Playing With / Wouldn't Hit a Girl

Basic Trope: Male characters refrain from using physical violence on a female.

• Straight: Jim, The Hero, encounters Lady of War Veridian, but passes up fighting her because "I don't like hitting girls."
• Exaggerated:
  • Even if it's in self-defense, Jim is just unable to bring himself to attack Veridian. So, he runs away from Veridian as she's dashing at him with guns blazing. She eventually corners him, but even so he won't fight back:
    Jim: I'm so not gonna fight you even though I know you have no mercy for any one and wouldn't hesitate to kill me on the drop of a hat. No, ma'am, I'm not gonna defend myself because I'd rather be dead than be known as a woman-beater.
  • Veridian is the human embodiment of U´Thul, Jim knows it and, even in this situation, is unable to fight back with this trope in mind, so she rips him to pieces.
  • Veridian is bitten by a zombie, Jim knows it and, even when she asks for a Mercy Kill, he outright refused, this results in Veridian losing her mind and she bites Jim.
  • Jim refuses to fight Andy for being effeminate.
  • Jim is a Heteronormative Crusader who believes that gay men are women in born in male bodies and refuses to attack them. His policies on lesbians, non-binary people and trans people may vary.
  • Jim refuses to fight any female, period. Even if he has to waste time in a life-threatening situation to check the sexual characteristics of a raging female crocodile or explicitly inhuman-looking but still female monster, he vows to always uphold his chivalry. Perhaps he even prides himself for never once killing blood-sucking mosquitoes or spiders or has spent years getting a master's degree in biology just to make sure he never harms a female creature.
  • Not only won't Jim attack any women, he even refuses to touch them too.
• Downplayed:
  • Jim will not fight against any women who are gentle, lady-like and does not like to fight in the first place. Female enemies and violent tsunderes are considered fair game to hit, and Jim would be willing to smash their faces off.
  • Jim avoids fighting women when possible, only doing so in self-defense, and even then holds back and feels discomfort when doing so.
  • Jim will fight women if need be, but takes care to leave them alive while he usually kills his male enemies.
  • Jim does fight Veridian, but apologises before, during and after the fight.
• Justified:
  • Jim is a self-hating man who was raised by a misandristic mother and now believes that women are superior to men and should be allowed to treat men as they want.
  • Or alternatively, Jim was traumatized in his childhood when he saw his father beating his kind mother and avoids hitting a woman because of this.
  • Or, Jim is trying to get Veridian to go out with him.
  • Jim's personal honour code forbids him from fighting anyone he has an unfair advantage over.He being a typical man and Veridian being a typical woman, she happens to be naturally smaller and weaker than him, so he declines on those grounds.
  • Jim lives in a society that protects and values women more than men and knows that people will kill him if he dares hit a female, even if she deserves it.
  • Jim was a domestic abuser in the past and accidentally killed a woman he loved. He atones by swearing never to hurt another woman again.
  • Jim's powers, which are the only thing keeping him alive, were bestowed on him by a feminist goddess who forbid him from ever hurting a woman.
  • Jim literally can't physically hurt a girl due to a curse placed on him by a feminist goddess.
  • Jim's powers' key weakness is women, so whenever he hits them, he will suffer physically and/or mentally.
• Inverted: Jim Would Hit a Girl, but would never hurt another man.
• Gender-Inverted: Veridian refuses to fight males.
• Subverted:
  • Veridian and Jim's exchange goes like this:
    Veridian: What's the matter? Ya don't hit ladies?
    Jim: You are no lady. *Cue beatdown.*
  • Jim tries to fight Veridian but he tries to rationalize it by using more indirect attacks namely having the mindset of something like "As long as I don't punch her face its okay."
    Jim: I am against misogynistic violence but I am not against self defense, there is a difference.
  • Alternatively, Jim doesn't want to fight Veridian because he knows she'd kick his ass and laugh about it, and is trying to outsmart her instead.
  • Alternatively: Jim dodges Veridian's attacks, but doesn't fight back... Until she lands a blow, at which point he proceeds to beat the crap out of her. "You all saw she hit me first, right?"
  • Or...
    Jim: What? Oh no miss you don't understand I am a pacifist by nature. Trust me even if you were a guy I would still prefer not to fight you.
