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alt title(s): Stripperific 
"A big sword and a skimpy leather skirt? Must be adventurin' time!" - Kat, Sequential Art
"And her special ability is somehow not dying while only wearing half the armour of the other guys"
Clothing for female characters will often be impractically sexy for its chosen application. Especially common in fantastic or exotic settings, where wardrobe rules are made up on the spot.
Spies will dress in sexy outfits, even when the mission explicitly calls for them to not be noticed. Female warriors will charge into battle wearing armor that doesn't protect the vital organs. Bridge officers on a military starship will be issued go-go boots with their uniforms.
In the same manner as the Breast Plate, Powered Armor suits used by women have sexual characteristics added to them. Sometimes, even the Humongous Mecha will have its own set of dome-like tin cans in the chestal region and feet shaped like high-heeled boots.
Common in any genre where men represent a major core of the audience. This can be self-fulfilling, because exploitative wardrobe choices can be a turn-off to potential female fans. Super Hero comic books are especially guilty in this regard.
As more criticism of this trope in comics has started to come up, male fans have been quick to point out that most of the male superheroes aren't exactly modestly clad, either. It's typical for them to go into battle wearing what amounts to a single coat of primary-colored paint over their ridiculously defined bodies. Superman and Spider-Man are often singled out as the ones who fight supervillains while wearing outfits so tight that in real life, you'd be able to tell what religion they were. The counterargument to this is that the male characters (and, by extension, their outfits) are still considered less sexualised than the female ones; most female fans would be very happy to see Wonder Woman, or many of the other heroines making this list, covered up as much as Superman or Spider-Man, It's far less common to see male superheroes wearing costumes that directly (and in many cases solely) emphasise their, shall we say, attributes. Outside of the superhero genre, however, this trope can be inverted, by inserting exceptionally flattering uniforms for police, firemen or gardeners into traditionally female-oriented fare, like soaps and prime-time dramas.
It's worth pointing out that this practice seems to be (veeeery slowly) on its way to becoming a Discredited Trope, especially among the sub-30 crowd who have grown up with comics. At this point there have been so many Stripperific heroines that they are perceived as the norm and are therefore dull and uninteresting. If anything, competent female characters who are well dressed and don't need to rely on sex appeal are themselves becoming more appealing and preferable, as they tend to be more interesting characters. The production can't simply hide behind sex appeal. The trope isn't completely discredited however, as plenty of productions across many mediums still abandon conservative clothing in order to appeal to the Lowest Common Denominator. Also, Tropes Are Not Bad, including this one, although it's overdone in most media. So long as men have hormones, it'll probably never completely die off.
Sub-Tropes:
In Real Life, many teenage girls, when practicality isn't an issue, will pick a skimpier outfit over one more comfortable.This trope only applies to situations where a female character wears an especially revealing outfit where it would not be practical, such as in combat.
Sometimes, all that's left for the modest female adventurer is hope that she will be rewarded with clothes in a New Game Plus.
See also Theiss Titillation Theory, Most Common Superpower. When the character is forced to dress this way, it's Go Go Enslavement. Can lead to Exposed To The Elements on the part of the wearer, and Fetish Fuel on the part of the viewer.
Examples
Anime
Comic Books
- Let's face it; if we had to list all the female superheroes and villains to whom this trope applied, we'd be here for most of the year. It's probably easier to list aversions and particularly notable examples.
- Mostly averted in the case of the Batfamily:
- Stephanie Brown/Spoiler. The first iteration of her costume (relatively loose-fitting catsuit, cloak, hood, gloves, and full face mask) had nothing exposed anywhere, not even her hair. Later on she loosened up to the extent of allowing her ponytail and the lower half of her face to be seen. This is more notable in that she was a teenaged girl, and one who spent considerable time in her early appearances trying to catch the attention of a teenaged boy. Apparently she felt that showing skin was for amateurs, and since she did eventually catch him, one can admit she had a point.
- Also applied when out of costume, given that her most common outfit was jeans and long-sleeved sweaters.
