Pirates. Villains of the seven seas, lovable rogues who rob other pirates, or what have you. Strong or handsome men, with ladies either afraid of or swooning over them...
...And then there's the Pirate Girl, a young girl or woman who clearly has no place in this tough world of men. Except she is either determined to show that she does, is accepted by the roguish male crew without any apparent difficulty or explanation, or is part of an ship with an all female crew. Depending on age, may or may not be a Little Miss Badass; either way, usually an Action Girl. There are two types: one type would be either cute or a Hot Amazon. The much, much more common type is the "bad girl".
Can be Truth in Television — historically, a number of female pirates did plough the seas along with the men, sometimes rising to positions of authority. However, most of them did by disguising themselves as men; Carribean pirates codes often called for the death penalty or marrooning for any pirate who brought a woman onboard. In the modern world, women might have a place on pirate ships (often referred to these days as maritime terrorists) depending on the local culture.
Not to be confused with Pirate Wench, a term that usually refers to a woman who sails with pirates, doing "women's work" for them, perhaps while providing eye candy. The Pirate Girl is a pirate in her own right.
Any little boy found on a pirate ship will half the time be this girl in disguise.
The Pirate Girl often has a Dark and Troubled Past detailing how she ended up in this position; abusive fathers who they are in a Well Done Son Guy relationship with seems to be a common theme.
A subtrope of Pirate, (CaptainObvious, anyone?).
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Revy from Black Lagoon is a modern-day female pirate.
Almost every female character from One Piece. From the Straw Hats alone, we have Nami and Nico Robin. Also, Boa Hancock, Vivi (temporarily, anyways), Alvida...
The one who acts most like a traditional pirate girl is surprisingly Nami. Besides drinking any of the guys under the table, she isn't nice (unless she's trying to scam you), and as the navigator she is completely in control of the ship, bar instructions from Luffy.
Rival captain Jewelry Bonney is pretty close to traditional, too.
The spinoff series Tenchi Muyo GXP also has a space pirate girl in the main cast. Who's also named Ryoko. But not the same Ryoko; she was named after the original, who's roughly 5000 years older and a legend in the space pirate community.
Seychelles from Axis Powers Hetalia is sometimes drawn/written this way in fan work. In a show with several of the male characters given the pirate treatment, she is notable for being the only female to be cast in this light (that this troper is aware of, anyway, and excluding genderbends).
Portugal's female concept art, at the top here◊, shows this very heavily as well, complete with scars and a sword.
Marika Kato from Bodacious Space Pirates. Also Chiaki Kurihara, daughter of the captain of Barbarossa, though it doesn't show.
Comic Books
The pirates in Y: The Last Man, as should be obvious from the comic's name.
El Cazador's main character becomes a pirate after another the pirate captain Blackjack Tom attacks the ship she's on, killing most of the passengers.
Batman foe Cap'n Fear had a buxom first mate named Annie.
Maura Hawke, captain of the Serpent's Crown in the Marvel Universe. When she was betrayed by her first mate Jebediah Fate, she laid a curse on him and all her mutinous crew resulting in Fate becoming a Flying Dutchman.
Dread Mac Farlane, a French comic about a girl who goes to Neverland and grows up among the Lost Boys (let's not explore exactly how she, y'know, GROWS UP in Neverland), then leaves them to join Captain Hook and his crew in the exciting life of a pirate.
Sjörövar-Jenny from Bamseseems to be this, being a young woman in piratical garb who is a skilled cutlass fencer and sailor, but she is merely the daughter of a rather eccentric scholar obsessed with pirates and pirate treasure, and takes after him. (Her name, of course, references the "Pirate Jenny" song from the The Threepenny Opera, as per below).
In Wonder Woman, the "Silver Serpent" saga featured an all female cadre of Space Pirates who travel from planet to planet to steal that world's technology, recruit a small group of the females for membership and the remainder of the planet's people for food stock.
Scarlet Fever, from the second Lady Rawhide miniseries; a spin-off from Topps Zorro series.
