise believe that [[UnisexSeriesGenderedMerchandise boys won't buy merchandise with girl characters on it and girls won't buy merchandise with boy characters on it, so the characters of the opposite gender will be omitted from those products, even if the show is seen as unisex]]. The most notable offenders of this practice are are ''Franchise/StarWars'', ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig'' and ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol''. |
| 185 | * The belief that only men collect anime figures is why figures of male characters that aren't manly were extremely rare for quite a long time. In recent years this is starting to change with female-targeted lines like Good Smile's Orange Rouge, but if it's not from a series that also appeals to men, often scale figures are made in very limited quantities and [[CrackIsCheaper go up in price rather quickly]]. |
| 186 | [[/folder]] |
| 187 | |
| 188 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 189 | * This trope is the reason ''VideoGame/PanelDePon'' was initially brought over to the West as DolledUpInstallment ''Tetris Attack'' - Nintendo assumed male gamers wouldn't want to play a [[UsefulNotes/{{Kawaisa}} cutesy]] game with a primarily female cast of mainly [[OurFairiesAreDifferent fairies]]. They slowly changed their minds on this, however, as characters from ''PDP'' have appeared in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' in sticker form even in the American and European releases. However, the original cast of characters continued to otherwise have no presence internationally until the first game was brought over for real in 2020, via the Nintendo Switch online service (albeit in an untranslated form). |
| 190 | * ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'', in contrast to ''Panel de Pon'', has this as more of a ZigZaggingTrope. The arcade game received a limited international release that, unlike other localizations of the game, did not outright replace the characters; however, said release was rather odd, had a smattering of AmericanKirbyIsHardcore and changed the angelic-looking female character Harpy into a "Dark Elf" with no wings and a different color palette. When the time came to release the game for the Genesis and Super NES, though, both Sega and Nintendo (just like with ''Panel de Pon'') felt that a female-led game brimming with UsefulNotes/{{Kawaisa}} wouldn't sell with that era's primarily male gaming audience, so the original game was given ''three'' {{Dolled Up Installment}}s: ''VideoGame/DoctorRobotniksMeanBeanMachine'', ''VideoGame/KirbysAvalanche'', and ''Qwirks'' (for PC) respectively. The Game Gear version of the game had a fairly normal localization, with all of the original characters intact, programmed into it - however, said localization was never officially used and was ultimately replaced with a version of ''Mean Bean Machine'' internationally. Things came to a head with the infamous ''Cranky Food Friends'', a DivorcedInstallment of the [=iOS=] ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoQuest'' which replaced the characters, even the Puyos themselves, with generic cartoon food, and received massive amounts of backlash from fans. Some of the other later games were given proper localizations (though the practice remained incredibly rare until the mid 2010s), but the vast majority of the series remains NoExportForYou to this day. |
| 191 | * When ''VideoGame/{{Faria}}'' was localized for American gamers, the box art was reworked so that nobody would recognize the hero as female. Even the manual went out of its way to hide this fact, despite still telling in-depth the actual plot of the game. However, not only does this make a nice plot twist out of the [[SamusIsAGirl reveal of the hero's gender]], but [[spoiler:a later twist proves she's really a man after all]]. |
| 192 | * Activision infamously told a studio pitching a game set in Hong Kong with an Asian female lead to "[[http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29719/InDepth_No_Female_Heroes_At_Activision.php lose the chick, they don't sell.]]" [[http://kotaku.com/5424441/girls-night-with-the-most-male-game-of-2009 A.J. Glasser]] once noted in an editorial for Kotaku that the only role presented for women in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare 2'' are [=NPCs=] [[spoiler: in the "No Russian" mission, who are all immediately gunned down]]. The game's lone speaking part for woman is an automated voice on a phone line, despite earlier ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' games actually remembering once in a while that there are in fact women who serve in the military. She also pointed out a culture gap between Japanese games, which tend to frequently have female leads or supporting casts but also greatly objectify them as a trade-off, and Western games, which frequently just leave women out entirely. |
| 193 | * [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristen-wolfe/dear-customer-who-stuck-u_b_1190690.html This story]] made the rounds in late 2011, in which a young boy was threatened with actual violence by his father for wanting to buy ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge''. Because, well, it ''must'' be a girl's game, it has a woman on the cover! |
