Keep up the attitude, sport; maybe your right arm will match hers someday.
"I'm weirding guys out. They see me on TV, round-housing some goon out a window. It's a vivid image."
It's not easy for women on TV today to be both beautiful and strong, like the Amazons of Greek mythology. Why? Because All Guys Want Cheerleaders, but no guy wants a girl who can beat him up. If you must be a Magical Girlfriend, he would prefer the domestic type. A Huge Schoolgirl or Cute Bruiser all grown up is a threat to his tough, masculine image. In Layman's Terms, he's not an Understanding Boyfriend (yet).
Strangely, as far as this trope is concerned her actual inclination and ability to (sexually) assault, maim, cripple, or kill him aren't as important as whether she looks capable of doing so.
So you frequently find a protagonist who is instantly attracted to a hot girl only to discover too late that she's a black-belt, a professional athlete, or a superhero, and he suddenly needs to find a way to prove he's as tough and strong as she.
Unlike All Guys Want Cheerleaders, this trope doesn't necessarily tap into what the entertainment industry presumes turns guys in the audience on or off — that's more a part of Chickification. The proverbial Amazon is usually portrayed in a positive light and the guy as the fool. The most common way to end the plot was traditionally with An Aesop about equality. Today, the girl is just as likely to be the protagonist, and the ending is likely to be a Slap-Slap-Kiss. However, in older (1950 to 1990ish) media the trope is usually played straight and without irony, because writers assumed that young male viewers would see a naturally strong woman as an insult to the hero's (and by transference their own) masculinity.
A leading cause of a female character being 'girly' or non-combatant. Contrast Amazon Chaser, where guys go for a woman because she kicks ass. Also contrast with Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy, where the man in question is meant to be weaker and girlier than his female counterpart, and the various tropes on Acceptable Feminine Goals and Traits. All Amazons Want Hercules may also be considered an inversion since it runs on the logic that No Amazon Wants a Normal Guy. If the girl herself is worried that her muscles are turning guys off of her, Muscle Angst may ensue.
Another to keep in mind is that the guy (or girl or whomever) may be turned off not because of their strength or power, but more because of the personality attributes one would assume an Amazon would have (aggression, intimidating personality, easily prone to violence, etc.) That doesn't go on here unless her strength is directly connected to said personality.
Often overlaps with Wasted Beauty, if the guy acknowledges the girl's attractiveness but considers her physical prowess a turn-off. Compare to I Was Beaten by a Girlnote .
Examples
Please remember all "Subversions", "Aversions" or "Inversions" go under Amazon Chaser!
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Anime and Manga
- The karate-loving, brash Genki Girl Tamayo in the Angelic Layer anime comes very close to being an Unlucky Osananajimi. Her longtime crush is in love with a much cuter girl and sees her as "one of the guys". She does get him in the end, however. (In the manga, she doesn't seem to have much of an interest in him, and ends up with someone else without this trope rearing its head.)
- Matsuri of Ayakashi Triangle is considered a very attractive girl, but has a masculine, forthright attitude that keeps away most guys, who describe Matsuri as "too flashy" or "scary". As Matsuri used to be male and is not attracted to boys, this works to his advantage.
- Discussed and explored in Black Butler. Elizabeth "Lizzie" Middleford worries that her fiancé won't want her anymore, should he discover that she is actually an accomplished swordswoman. It stems from a childhood incident in which her fiancé stated that her mother, a fierce Iron Lady of War, was frightening and he was thankful he was marrying a sweet girl like her. Likewise, her aunt taught her that a Proper Lady should be beautiful and sweet, surrounded by pretty things, and there to always cheer up her husband. This leads to her becoming a Deliberately Distressed Damsel, making numerous sacrifices for the sake of his pride. Thankfully, when she's forced to rescue him and reveal her true nature as an Action Girlfriend, he's not bothered in the least bit.
- Bleach: Despite her looks, no one's willing to take a chance hitting on Tatsuki and with good reason. She was Ichigo's sparring partner during their childhood, and taught the bullies that used to pick on Orihime a lesson. Chizuru has also been on the receiving end of Tatsuki's wrath each time Chizuru has tried to molest Orihime. Which is why she considers Tatsuki cute, but too masculine for her tastes.
- Another prime example is Chiharu Nitta from Boys Be.... While she is pretty and some males have an interest in her she is called "Amazon Woman" by Makoto because Chiharu is on the high school track and field team.
- City Hunter: Kaori is gorgeous, but the masculine way she acts tend to scare away the few men who realize she's a woman.
- Daily Lives of High School Boys Since every woman in this series is either a psycho stalker or an aggressive bully, our titular heroes never manage to find a girlfriend by the end.
- Miki Makimura in the manga Manga/Devilman is somewhat ashamed to have Akira witness her aggressive side, probably thinking that he wouldn't be interested in a tough tomboy. Because of this, she downplays her tomboyishness to appeal to Akira, feigning fright and weakness for Akira's attention, although she can still kick ass when in danger.
- Pan goes on a date in the first episode of Dragon Ball GT, only to have it interrupted by a crime in progress. She subdues the criminals single-handedly but scares her date off in the process.
