The Ladette

"Yeah, it's Bud. No, I don't give a fuck about how it tastes. Piss off."

All right, I drink more than you
I party harder than you do

And my car's faster than yours too
—P!nk, "Cuz I Can"

She likes sports, beer, cars, swearing, fighting and sex. She is crude, rude, often hygienically challenged and cheerfully ignorant and aggressive. If you are a guy, she'll probably challenge you to a fight or a drinking competition, win both and then take an aggressive lead in anything sexual that happens, before kicking you out the front door the following morning or teasing you mercilessly if she lets you stay some more.

In short, she is a young heterosexual woman with the personality of a frat boy. She is the Lad-ette.

Despite (or perhaps because of) their masculine personalities, Lad-ettes are generally heavily sexualised and are not likely to let any males in the company forget they are female. They usually disdain the hassle of highly elaborate feminine clothing/hair/make-up, but don't often dress in a truly cross-dressing way. They are also generally attractive; an actually ugly Ladette is very unusual. Male characters may well be sexually interested in Ladettes for various reasons, whether it's appreciation of their masculine personality and interests, because they don't disapprove of laddish behaviour, or simply because of their assumed willingness to engage in casual sex.

Also note that The Ladette in fiction not uncommonly winds up dropping her lifestyle in favour of something more conventional. It is difficult to tell whether this is Truth in Television or not, given how relatively recent the character type is, but there is probably at least an element of wishful thinking at play.

Compare and contrast with other tropes about women who look/behave in a traditionally "masculine" way: the Tomboy (she might have been one when young); Bifauxnen (where the girl can effectively pass as a male - though ironically while lacking most of the 'masculine' behaviour of the Ladette); Pirate Girl; and Butch Lesbian (a bit of overlap, although most Ladettes are not gay or bi, and many Butch Lesbians don't have hedonistic lifestyles). If that hot girl is acting like a guy because she's not 100% girl, it's a case of Everybody Wants the Hermaphrodite. Sometimes, especially in anime and manga, one of these gets teamed up with a more-refined masculine-acting character.

Also compare with her female drinking mates, the Hard-Drinking Party Girl and the Lady Drunk. And, for the ideologies for and against her, see Girls Need Role Models, Real Women Never Wear Dresses and Vasquez Always Dies. The Squadette may also be a Lad-ette, but it's not a job requirement.

Contrast with Yamato Nadeshiko and Proper Lady, who are the feminine personified.

Examples of The Ladette include:

Advertising

  • The star of this beer commercial.


Anime and Manga

  • Aria Akira is an interesting case; she definitely used to be this way in her childhood (to the point where Akatsuki briefly suspects she is actually a transvestite), but her public personality could hardly be more feminine. When not taking customers, however, aspects of this shine through. She's tough-as-nails as an instructor, and prone to competitiveness, but ironically she doesn't drink as much as Yamato Nadeshiko Alicia (in the manga, anyways).The sex part is unconfirmable, though, due to No Hugging, No Kissing.
  • Basilisk Saemon Kisaragi's younger sister Okoi.
  • Black Lagoon Revy has elements of this, minus the sex—at least as far as we know. Eda is an even better example, while not as much as a hardass like Revy, she drinks more then Revy, sleeps around more (as in a little) than Revy, and still kicks copious amounts of ass.
  • Bleach Kuukaku Shiba, to the point where she uses the assertive masculine pronoun "ore" when referring to herself.
    • Rangiku also fits, as, although she's often seen spending fortunes on clothes during visits to the human world, she's also notorious for getting drunk with male colleagues and especially her constant talk about her giant breasts.
  • Detroit Metal City The band's manager is a violent leather-clad, chain-smoking, hard-drinking thug who constantly beats them up and vocally rates all their work by how much it sexually arouses her.
  • Full Metal Panic! Melissa Mao, depicted in the picture at the top of page. She is a Gunnery Sergeant in Mithril, drinks way too much beer, smokes a lot, is a Big Eater, and says very crude, foul language. Her hygiene is also pretty poor, as it's once shown that she left a bunch of cigarettes and at least 20 cans of beer on Tessa's coffee table. She even ran away from an arranged marriage to go join the marines (while still wearing her wedding dress). As for the sex part, she's very open about talking about it (as seen when she ruthlessly teases Sousuke and gets exasperated that he doesn't know what condoms are for). She also apparently likes it a lot, as is revealed when she finally enters into a relationship with Kurz (they engage in sex multiple times a day).
  • Ghost in the Shell Major Kusanagi fits this trope perfectly when she's not working. She likes beer, drives very aggressively, likes girls, loves to scare the shit out of people, and is well known to the owners of some less reputable bars. Also in the manga, she's living with her boyfriend who's also a cop. At one point Batou even asks her if she'd ever consider switching to a male cybernetic body.
  • Kiriko from Harlem Beat loves to smoke, gamble, and get drunk.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion Misato Katsuragi owns a sports car she's quite fond of, is a Captain in a special military force, enjoys beer enough to have a fridge full, and is indisputably the alpha male - in this case female - of the entire show. She even nails the poor hygiene down, given the state of her apartment when Shinji first arrives. She is also a Cool Big Sis figure for Shinji.
  • Elvy Hadhiyat of RahXephon. Not only is she a Badass pilot and the leader of TERRA's airforce, but she also loves to get drunk and she even attempts to seduce Ayato while drunk despite being over 10 years his senior.