| 194 | * For ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'', Naughty Dog was pressured to move Ellie to the background or completely off the cover due to concerns that players would dismiss it as a "girl game", but the dev team held firm. Once the game proved a success, the box arts for both ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII'' and the remake of ''Part I'' went on to feature only Ellie. |
| 195 | * This is a proposed reason for why ''VideoGame/UmJammerLammy'' sold poorly when its predecessor ''VideoGame/ParappaTheRapper'' sold well, despite ''[=UmJammer=] Lammy'' generally being considered the superior game: it has a female main character, and the cover showed only female characters (despite Parappa also being a playable character after clearing the story as Lammy). |
| 196 | * The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_Loopy Casio Loopy]] can be seen as a testament to this trope, as it was completely marketed towards female gamers and never went on to target actual male audiences. It also shows the trope in full-effect as people believe that the console flopped because it was targeted towards girls instead of being marketed towards boys (you know, like any other console). |
| 197 | * Creator/HumongousEntertainment almost made a series of games starring a character named Miss Hap, but ExecutiveMeddling from Infogrames caused the project to get shelved due to their lack of faith in a female protagonist. Especially ridiculous when you remember the fact that [[VideoGame/FreddiFish the very same company had another series with a female protagonist that was doing just fine.]] |
| 198 | * This trope is why the creators of ''[[VideoGame/KameoElementsOfPower Kameo: Elements Of Power]]'' went to great pains to hide the fact that you are a fairy princess defending her kingdom from her sorceress sister, hiding her wings as much as humanly possible (and her actual body when you start delving into gameplay) and muting the colors of her clothes, among other things. |
| 199 | * 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. |
| 200 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'' is a sequel to ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' and controversial for its LighterAndSofter tone, usage of J-pop music, and focusing on Yuna, Rikku, and new character Paine, and Yuna is characterized as a more upbeat and cheerful character than in the original game. Not helping is that the FMV opening of the game features Yuna ([[spoiler:actually someone impersonating her, but this doesn't help first impressions]]) putting on a peppy music concert; contrast ''X'' opening up on a blitzball game and Sin attacking Zanarkand set to a HeavyMetal tune. |
| 201 | * ''VideoGame/GunNac'' got hit with this hard in its US localization. The opening and ending cutscenes of the Japanese version revealed that the PlayerCharacter was a woman (a {{miko}}, to be precise). The opening cutscene was abridged and rewritten to imply a generic male protagonist and all images of the female pilot were DummiedOut. |
| 202 | * The VirtualPaperDoll series ''VideoGame/StyleSavvy'' is a popular Creator/{{Nintendo}} franchise (and in fact was one of the best selling UsefulNotes/NintendoDS titles) but almost never gets brought up when discussing Nintendo games. When the first game was released on UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole, many gamers complained about it and called it "shovelware" or "bad" just because it was a game about fashion models that has you as the owner of a clothing shop. |
| 203 | * ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' got a whole lot of flack for its cover art, depicting Booker in a generic "angry white ActionGenreHeroGuy with a gun" pose, with Elizabeth being relegated to the back cover despite being just as important to the narrative. The Complete Edition fixes this and features both of them on the front cover. |
| 204 | * Creator/{{Ubisoft}} faced renewed criticism in 2020 for their lack of female protagonists, amongst the company facing several public accusations of the toxic corporate work culture. Writer Jill Murray claims she was told by editoral that the protagonist had to be a "[[https://twitter.com/disco_jill/status/1285590827830517761 straight white alpha male]]" which was [[EmphasizeEverything emphasized in writing]], and designer Marie Jasmin was told "[[https://twitter.com/mariejasmin_/status/1285565180097761281 women don't sell]]." This affected many titles, speficially the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' series. ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedUnity'' left out female protagonists with a flimsy excuse that they would "be harder to animate." ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedSyndicate'' originally gave the male and female protagonists, Jacob and Evie, respectively, equal time before Jacob was clearly made the lead. ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOrigins'' was originally going to kill or injure the male protagonist Bayek early in the game and his wife Aya would take over for the rest, but Bayek ended up dominating the narrative in the end. Kassandra was originally going to be the single protagonist for ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey'', but they added a playable male character and gave players the choice to play as either. Somewhat rectified in that Kassandra is the canonical protagonist of ''Odyssey'', and ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedValhalla'' both the male and female protagonists are canon. |
