Real Women Never Wear Dresses - Television Tropes & Idioms

Aside of being already hated per slashy Die For Our Ship reasons, Rebellious Princess Relena of Gundam Wing is specifically bashed by the Fan Dumb because of her princess-like girliness and her pink limousine. Made stupider by the fact that as Relena gets Character Development, she starts wearing pants more often. In fact, during the Endless Waltz OAV she was wearing a light pink office suit with pants... apparently the same one she wore in her last scene in the TV series.
- As a random aside, Word Of God says that the limo was a birthday present from her parents, so the color was somewhat out of her hands.
  - Not to mention that by Endless Waltz (stressed more in SRW games and the like,) she's genuinely matured a lot, to the point that while she still strongly believes in the pacifist ideal, she understands that sometimes fighting simply can't be avoided (granted, in the SRW examples, there's also often as not evil alien empires or mindless monsters that simply can't be reasoned with - and even then she does often try to negotiate with groups like the Gaizok and Zanscare Empire)
In Fruits Basket, Akito Sohma was introduced as a violent Manipulative Bastard and a huge asshole to Tohru Honda and the whole Sohma clan. Many fangirls squealed and made him a Draco In Leather Pants, cheering at almost all of his evil actions and specially at his hospitalization of his cousin Isuzu, aka Rin, the most hated female back then. When Akito was revealed to have been a woman all along in the manga, lots of fangirls immediately started bashing her, saying (among other things) that Akito was too hot to be female and wasn't interesting anymore because of her gender. More information in the Fandom Wank report. The end of the series showed Akito come to terms with herself and the other Sohma (even wearing a female kimono in public and looking pretty enough to be complimented), marry her cousin Shigure, begin to live as a woman again and wear dresses/a longer hairstyle, which some fans seemed to consider as the ultimate insult.
- Also, Tohru Honda is a prime target among the Furuba Hatedom, despite being the protagonist who ultimately breaks the Sohma family curse with her Power Of Love. However, Tohru is an insecure Yamato Nadeshiko who often describes herself as "weak", "stupid", and "a burden", and she only really feels confident or "useful" when able to help the Sohmas. Thus, she acts genuinely weak, and at the very least, criticism of her makes a bit more logical sense than the aforementioned criticism of Akito.
- Not really—Tohru doesn't ever act genuinely weak. She's not always self-confident and she has low self-esteem, but she's never weak. In a pinch or stressful situation, she always acts (usually to her own detriment.)
In the show Samurai Champloo, Fuu is a Plucky Girl who occasionally cries when she has good reason to, crushes on her bodyguards, and is usually the nicest and most level-headed character on the show, despite being a bit bossy sometimes. According to her personal Hatedom, not only is she weak and useless for not being an Action Girl, but she's also a ditzy, whiny, overbearing bitch that Mugen and Jin would be much better off without. Never mind that she was the only thing that kept them from killing each other, or that an Action Girl wouldn't need two bodyguards to begin with.
Within the show: Kanae on Skip Beat! deliberately calls out Kyouko when they meet, only because she perceives Kyouko as a "housewife"-type of woman who shouldn't stay near the show business. Even later in the manga, when both have a kind-of-friendship and Kyouko has shown how scarily competent she can be when acting, Kanae still feels uncomfortable with Kyouko due her own perceived contradiction between being able of do any domestic chores and being an reputed actress and entertainer. There is a twist tough, Kanae acts also a housewife for her own very large family, as her parents are always traveling and her older brothers are no help, seeing Kyoko reminded her of herself. Kanaes type of housewifing is more like an extreme sport and it's kind of easy to understand why is she is so annoyed by it.
In Gundam 00, we have Soma Peiries, a likable and kickass Dark Action Girl. Then, this personality went dormant and replaced by the original one: the gentle, sensitive Mysterious Waif Marie Parfasy. Fan reaction was very unkind that she chose not to fight and temporarily be a Bridge Bunny rather than remain a kickass Action Girl, to the point that she was in danger of being kicked to The Scrappy Heap.
- To make it worse, the Fan Dumb knew that Marie would return to action by piloting the GN Archer. Even then, they just wouldn't stop whining because Marie took her time, instead of immediately re-starting to fight. As SoMarie and her boyfriend Allelujah/Hallelujah (who also was bashed and unjustly accused of forcing Marie stay aside) became a Battle Couple, the bashing wore off, but still hasn't disappeared.
- Let's not forget all the misogynistic comments about Rebellious Princess Marina Ismail being "only good for running daycare centers" since she's often seen taking care of Azhadistan orphans and later refuses to take a gun for self-defense. This is perhaps Fridge Logic at play, but a valid example of complaining over her taking on a feminine role.
  - This happen because she's compared a lot to Relena Darlian-Peacecraft who by now only fangirls hate, Peacecraft takes an active role in trying to end the war by peaceful means, Ismail doesn't.
  - That's because they're the two sides of the same trope. Relena plays the role of the Rebellious Princess straight since her world is more or less on the idealistic side, but Marina deconstructs it as hers is far more cynical.
In Bleach fandom, a good part of the bashing against Orihime Inoue comes from her rejecting to become a full-fledged Action Girl due to her pacifism and gentle nature. This is the girl who cries when her enemies are killed (she even revived two Clingy Jealous Girls who almost killed her and later showed compassion towards her jailer Ulquiorra as he died), after all. That, and there's the Die For Our Ship phenomenon where the "love rival" that the Vocal Minority pits her against is a Shorttank Action Girl, Rukia Kuchiki (who actually adores Orihime to boot since they're Not So Different, and has had Ship Tease moments with her). Yup, Orihime is doomed.
- What's strange is that both sides invoke this trope in regards to Orihime. The rabid haters complain that she's useless and weak, thus wanting her to take matters into her own hands instead of standing idly by behind Ichigo. Never mind that she can impact the plot without kicking someone's ass, she just can't seem to bring herself to do it, or when she tries she gets told to stop doing it. Her rabid fans, on the other hand, say she gets a free pass on any seemingly legitimate complaint because she's a girl, turning it into some unnecessary feminist issue.
- Rukia Kuchiki herself brings up some interesting points. She is always wearing dresses, is called beautiful and feminine in the text, can pull off a reliable Yamato Nadeshiko impersonation, used to fangirl a full-fledged Yamato Nadeshiko (Miyako Shiba) and has become a Lady Of War. She is loved in the fandom, (though some feel she is loved too much) for all aspects of her character and always ranks in the top three in popularity polls, overtaking Ichigo himself in the latest one. The main female lead ranking so high consistently is very rare in shonen fight manga. She also loves bunnies and dresses and killed an Espada (the one who killed her Big Brother Mentor and first love) by herself. Interestingly, around the time she starting being described as beautiful... she was accused of being too perfect. Goddammit, fandom.
  - Ironically, some of her fans are fond of invoking this trope in support of her against Orihime. One would think they didn't really pay attention.
