History Main / HollywoodNuns

* DressCode: They will wear the full "penguin suit" habit most of the time (though there are a few exceptions; e.g., an [[VirginInAWhiteDress all-white]] habit, or much more rarely, the occasional plainclothes nun). Young nuns-in-training might wear just the wimple (the headpiece and/or veil, hence why it's called "TakingTheVeil"), to let the audience know they're still in the pupal stage. (Postulants are rank beginners: they become novices after about six months in basic training.)
* Temperament: They will either be [[SternNun terrifying spectres of discipline]], able to strike fear into even the toughest men, wielding yardsticks like samurai wield katanas, or sweet and nurturing with overtones of forbidden sexuality. Young novices may be fresh-faced girls-next-door; old Mothers or Novice Mistresses may be sweetly wise and saintly, setting an example reminding you of why you wanted to join up in the first place. Those who are relatively young may be be overly WiseBeyondTheirYears.
* Age Group: They will either be old and super-traditional or young and naive (most of them old, except in most anime, where they tend to take on the role of {{Miko}}, right down to being high school girls).
* Names: They will often have "Sister Mary..." (referring to Mary, the "Holy Mother") as part of their name (but not always). Many of them will have a male saint's name.
* Nun vs. sister: Most of them will referred to as nuns even though most orders in which the women are out of their community are of religious sisters, with nuns living in cloister.

In real life, of course, there are as many varieties of nuns as there are branches of Christianity. For one thing, most modern nuns seldom wear the full habit anymore. The exceptions are mostly old-fashioned contemplative orders, and even they don't wear them all the time; habits are expensive and difficult to clean, and thus a nun might have only one formal habit for special occasions. They usually just wear the wimple and a plain grey or black dress, and some orders don't even require that much and have their sisters wear modest street clothes (usually the teaching and/or service-oriented orders, for example the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of St. Joseph). Every order also has its unique habit, and not all of them are black and white. Carmelite nuns wear brown, for example. Nuns also vary in temperament, but many viewers who grew up in Catholic schools (particularly before TheSeventies) may remember the "[[SternNun scary nuns]]" most vividly.

A sister trope to NunsAreSpooky, NunsAreFunny, NaughtyNuns, NunTooHoly and SternNun. Contrast: NunsAreMikos.

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[[AC:Film]]

[[AC: StandUpComedy]]

A sister trope to NunsAreSpooky, NunsAreFunny, NunsNRosaries, NaughtyNuns, NunTooHoly and SternNun. Contrast: NunsAreMikos.

* Temperament: They will either be [[SternNun terrifying spectres of discipline]], able to strike fear into even the toughest men, wielding yardsticks like samurai wield katanas, or sweet and nurturing with overtones of forbidden sexuality. Young novices may be fresh-faced girls-next-door; old Mothers or Novice Mistresses may be sweetly wise and saintly, setting an example reminding you of why you wanted to join up in the first place.

* Averted in ''Series/CallTheMidwife''. For one thing, the nuns in question are Anglican, not Catholic. For another, although they do wear habits, the habits are Fifties-esque (when the show is set) and dark blue, not black--although the more [[AfraidOfDoctors iatrophobic]] residents of Poplar will still call them "penguins" when they're being derisive. And their names are [[TeamMum Sister]] [[SilkHidingSteel Julienne]], [[BattleaxeNurse Sister]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Evangelina]], [[{{Adorkable}} Sister]] [[TheReliableOne Bernadette]], and [[TheComicallySerious Sister]] [[CloudCuckoolander Monica Joan]] -- not a Mary in sight (although they are all saints' names). And finally, besides being nuns, they are ''midwives'' and ''nurses'' with full modern training--arguably, they are nurses first and nuns second.

* In ''Series/TheATeam'' episode "[[TheATeamS2E3TheOnlyChurchInTown The Only Church in Town]]", the A-Team traveled to Ecuador to help a group of nuns (including Face's former One True Love from college) in full stereotypical-looking habits protect their mission from a bunch of nuns. Of course, the full habits helped Face and Murdock sneak into the mission to do reconnaissance work. Also, Face's old flame had taken the name "Sister Theresa" and she fit into the second temperament.

* DressCode: They will wear the full "penguin suit" habit most of the time (though there are a few exceptions; e.g., an [[WomanInWhite all-white]] habit, or much more rarely, the occasional plainclothes nun). Young nuns-in-training might wear just the wimple (the headpiece and/or veil, hence why it's called "TakingTheVeil"), to let the audience know they're still in the pupal stage. (Postulants are rank beginners: they become novices after about six months in basic training.)

* The two nuns in ''{{Film/Doubt}}'' fit the two different temperaments pretty well.
** But their order wore bonnets instead of the stereotypical squarish cornettes and veils over a tight-fitting coif cap. They are the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in New York and were founded by St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American saint.

* In ''Film/TheSongOfBernadette'' the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction fit this exactly, but they're a real order and it's a matter of historical record. The film producers sent a request to the mother-house at Nevers, France for a copy of the pattern for the exact habit worn at the time Bernadette was there. In fact, ''The Song of Bernadette'' is almost certainly one of the {{Trope Codifier}}s for this trope.

* The monstrous SociopathicHero Marv, of ''ComicBook/SinCity'', claims to have feared and respected the nuns at his school, to the point where he named his HandCannon after one of the m and claim it's almost lived up to its namesake. One of the possible reasons why he mostly never [[WouldntHitAGirl hits women]].

