Hartman Hips

Dexter's Mom has got it going on!


The character designer for a cartoon is drawing a woman. For whatever reason, they want her to look more *ahem* "mature" than the average female in this series to visually emphasize her femininity. But the cartoonist won't be giving this character big breasts. Often they can't because their cartoon is in the Animation Age Ghetto, where big breasts can't get past Network Standards and Practices. Or maybe it's a deliberate stylistic decision.

If you aren't using big breasts, how do you make a character look female? Narrow her waist and enlarge her hips. A lot.

This animated woman will usually have a small to average bustline, a very narrow waist, narrow shoulders and very large hips. Regardless of the width of the character's waist and hips it's important that her waist look exaggeratedly small in comparison to her hips. The end result should be an exaggerated pear shaped figure.

Named after writer/animator Butch Hartman, whose cartoons often make use of this trope, because Steven Silver designs many of the characters for his shows.

And last but not least, the trope for nice butts is called Male Gaze. Don't confuse them.

If they have a large bust size to go along with the hips with a notably smaller waist, they should be considered for Impossible Hourglass Figure instead. Simply having wide hips does not equate Hartman Hips: they must have a small bust and shoulders as well. Real Life women cannot have Hartman Hips.

NOTE: Please only add examples to work or character pages with actual examples of characters with pear-shaped figures as meant to denote maturity, considering whether they apply better for Male Gaze or Impossible Hourglass Figure.

No real life examples, please; no Real Life examples are possible.

Examples of Hartman Hips include:

Advertising

  • This ad for the Paul Valentine lingerie collection from the February 1962 issue of Sir! magazine.
  • The mom in this ad for Mini-Wheats.


Anime & Manga

  • The GN Archer from Mobile Suit Gundam 00 has, along with a ponytail and monoboob, thunderthighs to make it appear more feminine. Yeah.
    • Well, it is piloted by an Action Girl like Marie Parfacy...
    • The Gottralan piloted by Katejina Loos has a bit of this going on as well. It is actually technologically justifiable, being a close-combat mech. The Gundam Musou variation is less effective with the hipness, being built more like a Hawaiian hula doll to complement its CQC moveset.
  • As opposed to normally accepted means, the girls of Hayate the Combat Butler seem to sport these. Adding to that impression is that Hayate seems entirely engrossed in the females who are less developed in the upper department. Most of the girls are also suitably mature in the mental department, which may explain why Hata decided to use this trope. The normal Joshikousei make it hard to see in most cases.
  • Despite being controlled by a male pilot, the Tauburn from Star Driver has an very feminine silhouette thanks to it's extremely narrow waist and wide hips.
  • Vietnam of Axis Powers Hetalia, from what we've seen of her.
    • Hungary seems like she has a milder version of this. Though she could just be plain old curvy.
  • In Windy Tales, this is a part of the art style, especially on the adults.


Films

  • Tinkerbell from Walt Disney's Peter Pan, to her dismay.
  • Megara from Disney's |Hercules was actually designed to be shaped like a Greek vase.
  • Helen Parr from The Incredibles, mostly for a Fridge Logic joke: while a mother of three who's been retired for 15–20 years (give or take), and had much more svelte thighs in the prologue, she can assume any shape she wants. Passing a reflective metal surface, she happens to get a glance of her rear end and sighs unhappily.
    • God only knows WHY she's unhappy, she still has a tiny waist and at best she just looks slightly curvier, not "fat", but then again she's implied to be slightly arrogant as a girl so maybe it's vanity?
    • Mirage is pencil-thin, but even her hips are as wide as her shoulders.
  • Chel from The Road to El Dorado, almost to the point of parody. Her waist was, tops, twenty inches and her breasts were rather large, considering. Waltz on down below the waist and her hips are at least as wide as her shoulders. Chel was a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Dorothy Lamour, best known for playing most of the love interests in the "Road To..." movies, starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, of which the entire movie is a homage.

"The hip! The hip!"