Elvy: You wanna lock on? Dogfight 'til morning, cutey?

  • One Piece Nami skirts the edge of this trope. She's very feminine in her dress, cute in her mannerisms (when she wants something) and knows how to manipulate men (read: Sanji, not that that takes much) with her looks. On the other hand, she can out drink Zoro, who is a bit of an alcoholic, drops the sweet talk when she isn't trying to scam you out of your money going for insults instead, and shows no fear playing hardball with men much stronger than her (even if she's just doing the negotiations, and intends to step back and let the stronger crew members do the actual beating). Of all the pirates, she probably come the closest to "raping pillaging and stealing." Zoro often comments that Sanji's attentions to her (and Robin, but whatever) are even more pathetic taking into account that Nami is more of a man than the cook himself. Even if she does like to look pretty.
  • At first glance, Panty in Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt appears fairly feminine given her occasional choice of clothing and accessories, but is depicted as a promiscuous and dominating sex partner who at one point set the ambitious goal of having sex with a thousand men before returning to Heaven. Panty is also a pottymouth with a rude demeanor, and is a slob at home, a trait which Stocking points out to contrast her more orderly lifestyle.
  • Rave Master Julia, in stark contrast to her Too Good for This Sinful Earth legend.
  • Slut Girl, a Hentai Manga miniseries, has the titular character smoke, drink, manipulate people, and, generally speaking, be more of a badass than the guy she's been mooching off of for the several months that she knew him. She made it up to him, aside from the sex.
  • Tenchi Muyo! Ryoko is a good example, though it's partly due to being raised by Mad Scientist Space Pirates, and she does develop a (very) few more traditionally feminine traits as time goes on.
  • Vandread Gascogne from the anime version.
  • Maria Kurusu in Genzo despite being well endowed is also quite masculine in both some traits (her eyebrows) and mannerism.
  • Launch's "bad side" in Dragon Ball. Extremely violent, loves guns, and drinks hard.
  • Benio Hanamura from Haikara-san ga Tooru is an early version.
  • Ayase Yuto's sister in Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu can outdrink anyone.
  • Played straight in the anime that is Galaxy Angel with Forte, what with being the obsessed Gun Nut that she is. Subverted with the game from which the anime was adapted (See the Video Games section entry).


Comic Books

  • Lois Lane from Superman may be the original example in comic books. While she certainly doesn't mind wearing an elegant dress to a formal occasion every now and then, whenever she is seen lounging at home, it's often in tomboy-ish attire or sometimes in Clark Kent's old high school football jersey. And whether she's at home or out in Metropolis, Lois unabashedly loves a good pizza, a good beer, and keeping up with sports scores. Oh, and she knows how to brawl and can fight off most (non-superpowered) attackers, thanks to growing up in a military family.
  • Agency X Outlaw.
  • The Authority's Jenny Sparks: chain-smokes, drinks like a fish, has lots of casual sex, kicks a lot of ass, yells and takes charge a lot, and flat-chested to boot.
  • Battle Chasers: Red Monika is a tall, leggy, cartoonishly well-endowed, beer-drinkin', hard-livin' air pirate. "Sexy" doesn't begin to describe her.
  • Birds of Prey: Lady Blackhawk, resident pilot. She knows how to order beer in 30 different languages.
    • And from the 2011 relaunch, Starling aka Ev Crawford is a tattooed, gun-toting woman with an implied shady past.
  • Hack Slash: Cassie. Although she constantly looks like a stripper, she's tough, cold, and quite prone to delivering a Cluster F-Bomb.
  • Grendel: Susan Veraghen is a Samurai Biker Ladette in an age of Samurai Biker Lads.
  • Secret Six: Scandal, to point where she sleeps in boxers.
  • She Hulk, a.k.a. Jennifer Walters, when she's hulked out and less emotionally inhibited.
    • Red She-Hulk fits this trope even more, making Jen look like a girly girl in comparison.
  • Tank Girl. She lives in a tank, consumes more alcohol than would be possible in a world that obeyed conventional laws of physics, gleefully kills people on a daily basis, and has a large collection of insanely overpowered weapons.
  • Kate Spencer, the modern Manhunter, smokes, drinks and works as a Federal prosecutor for her day job, and in her off hours she takes out Karma Houdini criminals and does not abide by the Thou Shall Not Kill rule most heroes follow.
  • Red Sonja - everything but the sex.


