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Stripperiffic
aka: Nothing Left To The Imagination

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Left = Real Life Action Girl gear.
Right = Fictional Action Girl gear.

"A big sword and a skimpy leather skirt? Must be adventurin' time!"
Kat, Sequential Art

Clothing for characters will often be impractically sexy for their chosen application. Especially common in fantastic or exotic settings, where wardrobe rules are made up on the spot.

Spies will dress in a Spy Catsuit (often with high heels), even when the mission explicitly calls for them to not draw attention to themselves. Female warriors will charge into battle wearing a Chainmail Bikini. Bridge Bunnies on a military starship will be issued go-go boots and miniskirts with their uniforms. And then you have Role-Playing Games and the oft-parodied practice of having outfits that look practical on a male hero, but turn into lingerie if a female puts it on.

Stripperiffic outfits on female characters — at least, young and attractive ones — are common in any genre where straight young men represent (or are assumed to represent) the core of the audience. This can be self-fulfilling, as sexually exploitative wardrobe choices can be a turn-off to potential female fans.

This trope can be applied in the opposite direction; in the West, this takes the form of inserting 'exceptionally flattering' clothing (or lack thereof) for male roles, such as policemen, firemen, male gardeners, or pool boys, in traditionally female-oriented fare like soaps and prime-time dramas. In anime and manga, however (especially those aimed at a female audience), the Bishōnen can be as scantily clad as the girls.

Rule of Sexy is the Super-Trope.

Compare Theiss Titillation Theory and Go-Go Enslavement. For its Male counterpart, see Eating the Eye Candy, Hot Men at Work, and Walking Shirtless Scene.

Contrast Stylish Protection Gear, Battle Ballgown, Kicking Ass in All Her Finery.


Tropes That When Combined Lead To Stripperiffic Outfits:


Examples

    open/close all folders 

    Advertising 
  • The IMVU ads around the Web advise people to make an avatar to "Define your look." Apparently, the only definition offered is "brothel inmate".
  • Orangina had a rather revealing black pantheress ringmaster.
  • Banner ads for the video games Call Of Roma and Wartune frequently feature women in barely-there outfits.
  • This ad for Gaia references this.

    Art 
  • Husband-wife team Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell are well known for their paintings of scantily clad female characters in fantasy settings. Some well-known examples of Vallejo's work are movie posters for Barbarian Queen and Barbarella, while Bell designed the Temptation Riders sculpture series for the Franklin Mint and painted the art for Meat Loaf's album Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose. They also release a calendar of such work annually.
  • Frank Frazetta is about as notable for his incredibly skimpy designs. In fairness to Frazetta, he was very equal opportunity on the subject; it's rare to find a Frazetta hero who has both a shirt and pants (and more common to find one with neither).

    Comic Strips 
  • Enrique Romero routinely undresses the heroines he draws for British newspaper strips.
    • In Modesty Blaise, the titular character was very fond of remaining only in her Black Bra and Panties for fights.
    • In Axa, most of the time, Axa ambles about her ravaged world wearing only a bandeau top and a loincloth made from the tatters of her old Domed City uniform. That bandeau top routinely deserts her whenever Axa has to fight for her life or her freedom.

    Fan Works 
  • An Impractical Guide to Godhood: Apollo calls one of Aphrodite's dresses "two steps away from being appropriate for a porn star."
  • Male example: In Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità, Italy crossdressed as Sailor Moon. Let's just say it left very little to the imagination.
  • Child of the Storm firmly averts this at every point, with the author irritably pointing out how absurdly impractical such clothing is for actual combat, citing Carol Danvers' canonical Ms Marvel/Warbird suit, lightning bolt and all, as an example, contemptuously referring to it as a swimsuit... then having it turn up as an actual swimsuit, just to underline the point.
  • Male example: In Suzumiya Haruhi no Seitenkan, Haruki and Mitsuru both wear Chippendale dancer outfits while passing out flyers advertising the SOS Brigade.
  • In Tokyo Mew Mew No Hope Left, the main character walks around dressed like a hooker. Nobody seems to notice.
  • Parodied in Be the Sea Dweller Lowblood with a male example: The Fabulous Sharpeye Sharklaw.
  • Last Child of Krypton: Asuka's outfit after becoming the next Wonder Woman. It is her old red, skintight Latex Space Suit with its sleeves and leggings ripped.
  • In the Crack Fic Princess And The Frog 2: Air Quality Alert, in order to attract customers, Tiana goes to her restaurant in a costume that results in the narration invoking a Shout-Out to this very website (and thus provide the page quote).
  • In Incarnation of Legends, elves usually cover themselves up, only showing their bare skin besides their faces to those they truly respect and trust. Lusserina does not. Her dress has an Impossibly-Low Neckline that leaves her shoulders and the upper part of her chest bare and the only thing covering her thighs and hips are the books hanging at her waste and some purple panties.
  • Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: Both of Asuka's superhero outfits are very tight and very revealing. Played for Laughs in an omake where she has a Catapult Nightmare concerning wearing a Supergirl outfit that can only be described as a very tiny bikini (It Makes Sense in Context).
  • Superwomen of Eva 2: Amazing Amazon explains Wonder Woman's classic Leotard of Power (even if it's a ceremonial armor) as Hepaestus having been very lonely when he designed it. Rei Ayanami is more puzzled about why the suit has the colors of the flag of the United States when she's a Japanese girl (answer: Hepaestus was awed by the Americans' advancements during The Space Race).
  • Despite its setting, most Original Characters in DC Nation opt for sensible over stripper. Amelia Zukov is a justified exception - she's a descendant of the succubus Chantelle. Another, heavily lampshaded exception is Star Sapphire Terry Berg (a gay man), who has given the Sapphires the nickname "Clothing Optional Corps."
  • A Growing Affection: The Kouin sisters wear a strip of armored gauze, wrapped around their bust just enough times that it cannot be seen through (barely), then once down their stomach, and then again around their hips just enough times to be legal.
  • In Friendship Is Magical Girls, several of the mahoushoujo's outfits could count as this, but Applejack's is probably the most blatant, being just a bikini with a pair of shorts and an open jacket over it. But even that's decent compared to Sunset Shimmer's outfit, which is just a short skirt and a cape that happens to clasp across the top of her breasts.
  • Defied and played straight in Overlady, in which Louise absolutely refuses to wear skimpy, impractical armor. Henrietta, on the other hand, fully embraces it like a fish to water.
  • The Sailor Moon example above is endlessly lampshaded in fanfics. One even had Sailor Venus' complain that BDSM dominatrixes were copying her outfit.
  • In Desperately Seeking Ranma, Aiko's group of Magical Girls never have a detailed description of the uniforms. The descriptions are more along the line "remarkably immodest outfit that a professional stripper might be embarrassed to be seen in public wearing".
  • Subverted in the Discworld of A.A. Pessimal. Two young Assassins back-packing in Howondaland during their Gap Year Adventures get into the papers for some spectacularly destructive acts, including sinking a warship whose crew are trying to arrest them for an earlier act of grand arson. The editor of Ankh-Morpork's downmarket tabloid laments that they were wearing sensible clothing, and asks if they pull anything else off that's seriously newsworthy, could the girls wear a lot less and be sure to take iconographs?
  • Blood That Flows: In her first appearance, the human form of Earth Lord Rangort is described as a dark skinned, light-haired, top-heavy female wearing a bikini-like outfit.
  • Shadows Awakening: When describing the Queen's dress, the story notes that it's too revealing for a prepubescent girl. The Queen herself doesn't seem to find a problem with it.
  • In Hellsister Trilogy, Supergirl recognizes an older Shadow Lass because of her black, barely-covers-anything-at-all, bikini-like black suit.
  • Rainstorm and the entire Viera race from Off the Line dress like this. Rainstorm's apparel can be generously called well-placed pieces of cloth and/or jewelry.
  • In Stitches, Assassin's outfit consists of a black leather waistcoat that's held closed in front by two belts (and apparently backless), thigh-high black leather boots, minimalist black panties, forearm/hand wrappings, one black glove, and leg guards on the outsides of her thighs and covering her hips.
  • In Kara of Rokyn, female wrestlers like Kara and Jasmine wear skimpy, skintight bodysuits which are definitely appreciated by their male followers.
  • Lampshaded in The Last War when the designer dress Harry bought Ginny is described as "incredibly stripperiffic".
  • Unbreakable Red Silken Thread: Considering Scarlett works as a stripper, it isn't exactly surprising she dresses in this way.
  • Although they have gotten better over time, both Winx Club and World of Warcraft are infamous for giving their Action Girls excessively revealing and impractical outfits for the sake of fanservice. Their crossover fanfic Paradoxus, however, has its action girls wearing beautiful, combat-sensible designs that cover all of the squishy parts and then some. Thus averting this trope.
  • In Chronicles of the Siren War, Thorson often lampshades how a lot of the kansen wear rather revealing clothing. He asks Brooklyn about this at one point, and she answers that she was born with them and is honestly most comfortable dressing that way.
    • At a medal ceremony, South Dakota has to be handed a medal because the Eagle Union staff don't know how to pin the medal onto her attire without being called out as sexual harassment.