Maureen O'Hara played this character — notably as "Spitfire" Stephens opposite Errol Flynn in Against All Flags. She also appeared in The Black Swan (with Tyrone Power) and The Spanish Main (with Paul Henreid); she appears as a high-born lady of quality in both, but in the former changes into Pirate Girl garb in the final scene.
Has anyone mentioned Captain Morgan Adams, played by Geena Davis in Cutthroat Island? Although, technically, she's a Pirate Hunter.
In Muppet Treasure Island, Ellis Ashley Flyte, the wife of Brian Henson (the film's producer and director) gives an uncredited appearance as Big Fat Ugly Bug-Faced Baby-Eating O'Brian (a female ship's crew mate seen only during the Roll Call scene).
Jean Peters played a pirate woman called "Anne Providence" in Anne of the Indies (1951); Binnie Barnes played Anne Bonney in The Spanish Main (1945); Hope Emerson played her in Double Crossbones (1951); Sonia Sorell played her in Captain Kidd and the Slave Girl (1954); and Lorna Bennett played her in Pirates (1998).
The second Astérix movie included a female pirate for absolutely no reason whatsoever, even making her the Captain's daughter.
The 2005 big budget pornographic film Pirates (also known as Pirates XXX) starred Janine Lindemulder as Serena, the viscousvicious first mate of the Big Bad Captain Eric Victor Stagnetti, and Jesse Jane as Jules, her good guy counterpart among the pirate hunters.
Pirate Fritton from St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold.
Mary "Jacky" Faber, from the young adult novel, Bloody Jack, and its sequels.
Missee Lee, a Chinese woman pirate captain in Missee Lee, part of the Swallows and Amazons series, by Arthur Ransome, although she is a slight subversion in that she never wanted to be a pirate. She is a frustrated Cambridge academic who was forced to become a pirate after her father's death.
The "Amazons", Nancy and Peggy Blackett, play the trope more straight, albeit they're technically just kids enacting a pirate fantasy.
Charlotte de Berry is a (probably fictional) female pirate captain who stars in Edward Lloyd's History of the Pirates, a "penny dreadful" or "penny blood" - cheap stories with a fairly gory or shocking theme written to entertain the masses.
Minerva Sharpe and Nancy Kington are the protagonists of Pirates! by novelist Celia Rees.
Art Blastside is a former gentlewoman named Artemesia Fitz-Willoghby Weatherhouse who lost her all memories of her life with her mother, Piratica, in a cannon accident that cost her mother her life. She regained it after 6 years of attending a finishing school and gathered her mother's former crew to set sail again in The Piratica Series, by Tanith Lee.
Romsca is a fictional anthropomorphic ferret corsair the book Pearls of Lutra in Brian Jacques's Redwall series.
Lazue in the Michael Chrichton novel Pirate Latitudes, due in part to her having been raised as a boy.
Amy Pond becomes one briefly (certainly in appearance, and with a reasonable amount of swashbuckling flair) in the Doctor Who episode "Curse of the Black Spot".
In the Big Finish audio adventure Doctor Who and the Pirates, the Sixth Doctor attempts to pass off his companion Evelyn Smythe as 'Evil Evelyn, the Pirate Queen'. Evelyn does her best, but the masquerade does not last long.
Being a pirate-based Sentai, Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger has... just one, Luka Millfy/Gokai Yellow. The other lady, Ahim de Famille/Gokai Pink isn't as much a Pirate Girl but more of The Ojou. (She is quite happy to call herself a pirate, however.)
In Stargate SG-1 there is Vala Maldoran who is a pirate/thief and acts like a child. Then in Stargate Atlantis there is Larrin of the travellers who, while maybe not technically a pirate all the time, sure acts like one in her first appearance.
Magazines
Gunpowder Gertie (Gertrude Stubbs) is a Canadian pirate created by storyteller Carolyn McTaggart. The story of Gunpowder Gertie was told as an April fools joke in the local Kootenay area newspaper, the Kootenay Review. So many people believed that it was true that it was later retold as historical fact on the CBC program, This Day in History.