- Fullmetal Alchemist:
- In the original Fullmetal Alchemist, we have Olivier Mira Armstrong, who can and does beat up her Lightning Bruiser younger brother who is twice her size, ridiculously muscular and not afraid to show it, as well as a high-ranking state alchemist. Nearly every man she meets has a healthy respect for her if they are not downright afraid of her. One of her own soldiers even says that she's "too scary to be a woman!"
- This shows up in one of Hinagiku's internal monologues regarding a tardy Hayate the Combat Butler. She needn't worry, though.
- In Love Lab, no guy wants to go out with Riko because she's One of the Boys and beats up anybody who annoys her without hesitation.
- The premise of Lovely Complex is the budding romance between a Huge Schoolgirl and her short classmate, who has trouble seeing her as anything more than his partner in their Boke and Tsukkomi Routine.
- Klan Klein from Macross Frontier is terribly unlucky in love, given that the man she loves is killed right after she confesses her affection. She only fits this trope half the time, however; when in her smaller form she's as tiny as her giant form is Amazonian. Yes, this is for the benefit of the viewers and fan artists.
- Midori Days: The local otaku asks for Seiji's help to impress a girl by pretending to bully her so he can intervene and chase him off. When she kicks Seiji's ass, he loses interest, as he's one of those Moe-obsessed types.
- Naruto: In Chapter 246, when Naruto and Sakura re-do the bell test with Kakashi, she demonstrates the Super-Strength that she learned from Tsunade by smashing the ground open. Naruto looks terrified of her
◊, and then he thinks to himself◊ that he shouldn't upset her because she'd kill him. Later in Chapter 632, when Sakura activates her Yin Seal and demolishes a bunch of Ten-Tails mini-clones, Naruto looks absolutely terrified of her◊, while Sasuke sports a proud and flirty smirk.
- In Outlaw Star, Fred Luo asks Gene to keep a woman from winning a championship. Said woman has a deal with Fred that if she wins so many championships in a row, they'll be married according to family tradition — when family members come of age, they marry the strongest. Even Gene is disturbed by her body. Of course, Fred has other reasons for not being interested as well.
- Discussed in Ranma ½: Ranma often points out to Akane, "Who'd want to marry a macho chick like you?" Akane, however, is desired by the entire male half of her high school, Ryoga, and Ranma himself (if he could ever admit it).
- In The Royal Tutor, Beatrix thinks this is one of the reasons her cousin/fiancee Kai does not recognize her as his future wife because she is quite tall and tends to act in a more masculine manner. She also worries that she does not fit Kai's standard of cute things, as Kai adores all things cute and small.
- Sailor Moon:
- Makoto/Sailor Jupiter in the anime was so worried that her tall stature, great strength, and hot temper would scare away guys that she learns to cook and dresses in a girly way so she would stop intimidating boys. It doesn't work. It's only in the third season, where she sees the much more masculine Haruka stand proud of herself, that she decides to forget what the boys think. The Periphery Demographic disagrees quite strongly. Jupiter is... very popular.
- Also happens to Minako in the manga version: part of her bad luck with boys is openly attributed to her being a tomboy and beating up boys who mocked her for it.
- Saint Seiya: Despite all the Amazons being beautiful, none of them ever hook up with any of the guys. Instead, Ikki, Shiryu, and Hyoga fall or have Ship Tease with Yamato Nadeshiko type of women.
- Sorcerer Hunters. Carrot Glace is a bit of an idiot, a womanizer, and his only useful skill in fighting sorcerers is totally out of his control — he turns into a horrible, deadly monster when struck by magic. Despite all that, he has two loyal, beautiful women, who've known him forever, pursuing him — the sisters Chocolate and Tira Misu. They are also, however, dominatrix-queens whose real job in the team is to beat the bejeesus out of Carrot after he's transformed, to turn him back into a human. He is, by his own admission, too afraid of them to think of them romantically.
- Soul Eater: Despite Soul's statements that he's "too cool" to be involved with someone like Maka who, despite superb fighting skills, is thin as a pole and flat-chested, Soul seems to be more annoyed than pleased by their very Amazon-esque Cat/Human pet/roommate/shameless mooch, Blair. Ship Tease and Soul's girl!form (based on what he finds attractive in the opposite sex) in the chapter of Lust would also seem to contradict his claims. This trope also gets played straight with Maka herself: while learning to fly, she tells Soul that she wants angel wings; but since the form of the wings relies on both partners' images, they don't come out right. Soul can't think of Maka as an angel since she's constantly hitting him.
- Part of the reason that Momomiya Ichigo of Tokyo Mew Mew wants to lose her powers is out of fear that the boy she likes will reject her when he finds out. In fact, he doesn't care. Of course, his secret's even bigger...
- Sumika from Whispered Words couldn't care less that the guys consider her as this. Her grief comes from the fact that the girl she loves only likes them cute.
- In Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Ameri Azezal is both a very powerful and beautiful young looking Demon who can be tough, determined and adorable when she wants to be, especially around her crush Iruma, who is human. However, as when she started to develop feelings for Iruma she suspected he wouldn't want to be with her because she was a "brute" and not "cute". Once Iruma tells her he likes her more as herself does she begin to lessen in this belief.
- Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl, a lesser-known comedy anime from the early '90s, features the cute schoolgirl protagonist Yawara, who also happens to be a highly-skilled martial artist, coming from a long line of martial artists and having been taught as such from a really young age. In only the first episode of the anime, she displays her abilities to her crush, who then proceeds to run away from her in fear for a good portion of the rest of the series. It should be noted that Yawara herself seems to be aware of this trope, and wants to quit practicing fighting in order to be a normal girl for exactly the above reasons, which is what generates a sizable amount of the show's plot.
Comic Books
- In Artesia, the men of the Middle Kingdoms are disturbed and horrified by the warrior women coming down from Daradja. They believe women belong in the home, not the battlefield.
- The Brave and the Bold #63 (from 1965) revolves around this trope. Basically, Wonder Woman and Supergirl both succumb to their natural need for male dominance. Of course, their new boyfriends don't approve of what they do, assume that they are at heart weak and desirous of submission (which Wonder Woman actually is), and would be disillusioned if they saw them at work. This leads the two to bend over backwards trying to save lives without losing their boyfriends by lying to them about their actions. Finally, they give it up and return to fighting crime, as they realize that it is what they need to do.
- Despite being an Amazonian Beauty and one of the biggest sex-symbols in the Marvel Universe, She-Hulk manages to marry just about the only guy in the world that prefers Jennifer Walters to seven feet of green She-Hulk.
- Milo Manara's X-Men features a plane-worshiping cult (don't ask) whose leader tries to court Storm, to the chagrin of the man's wife. Once he discovers that Storm has powers, he loses all interest: His wife has powers too, and he was looking for a Human woman so that he could have the upper hand for once.
Fan Works
- After Many Dates: Danny and Kim: Most of Kim's dates "were a bit put off by her skills in combat".
- In Fate/Parallel Fantasia, when Shinji meets Bazett, his inner thoughts reveal he thinks she's ugly because of her huge muscles.
- A couple of sidestories of Pokémon Reset Bloodlines show that some girls, like Whitney and Pike Queen Lucy who are athletic and strong trainers, tend to intimidate men a lot, making it very difficult for them to get dates.
- The Raven's Plan: Sansa proclaims that Arya is not marriageable for this reason, and this time she isn't being insulting or cruel. Arya is a publicly-known Faceless (Wo)Man who fed Walder Frey a pie made out of two of his sons and slaughtered him and his house. Most noblemen would be too terrified to get near her, let alone marry her.
- A Thing of Vikings: In Constantinople, Sophia is looked down on and considered unattractive due to her being unfeminine by their standards. Part of the reason she genuinely likes Sigurd is that he considers her Amazonian traits attractive.
Films — Live-Action
- In American Pie Presents: Beta House, one of the frat guys has a Running Gag problem where he drinks too much and wakes up in all sorts of weird situations. At the end of the film, he wakes up to find that he slept with a female bodybuilder, who is treated as an Abhorrent Admirer.
- Paula in Bend It Like Beckham, when trying to get her daughter Jules to behave more femininely:
Paula: No boy's gonna go out with a girl who's got bigger muscles than him!
- In The Cell, the killer's nightmarish mindscape includes an extremely muscular and naked woman who acts as a servant. Word of God states that the character was included because the filmmaker asked a friend what creeped him out, and he responded, "Female bodybuilders."
- In Miss Congeniality, as a little girl, Grace defended a boy she liked from a group of bullies, only to be harshly rejected by him afterwards for this reason
- In Mulan: Rise of a Warrior, Mulan's father complains about his daughter learning kung fu, saying that no-one will marry her.
- My Super Ex-Girlfriend passes through this trope — the guy does, indeed, dump the superpowered girlfriend. However, it's not because she's a superhero (which he actually found cool). It's because she's super-needy and super-jealous and an overall Unstable Powered Woman. In the end, she hooks up with her Evil Former Friend, and the guy hooks up with his SANE co-worker who also turned into a superwoman. It's kind of Zig-Zagged. He dates the alter ego then finds out she's a superhero (but he thinks it's awesome at first.) Then he leaves her for a normal woman, and she subsequently gets superpowers too. At the end of the movie, he seems to be taking it in stride. The villain had more hang-ups about it but he gets over it at the end too.
- The Stepford Wives has a town full of insecure "men" who are happy with their wives being Brainless Beautys. Even Joanna's husband says that ever since they've met she's beaten him at everything. She's stronger, she's faster.
- Stewardess School: Wanda the amazon is very unsuccessful with men.
- Mismatched Couples is a mostly forgotten flick from early on in Donnie Yen's career. Among its small viewership, it's remembered for two things: 1) Donnie Yen's sweet breakdancing skills, 2) Yen's character and his friend humiliating and berating a muscular female Mook in a Leotard of Power for "looking like a beast" and belittling her, stating that men are braver than women, and to prove his point, removes his shirt and insists "Men can do this whenever they want if you're so brave, take your clothes off". She angrily goes along with it and begins to pull down her Leotard before Yen's character's sister stops her. Said female mook was a massive Jerkass who was bullying the aforementioned friend, but still...
Literature
- Part of Lisa's impressive collection of psychological baggage in Lone Huntress comes from her conviction that this trope holds universally true. Part of her character growth comes from opening herself up to the possibility that it's not.