    Films — Animation 
  • Disney Animated Canon:
    • Aladdin: Jasmine's outfit is probably drawn from Turkish belly-dance costumes. It's improbable that a princess would ever wear this, but then, she is mostly seen confined within the palace- and it's normal for Muslim women not to wear hijab in their own homes. When she goes out in public, she covers up appropriately. (Also, in the spin-off series, she usually dresses far more modestly if she and Aladdin are going somewhere where they expect a fight.)
    • Kida from Atlantis: The Lost Empire is another example. She wears what amounts to a bra and sarong for the whole movie. Except in the ending, where she starts wearing a long, flowing dress instead.
    • While animator Glen Keane purposely designed Pocahontas to be "sexy", her knee-length deerskin dress doesn't qualify for this trope. Her friend Nakoma, however, wears a two-piece version with an oh-so-'90s bare midriff.
    • Tarzan, naturally, spent most of his movie in the classic loincloth; at the end of the film when the Porters decide to stay in Africa with him, we get a brief shot of him and Jane where she's wearing not much more than that.
  • Heavy Metal's Taarna. Can't get a lot more Stripperiffic than that (although they tried in Heavy Metal 2000).
  • Chel from The Road to El Dorado, in her loincloth and matching tube top (not to mention figure), seems almost like a boast to Disney about what DreamWorks dared to do with their PG rating. Notably, despite being a pre-Columbian civilization where the men all go around shirtless (even the unattractive ones), all the other women of El Dorado are shown wearing full dresses.
  • In the climax of Rock and Rule, Angel is chained up and made to summon an evil demon with her singing. She wears a dress which is basically a long strip of material with a halter neck and no back, gathered at the waist with a belt, which leaves large sections of her body uncovered. And it gets visibly torn up during the finale.
  • The outfit worn by Elinore from Wizards is just one of the many things that makes Ralph Bakshi's claims that it's "a family picture" questionable. Amazingly, it was toned down from the original concepts, which would have had her fully topless.
  • Princess Teegra in Fire & Ice spends the entire film in a barely-a-bikini. After all, she was abducted from her bedchamber, and the film's co-creator was Frank Frazetta.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl in Batman & Robin. The male costumes were somehow more gratuitous.
  • Batman Returns was also full of this. Catwoman covers herself up (though her suit is quite form-fitting), but a few of the women in the Penguin's Red Triangle Gang are running around in skimpy attire - in one case, one of them baring her legs - in a northeastern American city. In the middle of December. (Worse, the henchmen spend most of their time in an Arctic wildlife exhibit at the Gotham Zoo, which has an air-conditioning unit running to make the atmosphere even colder.) The Ice Princess, meanwhile, at least wears fishnet pantyhose that give her good lower coverage, but her fur-lined top still leaves a lot of skin exposed to the wintry Gotham City air.
  • A more subtle example in Beyond Re-Animator are the outfits Laura Olney and Nurse Vanessa wear. While they would be only moderately sexy in normal circumstances, both characters wear the outfits while visiting/working at a high-security men's prison. Generally, women are not allowed into a prison if they are wearing an outfit that is even slightly provocative, because it is feared that it might give the inmates increased motivation to assault them.
  • Bring Me the Head of the Machine Gun Woman: The Machine Gun Woman displays an incredible amount of skin for a Professional Killer.
  • Halle Berry's costume in Catwoman (2004). Showing just how impractical the costume would be, the top kept coming off the stuntman during action scenes. Roger Ebert was noted in saying it was the only thing he liked about the movie.
  • Future World (2018): Ash is a lovely Robot Soldier who's dressed in a top which shows off her stomach along with cleavage while she's wearing tight pants too. This makes some sense as the Warlord, who wants her for sexual use, gave her the outfit.
  • The female ninjas in the movie Lady Ninja: Reflections in Darkness dress in highly abbreviated ninja outfits (when they're wearing anything at all).
  • Lampshaded at the Halloween party in Mean Girls, where Cady comments on how in Girl World, Halloween is the one night of the year a girl can dress like a total slut, and no one can say anything. Gretchen wears a cat costume made of skintight leather, Karen wears a skimpy, cleavage-revealing teddy (only the ears give it away as a costume - "I'm a mouse. Duh."), while Regina wears a "rabbit" costume that's nothing more than a Playboy Bunny suit. Cady, not knowing this and thinking that Halloween costumes are meant to be scary, wears pale makeup, novelty rubber teeth, and a Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress ("an ex-wife").
  • Star Wars:
    • Female Twi'leks are almost all slender and attractive... and given to wearing next to nothing when out in the galaxy even though they're from a world that's hotter than Tatooine. Even the ones who aren't slave girls.
    • The most iconic Stripperiffic outfit from the franchise is the slave girl bikini Jabba dresses Leia into in Return of the Jedi.
    • Noted Expanded Universe aversions: Mission Vao and Vette. Even their underwear is pretty modest.
  • Played with in the sense of all the heroines' costumes in Sucker Punch once the dream sequences start, not to an over-the-top semi-naked extent but not too covered. As it's a fantasy thought up by Baby Doll, it just ties into the Rule of Cool for the action scenes. Justified for the skimpy costumes in the brothel world because...well it's a brothel. Whenever the girls aren't performing, their clothes are quite modest.
  • Jane's jungle outfit in the second Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan film (Tarzan and His Mate) is unlike any that came later, split to the hip, and sometimes absent.
  • Almost everybody in 300, male or female. Same could be said for the cast of The Scorpion King.
  • Actually averted by most James Bond movies. Unless It Makes Sense in Context for the Bond Girl to be thrust into action in her evening dress or bikini, most of them dress sensibly when appropriate.
  • X-Men: First Class:
    • Angel wears an outfit quite similar to her stripper costume in the climactic battle. She does fly, so we can assume moving around isn't too much of an issue.
    • Emma Frost also walks around wearing lingerie and sexy dresses a lot. Granted she's a seductress who uses her telepathy to attack - and she can turn into diamond if she wants to defend herself.
    • Averted for both Mystique and Moira MacTaggert in the final battle. They both wear the same jumpsuits as the others (though Moira's is grey).
  • Invoked in X-Men: Apocalypse. Bryan Singer wanted Psylocke to have a more modest black costume. But Olivia Munn - a fan of the character - insisted on having the famous Leotard of Power, joking that they had to "lube me up" to get her in there.

