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• This ''Cracked'' article plays this trope completely straight and has no redeemable value while slamming a bunch of relatively strong and outspoken female characters for the sin of having emotions and somewhat realistic reactions to stuff. In fact, it's so poorly written that its even been accused of being a Stealth Parody by people that can't seriously believe any self-respecting feminist could write arguments this terrible. The women it eviscerates include:
  • Eowyn of The Lord of the Rings is accused of only going to war because she was in love with Aragorn (a total fabrication - she went to war because she had ''always'' wanted to fight (and was more than capable of doing so), but she had been barred from doing so because of her gender). Also, she got married to Faramir, and you know that a woman completely loses her purpose and strength when she hooks up with a male.
  • Padme Amidala, because she got pregnant and married and emotional. Note that aside from the getting pregnant part, her husband displayed the same traits of being crazy and emotional but since he's not a female, it's obviously Padme's uterus alone that makes her crazy.
    • Then again, she was pregnant. Being pregnant is a huge emotional ordeal for a woman, so if she feels like crying because she thinks her husband is dead or insane that's not really too unusual. All things considered, she did pretty well for someone carrying twins. C'mon, What was she going to do? Lead the charge into battle with a huge blaster in hand? Plus people tend to forget that her whole Action Girl side was obviously meant to show the audience that Leia didn't get all her badassery just from her father.
    • True, she was pregnant, and pregnant women aren't exactly in an ideal position to be Action Girls, and do get emotional, but there was really no need for the movie to focus so much on this aspect.
    • Considering that she was pregnant with two of the main characters of the original trilogy by the fourth main character of the original trilogy, a certain amount of emphasis may be warranted.
    • Much of the backlash against Padme's character comes from her actions (or lack thereof) after giving birth to Luke and Leia. If she had died due to physical injuries or complications from the pregnancy, it would have been much more understandable, even if the advanced medical technology made it somewhat implausible. However, it's the fact that Padme died because "she lost the will to live" after Anakin turned to The Dark Side, thus leaving her newborn twins parentless when she could have pulled herself up by the bootstraps and stubbornly lived for them, that did not sit well with most fans.
  • River Tam, for not being able to apparently do everything by herself and occasionally needing help or being brain damaged. Also, the author heavily references the deranged Straw Feminist allecto, referenced later, who was well known for inventing fictional scenes in Firefly to justify her rants that Joss Whedon was a racist and misogynist who abused his wife. Referencing the actual show would have been a problem for the article since the show doesn't portray River this way at all and examples would be lacking.
    • This also ignores the fact that Firefly was canceled early, presumably before any sort of development could be provided for River. Her amazing tactics and cunning seen in Objects in Space were probably hints of more to come and the movie clearly shows us what she's ultimately capable of (and given that the movie was meant to tie up loose ends, that was probably also what Whedon wanted to happen with River in the show itself).
  • Catwoman, as shown in Batman Returns. For being female and using sexuality to her advantage. The author blatantly ignores that male characters do this all the time and tries to argue that when women use sex as a weapon, it's because male writers hate women and a woman can't be sexual at all.
    • The Femme Fatale is kind of unfortunate implications to me. Strong girls in fiction either "don't give sex at all", "give sex as a sign of their love" or "give sex to distract or confuse a male". Why not make more portrayals of women who simply enjoy flirting for the sake of it in a way that really is just for the sake of it? While Catwoman is clearly attracted to Batman (making her the Trope Namer for Dating Catwoman), a lot of it is simply Femme Fatale.
    • Again, guys do this all the time as well. So why isn't that, with the implication that women are easily seduced, not considered unfortunate implications while a women using sex to her advantage is?
    • Though it could be when men use sex to their advantage, he's a Manipulative Magnificent Badass Bastard. If a woman uses it, she's an Obviously Evil Femme Fatale Dark Action Girl, especially is she's the Woman in Black.
    • Also, it's treated a bit differently because women are perceived as being in more of a position to use sex to their advantage, what with the assumption that men desire sex more than women do... which, granted, is also an assumption disputed by some feminists, as well as some of other ideologies.