- Even her outfit as Robin averts it. There have been two iterations of her suit; one if pretty much the same as Tim's, only with a miniskirt added over her leggings, and the second, while looking a little different and possibly more unisex, still covers her from neck to toe.
- Cassandra Cain/Batgirl II. Her costume is more scary than sexy: head-to-toe black leather, a stitched up mouth opening, and black-tinted eyelenses (this combined with the black suit gives the appearance that she doesn't have eyes). In essence, Batgirl's costume looks more like something you'd expect a male villain to wear.
- Barbara Gordon. As the original Batgirl, she wore a sensible costume that covered everything except for the lower part of her face and a cowl that kept her hair out of her face; the high heels weren't present in every version of her costume. As Oracle, she sits behind her computers in a wheelchair and dresses in comfortable, often casual clothes.
- Male example: the original Robin costume, with its green panties/short shorts, was for a long time the most stripperiffic costume of the Batfamily.
- Huntress' costumes either offer good protection and cover her from the neck down, or has been designed by Jim Lee. Especially jarring since Huntress is a Badass Normal and very much the Combat Pragmatist you can expect a Batfamily member to be, and showing her midriff when she once took four bullets in the stomach seems like a very, very bad idea.
- Lampshaded twice, in two different arcs.
Black Canary: By the way, what's with the new outfit?
Huntress: Seven-hundred sit-ups a day.
Black Canary: Say no more.
- Catwoman wears a Spy Catsuit. The amount of skin showing is very, very little.
- An odd Lampshade Hanging occurs in the graphic novel Watchmen, in which a character uses it as a warped justification for Attempted Rape. It's also noticeable that the costume was only very Stripperiffic by 1940 standards, as it's basically a very short backless gown with stockings.
- Further lampshade hanging when her daughter/successor complains about how ridiculous her own costume was. Unlampshaded when she puts the costume on for her new boyfriend and doesn't stop wearing it for the rest of the series (though there wasn't time to get a new one).
- The Invisible Woman of Fantastic Four fame is notable for being one of the relatively few comic book super-women who manages to avoid this trope, wearing for the most-part the same largely practical (if skintight nonetheless) blue jumpsuit also worn by the male members of the team; however, Tom Defalco's run on the strip was notable for reverting to trope and putting Sue in something like this
 .
- Tarot's 'armour' in Tarot Witch Of The Black Rose is
pretty extremely stripperiffic (her usual outfit is made of floss and hope!), as are most of the clothes that the other (equally well-endowed — very well) women wear in that book. When they're actually wearing clothes, that is.
- Unlike most of the women in Y The Last Man, the supermodel Yorrick meets is wearing a halter top, not really practical for her new job: disposing of bodies left by the Gendercide. Much later, she wears the same thing while walking though a sewer.
- Inverted for the Sub-Mariner, a male superhero whose most common "uniform" consists of basically a speedo and wristbands.
- Empowered has no shame about this. It is not the titular D-List Superheroine's fault that she has to wear the costume voted the most "Skanktastic"/"Do-Me-Riffic" of all the Superhomies' in a (fictional) webpoll, but neither Sistah Spooky nor Ninjette have such an excuse.
- One of the few genuinely Stripperiffic male outfits in comics is the costume Cosmic Boy wore in the Legion Of Super Heroes back in the '70s. His costume was actually held on by his magnetic powers. There are reasons that period of the comic is referred to as the Naked Legion.
- Yet another rare male example is Frank Miller's 300. In the comic, the Spartan warriors are as often as not buck naked, except for helmet, greaves, shield, and long red cape. This does highlight, however, how Stripperiffic outfits are actually Older Than Dirt: Miller is imitating the "heroic nude" of classical Greek art, where warriors, heroes, and gods are commonly shown parading around (and even fighting) largely naked. The film version gives all of the Spartans little leather panties, which only amplifies the Stripperiffic and homoerotic nature of the costume.
- In this case, homoeroticism would seem to be in the eye of the beholder.
- In actuality, the Spartans wore practical armor and helmets in battle, though their armor was shaped like a perfectly chiselled torso (with nipples).
- Channon Yarrow often wore very Stripperiffic outfits throughout Transmetropolitan's run, both in casual and professional situations. Then again, she was introduced as a stripper working her way through journalism school.
