History Main / CannotTalkToWomen

A type of CannotSpitItOut, this is a condition befalling certain male characters (usually), especially those on the younger side, or who otherwise are lacking in social graces. When he encounters a female, especially one he's attracted to, he loses all capacity [[TheSpeechless to speak]], or at least [[TheUnintelligible make meaningful sentences]]. He may stammer, blurt out embarrassing nonsequiturs, or become entirely mute. The trigger may be restricted to attractive females, or just [[OneTrueLove the one]], in which case it's likely to be GibberishOfLove.

The female, for her part, may become irritated and impatient with this behaviour, may be understanding and accommodating (or even condescending), or if she has the same problem concerning men, may even respond in kind, in which case getting any kind of conversation going will take something akin to a miracle.

-->-- '''Duder''', ''WebVideo/LittleWhiteLie''

* ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'': Steve Rogers, sometimes. Women that he has a professional relationship with, like Black Widow or Scarlet Witch or Carol Danvers, no problem. But if it's a romantic issue, ''especially'' when he's out of costume... then the problems start.

* ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, sometimes. Women he has a professional relationship with, like Black Widow or Scarlet Witch or Carol Danvers, no problem. But if it's a romantic issue, ''especially'' when he's out of costume... then the problems start.
* Clark Kent is this all day. Not Franchise/{{Superman}}, though. [[DependingOnTheWriter Usually.]]
* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': Peter Parker has been [[{{Flanderization}} flanderized]] into this over the years; in the early days, his romantic problems stemmed from the social hazards of [[SecretIdentity keeping a secret identity]], with a generous helping of {{Tsundere}} behavior from his love interests thrown into the mix during [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeofComicBooks the Silver Age]].
* B.A. Felton from ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'' is usually fine when talking to women--if they're discussing something related to the game. Once he starts going out on quasi-dates with Patty, the poor guy becomes a sweating, stuttering mess.

** Kyril admits to himself that he is not very good with women, and he would rather face a gang of outlaws instead. {{Downplayed}} in practice, since he is able to talk to them normally. It's just that he, in Lily's words, is far too brusque in doing so, [[JustifiedTrope which he is to anyone else]].

* Gender-flipped for the protagonist in ''Film/EighthGrade'': when her crush, Aiden, walks into the room shirtless at the pool party to collect his cell phone, Kayla can only moan incoherently and then babble inanely that sometimes she charges her phone, too.

--> "Wangoballwime?"

* The only girl that Literature/HarryPotter is comfortable talking to is Hermione Granger because they're LikeBrotherAndSister. His attempt to ask Cho Chang to the Yule Ball is an EpicFail.

** Also, gender-flipped in the same series, what with Ginny's tongue-tying crush on Harry in the earlier books.

* [[{{Nerd}} Stephan]] from Webcomic/OzyAndMillie shows this whenever he tries to talk to a girl he likes. It's most evident when he tries to ask Stephanie out. On his first attempt, he forgets to use vowels, his second:

* Raj from ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' is unable to talk in the presence of any woman, unless he's drunk or [[PlaceboEffect believes that he's drunk]]. One time he was able to hit on Creator/SummerGlau after having a drink of beer. When he was told it was non-alcoholic, he clammed up. He seems to get better at this later on, at least with those he knows well.

* Akizuki in ''Manga/BlendS'' is gynophobic, to the point that he even fears female storekeepers. He's barely able to talk to his female coworkers, and some ShipTease moments that happen with [[GamerChick Kaho]] ends up flustering her because of his inexperience with women.

* Downplayed in ''Manga/Zom100BucketListOfTheDead''. Akira's [[MustNotDieAVirgin desperation to get hitched]] leads to awkward conversations with the opposite sex thanks to his tendency to open them by [[SkewedPriorities asking if they have a boyfriend]] in the middle of a ZombieApocalypse. But once he relaxes and gets his mind off finding a date, he can be pleasant and easy-going conversationalist.

* ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'': Basilard has a history of flubbing his attempts at charming women, which is especially distressing for him considering that his personal dream is for his firstborn child to inherit his AncestralWeapon. In ''Literature/LoomingShadow'', he needed his teenaged novice to explain how he upset his latest lady love.