- Anita Blake briefly tries to date a fellow animator, only to run into this trope.
- In Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis's Bones Of The Dragon, the main character Skylan is in love with Aylaen. However, Aylaen loves fighting and is a tomboy. Most of the story centers about Skylan Wangsting about wanting her to stop being one and start acting like a good housewife, especially when he tells her 'you'll be raising our sons anyway' when she complains about the duties assigned to a chief's wife.
- Jane Layton's The Boyhood Of Grace Jones takes place in the 1930s. Grace feels completely male at this point in the series. She wants to be a sailor and live as masculine a life as possible, and strenuously exercises to keep up with the strength of guys her age (eleven or so). Her parents have this whole worried conversation about her getting muscular. Fortunately, she undergoes full Chickification and by the end of the novel is deeply into clothes and makeup. Readers still complain about the way Layton "sold Grace out".
- The lovely and powerful Rowan, of David Gaider's Dragon Age novel The Stolen Throne, is a finely nuanced version of this trope. She is truly beautiful and a strong warrior at the same time. Though at first seemingly played straight, if you look closely it becomes apparent that the guys who didn't want her just weren't right for her or mature enough for her, rather than necessarily rejecting her because of her strength, and that her fondness for one of the characters is more the product of an adolescent crush and lingering insecurity than real, true love thwarted by her own prowess with a blade. Later it becomes apparent that while one guy runs away from an amazon, another chases them.
- In Hurog, Stala is very Amazon-like, working as the weapon master of the castle, and unmarried.(Which is an advantage to her, as the man of whom others say that he should have married her was a monster.) Averted in that she is said to have had an affair with the aforementioned man.
- Monica Figerola from the Millennium Series. She's 185 cm (6'2") and a former bodybuilder. Despite practically all men considering her gorgeous, all her previous relationships failed because of this trope. She's the one who ends up with protagonist Mikael Blomkvist, though.
- Amusingly enough, Elend discovers a dose of Super Serum and becomes a more powerful (though still less skilled) Mistborn than Vin in the third book.
- A Piece in the Game of Gods: From Part 44:
I think it was starting to dawn on Teri that with her new size and physique, it might be a little more difficult to find a boyfriend than it had been before. Sure, she looked great, but most guys weren’t thrilled with the idea of having a girlfriend who was stronger than they were.
- Joren tells Keladry this in Protector of the Small in one of his less odious attempts to discourage her from becoming a knight, although Cleon would beg to differ. Princess Shinkokami gets a form of this advice from her uncle about her forthcoming marriage to Prince Roald — "men with unconventional mothers want conventional wives." (Which, in Roald's case, is complete hogwash.)
- Raptor Red has a scene in which a giant of a female raptor attempts to woo the main character's consort. The consort is more than a little freaked out about this. When the giant is eventually chased off, the narrator tells us she'd been dealing with this all day: no Utahraptor male would pair off with her because of how freakishly large she is. While male raptors want strong partners, she's so big that they're confused as to whether or not she's the correct species.
- The heroine of Reserved for the Cat is a ballerina who wins two fights, one with Waif-Fu and another with magical firearms. In both cases, she downplays her involvement for fear of scaring off her romantic partner, who doesn't like women who can rescue themselves. This is a rather sharp contrast to romantic interests in the other books in the series: while they're not necessarily all Amazon Chasers, they're at least comfortable with their partner being an Action Girl.
- Toulac, a retired soldier in Maggie Furey's Shadowleague books, pokes fun at this trope on occasion, saying that the only truth in it lies in the fact that men think it's true, and thus avoid strong women because they don't want to be looked down on.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: Brienne of Tarth is a trained knight and one of the most kind and honourable characters in the book series. But because she's tall, strong and considered ugly, so no man wants her apart from her inheritancenote . Though later books hint at Jaime being attracted to her.
- Also comes up for Kylaia in the Tortall Universe short story "Student of Ostriches", as illustrated by the former page quote. However, the Shang Master who saw her fight is impressed enough by her self-taught martial arts skills that he is willing to pay a full bride-price to take her as a student.
- The Unwomanly Face Of War: There were many a Wartime Wedding, but unfortunately many other guys didn't want to go out with former female recruits because of this trope. To elaborate, many of them saw the female soldiers as their sisters so how could they marry their own siblings? There was also the fact that the male soldiers suffered trauma from the war so they all want to search for normal, civilian women whom they saw as beautiful and pure, unlike their blood-stained female comrades that kept reminding them of the battlefield.
Live-Action TV
- The Boys (2019). A Discussed Trope when Hughie Campbell starts dating female superhero Starlight, and realises she's pretending to be bad at bowling to protect his male ego. She mentions kicking the ass of a bully who punched her prom date...who never spoke to her again. Hughie doesn't have a problem, finding her Super-Strength rather cool.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy's boyfriend, Riley Finn, has a related malady. Riley wants Buffy all the more for being superheroic, but he seeks to enhance his performance to not feel inadequate next to the Slayer. There were also numerous references to the trope by guys who were intimidated by her strength in high school and Spike quips about it when she is dumped after a one night stand. It should be noted that Riley's insecurity stems at least in part from his (perhaps justified) belief that Buffy doesn't love him as much as she could.