| 205 | * For ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'', this is generally the reason seen as why Jill Valentine has been de-emphasised by Capcom as a series lead compared to poster boys such as Chris or Leon. The lesser sales of the games she starred in/was prominent in such as ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'' and ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations'' have led to Capcom deeming an ActionGirl like Jill as unbankable compared to the male heroes (especially Chris). As of late there’s no news if Jill will reappear in any future games or if there will be any female-led ''RE'' games again. Even the cover of the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Remake remake]] of ''[=RE3=]'' noticeably places Carlos next to Jill, despite having lesser presence in the game and only playable for one level. |
| 206 | * While all branches of ''Franchise/TheIdolMaster'' remained popular with both girls and boys, it's the female-oriented ''VideoGame/TheIdolmasterSideM'' that got less attention than its peers. Its rhythm game, ''Live on [=St@ge=]!'', had noticeably inferior production values compared to ''[[VideoGame/TheIdolmasterCinderellaGirls Cinderella Girls: Starlight Stage]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheIdolmasterMillionLive Million Live! Theater Days]]'', which were aimed at a mostly male audience. It even lacked representation outside of cameos in ''THE [=iDOLM@STER=]: Starlit Season'' obstenibly about celebrating all main branches of the franchise, which caused speculation that the ''[=SideM=]'' cast was skipped because of fears their "girl game" background would have deterred fans of the [=PlayStation=] games. Granted, there's the practical reason that it would be difficult to implement the shared costumes if some of the characters were male, but they could have at least put [[WholesomeCrossdresser Saki]] in there. Thankfully, Bandai Namco at least prominently featured ''[=SideM=]'' in the 15th anniversary celebrations, and made up for their snubbing by showing them alongside everyone else in ''THE [=iDOLM@STER:=] Poplinks''. ''Live on Stage'' was eventually shut down and replaced with a new game ''Growing Stars'', and while the gameplay, live2d portraits, and full voice acting was much better received, the mostly 2d visuals during the concerts caused some backlash. ...And then the game was unceremoniously brought offline with zero warning and explanation after only a little over a year of service in spite of being successful and profitable, with no replacement announced, leaving ''[=SideM=]'' with ''zero'' games. |
| 207 | ** ''VideoGame/TheIdolmasterDearlyStars'' was the first ''[=iDOLM@STER=]'' game to be partly marketed towards girls (it was heavily promoted in ''Magazine/{{Nakayoshi}}'') and is the only game in the series that allows you to play as an unambiguous female protagonist. Yet it gets treated even worse than [=SideM=], as its tenth anniversary was completely ignored, and it was also shafted from ''Starlit Season''. While Ryo was eventually added to [=SideM=] as a producible idol, Ai and Eri have been relegated solely to cameos ever since. [=iM@S=] has also never attempted a female player character since, aside from the AmbiguousGender [=SideM=] producer who was made male in the anime anyway. |
| 208 | * ''VideoGame/NancyDrew'' was targeted primarily at girls, something that the game's developers and publishers at Her Interactive freely admit. Despite being an example of something that made it OutOfTheGhetto and developing into a CultClassic, gaming media largely ignored Nancy Drew through TheNineties and into TheNewTens. |
| 209 | * When Creator/DontnodEntertainment first pitched ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange'', they were told by several publishers to change the game's female lead character Maxine "Max" Caulfield into a teenage boy instead, as they feared that [[ItWillNeverCatchOn the game wouldn't sell]] if it had a teenage girl as the protagonist. Creator/SquareEnix was the only one who let them keep Max as a girl, so Dontnod went with them. It paid off, as ''Life is Strange'' became a SleeperHit that broke OutOfTheGhetto. |
| 210 | * In the latter half of TheNineties, there was a field of "girls' games" pioneered by ''Toys/{{Barbie}} Fashion Designer'' and the developer VideoGame/PurpleMoon, responding to what they felt was a growing male dominance of video games as a medium. The legacy of the girls' games movement is controversial, credited on one hand with revealing to publishers that there existed a large untapped female market for video games and making games that didn't revolve around killing enemies, but on the other accused of perpetuating this trope by creating an image of girls' games as being about fashion, relationships, and gossip. |
| 211 | [[/folder]] |
| 212 | |
| 213 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 214 | * 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 localizations of shovelware games aimed at little girls with this sort of contempt. |
| 215 | * ''VisualNovel/ChoicesStoriesYouPlay'': Overall, the large number 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. |
| 216 | [[/folder]] |
| 217 | |