- This trope is also one of the reasons why Momo Hinamori is so hated. So she reacted in a painfully realistic way after her captain Sousuke Aizen, the man she loved and served under for years, almost killed her For The Evulz and then revealed himself as the Big Bad? The fangirls howl and screech in hate because the seriously traumatized Momo was in serious denial for a while - and often, these same fans cuddle and adore Kira Izuru, who also found himself sitting in the verge of the Despair Event Horizon at the same time because his captain, Gin Ichimaru, was also a traitor, as well as Aizen's co-conspirator. Funny, how things change when a male and a female are in pretty much the same situation...
  - Made even more ironic because Kira is one of Momo's best friends, called himself a monster for merely raising his sword against her in self defense, and his other reason to almost cross the Despair Event Horizon (aside of Gin's betrayal) was learning what had happened to her. So Yeah.
  - Momo receives less flak about this one after she's been Rescued From The Scrappy Heap, especially in the Filler arc. Why? Because she starts taking active roles in battles and seems even more proactive compared to Rangiku. Real Women Never Wear Dresses indeed.
- Completely averted so far by Retsu Unohana. By far she is the most ladylike character in the series, and has never been into a fight. Due to her very huge Informed Ability and the fact that she sends the battle-happy Squad 11 into fits of fear as well as Ichigo (and not getting an angry response for pressing Mayuri Kurotsuchi's Berserk Button), and that she IS a senior captain with a good dose of experience, nobody accused her for not being a real woman even if she wears dress all the time.
There's an infamous article in which a mother in Japan bashes Futari Wa Pretty Cure left, right and center for having cute heroines, putting them in skirts, and advertising dolls for them. She also claims that her daughter is already tainted by the patriarchy because she likes the color pink...
When she isn't being bashed for Shipping reasons, poor Hinata Hyuuga from Naruto is being bashed because of this trope. The "fans" say things like how "she is too weak, she is too shy, she is a bad role model for girls etc." and have this annoying habit of comparing her to her "rival in love" in the Ship To Ship Combat, Sakura Haruno.
- Hell, there's also some for Sakura and Tsunade for being two of the few recurring female characters and specializing in both fights and medicine.
  - ... And then Temari, the most pro-active Action Girl in the side of good, is derailed by "feminist fangirls" into a screeching, hate-filled, cruel Tsundere Sue so they can lay the smackdown on any other female character around. Nevermind that Temari actually wears her hair in pigtails, dresses up in a sexy yukata after the Time Skip, and doesn't demean other females for being more or less girly than she is.
- There's an interesting inversion on this trope as far as wardrobe goes. Hinata, the Yamato Nadeshiko, typically wears pants (with the exception of one scene in Chapter 238 where she's in a robe, and in a flashback to her third birthday, where she wears an orange kimono), while the Tsunderes Sakura and Ino tend to wear skirts.
- There's also a stigma against women crying in Naruto for some reason, which is strange since one of the past messages is that it's OK to cry when you're sad, and the male main character probably cries more than most of the other females combined. When a guy cries it's understandable and just shows how much they care, but God forbid a woman cry over losing a loved one or being betrayed by a friend.
Jun the Swan in Science Ninja Team Gatchaman is well-liked among the fans, but every now and then is the subject of complaints that her character is "too stereotypically feminine" for having a crush on the hero, being afraid of bugs and liking pretty things. Now to be fair to the dissenters she did (sadly) fall victim to the era's sexism quite often, but considering this was a Japanese series made in the 1970s Jun was actually pretty progressive: not only did she get to fight with the guys and is more than capable at knocking goons around (and implied to be a match for Chun-Li since they are usually paired against each other in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom material), but she was also an explosives expert Biker Babe and ran a snack bar at the age of 16. Plus, looking after Jinpei and his Pet Baby Wild Animal tendencies ain't exactly Easy Street.
Similar complaints have been directed towards Françoise Arnoul aka 003 from Cyborg 009, also from a franchise that started in the 1970s. It doesn't help that Françoise lost the Superpower Lottery by only having Super Senses, which puts her in a disadvantage in regards to her partners, and she knows that very painfully. The 2001 series makes her a Team Mom Plucky Girl with Action Girl moments, but a good part of the fandom still bashes her solely for her girliness, ignoring that Fran is still VERY progressive for her age.
Cute girl Princess Nia Teppelin from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has received more than her fair share of flak for being charming and girlish, and for being unlike gun-totting Action Girl Yoko Littner... who then gets her Character Development hand-waved and is accused of being nothing but a Ms Fanservice.
- Any notions of Moe Moe that Nia has going for her are far outweighed by her massive balls. Sure, she relies on her love interest (as people in a relationship tend to do) and leader of the group (as members of a group tend to do), while being generally confused about the world she didn't grow up in, not unlike two other characters who happened to have come up from the ground into a similar situation, but that doesn't stop her from talking down to, in order: A giant enemy robot that had her in its claws at the moment, an enemy general who had a gun in her face, and a god who was killing her mid smack talk.
- As for Yoko, she is a Ms Fanservice. I don't think anyone would look at Yoko and wonder why she can't pull off the same badassery wearing a shirt and non-latex booty shorts. Drawing her that way with those physics is Author Appeal, as any waving to explain it is/would be. The question becomes: Do I care? Hell no. Yoko is a total Bad Ass. She decideds not to get a Humongous Mecha in favor of her BFG until towards the end of the series when they go into space and she realizes she isn't Batman. And with said BFG, she's able to shoot mecha out of the sky like clay pigeons. She also has the emotional strength to pull herself and others out of lotsa trouble, as a firey and plucky yet still gentle Cool Big Sis. Not being able to focus on Yoko's Awesome and oft well done Character Development because attention is drawn to her Most Common Superpower is more telling of the viewers than of the character.
So to many fans, Digimon 02 Grand Finale was disappointing, not very well-written and that some of the kids' destinies were, well, not fitting. But that doesn't excuse the screaming hatred of Miyako Inoue's share of the finale. So being the mother of Ken Ichijouji's children and raising them with the help of her Digimon (and mind you, one of the kids is a baby, possibly a newborn) absolutely invalidates her numerous in series feats (which include indy ploying her way in the Digital World many times, slapping people out of their depressions *and* facing a Dark Action Girl Digimon with only a skateboard as her weapon) and gives fans "permission" to not only scream at her for being her husband's Victorious Childhood Friend, but to slam her for "being reduced to a housewife", "ending up as the less cool of the girls" and "betraying feminism"? What in the FUCK, fandom?!
- Poor, poor Sora. In season one, she wore jeans for most of the season (what with getting sucked into the Digital World while at summer camp.) She is known to have been on Tai's soccer team. In season two, she's playing tennis, and is seen in a skirt while doing so. This is apparently epic Chickification and the utter destruction of the character.
