Line #6 WouldHitAGirl/Literature


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9	* ''Literature/AlexisCarew'': Anybody who fights Alexis -- Captain Grantham actually complains once about how often she ends up beat to hell -- but special mention goes to the horribly sexist Captain Neals, who is only stopped from having her flogged on general principles by the fact that he legally can't flog an officer. [[spoiler:Then he disrates her for refusing to beg forgiveness on bended knee for not identifying a man who made a minor mistake due to fatigue, and promptly gives her two dozen lashes. This triggers a mutiny.]]
10	* ''Literature/AngelChildDragonChild'': Raymond gets into a physical fight with Ut after she throws a snowball at him for throwing snow at her sister.
11	* Discussed in one of the ''Literature/BlackWidowers'' stories. During the course of their wide-ranging discussion, one of the Widowers (most of whom would regard themselves as gentlemen) asks -- with some bafflement -- what kind of man would hit a woman. Henry, their all-knowing waiter, replies in his usual calm fashion that in his experience, there are two kinds.
12	-->''Extreme misogynists. And husbands.''
13	* In ''Literature/BreakfastOfChampions'', Dwayne Hoover, during his rampage, says, "Never hit a woman, right?" before punching Beatrice Keedler and Bonnie [=MacMahon=], who were trying to restrain him.
14	* In ''Literature/{{Ceremony}}'', Literature/{{Spenser}} and Hawk fight their way through an orgy. Hitting men and women alike, Spenser comments, "No sexist, I."
15	%%* ''Literature/ClockpunkAndTheVitalizer'': The Vitalizer is more than willing to hurt Clockpunk, almost breaking her back early in the story. [[spoiler:Clockpunk ends up "almost" returning the favor.]]
16	* ''Literature/CudjosCave'': Captain Sprowl has zero compunctions with ordering the wife of a prominent Unionist whipped to make her reveal where her husband is hiding. [[spoiler:Due to a case of mistaken identity, his men end up whipping his own mother instead.]]
17	* ''Literature/DragonInDistress'' has Sir George, who threatens to use force against Princess Florinara Tansimasa Qasilava Delagordune. Apparently, his knightly vows did ''not'' include 'and not harm women'.
18	* Dan Krokos's ''False Memory'' has this exchange:
19	-->'''Peter:''' You didn't break my nose.\
20	'''Miranda:''' Too bad.\
21	'''Peter:''' No, that's good. Because I would've broken yours.\
22	'''Miranda:''' You'd hit a girl?\
23	'''Peter:''' We fight all the time.
24	%%* ''Literature/TheFateOfPaulTwister'': when Paul discovers that Princess Ashley de Morgan [[spoiler:was actually not the princess, but an impostor]], he doesn't actually hit her, but he does put her in a choke hold and threaten severe violence against her, because she was almost certainly putting him in serious danger.
25	%%* ''Literature/AFlyWentBy'': Subverted for the fox, who's suspected of wanting to kill the calf (who is probably a female, since she's described as "a little cow") but he turns out to not be interested in them; he's just running from a man he thinks will shoot him.
26	%%* Sort of, in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear: The Brain Spiders''. Eventually Zak attacks his sister Tash, punching as hard as he can -- he's only twelve, but she's only thirteen. It's "sort of" because [[spoiler:this is only Tash's ''body'', which is being controlled by [[GenderBender a man]] who is still "he" in pronouns. "It was Tash's face he was hitting, but his blows were rattling Karka's brain."]]
27	* ''Literature/GentlemanBastard'' Locke Lamora is willing to punch out an 80-year-old woman. [[spoiler:She's the head of the Duke's spy ring, who had stabbed Locke with a needle dipped in a slow-acting poison and was offering the antidote in exchange for selling out his friends. Rather than play along, he just punched her, grabbed the antidote and fled]] It's implied that the reason this worked is because he is known for as more of a GentlemanThief running clever cons, and it never occurred to her that he would resort to such direct physical violence.
28	* ''Literature/{{Gor}}'': Tarl Cabot starts out seeming unwilling to hit women, though he does threaten them with serious harm at various points. By the sixth book, ''Raiders of Gor'', this reluctance has vanished entirely and he doesn't hesitate again to strike a woman for defiance, or to have her beaten.
29	%%* ''Literature/GrimoiresSoul'': Rembrandt is not only willing to critically harm Ceyda in her fights with him, he also takes great pleasure in doing so.
