What's the difference between GenderRestrictedAbility and GirlPowered?

What's the difference between Gender-Restricted Ability and Girl Powered?

Is it that Girl Powered is for abilities that are gender restricted, but only one gender is the holder a special ability, and that Gender Restricted Ability is when both genders have special abilities, and the abilities of each gender are made as counterparts to the other gender's power?

So, the opening quote of Gender Restricted Ability would seem to be better for Girl Powered?

edited 15th Mar '17 9:17:50 PM by Malady

Girl Powered is for items that will only work for a female.

Gender-Restricted Ability is for any power or ability that can only be used or is only held by someone of a particular gender but not by someone of any other gender. (For instance, in the Warlock series by Christoffer Stasheff, the espers of Grammarye have Gender-Restricted Ability: males can teleport and levitate themselves and other things but females can't; females can move things telekinetically but males can't. This means males can fly, but females, to achieve the same result, have to ride something that they can telekinetically move — like a broom.)

edited 30th Nov '16 7:12:10 PM by Madrugada

So, is Girl Powered connected to Gender-Restricted Gear?

They're both about gender restricting use of equipment... Is Gender-Restricted Gear the video game version of Girl Powered or something?

The description of Girl Powered claims it's about items. The examples are wider than that. Quite likely a bunch of shoehorns that better fit other tropes.

Gender-Restricted Gear is specifically a video game trope.

Gender-Restricted Ability is about a specifc ability of some sort.

Overall I find it an odd collection of similar tropes. Could perhaps use some redefining and streamlining.

I've always wondered why someone with that power doesn't just levitate her clothes.

Grammarye? Women can't levitate. They can move things. So they move the broomstick and ride along. Besides, levitating your clothes would result in either falling out of them (literally) if they're loose, or all sorts of uncomfortable binding (if they're tight)

edited 30th Nov '16 7:53:22 PM by Madrugada

I'm pretty sure I could figure out something more practical and comfortable than that.

Clothes would be a poor choice because normal day-to-day clothes would get ruined quickly, and be all kinds of uncomfortable.

... but why not levitate your shoes, then? You can essentially give yourself an invisible skyboard! Radical!

Gender-Restricted Gear does not say it's specifically a video game trope. Why would it be such? Because nobody has added any other examples?

I'd say Girl Powered is Same But More Specific of Gender-Restricted Gear and/or Gender-Restricted Ability.

Okay, should any of those tropes be merged or something?

Okay...

So, Gender-Restricted Ability's definition is gender-restriction of "magic or superpowers", or something like them, but they must be inherent?

Gender-Restricted Gear is a Sister Trope to Gender-Restricted Ability, which is for equipment only, but not videogame-only, which differs from the latter because its usually unrealistic, since in Real Life, swords, for example, can be used by both men and women, regardless of color.

Presumably, both of those might occur if there is some equipment that only one gender can use because it is powered by a gendered ability, so they don't have a supertrope-subtrope relationship.

Girl Powered, is a Sub-Trope of Gender-Restricted Gear where only girls can use some equipment, but differentiated from Gender-Restricted Gear because the girl-ness is integral to powering the gear.

So, a video game where only girls can wear dresses, would be Gender-Restricted Gear, but not Girl Powered, because presumably there is no Flavor Text or anything that says that the dress has some power that can only be activated by girls.

edited 17th Mar '17 8:24:44 AM by Malady

Your first point: It's right in the names: an "Ability" is just that — an ability. It's something that the character can do or be, or a quality or attribute they can have. "Gear" is "things" —costumes, weapons, tools, pets... things. The effect may be the same, but the difference is in whether it's a thing or an ability.

• Telepathy is an Ability. A locket that allows you to read minds is Gear. In the Darkover novels, "laran" is an Ability, but the matrix stones that focus and help control laran are Gear.
• Speed is an Ability. Seven-league boots are Gear.
• Casting fireballs is an Ability, unless you need a ring or wand or staff to do it. Then the ring, or wand, or staff is Gear.

Yes, but. It's "powered by or functional only in conjunction with". In Andre Norton's Witchworld, only women have the Ability to do magic. They typically use a crystal pendant to amplify and control it; they can do magic without a pendant, but it's more difficult and less effective. The pendant won't do anything for a male, because males can't do magic. And the pendants aren't "powered by" magic. So the pendants are Gender-Restricted Gear used in conjunction with a Gender-Restricted Ability.

edited 17th Mar '17 9:57:33 AM by Madrugada