  - Let's not forget that Sora caught the Distress Ball by panicking when she was about to get crushed by debris, and her boyfriend Yamato had to bail her out and away. Somehow that's Chickification too, even when Sora made a comeback by teaming up with the also "feminist"-maligned Miyako in Moscow. Noooooo, having a Shorttank get scared once in a single scene apparently means she's an horrible weakling for the rest of her life.
This review of Sailor Moon eventually shrieks out "god dammit this show struck down basic feminism so hard that it still hurts!" Entirely because the main character is a teenage girl that likes to go shopping, likes boys, and fails at school. Nevermind that the series shows many different kinds of girls and makes a point of noting that Usagi is the only one like this. Nevermind even that Usagi actually grows up and matures quite past this (which is lampshaded more than once in the storyline, and once by Usagi herself). No, let's just enjoy the irony of a series created by a woman that provided strong and varied female role models in a setting that actually placed women as the central power in the universe and showed all dominant powers as matriarchies... being attacked for killing feminism.
- Ah, but this would require somebody to rationally think over their beliefs and not spout craziness based on gut reactions.
- REAL WOMEN NEVER WEAR TINY MINI SKIRTS!!!!
- Shadowjack on rpg.net commented on how Sailor Moon averted this trope:
What I find fascinating about the series is that it really is girl power in action. It does not take traditionally "masculine" action tropes and simply gender swap them, no, and it does not deny or condemn the attraction of the pretty princess fantasy. Instead, it takes all the "feminine" girly stuff like frilly princess dresses and pink unicorns and makes them into implements of power. The hypothetical girl in the audience is being told that she can be as girly as she likes – and still dream of growing up into power and responsibility. Feminine articles are not shackles or playthings to be eschewed, or tools good only for obtaining the approval of men – they are treated as cool and desirable things, in and of themselves.
Boy craziness is even part of this, in the way they make the knightly romance fantasy an active one. The girls wanna be swept off their feet by a handsome knight, and, damn it, they're gonna go out there and find that handsome knight and make sure he does it.
- In-universe Sailor Moon example: the infamous Stay In The Kitchen remarks by Jadeite in the first season. Moon, Mercury and Mars responded with a Shut Up Hannibal and an awesome Three Plane Fu.
In Demashita Powerpuff Girls Z, Buttercup is shown to be reluctant to join the group because it would require her to wear a skirt. Later she breaks her own code by wearing one in order to get the attention of a boy she has a crush on, but realizes that she prefers her boyfriend to like her as she is and not for what she pretends to be.
- Simultaneously averted by the other girls who, despite being more feminine, are not shown to be any weaker or less determined, just having different personalities.
- Despite the fact that she isn't complaining about the skirt anymore, don't mention it to Buttercup. Just don't.
Literally subverted in Fate Stay Night with Saber, a Lady Of War who wears an armored dress. And she's awesome because of it.
- Let's not forget Rin Tohsaka, who wears her hair in Girlish Pigtails and uses skirt-based Zettai Ryouiki. And she manages to both be pretty and badass.
- Sakura Matou tends to receive this, as she's more homely and girlier than Rin, even though she has a very good reason for being like this. Her actions in Heaven's Feel tend not to help either (even though it's rather debatable if she's to blame for any of them, and she's certainly not to blame for the most serious ones).
  - Also inverted in that Shirou, the main hero of the story, has so many features of The Chick, especially in contrast to the female characters. Moreso in the visual novel, where he's shown to be on top of all things domestic, and the one Sakura learned to cook from.
  - Ironically, he often takes a Stay In The Kitchen attitude towards girls, especially Saber and (more justifiably, since she's very ill and actually does need his help) Sakura, although this is seemingly less about them being weak and more because he doesn't want them to get hurt because he's got such low self worth that he can't believe others would sacrifice themselves for him.
The Inu Yasha fandom was literally up in arms with RAAAAAGE when the Grand Finale revealed that not only Sango had married Miroku, but that she was the mother of their three kids. Nevermind that she had just given birth to their youngest, that Sango had actually lost her whole family VERY early in the story ( except for Kohaku) and that she had agreed to marry Miroku (aka Mr. "Please Bear My Child") quite a while ago already, the Fan Dumb's cries of "SANGO BECAME A STUPID BABY POPPER" and "TAKAHASHI IS SEEEEEEXIST!" were heard from miles away.
Despite her Action Girl qualities, Lenalee Lee is abhorred by some fans, who adore to accuse her of being a Purity Sue or a Flat Character because she's girlish, pretty and sweet outside of battle. Ah, and because she dares to have nice legs.
- And she gets accused of being a Faux Action Girl just because she was temporarily Brought Down To Normal, even though the same thing happened to Allen and nobody hates him for it.
The fact that Caska becomes Guts' love interest at one point is enough to make even the inexplicably numerous and fanatically loyal Berserk fans to criticise their favorite anime for making the the perfect Action Girl into a mere chick whose only purpose is to satisfy Guts' ego.
- And let's not forget how having her Go Mad From The Revelation after being BRUTALLY tortured and raped by Femto/Griffith equals to Chickification. Yeah, how dare she completely break over all the Break The Cutie.
According to an Axis Powers Hetalia fangirl: Female countries in APH are ALWAYS inferior, poor or weak!
- Specially if you're little cute Liechtenstein. The way some fans treat her for being sweet and gentle. . .
Death Note doesn't portray ladies that well, yeah. But fandom makes it even worse by bashing Takada and Misa for being "whores" because of their behavior towards Light. And then there's the Halle hate and how her Shower Scene makes her a cheap hooker...
- According to Fan Dumb, how dares Sayu not be an Action Girl and free herself from Mello singlehandedly, despite being just an Ordinary High School Student.
In fact, this kind of Fan Dumb is so incredibly prominent in anime fandom it's actually been noted as a weird thing and an uncommon aversion that the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha fandom has (almost wholly) taken Nanoha retiring from her military career for a long while to become a mother to Vivio incredibly well, as well as the fact that extremely few fans demean Fate Testarossa for being a softspoken, motherly, pacifistic, and caring (to the point of being addressed as girly worrywart in-story) woman. Of course, this might be because Badass Adorable is like half the point of the show, so the intended demograhic is by definition perfectly aware one can be cute or feminine and still carry a damn big stick...
- Exactly. Nanoha's personality hasn't really changed a bit; she's always been sweet and idealistic and generally just wants everyone to be friends. It's just that her way of making friends involves blasting people with giant pink laser beams until they're willing to listen to her message of peace.
In the original Yu Gi Oh dub, the main focus is on The Power Of Friendship, no matter what shape those friends take. Who is the one character that gets bashed for making speeches to this effect? Tea, who is accused of being stupid and useless because that's 'all she does'. One might ask what they were expecting from an entirely un-supernatural teenage girl, and the answer would probably have been 'learn to play Duel Monsters'. Because obviously, having different interests than the male protagonists makes her worthless. Not to mention that for a relatively ordinary high school girl thrown into a series where card games are Serious Business, magic exists, and her friends' souls are regularly in danger, she deals with it pretty well. But instead of praising her for not freaking out or fleeing at any point, and instead helping out in whatever ways she can, much of the fandom hates her for not being a part of the action.