Film

(after the hand is defeated) "Time for the celebratory sex!"

  • Miss Congeniality: Gracie Hart.
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark: Marion Ravenwood.
  • Repli-Kate: The titular character is a clone who has been educated by guys into being pretty much the ultimate Ladette.
  • Sorority Row: Chugs. She's a very heavy drinker (hence the nickname), is sexually very aggressive and seemingly none too obsessed with personal hygiene ("you taste like vomit," as one boy told her after she stuck her tongue down his throat).
    • Her answering machine also instructs callers to "leave a message after the *BURP*."
  • There's Something About Mary The titular Mary has elements of this.
  • The Trouble With Angels A 1966 film where Hayley Mills plays a girl named Mary Clancy in a Catholic boarding school who shows traits of this. Since it's a family film in the 1960's it was pretty tame, but the indications were all there.
  • Megan in Bridesmaids - sexually forward, not exactly a dainty eater and she even enthusiastically suggests setting up a female fight club for the bachelorette party.
  • Dizzy Flores from Starship Troopers the toughest female character in the movie, she can beat most men in armed combat and arm wrestling, loves playing rough sports, enjoys drinking with her male friends, and engages in sex with Johnny Rico on a few occasions.
  • McCoy from Streets of Fire.
  • Kate, the female blacksmith from A Knight's Tale is a medieval version of this trope. The end of the film has her winning a flatulence contest with the other men.
  • Atalanta in the Hallmark adaptation of Jason and the Argonauts.


Literature

  • Agnes Grey: Matilda Murray embodies this trope back in Victorian England, and needless to say this does not go over well at all.
  • The Discworld novel Monstrous Regiment explores this. Many of the characters have been keeping up the Sweet Polly Oliver act for so long that, at one point in the story, they have a hard time passing for female.
    • After centuries of being indistinguishable from the men, Dwarf women in Ankh-Morpork are experimenting with femininity and mostly hitting this point.
      • Namely, they started wearing leather or mail skirts with their armor and sometimes wear make-up, or slight heels on their iron-shod, hobnailed boots. Beards, armor, helmets, axes, drinking, singing about gold, etc.--stays the same. That being said, they don't drink beer so much anymore.
  • In The Discworld novel Discworld/Thud! , the girls of the City Watch elect to go out on one monstrous choirboys-style bender, picking up like minded friends along the way. A cheesed-off Watch sergeant (male0 describes the ladette behaviour of the policewomen with the very apt pun minge-drinking.
  • Dragonlance has Kitiara Uth Matar, the love interest of Tanis Half-Elven and the Blue Dragonlord. Kit is has been shown to drink with her (mostly male) soldiers, happily engage in random battle and has no qualms about using her sexuality to further her goals or just to satisfy her boredom.
    • Her showing these traits and her lack of inhibitions are what attracted Tanis (and indeed several other major players in the Dragonlance universe) in the first place.
  • Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe: Idgie Threadgood (and Eva Bates to a lesser extent). Idgie overlaps with the Butch Lesbian and Eva with the Good Bad Girl.
    • Interestingly enough, Eva does enjoy some aspects of femininity - the book mentions that she even wears lipstick and beads to go fishing - but her fondness for beer, sex, and ungenteel company is pretty Ladette-ish for the 1930s South.
  • The Kinsey Millhone series. The titular character, although she softens a bit in the later books.
  • The Magic Of Recluse Saga has Tamra.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire: Asha Greyjoy, to a degree.
    • Because Ironman culture has Testosterone Poisoning, Asha is essentially required to be a Ladette if she is to get any respect from the men under her command. This is not to say she doesn't enjoy it.
  • The Temeraire series. Captain Jane Roland might be an example of a Manette - which is to say, she has traits of The Ladette, but rather than acting like a stereotypical young man acts like an adult man, showing an easy emotional maturity most Ladettes don't. She smokes, drinks hard liquor, plays cards, speaks plainly, wears pants, sleeps with men she likes, and oh yeah, is in command of one of the deadliest dragons in the British Aerial Corps. All this in the early 19th century. She usually has or rather had, before being named a Peer and Admiral of the Air to fake ladylike appearance and dress outside of the coverts where the Aerial Corps spend most of their time, it is just that a certain breed of dragon will only accept female captains and so leeway must be granted resulting in a unique subculture.
    • Her daughter Emily is showing every sign taking after her, to no-one's surprise.
  • The In Death series has Eve, who can't understand the appeal of anything feminine or frilly. In fact, she was down right panicked the time she had to host a bridal shower.
  • Naomi Landsman of The Yiddish Policemens Union, a small-craft pilot and Determinator, who describes herself as a Butch Lesbian "in everything but sexual preference." Oh and she's dead before the beginning of the novel.
  • Anita Blake, and how. Particularly pronounced as the series went on and all women except the titular character became characterized as weak, jealous, or otherwise not in contention for Anita's enormous reverse harem. Anita Blake is the distaff version of a male fantasy - where the titular character raises the dead, works for the police but also plays vigilante, and let's not forget the harem. Thirty or so men, with at least six regulars, and at least one new flavour per book. She's the biggest swinging dick in the series, and she makes sure you know it.