  • And finally, Elizabeth Swan, who's only real crimes appear to be not having other women kicking equal amounts of ass (and any woman who does is quickly dismissed under technicalities like being a Sea Goddess) and being flat chested. Furthermore, they jump to the conclusion that because we see Elizabeth standing on a cliff waiting for Will to return, that she's been doing nothing with her life for the past ten years, except standing on a cliff waiting for Will to return. This completely ignores the fact that Elizabeth knew exactly when Will was going to return, so there was nothing stopping her from having many adventures during those ten years. More on this lower in Elizabeth's entry.
• Poor Mulan. Being an Action Girl and gaining the love of her military leader? Horrible. Forget her entire motivation for going to war was saving her father, forget that getting a boyfriend was the last priority on her list, and forget even that she had to hide her gender so she wouldn't get killed for it. Because she expresses any emotion towards a handsome man that isn't ignoring him or chopping his balls off, she is far too weak and unwomanly to be a true role model to any little girl. There's even analysis of this movie that argues that the tomboy behavior Mulan exhibits is portrayed as something she should and does grow out of in the finale by refusing the council position in favour of returning home to resume more "womanly" tasks. Of course, in behaving in a tomboyish fashion, she also demonstrates that to succeed, one must behave as if one were a man because obviously being a woman makes you worthless (which it was at that time) which is obviously a bad moral to send to the children, which is why tomboyish behaviour is also a big no-no for female characters. So in this way, no matter how Mulan acts, she loses her cred as a woman because she's still conforming to someone's perception of a gender stereotype.
  • Not to mention that most likely she went home not to resume more "womanly" tasks but to let her family know she ain't dead. Now, one could argue that she could have sent a letter or messenger, but that have been incredibly callous of her if she did that.
  • The direct-to-video sequel shows Mulan serving openly as a woman in the army — thus, essentially, taking on a role she created for herself in defiance of gender roles and societal conventions. Of course, these folks would have you ignore that for the fact she also hooked up with the general in this film.
    • To be fair, some would regard direct-to-video sequels as Fanon Discontinuity by default.
    • What about the fact that the point of the climax of the movie - that she saves the Emperor and kills Shan Yu, all on her own improvised schemes, while everyone knows that she's a woman - is that she is able to be a hero while finally being able to not hide her identity. And she uses her fan from the matchmaker to disarm Shan Yu.
  • The very idea that Mulan isn't a paragon of gender equality is ridiculous. A few of the younger male celebrities have even credited Mulan with teaching them the ideas of gender equality and being the basis for their feminism.
  • She never once complains about having to wear a dress. And, although she is awkward with it at first, seems to somewhat like the look of her makeover towards the end of the song sequence. Not to mention she does try to go through with the matchmaker to please her parents. Bad Mulan! Don't like dresses!
  • What I think is problematic that there is such a big divide between feminine and role conforming women and those who aren't and that the message of Mulan seems to be a heavily overemphasized "this is what dresses look like, everyone who is conformist and feminine wears them, but individualist women who follow their dreams don't" mixed with "one women in a thousand can fight as well as men, and the way you recognize her in the crowd is by looking for a girl who sucks in the household and which her society deems as unmarriageable". Esmeralda, from HoND would have no trouble passing the Matchmaker test, but would kill anybody attempting to matchmake her. Mulan spends half of the movie desperately attempting to be feminine and after she realizes that she sucks at it she tries to fill the void by doing something she hasn't tried before.
  • But through military training she does become marriageable. Her problems with the matchmaker were not just that she failed at being a feminine (or passive) she 1) was nervous and 2) Didn't study for her test. She learned to be brave and disciplined in the army. If she was able to pull off her original plan (to return home without anyone finding out her secret) she could have easily impressed the matchmaker the second time around.
    • Nervousness and, you know, the cricket.
    • The not studying part needs to be emphasized more. She wrote notes on her hand; that is the kind of thing that would get you expelled from college if you did that for a test.
