Real Women Don't Wear Dresses/Live-Action TV

• There was some backlash against the supposed Chickification of Dax in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine when she eventually hooked up with Worf. Essentially, she was always an old soul in a young body and some fans objected to that "young body" part getting played up when she did things like jump into his arms and get broody, despite the fact that she was an Action Girl throughout the series and even after she died, when Worf and the gang had to go on a dangerous mission to ensure she got into the Proud Warrior Race Guy version of Heaven.
  • And the action that got them together? She picked up a sword and challenged him to a duel. Worf tended to suffer serious injury when they slept together, even.
  • The saddest part is that the only way in which Jadzia Dax was traditionally "feminine" was that she fell in love and entered a relationship. Otherwise, the writers tried to load her up with every positive "masculine" trait possible. She could kick ass in martial arts plus a variety of specialized weapon combat, she had the experience of multiple previous male lives, she'd most recently BEEN A CROTCHETY OLD MILITARY MAN, she was shown as being cool-headed, brave, and even stoic when necessary, she liked to use the Holosuites to indulge in eye-candy hotties giving her massages, she had Curzon Dax's history of being guy-buddies with Captain Sisko, she flirted with the native cuties on whatever planet they were visiting, and so on and so forth. Yet romance somehow "negated" her "masculine side." Heaven forbid she be someone traditionally "feminine" like Keiko O'Brien, who, during the course of the show, gets engaged, gets cold feet, gets married, gives birth, moves to a space station along with their young daughter to accompany her husband's career move, works first as a civilian botanist, then as an elementary school teacher, gets pregnant again, and has a second child. She not only does calligraphy, she also cooks -- and bakes.
• Zoe Washburn of Firefly, of all people, gets this treatment from the livejournal blog of allecto.
  • Specifically in the episode "War Stories", where Wash survives hours, possibly even a day, of brutal torture, then leads the effort to rescue the captain with roughly thirty seconds of rest first, while knowing they probably have days. Zoe gets this treatment because she rewards Wash by cooking soup.
    • The same critic (I presume) also accuses Wash of abusing Zoe. Her (the critic's) argument for this is that all white male/black female relationships she's known have been abusive. Never mind that the show makes it abundantly clear that Zoe wears the pants in the relationship and any attempt to abuse her would put Wash in a body cast for a year, this woman claims her own limited experiences are conclusive evidence.
    • The same critic later attempts to make her point by claiming that when it came to the episode's bounty, Zoe began to say something about it being marked for the Alliance and Mal telling her to shut up (in Chinese), which would infer that Mal used his power as a man to dominate and "abuse" his female (and black, as the critic wastes no time pointing out) subordinate. In fact, it was Wash who had made the comment about the bounty being marked, and Mal telling Wash to shut up, not Zoe.
    • Whether Mal aimed his remarks at Zoe or Wash wouldn't have mattered, really. He wasn't dominating or abusing his female or his male. He was giving an order as the captain. Just because he's usually easygoing and pleasant-demeanored with his crew doesn't mean he doesn't expect them to jump when he tells them to. Especially since when he decides it's time to start giving orders, the orders involved are often things like "fire at will" and "run like hell."
  • Allecto somehow applies this to all of the female characters. She rags on Kaylee for having the gall to want to hook up with Simon, Zoe for...erm being married...? (she seems to think that all marriages ought to be celibate or something), and Inara for her profession. Neverminding the fact that Inara is the only one on the ship who makes a steady living.
    • Allecto appears to be a rare type of really extreme Straw Feminist who believes it is inherently impossible for heterosexual sex to be consensual.
• Battlestar Galactica:
  • Brutally subverted by Caprica 6.^[context?]
  • Played straight by Kara Thrace. Kara is an Ace Pilot whose wardrobe consists of mainly military uniform or fatigues, but she's not above pulling out all the stops to render her Love Interest speechless at the sight of her, going so far as to tell him that her in a dress is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
• Veronica Mars likes to avert this trope. Veronica's a Badass investigator who will destroy the lives of anyone who dares to cross her - but also bakes "spirit cookies" for her friend Wallace (snickerdoodles!), and hopes to receive a pony as a gift someday.
• Totally averted by Delenn on Babylon 5 who wears gorgeous clothes, looks and acts unmistakably feminine, and is the most unambiguously good, kind, and even maternal character on the show, but is so Badass that the Shadows probably have dark, ancient legends about her.
• Averted by Dana Scully of The X-Files. She is the Action Girl of her and Mulder's partnership and is capable of doing more than her fair share of the rescuing. She has a degree in the more male-dominated field of physics, is a pathologist, and insists that her male coworkers not treat her differently because she is a woman and tiny. However, she is undeniably feminine. She has a liking for nice clothes and bubblebaths, a well-kept apartment, is a health-nut and is very concerned about her weight.
• Buffy's whole schtick is to subvert this. Unmistakably feminine, a former cheerleader, not above going nuts in a clothing store, and if a creature from the depths of hell tries to attack her in a dark alley, a quick death is about the most it could hope for.
• Sometimes used in Super Sentai, which is fond of the Tomboy and Girly Girl trope: if there are Two Girls to a Team, typically the Pink (or White) Ranger will be girly and wear skirts/dresses, while the Yellow (or Blue) Ranger will be more tomboyish and wear shorts or pants. Early series would lean towards making the tomboy the stronger warrior, while the girly girl would be more of a pacifist and often have a less powerful weapon. Subverted in more recent years, where the two will more often be shown to be equally skilled, but with different fighting styles.
• Completely inverted with 19 Kids and Counting, to the point of Unfortunate Implications; if a woman isn't an Extreme Doormat, she will go to Hell.
• Played straight (albeit accidentally) on Robin Hood which saw Djaq, an intelligent, resourceful, competent Action Girl who always wore pants written out at the end of the second season and replaced with Kate, a girl who wore an impractically long dress out in the forest, and whose contributions to the outlaw gang included a string of kidnappings, endless bitching and moaning, and a Romantic Plot Tumour.

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