Live Action TV

  • 21st-century Battlestar Galactica has Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, who can drink a Cylon under the table, and gets into brawls on a fairly regular basis. As Katee Sackhoff said of Kara, "She's a girl who drinks most of her calories."
    • The coed but macho military means that a number of other female characters have some elements of this, especially Kat.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Faith the sexual and violent slayer. She loves a good meal of burgers and fries, and can chug beer like a champion.
  • Burn Notice Fiona Glenanne, guns and explosives loving ex-terrorist
  • One episode of Cold Case focused on a extreme version of one of these. This being 1963, and a crime procedural, it ended in tragedy.
  • Degrassi offers a few examples, the first being Jane who needs coaching on how to be a friend, as most of her social circle is hanging out with the guys (and being really good at football). Bianca's profile suggests she'll be right at home with this trope too.
  • Dexter: Deb. At one point, wearing a dress to her brother's wedding, she remarks that she feels like a transvestite.
    • Although not before Season 2.
  • Farscape: Chiana, and how. Aeryn has a few of the characteristics, but is too essentially stoical and gloomy to count.
  • On George Lopez, Benny is a good example of this trope. It is also Lampshaded many times in the series.
  • How I Met Your Mother: Robin.
    • Somewhat justified, what with her dad having actually raised her as his son. Her full legal name is Robin Charles Scherbatsky Junior.
    • Her being Canadian often comes up in relation to this, usually for laughs.
    • Lily also has some elements of The Ladette, participating in farting contests and speed-eating hot dogs, but is generally more girly than Robin. She also has a very strong sex drive that isn't just used to sexualize her—it's part of her personality and the source of several gender-flipped versions of jokes invoking the All Men Are Perverts trope.
      • This is also in part justified because her mom was a hardcore feminist who didn't want Lily to conform to any traditional feminist roles, but she is still at heart a girly girl.
    • Quite appropriate, since Ted and Marshall are In Touch With Their Feminine Sides. Barney's the only main character who doesn't subvert gender norms (unless you count his obsession with fine clothing).
  • iCarly Sam Puckett is this minus the sex and drinking (maybe) because, well, it's a kid show, kinda.
  • In Plain Sight has Mary Shannon.
  • Kamen Rider Agito's Sumiko Ozawa is exceedingly blunt, making it a point to slag off anyone she has a problem with to their face. She's also a heavy drinker; in one episode, she had no less than seven pints of beer in one sitting, and she didn't come off as even slightly drunk afterwards. Then you add the fact that she's got some aspects of Wrench Wench, with her being the creator of the G3 System and all.
  • Ladette To Lady, a Reality Show. As the name suggests the contestants are, of course, this. They have been sent to a Finishing School to make them more "ladylike." (Though in one case there was a contestant who was actually more of a kind hearted Tomboy than a Ladette).
  • My Boys: PJ fits many of these traits. She's a sportwriter, can drink many of her male friends under the table, and usually associates more with men than other women.
  • Rad Girls, the female equivalent of Jackass.
  • Red Dwarf: The female Deb Lister is exactly the same as her male counterpart—the different chromosome apparently only affected her anatomy—and even beats Dave at beer-drinking (by spitting it in his face).
  • Saving Grace has Grace Hanadarko. Pretty much exemplifies this trope and then some.
  • On Scrubs, Denise Mahony, aka Joe, an intern introduced in season 8. (Also, Dr. Cox loves this kind of woman).
    • One Imagine Spot gag featured JD rooming with a combined Elliot and Turk who was this (normal Elliot also has shades of this,[1] although she is rather girly).

