History Main / WouldntHitAGirl

* A variation occurs in ''Manga/AiNoShintairiku''. Sara doesn't hit a female bully because she is [[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} assigned male at birth]] and thus it "wouldn't be fair". She then says that she'll have to wait until she's a "real girl".

* DD from ''WebVideo/CreamHeroes'' refuses to fight female cats, according to Claire, even though they have all (except [[ActualPacifist Nana]]) thrown at least one punch his way (and that includes [[ShrinkingViolet Chuchu]]). Male cats, on the other hand, are fair game, regardless of size or age difference.

%%* ''Film/SuddenDeath'' features a brutal fight to the death between Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme's character and a female assassin, which ends with the villain being simultaneously strangled and boiled alive. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; what does this have to do with not hitting said woman?)

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Jon Snow wouldn't ''kill'' one, at least. That's quite a lot by the standards of the show. It's a combination of this and "Wouldn't Kill a Prisoner", perhaps with a touch of "Wow, That Chick's Hot".

* ''Manga/TimeStopBrave'': Kuzuno Sekai refuses to harm girls, even if they are demons who have killed innocents. He uses other tactics like tying them up, [[DefeatByModesty stripping them naked]], and/or groping them. He does give three witches a spanking on the butt until they were incapacitated by pain as payback for trying to kill him. He later uses a [[Manga/{{Kinnikuman}} Kinniku Buster]] on Leafa Colby (well, it's not technically hitting her).

** Shizuo, on the other hand, is a straight example, with rather tragic reasons for why: [[spoiler:Through the majority of his adolescence, Shizuo tended to develop one-sided crushes on girls and women that inevitably ended with him trying to protect or save them... [[HeroWithAnFInGood and accidentally hospitalizing]] [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength most of them in the process]].]] The consequences drilled the idea of "hurting girls is bad" so deep into his head ([[HeroicSelfDeprecation at the cost of any sort]] [[IAmAMonster of self-esteem he might have]]) that even his HairTriggerTemper can't stand against it.

** Zoro may or may not be like this. Tashigi ''thinks'' that this trope is in action when Zoro doesn't kill her after their fight, [[AvertedTrope but doesn't seem to understand]] that due to her resemblance to his childhood friend, doing so would probably would have caused him to have a FreakOut of epic proportions. In [[Recap/OnePiecePunkHazardArc chapter 687]], she claims that Zoro was holding back on fighting [[spoiler:Monet]] because he held a dismissive attitude towards women. This is left vague, as Zoro does say that there are some things he doesn't like to cut and if he can avoid it he will, but he doesn't let that stop him from [[spoiler:cutting Monet in half when the latter is about to bite off Tashigi's shoulder. On the other hand, Zoro [[KiManipulation was perfectly capable of bypassing]] Monet's NighInvulnerability and killing her outright, but deliberately chose not to, instead splitting her in a way that she could pull herself back together from. When Monet tries attacking him again, Tashigi has to deliver the finishing blow, though Zoro claims that he would have done it himself had it come to that.]]\\\

** In ''Anime/OnePieceFilmRed'' [[spoiler: '''Luffy!''' Of all people is example of this towards the Uta, despite being perfectly willingly to punch women same as men in the past, he can't lay so much as a finger on Uta despite the latter putting him and his crew in a LotusEaterMachine and along with countless other people in a mass euthanization with her sleep inducing Devil Fruit. Uta even makes note of it as Luffy busts out his usual Gomu Gomu etc attacks at Uta -- ''without actually hitting her once''. Like with Sanji it's treated sympathetically as despite Uta giving Luffy reason to use brutal force to stop her, he loves and cares for Uta like a sister, having known her since childhood and thus simply doesn't have it in him to hurt her. Thankully Uta does has a HeelRealization by the end, although she dies from the Wakeshroom's poison soon after.]]

-->'''The Wasp''': Since the Cap and Iron Man are too polite to clobber an unarmed woman, us girls will settle this one on one. Heads up baldy ['''[[HeyYouHaymaker WHAK]]'''].

* The first time ComicBook/SpiderMan encountered a female villain, he said that he couldn't hit a girl. He gets over some of it at some point. However, in ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'''s Black Cat arc, he's still reluctant to fight with either Black Cat or Elektra.

* The trailer for ''WesternAnimation/WonderWoman2009'' has WW saying "It's not polite to hit a lady." Some fans found it rather odd that she would say this, considering [[LadyLand her native culture]] is a ProudWarriorRace. However, the line was deliberately taken out of context.

** Storm Shadow[[spoiler:... but not Zartan!]]

* ''Literature/TheOtherBoy'': After Shane came out as trans in third grade, he got into a fight with another boy, who punched him. Shane was thrilled to be treated like a boy, because he knew that kid would never have hit a girl.

