History Main / WouldntHitAGirl

* Mondo Oowada from DanganRonpa states early on that he can't hit women. [[spoiler: This seemingly makes him far less likely to have been Fujisaki's murderer...until you find out that [[WholesomeCrossdresser Fujisaki doesn't quite count.]]]]

* Mondo Oowada from DanganRonpa states early on that he can't hit women. [[spoiler: This seemingly gets him off the hook for murdering Fujisaki...until you find out that [[WholesomeCrossdresser Fujisaki doesn't quite count.]]]]

* Mondo Oowada from DanganRonpa states early on that he can't hit women. [[spoiler; This seemingly gets him off the hook for murdering Fujisaki...until you find out that [[WholesomeCrossdresser Fujisaki doesn't quite count.]]]]

* In ''Manga/{{Bakuman}}'', when Miyoshi demands that Mashiro and Takagi let her into their office, Takagi reluctantly decides to answer the door, saying that she would beat him up later. He says that he would fight back and win, but can't because she's a girl, and Mashiro doubts this statement.

* ''[[Comicbook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]]'': In a 1970s comic, the Marvel Family storms Hell itself. They fight various mythological monsters there; when they run into Lamia, neither Billy nor Freddy dare hit her, despite her being a half-snake monster. Luckily they brought Mary Marvel along. * Pow*

* In ''Comicbook/{{Asterix}} and the Secret Weapon'' The villain attempts to use this trope to defeat the invincible-yet-honourable Gauls - by employing a whole ''centuria'' of women to fight them. The gauls respond by transforming their village into a giant mall. The "trap" succeeds flawlessly;

* Subverted in ''AWorldGoneMad''. {{Jerkass}} AntiHero Griffin, when confronted by teen ActionGirl Tanya, raises his hands and tells her "I'd never hit a girl." He then promptly whips out his gun and shoots her in the head while she's occupied preparing to give him a "you sexist idiot" speech.

* Hilariously averted on an episode of ''Wrestling/WWERaw'' where Wrestling/SantinoMarella, Wrestling/BethPhoenix, JBL, and Wrestling/RandyOrton are all arguing before Wrestling/{{Batista}} comes out and challenges Santino, JBL, and Randy to a fight at the same time. He then apologizes and tells Beth Phoenix he'd gladly kick her ass too. After Santino comes at Batista and gets dropped, Beth slaps him and gets slammed on top of Santino.
** This might be considered one of those "Chyna exemption" moments, because Phoenix is in incredible shape, certainly by Characters/WWEDivas standards. (Her nickname is "The Glamazon"-- the glamorous Amazon.)
** Also as much a part due to her training and background. Unlike even the most athletic of her contemporaries who may be at best, fitness models, dancers, or gymnasts, Wrestling/BethPhoenix has a background in collegiate wrestling. As a result, it's something of a truth in television that she's generally tougher than the other women. On the flip side, it also means her matches tend to be fairly lopsided since a dancer or model isn't likely to be willing to actually engage in any real wrestling beyond basic bumps.

** There are occasional true intergender matches, where men can fight women, but they're rare and usually handled badly.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}'' allows you to hit girls, but your alert bar goes to maximum and prefects spawn out of nowhere to attack you. Enforced, since it's a Western game, after all. This has a side-effect of turning Zoe [[spoiler: who doesn't appear until very late in the game and fills the conspicuously-empty Bully clique girl's slot]] into a FauxActionGirl, because although she's stated to a formidable fighter and really likes to fight, you can't fight her; the girl-type AI has them run away if struck.

** Subverted early in the JohnByrne reboot: Superman faces a gang which includes a violent, glasses-wearing, heavily armed female member spouting revolutionary phrases. She tries the double-powered "You wouldn't hit a lady with ''glasses'', would you?". Superman gently removes her glasses and flicks his finger on her forehead, knocking her cold. He then says, "A lady? No, but then I've never met a ''lady'' who carries dynamite under her coat."

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* In ''Literature/TheSilverChair Prince Rilian can only fight the witch once she [[ScaledUp turns into a snake]] because he can't hurt a woman. Possible overlap with WhatMeasureIsANonHuman.

* A metaphorical example: ''[[Serjes/TheGruenTransfer Gruen Nation]]'' commented, that in the leadup to [[UsefulNotes/AustralianPolitics the 2010 Australian Election]], the Coalition seemed unwilling to run ads attacking Prime Minister Julia Gillard herself, as opposed to the Labor Party (albeit probably more because they were worried about how the public would react than any moral qualms on their own part). It was only near the end of the campaign, as things got increasingly frenetic, that ads attacking Julia Gillard appeared.