Elliturk: *While playing a Video Game with JD* Let me kill you and you can fondle my boobs.

  • Seinfeld has Elaine Benes.
  • Sharon Osbourne's Charm School. Similarly to the Ladette to Lady example above, the contestants on the show.
  • Square One TV: one of the actresses, Cynthia Darlow, displayed a good PBS Kids version of a Ladette.
  • Star Trek:Deep Space Nine: Jadzia Dax belongs to the Trill species who can fuse with an intelligent worm-like symbiont. The symbiont is very long-lived and when the humanoid body dies it is implanted into a new body, carrying all the memories and identities of all previous hosts. This creates a new individual who has lived as both men and women several times over. Jadzia (The name of the Trill, Dax is the symbiont) is usually a disciplined, intelligent, and very-well mannered officer, but off-duty can get a little bit wild—sometimes meeting up with her old Klingon friends for a night of starting drunken bar fights. Sisko also calls her "Old Man," having been friends with Dax's previous host.
    • Deep Space Nine also has an interesting subversion in that the host after Jadzia, Ezri, is NOT a Ladette, suggesting that this was part of Jadzia's personality from the start.
  • That '70s Show has Donna Pinciotti. Eric first fell for her after she punched him in the gut.
  • Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps: Janet Keogh has many elements of this, although she does have her "girly" moments as well.
  • Alex Russo fits this trope to a T.
    • Stevie even more so.
    • Of course it's common Fanon that Stevie is a lesbian and Alex is generally considered so... or in love with her brother.
  • The West Wing: C.J. Cregg, although only to the same extent as her male colleagues, who are rather far removed from stereotypically male behavior themselves.
  • Wings: Alex Lambert was like this. While it initially made her more attractive to Joe and Brian, once she and Brian started dating, he gradually grew more frustrated by it.
  • Xena: Warrior Princess: The titular character.
  • Las Vegas has Sam Marquez. Though she doesn't look the part she certainly acts it.
  • In an episode of 7th Heaven, Ruthie wanted to be like Simon and "the guys" which included nothing but being rude and crude.
  • In Married... with Children, Marci's Identical Cousin is this trope in all but sexual preference; Al even falls for her.
  • Dee Reynolds in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia can be sometimes as gross and sleazy as the male trio, yet still believe that her living style is on par with the Sex and the City crowd.
  • Smallville: Lois Lane is a tough fighter and a heavy drinker. (The latter being the reason she was expelled from Metropolis University).


Music

  • Bowling for Soup: The focus of the song "Girl All The Bad Guys Want"
  • Garth Brooks. The song "That Girl is a Cowboy" is about a ladette.
  • The Donnas' song "Take it Off" is about the singer getting drunk and aggressively demanding sex.
  • Evelyn Evelyn. The title character from this (unofficial) video.
  • Wanda Jackson's Fujiyama Mama.
  • Jessie J's "Do It Like A Dude" seems to have been created for the purpose of being The Ladette's anthem.
  • Toby Keith's "Whiskey Girl."
  • Ke$ha. Or at least the character she plays in her songs.
  • Interestingly enough, Lady Gaga. During her concerts, she's loud, and crass, swearing and grinding on her dancers, and generally pissing off the Moral Guardians with her decidely unlady-like behavior all while having a blast. Has also stated she would carry around a razor in her mouth when she was growing up in New York.
  • Marina & the Diamonds Girls,.
  • Maybe "Guys Do It All the Time" by Mindy McCready (the final verse suggests that she may be putting it on to try to get her boyfriend to see how she feels when he acts like this)
  • Natalie Portman.
  • Paradiso Girls' Patron Tequila.
  • P!nk in general, but especially "Get the Party Started", "Trouble", "Cuz I Can", and "So What".
  • Prodigy's video for "Smack My Bitch Up": the main character.
  • All of Shampoo's work. Especially "Girl Power", which invented the phrase before the Spice Girls hijacked it and took the threat out.
  • Ashlee Simpson: "Autobiography" and "Rule Breaker" helps her cause.
  • Rihanna, her actions after Good Girl Gone Bad indicate this, but Gangasta 4 Life proves it a fact.