* Mark from ''Series/PeepShow'' may as well be the poster boy for this trope. Every attempt he makes to be suave, charming or sometimes even just friendly is just so...... ''awkward''.

** To a smaller degree, there is Prince Chrom. Whenever he tries talking to a girl who isn't one of his sisters, he ''always'' tends to say the wrong thing; as a result, Chrom has a ''tiny'' pool of prospect brides, and at least one of them ([[ShrinkingViolet Olivia]]) pretty much runs away from him more than once.

* [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] but Leon Kennedy in the ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake'' has shades of this. He’s as cool as a cucumber when talking to Marvin Branagh or Ben Bertolucci but is notably more awkward and shy around Claire Redfield and Ada Wong, as he often pauses mid-sentence and gestures with his hands when he runs out things to say while talking to them in a dorky fashion. In this version, Leon is also taken aback at Ada [[ShutUpKiss suddenly kissing him]] not [[BigDamnKiss responding to it]] like in the original and becomes very quiet afterwards only responding in brief sentences. [[spoiler: This is because he’s finally concluded that Ada was using him and [[CharacterDevelopment speaks to her with full stern confidence]] after Annette Birkin confirms his suspicion]].

Related to, and not to be confused with, LoveMakesYouDumb and ParalyzingFearOfSexuality. Also related to SociallyAwkwardHero and the ChasteHero, who can ''talk'' to them, but just doesn't understand affection. In extreme cases may become AllergicToLove. A subtrope of SituationalSociability, as someone who Cannot Talk To Women is perfectly capable of normal conversation except when faced with the opposite sex. Overlaps with AttractivenessIsolation, when a woman is so beautiful she makes every man unable to talk to her.

Related to, and not to be confused with, LoveMakesYouDumb and ParalyzingFearOfSexuality. Also related to SociallyAwkwardHero and the ChasteHero, who can ''talk'' to them, but just doesn't understand affection. In extreme cases may become AllergicToLove. A subtrope of SituationalSociability, as someone who Cannot Talk To Women is perfectly capable of normal conversation except when faced with the opposite sex.

Despite the title, female characters who cannot talk to men are not uncommon, so are same-sex cases (either romantic or not). In this case, it's usually triggered only by male characters they find attractive or have a crush on; if a female character literally has difficulty talking to ''any'' male at all, it's usually a sign that she had [[AbusiveParents an abusive or domineering father]], grew up in [[NoWomansLand a misogynistic culture]], or had [[SingleIssuePsychology some other bad experience that explains the issue]]. When a male character cannot talk to women, in contrast, it's almost always an issue of a general lack of confidence and/or experience and is rarely portrayed as a result of trauma.

[[caption-width-right:300:So this is the possible reason for [[HeroicMime his lack of dialogue]]...]]

* ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, sometimes.

* Raj from ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' is unable to talk in the presence of any woman, unless he's drunk or believes that he's drunk. One time he was able to hit on Creator/SummerGlau after having a drink of beer. When he was told it was non-alcoholic he clammed up. He seems to get better at this later on, at least with those he knows well.
** [[spoiler:And as of the end of Season 6, he seems to have been cured of this.]]

* When Guybrush first meets Elaine in ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'', he is unable to do anything except utter random syllables. In their second meeting, he acquits himself better, but the conversation quickly turns to increasingly saccharine pet names, which [[SickeninglySweethearts in a way is worse]]. He relapses into gibberish in later games whenever a woman is upset with him, indicating Guybrush just cannot take a woman's scorn.

* Crona from ''Manga/SoulEater'' claims to have problems talking to girls when meeting Maka for the first time. Given that the only woman in Crona’s life up until this point was [[AbusiveMom Medusa]], it’s not hard to guess why. Crona's also [[ShrinkingViolet utterly antisocial]] regardless of people's gender, so saying they can't talk "to girls" is only technically accurate.

* Crona from ''Manga/SoulEater'' claims to have this problem when meeting Maka for the first time. Given that the only woman in Crona’s life up until this point was [[AbusiveMom Medusa]], it’s not hard to guess why.

Crona from ''Manga/SoulEater'' claims to have this problem when meeting Maka for the first time. Given that the only woman in Crona’s life up until this point was [[AbusiveMom Medusa]], it’s not hard to guess why.