Female Toons Hardly Get Hurt

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kalambre

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A section from the Wikipedia article "Cartoon Physics" (section removed):

'Female Characters are always immune to physical injuiry, with the exception of Amy Wong in Futurama.'

Couldn't be true enough. Hardly any female characters had anvils dropped on themselves, had themselves hit by knives, and had dynamite turn their face black or turn them into ash. And it doesn't have to be injuiry. A few Female characters hardly under go physical change (i.e animal transformations, except that woman from X-Men and one of the Fairy Odd Parents.) Here
are some examples:
-Snow White: Disney Princess's never get hurt.
-Betty Boop: Too Hot to get hurt
-Lisa Simpson: Most sane person of the Simpsons Family. Hardly gets hurt, even in the halloween episodes.
-Lola Bunny: Hardly takes physical harm even though she's from a cartoon where it was frequent for anvils to drop on talking ducks and rabbits.
-Minnie Mouse: Always has to be rescued by Mickey, yet never hurt physically.
 
I’m not sure posting an excerpt from a wikipedia article counts as a valid thread, but I agree with the point that was made. Female characters are seldom treated in the same manner that male characters are handled, which is one of the reasons I have loved “Yin Yang Yo!” so much. In that series, the titular female character gets beat down and bruised up just as much as the male titular character.

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- Elisa Maza gets roughed up in quite a few episodes of Gargoyles, even though they edited out the two harshest hits she took (The gunshot wound in Deadly Force and McBeth throwing into a wall in High Noon).

- Supergirl took A LOT of damage between Superman: TAS and Justice League Unlimited.

- Batgirl and Harley Quinn got put through the wringer once Kid's WB got ahold of Batman: TAS.

- Wednesday Addams took a lot of punishment (even though it was all offscreen) on the 90's Addams Family cartoon.

As far as Lola goes, she's only been in the Space Jam movie and two non canon series where ANY real physical violence was a no-no (Baby Looney Tunes and Loonatics Unleashed), so I don't think she'd count until we see her in the actual LT Universe with the REAL Bugs & crew.
 
They're not always an exception. As much as I liked "Kim Possible", I don't think she ever really got hurt. If she did, it must have been rather minuscule.
 
I guess I should point out that my little Fifi has taken her share of pratfalls. Of course, I don't know if Looney Tunes type slapstick counts as actually being "hurt".... but she was squashed twice in less than a minute in "How I Spent My Vacation".... blown up in "The Acme Bowl".... dragged away by Elmyra in "Out of Odor".... sucked down a giant drain in "The Undersea World of Fifi".... and as far as I know, she did her own stunts. :p
 
Well, Elmyra from Tiny Toons has taken a fair share of physical abuse, as has Team Rocket's Jessie from Pokemon or Lily from Kappa Mikey (albeit to a lesser extent), but generally, physical abuse is only funny when it's happening to someone who deserves it.

I think that overall, it boils down to the fact that not many female toon characters are portrayed as being so obnoxious that it would be funny to physically hurt them. One notable exception would be the busy body neighborhood lady (voiced by April Winchell) in Dreamworks' feature Over the Hedge. By the movie's end, she has her hair fried off!
 
Sexual attitudes also come into play with this issue. The general prevailing attitude in our society is that women are basically 'delicate flowers', and so therefore it's supposedly not cool to knock them around the same way guys get knocked around. (Female superheroes, who possess the powers and skills needed to properly defend themselves, are the exception.) Males, supposedly being the 'rougher', 'stronger' sex, can supposedly take it. Even now, some directors and writers are worried about knocking ladies and girls about, for fear that it may be construed as directing violence against women, which isn't funny at all.

It also depends on the characters themselves: as Blackstar pointed out, it's more amusing to see an obnoxious character take a hit than an appealing female heroine. When a 'mean lady' like Ursula from Dinosaur King or Vicky from Fairly OddParents or the aforementioned busybody woman from Over the Hedge gets abused, you laugh. But if a 'sweet' female like Sarah Dubois from The Boondocks or Mrs. Dr. Possible from Kim Possible or Little Suzy from Johnny Bravo or Panini from Chowder or Sasami from Tenchi Muyo! got smacked around like that, you wouldn't laugh; you'd cringe.

Of course, there have been some notable exceptions. The female Tiny Toons characters and the girl students from Class of 3000 (most notably Madison) have taken some lumps in the name of comedy, Truffles from CN's Chowder isn't above physical comedy or being used as the object of slapstick (though to raise an earlier point, Truffles is kind of an acerbic, obnoxious character, so It's OK to see her take a hit once in a while), and as Huntsman already mentioned, Yin from Toon Disney's Yin Yang Yo! receives as much physical abuse as her brother Yang. But it should be noted that YYY is a deliberate attempt to portray both male and female viewers in equal measure.
 
Brandy went through some physical harm in that Brandy & Mr. Whiskers episode where she pretended to be sick and her friends were trying out these weird cures on her.
 
Marathon also seam to have a fetish for physical transformations XD

Clover got turned into a catgirl, a elephant-headed lady, a yeti and probably a few other things. The other girls also got through a few changes as well... but it seems more common for Clover.

Diana in Martin Mystery spent most of the two part season 3 (not sure) finale second episode as a lizard.

Even Yoko had her share of transformation in Team Galaxy. I can think of at least two episodes in the first season!
 
Now that you think about it, you rarely see girls get ugli-fied either. (at least, compaired to men). That episode of The Batman, where those 3 college students are abusing animal mutegen, and turn into creatures, both males transform onscreen, while the lone female always transformed off screen.
 
Only Manga, eh? :gir:

It would be kind of more interesting in other cartoons besides manga. Well, I know Lisa Simpson got TFed in the Simpsons Halloween Episodes, but thats all.
 
I think theres on screen transformations in Totally Spies and other Marathon productions... though usually there's a blinding flash XD



Marathon is a French company. They do most of their work with Canadian funding as well.
 
If it's not made in Japan then it's psuedo-anime.

Anyway, back on topic... Misery in Ruby Gloom is harmed on a regular basis. Usually by lightning.
 
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