- There is one example of a (parody) female superhero from Marvel's setup that doesn't go for the skimpy outfits while on the job, despite her day job being a supermodel: Ashley Crawford. Then again, as a hero she's Big Bertha. Seeing her in the skimpier Emma Frost uniform (see the final splash panel in the 'Misassembled' 4-parter) is likely not what the average comic fan is looking for. (Deadpool, on the other hand, probably has that image blown up on his wall.) Of the remaining girls on the team, Squirrel Girl has a more modest costume setup (she's still a minor), while Tippy-Toe wears just a ribbon. And is a true squirrel, so it doesn't count.
- Power Girl's infamous "boob window" was actually deconstructed (or Hand Waved) once; she wanted to put a symbol there, like Superman, but could never figure out what to add. This effectively turns fanservice into a heartwarming moment. That, or it make her look like an idiot, when you keep reading and she asks for Superman to fill her hole.... It's a variable-mileage thing.
- Nobody, male or female, wears much in the way of the clothing in The Warlord. Somewhat justified given the tropical climate of most of Skartaris but, even so, you'd think the warriors would go for something a little more protective. Particular mention must be made of Mariah whose outfit, my female friends assure me, could only work if it was glued on.
- The main female character in The Maxx wears buttock-baring denim cutoffs to her job as a social worker. Really.
- Starfire of Teen Titans is sort of justified by the fact she thinks clothing is pointless and would be just fine without it, and that's sort of justified by being an alien who can survive the extremes of space. Her skimpy Breast Plate "uniform" is apparently Tamaranean ceremonial armor, not intended for real protection.
- As the "SF chainmail strapini" first appears when she is breaking rocks as a slave, and her native people seem to wear robes and jewels when they wear anything, perhaps she is "superheroing" wearing clothes that mark her a slave. After thirty (or seven) years free. Turning the insult into a badge of honor, maybe?
- She Hulk sometimes plays with this in her comics, especially the series where she spends more time on the Fourth Wall. In one memorable scene Venom randomly breaks in to the courtroom (she's a lawyer) and webs her up, and in ripping the webbing, she rips her suit. Someone notes the readers have just gotten more interested, wondering if it's a popular villain or the ripped clothing that excited them.
- Lampshaded and subverted in the beginning of her second series, where she discovers that while her clothes may rip, her underwear is indestructible because it's "protected by the comics code".
- Despite constantly fighting superpowerful and psychotic undead monsters badass normal (and goth-styled) Cassie Hack of Hack/Slash only ever seems to wear tank tops, badass longcoats, miniskirts, stockings (or fishnets) and occasionally other things, like really long leather gloves and boots. Lampshaded at one point in a one-shot set in a Comic Con where a character thinks she's wearing some kind of costume.
- Zatanna's and Black Canary's costumes both consist of fishnets and something with all the covering of a swimsuit (generally with a jacket on top). Zatanna is, admittedly, a Squishy Wizard (with more squish than average) so it doesn't much matter what she puts on, but Black Canary is a martial artist.
- Brazilian Animesque comic Holy Avenger is stacked with these. The most stackering example is Niele, that wears a clothing composed of...leather strips.
- Lady Rawhide from Topps Zorro comic series. Especially blatant as the series in Colonial Spanish California. Lampshaded as various characters wonder how she can leap about in that outfit without anything popping out. (And, eventually, something did [for a single panel]).
- Phantom Lady as drawn by Matt Baker in the late 1940's wore an outfit that barely covered her impressive assets and looked like it would come off in a strong wind. One famous cover was featured in "Seduction of the Innocent" (the even more famous book by Fredric Wertham condemning comic books) as an example of 'headlights'.
- Red Sonja, the She-Devil with a Sword, whose standard outfit is little more than a scale mail bikini.
Fan Fic
- Rare male example: In The Genderbending of Haruhi Suzumiya, Haruki and Mitsuru both wear Chippendale dancer outfits while passing out flyers advertising the SOS Brigade.