    Literature 
  • Domi in James Axler's Outlanders series. Her outfit is continually described as "A pair of red high heels, and nothing else." Brigid Baptiste's clothing on the covers falls under this, as well.
  • Any Barsoomian (Martian) or Amtorian (Venusian) in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Planetary Romance novels, male or female, will wear a belt and weapons harness (male), jewelry (female) and that's pretty much it. Even when they're going into battle.
  • In the Wearing the Cape books, superhero costumes are flamboyant but practical...in the field. It has been mentioned that many young and fashionable superheroes have much less practical club versions of their costumes for partying, and superhero-cosplayers dress much more stripperiffically.
  • Outright mocked by Babylon Steel, the First-Person Smartass protagonist of the books of the same name. For reference, Babylon is the madam of a high-class brothel and a sometime sellsword.
    "Exposed flesh is strictly for non-lethal situations. I have worn chainmail underwear and nothing else but boots, but only in the bedroom. What can I say? Some people have funny ideas about armor."
  • The Red Vixen Adventures: The Red Vixen loves this trope, usually wearing not much more than a bikini and a gunbelt while conducting business.
  • Averted in the fantasy anthology Women in Practical Armor. The title speaks for itself.
  • The Celtic expies that Kahlan has her small force imitate in order to scare a really large force of D'harans in the Sword of Truth, except they are painted white and go into battle... aroused. Kahlan strips down and paints herself white too to ensure the latter occurs.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Shae. Well, she's a prostitute. It comes with the territory.
    • This is one thing which has changed since Missandei joined Daenerys; she now dresses much more modestly.
  • Super Sentai has several, all of them villains.
  • In Community's Cowboy Episode "A Fistful of Paintballs" Annie spends the game clad in an attire distinctly unsuitable for playing (a surprise game of) paintball. She was originally wearing a skirt and corset ensemble but was forced to ditch the skirt when the game started. Lampshaded:
    Abed: Jeff wants to see you.
    Annie: Yeah? And I want pants. A lot of people want a lot of things.
  • Power Rangers Lost Galaxy's Karone wears leather trousers and a leather corset-style top, with her midriff bared. In the same series, Maya wears what equates to a yellow bikini-style top half and a short skirt.
  • Doctor Who: Leela. Who turns up to support Tom Baker's Doctor dressed in one-and-a-half chamois leathers held together with a bootlace.
  • Cop Rock: the nurses in the musical number say the phrase Bigger Is Better and wear Stripperiffic dresses.
  • Star Trek:
    • The women's uniforms in Star Trek TOS were distinctly skimpy. Lampshaded in Jadzia Dax's famous "And women wore less" comment in the Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribblations".
    • In the commentary for the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "In A Mirror, Darkly" it's mentioned that they had to keep telling the actress playing an Original Series yeoman: "Yes, the skirt really IS supposed to be that short."
    • TNG had both male and female extras seen in miniskirt uniforms, though such gender equality (and the miniskirts) didn't last past Season One.
    • Star Trek: Voyager had the famous Sensual Spandex of Seven of Nine, handwaved as a "dermaplastic bodysuit" to cover and heal the injuries from her Borgification. Must have taken her skin a long time to heal, as she never stopped wearing it, though she did occasionally get ones in different colors. It was noted by Voyager costume designers and makeup specialists that Seven's costume is as much a piece of engineering magic in reality as it was in Trek continuity, as the female form simply doesn't fill out clothing that way naturally. It also created some serious problems. Seven didn't raise her voice or speak more than required because Jeri Ryan couldn't breathe properly in the suits. It also meant she was seriously restricted in her ability to do things like walking quickly.
    • T'Pol of Star Trek: Enterprise, wears tights even though all other Vulcan characters wear robes. Not to mention the blatant Fanservice "decontamination" scenes in tank tops. Although she does own a regular Vulcan outfit that we see in "Precious Cargo" where she had to look a bit more authoritative for some Perp Sweating.
  • Spacewomen in 1950s TV sci-fi also had short skirts (e.g. Carol Carlisle in Space Patrol (US), and Vena Ray in Rocky Jones, Space Ranger).
  • In Mortal Kombat: Conquest, pretty much every evil female (and a few good or neutral ones) wears clothing so negligent that you wonder how they fight in it without falling out. (Of course, as stated here, this seems to be a dress code of sorts for female Edenian warriors.)
  • The CSI-verse has female characters investigating crime scenes in low-cut tops, high heels and tight trousers. All at the same time on some occasions. The CSI shows were also notorious for inventing the bullet-proof vest with cleavage.
  • Anise/Freya on Stargate SG-1.
  • These are show-accurate action figures of The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg. Compare the armor of the male members to that of the one girl.
  • Charmed took this to the extreme. Prue works at an auction house and one episode has her at work wearing a see-through blouse. Phoebe and Paige in the sixth and seventh seasons. Several episodes had the sisters turned into various magical creatures that required a skimpy outfit such as Valkyries in the sixth season premiere. Phoebe was the worst offender getting turned into a genie, an Egyptian bellydancer, a mermaid (the episode in question featured another mermaid who was reasonably covered up while Phoebe was only barely covered) and one infamous example where Cole got a demon to impersonate Phoebe and give him a lapdance. Paige also got turned into a wood nymph.
  • Mostly averted with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy prefers to go into battle wearing long pants and a leather jacket. She does wear platform heels a lot though. Other Slayers (e.g. Kendra and Faith) wear more revealing outfits, but at least they're practical. And in Faith's case, the Stripperiffic factor was intentional. They actually used the phrase "stripperiffic" to describe Vampire Willow's outfit.
    Willow: Don't worry, we're sure to spot Faith first. She's like this cleavagy slut-bomb walking around.
  • Angel:
    • Lampshaded in the episode where Cordelia became a princess in another dimension. She says that when she was an actress in the original world, the director made her wear a bikini that was tiny, skimpy and exploitative. She then looks at her current attire, which wasn't any better.
    • Justified with Gwen Raiden in "Ground State", who Can't Have Sex, Ever because she electrocutes anyone she touches, so Male Gaze is the only sexual attention she can get. As her client points out, however, a professional thief should avoid attention, not encourage it.
  • NCIS: Perky Goth Abby Sciuto wears shorter skirts than everyone else in the cast and really strange outfits. When Jenny Shepard takes over as director, she hands her a copy of the dress code. When a clearly very unhappy Abby then totters into work in a suit, Gibbs tears up the dress code in front of her — because he's not having an unhappy Goth as his lab tech.
  • A plot point in a season 1 episode of Party of Five. Julia works at a club and the owner decides to make the waitress's uniforms more revealing to attract more customers. The end result is black leather that's even more revealing than Xena's costume. The fun starts when Julia arrives home to find the social worker waiting for her.
  • Ahh, Xena… It didn't protect the limbs, head, and neck, but oddly enough, this is pretty much state of the art armor for her time whenever that was. Sure it doesn't cover the aforementioned areas, but she does have gauntlets and high boots. And who goes Walking the Earth in a helmet? (This is not getting into Gabrielle; at least Xena's stripperiffic outfit was armoured.)
  • In the first season of the 1980s sitcom It's a Living, the lead characters (all waitresses) rotated through a series of tight, skimpy, and revealing outfits, with the most stipperific ones showing up in the opening theme. Apparently, thanks to the outfits, series title, and theme song (which never mentioned their occupation, but emphasized that the cast was "young and healthy" and would go "the way the traffic flows") some viewers thought the characters actually were strippers — or sex workers. A panicked network insisted that the waitresses' uniforms be made slightly more modest in later seasons, which they were. (Though there is still something of the French Maid Outfit to those later season uniforms....)
  • In the Jessie episode "Karate Kid-tastrophe", Emma comes into the kitchen wearing rather inappropriate attire, complete with her midriff and most of her cleavage exposed, extremely short shorts that barely extend past her upper thigh. According to her, "Everybody wears this." When Jessie tries to get her to change, she just stays where she is with her arms folded and smirks, as if to say "Make me."
  • In the television version of Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman complained that the character Hunter was less stripperific than he had intended.
  • Spartacus: Blood and Sand: What the gladiators wear normally consists of loincloths with maybe knee pads while in the arena they all go in with their chests completely exposed. In a twist, the women on the show have fairly modest clothes apart from the slave girls who frequently have to walk around naked. A certain amount of Truth in Television on this. Gladiators were very much sex symbols in Rome (and in some periods, at least, wealthy women were known to pay substantial sums to bed them), and often wore stylized armor that was much more esthetic than practical when they wore armor at all. Most Roman women did wear fairly conservative clothing most of the time, as Rome was a pretty conservative place for most of its history. While the famous orgies occurred, these were definitely private parties. Blatant public displays were usually limited to slaves and similarly low-classes people in the arenas. (Rome had, at some points, some extremely Not Safe for Work public entertainments.)
  • A number of costumes in Heroes Of Cosplay qualify.
  • Many outfits on both Dancing with the Stars and its sister show So You Think You Can Dance, especially the women's costumes although there are many shirtless scenes from the men to compensate.
  • Supergirl plays with this rather hypocritically. When trying on costumes in the first episode they bring her out in a crop-top and booty shorts which she rejects but the costume she settles on consists of a tight top, a short skirt, and hooker boots. The latter two combine for a Grade B Zettai Ryouiki.
  • On Shadowhunters, some of Isabelle's clothes are quite revealing, being skin tight and showing ample amounts of cleavage, legs, and abdomen. As Jace puts it, she's very comfortable in her body. Partway through season 1 however, pressure from her family to adopt a more responsible role as a diplomat and leader cause her to adopt a more conservative look.
  • Wonder Woman: To Wonder Woman, she wears an indestructible ambassadorial outfit that demonstrates her allegiance to freedom and democracy, a razor-sharp boomerang, a belt of strength, bullet-deflecting bracelets symbolizing her heritage, and the magic lasso of truth. To the rest of the world, she's a stunningly gorgeous woman in a strapless bathing suit, tiara, and bracelets.
  • Most of the wrestlers for the TNA editions of Family Feud at least wore a T-shirt even if the sleeves were cut off. Jay Lethal just wore a tiny set of trunks/speedos and a sleeveless robe with nothing to fasten the two sides of it together. It essentially covered nothing but his back and shoulders. While this would be par for the course on a pro wrestling show, it was actually commented on since the game show bills itself as "family friendly", though Lethal dressed the same way four out of five days anyway.
  • Ninja Warrior: In a Switzerland charity celebrity edition, Milo Moiré went through a course wearing nothing but a piece of tape between her legs, several other pieces of tape to support (but not cover) her chest, and shoes. She wanted to make a statement protesting censorship so she ran the game in as little of an outfit allowed that could still help her with the acrobatics.