  • Jim is hesitant in fighting Veridian but it's for other reasons.
  • Jim decides he will not attack Veridian physically, but as long as he doesn't punch her, it doesn't count, so he can still use his other attacks on her.
    Jim: I don't hit women... But my Minigun does!
  • Jim states that he won't fight a woman, and Veridian exploits it to the hilt right up until he clouts her with all his strength, and since her overconfidence meant her guard was down, the punch floors her.
    Jim: You just couldn't pass up that easy win, could you? I knew I couldn't beat you in a head-on fight, so I had to try a different approach.
  • Jim decided to tear off Veridian's clothes to defeat her with minimal harm.
  • Jim won't hit women, but that only applies who conform to his notions of Acceptable Feminine Goals. For example, if he's a firm believer in My Girl Is Not a Slut, he's got no problem hitting the Streetwalker on the corner, but won't hit a virgin (or a girl he believes or assumes is one).
  • Jim is not willing to directly harm Veridian, and Veridian knows it... so he asks his girlfriend Alice, who's watching the fight nearby, for permission to beat up Veridian. Alice, who seeks revenge on Veridian for murdering her beloved dog in the past, nods with a Slasher Smile and tells Jim to kick Veridian's ass, much to the villainess's horrified outrage.
  • Jim seems to not hit Veridian, but because this isn't a proper time and/or place to fight, and turn out that Jim is actually a He-Man Woman Hater.
• Double Subverted:
  • Veridian gives Jim Puppy-Dog Eyes and he immediately relents.
  • Veridian convinces Jim on how thinking that indirect attacks being okay is a very stupid idea and Jim reluctantly agrees.
  • “Who cares if she hit you first? She’s a girl, man! Not cool!”
  • While Jim did mention he had other reasons why he wouldn't want to fight Veridian he eventually admitted that this trope is one of them.
  • Veridian isn’t embarrassed and attacks him anyway.
  • Because Veridian fits Jim's definition of a Proper Lady, he doesn't hit her.
  • Despite he thinks women are disgusting, Jim still won't hit Veridian because feeling this would lower him to her level.
• Parodied:
  • Jim is a Lovable Sex Maniac who would rather take Veridian to the bed than fight her:
    Jim: Fight you? Oh I'd rather do a certain other type of "F Word".
  • "You're right, I wouldn't hit a girl. Alice?!" "Yeah?" "Hit her!" "Okay!"
  • When Jim is attacked by a bear, he insists on checking if it's female before he fights it.
  • Not even zombies would touch a lady, and if they turn a girl, it's on complete accident and the miss was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
  • Jim refuses to compete with Veridian in non-violent activities, such as Chess, Checkers, even video games.
  • And speaking of Chess, Jim insists on capturing all the pieces of the opponent, except for the queen.
  • Veridian is a female character in a Fighting Game, but Jim never, ever chooses her because "she could get hurt". He even protests when someone else chooses her, because he just can't bring himself to hit a girl, not even as a game.
  • Jim insults an incredibly manly man by telling him he's so wimpy and unmanly, he must abide by his code of never hitting a girl. Jim then complains about being completely defenseless when the man gives him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
• Zig Zagged:
  • Jim refuses to fight Veridian because she's a girl. However, he later discovers that 'she' is actually an alien who has taken the form of a human female. Just when he is about to attack the shapeshifter, she reveals her true form to be a Green-Skinned Space Babe.
  • With Loophole Abuse, Jim uses his machine gun to shoot all girls down. On one hand, he isn't physically hitting them, but on the other hand, well...
• Averted:
  • Jim Would Hit a Girl as well as hit a guy too.
  • Jim doesn't hit anyone, male or female.
• Enforced:
  • Violence towards women add to the ESRB-like ratings, so the author won't add it because they want their story to be accessible to a younger audience too..
  • The writers don't show Jim and Veridian fighting because they’re afraid of offending viewers who would object.
  • Or the writers have little to no knowledge of men attacking women and being seen as a good thing while they are a little too used to all the times when it is very much a Kick the Dog moment from Would Hit a Girl trope using villains.