- Justfied in the Evangelion/Wonder Woman crossover Amazing Amazon, in which it is explained that the Wonder Woman outfit looks like that because Hephaestus' wife (Aphrodite) prefers the company of Ares, so he's a little... lonely'', which tends to show when he makes something relating to women.
Film
- Alicia Silverstone as "Batgirl" in Batman and Robin. Uncle Alfred was a lecherous old man to have had a suit made for her that had her exact cup size built in. For shame, Uncle Alfred, for shame. The gratuitous ass shot didn't hurt, either.
- The male costumes in that film were no better, and for many viewers worse. George Clooney even got a lingering closeup of his zippered Bat-Ass during the suiting up sequence.
- The female ninjas in the movie Lady Ninja: Reflections in Darkness dress in highly abbreviated ninja outfits (when they're wearing anything at all).
- There do seem to be a few ... subtle differences in what's enhanced in Edna Mode's work on The Incredibles ... Of course, Edna is a fashion designer.
- What, no-one has mentioned Tarzan's loincloth?
- Jane's jungle oufit in the second Weismuller Tarzan film ('Man and His Mate') is unlike any that came later, split to the hip, and sometimes absent.
Literature
- Domi in James Axler's Outlanders series. Her outfit is continually described as "A pair of red high heels, and nothing else." Brigid Baptiste's clothing on the covers falls under this, as well.
- Any Barsoomian (Martian) or Amtorian (Venusian) in Edgar Rice Burrough's novels of same, male or female, will wear a belt and weapons harness (male), jewelry (female) and that's pretty much it. And I mean even when they're going into battle.
Live Action TV
- Peri.
- Seven Of Nine.
- Handwaved as a "dermaplastic bodysuit" to cover and heal the injuries from her Borgification. Must have taken her skin a long time to heal, as she never stopped wearing it, though she did occasionally get ones in different colors. It was noted by Voyager costume designers and makeup specialists that Seven's costume is as much a piece of engineering magic in reality as it was in Trek continuity, as the female form simply doesn't fill out clothing that way naturally.
- Seven of Nine actress Jeri Ryan reportedly hated the costume due to how tight and uncomfortable it was. When the series ended she was asked in an interview what ever happened to her So N costume. Her answer was something to the effect of "I'm hoping for a bonfire".
- And Seven Lite, T'Pol, who wears tights even though all other Vulcan characters wear robes. Not to mention the blatant Fanservice "decontamiation" scenes with braless tank tops that show the Borg are not the only ones with implants.
- The women’s uniforms in Star Trek TOS were distinctly skimpy. This was lampshaded in TNG season 1, where both male and female extras were seen in miniskirt uniforms.
- Lampshaded, too, in Jadzia Dax's famous "And women wore less" comment in "Trials and Tribblations".
- In the commentary for the Star Trek Enterprise episode "In A Mirror, Darkly" it's mentioned that they had to keep telling the actress playing a dead Original Series yeoman: "Yes, the skirt really IS supposed to be that short".
- In Mortal Kombat Conquest, pretty much every evil female (and a few good or neutral ones) wears clothing so negligent that you wonder how they fight in it without falling out. Given some crowd scenes, it makes you wonder if the laws of permissible visible flesh for each gender are somehow inverted.
- The Grissom Verse has female characters investigating crime scenes in low-cut tops, high heels and tight trousers. All at the same time on some occasions. (And leather trenchcoats in midday Vegas heat, but that's another trope)
- Anise/Freya on Stargate: SG-1. Particularly egregious when you compare her outfit to the nondescript, functional clothes usually worn by male Tok'ra, and to those worn by female Tok'ra who aren't conventionally attractive.
- She could just be particularly vain. Most of the Tok'ra seem to have some sort of overriding personality flaw.
- Mostly averted with Buffy, who prefers to go into battle wearing long pants and a leather jacket. She does wear platform heels a lot though. Now if she could keep her balance, spike heels would be understandable and almost-practical combat gear, but platforms?
- The one time she wore an inappropriate outfit into battle, it was an evening gown - and not even a strapless or backless one. To boot, just about everyone (even the villain) thought it was beautiful.