• Despite her extremely Action Girl qualities that only intensified as the movies progressed, Elizabeth Swann of Pirates of the Caribbean found herself on the receiving end of this because she had the audacity to get married and, here's the kicker, stay loyal to her husband by not marrying anyone else during their ten-year separation and raising their child. Nevermind that she literally had no more battles to fight after the movies were over. Nevermind that over the course of ten years, she probably did a lot more than stand around. Because she actually loved someone who she knew was going to come back to her sooner or later, she was no longer a real heroine. Apparently the only important "real woman" quality is to stab things to death.
  • There's also a subset of this group that combines this trope with Die for Our Ship — Elizabeth is a horrible role model, insult to feminism, etc. because she chose Will over Jack.
    • Because it's such a great example of feminism to marry a philandering pirate who has cheated on countless girls and broken their hearts, rather than the nice guy who risked life and limb and remained faithful to you.
    • Yeah, she did fall trap to the All Girls Want Bad Boys trope. But that is about the worst thing she did. Why does she have to be the perfect role model for girls?
  • In the Cracked article mentioned earlier in the page it's argued that since we don't get to see what Elizabeth does during those ten years, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that she did nothing but stay home, raise their son, and wait for Will. Not only is this likely false, but being a single mother in that time period would likely be even harder than it is today. There's also the little fact that she was still the Pirate Lord of the South China Sea and the Pirate King of all Pirates, at least until she could hand the titles off to someone else.
    • If you think about it, being a single mother while waiting for Will to return makes her, in a sense, even stronger. It means she didn't need a man to provide for her and her son; she managed that all on her own.
• In Beauty and the Beast, Belle defied a whole village and its more popular citizen (Jerk Jock Gaston) and taught the Jerkass Beast to love others and be kinder, triggering Beast's genuine redemption and ultimately breaking the spell cast upon him and his people. But people call Belle "Love Martyr" and "battered victim", bash the Beast as an abusive Complete Monster, and describe their relationship as "Stockholm Syndrome". When they're not whining because Belle, by getting together with Beast, somehow "stops being cool" and "completely gives up her dreams".
  • There are reviews that claim that Belle is ultimately shown to be weak and unimportant by virtue of the way she does not participate in the final confrontation between Gaston and the Beast. Never mind that this argument implicitly equates strength of character with physical strength (an idea that the presence of Gaston is actually intended to unravel), or that the Beast himself only fights out of self-defense and has to be goaded into it following his change of heart after falling in love with Belle.
    • It also ignores the fact that Belle was brave enough to go back to the castle without a second thought and, presumably, was planning on doing her best to dissuade an angry mob and Gaston. It never crossed her mind to just give up or abandon the Beast to his fate.
  • The argument about her giving up on her dreams might have some backing by the musical, in which Belle sings about how "I never thought I'd leave behind my childhood dreams, but I don't mind". The difference is that the song is about how she realizes that the world she imagined exploring isn't realistic and that she's found happiness right where she is.
    • Also worth noting is Belle's appearance in Kingdom Hearts II, where she earned much acclaim from fans of the game by dealing with being captured by elbowing the villain in the stomach and running off with the rose he had stolen, thus completely nullifying his power over the Beast. It worked, incidentally, because the villain wasn't paying attention to Belle, given that he considered her no threat.
  • This is somewhat justified in that the original "Beauty and the Beast" story was intended to convince women in medieval France that maybe their arranged husbands wouldn't be abusive pigs if the women were nicer and patient. However, Disney did eliminate the more dramatic aspects of that and round Belle out as an actual character.
  • Why not make the Beast as kind and friendly as he is in most modern versions? It definitely is unfortunate implications to me.
    • Because Disney wanted a reason for the Beast to get transformed (just saying "the fairy didn't like him" sounds pretty weak). And they still make it damned clear that Belle doesn't want a thing to do with the Beast until he starts being nicer to her.
    • Not to mention that while it's understandable that people don't want to glorify abusive relationships, the fact that they ignore the fact that Belle didn't take any shit from the Beast gives the Unfortunate Implications that if somebody has a bad temper, nobody should even try to stand up to them and instead leave them to a life of loneliness because obviously they'll never change.
    • It's actually quite a good lesson to send to kids. Belle does stay with the Beast at first to honour their bargain - trade herself for her father. She accepted that the Beast had a temper and she would put up with that. But when he physically threatened her and she feared for her life, she left him and only went back because he saved her from the wolves. While she was taking care of him, he showed some change in attitude and gave him a chance.