Lucy from Fairy Tail gets this quite a lot. Never mind that she's a strong person who stood up to her Jerkass of a father, apparently she's no good just because she Cant Catch Up (how dare she, even though she's been in the guild for nowhere near as long as the others and is slowly but surely improving) and uses Summon Magic rather than brute strength. Ugh, heresy!
Sir Integra is probably the most obvious from Hellsing, as she not only leads a seemingly all-powerful organization of vampire hunters, but she wears suits. There's also Zorin, the muscular Grim-Reaper witch, and Rip Van Winkle, who also wears suits, and commands a boat with an insanely large musket.
- This is all right, but many Integra fans LOVE to invoke the trope on Seras Victoria, openly demeaning her for using miniskirts with high boots and having large breasts, refusing to see her Character Development just because of her wardrobe. "The titty bitch, urgh, she's not half as good as Super Strong Female Character Integra-sama, eeeeew."
  - What's nearly as bad is that many fanfic writers seem to see Integra's tendency to wear suits as her definining character trait, and will write her getting angry or upset at the mere suggestion of wearing a dress or skirt, because, clearly, such fashion is demeaning and Integra couldn't maintain her status as a strong woman if she wore one. This completely ignores the fact that she has worn skirts (and frilly hats!) on occasion, and her badassitude was in no way affected.

A few years back brought the release of a miniature line featuring Mary Jane Watson of Spider-Man fame, in a rather absurd pose. While most laughed off the ridiculous skeleton-like anatomy, a certain portion of the comic community focused instead on the fact that the miniature portrayed Mary Jane (Spidey's then-wife) doing his laundry. The Unstoppable Rage over this grew to such an extent that one protester drew a picture of Peter Parker wearing much less than Mary Jane was in her miniature, doing Mary Jane's laundry. This was supposed to be a moral victory. The statue's designer later commented that the scenario he had intended was MJ discovering the Spider-Man costume in the wash, apparently thrown in without her knowledge. Not that anybody was listening by that point, though.
- Except that the outrage wasn't over her supposedly washing his costume, it was about her washing his costume barefoot, with her g-string showing◊, wearing a pearl necklace, sporting a cleavage the size of the Grand Canyon.◊ Nope, no sexism and objectification here, no sirree, nothing to feel offended about.
The creation of Wonder Woman was William Moulton Marston's attempt to address this in society:
"Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power. Not wanting to be girls, they don't want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women's strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman."
- Of course, his definition of "submissive" was a little more extensive than most people's, If You Know What I Mean.
In Rick Veitch's Brat Pack, Moon Maiden subscribes to this idea. As she teaches her sidekick Lunar Lass, emotion and weakness are one and the same to warrior women. Attachments and relationships are for little girls and weaklings. When Lunar Lass gets pregnant, Moon Maiden freaks and speechifies about how a warrior woman needs no one, especially not a child. So she forces her to give herself an abortion with a wire hanger because she can't be a strong or respectable woman if she has a baby. This is what some people think empowerment means.
Recent events has justifiably caused Spider Woman I/Jessica Drew to lose a lot of confidence and become more submissive, her new comics clearly show this (while she is at least more confident in the current New Avengers). It doesn't take the mention of 'Bendis' to cause some fans to cry out that she's suffering Chickification and needs to get back to ass-kicking, going as far as preferring Skrull Queen Veranke to come back because AT LEAST SHE'S MORE CONFIDENT AND SELF-ASSURED while impersonating Jessica (never mind that she genuinely suffered and actually cried after experiencing what kind of shit Jessica would've been through if she is in the Marvel Civil War), and hoped she's not dead yet, and returns.
Parodied as early as the 1950s, with "perfect little lady" Janie Jackson being teased and compared unfavorably to the superheroine Tomboy ("That's what I call a real girl!") by her older brother, who never realised that Janie and Tomboy were the same person.
In the case of the Argentinian comic strip Mafalda, while Mafalda's ideas on women's rights were advanced by the standards of The Sixties and The Seventies, they come as more rude and stuck-up than well-intentioned to modern readers. Specially when she constantly tells her House Wife mother Raquel that she's "useless" and "mediocre" because she chose to raise Mafalda at home than juggle with work/college and motherhood.

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.
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.
- 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.
- 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!
In Beauty And The Beast, Belle defied a whole village and its more popular citizen (Jerk Jock Gaston) and taught the Jerk Ass 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.
  - 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.
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.
Grease inverts this trope by having the female lead Sandy trade in her dress for leather pants, and a passive stance 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".
- Well, she did sing "Goodbye to Sandra Dee". I'd say that was pretty indicative of discarding her own personality, wouldn't you?
  - No, I'd call it discarding a persona that didn't really reflect her actual personality. It is implied that she had changed the way she presented herself just as much as Danny had since they met, probably to avoid getting a bad reputation in her new school environment.
- Not to mention, said Naive Everygirl personality caused Sandy lots of trouble. Having Danny pay less attention to her than she wanted? Getting The Vamp steal her spotlight at the contest? Being ignored or bullied by Rizzo and the Pink Ladies, except for Frenchie? (And let's not forget that Goodbye to Sandra Dee is the reprised version of Rizzo's Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee!, a song that completely chews on The Ingenue stereotype). Can't fully blame Sandy for getting an Adrenaline Makeover.
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* a 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.
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"^*
^{unless the skater in question is Johnny Weir, in which case the outfit is probably 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).

Lucy in Dracula. Because she innocently flirts with three men, Stoker´s heroine and Angel in the house of "unequalled sweetness and purity" is bashed as a "whore who asked for it" by every smirking feminist. Sigh. If you feel that the novel is implying how Strrrong women are no better than whores, then say it. Don´t rewrite it.
- Some literary critics have put the "whore" suggestion down to the idea that Lucy might have invited Dracula into her room before he turned her into a vampire, because of the common trope in vampire lore that a vampire can't enter a house/room unless invited.
This seems to the cause of complaints in the Harry Potter fandom that Hermione wears a pink sweat-jacket and a pink dress (instead of the canon periwinkle blue one) in the third and fourth films respectively. It is thus claimed that the canon Hermione "hates" pink, even though this is never mentioned in the books and she wore a pink bathrobe in the first book. Oddly, the outrage over that pink sweat-jacket seemed to completely overshadow the fact that Hermione was wearing pants for the first time in the film series (as part of the same outfit, no less); until then, when in civvies she always wore skirts or dresses.