30	%%* ''Literature/{{Hainish}}'': In ''The Word for World is Forest'', when the Athsheans revolt against the Terrans colonists, they massacre several hundred women brought to the planet as wives for the colonists. This is despite (or because of) the Athsheans being a matriarchal society. Instead, the men are allowed to escape into the forest where they can be rounded up at leisure. As the Athsheans [[BlueAndOrangeMorality see it]], the women were brought to their planet to breed even more humans to overrun it.
31	* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'': During a Quidditch match, Oliver Wood tells Harry to stop being a gentleman and just knock Cho Chang off her broom already. Chivalry might not be his only problem there -- his crush on her is revealed in the [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire next book]]. Similarly, the lack of chivalry doesn't seem to be Oliver's only problem.
32	%%* Given that the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' novels are set far in the future, gender equality is considered normal in most of the galaxy. Plenty of the people that are killed on all sides are female. Notably, the planet Grayson is a giant aversion to this trope under most circumstances.
33	%%* ''Literature/HorridHenry'': Henry himself has no qualms against attacking girls, especially Moody Margaret given how often he plays pranks on her and attacks her.
34	%%** ''[[InjectionPlot Horrid Henry's Injection]]'' has him kick Clever Claire when she calls him out for being frightened of an injection.
35	* In Creator/JulieKagawa's ''Literature/TheIronKing'', Quintus captured Meghan while the other four fought Ash. When he goes to [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown torment Ash]], Ash counters that he's the coward who wrestled with a girl while the other fought.
36	* Taken to an extreme in Mickey Spillane's ''I, the Jury'': Literature/MikeHammer deliberately shoots [[spoiler:Charlotte Manning]], a woman, in the stomach to avenge the similar murder of his Army buddy. Although this is sometimes passed off as self-defense, because she was secretly reaching for a gun at the moment of the killing, Hammer had already explicitly told her that he intended to kill her, and thus it is her actions that may be self-defensive.
37	* Several of the antagonists in the works of Creator/StephenKing:
38	** Billy Nolan in ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'' hits girlfriend Chris.
39	** In ''Literature/TheStand'', Dayna Jurgens' EstablishingCharacterMoment is her back story wherein she disarms an abusive ex-boyfriend.
40	** Several of the men in Beverly's life (her father, the local bullies, a couple of boyfriends, and her eventual husband Tom Rogan) in ''Literature/{{IT}}'' are violently abusive toward her.
41	** Bev isn't the only battered wife in the Kingverse. ''Literature/DoloresClaiborne'' and the protagonist of ''Literature/RoseMadder'' have abusive husbands. So does Helen in ''Literature/{{Insomnia}}''.
42	%%** ''Literature/{{Misery}}'': Paul Sheldon slams Annie in the face with a typewriter. (She was trying to kill him at the time, so it's warranted).
43	* ''Landslide'' by Desmond Bagley. When the protagonist gets his face slapped by a SpoiledBrat he slaps her right back, figuring there's no point in applying a DoubleStandard in this day and age.
44	* ''Literature/LegacyOfTheForce'': In this series of books, Jacen Solo ends up killing at least 4 female characters. Apparently, the three authors working on that series subscribed to the idea of WouldntHitAGirl, and used this trope to demonstrate how much of a monster Jacen had become.
45	%%* ''Literature/AMagesPower'': When a female mage throws lightning at Eric, he responds in turn. Then he goes on to repeat the feat against his other female opponent in the New Scepter Competition's tournament.
46	%%* In ''Literature/MidnightTides'', Trull Sengar, a warrior, asks a healer -- who in his culture are exclusively female -- to heal a demon. She refuses on the grounds that it's not worth the effort as they can always conjure more and earns a nasty back-handed slap. Trull Sengar is made to apologise to her reasoning that he was stressed from the battle just past, but he insists that he feels no remorse, as for him anyone who fought should also be worthy of healing.
47	* The ''Literature/MillenniumSeries'' has Lisbeth Salander (and a few other women) being repeatedly attacked by men who do not hold back at all. This is not all that surprising, as one of the main focuses of the books is the abuse of women by men. Holding back against [[CombatPragmatist Lisbeth]] would not be a good idea at all. The second book has the boxer Paolo Roberto as a character, and he is notable for being one of the few characters who is completely disgusted by men hitting women, and [[WifeBasherBasher relishes the thought of giving such a man a real fight]].