| 218 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 219 | * Creator/BobChipman discusses this phenomenon in "Really That Good: ''Titanic''." While ''Film/Titanic1997'' was overwhelmingly popular, it was also among the first works to set off a backlash in the newly-emerged realm of internet film criticism and geekdom. Chipman argues that the film is good enough to deserve its popularity, and the disproportionate amount of vitriol from those who hated it had little to do with the movie's quality and everything to do with ''who'' (they imagined) loved it: women. |
| 220 | ** In decades since ''Titanic'', he admits this remains a bad habit of film critics -- [[OldShame including himself]]. Like fellow essayist Lindsay Ellis, he now recognizes the sexism woven into the backlash against ''Twilight'' and regrets any participation in the HateDumb surrounding it. |
| 221 | * Creator/LindsayEllis: |
| 222 | ** The ''raison d'etre'' of her time as WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick. [[DistaffCounterpart Her original function was to review the movies that were too girly for]] WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic, but she eventually revolted. Although in a way, she still kept with this trope--in a blog post, she notes that she was hired to bring more female viewers to the site, but women were still watching the boys ([[EstrogenBrigade for the reasons you might expect]]) and only started coming ''after'' she started doing other subjects. It's worth noting she continued going girly topics as well. |
| 223 | ** She examines the Ghetto in her video "''Film/SleeplessInSeattle'' vs. ''Film/WhenHarryMetSally''." She notes that the words ChickFlick are often preceded by the words "I don't like". She also asks why ''When Harry Met Sally'' averts the Ghetto. |
| 224 | ** She explored this concept again in her 2018 video "Dear Creator/StephenieMeyer", a retrospective on the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' series and its place in pop culture. She argues that the [[HateDumb sheer level of vitriol]] leveled at the franchise, its creator, and its fanbase had more than a few shades of condescending sexism laced into it, from both men who saw ''Twilight'' as an infringement on "their" geek spaces and women who [[RealWomenDontWearDresses didn't want to be derided for liking "girly" things]], especially since similarly simplistic WishFulfillment stories aimed at the young male demographic get nowhere near the same amount of scrutiny. |
| 225 | * Discussed in the ''WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows'' review of Music/JustinBieber's "Yummy". While talking about the enormous amount of hate Bieber used to get, he said, "smarter critics than me have pointed out that only things teenage girls like get that kind of hate". However, Todd also believes some critics overcorrected and cut Bieber too much slack in response to the hate -- he likes enough "girly" media that he's comfortable saying that Bieber's music really was terrible. |
| 226 | * WebVideo/SarahZ has discussed this in a few videos, particularly relating to ''{{Series/Supernatural}}'' and ''{{Series/Sherlock}}'' - wherein she's found it notable that some shows acquire a PeripheryDemographic of girls and young women, and eventually start inserting TakeThatAudience moments (particularly when it comes to {{Shipping}}). Presumably this trope is the reason why. Sarah in particular finds it baffling that the shows mock the female fans to whom they owe part of their very existence. |
| 227 | * Discussed in the ''WebVideo/BoardJames'' video about the board game ''Dream Phone'' (at least, before the WhamEpisode). While the game is targeted towards young girls, the guys found it to be surprisingly fun and enjoyed themselves. Even going as far as to compare the game's mechanics to ''TabletopGame/{{Clue}}''. |
| 228 | [[/folder]] |
| 229 | |
| 230 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 231 | * Compared to the show, which was ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983'' with female main characters, the original ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower'' toyline was far more Barbie-esque. Catra was portrayed as the BigBad in the toyline while in the show, she was a subordinate to Hordak, who had previously been sold as a ''Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse'' toy, and was portrayed as the show's BigBad. This was all supposedly because Creator/{{Mattel}} didn't think girls would play with a Hordak toy, nor would boys play with a toy of a female She-Ra character. |
| 232 | * Even though ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' earned fans both male and female, creator Creator/CraigMcCracken noticed that by the time the show reached its third season, it had spawned a disconcerting amount of girls-only merchandise. When Creator/CartoonNetwork asked him to helm TheMovie, he decided to bring ''Powerpuff Girls'' back to its action-packed, "whoopass" roots. The DarkerAndEdgier product received mixed reviews and made less money than any other movie of its year. The [[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls2016 2016 revival]] went on to fall quite deeply into the ghetto with its emphasis on [[YouGoGirl girl power]], saturated colors, and the overall LighterAndSofter tone. |
| 233 | * ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': |