Joel: Nice measurements! 36-2...85?

  • Lucille from A Monster in Paris. Especially notable during the "La Seine" ("The Seine" in the English dub) dancing sequence.

Video Games

  • Splash Woman from Mega Man 9. Despite being a mermaid, who, as you should know, has a fish tail instead of feet or hips.
    • Other Mega Man female characters like Aile and Ashe in Mega Man ZX Advent (really wide hips, even more pronounced in animated cutscenes).
  • Midna, the Exposition Fairy guide in The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess, in her cursed form. This picture in particular emphasizes her prominent hips.
  • Shiki (or rather, Eri) in The World Ends With You.
    • Pretty much every female save for Rhyme. Especially the Sunshine Burger girls.
  • Milla Vodello of Psychonauts. And how.
    • In fact, it's less accentuated in the concept art—in the final 3d model she has almost no chest (It's barely perceptible, and then only from the side) and an almost excessively tiny waist.
  • On Gaia Online, the hallmark of artist o_8's female creations is "LOOK AT DEM THIGHS/HIPS".
    • Halloween 2009 villain Sentinel wasn't designed by o_8, but should have had a "wide load" sticker on those bumpers anyway.
    • zOMG!'s Water Spouts and their stronger Sea Spout relatives (and even stronger queen). Three guesses who designed them...
      • o_8 also designed the vampires for zOMG!'s Halloween 2009 event.
      • And guess who was chosen to draw a Street Fighter item that just happened to come with a Chun Li companion pose?
  • Mass Effect resident Wrench Wench Tali'Zorah. The Latex Space Suit helps.
    • It's actually a standard phenotype of all quarians. Females have very wide hips, and males have very wide shoulders.
  • The redesigned female dwarves in Dragon Age II. Sure, they were stout before, but now . . . well just bloody look.
  • Similary to the Gaia Online example, the French [MMOSRPGs] Dofus and Wakfu feature character designs by Gueuzav, who is rather famous for "Dem Hips" (which is a trait carried over to the animated adaption of Wakfu, see the Western Animation folder).
  • The Pokémon franchise probably started walking down this path in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl with Rocket Executive Ariana, following in the next generation with Professor Juniper and Bianca.
  • Many of the females in Odin Sphere, enemies included.
  • P-Body from Portal 2 is a robot, but is feminised in this way rather than giving her Non-Mammal Mammaries. Justified in that large, wide hips would be useful for a robot.
  • The Orbital Frames from Zone of the Enders, justified in that they basically cram everything, including the cockpit, onto the crotch area.