Music
Emilie Autumn has always had one pirate captain since the first Asylum tour in 2007. The first was Captain Vecona who was also the Asylum seamstress and left the Bloody Crumpets after the first 2008 tour. The second was Captain Maggot who took over in fall 2008, she appears to be far more popular of a captain owing to her more pirate-y feel including being a drunkard who speaks like a pirate and having a costume that looks more like a pirate. She also is a circus performer in the real world, during the tours she stilt walks and hula-hoops...Mind you EA's shows take place in a Victorian asylum...
The S.J. Tucker album Sirens includes three songs called "The Wendy Trilogy". The Wendy Trilogy is a retelling of the Peter and Wendy story, diverting from the original at the point where Captain Hook offers Wendy Darling the chance to become a pirate. In this version, Wendy accepts the offer and starts an adventure of her own.
"The Worst Pirate Song," by Irish-American band Ceann, mocks this trope.
Tom Smith's Filk "Hey, It's Can(n)on!" pointed out that Hermione Granger's birthday is also "International Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day," which inspires Harry to buy her a ship "and now they're her young stallions, and she's a pirate queen!"
Members of metal band Zed Yago had a pirate image, so naturally the singer Jutta Weinhold was the pirate girl of the band.
The Satyxis of the Iron Kingdoms setting are a whole island-nation of Sexy Monster Pirate Girls, of whom the best known is the Pirate Queen and Cryx warcaster Skarre Ravenmane. The mercenary privateer faction of Warmachine has several playable female character models, including the Thamarite pirate captain Fiona the Black.
Several of fantasy RPG artist Clyde Caldwell's paintings have been of female pirates.
Ed Greenwood has mentioned a number of female pirates in his Forgotten Realms setting material, including Thilana, Azla and Laershala of the Emerald Eyes.
Azla fits "Dark and Troubled Past" part. She was a noble and a Cormyrean army officer, but came across a Zhent party bigger than her patrol could handle and ran. In self-exile, she became a pirate, then her high-end training kicked in and soon she was one of the most influential captains on the Pirate Isles, raiding Sembian targets (Cormyr's in a cold war with Sembia). She appeared in The Threat from the Sea.
Liriel Baenre was a ship mage on a pirate ship once, but almost accidentally. At first the crew didn't think that a female(!!!) drow(!!) elf(!) on board was a good idea, but they didn't have much choice anyway.
BattleTech has had several female Space Pirates such as Morgan Fletcher, Suzy "One-Eye" Morgaine-Ryan and Paula "Lady Death" Trevaine, the latter are rare female Magnificent Bastard.
Synthre, a runaway alien princess and member of the Galatic Marauders, a band of Space Pirates in the Champions sourcebook Alien Enemies.
7th Sea contains several. The most famous is probably "Bloody" Bonnie McGee, first mate of the Sea Dogs.
Pathfinder has Besmara, the goddess of pirates, strife, and sea monsters.
Theater
There's a play called Scavenger Hunt (Aargh! Avast Ye!) which concerned a retired Pirate Lady and her daughter, who Sweet Polly Olivered her way on to a ship to search for a MacGuffin her mother and some friends had encountered in the past.
In The Threepenny Opera, Polly (or, in some productions, Jenny) sings "Pirate Jenny," a revenge fantasy about a chamber maid who dreams of being a pirate queen.
Loof Merrow of the Sera Myu who was featured in the Kagyua Island musicals. She's a pirate, and a princess, who's been frozen in Ice for the last 5000 years, and is after the Silver Crystal to restore her Kingdom of Artuka which was destroyed by a tidal wave when they asked Princess Serenity to change the earth's orbit so the comet Coatl wouldn't hit it. And she's only out of the ice because the comet and its inhabitants have returned and are Seeking revenge on Sailor Moon .... confused yet?
The Pirate Queen is a musical written by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil. It is based on the life and adventures of the 17th century Irish chieftain and pirate Grace O'Malley.
Captain Bree and Her Lady Pirates by Bill Francoeur.
Toys
Big Barda is re-imagined as a Space Pirate in the Ame-Comi Girls line of PVC statues from DC Direct.