In real life, of course, there are as many varieties of nuns as there are branches of Christianity. For one thing, most modern nuns seldom wear the full habit anymore. The exceptions are mostly old-fashioned contemplative orders, and even they don't wear them all the time; habits are expensive and difficult to wash, and thus a nun might have only one habit to use on occasion. They usually just wear the wimple and a plain grey or black dress, and some orders don't even require that much and have their sisters wear modest street clothes (usually the teaching and/or service-oriented orders, for example the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of St. Joseph). Every order also has its unique habit, and not all of them are black and white. Carmelite nuns wear brown, for example. Nuns also vary in temperament, but many viewers who grew up in Catholic schools (particularly before TheSeventies) may remember the "[[SternNun scary nuns]]" most vividly.

* ''Series/PushingDaisies'' had nuns in full habits, but in keeping with its setting in a candy-colored RetroUniverse, the habits were blue and white instead of black and white. (The Sisters of Mary of the Eucharist, Trinitarians of Mary and Sisters of Life, among others, really do wear blue and white. Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters, a contemplative order, actually wear ''pink''.)

* A plainclothes nun appears on ''Series/{{Chopped}}'', alongside a Catholic priest, a rabbi, and a youth pastor, in the episode with the theme of religious people and ingredients from TheBible, or religious cultural practices.

* DressCode: They will wear the full "penguin suit" habit most of the time (though there are a few exceptions; e.g., an all-white habit). Young nuns-in-training might wear just the wimple (the headpiece and/or veil, hence why it's called "TakingTheVeil"), to let the audience know they're still in the pupal stage. (Postulants are rank beginners: they become novices after about six months in basic training.)

* ''Series/PushingDaisies'' had nuns in full habits, but in keeping with its setting in a candy-colored RetroUniverse, the habits were blue and white instead of black and white. (The Sisters of Mary of the Eucharist and Sisters of Life really do wear blue and white.)

** Played straight with the nurses at St. Ann's, the local mental hospital. They're not just in habits, they're in the all-white ones with huge headpieces.

In real life, of course, there are as many varieties of nuns as there are branches of Christianity. For one thing, most modern nuns seldom wear the full habit anymore. The exceptions are mostly old-fashioned contemplative orders, and even they don't wear them all the time; habits are expensive and difficult to wash, and thus a nun might have only one habit to use on occasion. They usually just wear the wimple and a plain grey or black dress, and some orders don't even require that much and have their sisters wear modest street clothes (usually the teaching and/or service-oriented orders, for example the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of St. Joseph). Every order also has its unique habit, and not all of them are black and white. Carmelite nuns wear brown, for example. Nuns also vary in temperament, but many viewers who grew up in Catholic schools may remember the "scary nuns" most vividly.

A sister trope to NunsAreSpooky, NunsAreFunny, NunsNRosaries, NaughtyNuns, NunTooHoly. Contrast: NunsAreMikos.

* Age Group: They will either be old and super-traditional or young and naive (most of them old).

* The monstrous SociopathicHero Marv, of ''ComicBook/SinCity'', claims to have feared and respected the nuns at his school. One of the possible reasons why he mostly never [[WouldntHitAGirl hits women]].

* In ''MrSmithGoesToWashington'', the orphan boys who cheer Smith's proposed boys' camp bill from the gallery are escorted by Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. The "Flying Nun" cornettes are unmistakable.

* When ''Series/OneLifeToLive'''s Maggie Carpenter comes to town, people are surprised when she reveals that she's a nun, given that she doesn't wear a habit. She explains that she only does so at church. Indeed, this is the only time we see her wearing it.

In real life, of course, there are as many varieties of nuns as there are branches of Christianity. For one thing, most modern nuns seldom wear the full habit anymore. The exceptions are mostly old-fashioned contemplative orders, and even they don't wear them all the time; habits are expensive and difficult to wash, and thus a nun might have only one habit to use on occasion. They usually just wear the wimple and a plain grey or black dress, and some orders don't even require that much and have their sisters wear modest street clothes (usually the teaching and/or service-oriented orders, for example the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of St. Joseph). Every order also has its unique habit, and not all of them are black and white. Carmelite nuns wear brown, for example. Nuns also vary in temperament, but many viewers who grew up in Catholic schools may remember the "scary nuns" most vividly. Orthodox nuns usually wear all-black habits, never of "penguin" colors.

* DressCode: They will wear the full "penguin suit" habit most of the time (though there are a few exceptions; e.g., an all-white habit). Young nuns-in-training might wear just the headpiece or veil (that's why it's called "TakingTheVeil"), to let the audience know they're still in the pupal stage. (Postulants are rank beginners: they become novices after about six months in basic training.)

In real life, of course, there are as many varieties of nuns as there are branches of Christianity. For one thing, most modern nuns seldom wear the full habit anymore. The exceptions are mostly old-fashioned contemplative orders, and even they don't wear them all the time; habits are expensive and difficult to wash, and thus a nun might have only one habit to use. They usually just wear the headpiece and a plain grey or black dress, and some orders don't even require that much and have their sisters wear plain, modest street clothes (usually the teaching and/or service oriented orders, for example the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of St. Joseph). Evey order also has its unique habit, whether or not it is still worn, and not all of them are black and white. They have different temperaments, but many viewers who grew up in Catholic schools may remember the "scary nuns" most vividly. Orthodox nuns usually wear all-black habits, never of "penguin" colors.

Furthermore, not all nuns are Christian. There are nuns in Buddhism called ''Bhikkhuni'' or ''Dge long ma'', as well as Hindu and even Protestant nuns, but these are almost never shown in Western media. Recordings of Buddhist nuns singing were very popular with New Age devotees and space music fans some years ago: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVueLvn0WYE the sound is hauntingly enchanting.]]