Female Groin Invincibility

"She's a girl! Where do I grab her?"

— Greg Heffley while wrestling in gym class, Diary of a Wimpy Kid

When men feel pain in their groins, they feel most of the pain in their testicles. Because of that, men usually think the pain caused by a Groin Attack comes from the testicles being harmed. AFAB don't have testicles, so few men assume that attacking them in the crotch doesn't hurt them.

In Real Life, the clitoris contains more than 8000 nerve endings, meaning women feel almost as much pain as men when they get attacked in the groin. Also, the obtuse angle of their pubic bones makes them really easy to break. Even disregarding that, Fridge Logic sets in when one considers that it generally hurts to be struck hard on any part of the body, so why would it somehow not hurt a woman down there?

This trope could be considered the female equivalent of Balls of Steel. Contrast Breast Attack, another sensitive spot for girls. A woman actually being harmed from a groin attack may result in Surprisingly Realistic Outcome. Factors which explain this misconception include Most Writers Are Male, meaning that misinformation about female anatomy is often widespread. Double Standards, coupled with a general reluctance in media to depict harsh violence or slapstick against women, are also commonly blamed.

Sub-Trope of Artistic License – Biology.

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Examples:

Comic Books

• Lanfeust: In spin-off Cixi of Troy, when the titular character has to fight a pirate girl, she has the reflex to kick her opponent between the legs, which has absolutely no effect. Another pirate girl points out that this technique doesn't work with women.

Films — Live-Action

• Attack of the Clones: During the arena fight, Padme jumps and falls 10 feet off a column, landing crotch first directly onto a reek mount. It's calculated she would've impacted with a force of over 14,000 Newtons, over 3 times the amount to break bone, but Padme suffers no consequences.
• Birds of Prey (2020): During Harley and Renee's fight at the amusement park, Harley kicks Renee in the crotch and Renee kicks her right back. Both women suffer little more than brief annoyance.
• Mr. Deeds: Babe Bennett goes to the old diner that Deeds used to frequent to apologize to him. Jan, the waitress who is a close friend of Deeds, causes a Diner Brawl after learning of Babe's deceit. At one point, Babe kicks Jan in the groin several times, which Jan shrugs off.
• The Players Club: During Diana and Ronnie's epic fight, the former kicks the latter in the groin area, only for her to no sell it and bark back "Ain't no balls there, bitch!" She then shrieks back "Coulda fooled me!" and resumes the fight.
• She's the Man: Viola, pretending to be her brother Sebastian, gets hit in the crotch with a soccer ball, but doesn't react until she sees the boys wincing and so doubles over in faked pain.
• Surprisingly averted in Smilla's Sense of Snow: Smilla incapacitates Benja by grabbing her by the crotch.

Literature

• Discworld:
  • Guards! Guards!: Implied to be why Colon and Nobby's attempt to invoke a Million to One Chance of hitting the dragon in the "voonerables," the dragon is female, so no matter how many blindfolds and Hedgehog songs they inflict on the archer there's not enough Narrativium in the Disc for them to hit organs that aren't there.
  • Monstrous Regiment: The protagonist, who's pulling a Sweet Polly Oliver, gets bitten in the crotch by an ill-tempered horse to the horror of the male onlooker. Justified as she was wearing a wadded-up sock down the front of her pants.
• The Vorkosigan Saga: Referenced in A Civil Campaign. Dono, a trans man whose surgery includes a pair of functional testicles, is punched in the balls during an ambush. Afterwards, he says "Ivan ... do you remember, when one of you fellows got kicked in the nuts and went over, doing sports or whatever, how I laughed. I'm sorry, I didn't know, I'm sorry." It is unclear whether Dono had been hit in the groin as a female and it didn't hurt as bad or whether he had just never been hit there as a woman.
• Xanadu (Storyverse): Lampshaded in "Revan". When fighting a female opponent, Revan attempts to take her down by kneeing her in the groin. Revan, who had been on the receiving end of such strikes herself, reasons that the pain of having someone jam their knee in her genitals should be plenty enough to put her out of commission. However, to her consternation, this achieves absolutely nothing beyond insulting her opponent, who becomes convinced that Revan mistook her for a guy. In-universe, this is justified by the fact that the transformations caused by Change are rooted in what people believed the people they'd dressed as would be like — the other woman's cosplayer had evidently been someone who believed that women really can't be harmed by groin attacks, and consequently gained an immunity to them after being transformed.

Live-Action TV

• Bottom: In "Finger", Eddie and Richie pretend to be a married couple to steal the real newlyweds' honeymoon and rack up as big a bill as possible (to spite the husband, whom Richie has a grudge against). When Eddie, disguised as the wife, is kicked in the crotch by Richie, he makes it a point to tell onlookers, "It's lucky I am a girl, otherwise that would have really hurt!"
• Game of Thrones.
  • Averted with Brienne of Tarth's brutal fight against Sandor Clegane. She punches him in the balls, and he retaliates seconds later with a kick to her groin and she reacts with just as much pain as he did.
  • While not female, Theon, having been previously castrated, ends up in a fight to determine whether or not the Ironborn should launch a rescue mission to retrieve Yara. His opponent tries for the Groin Attack, only for Theon to No-Sell it, allowing him to take advantage of his opponent's confusion and win the fight.
• Exploited on Haven: Season 4 Big Bad William taunts the gang that no one can hurt him, because his Synchronization with Audrey means whatever they do to him, happens to her. Nathan says he thought of a loophole, and kicks him in the junk. There's a moment of bewildered Nope, no pain and I can't believe you did that on Audrey's face, but sure enough, she's fine, while William is doubled over on the floor.
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Averted in the episode "Charlie and Dee Find Love". Mac and Dee wrestle, only for Mac to take her to the floor, she punches him in the groin when his guard is down. She stands up to proclaim victory, only for Mac to punch her in the groin, causing her to kneel over in pain.