Piracy is on Jack's list of crimes in Mass Effect 2, but it isn't any more prominent than things like arson and a somewhat excessive act deemed 'vandalism' by the Hanar.
If you talk to her, she'll suggest that after the Collector business is over, you should take the Normandy and go pirate yourself - you can be the captain, and she'll be the master of arms, and do executions.
One of the most famous post-Rebellion krogan warlords (read: pirates) was a fertile female named Shiagur; thanks to the genophage, fertile females are exceptionally rare, and she used her status to raise a major fleet. Then she started setting up bases, attacking colonies, and in general doing things pirates ought to do. She's very seriously dead by the time the game rolls around, though, thanks to the highly-unamused turian fleets.
The pirate ship Dolce from Eternal Sonata is named after its female captain, who you encounter in chapter 4. You fight her again later, and maybe a third time. And even a fourth time is possible if you're playing on Encore Mode, the game's version of New Game Plus.
"Cap'n" Ginny of My Sims is obessed with pretending to be a pirate, and her best friend (boyfriend?) goes along with it. By My Sims Kingdom, she's moved on to a new profession, but her old obsession is still referenced by Vic Vector when you give him a figurine of her.
Regna Island was crawling with female pirate crossbowmen, as well as female inhabitants evidently not restricted to wenchy stuff (note that Regna is a nation of pirates, so if you are not in the support business you'd be in the pirate business).
Catalina is almost a complete inversion of the standard trope, though: she's already a captain in the Spanish Armada by the time she decides to become a pirate.
Captain Silver from Romancing Saga. She's also a dragon...
Sophia "Riptide" de Medici from Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side.
Miss Fortune from League of Legends is strictly speaking a pirate hunter though you wouldn't be able to tell. Her abilities include "Strut" and "Make It Rain" (bullets).
Isabela from the Dragon Age series. She's an NPC that teaches the Duelist specialty for rogue classes in the first game, but gets upgraded to party member and love interest in the second.
Fate/EXTRA features a Gender Flipped Sir Francis Drake as a Rider-class Servant. Let that sink in for a moment.
Sally from Exit Fate. Might also be exaggerated, since she's "just" a young girl who owns her own ship. Her grandfather had been a famous pirate, but she herself isn't an actual one- just acts like one, complete with an accent.
Martello is actually the captain of her ship in Mushroom Go. There's also Palma, who acts more like she's just along for the ride.
Homestuck's Vriska Serket may or may not count, being a roughly thirteen-year-old LAR Per, but she's attempting to emulate her ancestor Marquise Mindfang, who was definitely a Pirate Girl.
"Patched Up Matey" — the entire crew. This season eyepatches be fashionable, yarr!
Demonstrated by Shannancy in this catchy Adam The Alien video. The cleavage always wins.
Ridiath plays this role in Guts and Sass: An Anti-Epic, where she has been mentored and trained by the pirate crew into not being useless.
Western Animation
Female members of La Résistance (which tends to call itself 'pirates') in Skyland.
On Muppet Babies, the kids pretended to be treasure hunters and encountered a trio of female "pirettes".
Kim, the 18 year old niece of Captain Barnibus Crab in Flipper And Lopaka. Kim is quite an ethusiastic apprentice pirate and often seems far better at the actual business of piracy than her uncle.
Princess Bula in ReBoot. The largest Bi-nome in the show, and has the other pirates too scared to tell her she's not really a princess.
On Rugrats, there was an Imagine Spot (stemming from a game of make-believe) where the babies were pirates. Naturally, Angelica plays the role of the evil pirate captain.
There have in fact been more than a few female pirates of note. All of the following women were at least captains, and all were openly women for at least part of their captaincy:
Grace O'Malley
Ching Shih (who was closer to a pirate Admiral given the number of ships she commanded)
Charlotte de Berry (although some modern historical opinion doubts whether Charlotte actually existed)
Rachel Wall
Jane de Belleville
Elizabeth Trewinnard
In a "culture" always apart from main society by definition, the notion of a woman being bad luck was probably more easily overcome so long as she was talented at bringing in literal boatloads of plunder.
Being able/willing to kill you for suggesting she's bad luck is likely also a factor.