Professional Wrestling

  • Though TNA loudly flaunts that the TNA Knockouts (read: women wrestlers) are not the typical "divas," they went ahead and gave us the exact opposite of a diva anyway, in the form of "ODB," who fit this trope like a glove. Built like a brick shithouse, given to smoking, drinking, and violence, and unlikely to win a beauty contest, her name stands for "One Dirty Bitch".
    • TNA has had another, less extreme, example in "The Hardcore Knockout" Roxxi. She's not constantly getting liquored up and cracking dirty jokes like ODB, but her punk look and Garbage Wrestler style definitely set her apart from the more feminine members of the roster.
  • WWE has the Chick Busters, AJ and Kaitlyn who like comic books, video games, action movies and playing practical jokes. The two of them can get girly at times though.


Toys


Video Games

  • Banjo-Kazooie Kazooie. Since it's a kids' game (for the most part), the "sex, beer, and swearing" bits are out, but she does love fighting, being rude, and insulting everything that moves.
  • Chrono Trigger Ayla is very much like this. Lucca is too, but only when she's drunk (and she denies having acted so when she's sober).
  • Donkey Kong 64 has Tiny Kong, who's rather eager to kick reptile butt.
  • In Fable 2, Hammer is one large, hard drinking, loud, violent dude of a woman.
  • Fallout 3: Sydney is a merc who modifies her own guns, and, at the end of the day, uses the money she's made to get stinking drunk. The game is full of these, actually, such as Riley and Brick of Riley's Rangers, Sarah Lyons, and female Raiders and Slavers. About the only conventionally feminine women in the game are Vault-dwellers, scientists, the women of Andale, and one crazy woman in Arefu who thinks it's pre-war time and you're there to deliver her catalogues.
  • In Fallout: New Vegas, Rose of Sharon Cassidy, a.k.a. Cass, is a fairly pure embodiment of this trope: a hard-drinking, dick-joke cracking, unabashedly sexual woman.
  • The Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters series. The pirate and treasure hunter Bonne Jenet. Interestingly, she's a complete Ladette personality-wise (one of her intros in Fatal Fury has her gulping down a pint of beer along with her all-male crew), but looks-wise she's very Stripperiffic (low-cut dresses, heels, sex appeal, etc.).
  • Final Fantasy V: Pirate captain Faris to the point of initially being mistaken for a man. Even after her gender is revealed Bartz and Galuf have a hard time thinking of her as female.
    • Final Fantasy XIII has Fang, she is one of the, if not the most manliest person in any Final Fantasy game.
  • Fire Emblem 7: The Dragon Rider Vaida.
  • The Izuna games. Ichika, who is out searching for a guy who can cook and clean for her. By the end of the game, she finds one in Sakichi, and in the second game, they get married.
  • Mass Effect: Possibly Commander Shepard, when the player chooses to play the character as female. Helped by the fact that the motion capture for both male and female Shepards is largely the same, leading to a few humorous moments where if in a dress Shepard sits in a very unladylike manner.
    • Jack from Mass Effect 2 is foul-mouthed, violent and all that.
    • Matriach Aethyta is also this, which she says is the result of her father being a Krogan.
    • Also Mel, a Marine who can be heard in Purgatory in Mass Effect 3 who wants to get drunk and watch asari dancers.
  • Aveline from Dragon Age 2 can hold her own in a fight rather better than most, is stubborn to a fault, and is rather masculine in temperament; she's rather more mature and less comfortable with courtship than most examples of this trope but she certainly behaves a lot more like a male character in a fantasy game than a female one. She's also described, despite being rather calm and reserved, as being so physically strong she's terrifying. Isabella is a much better example: she enjoys her fights, drinks, gambling, big boats and casual sex encounters, and she's not rude but loves to tease people with innuendo.
  • Mother 3: Rebellious Princess Kumatora is so brash and unfeminine, she gets mistaken for a boy by a few citizens of Tazmily Village.
  • Touhou: Suika and Yuugi both share this trait (along with Hard-Drinking Party Girl and Cute Bruiser), and it is implied to be common to all female oni in the series. Notably, the Bifauxnen characters of the series are relatively more feminine.
  • World of Warcraft: Female orcs have something of such a vibe, if you listen to their jokes.
  • Mitsumete Knight has Gene Petromolla, a tough-as-nails Red Sonja-type coachwoman with a rough masculine speech and first-person pronouns pattern, who likes wine, is good friends with one of the local punks, and enjoys the company of strong-willed manly men.
  • Subverted in the case of Forte in Galaxy Angel if you pursue her route, where while she does like guns and shooting, she is firmly into dancing and is very much refined and cultured. Firmly established since the first game, where Tact, the main character, remarks on the supposed oddness of her using perfume. In his words:

Tact: "I thought you'd say something like 'The scent of gunpowder is my cologne!' or something."
Forte: "Evidently, you read too many novels."


Web Original

  • The Nostalgia Chick. When she's not reviewing, she'll be dressed in messy clothes with her hair down and no make-up on. In the beginning of Kickassia, she spends most of her time drinking beer and disinterestedly going along with the crowd—and it's quite clear, once the Critic becomes N Bison, that her submissive little conservative woman persona is, aside from a dig at Sarah Palin, an act to get herself more power.
  • In the Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time episode Cookie Cataclysm, one is being served. Even the chef has to quickly run away in fear.
  • In Suburban Senshi this is revealed to be Sailor Uranus' real personality. Her fancy one seen in the series is a public facade.
  • Fireflare from Equestria Chronicles fits the bill perfectly. Except in the sex category.


Web Comics

  • Questionable Content: Faye is like this, to a certain extent. Subverted in that she is recognized as being an alcoholic and, at times, a total bitch. Plus, you know, the daddy issues.
    • A straighter example would be Natasha (a.k.a. Nat). No love for hygiene, rude, crude, and often inappropriate. And once passed out topless on the copying machine at her workplace.
  • Loserz Jodie as shown here, and Lampshaded here.
  • Shadowgirls Charon is the poster-child for this trope.
  • Bomango. Gogo Bomango
  • The Non-Adventures of Wonderella Wonderella.
  • Ménage à 3 Zii.
  • Pauline from Our Little Adventure
  • Camille, Shannon's sister from Bloody Urban takes the "Generally Attractive" part and subverts it. HARD.
  • Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki Otsana, Justified as she is a real live cavewoman. Her introductory bio states "She likes smashing things and meat."
  • Rumors of War Illyra likes to party and have fun—which can include Conversational Troping and trashing bozos. She thinks the rest of her adventuring party (including the devil-may-care Anti-Hero) need to lighten up. She gets the closest to vice she can in a setting that doesn't acknowledge drinking, swearing, or sex. Not a straight example, however, since she wears a dress and actually has a good deal of cunning.
  • In Drowtales, Kiel exhibits many of the characteristics of this trope, but at 24 years old, she's still a minor for her long-lived race.
    • An adult example is Sil'lice's daughter Kadara (the one with blue facial tattoos) whose foul mouth and butch appearance caused quite a bit of Viewer Gender Confusion until Sil'lice called her "daughter" and settled the question.
  • Shelly of Wapsi Square tends towards this at times.
  • Haley from Order of the Stick is a wildly unrepentant thief, capable of murdering her way through a house filled with her former allies, and makes no bones about the fact that one of the primary appeals of her boyfriend is what he's got "under the hood". If she's actually acting girlish in a way more involved than showing cleavage, it's probably because she's trying to con you or flirting with you.
  • Frigg of Guilded Age. Swears, drinks, loves fighting, and is a messy eater.
  • Cho of Kagerou fits the trope to a T.
  • The appeal of these characters to men is discussed in Irregular Webcomic, with reference to The Lord of the Rings:

Ophelia: What is it about Eowyn, anyway? I would have thought guys would rather go for Arwen.
Mercutio: Arwen's cute and all, but she'd only be into elfy things, like gardening and embroidery. Whereas Eowyn is equally hot, but would also knock back a beer and play Quake Deathmatch with you.