* ''Webcomic/OzyAndMillie'' plays with this trope [[http://ozyandmillie.org/1999/03/10/ozy-and-millie-2144/ in one strip]]. After Millie insults Jeremy, he says that he'd hit her for it if she wasn't a girl. She chews him out for it, demanding equal treatment. Convinced, Jeremy starts winding up to punch Millie, and she has a minor OhCrap moment.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': The episode "[[Recap/TheLoudHouseS1E23OneOfTheBoysATattlersTale One of the Boys]]" has Lincoln go into a parallel universe where his sisters are all brothers. [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter But instead of having personalities as deep as their female counterparts]], the Loud brothers are all essentially modified Lynn clones, being into ToiletHumor and roughhousing, even going so far as to dogpile their own father and collectively Dutch-oven Lincoln. However, [[MommasBoy they are very nice to their mother]], and in the parallel universe where Lincoln is a girl, the Loud brothers [[PetTheDog are all nice to their sister personally]].

* When Hime-chan from ''Manga/HimechanNoRibon'' asks Daichi to hit her (because she hit him earlier and she feels guilty), he refuses to hit a girl. So she grabs his fist and punches herself with it.

There's an exception in a battle [[CharacterizationMarchesOn early on]], as Inuyasha cuts off the hand of the {{Youkai}}, Yura of the Hair, who looks like a young girl. That said, it's still Kagome that actually kills her. Another exception is against Abi, Inuyasha remarks that he doesn't like fighting women, but she's so evil that he'll make an exception. However, Naraku "gave" Abi a trident (made from his bones) that creates a defensive barrier. Eventually, it is Naraku who kills both Abi and her mother.\\\

* Played straight, but for laughs in the non-canon ''ComicBook/{{Planetary}}''/''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' crossover comic. Several versions of Batman are encountered, including the Creator/AdamWest one, who uses "Bat-Female-Villain-Repellent" on Jakita. The other versions have much less trouble hitting her.

* The first time Franchise/SpiderMan encountered a female villain, he said that he couldn't hit a girl. He gets over some of it at some point. However, in ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'''s Black Cat arc, he's still reluctant to fight with either Black Cat or Elektra.

* ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}'' Inuyasha generally won't kill human-looking girls, with Kagome usually doing the deed. Jakotsu, the flamboyantly gay villain with a crush on Inuyasha, was actually originally supposed to be female. The author changed him to male because she didn't want Inuyasha to kill a human-looking girl. [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman Monstrous-looking females]] like a centipede woman or floating heads seem fair game to kill though.\\\

This trait is delightfully played with in the [[Recap/OnePieceLandOfWanoArc Land of Wano arc]]. Sanji is [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl lured]] into a trap by Black Maria making it seem like an innocent woman is about to be sexually assaulted, but it's actually her minions. Sanji is captured, but puts Black Maria's male {{Mooks}} through hell but ultimately is beaten by Black Maria herself, who is amazed by his strength but is delighted to have a punching bag who won't hit back. She then makes Sanji call for Robin's help, but she and her rabble honestly think that Sanji will just tank the beating rather than humiliate himself. [[spoiler:However, Sanji shows his CharacterDevelopment and actually cries for help, at which point Robin swoops in and smacks Black Maria down, allowing Sanji to escape. Robin [[SugarWiki/CrowningMomentOfHeartWarming even thanks Sanji]] for trusting her [[ActionGirl strength]]]].\\\

* ''Manga/InuYasha'' Inuyasha generally won't kill human-looking girls, with Kagome usually doing the deed. Jakotsu, the flamboyantly gay villain with a crush on Inuyasha, was actually originally supposed to be female. The author changed him to male because she didn't want Inuyasha to kill a human-looking girl. [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman Monstrous-looking females]] like a centipede woman or floating heads seem fair game to kill though.\\\

* ''Manga/SoulHunter'': When Taikoubou decides to fight the enemy spy Tou Sengyoku himself to make up for the fact that he didn't directly take part in any of the recent fights despite being TheHero (he was present, but acted as TheStrategist), Suupuushan say that it's terrible because that means that he is going to fight a girl. Downplayed in that Suupuushan had no problem with Taikoubou fighting against Kijin early in the manga, but shows concern in this case because the spy is [[JokeCharacter mostly harmless]]. Kou Hiko refuses to help Taikoubou in a later fight against her, this time helped by her father and a giant gerbil-like animal, because he doesn't want to fight a girl.