- We can't forget how fans claim Ginny is a BAD role model for girls because she got Harry and NOT Hermione (or better said, their Possession Sue version of Hermione) and for dating two young men (as well as going to the Yule Ball with another) until she and Harry started going out officially. And why Molly Weasley was a moo bitch who should have DIED at the hands of super tough Bellatrix, instead of KILLING her for almost killing Ginny AND taunting her for Fred's death.. But some of these rabid Harry/Hermione seem to be perfectly okay with the idea of Hermione cheating on her husband Ron with Harry, as well as their kids Hugo and Rose being Harry's children and not Ron's...
  - The above also seem to be ignoring the fact that Bellatrix's entire personality was practically defined by her psychotic devotion to a man who couldn't have cared less about her! Yeah, she was a GREAT role model.
  - Some people think so. But usually the males get this treatment.
  - And of course, there's the fact that Molly happens to be in that most "disgraceful" of female occupations, the stay-at-home mom. Because, you know, raising seven children (two of whom, the twins, are more than enough to test the fortitude of any parent) and running a household on a very limited budget is in no way a demonstration of strength or character.
  - That's ALL because JKR is "anti-feministic"!
Honor Harrington isn't really criticized for her love of elaborate Grayson gowns and dresses but it gets an occasional Lampshade Hanging whenever somebody (even herself once) muses about how inappropriate it is for someone with her public tougher-than-nails persona to wear clothing from a patriarchal backwater on a liberal and sophisticated world like Manticore. It gets subverted later, when she ends up reintroducing skirts on Manticore (even though Manticoran haute couture was rather unisex at the time) because nobody dared to call her out on this.
- And the Queen herself started wearing them.
Discworld has several prominent aversions, with probably the best being Lady Sybil Vimes (nee Ramkin), wife of Sam Vimes. Examples of her awesome are too numerous to quote, but the narration states that it seems to run in her family; Sybil herself stated that her grandmother defended an embassy against a mob with nothing but "a gardener, a trained parrot, and a pan of hot cooking fat", and her late aunt once gave two highwaymen "such a talking-to" that they ran for their mothers. Despite being one of the most powerful and rich women in the city, she personally darns her husband's socks.
- Although, to be fair, it's mentioned that she does them very badly.
  - And Sam likes them that way.
- Also worth mentioning: Sybil is a keen breeder of swamp dragons. These dragons are notable for their tendency to explode when surprised. And she gushes over her dragons just like more stereotyped noblewomen talk to lap-dogs.
- The Lancre Witches are exceptional aversions as well. Iron-willed, clever, witty, and always wearing long black dresses (with pointy hats, natch.) They spend their time as the town's medics, general counselors, and unofficial authorities, taking breaks every now and then to unravel evil conspiracies and otherdimensional invasions with nothing but their cunning, wile, and, yes, irrepressible femininity. Magrat "Wet Hen" Garlick has very idealistic (and romantic) views of the world and of men, and ends up as the Queen of Lancre who defended her kingdom in an iron bustier. Nanny Ogg is the kindly matriarch of a very large family, has gone through several husbands, adores her cat, and enjoys being courted by interested men. Granny Weatherwax, while not an actual grandmother, secretly likes dressing up in fancy ball gowns and, in her youth, was involved with Archchancellor Ridcully (in an alternate world, she married him and had several children with him.) Even ~~AgnesPerdita X~~ Agnes Nitt, whose personality "Perdita X" is a hopeless romantic, has an inner strength that few Discworld characters possess. Now, who was it that wanted to call out Granny Weatherwax or Nanny Ogg for being feminine?
Another Discworld example. Starting in the novel Feet of Clay, it's shown how dwarves treat gender: 'only when absolutely necessary (i.e., when about to start trying to make more dwarves). Aside from the production equipment, there are no real differences in physique, beard styles, or dress between dwarven men and women. In fact, old-fashioned dwarven society really does believe that Real Women Never Wear Dresses. And has a hard time saying things like 'women'. Or 'she'.
- The dwarven attitude towards gender also makes them completely indifferent to same-sex couples.
  - Though the subject isn't brought up frequently. The most that can be said for any Dwarfish pairing is that they are both Dwarfs. Any gender that may or may not be involved is considered a matter for private.
- However, Feet of Clay features Cheri/Cherry Littlebottom, who begins to accept her femininity, with Angua's prodding, after joining the Watch.
- There's even a stripper supporting character in Thud, and Pratchett manages to turn her into a fairly well-developed, likeable character, without condemning her job.
Of the many complaints launched against Catelyn Tully-Stark from A Song Of Ice And Fire is the notion that she's a lesser character because her main motivation is a mother's concern for her children. Given the variety of females in the story, it is hard to interpret her presence as a message from the author that women are valuable solely because of their wombs, nor is she devoid of an individual personality, nor is she ever rewarded for being a mother (there are multiple times her feminine roles count as a strike against her within the story, resulting in an expression of frustration about such limitations in her inner monologue). Most ironic of all is the fact that her critics sooner or later express the wish that she go back home to the nursery and keep out of the affairs of men. One wonders what the reception of "only a father's story" would be.
- Also, many of the uber feminine Sansa Stark's mistakes and flaws are exaggerated, and she is blamed for things that are really the fault of others, such as her father's death: how is she responsible when Ned himself told Cersei of his plans before Sansa ever went to her? Eventually Snacky's Law is evoked and, on rarer occasion, she's explicitly labeled anti-feminist, despite the fact that she is never really rewarded for her adherence to her society's gender roles.
  - Intriguingly, this is the exact opposite of feminism.
A snarky review of Babysitters Club book #93 has this to say about Mary Anne: "She says, "It's just nice to have someone hold your hand when you walk up that dark flight of stairs searching for the light switch." Suuuuure, Mary Anne. You're just a scaredy-cat and need a man to help you get in the attic. Way to set the women's movement back 50 years." God forbid a 13-year-old girl be scared of going into a dark spooky attic by herself and finding her boyfriend's presence comforting!
Jean Webster's most famous book, Daddy Long Legs has been criticized for being an "anti feminist fairy tale" since it finishes with main character Jerusha/Judy marrying her benefactor Jarvis "Daddy Long Legs" Pendleton, the one who helped her get into college. Just as many have argued the opposite, noting that Judy shows increasing independence throughout the story, educates herself (in a time when this was still looked down on) and she and Jarvis get together only after a large fight and after it is established that the titular character cannot control her. The author herself was a proponent of education for women and women's suffrage, so there's a bit of irony in calling a pioneer of early feminism "anti-feminist".
In-Universe example in Houseof Leaves, at one point it summarizes interviews between Karen (who's claiming the events are fictional), and a number of celebrities. One such celebrity is a feminist who chastises Karen's 'character's' nyctophobia, dismissing it with "No self-respecting woman is afraid of the dark".
