Basic Trope: A small, concealed weapon worn by a woman for self-defense.
- Straight: Alice carries a small hidden dagger to use if she's ever raped.
- Exaggerated:
- Downplayed:
- Alice doesn't carry her knife all the time at home, but when she's going on a dangerous quest, she brings it.
- Rather than a knife or a gun, Alice carries pepper spray or mace with her to stun or incapacitate an attacker and allow her to escape.
- Justified:
- Alice lives in a No Woman's Land.
- Alice is a rape victim.
- Inverted: Alice carries a knife like a Cyanide Pill to kill herself rather than being raped, kidnapped, and/or killed by someone else.
- Gender-Inverted: Bob, a Non-Action Guy, carries a dagger up his sleeve in case he gets in trouble.
- Subverted:
- Alice is shown to carry such a knife in case she's attacked (foreshadowing), but when she actually is attacked, it's in her bed, and she's just wearing her nightgown.
- Alice has a knife in her purse, but it's just a Swiss Army knife that has all kinds of other useful Noodle Implements as well. She therefore has it for utility more than self-defense.
- Double Subverted:
- …but Alice is Crazy-Prepared and sleeps with her knife under her pillow.
- She also carries a handgun in her purse.
- Parodied:
- Alice carries a knife for this purpose… a butter knife.
- Alice carries a whole armory of weapons.
- Alice lets her fingernails grow very long and hones them into knife shapes.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice inexplicably has a dagger when she needs one. Where it came from is never addressed.
- Averted: No maidens carry hidden knives.
- Enforced: ??
- Lampshaded: "Damn it! Why do I always forget that you girls all have knives!"
- Invoked: At puberty, Alice's mother gives her a knife to protect herself. It's a common practice among women in their world.
- Exploited: When Bob needs a knife for a menial task he asks Alice for hers, knowing she has one on hand.
- Defied: On Alice's Arranged Marriage wedding night, someone takes away her knife so she cannot attack her new husband.
- Implied: Alice is an Iron Lady, living in a No Woman's Land. After Carol is raped, rape is being discussed and another woman asks Alice if she has ever been raped. Alice grimly replies, "Someone tried, once."
- Discussed: Alice and Bob have been kidnapped. They're talking while their kidnapper is out of the room. They're tied up and need to get free. Bob asks, "Do you have a knife or something, like those medieval girls in movies always do?"
- Conversed: "The maidens in these stories always have knives. Why are their attackers always so surprised?"
- Deconstructed: Despite carrying knives, maidens are rarely trained how to use them. It is easy for their attackers to disarm them, or even use their knives against them.
- Reconstructed: Alice gets her brother to train her how to fight with a knife, and then teaches all the other girls she knows.
- Played for Drama:
- Alice loses her dagger, can't find it due to circumstances, and must continue alone in fear.
- Alice loses her dagger and somebody who wants to kill her picks it up and kills her with it.
- Played for Laughs: Alice inflicts Amusing Injuries on whoever assails her with her dagger.
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