Basic Trope: Male characters refrain from using physical violence on a female.
Straight: Jim encounters the Dark Chick Veridian, but passes up fighting her because "I don't like hitting girls."
Exaggerated: Jim refuses to fight Veridian even though she's dashing at him with guns blazing.
Veridian is the human embodiment of U´Thul, Jim knows it and, even in this situation, is unable to fight back with this trope in mind, so she rips him to pieces.
When Jim is attacked by a bear, he insists on checking before he fights it.
Up to Eleven: Jim refused to fight Andy for being effemate.
Downplayed: Jim will not fight against any women who are gentle, lady-like and do not like to fight in the first place. Female enemies and violent Tsundere are considered Acceptable Target, and Jim would be willing to smash their faces off.
Justified: Jim has a moral code against hitting women.
Or, Jim is trying to get Verdian to go out with him.
Inverted: Veridian refuses to fight males.
Or Jim regularly beats women, but would never hurt another man.
Subverted: Veridian and Jim's exchange goes like this:
Veridian: What's the matter? Ya don't hit ladies?
Jim: You are no lady. *Cue beatdown.*
Jim tries to fight Viridian but he tries to rationalize it by using more indirect attacks namely having the mindset of something like "As long as I don't punch her face its okay."
Jim: I am against misogynistic violence but I am not against self defense, there is a difference.
Alternatively: Jim dodges Viridian's attacks, but doesn't fight back... Until she lands a blow, at which point he proceeds to beat the crap out of her. "You all saw she hit me first, right?"
Jim: What? Oh no miss you don't understand I am a pacifist by nature. Trust me even if you were a guy I would still prefer not to fight you.
Jim is hesitant in fighting Viridian but its for other reasons.
Jim decides he will not attack Viridian physically, but as long as he doesn't punch her, it doesn't count, so he can still use his other attacks on her.
Double Subverted: Veridian gives Jim Puppy-Dog Eyes and he immediately relents.
Veridian convinces Jim on how thinking that indirect attacks being okay is a very stupid idea and Jim reluctantly agrees.
While Jim did mention he had other reasons why he wouldn't want to fight Viridian he eventually admitted that this trope is one of them.
Parodied: "I'm so not gonna fight you even though I know you have no mercy for any one and wouldn't hesitate to kill me on the drop of a hat. No, ma'am, I'm not gonna defend myself because I'd rather be dead than be known as woman-beater."
Jim: Fight you? Oh I'd rather do a certain other type of "F Word".
Deconstructed: Jim's refusal to fight Veridian is seen as an insult by her because that means he views her as weaker than he. She responds by handing him his ass
Veridian tries to convince Jim to have a friendly fight with her to beat the sexism out of him. She is often seen egging him on and generally being aggressive toward him. She may or may not praise him for finally losing the sexist attitude if he caves and hits her.
The females abuse this and bully a guy since they know he can't hit them.
Jim's refusal to harm a female makes him a greater threat to his True Companions than Veridian.
Reconstructed: But before she can do so, Marci gives her an epic beatdown, and saves Jim in the process.
Jim's a Technical Pacifist. His fight style revolves around blocking attacks and jabbing nerve clusters to cause paralysis.
Zig Zagged: Jim refuses to fight Veridian because she's a girl. However, he later discovers that 'she' is actually an alien who has taken the form of a human female. Just when he is about to attack the shapeshifter, she reveals her true form to be a Green-Skinned Space Babe.
Enforced: The writers don't show Jim and Veridian fighting because their afraid of offending viewers who would object.
Or the writers have little to no knowledge of men attacking women and being seen as a good thing while they are a little too use to all the times when it is very much a Kick the Dog moment from Would Hit a Girl trope using villains.
Lampshaded: Jim is getting stomped. In the middle of it all, he says "You bitch...you're cheating by beating on me while female!"
Invoked: "People think Jim is too tough and heartless. Let's show that he's actually nice by making him against hitting girls."
Exploited: The Big Bad knows Jim won't fight women, so he sends an Amazon Brigade to kill him.
Defied: Jim and Veridian get into a fight without any ramifications about breaking any moral code.
Discussed: "It's not that Jim couldn't take Veridian in a fistfight; it's that his inconvenient chivalry would kick in."
Conversed: "I wonder why some guys have no problem fighting a man, but wouldn't think of hurting a woman."
So he doesn't want to fight ladies huh? Let me guess is he one of those "will not fight back against a woman at all" guy? Or is he a "will not punch a lady in the face" kind of guy?
Played For Drama: The hero has to beat a woman to save his friends. Can he?
The hero´s enemy is a sadistic Dark Action Girl, he refuses to hit her, she completely beat the shit out of him with a Slasher Smile, insulting and toying with him and leaving the guy crippled at the end, with several bones of his body broken. He realises that the injuries in the body are so severe that he won´t be able to fight anymore, so he will be an invalid the rest of his life.