48	* ''Literature/OliverTwist'' by Charles Dickens has one of the characters – the ruthless Bill Sikes, an infamous Londoner thug – beat many people, including his prostitute girlfriend, Nancy. Despite his abusive behavior, Nancy stays with him, believing she is a stable force in his life. In the end, she sees what this lifestyle has turned them into and helps Oliver while trying to talk Bill to break up and turn over a new leaf. Bill, in one of the most heinous acts of 1800s English literature, barbarically kills Nancy. It isn't long before Bill is caught by his guilt first and then by the justice of his fellow men and joins her in the grave...
49	%%* In ''Literature/{{Radiance}}'', it's implied that when the filming of the documentary at Adonis began to fall apart, one of the crew members attacked Severin. [[spoiler:It later turned out he did so to try to keep her from swimming with the callow whales, which was incredibly dangerous and led to her death.]] The transcript of her impromptu reporting on the Pluto food riots also have her beaten and bloody and end with her trampled nearly to death by a mob too enraged to even notice her.
50	* ''Literature/TheSaint'': Simon Templar usually doesn't apply his [[VigilanteMan personal brand of justice]] to women, but this was mainly due to a little trope known as HighHeelFaceTurn. When he did, in fact, shoot a couple of women (the leaders of a drug ring), he notes that this is the first time he's ever actually done so. On a couple of other occasions, he has no compunction about hitting a woman carefully on the back of the head to knock her out for a while.
51	%%* In ''Literature/TheSecretsOfTheImmortalNicholasFlamel'':
52	%%** Scatty is a fearsome warrior of legend, so most enemies she meets have no problem attacking her.
53	%%** Nicholas and Josh show no qualms about attacking their female enemies.
54	%%** In the second book, Josh charges after three Valkyries.
55	%%** By the sixth, Josh is willing to kill [[spoiler:the woman he thought was his mother]].
56	%%** Numerous monsters and Dark Elders are actively trying to kill Perenelle. Too bad for them, as [[BadassBoast she frequently reminds them]].
57	%%** Tsagaglalal is attacked by Spartoi warriors in the sixth book.
58	* ''Literature/SisterhoodSeries'' by Creator/FernMichaels: Several male villains will happily use women like punching bags, and this is naturally used as a combination of a MoralEventHorizon and a KickTheDog moment to show they're bad guys.
59	%%** Mitch Riley from ''Hide And Seek''.
60	%%*** Interestingly, one exception occurs in the book ''Hide and Seek''. Jack Emery was rescuing Lizzie Fox from the [[FBIAgent FBI]], and Lizzie wanted him to rescue Judge Easter from them, too. Jack tried to point out that they needed a plan to rescue her and that they could not just charge back out there. Lizzie, refusing to be amenable to reason, makes the ever-so-mature decision to pull a gun out on Jack to make him help her rescue Judge Easter ''now''. Jack managed to knock her out with a karate chop to the back of her neck. He did send a silent apology to her later on for that.
61	%%** John Chai from ''Vendetta''.
62	%%** Karl Woodley from ''The Jury''.
63	%%** Maxwell Zenowicz from ''Fast Track''.
64	* All the time in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''.
65	%%** In ''Game of Thrones'', Viserys frequently threatens Daenerys, who lives in terror of 'waking the dragon'
66	%%** King Robert punches Cersei in the face in a drunken rage.
67	** King Joffrey does believe that a King should not strike his lady, a 12-year-old Sansa Stark. Instead, he has his knights of the Kingsguard do it in his stead. With gauntlets.
68	** Ramsay Snow's treatment of his many female prisoners along with both of his wives has been used to characterise him as a monster.
69	%%* In ''Literature/SplinterOfTheMindsEye'', pretty much anyone is willing to hit Leia. Grammael does it to get Luke to talk. [[spoiler:Vader cuts her in their duel -- yes, she fought him with a lightsaber, and though she came off worse it ''wasn't'' a CurbStompBattle.]] Even ''Luke'' hits her, slapping her when she's very agitated and about to blow their cover by leaving.