Mercedes Lackey caught flak for one of her short stories where it was stated that one particular woman was not cut out for the life of an adventurer. Never mind that her works feature several more-than-competent swordswomen and sorceresses, including Tarma and Kethry, who were featured in that very same story, or that Lackey admitted she was not cut out for that sort of life either.
Tamora Pierce gets this sometimes, believe it or not. For example:
- Alanna- Knight, she disguises herself as a boy so she can become a knight- that's cool, but wait, what's this? She wants to be a Lady Knight? She doesn't want to be a "man" her whole life? She practises how to act like a female? She falls in love? She ends up married? She has kids? She treats men as her equal? (When they are) Her and her husband have a partnership, she's not in charge? She GETS HER EARS PIERCED? She occasionally wears dresses??? Oh no- she all of a sudden no longer any good as a person or a role model. And all of this is despite the fact that she decided (from the beggining) that she didn't want to live her whole life as a man. *Sighs*
- ~~Lady Sandraline fa Toren~~ Sandry, her power revolves around thread/sewing/weaving, (despite the fact that she's very Bad Ass with those powers), she wears dresses, as do other females in that world, she occasionally uses her noble connections to manipulate the situation, and- oh no! She gets kidnapped by people who want to marry her, instead beating them right there and then? Never mind the fact that she gets herself free, and her affinity for thread magic gives her the ability to manipulate magical power in it's pure form!
The Dresden Files has a few subversions of this. Local Badass Normal and Action Girl Karrin Murphy is revealed to have a home decorated with lace and doilies (albeit inherited from her grandmother). Harry's apprentice Molly Carpenter is described by Harry himself to potentially be the most frightening wizard of her generation and she carries her wizarding gear around in a pink backpack. But the ultimate subversion is probably White Court Vampire Lara Raith. She's described as the ultimate example of beauty and femininity but she will fuck up your shit and the shit of everyone you bring with you and she will do it while wearing a dress and come out looking hotter than when she started.
The shy and quiet Fanny Price of Mansfield Park is depressingly underrated for a Regency England heroine who expresses disdain for the sexual Double Standards of the day, refuses to marry except for love no matter how hard it is to stick to her guns, and is apparently the only woman in the world not taken in by the charms of the local proud, selfish Casanova. If she's not a fearless, sassy Deadpan Snarker, she's apparently unworthy to be called a Jane Austen heroine.

There was some backlash against the supposed Chickification of Dax in Star Trek Deep Space Nine when she eventually hooked up with Worf. Essentially, she was always an old soul in a young body and some fans objected to that "young body" part getting played up when she did things like jump into his arms and get broody, despite the fact that she was an Action Girl throughout the series and even after she died, when Worf and the gang had to go on a dangerous mission to ensure she got into the Proud Warrior Race Guy version of Heaven.
- And the action that got them together? She picked up a sword and challenged him to a duel. Worf tended to suffer serious injury when they slept together, even.
Mimi Maguire of Shameless. Even more violent than her gangster husband Paddy.
Zoe Washburn of Firefly, of all people, gets this treatment from the livejournal blog of allecto.
- Specifically in the episode War Stories, where Wash survives hours, possibly even a day, of brutal torture, then leads the effort to rescue the captain with roughly thirty seconds of rest first, while knowing they probably have days. Zoe gets this treatment because she rewards Wash by cooking soup.
  - The same critic (I presume) also accuses Wash of abusing Zoe. Her (the critic's) argument for this is that all white male/black female relationships she's known have been abusive. Never mind that the show makes it abundantly clear that Zoe wears the pants in the relationship and any attempt to abuse her would put Wash in a body cast for a year, this woman claims her own limited experiences are conclusive evidence.
  - The same critic later attempts to make her point by claiming that when it came to the episode's bounty, Zoe began to say something about it being marked for the Alliance and Mal telling her to shut up (in Chinese), which would infer that Mal used his power as a man to dominate and "abuse" his female (and black, as the critic wastes no time pointing out) subordinate. In fact, it was Wash who had made the comment about the bounty being marked, and Mal telling Wash to shut up, not Zoe.
  - Whether Mal aimed his remarks at Zoe or Wash wouldn't have mattered, really. He wasn't dominating or abusing his female or his male. He was giving an order as the CAPTAIN. Just because he's usually easygoing and pleasant demeanored with his crew doesn't mean he doesn't expect them to jump when he tells them to. Especially since when he decides it's time to stat giving orders, the orders involved are often things like "fire at will" and "run like hell."
Brutally subverted by Battlestar Galactica's Caprica 6.

There was a rant on a Les Miserables fan community where Cosette was criticized for wearing an ugly dress as opposed to the cooler hat and trench coat Eponine wears in the musical, and not being so badass in general as Eponine. Never mind the fact that Eponine only dresses like that because she's a street rat whose father probably pimped her out. Incidentally, the book talks about how Cosette has no dress sense, being raised by a father who has a very deficient sense of worldliness. It then describes her transformation into a well-dressed woman in downright rhapsodic terms. So Victor Hugo Says: Real Women Wear Dresses!
- A trope universally acknowledged in his time, though...
- Not at all related to this trope. Victor Hugo specifically says, "Women inherently develop dress and fashion sense at puberty." Valjean isolates Cosette almost to the point of abuse - she has no friends; she isn't allowed out of the house without him; and besides her nanny, she doesn't speak to anyone without her "father" present for literally years of story time, until her first and only suitor stalks her home, in fact - and yet she develops impeccable Parisian dress sense. This is good a good old-fashioned aren't-girls-so-preciously-charming-about-their-accoutrements attitude, which, as pointed out above, wasn't even controversial at the time. The author and original book therefore have no bearing on this trope, and would even arguably justify it.

In Valkyria Chronicles, regardless of every one of Alicia's genre-defying Action Girl accomplishments nor her status as a Valkyria, she is automatically labeled as wussy, worthless character entirely because she wants to be a baker and she wants to marry Welkin. In fact, the way some tell it, Welkin forces her into being a baker and makes her leave her soldier life behind, in complete ignorance that Alicia grew up in a bakery, still lives in a bakery, was a baker's apprentice before she was drafted for the war (which only broke out at the start of the game), and even before she becomes a Valkyria spends her time baking and expressing how she can't wait to go back to being a baker. This also ignores Welkin's non-traditional action hero yearning to be a teacher and spend all day with animals, two traditionally feminine goals and traits. It would appear that it's only kosher to possess feminine interests if you're not actually female. It even ignores that at the end of the game Alicia opens her own bakery, including passing national certification as a baker, and runs the business herself rather than simply being a housewife. Welkin becomes a teacher. Neither one of them gives up their dreams or gives up having a career because they are married.
- There is also the school of thought that posits that because Alicia does not like her powers and Welkin talks her out of using them in a suicide maneuver, she has been stripped of her "unique gifts" and "forced" to rely on him. Nevermind that he simply talks her out of killing herself and simply has her fight in her squad like she always has (where she probably has a better chance of survival and not turning into a human atomic bomb).