Professional Wrestling

• ZigZagged in most pro wrestling promotions. Female wrestlers can be (and are) "crotched" (dropped groin first) onto the turnbuckles, or occasionally the top rope, and it will be treated as a painful blow. However, deliberate "low blow" attacks (typically an uppercut from behind) are treated as ineffectual, with the would-be attacker portrayed as stupid for even attempting such a tactic. That said, even deliberate attacks are sometimes sold by women as painful, depending upon whether the match itself is being Played for Drama or Played for Comedy and which promotion is putting on the match.
• One notable aversion happened during a match at WrestleMania 21 where Christy Hemme delivered a groin kick to Trish Stratus and Trish sold it appropriately.

Video Games

• Notable aversion in Fallout and Fallout 2. Women share the same penalties from an aimed shot to the groin as men do, with the game's message box lampshading this trope when a Critical Hit is scored on a groin hit.
  "She takes it like a man. That is to say, it hurts."
  "Her childbearing days are in trouble as she collapses in a limp heap."
• God Hand: Any woman you encounter in the game will be completely impervious to the Ball Buster. Trying it will result in nothing more than a dull thud. It's possible that this is some kind of Exact Words restriction on the ability; early in the game, you encounter a boss named Mr. Silver, some kind of muscle eunuch. Despite being subject to the same real-life potential for injury, he is also immune to the Ball Buster, lacking the necessary targets just as the women do; it's apparently not called the "Groin Buster" for a reason.
• Mirror's Edge: The first hint that the masked Parkour Killer is a woman (if her pain yelps when taking damage don't give it away earlier) is that, during her boss battle, she takes regular damage from crotch kicks that briefly stun every other enemy in the game.
• Mortal Kombat: In the first two games, Johnny Cage's "Low Blow" special move doesn't work on female characters. This doesn't apply to the third game and onwards, where they get affected by it regardless of sex (it also seems to work on cyborgs somehow). However, this may count as a subversion; if Johnny's fighting a woman in the first two games, he doesn't even attempt to hit them during the move; he'll just do a split without reaching out with a punch. This could be interpreted as him being personally uncomfortable striking a woman down there, or the developers being uncomfortable depicting that, rather than implying that it wouldn't hurt them.
• One Piece: Pirate Warriors: One of Nico Robin's Musou attacks is Dos Fleur: Grab. When used on male characters, it's the same Groin Attack she gave Franky in the series. Considering the nature of the Groin Attack, it wouldn't work on women. Instead, against female enemies, Robin has them spanked repeatedly for the same damage output.
• Played with by Sophitia in the Soul Series. Her rising knee attack leaves male fighters doubled over in pain (with her giving a sincere "I'm sorry!" as they fall), while female opponents are barely staggered. However, if you look closely, you'll see that she drives her knee into the other woman's gut instead of between the legs, like she does with the men. Must be a respect thing.

Web Animation

• GoAnimate: In "Johnny Test Abuses the CBT Gun/Grounded", Johnny Test shoots the titular gun (which causes instant groin pain) at his mother. It is completely ineffective against her and she grounds him.
• Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers: Played with. Bob identifies as male but when he's hit he usually shouts "Ow, my ovaries!" At least once, he managed to tank a kick to the crotch from Saiko because of it.

Webcomics

• One early Awkward Zombie strip (from before Katie had her own website) had Link test if Sheik was male or female by kicking her in the groin. Sheik crumbles in a pained heap, leading Link to conclude that she's clearly male.

Western Animation

• Downtown: In the episode "Night Shift" Serena runs to Alex and Goat, telling them of a suspicious "man" (actually Jen, their female friend) who had been following her all night. When the two go out to confront "him" Goat immediately goes for the low shot, to no effect, but when Jen returns the favor, it puts Goat on the ground, groaning and advising Alex, "Always go for the balls! That's what my mom taught me!"
• King of the Hill: The "Bobby Goes Nuts" episode shows Bobby taking a women's defense course in which he learns to use a Groin Attack against all of his opponents, including his father Hank at one point. When he tries to use the same attack on his mother Peggy, she tells him, "I believe you will find that I have no testicles!", though Kahn thinks otherwise.
  Kahn: She bluffing, finish her!
• Harley Quinn: In the first episode, Harley kicks a female Arkham security guard in the crotch to no effect.
  • Subverted, in a later episode Harley is on the receiving end of a Groin Attack only for her chastity belt to absorb the blow.
• South Park: In the "The List", in an attempt of getting the titular list from the girls, Cartman has Butters kick Nelly in the "balls", which would cause her to drop the folder with the list. But when Butters kicks her twice she doesn't react to the kicks other than angrily saying, "Ow!" and calling him an asshole. This causes Cartman's plan to fail and the boys to learn that girls don't have balls. However, later in the episode, Wendy kicks Lola in the groin, and this DOES end up hurting her so much she gets knocked out. Makes one wonder if Lola does in fact have balls or if Wendy just kicks harder than Butters.

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