- Apparently, no one in Thailand wants an Amazon, as when Chuck is kidnapped in "Chuck vs. Phase Three", everyone was talking about the "giant blonde shemale" (Sarah) on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge across the country. Chuck himself, on the other hand, definitely wants the Amazon.
- Drake & Josh, Drake was going to break up with a girl because she saved him in a fight involving a bunch of bullies. He then decides to deny that she is tougher than him, leading them to have a "friendly" sparring match. After grappling and tossing each other for several minutes and inadvertently ruining Josh's fancy dinner with his girlfriend and her family, Josh separates them and declares the fight is a draw.
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, twice, with one Girl of the Week who was a boxer, and the almost-bride.
- Game of Thrones: The TV show plays this straighter than the books since TV-Brienne is more Hollywood Homely than "hideously ugly." This is the reason why she's in love with Renly; he's the only man who recognizes her worth as a human being and a warrior and does not judge her based on her appearance or gender. Jaime suggests that, given her physicality and her affront to the rigid patriarchal structure of Westeros, more than a few men must have tried to rape her out of spite. Brienne replies, "one or two tried." That said, the one time a man (the Wilding Tormund) shows an actual interest in her, it's so over-the-top it's actually rather sweet, albeit awkward and hilarious. But Brienne does not seem to appreciate his interest or is at least put off by how forward he is. This is further averted when she and Pod come to Riverrun and meet with Jaime. Bronn comments that "I'd fuck her" and goes on to observe that "[Jaime]'d fuck her, that's for sure."
- In Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Atalanta was very unlucky in love because most guys were turned off by her strength and physique. (She's even buffer than Hercules, works as a blacksmith, and is portrayed by Cory Everson). In contrast, Hercules and Salmoneus both thought she was hot. The trope is best demonstrated in the episode "If I Had a Hammer".
- How I Met Your Mother:
- In the Season 6 episode Baby Talk, when Robin asks Ted why he's attracted to her happy, infantile co-host, he says it's because she makes him feel needed–something Robin never did. We then see a series of flashbacks of Robin taking over parts of a romantic relationship usually done by men, such as paying for dinner, lying on top while having sex, and scaring away robbers with a hunting rifle. Ted reveals it bothered him, saying, "it's nice to be needed."
- This makes Robin insecure until Barney subverts the trope when he says that he thinks it's awesome that she's not needy.
Barney:And that is what makes you the most amazing, strong, independent woman I've ever banged. - iCarly:
- In iBeat The Heat, Freddie is bothered when his online girlfriend, Gibby's cousin Sabrina, turns out to be much taller than him.
- In "iMake Sam Girlier", this is Sam's mentality, but it turns out to be an aversion with Pete, who likes a girl who can dress nice and kick butt. For some reason, he's never shown again.
- Played With in the Hallmark version of Jason and the Argonauts as Jason does not see the boyish Atalanta as more than a sister to him, having eyes for Hot Witch Medea. However, Atalanta does attract an admirer of her own.
- On Last Man Standing, the youngest daughter Eve, a tomboy who hunts, plays football, and participates in JROTC, feels insecure over the fact that boys don't throw themselves at her like they do for her older and more feminine sisters.
- In an episode of Blue Bloods Eddie and Jamie foil a robbery — in front of their respective dates. Jamie's date is all a-swoon over Jamie's heroic actions, while Eddie's date is seriously unnerved,and breaks off the relationship. Eddie fumes at the Double Standard.
- In an episode of Lizzie McGuire Lizzie frets about this when she discovers she has a talent for playing football. She worries that the boys will stop thinking she's feminine and won't want to date her. The Brawn Hilda of a coach then reveals that she has a swing dancing date every weekend.
- In Lost, Ana Lucia Cortez was a tough, pretty, fiery, physically powerful for her size, Latina ex-police officer who was trapped on the island with the rest of the castaways. Before the plane crash, she shot and killed a man in revenge who had shot her in the past, and whose bullet had caused her to miscarry the baby she was carrying at the time. This caused her to develop a lot of emotional issues and a suspicious orneriness and a fierce protector of the children among the survivors. Her fellow castaways, in part due to her actions and abrasive domineering personality (and in part because she shot Shannon to death — though it wasn't out of pure malice, and she did genuinely apologize for it), took a long time to accept her as one of them — but she eventually found some companionship with Mr. Eko as a friend and then with Sawyer as a lover, even if it was for a day. She eventually became one of the team and her loss was felt when she was killed by Michael. However, most of the resentment came from the fans of the show who were repulsed by her attitude even if in a real way she was a female version of Sawyer and did much the same things he did — yet he was loved by the fans and she wasn't. They didn't have any empathy for what she had gone through which caused her to be the way she was. She was murdered by Michael working for the "Others" to get his kidnapped son Walt back.
- There are traces of this with Prince Arthur on Merlin. He is disgruntled when Morgana saves his life from a bandit, humiliated when Morgause beats him in single combat, astounded when Princess Elena wins their horse race and shows distaste at Princess Mithian's love of hunting. He's in love with the spirited, but uber-feminine and passive Guinevere.
- Gwen is usually passive, but the one time Arthur sees her pick up a sword (in "Lamia", to defend Merlin from the titular beast), he seems more proud than put off.