In addition to Die For Our Ship reasons, Ninian in Fire Emblem 7 is bashed for not being a Bad Ass Action Girl like Lyn or a Lady Of War like Fiora. The Lyn vs Ninian Fan Dumb wars are especially ridiculous at times.
- Ironically, Lyn's supports with Eliwood actually show her bemoaning her inability to be more ladylike (she was raised in the plains and the girls in the court are not action girls) and being very protective of the gentle Florina. And Fiora's supports with her two sisters show her as very feminine and motherly, both towards Farina (she laments how their POV's clash so frequently and not to mention, a part of Farina's CMOT Dibbler tendences come because she wants to pay for a debt Fiora aquired because of her) and Florina (whom she mother-hens to the point of overprotection). So, these girls do show some traditionally feminine behavior patterns... but they're used to bash another woman. Fan Dumb, much?
Princess Peach "tends to get strung up and set afire like a frilly pink effigy" by adherents to this trope, despite the fact that it's just as possible to beat Wart with her as Mario whenever she's actually playable.
- Moreso, even. She has the unique and extremely useful ability to float for a few seconds by holding the jump button. What gives her this power? Her dress.
- To be fair, Super Mario Bros. 2 isn't really a mario game but was turn into a mario game by Nintendo for the US. In Japan it is known as Doki Doki Panic. Peach is only conveniently paced into the game because the original had four characters, one being Mama (who was turned into Peach).
- And then Peach got her very own game, (Super Princess Peach for the DS) in which she inverts the typical roles and gets to rescue Mario from Bowser, proving herself every bit as capable of heroism as he is. But, since she carried a frilly umbrella into battle and her moods factored into the gameplay, the game was deemed "sexist" by many. Poor girl stomps the Koopa King all by herself and still can't catch a break from the fans. Though there was some reasonable criticism in there about how other Mario games featured the characters fighting with their strength yet Peach had to fight with her...feelings.
Kairi and Namine from Kingdom Hearts are often hated due to wearing dresses and generally not fighting (or, when Kairi actually does, doing it with a "girly, flowery keyblade". Which, judging by the cutscenes of Kairi using it to kick Heartless ass, is at least as effective as anyone else's.) Apparently the many non-combat related uses the two serve are lost of the fangirls. Never mind the fact that Kairi is noted by Donald as being pretty good with her "girly-keyblade" and Naminé (with a little help) was able to sneak into the Castle That Never Was and break Kairi and Pluto out.
- You know, because only psychotic, cheating lightning-spammers like Larxene are cool. Pshhh. May King Mickey smite any female character that doesn't go crazy and try to kill you.
- Ironically, Xion wears the same Organization coat as Larxene, but since she doesn't meet the full requirements for Action Girl (or Dark Action Girl for that matter) and is The Load on a few occassions, she also gets viciously bashed.
  - Poor Aqua from Birth By Sleep is now being used as the fangirls' weapon-of-choice for this trope. "Aqua is an Action Girl who can fight, therefore she's the first GOOD Kingdom Hearts heroine! Kairi, Naminé, and Xion should just go and DIE!" Sigh...
  - Amusingly one of Aqua's strongest Keyblades is the same girly flowery keyblade Kairi used in KH II (that Aqua acquires after meeting a young Kairi no less).
- And for that matter, Sora has a couple girly flowery Keyblades to choose from himself. (Fairy Harp, I'm looking at you.)
A few characters from Metal Gear Solid, a series that indulges in many girl-spy or female soldier tropes, seem to be written to play with this trope. In the first game, Meryl is a confident young soldier, who seems conflicted in giving up her femininity to do so. In the second, we get Emma "E.E." Emmerich, who spends most of her life trying to prove herself as an engineer to her half-brother, but who also obsesses over being viewed as a woman. Meryl returns in the fourth title having integrated the conflicting aspects of her personality, becoming a strong military leader who nonetheless insists on a proper wedding with a dress, and a cake.
- Her Action Girl status is however kept intact by the fact her dress allows the player to see she has a very athletic/muscular frame.
Oh, dear lord, Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. After the Continuity Reboot in Legend, she took on a more playful personality and was shown to have realistic emotional weaknesses, such as being scarred by her mother literally disappearing in front of her while she was still a child, or being deeply shaken by killing another human for the first time in her life. The cries of Chickification were immediate, despite the fact that she never actually became less of an Action Girl at any point during these changes.
Yuna from Final Fantasy X was a victim of this trope TWICE. In FFX, she's a gentle, soft-spoken, but still tough-as-nails and heroic summoner, but since she's in the middle of a love story and wears a flowery kimono throughout the game, she was labeled as overly girly by many fans. Fast-forward a few years to the direct sequel, Final Fantasy X-2 in which Yuna has evolved into a determined action girl wielding dual pistols and more practical (though revealing) attire. But the game still got slammed as being sexist, because the play mechanics hinge on Yuna's all-female power trio switching jobs (fighter, magician, gunner, etc.) on the fly, and since each job came with its own change of clothes, the game was accused of gender stereotyping even before it was released. Never mind that this was just a rehash of the job system from Final Fantasies III and V in which the characters all had individual outfits for each job (including the men), and no one complained about them. But if a female protagonist does the exact same thing, it's apparently sexist.
- On top of that, despite the fact that several male main characters of X and X-2 walk around revealing as much if not more skin than the female characters, it's apparently demeaning and devaluing for Yuna to do this - but not, say, Jecht, who can't be bothered to *ever* put a shirt on.
- The Dressphere system probably wouldn't have caught so much flak if it weren't marketed as being gratuitous fanservice, rather than a return to the Job Class system, but that doesn't help the drastic double-standards regarding girls *GASP* changing clothes being somehow sexist.
  - Look at the title. Dressphere. It's not even trying to disguise the fact it's fanservice. Hell, Lenna, Krile, and even Faris had fanservicy outfits in Final Fantasy V. Some of the generic female sprites in Final Fantasy Tactics were just as bad. However, one gets the impression that the fanservice was a byproduct of the decision to use job classes, not that the job classes were a byproduct of the decision to throw in fanservice.
This accompanies Die For Our Ship in the small but oh so loud Tales Of Legendia fandom. Shirley is a shy, peaceful dress-wearing girl, while Chloe is a tough, sword-wielding female knight. Guess which one of them is worshipped and which one of them is demonized.
- For what it's worth, though, Shirley visibly wears shorts under that dress too.
  - And the Colette vs. Sheena Ship To Ship Combat. Oh God, the way poor Colette gets smacked and bitched at for daring to not be an Action Girl like Sheena...
This trope is inverted for TMNT: Smash Up, April O' Neil is a playable character in the game, but some fans don't welcome this addition, because April is "The one that is supposed to be the Channel 6 News reporter, she's supposed to deliver Pizza to the Turtles, she shouldn't be able to fight!", some of these fans don't even bother to do at least a little research about April's combat capabilities in the comics and newer series, she was also quite capable in the old show, despite being kidnapped several times.