Western Animation

  • Adventure Time: Marceline is portrayed this way, in a PG-setting mostly due to her willingness to fight everyone and everything, as well as the sheer joy she experiences from doing so. Not to mention fitting the hygiene part too, as displayed in episodes (most notably in "Marceline's Closet") where she is seen not washing her hands after using the bathroom, and remarking that her armpits stink.
  • American Dad: Francine has her moments, mostly as flashbacks, although occasionally this also surfaces when she's reminiscing about her wild life in the days before she met Stan.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender has two, one major character and one minor.
    • Toph Beifong is a larval/prepubescent version of this. In a play based on her group's adventures, she's cast as a very large, muscular man. She is ecstatic.
    • June. She spends her days hunting people and roughing them up. At night she hangs out in bars drinking and arm wrestling (she usually wins).
  • And now in the Sequel Series, The Legend of Korra, Korra herself is shaping up to be a Ladette.
  • Exo Squad: Sgt. Rita Torres, the resident tough girl of Able Squad. Given that Exosquad is military based serie a lot of the girls may occasionally classify, but Torres surpass all of them. When off-duty she pass her time kicking her team asses and occasionally play the Mama Bear with a troop of boy-scout in power-armor
  • Family Guy: Lois sometimes acts this way.
  • On Justice League, Shayera Hol (A.K.A. Hawkgirl). Hobbies include smashing things, starting intergalactic Bar Brawls, and Getting Crap Past the Radar.
  • Iron Man: Armored Adventures has Pepper Potts, who loves guns, explosions, and dreams of being a police officer or secret agent when she grows up. She's also always seen wearing things like neckties and cuts her hair short.
    • On her first date with Happy she proved to be a Big Eater as well, and admitted that she can recite the alphabet and the 50 states all in one burp.
  • KaBlam! has June, as close as a 10-year-old girl can get.
  • My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic has Rainbow Dash and Applejack, both of whom are G-rated versions of this trope. Of the mane six characters, these two are the most athletic, are always ready to get dirty, and almost always prefer direct action over introspection during times of crisis. Rainbow Dash loudly boasts of her athletic feats and is prone to being socially insensitive, while Applejack typically cringes at anything feminine and frilly.

[They are trying to figure out what pet Rainbow should get]
Fluttershy: How about a bunny? They're cutesy and wutsey and quick as can be.
Rainbow Dash: Cutesy? Wutsey? Have you even met me?

  • Rugrats's Betty De Ville.
    • From All Grown Up! Lil tries to act like a girly-girl to fit in with everyone else but a few episodes show she's a Ladette at heart. Her friend from the soccer team Wally is one as well.
  • The Simpsons: Although Marge is not an an example, Homer once described being married to her as "Like having a best friend, and he lets me feel his boobs," summarizing this trope to a T.
    • Her friend Ruth Powers would fit this more minus the frequent sex, she smokes, drinks, curses, fights with men, and likes guns.
  • Sit Down, Shut Up Helen Klench.
  • Swat Kats Felina Feral.
  • Garfield and Friends Lanolin is a cross between Joan Jett and Lamb Chop.


Real Life

  • Alice Glass of Crystal Castles, as well.
  • Billie Holiday was known for often being even more fond of drinking, brawling, gambling, and sex than the bands she toured with; in fact, she won so much money in dice rolls when touring with Dizzy Gillespie's band that she actually had to buy Christmas gifts for the families of the losers.
  • Lucy Lawless worked as a miner in Australia when she was 19. Miners are pretty hardcore types even from the guys' perspective.
  • Calamity Jane.
  • Catherine the Great was seen as this.
  • Charlotte Church, the former opera singer.
  • Courtney Love.
  • Denise Van Outen, Sara Cox, Donna Air actually any number of young, female British TV presenters of The Nineties.
  • Drew Barrymore. She is a Barrymore, you know.
  • Gretchen Wilson, which she both lampshades and subverts in "One Of the Boys"
  • Janis Joplin.
  • January Jones, apparently.
  • Joan Jett.
  • Julie d'Aubigny. Though she had a quite successful career as an opera singer in the 17th century, she had a life that reads like the one of Jack Sparrow.
    • Ran away from Paris with a young man at age 18.
    • Endet up in Marseille, were she made money by fighting duels.
    • Seduced a nun and was tried for kidnapping and setting fire to a convent.
    • Pardoned by the King, and returned to Paris.
    • Started a duel at a royal ball over a girl.
    • Escaped from the law to Brussels, where she had an affair with the duke of Bavaria.
    • Returned to France when she was pardoned, again.
  • P!nk often presents herself this way.
  • Tallulah Bankhead could be considered an early Hollywood example, particularly with regards to her unapologetically brash attitudes toward sex.
  • Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane
  • You probably know someone like this. In fact, you may very well be one.
  • Rasheeda
  • Amy Winehouse anyone?
  • Zoe Bell
  • Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis' daughter.
  • Sarah Silverman seems to pride herself on being as vulgar and unladylike as possible.
  1. ↑ She has brothers and it's implied that her father wanted another son
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