** In ''Avengers'' #1.1, Characters/TheWasp knocks out [[Characters/MarvelComicsTheEnchantress The Enchantress]] while saying that the male Avengers would be too scared of seeming sexist to hit a female villain.

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' rarely features female villains, presumably for this reason. The few times they do appear in the show, another way around it is generally found, such as the female ranger they introduced in a VerySpecialEpisode showing up to stop her, as well as Sydney when she joins the cast in the final two seasons. In the Season 6 episode "Forgotten People", a nursing home is run by a sinister group experimenting on Alzheimer's patients trying to put variations of an outlawed Alzheimer's drug on the pharmaceutical market. The group is headed by a woman, and at the end of the episode, after Walker and company beat up the Mooks and the villain's sidekick, the villain herself has to be punched out by an old woman introduced in this episode, who had previously masqueraded as a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}.\\\

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' rarely features female villains, presumably for this reason. The few times they do appear in the show, another way around it is generally found, such as the female ranger they introduced in a VerySpecialEpisode showing up to stop her. In the episode "Forgotten People", a nursing home is run by a sinister group experimenting on Alzheimer's patients. The group is headed by a woman, and at the end of the episode, after Walker and company beat up the Mooks and the villain's sidekick, the villain herself has to be punched out by an old woman introduced in this episode, who had previously masqueraded as a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}.\\\

** {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''High School Boys and Seniority''. Motoharu doesn't hit his sister's classmates that are bullying him... not because they're girls, but because they're [[SenpaiKohai senior to him]].

* In ''The High Ground'' by [[Creator/{{Melindasnodgrass}} Melinda Snodgrass]], Arturo actually does this as a calculated move. The Emperor has permitted his daughter and heir Mercedes to enlist in the titular military academy, which has historically admitted only men. Arturo knows that refusing to fight her will escalate criticism of the decision, thereby weakening the emperor and Mercedes politically.

* In ''The Survivalist'' 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 was carrying a concealed pistol the whole time, but had been unable to bring himself to shoot her. Later, they encounter each other again at a roadblock, but [[MinionWithAnFInEvil he lets her through rather than arrest her]].

* In Creator/PoulAnderson's ''To Build a World'', Sevigny's threat to hurt Maura doesn't convince her -- he lightly agrees and declares that he will fight any rescuers she manages to summon.

** Shikamaru is faced with this moral issue [[RunningGag several times]], as he doesn't like to hit women, but also feels a man can't lose to a woman. When facing Tayuya, he does say that it's "against his code" to strike a lady but notes that [[DarkChick Tayuya]] doesn't count as one (it helps that she's gone OneWingedAngel and doesn't look very feminine anymore).

** Usopp, unlike Sanji and Zoro, fights quite a few women and has no real qualms about hurting them, though given his pathetic physical strength, it's not like he's holding anything back when Nami and Ms. Valentine (the first women he fights) kick his ass effortlessly. However, Usopp has some {{Combat Pragmatis|t}}m and has defeated female opponents without physically hurting them: He defeats Miss Merry Christmas by having her partner Mr. 4 take her out, he defeats Perona with some fake [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes cockroaches]] and a fake giant hammer, and he defeats Sugar by making a scary face that makes her faint. The only time he actually attacks a woman is in the non-canon ''Anime/OnePieceFilmGold'', where he takes out [[DarkChick Baccarat]] with his slingshot Kuro Kabuto after turning her luck powers against her.

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. Contrast GetAHoldOfYourselfMan, the one situation where he can hit a girl.

* This has been debated to be one of the reasons Sonya was one of the two least used characters in the first ''Videogame/MortalKombat1'': Not only did the [[MostGamersAreMale mostly male players]] prefer not to use the only woman, but the realistic and bloody fighting made them feel bad about beating her senseless.

* In ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'', because of his self-proclaimed status as a gentleman, Zenitsu says that he won't harm girls, not even throw tea on them, despite it being part of the focus and agility training in his first stay at the Butterfly Manor. However, this gets him no applause from Aoi and the other girls, as they overheard Zenitsu's colorful rant about women, their curves, and how he longs for even catching a glimpse of them. Against demons, on the other hand, Zenitsu doesn't play the gentleman card. If it's a human-devouring monster, Zenitsu won't care if it is female, he will go for the kill.

* At the end of the fourth ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'' film, Wolffy appears in front of the gate to Goat Village with Wolnie and Wilie to help him destroy the gate with a cannon, since he is badly hurt and in a wheelchair from the events of the movie. Weslie and the other goats don't know what to do, since Wolnie is a woman and [[WouldntHurtAChild Wilie is a child]]. [[spoiler:However, Wolffy isn't actually hurt and was just pretending so that he could use Wolnie and Wilie to help him capture the goats.]]