- The Orville: Alara Kitan mentions she can't keep a steady boyfriend because almost all the guys are intimidated by her Super-Strength. So far, Captain Ed Mercer is the only man who treats her like a regular person.
- Reaper, Ben is happy dating Nina unless he comes across a situation where it's obvious that being a human he's much weaker than her. Borders on Too Dumb to Live when he wanted to fight another demon who had an eye for Nina.
- An episode of Saved by the Bell saw Zack dating a girl on the wrestling team and getting all embarrassed when she saved him from getting beaten up.
- One episode of BBC-3's Snog, Marry, Avoid? featured a female weight lifter. In her 'make-under', she was notably made to look more appealing with clothes that hid most of her muscles.
- Vala on Stargate SG-1 gets told that this is the reason for her lack of romantic luck. However, since she's been married multiple times and apparently Really Gets Around, it's probably not true.
Music
- David Byrne & Fatboy Slim's "The Rose of Tacloban" briefly alludes to this. Imelda Romualdez sings "Ninoy was my first love, but he said I was too tall."
- Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog":
"I don't know but I've been told
Big-legged woman ain't got no soul"
Big-legged woman ain't got no soul"
Professional Wrestling
- Seemingly the reason the management of WWE used to regulate Natalya Neidhart, Jillian Hall, and Beth Phoenix (who could probably mop the floor with some of the men on the roster, like Chyna used to) to jobber status while pushing glorified swimsuit models to title reigns. This isn't to say that the more athletic women never get pushed at all, but it didn't become the status quo until much later. EVENTUALLY subverted later on, with multiple athletic female stars being more popular than most of the men, with Becky Lynch being the biggest example.
- Speaking of Chyna, when she first started out in WWF, she was a mannish-looking bodybuilder with bigger muscles than most of the men. Over time, she had several cosmetic surgeries and lost most of her mass, allowing her to grace the cover of Playboy.
- This also happened in the WWE developmental territories. An athletic woman gets noticed and is ordered to lose her muscle tone to suit the traditional Diva mold. This happened to Angel Williams (Impact Wrestling's Angelina Love) and Jennifer Thomas (who continued to find work on the California independent circuit and PGWA after WWE decided to cut her even after she cut weight) in the mid-2000s. One who actually got a run on WWE's main roster is Dana Brooke, whose sculpted biceps and love of flexing them were a big part of her gimmick when she first arrived, yet her physique softened up considerably over time. She still flexes, but it looks hilariously pathetic compared to before she debuted on the main shows.
Theater
- Annie Get Your Gun has a whole song about this phenomenon:
The gals with "umbrellars"
Are always out with fellers
In the rain or the blazing sun
But a man never trifles
With gals who carry rifles
Oh, you can't get a man with a gun.- It's actually rather funny, as in real life, Annie's husband pretty much fell in love with her when she beat him at sharpshooting, then went on to give up his career to support hers.
- Wonderful Town features the song "One Hundred Easy Ways to Lose a Man" which is about how no man will accept a woman who has even half a brain.
Video Games
- Much of Yui's route in Brass Restoration deals with Ryo being unable to see her as anything other than a guy with boobs.
- Dragon Age:
- Discussed in Dragon Age: Origins' Female City Elf Origin, where your father advises you not to tell your fiancee about your martial training. It's a little bit hypocritical since he married a woman, Adraia, who was a Grey Warden prospect. It's ultimately averted since he advises a Male City Elf to hide his martial training from his bride-to-be as well. Your father wants you to avoid looking like a trouble-maker, not unfeminine.
- Played much more straight in the Female Human Noble Origin, where your mother tries to discourage you from fighting since she thinks it'll scare off potential suitors. She also proudly proclaims that she gave up fighting because "t'was the gentler arts that landed me a husband." Your father seems oddly okay with this. (Though it is averted by the men in the origin since your father taught you how to fight, and a scholarly young noble openly admires your skill with a blade.)
Iona: You're as pretty as your mother describes.
Eleanor: And she says that after seeing you whacking stuffed men in the courtyard, sweating like a mule.
- Played much more straight in the Female Human Noble Origin, where your mother tries to discourage you from fighting since she thinks it'll scare off potential suitors. She also proudly proclaims that she gave up fighting because "t'was the gentler arts that landed me a husband." Your father seems oddly okay with this. (Though it is averted by the men in the origin since your father taught you how to fight, and a scholarly young noble openly admires your skill with a blade.)
- Dragon Age II: Poor Aveline gets teased endlessly by the other companions for being so tall, bulky, and muscular, and most male characters consider her too "mannish" to find attractive. (The only exceptions are her deceased husband Westley, her Love Interest Donnic, and potentially Hawke.)
- Dragon Age: Inquisition: Cassandra secretly yearns to be courted like a lady, but fears most men would never bother since she's such a muscular, intimidating warrior. (The Male PC can prove her wrong.)
- Discussed in Dragon Age: Origins' Female City Elf Origin, where your father advises you not to tell your fiancee about your martial training. It's a little bit hypocritical since he married a woman, Adraia, who was a Grey Warden prospect. It's ultimately averted since he advises a Male City Elf to hide his martial training from his bride-to-be as well. Your father wants you to avoid looking like a trouble-maker, not unfeminine.
