Main/Real Women Never Wear Dresses/In Work Examples/Sandbox

Anime/manga

 * Within the show: Kanae aka Moko on Skip Beat! deliberately calls out Kyouko when they meet, only because she perceives Kyouko as a "housewife"-type of woman who shouldn't stay near the show business. Even later in the manga, when both have a kind-of-friendship and Kyouko has shown how scarily competent she can be when acting, Kanae still feels uncomfortable with Kyouko due her own perceived contradiction between being able of do any domestic chores and being an reputed actress and entertainer. There is a twist though,
 * In Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z, Buttercup is shown to be reluctant to join the group because it would require her to wear a skirt. Later she breaks her own code by wearing one in order to get the attention of a boy she has a crush on, but realizes that she prefers her boyfriend to like her as she is and not for what she pretends to be.
 * Simultaneously averted by the other girls who, despite being more feminine, are not shown to be any weaker or less determined, just having different personalities.
 * Despite the fact that she isn't complaining about the skirt anymore, don't mention it to Buttercup. Just don't.
 * Fate Stay Night deconstructs this trope with Lady of War Saber. She pretended to be a man and fought on the front lines of battle for all of her human life. At some level she never really wanted to do these things, but she accepted them because they were her duty . As a result, though, she has no sense of self-worth, and can only feel fulfilled by serving other people. The main character Shirou realizes that even though she is a supremely skilled warrior, she would be happier if she didn't force herself to fight.
 * Let's not forget Rin Tohsaka, who wears her hair in Girlish Pigtails and uses skirt-based Zettai Ryouiki. And she manages to both be pretty and badass.
 * Also inverted in that Shirou, the main hero of the story, has so many features of The Chick, especially in contrast to the female characters. Moreso in the visual novel, where he's shown to be on top of all things domestic, and the one Sakura learned to cook from.
 * Ironically, he often takes a Stay in the Kitchen attitude towards girls, especially Saber and (more justifiably, ) Sakura, although this is seemingly less about them being weak and more because he doesn't want them to get hurt....
 * A recurring element in the Nasuverse is extremely powerful females (often most powerful in the series), both physically and mentally, with big responsibilities. Nonetheless, every single one of them wear either a dress, a skirt, a kimono, or some kind of dressy attire. The only exceptions are the Aozaki sisters and Rider in her casual clothing (though Aoko does wear a skirt as part of her school uniform in her younger days). The dresses does nothing to diminished their strength as a character though and most have better things to worry about then what it is they are wearing and petty gender wars on dress codes, with the exception of Saber since her battle dress does provide her with protection.
 * Subverted and averted as all hell with Roberta from Black Lagoon. This woman is practically the embodiment of Badass and wears her hair in braids as well a maid dress 95% of the time. Ah, and her motherly/sisterly love for Garcia, the child she takes care of, is one of her defining traits... and one of the reasons why she is so badass.
 * Balalaika, too. The most powerful and badass woman in The Mafiya is a long-haired Lady of War who wears more often than not a business suit with a long skirt, and her feminine attire doesn't disminish her badassery either.
 * Maybe the scars have something to do with it... or is it the Slasher Smile? Yeeeaaah...
 * Beautifully averted in Saiunkoku Monogatari. Female lead Shuurei is able to be successful in a male-dominated society through brains and hard work, and she's allowed to be as feminine as she wants while she's doing it, dammit.
 * In Freezing, it's interesting to try to apply this trope to the main character, Sattelizer L. Bridgette. As a child, she was, resulting in her have a paralyzing fear of being touched. At her mother's deathbed, she was told to never give up and not take shit from anyone any longer, and a little later on she became a Super Soldier Action Girl. However, rather that this solving all her problems as per this trope, this in fact did not help at all, as this did nothing for her fear and resulting in her savagely beating the crap out of anyone who came close to her, causing her to be feared and hated by all. It's only when she falls in love with a male, Aoi Kazuya, the first guy to be nice to her, that she slowly starts to get over her problems and work on them.