| 234 | ** ''The Last Airbender'' got hit with the merchandising version, with no female action figures even though girls made up a good half of the cast. What made this even more jarring was that male characters who only appeared in a few episodes, like Jet or General Zhao, got figures, but main characters such as Katara, Toph, and the villainess Azula went without. The creators of the show were not pleased by this. |
| 235 | ** ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', with its female lead, completely lacks any sort of toyline. It also saw some issues getting greenlit to begin with because of its female lead, the network only acquiescing when young boys in focus groups responded positively to her, calling her cool and powerful. |
| 236 | * 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. |
| 237 | * 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. |
| 238 | * In-universe, one episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' features Lois dragging Peter to a ChickFlick, which he thinks might turn him gay. |
| 239 | * ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' |
| 240 | ** It took decades for the franchise to get an action figure for Arcee, one of the most prevalent characters in the long-running franchise. Likewise, she was hardly in the Creator/MichaelBay movies at all. Ironically, her limited screen time didn't stop a whole bunch of toys being released during the course of both sequels, despite her being in only the second. She even got one for the first movie, which she wasn't in! This seems to have put an end to the stigma of female character figures, at least for ''Transformers''.[[note]]The fact that Arcee was part of the 2007 movie toy line is partly due to the fact she was supposed to be in the first movie. She was supposed to complete the original quintet of Autobots alongside Optimus Prime, Jazz, Ratchet and Bumblebee. Michael Bay [[CreatorsPest did not like the character]] though, and she wound up cut from the film and replaced with Ironhide.[[/note]] |
| 241 | ** This trope in general explains the dearth of female Transformers characters in general until TheNewTens. When the toyline first took off, Bob Budiansky, an author of the ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' cartoon and its comicbook counterpart, suggested the inclusion of female Transformers as characters[[note]]for example, Ratchet TheMedic was originally suggested as female[[/note]], but was shot down by Hasbro executives, who felt that girls wouldn't watch the show and boys wouldn't want to play with toys of female characters. This sentiment was also echoed by another major Transformers writer, Simon Furman, who felt that {{fembot}}s made no sense since the Transformers were robots and thus had no biological sex. Eventually, however, it was proven that there were girls who were interested in the Transformers, and thus female Transformers became a thing, first in the form of a small band of female Autobot guerilla fighters on Cybertron in the cartoon, and then in Arcee.[[note]]Simon Furman was not particularly pleased by the change; he gave Arcee an origin story in the Marvel UK comics as a disastrous attempt by Optimus Prime to artificially create a "female" Autobot to try and placate a bunch of angry {{Straw Feminist}}s...[[/note]] |
| 242 | * ''WesternAnimation/DCSuperFriends'' was made to advertise a new toyline, and featured the rather bizarre omission of Franchise/WonderWoman... and any trace of any female DC comics member. Since it was made to advertise a toy line, it was assumed that no boy would play with (or purchase) a female action figure. |
| 243 | * In the wake of the cancellations of ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'' and other Creator/DCNation shows, Creator/PaulDini revealed that the shows were cancelled because too many girls watched and [[MerchandiseDriven girls don't buy action figures]]. During the interview Smith brings up the FridgeLogic of "why don't they figure out something else to sell girls?" Summary [[http://io9.com/paul-dini-superhero-cartoon-execs-dont-want-largely-f-1483758317 here]] and full podcast [[http://smodcast.com/episodes/paul-dini-shadow-of-the-shadow-of-the-bat/ here]]. |
| 244 | * ''WesternAnimation/HollyHobbieAndFriends'' is a pretty normal SliceOfLife show aimed at girls but it's never really escaped the stigma of being exclusively for them. |
| 245 | * One of the reasons ''WesternAnimation/ObanStarRacers'' had such a prolonged development cycle for an animated series was because investors kept demanding that the protagonist Molly instead be a boy, with the creator refusing to budge on the matter. |
| 246 | * ''WesternAnimation/RainbowBrite'' is cute and feminine. It comes to a surprise to many men who were adverse to it as kids how dark it can be. |
| 247 | * Within a few episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'' beginning fans have become worried of this trope. Despite ''Franchise/TheLionKing'' being unisex and being popular with female audiences, the series is presented as a [[DistaffCounterpart Spear Counterpart]] to ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst''. Although female characters exist, few are major characters and they are severely downplayed; for instance, Fuli's first limelight episode was swapped for a [[KidAppealCharacter Bunga]] episode, and the previews rarely include Fuli. |