Webcomics


Web Original

Western Animation

  • The trope namer, Butch Hartman, is actually a misnomer. It's actually Stephen Silver's art style and character designs (see The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, and Kim Possible).
  • Rebecca Cunningham from Tale Spin, specially since she is half the size of Baloo and only a bit taller than 12-year old Kit Cloudkicker.
  • In The Fairly OddParents, more than a few women who aren't overweight or fairy-like use this trope, but the most obvious examples would be Britney Brittany, Timmy's mom, the Tooth Fairy and Adult Vicky (shown twice). Note that appearances change somewhat as time goes on.
  • In Danny Phantom, you have Maddie Fenton, Valerie Gray (in costume), Ember McLain, and Penelope Spectra.
    • Lest we forget Paulina, and Starr to a lesser extent. No wonder Sam hates them so much.
  • Dexter's mom in Dexters Laboratory. In fact, when DeeDee gets turned into a duplicate of Mom in one episode, she feels her hips with awe, instead of some other area.
    • Heck, there's a whole fanbase for Dexter's mom.
      • A great deal of credit must go to Kath Soucie and that voice!
  • The DCAU runs into this on at times.
    • Superman the Animated Series has the villainous Livewire. She sports a skintight leotard/catsuit, as she's supposed to exude sex appeal (after all, the Diniverse isn't just for kids) but Livewire curiously isn't so well endowed as some of the other women on the show. She even has an extra large V-neck which apparently should sport cleavage, but doesn't (even less than when she was normal). To compensate, the animators gave her a gigantic pelvis and thick legs. Apparently, Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, experimenting with their new art style, wanted to toe the line rather than bring in superhero appearances all at once. They eventually went all the way in Justice League.
    • Batman the Animated Series, given its more realistic art, does not use this trope. When the show was retooled (with some budget cuts) into The New Batman Adventures, with a new animation style very similar to (but not exactly like) the animation on Superman the Animated Series, Hartman Hips become more common.
    • Batman Beyond, with an improvement of The New Batman Adventures animation style, didn't. Most of the time. Sometimes (like with Max, for example), they do.
  • Tommy's mom in Robotboy.
  • Peg in Goof Troop. It probably wasn't the intention of the Disney animators to make her so bootylicious.
    • It probably was. Listen to the voice. Then look at how she walks. They just flipped most of the bad traits of the referred sitcom, really.
  • Wuya in Xiaolin Showdown, in human form.
  • Comes up occasionally in Scooby Doo if the art style is in a certain way: for example, all the girls in Abracadabra-Doo. Made more obvious due to the movies liberal use of Male Gaze as well.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender has Princess Yue, to a slight extent (she mostly wears heavy furs) and Ty Lee.
  • Drew Saturday in The Secret Saturdays.
  • The ladies of Wakfu, especially Amalia, who's fourteen years old.
  • Donna, Strickland Propane's secretary from King of the Hill.
  • Big Brain, the first female robot built by Grizzle on Adventures in Care-a-Lot, has these, despite not having any legs.
  • Rose Explosion in Metalocalypse, but not in a particularly attractive way. In fact, it's a little worrying how large her hips are- they're practically as wide as her shoulders, while the rest of her is normally proportioned.
  • Willow and other characters from A Kind of Magic. For a show already named for a Queen song, the female character designs sure bring up the page quote to mind pretty well.
  • Saffi on Jimmy Two Shoes. And how.
  • Also seen in The Schnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show.
  • An episode of Atomic Betty shows that Betty will grow these.
    • Takes after her mom.
  • Delia Deetz from the Beetlejuice cartoon.
  • Tina and Majorie from Neighbors From Hell.
  • In The Xs both Mrs. X and her daughter Tuesday have these.
  • All of the female characters in Clone High. Lampshaded in one episode, in which Joan of Arc describes herself in a personal ad as having "childbearing hips".
    • Actually Abe drew up the ad, to take initiative and get her a date for prom. Not surprisingly he's picked some strange attributes to highlight, including "Janeane Garofalo-esque" and "Not religious".
  • A lot of 1950's animation fits this trope, but Tex Avery was the one who did it best. Swing Shift Cinderella, anyone?
  • Shelia from Time Squad is practically all thighs and no upper body. The exact opposite of her ex-husband Buck Tuddrussel.
  • Apart from being overweight, Pepper Ann's mom qualifies, as her waist still goes inward and her hips are about twice as wide.
  • Donbot's daughter Bell has these in the Futurama episode "The Silence of the Clamps" more specifically her waist was shaped like a bell.
  • Mumm-rana; a good Distaff Counterpart of, you guessed it Big Bad Mumm-ra the main villian of Thundercats, has thighs that would make chun-li proud, even in her normal form. Hey, if you don't believe me check this. Thunder, Thunder, Thunder thighs HO!!!
  • Miss Finch on Birdz.
  • Ms. Keane from The Powerpuff Girls.
  • Linda Flynn-Fletcher, mother of Phineas and Ferb.
  • One episode of Adventure Time (Go With Me) has Marceline as this; she's normally the skinniest regular female cast member (at least in comparision to Princess Bubblegum, who normally wearing very voluminous dresses), but she's also a Voluntary Shapeshifter and may have simply decided that she felt like having a set of large hips.
  • Most of the female characters in the Total Drama series have these, the notable exceptions are Sadie, Leshawna, Lindsay, and Staci.


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