    Magazines 

    Manhua 
  • Meibo's thief outfit from Infinity Game: a midriff-baring shirt, a bare back, and detached sleeves.
    Lu Xiao: "You're dressed like an exhibitionist."

    Music 
  • Lit: Miserable famously features Pamela Anderson as a giantess version of her V.I.P. character Val lounging around in a small, white bikini and strappy platform pumps while the band members hike all over her scantily-clad body.
  • Vocaloid:
    • Meiko has a tiny skirt and top, both of which seem to be made of leather.
    • Megurine Luka and Gumi don't have these qualities in their default outfits (unless you count Luka's side slit), but their alternate outfits leave them with bare midriffs and a large emphasis on the legs. Gumi Extend has a halter top (complete with underboob) and a very short skirt.
    • Hatsune Miku has a lot of alternate forms, some more revealing than others (hello, Miku Append). Special mention goes to her "race queen" look when she advertises for Good Smile Racing.
    • Lily's got a midriff-baring black top with strands where the sleeves should be.
    • Rin Kagamine also counts to some extent- her sleeveless shirt and shorts wouldn't look out of place on a girl her age, but when songs want to bring out her sex appeal, the shorts get shorter and her poses make her outfit downright provocative.
    • CUL, in her Vocaloid form, has very short shorts and a vest (but no shirt underneath).
    • On the Engloid side of things, there's Sonika and Lola (depending on the artist). Sweet Ann gets a stripperiffic form for her Taiwanese packaging as well.
  • Being a gravure model on the side, Super Sonico naturally has a few of these outfits as promotional wear. Her regular outfit is actually pretty modest; it only becomes sexual thanks to her large chest filling her shirt out.

    Myths & Religion 
  • The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey (founder of the Church of Satan) lays out the rules for clothes worn during a Satanic magical ritual. LaVey had some lingering 1960's sexism in his lines of thinking, regardless of his radical ideas. His writings often seem to give the impression that only men have a sex drive, and he reportedly expressed envy to a beautiful woman's ability to wrap men around her little finger:
    Black robes are worn by male participants. [...] Female participants wear garments which are sexually suggestive or all black clothing for older women. [...] Sexually appealing clothing is worn by women for the purpose of stimulating the emotions of the male participants, and thereby intensifying the outpouring of adrenal or bio-electrical energy which will ensure a more powerful working.

    Pinball 

    Podcasts 
  • In the Vikings world of Sequinox's Gemini arc, Chell and Hannah have "sexy Diablo III" Viking armour.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • This is one area where the men are more exposed than the women. About 80% of the male WWE roster only wrestle in trunks and boots. And about 98% wrestle shirtless, due to limits on how much skin women can show on television.
  • As applied to pro wrestling, this trope is Older Than They Think. When it first became televised in The '50s, there was definitely a Double Standard for the sexes in terms of how much skin could be shown. Female wrestlers wore the more traditional singlet, which bared their arms and legs but nothing else. In some regions they needed Painted-On Pants, depending on whether they prohibited skin exposure in certain areas or just in total. Male wrestlers, however, could strut around in bikini briefs and hardly anyone would think that was improper. It was the extra clothing Gorgeous George wore that made him Ambiguously Gay.
  • Women in WWE are almost always there to be Stripperiffic given that most of the WWE divas are former models. Maryse, LayCool, Gail Kim and Kelly Kelly are the most exposed although in recent years, this practice has been toned down considerably as current WWE female talents wear more modest ring attire these days.
  • The Beautiful People in TNA are practically built on this trope. Although Angelina Love always wore long pants, Velvet Sky, Madison Rayne, and Lacey Von Erich always wore as little as possible.
  • WWE used to have a habit of booking the divas in special costume themed matches that would require them to wrestle in various stripperiffic costumes such as a "School Girl Battle Royal", "Lingerie Pillow Fight" as well as various swimsuit matches.
  • WWE are pretty restricted on what they can do with these now that they've gone PG but that hasn't stopped them from trying, with facepalming results. A "Summer Breakout match" saw the divas wrestling in one-piece swimsuits. The Bella Twins, Maryse and Gail Kim were involved and were noticeably covered up a lot more than they would be in their usual ring gear.
  • Wrestlicious had all of its cast given sexy characters with an appropriately sexy costume to match. Notably Stripperiffic costumes came in the form of Autumn Frost, Cousin Cassie, Glory and Felony.
  • Of all wrestlers, no one is more well-known for this than Shawn Michaels. The man's entrance had him stripping to a song called "Sexy Boy" for nearly two decades. To say nothing of his WrestleMania XXV feud with The Undertaker, where Shawn basically became a stripping Kung-Fu Jesus.
  • Total Divas actually shows the behind the scenes side of this trope. Summer Rae and Eva Marie are frequently at odds with Sandra the seamstress - trying to get their outfits as sexy as possible while still conforming to WWE's PG restraints. Likewise Cameron wants Hotter and Sexier ring gear for The Funkadactyls - but disaster strikes when she doesn't get Naomi's measurements. Naomi then also subverts Buxom Beauty Standard as - while she is naturally well-endowed - she says she frequently has to worry about breasts and ass popping out if she goes too skimpy.
  • Women's wrestling gear in general will often have some sex appeal to it. Because of this trope, a lot of custom gear makers refuse to make gear for women. A few former WWE Divas - notably Trish Stratus and Kaitlyn have said that double-sided tape was a big help.
  • On the other side of things, it's incredibly common for women wrestlers, on the independent circuit especially, to wear multiple tops. While this can have effect of making breasts look bigger, its main purpose is usually to keep them from moving too much or coming out and encourages fans to wait for their fan service. "Portugal's Perfect Athlete" Shanna literally stripped on a WSU show for instance and collected tips from ringside fans.