When applied to ordinary [[BarBrawl bar fights]], schoolyard throwdowns, [[LetsFightLikeGentlemen duels of honor]] and so on, the trope is well-meaning if sexist (against both [[MenAreTheExpendableGender men]] and [[StayInTheKitchen women]], albeit in different ways). However, when characters keep invoking it in situations where their female opponent poses a serious threat that might only be preventable by violence, [[HonourBeforeReason it quickly becomes absurd]]. The [[SlidingScaleofCynicismVersusIdealism cynical]] might point out that, rather than being motivated by pure nobility of spirit, this philosophy functions as a convenient way for the male character to avoid [[IWasBeatenByAGirl the humiliation of being beaten by a woman]]; if he refuses to fight against women, there's no way for a woman to ever prove she could defeat him at his full strength.

*** This gets [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]] in his fight with Kalifa, who beats him up, [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech and then lectures Sanji on how idiotic his moral code is.]]

* In ''Film/RomeoMustDie'', [[JetLi Han]] is attacked by a female assailant but can't bring himself to hit her. So he fights back by holding his love interest [[{{Aaliyah}} Trish]] and manipulating her arms and legs so that ''she's'' technically the one beating up the attacker. This scene inspired the famous dance between the pair in Aaliyah's music video for "Try Again".

* ''Film/GhostDogTheWayOfTheSamurai'' plays with this trope. Louie, despite being a mobster, won't take any action%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1348962188099600100
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[[quoteright:349:[[Webcomic/{{Loserz}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_hitagirlloserz_2523.png]]]]

- against a female [[MeddlesomePatrolman traffic cop]] who pulled him over for speeding, even though she's needlessly holding him up from attempting to get his dying friend Vinny to the hospital. Vinny, however, (who is also a mobster) [[WouldHitAGirl doesn't even hesitate to shoot her]]. When a horrified Louie calls him on it, Vinny responds by saying that he's just treating her like he would any other cop.

* ''Film/SuddenDeath'' features a brutal fight to the death between JeanClaudeVanDamme 's character and a female assassin, which ends with the villain being simultaneously strangled and boiled alive.
* In the ''{{Thunderbirds}}'' live action movie, Parker says he won't hit a woman when confronted with The Hood's female sidekick. Luckily Tin Tin is there to do it for him.

* Played completely straight in another of DavidWeber's book series, the ''Literature/HellsGate'' series where both empires have big, big issues with harming women.

* In ''[[TheChroniclesOfNarnia The Silver Chair]] Prince Rilian can only fight the witch once she [[ScaledUp turns into a snake]] because he can't hurt a woman. Possible overlap with WhatMeasureIsANonHuman.

* ''KamenRider'' Comes up from time to time in the old generation shows. The very first could fight women, but he had some issues with it. Fast forward to Decade, and we have a female Rider being summoned to fight off KamenRiderBlack, since he's 'too honorable to hit a woman'.

* A thug in the ''{{Lewis}}'' episode "Old School Ties": "He said he wanted me to give a student a slapping; he never said it was a woman. I mean, I'll give anyone a slapping, but never a woman."

* Another amusing subversion occurs in ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}'' when Vala punches Daniel then exclaims "You hit me!" when he returns the favor. He exasperatedly points out "''You'' hit ''me''!"
* In ''TheCityHunter'' [[VigilanteMan Yun Sung]] runs into this trope when he has to fight a target's female bodyguard. He manages to [[ImprovisedWeapon improvise]] his tie into a noose and take her out without hitting her.

*** There is also a sunday strip where Violet is annoying Linus, and she taunts about not being able to hit a girl. Linus then wants to throw something at her, but Charlie Brown chides Linus about how he is not allowed to hurt girls, to where Linus decides to slug Charlie Brown instead.

* ''The Adventures of Batman & Robin'' made by {{Konami}} and released on the SNES in 1994. In Poison Ivy's level Batman has to fight his way through female mooks, and the game is designed in such a way as to not allow him to beat them up, only incapacitate them with some sort of gas. On the other hand, in Konami's previous Batman game for the SNES (''Batman Returns'', 1993), Batman treats the female knife-throwers just like everyone else. Both games were made by the same team.

* In ''WebVideo/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory'', LudwigVanBeethoven says this is why he won't smack Music/JustinBieber.

* ''{{Birdman}}'': It turns out the titular hero refuses to harm women in "Empress of Evil," the one episode to feature a female villain. Fortunately, that's what non-injurious (and completely out-of-nowhere) "stun rays" are for.

* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'': In one episode, DW and Gosalyn (in her identity as Quiverwing Quack) are facing the villainess Splatter Pheonix. Splatter taunts Darkwing, saying that his code of honor would never allow him to hit a woman. Darkwing sighs, and admits she's right.

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' had an episode where a villain who had been defeated by the J-team before created an anti-J-team made of [[EvilCounterpart evil counterparts]] of the heroes: a martial artist to face Jackie; a master thief to face Viper; a wrestler to face El Toro; and the world's strongest woman to face Tohru. When Tohru and his EvilCounterpart first met, Tohru didn't want to fight a woman so he tried (and failed) to make an adversary of one of the others. After it failed, all he did was dodging her attacks until he tricked her into running downstairs, which made her fall into a similar fashion to the one he did twice in one episode before his HeelFaceTurn. (Well, she was indeed his evil counterpart).

* A metaphorical example: ''[[TheGruenTransfer Gruen Nation]]'' commented, that in the leadup to [[UsefulNotes/AustralianPolitics the 2010 Australian Election]], the Coalition seemed unwilling to run ads attacking Prime Minister Julia Gillard herself, as opposed to the Labor Party (albeit probably more because they were worried about how the public would react than any moral qualms on their own part). It was only near the end of the campaign, as things got increasingly frenetic, that ads attacking Julia Gillard appeared.

* Played straight by ChrisRock in ''Bigger and Blacker'' but not because of any particular moral exceptions for women but because he doesn't think it's right to hit ''anybody''. However this is with the caveat that nobody should expect to be "above an ass-whooping".

Often a form of HeroicVow. May be a form of {{Innocent Bigot}}ry when it's portrayed as sexist, but the male character genuinely had no idea that some people would see it that way. Compare WouldNotShootACivilian, which encompasses this in settings where women are not combatants. See also RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil. A WifeBasherBasher lives out this trope with righteous fury.

* ''TheSurvivalist'' series by Jerry Ahern. Sarah Rourke takes a [[DirtyCommunists Soviet officer]] hostage and forces him to release members of LaResistance. She later discovers that he'd been carrying a concealed pistol all the time, but had been unable to bring himself to shoot her.

* ''Film/GhostDogTheWayOfTheSamurai'' plays with this trope. Louie, despite being a mobster, won't take any action against a female [[MeddlesomePatrolman traffic cop]] who pulled him over for speeding, even though she's needlessly holding him up from attempting to get his dying friend Vinny to the hospital. Vinny, however, (who is also a mobster) [[WouldHitAGirl doesn't even hesitate to shoot her]]. When a horrified Louie calls him on it, Vinny responds by saying that he's just treating her like he would any other cop.

** In the sequel, ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'', she charges at Batman again and this time you get to take the controls. Once again, she proves that she is absolutely not a match for him. Averted later when Batman is given female assassins to fight. When you fight Poison Ivy, you can throw batarangs that look like they are hitting her between the legs and causing her to scream like she is having the mother of all orgasms.

* ComicStrip/{{Popeye}} absolutely refuses to hit women. In one cartoon, he has to fight Bluto and the Sea Hag, so he gives Olive Oyl some spinach; he dispatches Bluto and she takes care of the Sea Hag.

* Subverted with ''ThePowerpuffGirls''. The various monsters and reprobates don't hesitate to fight back against the girls via fisticuffs.

** It's later revealed to all be a XanatosGambit by the coach, who only let Zoey onto to the team since he knew none of the other wrestlers would wanna wrestle a girl, and he would be able to switch his top student for the final match without tiring him out.

** Sanji's moral code is played with in the ''One Piece: Grand Battle'' video game. If you play as Sanji vs. any female character, his dialog will change. He'll still fight like normal, but he'll say things like "I'm so sorry!" "Oh no! What have I done!" and "[[BreakingTheFourthWall someone else is controlling my legs!"]]
** This gets [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]] in his fight with Kalifa, who beats him up, [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech and then lectures Sanji on how idiotic his moral code is.]]

* ''SuddenDeath'' features a brutal fight to the death between JeanClaudeVanDamme 's character and a female assassin, which ends with the villain being simultaneously strangled and boiled alive.

* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': Ed mentions that he is forbidden to hit girls. His younger sister Sarah, who knows full well that he can lift houses with ease, endlessly exploits this. Ed is an endlessly cheerful CloudCuckooLander, so she can get away with it. The one time he ''isn't'', she's genuinely frightened.