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| - On average, men have greater upper body strength than women. Because most people don't actually understand concepts like "average" very well, in a lot of people's minds this turns into "any given man is always much, much stronger than any given woman." And since a true hero never uses his strength against the weak, and all women are supposedly weak compared to him, it follows that a hero must never use physical violence against any woman, ever. Examples of Wouldn't Hit a Girl include:
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| abstract
| - On average, men have greater upper body strength than women. Because most people don't actually understand concepts like "average" very well, in a lot of people's minds this turns into "any given man is always much, much stronger than any given woman." And since a true hero never uses his strength against the weak, and all women are supposedly weak compared to him, it follows that a hero must never use physical violence against any woman, ever. When applied to ordinary bar fights, schoolyard throwdowns, duels of honor and so on, the trope is well-meaning if also rather sexist (against both men and women, albeit in different ways). However, when characters keep invoking it in situations where their female opponent poses a really serious threat that might only be preventable by violence, it quickly becomes absurd. The 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 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. Since ideas about gender roles are in flux these days and tend to vary widely, modern media can be highly inconsistent about whether this trope is portrayed as a good or bad thing. If a villain refuses to fight a heroic Action Girl on these grounds, it's a toss-up whether this will be portrayed as a sign that he has at least a warped sense of honor after all, or as profoundly insulting. Of course, the villain might be not sure of his chances and the refusal to fight might be just a trick. If a hero can't bring himself to strike a villainess, it either means that he's a chivalrous guy with strong values, or that an old-fashioned, patronizing attitude toward women is one of his few character flaws. Occasionally you'll even see both at once, particularly in heroic cases; the character's reluctance to hit women may be portrayed as a sympathetic flaw – stupid and sexist, but ultimately born out of an admirable desire to behave ethically and avoid being a bully. Action heroes (or villains) who invoke this trope even though they face female opponents find various ways to get around it. At minimum, they'll make a quip along the lines of “I normally hate hitting women, but in this case I'll make an exception” or "I don't hit ladies, but you're no lady" before they start to strike back. They might try to find creative ways to defeat her nonviolently, perhaps through trickery; they might try to minimize the necessary violence by using grapples or pressure point attacks rather than actual blows; or they might get off on a technicality by doing something that indirectly results in physical harm to the female opponent without actually striking or firing a weapon against her. In supernatural settings, the problem may be resolved by the male character temporarily turning into a woman, voluntarily or not, thus freeing him from a gentleman's obligations toward the fairer sex. Probably the most common solution, however, is for the male character to simply defer to a female ally who faces no such moral dilemma. Due to Media Watchdogs, this trope is often quietly applied without being explicitly invoked, especially in cartoons and other media aimed at children. This is often noticeable even when actually feeling obligated by the trope would seem completely out of character, or when the overall message of the work seems to undermine the whole “women are weak and need protection” idea that forms the justification for the trope. Sure, the work never says or really even implies that the female characters' combat skills are in any way different from their male counterparts', but somehow by pure coincidence the token female team member is always the one who ends up fighting the female villains. Sometimes the reason is pure PR: Even if a guy is justified and doesn't mind hitting a girl, chances are he will be seen as a thug if he does. Truth in Television, many a man defending himself in real life has been attacked by bystanders, mobs and even the police upon being seen hitting a girl, context be damned. Often a form of Heroic Vow. May be a form of Innocent Bigotry when it's portrayed as sexist, but the male character genuinely had no idea that some people would see it that way. Compare Would Not Shoot a Civilian, which encompasses this in settings where women are not combatants. See also Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil. A Wife-Basher Basher lives out this trope with righteous fury. Examples of Wouldn't Hit a Girl include:
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