    Radio 
  • From the Bob And Tom radio show: "It's Shirtless Girl!"

    Sports 
  • The outfits worm by female Beach Volleyball players seem to qualify; as their costumes generally consist of a sports-bra-style top and a bikini bottom. It's the only sport with a maximum coverage limitation. However, they are an aversion in that they are actually the more practical outfit to play in. They are easier to move in, reduce heat exhaustion, and longer clothing would trap sand. In fact, most women still wore bikinis even after the London 2012 Olympics loosened their clothing restrictions. Men, on the other hand, are required to wear shirts not out of any practical consideration, but to display their number and sponsors.
    • It's indoor cousin for women, while much more conservative in terms of skin coverage, still is no slouch when it comes to showing off the tall and shapely figures of its' players. For one, the bottom part is a set of shorts that border on being bloomers, the top is a shirt with extremely short sleeves that are a step from being a tanktop, and both are made of spandex. There is a reason why volleyball is advised for girls who'd like to take up a sport and want the Dude Magnet status.
  • Women's track-and-field athletic costumes became increasingly skimpy from the 1990s on, to the point of being little more than bikinis in some cases. The turning point was probably Florence Griffith-Joyner's asymmetric catsuit at the 1988 Olympics, which caused a bit of a scandal at the time but looks modest compared to what many athletes were wearing in 2012. Men's athletic costumes became if anything slightly-more body-covering over the same time period. However, like beach volleyball outfits, less clothing is actually better for track and field.
  • Male Olympic divers wear tight and tiny Speedos. Like the above examples, this is an aversion of the trope since the lack of clothing along with divers completely shaving off their chest hair is to improve their speed and flexibility in the air and upon entry into the water.
  • The Lingerie Football League is exactly what it sounds like. Women playing tackle football.
  • Subverted in sports such as rhythmic gymnastics or figure skating. The clothing looks Stripperiffic, but most of the athlete's body is actually covered with fabric whose colour matches her skin tone.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Scarred Lands: Justified: using arcane magic releases heat within the spellcaster's body, explaining the core rule systems ban on wizards using armor while also giving the caster the buff protection from cold with the side effect of making any heavy clothing really uncomfortable to wear. Some cultures embrace the skimpy garb this situation tends to require. Some wizards with more dignity slightly avoid the trope by wearing a loose robe over a more skimpy outfit, and simply doff the robe before a fight starts.
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • Many elves when they don't have to wear something more practical. Especially female Drow who seems to know only two sorts of clothes: quasi-magical chainmail plus cloak of near-invisibility and stunningly pimped out un-dress.
    • Forgotten Realms: For most elves clothes are only matter of convenience, at least when on their own (they tend to be uncomfortable with the sort of attention humans may display). Elminster in Myth Drannor featured some elven ladies "dressed" in a handful of enchanted gems glued to the skin in artistic patterns.
    • In 3.5 the drow have an excuse: In their society, the more you cover up, the more flaws and weaknesses you're perceived to be compensating for, to the point where wealthy and powerful drow only really wear clothes as something to hang expensive finery from. Drow of the Underdark actually addresses this in depth. It's common for drow girls to expose a lot of skin due to the above and Fanservice, but considering most females in drow society can protect themselves with magic, wearing a skimpy outfit is akin to announcing your spellcasting ability as well as confidence.
    • Dark Sun is made of this trope, for both males and females. Designers who'd worked on its initial development have openly admitted choosing a desert setting (as opposed to, for instance, an arctic one) because of the ample beef-and-cheesecake opportunities afforded by the artwork. Though in real deserts, people cover up to prevent dehydration and sunstroke.
    • Genasi, humanoids descended from elementals, often choose to leave parts of their bodies uncovered to show off the energy lines etching their bodies.
    • A partial answer for all of this can be found in the D&D novel/module/CRPG "Curse of the Azure Bonds" and its sequels. Alias prefers to wear a chainmail bikini in lieu of proper armor because of the high-level enchantment on it; the skimpy mail has a higher AC then her platemail due to the enchantment. Magical armor can be less about actual armor and more about magical force fields with the strips of metal/leather serving as something to bind the magic to. Of course, this doesn't apply to nonmagical armor...
  • Pathfinder: Justified Trope with the sorcerer iconic Seoni by simple Troperithmetic: Armor and Magic Don't Mix + Downplayed Vain Sorceress = Stripperiffic outfit.
  • Warhammer:
    • Daemonettes (Slaaneshi lesser daemons) are clad in bikinis made of pure chaos. Older versions of the models have loincloths and leather harnesses that leave their breasts completely exposed.
    • Warhammer Fantasy Battles: Witch elves and sorceresses of the dark elves typically only wear metal bikinis and loincloths and, in the witch elves' case, thigh-high boots.
    • Warhammer 40,000 has the Sisters Repentia, who wear little more than scraps of parchment covering key areas; and Dark Eldar Wytches, who are best described as wearing leather bikinis with armoured, high-heel boots. With the Sisters Repentia, it's justified by them being Death Seekers, and with the Wytches it's justified by them being gladiatrices in Commorragh, the Milky Way's ultimate wretched hive of scum and villainy. Any Wytch who isn't sexually appealing enough for the crowds inevitably gets stuck in a Hopeless Boss Fight at the arena.
  • Magic: The Gathering is occasionally guilty of this, especially when it regards angels. Mirrodin is generally the closest that Magic gets to a Stripperiffic setting — few of its inhabitants wear much more than loincloths — and even then it's somewhat played with: most organic beings on the plane — including people — are born with substantial metallic inclusions as part of their bodies, so the dichotomy separating clothing from bare "skin" isn't all that well-defined. (Does it count as nudity if you have a built-in Chainmail Bikini?)
  • Exalted features quite a few characters who have no taste for pants, such as Harmonious Jade (long loincloth), the Green Lady (a single long ribbon wound around her body), Sulamore the Wan Stravophore (stripper bondage nun gear), and Thousand-Faceted Nelumbo (often depicted wearing nothing but shoulder pads, knee pads, and a cape). Of course, they're all Exalted of various stripes, which means they get access to Perfect Defenses, things that allow you to dodge, parry or withstand any attack even if you're naked and just holding a dessert fork.
  • GURPS characters would ordinarily be at quite a disadvantage without armor. So if you want your Action Girl to be Stripperiffic anyhow, you are advised to play with the Bulletproof Nudity rule, giving a defense bonus for wearing fewer clothes.
  • Anima: Beyond Fantasy: A whole lot of the female characters are dressed like high-class call-girls, with plenty (well, relatively speaking) of leather, lace, and frills.
  • BattleTech: Pilots of Battlemechs go into combat wearing little more than a thin vest and shorty shorts. Justified, as the cockpit of a battlemech, can become lethally hot in combat due to Over Heating; the vests are laced with a network of cooling cables. Downplayed as the series moves on and Lost Technology is recovered, allowing full-body jumpsuits laced with new non-toxic coolant fluid.
  • Rocket Age: There are a number of incidents of this, but the best and most justified example is the Silthuri dueling vest, a set of armour designed to protect the groin, face, neck, inner things, wrists, and upper chest in a duel to determine first blood, but not meant to kill. Traditionally no other clothing is worn while dueling, leaving a lot on display.
  • The Spoils: All five Staple Resources feature women in tight and/or skimpy clothing.
  • Downplayed, but still present in Sentinels of the Multiverse because this is a comic book game and that sort of thing's a requirement. Almost none of the women are indecently dressed, but among the heroes, The Wraith's outfit has a cleavage window, the Visionary's various costumes are essentially corsets with a belly-button window, Tachyon's default costume only covers one shoulder, Expatriette bares her middriff, and Unity's wearing a very short tank top. Of the men, Haka and Ra are bare-chested. For the most part, the villains avert this, although Ermine does wear an outfit that exposes a fair bit of cleavage, Friction has a bare shoulder in a deliberate mirror of Tachyon and Fright Train's outfit is basically a pair of pants and his mask. Parodied with Guise's Total Beefcake card, which depicts him in a bikini — which is worn over his normal superhero tights. Which are, in fact, part of his shapeshifted skin. Guise is weird.