- Other Slayers (e.g. Kendra and Faith) wear more revealing outfits, but at least they're practical. And in Faith's case, the Stripperiffic factor was intentional.
Willow: Don't worry, we're sure to spot Faith first. She's like this cleavagy slut-bomb walking around.
- Lampshaded in the Angel episode where Cordelia became a princess in another dimension. She says that when she was an actress in the original world, the director made her wear a bikini that was tiny, skimpy and exploitative. She then looks at her current attire which wasn't any better.
- NCIS's Abby Sciuto, Perky Goth and resident Hot Scientist, wears shorter skirts than everyone else in the cast and outfits that border on the fetishistic at times. When Jenny Shepard takes over as director, she hands her a copy of the dress code. When a clearly very unhappy Abby then totters into work in a suit, Gibbs tears up the dress code in front of her- because he's not having an unhappy Goth as his lab tech.
- In a DVD extra, the actress Pauley Perrette claims a TV exec told her the shorter her skirts, the better the ratings.
Tabletop Games
- Justified in WhiteWolf's Scarred Lands d20 System Tabletop RPG: using arcane magic releases heat within the spellcaster's body. Some cultures embrace the skimpy garb this situation tends to require.
- Female Twi'leks are almost all slender and attractive...and given to wearing next to nothing when out in the galaxy even though they're from a world that's hotter than Tatooine. Even the ones who aren't slave girls.
Videogames
Web Comics
- Pinky, the titular girl from Pinky TA, wears nothing but a short tank top, a belt, and a black thong.
- Parodied in Schlock Mercenary, where the field commander alters the order for the (female) owner's body armor from a modest design to a rather more buxom one; she responds by testing its strength-magnification features on his ribcage.
- Also satired in the adult webcomic Supermegatopia, in which a group of former superheroes and superheroines with names like 'Topless Lass', 'The Tease', and 'Long Tom' form the All-Stripper Squadron and use their powers in a more profitable manner than fighting crime.
- Lampshaded very nicely in this RPG World strip.
- Completely averted in Chasing the Sunset. All the female characters wear practical everyday clothing which generally bares just the arms and lower legs. Clothing for special events is slightly more revealing; clothing for combat is heavier.
- Freya in Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki wears clothing into combat that must be glued on.
- And of course, the title character wears clothes that look like they're painted on... because they're alive. Sort of.
- Parodied in the Sluggy Freelance story arc "Years of Yarncraft," where Zoe is upset that every single female character design in an MMORPG is petite, well-endowed, and wears a Stripperiffic outfit ... even the slime monsters.
- Dungeon Damage has Cat, a rich Spoiled Brat and part-time thrillseeking thief who dresses outrageously (by Medieval Venician standards) but finds that what looks good isn't very practical, as when she winds up on a mountaintop in a blizzard in a midriff-and-cleavage baring vest.
- The Inexplicable Adventures Of Bob has Princess Voluptua. 'Nuff said.
- No longer active but there's a webcomic out there named: Chainmail Bikini.
- Huang Gai in San Three Kingdoms Comic... always appear completely butt naked. When Art Evolution kicks in and he is changed into his Dynasty Warriors 6 attire, he still have time to make his lower part completely stripperiffic too.
- Terinu's females are sensibly dressed most of the time. Then there's Ninetta, a six-foot tall alien who likes to walk around in daisy dukes, crop tops and bare foot whenever she can get away with it. Also there's Gwen, who favors tight jeans and crop tops as well, though she is fifteen and a stereotypical fashion obsessed teenager. Even she draws the line when she's made a slave girl and forced to wear an "Exotic Dancer Barbie" outfit though.
- Freakangels has Arkady...a character that is bald, and wears a white loose as hell tank top, is barefoot, and for a bottom, wears a see thru long patchwork skirt with no underwear. However, her vagina isn't drawn in, but one of the other characters does finally comment on it saying, "I wish you'd put something on under that..."
- Engie-tan of Nerf NOW has some major wardrobe malfunctions. Actually, that goes for any of the female characters.
- Kagerou: "Quick topic change, but do you own any pants that actually cover your ass?"