• Lampshaded: Jim is getting stomped. In the middle of it all, he says "You bitch...you're cheating by beating on me while female!"
• Invoked:
  • "People think Jim is too tough and heartless. Let's show that he's actually nice by making him against hitting girls."
  • Jim and Veridian are playable characters in a Fighting Game, and he's known for being very respectful to all women; so, in a very unusual case of Gameplay and Story Integration, he deliberately switches off all of his special and normal moves when cofronting Veridian (Or any of the other female fighters); this leaves the player unable to do anything, ultimately resulting in an automatic loss.
  • Alternatively, Jim can strike female opponents, but he receives a negative penalty for doing so, because it is considered Video Game Cruelty Potential.
• Exploited:
  • The Big Bad knows Jim won't fight women, so he sends an Amazon Brigade to kill him.
  • Or the Big Bad is female.
  • The females abuse this and bully a guy since they know he can't hit them.
• Defied:
  • Jim explicitly respects Veridian too much to hold back.
  • "Okay, hold on, you think that ''just'' because you have two X chromosomes means that I wouldn't hit you in a fight?"
  • Or it could go like this...
    Veridian: "FOR ONCE IN YOUR GODDAMN LIFE! HIT ME YOU FUCKING PUSSY!"
    Jim: "OK, then. You asked for it." *proceeds to give her the ass-beating of her life.*
• Discussed: "It's not that Jim couldn't take Veridian in a fistfight; it's that his inconvenient chivalry would kick in."
• Conversed:
  • "I wonder why some guys have no problem fighting a man, but wouldn't think of hurting a woman."
  • So he doesn't want to fight ladies huh? Let me guess is he one of those "will not fight back against a woman at all" guy? Or is he a "will not punch a lady in the face" kind of guy?
• Implied: In the Final Battle, Jim infiltrated the Big Bad’s headquarters and is shown beating up every major bad guy-except Veridian.
• Deconstructed:
  • Jim's refusal to fight Veridian is seen as an insult by her because that means he views her as weaker than he. She responds by handing him his ass.
  • Veridian tries to convince Jim to have a friendly fight with her to beat the sexism out of him. She is often seen egging him on and generally being aggressive toward him. She may or may not praise him for finally losing the sexist attitude if he caves and hits her.
  • Jim's refusal to harm a female makes him a greater threat to his True Companions than Veridian.
  • Jim comes to resent the discrimination and begins to advocate equality for men.
  • Veridian is Jim's abusive girlfriend who weaponizes this as a method of control- whenever she beats him, she drills into his head that he shouldn't fight back or she will tell everyone he hit her and he'll go to jail for beating his girlfriend, and no one will believe him if he calls for help since no one ever believes the man over the woman. So poor Jim is trapped in a horrible situation he sees no way of escaping due to society's bias.
• Reconstructed:
  • But before she can do so, Marci gives her an epic beatdown, and saves Jim in the process.
  • Jim's a Technical Pacifist. His fight style revolves around blocking attacks and jabbing nerve clusters to cause paralysis.
  • Veridian kicks at Jim. He catches her foot and uses it to steer her around like they're playing "wheelbarrow".
  • Jim said nothing about shooting them.
  • The women of Jim's society accuse him of hurting them and Jim gets executed by other men. A somewhat brighter ending still employing this trope would be the entire world separating males and females, with the intent of sparing males of having to clash with females and facing either "dishonor" or death at the hands of their ovary-equipped opponent.
• Played For Laughs:
  • The hero is a Chivalrous Pervert. The girl is The Red Sonja.
  • Veridian is a masochist, who wants Jim to hit her.
• Played For Drama:
  • The hero has to beat a woman to save his friends. Can he?
  • The hero's enemy is a sadistic Dark Action Girl, he refuses to hit her, she completely beat the shit out of him with a Slasher Smile, insulting and toying with him, and leaving the guy crippled at the end, with several bones of his body broken. He realizes that the mental scars are so severe that he won't be able to fight anymore, so he will be an invalid the rest of his life.
    • On the flip side of this, the Dark Action Girl insults and toys with him while fighting, and the hero, seeing he has no other choice, sheds his inhibitions and proceeds to epically beat the fuck out of her, killing her. He can only look at his hands in horror afterwards.

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