    Theater 

    Toys 
  • Struts are horse fashion model dolls that dress like 19th-century hookers.

    Web Comics 
  • No longer active, but there's a webcomic out there named Chainmail Bikini. Which became an Artifact Title when the character died (and the player opted to roll up a new character instead of accepting a resurrection), but the titular object certainly fit the concept; it offered a slight charisma bonus at the expense of reduced AC. On a paladin.
  • Completely averted in Chasing the Sunset. All the female characters wear practical everyday clothing which generally bares just the arms and lower legs. Clothing for special events is slightly more revealing; clothing for combat is heavier.
  • In C Karrus Juline's clothes don't cover much, and several other characters including background characters don't wear a lot either, while some are completely nude. Nudity appears to not be a taboo in this world for men or women alike.
  • Averted Cwynhild's Loom. Women on Mars dress modestly, and Cwyn dresses more like the male characters.
  • When Sam and Jan of Day by Day aren't wearing really tight and short dresses they're in spandex exercise outfits, bikinis or their undies.
  • Dungeon Damage has Cat, a rich Spoiled Brat and part-time thrillseeking thief who dresses outrageously (by Medieval Venician standards) but finds that what looks good isn't very practical, as when she winds up on a mountaintop in a blizzard in a midriff-and-cleavage baring vest.
  • In Endstone, played with because the years have not been kind to Matilda. Also, Colindra has become "stripperiffic" after many years have passed.
  • Golden Jane and Iron Jane from Everyday Heroes. Lampshaded in this strip.
  • Freakangels has Arkady... who is bald, and wears a loose as hell white tank top, is barefoot, and for a bottom, wears a see-thru long patchwork skirt with no underwear. Her vagina isn't drawn in, but one of the other characters does finally comment on it saying, "I wish you'd put something on under that..." In volume 2 and onward, Arkady now wears a tighter tank top and panties under her see-thru patchwork skirt. It was actually a bunch of fans that requested the change, as it made them uneasy.
  • Zeetha from Girl Genius. Lampshaded when she decides to instruct Agatha in the warrior's art, dressing her in the skimpy novice's costume. And it's a cold morning. But Agatha soon has other things to worry about.
  • Many male and female characters in Glorianna dress this way, including a few who probably shouldn't.
  • The majority of Steely Dan's outfits from How to Raise Your Teenage Dragon. Though it's less sexy and more straight-up creepy…
  • Kagerou: "Quick topic change, but do you own any pants that actually cover your ass?"
  • Distracterella from the League of Super Redundant Heroes has the ability to be distracting as her superpower. Part of it manifests in her costume, which is effectively black latex Body Paint with 3 brightly colored stars acting as Censor Boxes — in effect, she is drawn nude except for said stars. Amusingly, about the only one the power works on is the reader, it's not shown to do anything in-universe other than making her Ms. Fanservice. And in an amusing case of I Knew It! — it is not effectively black latex body paint, it is body paint, something that was not spelled out (and was a plot twist) until after this entry was added.
  • The booth babes at the mad scientist conference in Narbonic: Three are shown in various degrees of skimpy outfit, then "Look - Gluon Girl! Her name describes the amount of clothing she wears and the way she wears it!"
  • Engie-tan of Nerf NOW!! has some major wardrobe malfunctions. Actually, that goes for any of the female characters.
  • The Order of the Stick:
  • Pinky, the title girl from Pinky TA, wears nothing but a short tank top, a belt, and a black thong.
  • RPG World: Lampshaded very nicely in this strip.
  • Sandra on the Rocks is a comedy (and sometimes a Sex Comedy) about the world of modeling, so stripperific costumes are sometimes more or less justified:
    • The costumes which Tatiana wears in her fantasies, and presumably sometimes in her private life, are doubtless appropriate for their purpose — but that makes them pretty stripperific.
    • The swimsuits that Senna models in an early scene are definitely better adapted for flaunting it than for swimming, though that could be classed as Truth in Television for high-fashion swimwear.
    • Sandra's "Carmen Chamelia" (video game character) costume requires double-sided tape to keep it on her boobs.
    • Adrienne and Adrianne's idea of appropriate clubbing costumes look like they require special engineering and a lot of depilation.
  • Huang Gai in San: Three Kingdoms Comic... always appears completely butt naked. When Art Evolution kicks in and he is changed into his Dynasty Warriors 6 attire, he still has time to make his lower half completely Stripperiffic too.
  • Parodied in the Sluggy Freelance story arc "Years of Yarncraft", where Zoe is upset that every single female character design in an MMORPG is petite, well-endowed, and wears a Stripperiffic outfit... even the slime monsters.
  • Most of the female heroes' and sidekicks' costumes in Sidekicks. The villain Iblis probably wins with her Navel-Deep Neckline outfit though.
  • The title character from Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki wears clothes that look like they're painted on... because they're alive. Sort of. Also, Freya wears clothing into combat that must be glued on.
  • The impracticality of the trope is lampshaded on this page of Spinnerette.
  • Also satirized in Supermegatopia, in which a group of former superheroes and superheroines with names like "Topless Lass", "The Tease", and "Long Tom" form the All-Stripper Squadron and use their powers in a more profitable manner than fighting crime.
  • This is very common with superheroine outfits in Sidekick Girl, since the Most Common Superpower is a job requirement. Protagonist Val is an exception- she doesn't have a sexy body to show off and usually wears civilian clothes when patrolling.
  • Moira Weir in Tales Of Gnosis College wears a swimsuit that surely counts as such. And soon, she loses even that.
  • Deconstructed and reconstructed in this Oglaf comic, while invoking Armor Is Useless as the reason.
  • Terinu's females are sensibly dressed most of the time. Then there's Ninetta, a six-foot-tall alien who likes to walk around in daisy dukes, crop tops and bare foot whenever she can get away with it. Also there's Gwen, who favors tight jeans and crop tops as well, though she is fifteen and a stereotypical fashion obsessed teenager. Even she draws the line when she's made a slave girl and forced to wear an "Exotic Dancer Barbie" outfit though.
  • The title character of The Challenges of Zona's usual outfit is a leather version of Red Sonja's chainmail bikini plus a gold torc. Her sister Tula dresses comparatively modest in a halter top and tight pants with cutouts but still qualifies IMHGO.
  • The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! has Princess Voluptua, whose outfit is a thong-leotard with gloves and boots.
  • Too Much Information (2005): The protagonist's shoulder devil, Cleo, is a sexy demoness covered only by long tresses of flaming hair. His shoulder angel, Spooky, "copes" by switching to a feather bikini.
  • Dagger of Everblue is a well-known bounty hunter who goes around in a bikini top, a skirt, a pair of shin guards with attached sheaths for her knives, and bare feet. One could argue that wearing an outfit like that would probably make you well-known no matter what your job is.
  • Mage & Demon Queen: Velverosa's standard outfit looks like leather BDSM gear. Strangely enough, she's rather prudish compared to Malori or Melathia.