70	* In ''[[Literature/EddieLaCrosse The Sword-Edged Blonde]]'', part of [[TheDragon Canino]]'s EstablishingCharacterMoment is to viciously assault his girlfriend Gretchen, who he apparently had a good relationship with (and who certainly didn't see it coming, or understand the reason for it). He did it just to make a point to Eddie -- if he's willing to be that needlessly brutal to a girl he mostly likes, how much worse is Eddie going to have it?
71	%%* In the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series, at various points Richard has pointed out that he's perfectly willing to fight women, as he knows they can be just as dangerous as men, [[TortureTechnician if not moreso]].
72	* In Creator/RuthFrancesLong's ''Literature/TheTreacheryOfBeautifulThings'', Tom tries to persuade Jenny that Jack is nothing like them, Jenny sneers that neither she nor Jack are like him, and they're blessed in that, and he hits her. A fight with Jack ensues. Jenny is more horrified because of their blood relation than this trope, but it does play some part.
73	%%* Pretty much everybody in ''Literature/TheUltimateKillingGame'' by Asi Hart will hit a woman. Some go a few steps further.
74	* In ''Literature/VampireAcademy'', Strigoi apparently believe in beating people up equally. They don't mind attacking female characters physically. Goes with their lack of morality.
75	* Zig-zagged by the Confederation in ''Literature/{{Victoria}}''. One of their worst enemies is a LadyLand, and they show few qualms about crushing their female troops in the field. Once victorious, however, they treat their civilians unusually nicely [[PragmaticHero by their own standards]]; even irreconcilable bitter-enders are condemned to slavery when captured, rather than simply executed after drumhead court-martial.
76	* {{Averted\|Trope}} in ''Literature/WarriorCats'', as female cats are functionally equal to male cats. You'll find females leading Clans, females leading patrol parties, and females suffering the same wounds. The only time they're given special mercy is if they're pregnant. However, even the "mercy for the pregnant" has been averted once to give [[spoiler:Breezepelt]] a KickTheDog moment.
77	* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': In a series full of male characters who take WouldntHitAGirl to the point of [[GenreBlind pure]] [[HonorBeforeReason idiocy]], there are a few examples where men are willing to fight back:
78	** The three male leads, Rand, Mat, and Perrin, are from a culture where violence against women is pretty much unthinkable. Yet each of them eventually finds himself in a situation where killing a woman is necessary, and each regrets it severely: Rand meets a darkfriend on the road in the third book, who tries to lull him so assassins can get the drop, and he responds by killing the entire group. He later develops a '''severe''' WouldNotHitAGirl complex and when facing Lanfear is unable to use deadly attacks even though it may cost his life. Mat is seduced by [[spoiler: Melindhra]] and kills her in defense; after this, he goes to great lengths to avoid fighting women, even when it puts him at a disadvantage, but is not as intense about it as Rand. And in the last book, [[spoiler: Perrin has to kill Lanfear to prevent her killing Rand in his moment of triumph. Because of the mind control she's placed on him, he's deeply in love with her at the time, but still manages to bring himself to attack out of need.]]
79	** The whole of the Seanchan and Aiel cultures, where women can join armies/warrior factions, same as men. The one exception are Aiel Wise Ones, whom nobody is supposed to hit, and they aren't supposed to participate in fighting either.
80	** Perrin has a few "I pray these aren't women I'm killing in battle" moments, but he's nowhere near as bad as Rand, or even Mat. He also defends himself against his violence-equals-love girlfriend. In his defence, he has a fear of hurting people in general because he's so beefy and strong, and [[spoiler: sort of part wolf. The spirit of one, anyway.]]
81	** The male Asha'man on the whole, and especially [[spoiler: Logain]] have no qualms about attacking female Aes Sedai, even if Rand forbids them from killing them.
82	** A woman leading a band of male bandits/darkfriends in book 3 is advancing on Mat, who seems to be [[TooDumbToLive refusing to defend himself]], when Thom throws a knife into her heart. He also fits into WouldntHitAGirl though, because Moiraine notes his reluctance to politically move against women, even the ones who are more dangerous and treacherous than the men.
83	** Galad, surprisingly enough, comes to this conclusion, earning a rare bit of praise from his sister and saying one of the most sensible things about men and women in the series:
84	--->Perhaps once I would have hesitated [to kill a woman], but that would have been the wrong choice. Women are as fully capable of being evil as men. Why should one hesitate to kill one, but not the other? The Light does not judge one based on gender, but on the merit of the heart.
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Context WouldHitAGirl / Literature