    • Plus, it is also ironic that people act this way towards her, and yet they ignore the Bimbettes, who obviously would have been more deserving of this trope than Belle, since they actually did whore themselves in a sense, and they, although technically having brains, certainly seem as though they don't.
    • Another bit of irony is that this is usually used to show, "oh, look, Disney is so sexist!", yet who are the ones ignoring everyone Belle does in favor of focusing on the Beast's temper?
• In the 2009 Star Trek movie, Uhura was presented as an intelligent, independent woman with spirit and personality, not to mention a highly competent professional in a demanding scientific field. And she was finally given a first name! Yet because she provided some fanservice and was given a love interest that was completely plausible (and depending on one's interpretation, maybe even played with) in canon, according to one blog post, she's a "space hooker" and nothing more than The Chick.
  • This troper saw a complaint that Spock and Uhura spent the entire movie sticking their tongues in each other's mouths. Besides two instances, both of which would understandably cause two lovers to be intimate (the death of Spock's mother and when Spock and Kirk head off to save Pike), the two weren't overly sappy or making out. Heck, considering the one scene in which they talk about making sure that he doesn't show her favoritism because of their relationship, it's pretty clear that Uhura and Spock make a great effort to keep play and business separate. But since she's not on the bridge 24/7, she's seen as a stupid whore who only lazes around and never does anything.
• Grease somewhat invokes this trope by having the female lead Sandy trade in her dress for leather pants, and a passive stance (which had brought her LOTS of trouble in-story) for confronting the male lead Danny with her demands... and still getting bashed by critics for "discarding her own personality in order to submit to male desires". Yeah, a woman tells her man what she wants from him and goes from a passive sweetie to wearing the (leather) pants in the relationship, but since she does it in tight clothes it's all invalid.
  • Yeah, but that still had the Family Unfriendly Aesop that you should Be a Whore to Get Your Man, because My Girl Is a Slut. However, considering that this belief sometimes swings between "being sexy is bad because it pleases men" and "being a virgin is bad because you're too innocent and feminine", so it could go either way.
  • Had Sandy stayed The Ingénue she'd be called "Purity Sue" and "stupid"; since she didn't and tried an Adrenaline Makeover as one of the possible reactions, she's a slut. She's damned if she does and damned if she doesn't.
  • Most of the declaimers are ignoring the fact that she changes into leather specifically for "You'd Better Shape Up" (the demands mentioned above) makes it clear that she is meeting Danny half-way.
    • Meeting Danny half-way is right. People seem to ignore that Danny also changed for Sandy by cleaning up a bit and lettering in track. It's not really a family friendly aesop to tell anyone, guy or girl, that they need to completely change to get someone to like them. But at least with both of them changing gives it more of a The Gift of the Magi vibe instead of Be a Whore to Get Your Man. (And really, Sandy didn't have to be a whore to get her man. Danny liked her as she was over the summer. He really just needed to grow up and stop worrying about what his friends would think about her.)
• Tiana from The Princess and the Frog wears a sparkly dress for all of five minutes (and because her clothes were ruined, so her girly best friend lends her a gown to help her). Somehow, that makes the movie "sexist" and "stereotypical". Nevermind that it features a very pro-active lead female (in both physical and mental senses) who doubles as the first black Disney Princess, the mere fact that she wears a shiny gown automatically disqualifies her from being a feminist icon according to some.
  • Considering most Disney protagonists, male or female, don't even have jobs, it's pretty impressive that Tiana is an entrepreneur who wants to start her own restaurant. Unfortunately, this involves * gasp* cooking. Never mind that cooking is a major part of New Orleans culture, that she learned her cooking skills from her father, or that instead of cooking for Naveen she makes him get off his ass and help her. It's still been interpreted as Disney telling women to Stay in the Kitchen. Oh, and apparently, Real Women Must Never Follow in Their Fathers's Footsteps Because That Means They Owe All Their Success To A Man.