    Web Original 
  • Sarah references this in the lonelygirl15 video "Am I A Criminal?": "If you're gonna B&E, you wanna bring the T&A!"
  • Fauxtivational Poster: "Pray the archers aim for the shiny parts." And many, many others as well.
  • In The Guild, Codex and Tinkerballa dress quite normally. Their avatars on the other hand.... Tink also wears a bikini in the opening episode of the final season. Then there's this video
  • In the Whateley Universe, Mega-Girl wears a teeny Supergirl/Power Girl kind of costume that shows off a ton of skin. And she wears it almost all the time. Phase has seen her studying in her dorm room, in her costume. There's a reason why.
    • The first few costumes which THE CRIMSON COMET!!! designs for herself have this characteristic, as well, for basically the same reason - but Cecelia is even younger than most WA students, so she hasn't picked up any subtlety or discretion (or even much basic common sense) yet.
    • The first supervillain which Phase gets into a fight with, Sparkler, was a recent Whateley graduate who had gone for what was described as "the tackiest supervillainess costume since Cruella’s famous ‘dominatrix who accidentally spilled out of her bustier while battling Ms. Might on national television’ outfit".
    • Costumes of this sort are pretty common in general, as it a) fits most people's general impression of a superheroine, and b) feeds into the egos of (often Formerly Fat) teenaged girls who suddenly developed the Most Common Superpower without the maturity to see that it wasn't necessarily a great thing. This is lampshaded repeatedly, like the time Gloriana had to wear her costume in Boston in the middle of winter, and discovered one of the downsides to an outfit that's basically a maillot and boots.
    • There are classes on costume design and such at Whateley Academy. They're taught by a little old lady in a floor-length dress and a shawl. While she does state that superhero/villain costumes should be flattering (even suggesting that heroines and villainesses ought to Show Some Leg), she come strongly down on practicality/protection first and foremost. This doesn't stop students from coming up with awful costumes of this type.
  • Parodied in Picnicface's NFL Crunchtime video. "Choose your cheerleaders' outfits on a sliding scale of lewdness!"
  • Immersion tested what would happen to two women who actually tried fighting in video game costumes. A male equivalent was also provided but he never seemed to get past being prepped by one of the female techs.
  • The electrified-whip wielding heroine Lilywatt from the blog-novel Flyover City! eventually goes undercover as a stripper (but only because the plot demanded she do so).
  • One DeviantArt artist's examples of male and female human fighters
  • In a male example, The Nostalgia Critic has a teensy skirt on in Suburban Knights. The man has fantastic legs, but Lupa needs to teach him how to bend like a lady and in battle he's desperately trying to stop it riding up.
  • Buzzfeed put together a rare example that also includes males in the amusingly-named "13 Times People Barely Wore Clothes To The VMAs." "(NSFWish outfits)"
  • Scarlet in Fallout: Nuka Break get several stripperiffic outfits throughout the series. In the original movie it's a midriff-baring top and short-shorts. Through the first season and first half of the second it's a different midriff baring top with tight pants before switching to a pimped out, by Wasteland standards anyway wedding dress with seriously low cleavage.
  • Averted in Noob, that mostly happens inside a MMORPG. It may have something to do with the fact that the actors of the original webseries have to shoot actual fighting scenes while wearing the costumes. A nod is made to the existence of such outfits in a Season 1 episode, during which the then-only female character doesn't seem to like the idea of wearing one very much. Some the comic's background characters prove the trope is actually alive and well for some of the game's female avatars.
  • In DEATH BATTLE!'s "Rogue vs. Wonder Woman" match, this is argued as a disadvantage for Wonder Woman, as Rogue possesses the ability to steal powers on skin contact and Wonder Woman quite famously wears a very revealing outfit. Sure enough, because there's no preparation time or pre-fight knowledge in Death Battles, Wonder Woman doesn't know about Rogue's power and easily falls victim to this, allowing Rogue to kill her.
  • In If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device, all the Custodes are this, even Little Kitten at one time. The least clothed being the trio called the Fabulous Custodes (Karstodes, Custodisi, and Whammudes) wear only loincloths, helmets, and a hearty amount of body oil, though one based on Diavolo (named in the credits as Diavodes) at least wears a pair of pants.
  • The Key of Awesome. The buxom Space Girl wears Sensual Spandex Space Clothes with Cleavage Window. As her ship's computer has a lesbian crush on her, it recommends a wardrobe change before she goes to meet an alien ambassador.
  • Shagahol, a creation of Rapscallion Games features most people in states of serious undress. Aside from the very large variance of body types that include absolutely massive genitalia and the very sex-positive culture of the surface world, it is revealed that cloth typically comes from various insects and arachnids. Cloth can come from cottonbugs that produce so little silk 300 are needed to run a clothing store, or silkspiders, which are so dangerous the reader learns of them from a logbook where the writer was the only survivor of a party of six.
  • Parodied in Society of Virtue, where Majestic stubbornly insists on going into battle in a costume that barely covers anything because she resents her male teammates' efforts to advise her on a more conservative costume.
  • "I'm Starting to question my choice of attire" is a good example of why this is a bad idea.
  • In SMPLive, Cooper's server cop outfit is a rare male example, and Played for Laughs — his outfit features short shorts, thigh highs, and garter straps.