- ''Too Much Information'': The protagonist's shoulder devil, Cleo, is a sexy demoness covered only by long tresses of flaming hair. His shoulder angel, Spooky, "copes" by switching to a feather bikini.
Western Animation
- Stan Lee's Stripperella. What can be more Stripperiffic than an actual stripper who dresses like a stripper to fight crime?
- Inverted with Futurama's Zapp Brannigan. His shirt (what else can I call it?) just barely covers his genitals... from the front. If he bends over or climbs a ladder, you're out of luck.
- You could call it a tunic.
- A pair of random pedestrians in the first episode, as Fry goes flying out of the transport tube and hits a building. The couple in question are both wearing what looks to be laminated plastic, fully clear except for the black stripes covering their inappropriate parts.
- Speaking of which, there are apparently black bar generators that create... floating black bars so that blurnsball players don't have to cover up while in the locker room.
- Considering it was a kids' cartoon, the early '90s X Men series allowed some characters to get pretty darn Stripperiffic.
- It didn't help that the coloring of Jean Grey's outfit made it sometimes hard to know which part were skin and which part were from the outfit.
- Neither did the coloring for Sabertooth's outfit. Half the time it looked like he was plain moonlighting us.
- Dr. Mrs. The Monarch's prototype outfit in The Venture Brothers.
- Who cares that they're robots a minimum of 10 feet tall? With Transformers like Elita One, Arcee and Blackarachnia, you can still see exactly where their clothes would be. Even though, being robots, they don't actually wear clothes. Hell, G1 Arcee has more armour on her shoulders than she has on her legs.
- This gets taken to disturbing extents in the comics—Chromia at one point has a molded thong on her body.
- This troper thought Austin looked pretty stripperiffic himself during "Garbage Trek" or "Legend of the Volcano Sisters".
- The title character of Aeon Flux. The most she wears in the cartoons is a black vinyl sports bra, a matching
thong chastity belt, and thigh-high stripper boots.
- And there's ample evidence that all Monicans dress this way.
- In the climax of Rock And Rule, Angel is chained up and made to summon an evil demon with her singing. She wears a dress - can I even call it that? - which is basically a long strip of material with a halter neck and no back, gathered at the waist with a belt, that is only wide enough to cover her nipples and cleavage, and wide/long enough to cover her nether regions. A good portion of her breasts and all of her legs are uncovered. And it gets visibly torn up during the finale. At one point, we see her from behind, with wind whipping at her hair and outfit, and the material blows up, exposing most of her rear end; she doesn't even seem to be wearing any kind of underwear. Don't forget that this movie is rated PG (to be fair, this was before PG-13).
Web Original
- Sarah references this in the lonelygirl15 video "Am I A Criminal?": "If you're gonna B&E, you wanna bring the T&A!"
- Now here's a motivational poster if I ever saw one: [1]◊
Other
Real Life
- Truth In Television: Ballroom dance. What you see on Dancing With The Stars or Strictly Come Dancing is a pretty good example, but you can find the backless dresses with plunging necklines at professional and even collegiate competitions. Males don't get away scot free either: the two acceptable shirts for Latin and Rhythm are either a tight black shirt or a ruffly white one that's open in front. The clothing for Standard and Smooth styles are much more conservative.
- The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey (founder of the Church of Satan) lays out the rules for clothes worn during a Satanic magical ritual:
Black robes are worn by male participants. [...] Female participants wear garments which are sexually suggestive, or all black clothing for older women. [...] Sexually appealing clothing is worn by women for the purpose of stimulating the emotions of the male participants, and thereby intensifying the outpouring of adrenal or bio-electrical energy which will insure a more powerful working.
- That doesn't really make sense, though. Shouldn't the men wear sexy clothes as well, to make it even more powerful?
- Male gaze, bud.
- LaVey had some lingering 1960's sexism in his lines of thinking, regardless of his radical ideas. His writings often seem to give the impression that only men have a sex drive, and he reportedly expressed envy to a beautiful woman's ability to wrap men around her little finger.
- Celtic Warriors, at least according to Roman accounts often went into battle naked and painted with woad.
- Tactical Corsets.
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