- This part of the reason Charlotte of Fire Emblem Fates is The Fake Cutie. She does have feminine interests, but she is a Blood Knight at heart, and whenever she tried to be herself, she scared men away. Quite a few of her supports have her potential love interests (notably Xander, who is unimpressed with her seduction tactics, but changes his tune completely after she saves him by killing a Faceless with her bare hands) tell her they like her the way she is.
- The eldest Hoshidan princess, Hinoka, also expresses concern about this trope in her supports with Jakob and Prince Leo of Nohr.
- Despite usually being confident in her own strength, Anise Azeat's plot thread in Galaxy Angel II - Zettai Ryouiki no Tobira reveals her secret fear that it might be true that No Guy Wants An Amazon.
- Zigzagged by the Gerudo in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. While Hylian men tend to find their Amazonian Beauty very attractive they can also be quite intimidated by it, and there is a school in Gerudo Town that teaches its younger residents how to properly interact with men. In the Gerudo Town bar, you can find a Gerudo crying about being rejected by a Hylian man who "doesn't like women twice his height" and saying that she's "only" eight feet tall.
- None of the possible female love interests in Neverwinter Nights 2 are combatants. Elanee is a druid, Safiya is a Squishy Wizard, and (assuming a modded game) Neeshka is a backstabbing sneak thief.
- Brooks in The Orion Conspiracy is definitely an amazon. Unfortunately, most of the guys do not want her. She does point out that the resident Jerkass Ward made moves on her, but he got scared off when she wanted to have sex with him on the cold, hard floor.
- Invoked by Chie Satonaka in general — her sincere belief that this is true is part of the reason she's so jealous of her far more girly friend Yukiko — but especially if romanced in Persona 4. In Persona 4 Golden, her date on Valentine's Day features a fairly lengthy speech on how she can't see why the protagonist would pick a girl like her over the likes of Yukiko Amagi, Rise Kujikawa or Naoto Shirogane.
- If you lose the combat tournament in Princess Maker 2, the butler comments "girls are better if they're not incredibly tough". Similarly, the lumberjack makes a comment about how most girls wouldn't want to build up their muscles. Similarly, all the jobs which make your daughter stronger and more athletic will also make her less pretty and refined, and starving her (which damages her athletic abilities) is the best way to get her to fit into the nicest dresses.
- Samurai Warriors 3: In Kai's story path, she gets ragged on by Kunoichi for being manlier than most of the guys in the Hojo clan (though the way she says it, she's also insulting the Hojos for being weak).
- Samurai Warriors 4: This trope is present by implication through the way Kai and Kunoichi interact, the former flying into a berserk rage whenever she perceives Kunoichi to be making fun of her in this way whether or not Kunoichi is actually doing so.
- A female Trooper in Star Wars: The Old Republic can tell a potential love interest "There aren't exactly a lot of men lining up to woo female commandos, either", which is rather true in-game considering her lack of flirt options.
- Suikoden III plays with this trope. Lucia tells Chris that if she wants to be a mother she has to show 'weakness'. On the other hand, Lucia is the unmarried chief of her tribe, not at all shy or passive, uses a whip in battle, and her son is one of the three protagonists. Then there's the fact that Chris already has a few admirers.
- Nanaly Fletch of Tales of Destiny 2. Everyone welcomes her and acknowledges her beauty...except Loni Dunamis, the resident Handsome Lech wannabe, who finds her tomboyish attitude more prominent on her and at times verbally refused to acknowledge her as his wooing victim. Unfortunately, Nanaly usually takes that as an insult and if she ever hears that, Loni is in for a bone crusher.
- The rare inverse of this trope in Tomb Raider, No Amazon Wants A Normal Guy, leads to Alex's death. A crush he's had on Lara since before the game begins is amplified when he sees how bad-ass she's become, and he fears there's no way she would ever be interested in him now. He decides to return to the wreck of Endurance alone to recover equipment needed to repair the survivors' escape craft to impress her.
Visual Novels
- Fate/stay night:
- While Shirou wants Saber, he is initially overly protective of her and does not want her to get hurt due to believing he doesn't deserve it — which is quite dumb, since she clearly is orders of magnitude more powerful than him. In addition, her life is tied to his, so getting himself killed to save her would not, in fact, save her for more than a few hours. His coming to terms with these facts drives the story in the first half. Saber herself starts to get self-conscious over her nature as a warrior woman around the time Shirou stops treating her in that way. He's better about it in the other routes, as it is only in the Fate route where she is his primary love interest that he displays this behavior.
- Actually self-invoked by Saber the second time he sees her naked. While she has no shame the first time, their relationship being strictly platonic at that time, by the second instance, they have both fallen in love with each other, and she finds her large muscles embarrassing, saying that she must be revolting when compared to Rin.
Webcomics
- In Contest Jitters, Janet's boyfriend was initially happy when Janet was toned, but he had second thoughts once Janet got bigger. He cheats on her later on. Another (lesser) factor is that Janet was spending time training in the gym instead of being with him.