| 248 | * The short-lived Kids' WB show ''WesternAnimation/PhantomInvestigators'' was cancelled after its first season because too many girls were watching, [[http://nikandgarydoapodcast.tumblr.com/post/107633292559/nik-gary-do-a-podcast-mini-sode-1-stephen according to a podcast with co-creator Stephen Holman]]. The show was aimed at a gender-neutral audience and had an equal amount of boys and girls as the main characters, with the leader (Daemona) being a girl. Kids' WB was actually happy that there was a female lead; they wanted to gain more female viewers, as they were the highest rated block with young boys and wanted to get girls to watch as well. This worked, as the show managed to become number one in its timeslot each time it was on... but while the show gained more female viewers, it began to slip with boys. [[GoneHorriblyRight This was enough for Kids' WB to get rid of it immediately after only six episodes aired, as they didn't want to lose their status of having the highest ratings with young boys]]. |
| 249 | * In 2006, Kids' WB became half-owned by CBS through the then-new Creator/TheCW network. At the same time, AOL -- then owned by [[Creator/WarnerMedia Time Warner]] -- became a co-sponsor of the Creator/DICEntertainment-produced ''KOL Secret Slumber Party'' block on CBS. In other words, CBS and WB were joint owners of two different Saturday morning blocks. And yet, because KOLSSP was aimed squarely at girls with shows such as ''WesternAnimation/{{Horseland}}'', ''Series/{{Cake}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Trollz}}'', Kids' WB did ''absolutely nothing'' to help promote its sister block, even though CBS had been '''dead last''' on Saturday mornings since at least 1997 (and until KOLSSP had not aired a first-run show since 1999) and could have really used a promotional boost from the top-rated block. |
| 250 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Braceface}}'': While the show is mostly aimed at pre-teen girls and the first season focuses on a lot of girl-related things, later episodes started to shy away from it, becoming more slice-of-life, character-driven and some episodes tackling heavier issues such as relationships (familial and budding), racism, ethical issues, homosexuality (''Braceface'' aired in the early 2000's, making it one of the earliest animated shows to feature a gay character), and changes one's body goes through in adolescence. |
| 251 | * One of the reasons that the ''WesternAnimation/SuperBestFriendsForever'' shorts weren't turned into a full series was because Creator/CartoonNetwork already had a cartoon starring girls. However, years later they greenlit a SpiritualSuccessor in ''WesternAnimation/DCSuperHeroGirls'' (both led by Creator/LaurenFaust at that). |
| 252 | * ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' was picked up by 4Kids Entertainment specifically to draw more girls to watch its Saturday morning cartoon block (something it and ''Anime/TokyoMewMew'' succeeded at where ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'' failed). Interestingly, after the show was revived by Nickelodeon, it became LighterAndSofter with a focus towards younger demographics and the show became accused of SeasonalRot. |
| 253 | * This is one of the prevailing theories as to why Nickelodeon never picked up ''WesternAnimation/TheModifyers'', whose protagonist, Agent Xero, is female. |
| 254 | * While ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' is likely meant to be a unisex show, a good majority of the merchandise is aimed at young girls (e.g. fashion dolls). Additionally, the female heroes have a tendency to get more focus in the merch than the male heroes -- toys of Adrien/Chat Noir are hard to find, and Nino/Carapace is the merchandising equivalent of Bigfoot. |
| 255 | * Much of the reason for the cult success of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', was due to people being shocked that such a girly show could be so good. |
| 256 | ** The original ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' series was also [[VileVillainSaccharineShow darker than it]] [[SurprisinglyCreepyMoment appears from the outside]]. Unfortunate, not many people give it a chance [[AudienceColoringAdaptation thanks due the reception]] of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyG3''. |
| 257 | * ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'': Creator Owen Dennis stated on a [[https://youtu.be/vT3r_neYuko?t=2643 podcast]] that the pilot was initially rejected from becoming a series specifically because it starred a female protagonist, even when he pointed out the success of shows like ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'', and was only picked back up when the Me Too Movement made the execs afraid of the channel being called sexist. |
| 258 | * An AnimatedAdaptation of ''ComicStrip/PhoebeAndHerUnicorn'' [[https://twitter.com/thecartoonnews/status/1608287653761253383?s=46&t=88if7ni0te2nLok-xGNcGw was cancelled]] after a group of Nickelodeon executives feared that shows with female protagonists wouldn't sell well to boys.[[note]]Considering that Nickelodeon has had more than a HANDFUL of shows with female protagonists dating as far back to (at least) the early 1990s, this is even more mind-boggling.[[/note]] |
| 259 | [[/folder]] |
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