  • People have also complained about Tiana getting married, and how it makes her less progressive. Despite the fact that she shaped up Naveen and he was much happier for it and at the end of the movie, the couple stayed in her home town, with her family and friends, and lived her dream. This is in contrast to other Disney Princesses, who usually ride off from their old lives to take up their husbands' lifestyles.
    • They didn't? But doesn't Maldonia need a Prince to be in the country? They better have gone off to Maldonia because I am not changing my fanfiction.
    • Don't worry, just put an Alternate Universe label on it and you'll be fine.
    • Wasn't wearing the sparkly dress a plot point that caused Naveen to mistake her for a Princess Classic? That's why he wanted a kiss from her in the first place.
  • Tiana is a gold digger and a lying liar who lies! Uuuuuh, WTF.
• Casey's mother from the Disney film Ice Princess is the living embodiment of this trope, literally saying, "I know ice skating requires a great deal of athleticism and skill, but I just can't get past the twinky little outfits." Never mind that male ice skaters wear outfits that are almost as "twinky" and in some cases even "twinkier". Please note that the mother is saying this about a sport that is dangerous on the level of gymnastics (with metal blades!). This being a Disney film, by the end of the movie the mother realizes she was wrong, but it doesn't make her proclamations any less grating (or stupid).
• Ella Enchanted. In the book, she punched a girl in the nose because she ordered her around. In the movie, she stood up for a girl of color. So, apparently, sympathetic feelings are not womanly, not even toward other females, regardless if they are of color. The only person a woman should stand up for is herself.
  • Wait, someone genuinely thought Ella's portrayal was sexist in either version?! Did they even read the book/watch the movie?! The whole point is that she's an independent young woman who gets into quite a lot of trouble, but is perfectly capable of getting herself out of it, or at least is as capable as any other character. Sure, Char saves her that one time... after she charms the ogres to sleep. But that's it.
  • No, the point is, "feminists" got mad after it was changed. But since this movie was targeted at little girls, seeing a bleeding nose is a No, unless you want parents who don't want to see their little daughters scarred for life question the appropriateness of the movie. Also, having a girl punch another girl in the nose would probably send the Unfortunate Implications to other feminists that girls just can't get along.
• Liz Hoggard openly invokes the trope in her review of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, openly stating that Alice is a "good role model for girls" because among other things "she is not girlie". Geez, Alice wore dresses through almost the whole movie and get more or less along with the very feminine White Queen to start! Way to miss the point.
  • Could have been referring to the fact that she ultimately refuses marriage in favor of taking up her father's business, and serving as a fighter at the end of the movie.
    • She lives in the 1870s! She would be exiled from all society and possibly be thrown in a sanitarium if she didn't wear a dress!
• I've seen Enchanted regarded as sexist because Robert leaves Nancy (a working woman) behind for Giselle (a fairytale girl), stating that Robert just wanted "Someone who will be a good little housewife to him." When it was pointed out that Giselle gets a career of her own in New York, apparently that doesn't count because it consists of designing dresses for young girls (because, you know, it's not like being a designer takes creativity or ambition or anything). So follow your dreams girls! Unless your dreams have a hint of femininity to them, because if that's the case, you're a bad woman.
• Of all things, even Sun Shangxiang of Red Cliff gets attacked under the standards of this trope. After being an Action Girl for the entire length of the film, the final image of her (in the Western cut) is of her weeping amongst the dead. Disgraceful! The full-length cut may or may not help, as it introduces the reason why she was so traumatized at the end: the man that she had befriended was cut down before her eyes. But her entire Character Development was based on the fact that she was foolishly gung-ho about waging war, only for her to learn the hard way that there was nothing fun or exciting about it; a Story Arc that is usually reserved for male characters.
• In the film Iron Man, Pepper is the capable and trustworthy assistant to Tony, who he gladly lets in on his various secret projects and pretty much depends on for everything in his life, from coffee to hacking into his partner's computer files. She's one of the few female characters in the series who acts modestly and appropriately towards her boss (as opposed to the many other women, who gladly whore themselves for a chance to sleep with Tony). And by the end, she's implied to be the one girl he's willing to be steady with. She still gets flack for being an assistant and doing menial tasks for her philandering boss.
  • Menial tasks such as being CEO of Stark Industries.