- Inverted in El Goonish Shive: Nanase is a black belt in Anime Style Martial Arts and is highly athletic; she's universally considered to be absolutely gorgeous, is who initially makes Diane realize she might like certain girls, and has a long list of ex-boyfriends before she admits she's gay.
- During a promotional-photoshoot storyline in Grrl Power, Anvil confides in Sydney that she's unhappy with her body, and the prospect of having it photographed, due to past bullying experiences involving this trope. Word of God is that Anvil prefers to wear long hair, makeup, and feminine attire because she fears being seen as masculine and undesirable. Sydney points out that at least Anvil doesn't have to deal with regularly being mistaken for a guy, which Anvil agrees is a fair point.
- In Pacificators, the ladies with powers usually have a hard time finding a date, because no sane guy would want to date a "witch". That's why we see one of the main characters, Cinna, on multiple failed dates.
- In Tetsuko (pictured), Derek freaks out when he sees Tetsuko's bicep, crudely proclaiming he won't date a woman more muscled than him.
- Tora from White Dark Life is one of the few characters who doesn't get married over the timeskip. She hasn't even ever had a boyfriend.
Web Original
- RWBY's Pyrrha Nikos, who laughed when Jaune bet that she had hordes of boys asking her to the dance. Later, she tells Jaune that before she met him, she had no friends or dates because everyone was too intimidated by her strength and skill to approach her.
- This is a big problem for Tennyo in the Whateley Universe. The only guy she's had who was really interested in looks like a seven-foot-tall werewolf all the time, and he dumped her. Maybe it's that she's so dangerous other students can get expelled just for fighting her. Maybe it's her combat final, where she nearly wiped out an entire city.
Western Animation
- In the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Zoobotnik", the space bounty huntress Katella fell in love with Doctor Robotnik. She was a drop-dead gorgeous redhead who looked like a human being except for having a nose like a cat. Doctor Robotnik was not interested in her romantically because she enjoyed beating him up with wrestling moves as much as she liked kissing him. Examples of her affection were kissing him on his head while choking his neck with her long curvaceous legs and slamming him against a wall before dragging him on top of her for smooching. Katella wanted Robotnik's hand in marriage and showed this by actually crushing the bones in his hand! She almost forced Robotnik to marry her but his mother interrupted the ceremony. Katella was last seen chasing after what seemed to be a planet of men in her spaceship. The planet which comedically had the face of a man with a long mustache got scared and floated away. This may be less an example of No Guy Wants An Amazon and more an example of no guy wants a girl who thinks beating the crap out of her boyfriend is romantic.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: When Azula tries flirting with a guy in "The Beach", they hit it off until she breaks out the flaming hands and "We Can Rule Together" speech, at which point he quickly excuses himself. Granted this is probably due to Azula's insanity, not her strength.
- Granddad from The Boondocks is quite taken with Luna until it comes out that she's a highly-trained ninja assassin who could kill him with her pinky. She takes the rejection very badly, and things go From Bad to Worse when it turns out that she also has a history of abusive relationships (and a "friend" who gives her very bad advice) that have rendered her very unstable.
- Discussed in the Futurama movie "Bender's Game". Leela has been outfitted with a collar that shocks her whenever she gets violent or angry. Her parents actually think this could help her dating life.
Turanga Munda: Men like a woman who's not always slamming their head in the car door.
Turanga Morris: She's right. That's what first attracted me to your mother. [laughs] - Heloise on Jimmy Two-Shoes. It's been shown several times that every guy in Miseryville is completely terrified of her. When Jimmy tries to find her Secret Admirer, every guy is terrified at the prospect of dating her.
- This exchange from the Justice League Unlimited episode "Ancient History" between the female leads of the resident Love Triangle (the focus of their attention being Green Lantern):
Vixen: You might want to ease up there. Most guys don't go for the ripped, bulky look.
Hawkgirl: ...Just trying to maintain my girlish figure. My... girlish, girlish figure... - Kim Possible: Kim reasons this as why she doesn't have a date to the prom.
- The Simpsons: In "Strong Arms of the Ma", when Bart meets the newly buff Ruth Powers and her fellow workout buddies, he shouts "Ay carumba, I'm off women forever!".
- Happens in an episode of Totally Spies!. Like in almost every other episode, Alex meets a Satellite Love Interest in the form of an attractive bodybuilder at the gym, who ends up becoming a part of the muscled Camp Gay villain's experiments in attempting to sell off "Bulky Bars" that cause people to go through a Growing Muscles Sequence, gain strange colored skin, and Hair Trigger Tempers, as they grow larger with every bar consumed before they explode. To even up the odds against the villain's muscled Mooks, Alex munches on the Bulky Bars herself, gaining her own set of busts and completely trashing the villain and his minions. When she, still in her muscled state, tries to hit it off with the bodybuilder she saved, he kindly rejects her advances, his reason being his discomfort dating girls more "rip" than he is.
- In an episode of The Weekenders, Carver starts dating a taller girl, but later becomes embarassed by this fact. After being called out for it by his friends Tish and Lor for judging someone by their appearance, and gets made fun of for his head being shaped like a pineapple, he confesses to the girl about being shallow. In an ironic twist, the girl breaks up because of an usual fear of pineapples. Though upset, Carter becomes a bit more interested in her because of the rejection.