    Western Animation 
  • Very common in Filmation cartoons. At least one of the lead female characters and one of the female villains would use this kind of revealing and impractical attire including: Futura (hero) and Aparitia (villain) in Filmation's Ghostbusters, Teela (hero) and Evil-Lynn (villain) in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Dale (hero, after she’s put in Ming’s Harem) and Princess Aura (villain) in Flash Gordon (1979).
  • The title character of Æon Flux. Her usual costume is a black vinyl sports bra, a matching chastity belt, and thigh-high stripper boots. And there's ample evidence that all Monicans dress this way. A woman attending the 2011 Comic Con was asked to leave by police because her Aeon Flux costume was illegal! (it showed too much butt). She changed into a latex Star Wars uniform instead.
  • Francine's dance dress in the American Dad! episode "Old Stan in the Mountain" is very revealing. Indeed she is visibly embarrassed when Roger take her to a funeral instead of a dance competition while wearing her ridiculous costume.
    [Roger and Francine walk into the funeral, and receive glares from all those in attendance]
    Francine: Why is everybody staring at us?
    Roger: Maybe 'cause we're at a funeral and you got your 'taters out.
  • Fire Nation clothing for girls in Avatar: The Last Airbender seems to be default. See Ty Lee's normal outfit and Katara's Season 3 outfit, as well as Suki's in the later half of Season 3.
    • This can at least be somewhat justified by season 3 taking place in the summer and that the fire nation seems to have a more tropical climate than the other nations.
    • Also, the Fire Nation itself is on a series of volcanic islands, some still active. Most of the mainland is taken up by the large volcano in the middle. It's gotta be pretty hot.
  • On Duck Dodgers, the Martian Queen wears a metal bra, an incredibly sheer skirt, slit up the side to show off her gams, and absolutely no evidence of the standard bikini bottoms that usually accompany such a sci-fi outfit.
  • Futurama:
    • Whenever Amy Wong is wearing something other than her default sweatsuit, it's usually pretty stripperiffic; while Leela typically inverts the trope by dressing fairly conservatively. Reversed in "Jurassic Bark", where Leela and Amy are wearing exercise gear: Amy's is a conservative leotard-and-tights outfit; but Leela's is a seriously skimpy black leotard consisting mostly of narrow straps and large cut-outs. Her attempt to tear it off later in the episode gives a nice Underboobs effect.
    • Leela's superhero outfit as Clobberella in "Less Than Hero" also qualifies; and is suitably lampshaded.
      Turanga Munda: You're a superhero? Well that's wonderful! But did you have to make the costume so revealing?
    • A pair of random pedestrians in the first episode, as Fry goes flying out of the transport tube and hits a building. The couple in question are both wearing what looks to be laminated plastic, fully clear except for the black stripes covering their inappropriate parts.
      • Speaking of which, there are apparently black bar generators that create... floating black bars so that blurnsball players don't have to cover up while in the locker room.
  • The Justice League has the in-universe media give Wonder Woman flack for her armor, which admittedly does show a lot of skin.
  • The Mask gives us Cookie BaBoom and her suicide belt bikini she uses in her plot to assassinate Mayor Tilton - and then the Mask gives her a much needed Shameful Strip.
  • Being a robot, Jenny from My Life as a Teenage Robot doesn't actually wear clothes, but her design is meant to look like she's wearing a (very short) crop top, miniskirt, and boots.
  • Brenda from Perfect Hair Forever, as a parody of female anime leads falling under the trope, wears a Sailor Fuku that's at her waist. And nothing "under" that skirt save for a very small white thong.
  • Alice May as Obliteratrix in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. She was wearing a high-tech black leather dominatrix-type of costume arranged in rings around her body.
  • Spoofed and lampshaded in The Simpsons in their parody of Fantastic Voyage. Homer, Bart and Lisa all have standard scuba diving suits - while Marge's is a bikini that pushes up her boobs. She complains about hers being more revealing than everyone else's; Homer explains that's what turns a mediocre voyage into a fantastic voyage. Later on she also suffers Clothing Damage when white blood cells attack her, noting that "at least they know when to stop".
  • The first outfit of Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars: The Clone Wars consisted of a tiny tube-top, and a short skirt. Her second out-fit is much more reserved, but still is a Sexy Backless Outfit, with a Cleavage Window, and her tights have diamond shaped cutouts on their outer sides.
  • Stan Lee's Stripperella. What can be more Stripperiffic than an actual stripper who dresses like a stripper to fight crime? Plus, as she keeps reminding us, she's impervious to all temperatures and weather conditions.
  • Many of the girls in Total Drama dress rather immodestly for teenage girls and impractically for contestants on a Survivor-style reality show. The biggest examples are probably Heather, Izzy, Katie, and Sadie, who show off far more skin than any of the others. It's pretty clearly for the sake of fanservice, since many of the girls who aren't supposed to be appealing to men (like Beth, Eva, Jo, and Staci) dress more sensibly.
  • Who cares that they're robots a minimum of 10 feet tall? With Transformers like Elita One, Arcee and Blackarachnia, you can still see exactly where their clothes would be. Even though, being robots, they don't actually wear clothes. Hell, G1 Arcee has more armour on her shoulders than she has on her legs. This gets taken to disturbing extents in the comics — Chromia at one point has a molded thong on her body. Also, Thunderblast of Transformers: Cybertron.
    • Ah, Thunderblast... fun fact- the animators rendered a set of human breasts as part of the CGI model even though they aren't seen... well, except for a few frames here and there that got slipped in.
  • The Venture Brothers:
    • Dr. Mrs. The Monarch's prototype outfit. Lampshaded twice by The Monarch, who even points out Theiss Titillation Theory, and her Murderous Moppets who exclaim how they love hugging her in her new costume.
      • When asked if she's afraid of, ahem, "spilling out" of her costume, Dr. Mrs. The Monarch notes that her breasts are taped to the costume.
    • Compared to her old Queen Etherea costume, it's almost modest.
    • The aptly-named Molotov Cocktease, whose outfit has a breast-baring and ass-baring slit up the front and back. Then again, her "off-duty" fashion sense doesn't scream subtle either.
  • From Wakfu, Amalia's attire for trekking all over the world consists of a flower in her hair, a small top baring her midriff, plus a tiny skirt and leg warmers apparently made of leaves (with no shoes). Granted, most of her people, the Sadida, doesn't wear much (maybe they need it for photosynthesis?). However, Amalia is otherwise supposed to be a fashion-conscious princess, but never keeps new clothes. And if that wasn't Stripperiffic, there was an episode where they went shopping. The outfit was covered by the scenery but Eva refers to Amalia's new outfit as "revealing".
  • The Winx Club girls' outfits fall under this, especially the Enchantix costumes. Oddly, season four's Believix costumes cover more, but some of the girl's casual clothes are quite risque. And then, in the second half of the same season, the Sophix transformation gives them more revealing outfits once again. Just look at Flora. Her top looks like a couple of leaves sewn together, and it's backless! And the only thing holding down Aisha's miniskirt is magic. Averted with Musa, whose Sophix covers more than any of their other outfits (with her enchantix being the most revealing).
    • Tecna's outfits have gotten progressively more Stripperiffic as the series went on, starting out with a full bodysuit, then a pretty, sort of tech-looking tube top and skirt, and now her even less covering Sophix (the outfits have also gotten less sci-Fi looking, which is odd since she is a fairy whose element is technology. The last one even has flowers on it!
    • Stella's first "everyday" outfit (Season One and at least half of Season Two) was worse. Her skirt was just barely long enough to cover her crotch, and her shirt looked like a bikini top with a collar, albeit one that had torn and needed to be tied together to keep her breasts from showing (since there was really no way she was hiding a bra underneath it). And this was something she wore at some point in almost every episode too. Apparently, the artists eventually realized this because every main outfit for Stella afterwards up until season six was a mini-dress. Now, in season six, her main outfit is a skirt, seemingly only to fit in with the "school uniform" style.
    • For the Trix, the "Disenchantix" form in Season 3. They wears swimsuit-like outfits with some sort of color trims, boots, semi-transparent shawls wrapped around their hips with bands around their left mid-thighs.
    • Later seasons tone this down, as the characters wear more modest clothing.
  • Considering it was a kids' cartoon, X-Men: The Animated Series allowed some characters to get pretty darn Stripperiffic, and combined it with some great angles.
    • It didn't help that the coloring of Jean Grey's outfit made it sometimes hard to know which part were skin and which part were from the outfit.
    • Neither did the coloring for Sabretooth's outfit. Half the time it looked like he was plain moonlighting us.
    • In Wolverine and the X-Men (2009), Emma Frost surprisingly survives Adaption Decay in almost every possible way... including her extremely revealing outfit. Plus, she has a sexy British Accent to boot. God bless them.

    Real Life 
  • This trope seems to be something of a tradition at the MTV Video Music Awards.
  • Celtic Warriors, at least according to Roman accounts often went into battle naked and painted with woad. (This served a practical purpose: it freaked the Romans out. In addition, if fibers get into an open wound, it gets really easily infected. No clothing, no fibers. No fibers, no infection.)
    • Woad is highly irritating, has only been associated with the ancient Celts since 17th century English authors made up that bit of fantasy, and the Romans borrowed chainmail from the Celts.
    • The Maori do one better. Maori men not only went into battle naked, but considered an erection a sign of courage.
  • Tactical Corsets. Strictly speaking they are not Stripperiffic in themselves, but they do combine two pieces of club fetish wear (tactical vests and corsets) into a single piece.
  • Ancient Minoan dresses were topless by default. To be more descriptive, the most common costumes for Minoan females consisted of two types: an every-day dress that consisted of a full, ankle-length skirt, and a loose, short-sleeved blouse which was fully open in the front; and a ceremonial dress consisting of a long, mulch-layered skirt, and a tight bodice cut to fully expose the breasts. Minoan women apparently didn't believe in hiding their assets.
    • Minoan men hardly fared better. The common male garment consisted of a short white woolen kilt, often worn with a prominent codpiece. And that's pretty much it, except for an optional woolen cloak in inclement weather.
  • Those who thought that people of recent history were uniformly prudish lot should see 18th century women's fashion that was imitated across Europe. Plunging necklines were a major part of the period fashion, and at times it deliberately left one, or even both nipples bare. Compare this to the attitude people had to Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction. Or take a look at representations of Marianne, the spirit of The French Revolution, as she would typify this look. It would not have been too remarkable at the time.
  • Amusingly, lighter-skinned strippers generally avert this, dressing very modestly when off work, so as to avoid developing tan lines.
  • Superhero costume found in stripper supply store.
  • Halloween costumes for young adults, and young women in particular, have increasingly taken on these characteristics since the Turn of the Millennium, to the point where some critics (and/or fans) of the practice have come to satirically dub the holiday "Slutoween". Mocked in this graphic from The Onion.
  • Women's rave outfits once involved bright T-shirts and baggy pants, but now are likely to include things like string bikinis and pasties.


Alternative Title(s): Stripperific, A Fighter Not A Stripper, Too Skimpy For The Job, Nothing Left To The Imagination, Stripperriffic, Impractically Sexy Clothes, Impractically Sexy Outfit, Impractically Skimpy Clothes, Impractically Skimpy Outfit

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Tomo Kajiura

"Oh for heaven's sake girl, go and put something warm on."

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5 (2 votes)

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