• Apparently the Tangled version of Rapunzel is a bad role model because she's uplifting "long blonde hair and blue eyes" as the ideal feminine beauty. Even though she's got extremely prominent green eyes. This disregards the fact that Rapunzel is Moe with an overbite and a pug nose, and not supposed to be the ultimate standard for beauty. Yes, her hair looks pretty but it's not presented as an attainable thing and at the end she is more than happy to live the rest of her life as a short-haired brunette. She's also been called out for doing chores around the house, even though she was also shown reading, playing chess, and many different types of artistic pursuits.
  • ...If she didn't do those chores, who was going to? Are they implying that in order to be a true woman you have to live in a dump? On a similar note, This review claims that Rapunzel "let" herself be captured and saved by Flynn (never mind she saved him far more than he saved her) that she sits around waiting for her prince to come (never mind she never even mentioned romance when she was in the tower) uses a "domestic" weapon in the frying pan (never mind that several male characters noted on its effectiveness) and that she Flynn is her "crutch" (She falls in love with a MAN! Light the torches!)
  • On the frying pan note: She's been locked in a TOWER. Of course she would have a frying pan. She cooks for and takes care of herself. Sure, Mother Gothel came to visit to get more youth, and make sure Rapunzel wasn't dead, but she didn't come to visit for every meal.
• Ariel from The Little Mermaid is apparently not feminist because she gasp actually wants a man. People disregard the fact that she saved Eric herself from a storm on her own and that she was interested in the human world long before Eric came along (which gasp also was in the original source!). The song "Part of That World" is sung before Eric is introduced. She even gets criticised for disobeying her father when the whole mess was his fault, since in when he was in Overprotective Dad mode he kicked the undersea puppy by destroying her little corner in which she had all the human keepsakes. Forget that she tries to fight Ursula to save her father even when she was in physical disadvantage due to being in mermaid shape while not under the sea, as well as all the brave things she does in the TV series and sequel, because she wanted to find love among other things she cannot be feminist. Plus, she is also implied to be extremely literate (In Part of Your World, she was seen reading a book that was at least bible-sized).
• And then we have a truly moronic inversion here, where Inception's Ariadne is apparently asexual and dresses like a sailor boy because she has the audacity to wear somewhat loose shirts and pants that don't show off her boobs/ass. An excellent rebuttal is here
• Your Mileage May Vary , but it seems that this is a huge part of the Rachel hatred, especially Katie Holme's portrayal, in the Nolanverse fandom. In Batman Begins, she obtained a job in a male-driven field at the DA's office (at a rather young age, too, judging by the fact she was already working there while Bruce was still in Princeton), was ready to tase a mugger and tried to tase Batman when she first saw him, later tased one of the main villains (taking him out of the film entirely), and grabbed a gun off a dead cop in order to defend herself and the little boy from Mr. Zsasz and the other sinister crazies - two of the three times she got "saved" by Batman she already had it covered. But she got handed the Idiot Ball and forgot her taser (or possibly wasn't allowed to take it with her into the asylum for security reasons) and had to be rescued once by Batman, and this one scene means that she is apparently nothing but a shrinking violet Damsel in Distress. (There are other reasons to hate the character and/or Holmes' portrayal, but, seriously, count the times someone calls her some variation of "damsel in distress.")
  • To put it another way, in the Dark Knight, Commissioner Gordon (and his family) have to be rescued by Batman, and no one thinks any less of him for it. But if you're a female character, God help you if you ever need to be rescued by anyone.
  • From what this troper has read, people don't hate Rachel in Batman Begins because of her femininity, they hate her because of her attitude (Hey, Bruce, you've returned from God Knows Where after presumably having been murdered and are enjoying yourself! How dare you.) and actions (the part where she slaps a clearly shaken Bruce who just confessed to wanting to murder the man who killed his parents (because he trusted her), twice, and then proceeds to leave him alone in front of the restaurant that has an incredibly dangerous guy sitting in it, that she knows he's going to go see, doesn't help). Because, you know, Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female on Male. This example is notable because The Dark Knight's Rachel was much better received. So, no, it's not her "femininity"/needing to be saved that have most people hating her.