Dissidia Final Fantasy has been getting cries of Chickification. Why? Because Terra is shown to be indecisive about her powers, nervous about fighting, and scared half-to-death of going crazy and slaughtering her friends in her storyline and she has a small boy helping her. Note that she was exactly like this for much of Final Fantasy VI and never enjoyed going on slaughtering sprees...and she loves children. Strangely, no cries of this trope in VI - just now.
- Not to mention that all the men are just as lost as her. The theme of the game is questioning yourself, so if a character didn't have self doubt, they wouldn't be there.
- Terra has been blasted in Final Fantasy VI proper... because she found a reason for living in children of Mobliz. Because being a [surrogate] mother makes women weak, and wanting to ''be'' a mother (even to a town full of orphans in a Crap Sack World ) is a terrible weakness and makes her unfit to be an Action Girl. If motherhood is a weakness, all the tough-as-nails Mama Bear badasses out there didn't get the memo.
- The usual complaint is that in FFVI she ended up getting over her doubts over her powers, and realizing there were things worth fighting to protect (such as the aforementioned children), but in Dissidia she's right back at the beginning, bashing herself like crazy for being a Person Of Mass Destruction. This, while certainly true, ignores the fact that that's the whole point of the game - almost every character has been regressed to their troubled stage because finding oneself is kind of, you know, the main theme of the game. But for some reason Terra's regression is the only one that calls attention.
  - Part of the problem might be that the only other female on the good side is the famously overconfident Shantotto, a fact which makes Terra's hesitation all the more pronounced. Not that it excuses Terra being singled out...
Lenneth sometimes gets this treatment in fandom because during the "best" ending of Valkyrie Profile, she winds up kissing Lucien. Never mind the fact she just went toe to toe with a One Winged Angel and kicked the ever living piss out of him, never mind the fact she just took up the vacancy left by Odin, the fact that she got her romance was Chickification like nothing else!
In his review of Wet and a subsequent followup article, Yahtzee attacked this trope; claiming that if a female character is designed solely around being tough and lacking any feminine qualities or emotional depth, the character is just as shallow and uninteresting as a generic damsel in distress.
- This has been something of a running theme in his reviews, criticizing supposedly badass action girls whose main characteristic is to act as if any action beyond cutting throats and deadpan snarkery is anathema, and simply don't act like real people but caricatures in the intent to be depicted as badass.

Strangely, fandom seemed okay with The Bots Master co-nemesis Lady Frenzy, who wore pink and white and regularly adorned herself in form-fitting dresses and suits, but was also a ruthless businesswoman and main squeeze apparent of the Big Bad, L. Louis Paradigm, as well as the hopeless crush of the hero.
Never mind that all Autobot females in Transformers Generation One can hold their own in a battle, apparently the fact that some of them are pink/pastel, have boyfriends and needed the menfolk to save them (because they were seven people against the whole Decepticon elite) makes them either weaklings or "whores".
- The UK comics may have forseen this, since Arcee was made because Straw Feminists (in comic) complained that the Autobots have no women, despite Prime telling them over and over that as robots they have no gender. So they make Arcee... only for the Straw Feminists to get even madder because she's pink.
This trope is subverted by most of the women in Avatar The Last Air Bender, most notably Ty Lee, Suki, and Katara. The majority of the women are Kick Ass and wear whatever they want (it should be noted that fashion usually takes a backseat to practicality, especially when they're preparing for combat). Even Toph wore "girly" dresses before she ran away from home, and goes with Katara to get a makeover in The Tales of Ba Sing Se, willingly.
The series finale to "Kim Possible* had many fans raging because Kim was abducted by aliens and Ron had to save her. Apparently her being a damsel in distress ONCE in the entire series renders every previous accomplishment of hers null and void. The obvious role reversal seems lost on some people. This fallacy is made all the more apparent to anyone who actually watches the episode, and might be surprised to find Drakken was also kidnapped and his(female) sidekick Shego had to join Ron in order to rescue him.
Averted with Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas; thankfully, no one in the fandom seems to mind her feminine personality, appearance, and (eventually fulfilled) desire for a relationship with the main character Jack.
Surprisingly, the Barbie movies avert many clichés thrown at the Disney Princesses line. The heroines always have interests and hobbies of their own, as well as sisters and female friends with whom they pass the Bechdel Test. Heck, even the female love rivals are well-portrayed (like the sweet female Paolo from Barbie: Jungle Princess) and one even features a girl saying that. much as she loves the prince, she cannot marry him because she has to travel the world and pursue her dreams first. But of course, some still complain about the pink, sparkly, princess clothes, as if that undermines any social progress.

While the song "Stupid Girl" by Garbage definitely deserved props for criticizing brainless party girls and the general objectification of women in the media, the music video gives the impression that anything even somewhat girly is terrible. Apparently playing football as opposed to playing with dolls somehow makes you a better person. How about encouraging little girls to, I dunno, read a book perhaps? I fail to see how throwing a ball around and getting roughed up will make you any less a "stupid girl". Or that being an outcast instantly makes you a "girl with ambition".

Lots of complaints towards the "childfree" community are caused by the very extreme reactions that a scarily cruel Vocal Minority has towards mothers and young children in general. Some extremely scary examples here. Behold at the one that calls a woman who had a miscarriage an "idiot moo cunt" who "fortunately miscarried", apparently proud of insulting a person for her tragedy.
Summarized quite well by Moviebob here. See approximately 9:19 for the most applicable part.
Feminist, transgender activist, and Whipping Girl author Julia Serano has written extensively about "Putting The Feminine Back In Feminism" and has criticized feminists, gay/lesbian communities, and society in general for denigrating femininity and treating it as "weak" and "artificial."
One example was a Teen Vogue article that said Scarlett Johansson was the sort of blonde bimbo bombshell that was appealing to guys, but a terrible role model for girls. Their reason for believing she was a terrible role-model: her near-perfect appearance she flaunts on the red carpet. Scarlett Johansson's beauty may be the first thing you see about her, but it isn't all there is to her. She is also very vocal about her opinions, which are typically well thought-out, and she is a timeless beauty icon who dresses more conservatively than many of her peers. The real Wall Banger: Most of the females who the article considers to be good role models are smaller than size zero. Bang. Bang.
Marissa Mayer. Blonde, beautiful, did 36 hours of ballet a week in high school. She has a PhD in computer science from Stamford, is a VP of Google, and gets criticisized by (male) computer nerds for wearing designer clothing and demonstrating a Google App by using it to figure out great cupcake recipes.
Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo, grew a company called Otterdesk into a billion dollar operation while raising 3 children and beating breast cancer. She clearly said "FUCK YOU" to this trope.
Why I didn't want a girl
"U R not wearing any pants!"

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