Not Distracted by the Sexy



""Don't worry about it. I was deep in thought at the time, so I have no memory of your naked body.""

- Keima, The World God Only Knows

This is the reverse of Distracted by the Sexy.

Stripperific outfits are often accepted as normal attire by other characters. A character, almost certainly female, spends the whole story wearing an incredibly revealing, overtly sexy uniform (or collection of outfits) without her attire (or lack thereof) ever altering any situation -- or even being acknowledged. Her signature outfit might consist only of two meters of plastic tubing and spike-heeled boots, but nobody bats an eye. She stands around and discusses the team's plans to invade the enemy compound, or rescues ordinary citizens on the street, or pilots the Cool Ship, always dressed that way, and nobody else finds it even a little odd or remarkable. Nobody ever stares at her or says, "Day-um, girl!"

It could be said that nearly all superheroines operate under this trope. The figure-hugging gear which is de rigueur for such heroes is rarely addressed, unless the author is specifically lampshading this trope.

You need a generous helping of this trope to learn anything from a Sexy Mentor, or to be friends with an Innocent Fanservice Girl (yet alone a Shameless Fanservice Girl).

One could Hand Wave this as being the cultural norm in outer space or on whatever world she's inhabiting. In a real-world setting, especially in live-action films, this is often intended to suggest how sophisticated, jaded, or fashionable the people in question are.

Compare to Ignore the Fanservice, where the Fan Service is intentional on the part of a character, but a particular character isn't affected for one reason or another. Aren't You Going to Ravish Me? is a variation. See also Nerd Nanny.

Anime & Manga

 * Yoko from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann; although Simon and Kamina are indeed distracted at first, they get used to it. This becomes something of a Running Gag, as even towards the series' end there are still one or two characters who are utterly distracted by Yoko, especially during one episode where it seems she changed outfits midscene causing one of the minor characters to quietly flip out. One of the few cases where an unqualified inversion of the trope with a female being distracted by males could have been pulled off, and Yoko doesn't even blink at a perpetually shirtless man in impossibly Cool Shades.
 * Faye Valentine in Cowboy Bebop.
 * The three female ESP'ers in Dangaioh.
 * A number of characters in Digimon: Rosemon, Lillymon and Angewomon immediately come to mind. There were some random passerbys noticing LadyDevimon's appearance in one episode of 02, calling her a "sexy-looking woman".
 * This trope + Show Some Leg = Strike Witches. Erica was positively fuming...
 * Divergence Eve seems to take place in a future where huge breasts are (apparently) so commonplace that men have stopped caring.
 * Vandread: Most of the Dread pilots are shown wearing jumpsuits identical to Meia's (which is skintight, but covers everything), but Barnette and Jura get away with much more Stripperiffic outfits, which no one ever seems to notice. Justified because the three guys on the ship were raised in a woman-free environment and told that women were evil monsters. It takes most of the series before any of the main guys actually admit they each like a particular woman.
 * Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
 * Shion and Mion. Despite having large racks (not to mention being identical twins), no-one ever seems to notice except in Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Rei's Pool Episode, and there is exactly one scene of either of them Gainaxing.
 * Higurashi's Spiritual Successor, Umineko no Naku Koro ni, on the other hand, has Battler outright comment on Jessica's and Shannon's boobs, with predictable results.
 * The Major's default outfit in the first season of Ghost in The Shell Stand Alone Complex rarely attracts any attention. However, in one episode she gets thrown into some garbage during a fight and has to change her costume into something even more Stripperific than usual. When Chief Aramaki sees her, he asks her if she's trying to get his attention.
 * Bleach
 * Rangiku Matsumoto has her rather large boobs practically spilling out and occasionally makes strange references to them, but only resident pervs Kon and Keigo react to them. Her captain, Hitsugaya, seems to be the one least bothered by it. Supporting character Hisagi has a crush on her, but he usually doesn't show it outside of a few omakes and a couple of key filler episodes. Folks in the Soul Society, all being Really Seven Hundred Years Old, are probably just used to Rangiku at this point. That and it's completely intentional; one Shinigami Encyclopedia moment had her teaching the other female lieutenants and court seats the "proper way" to expose their cleavage. While totally non-canon, it was also totally in-character. This is spoofed in the "next episode preview" for the Beach Episode. Rangiku's pissed that nobody complimented her on her bathing suit, to the point that she's getting ready to strip just to get some attention.
 * Harribel's number was marked on her right breast, and when she revealed it to Hitsugaya the young captain was more interested in her number than her womanly bits. He's just a kid after all. A kid who works with and is eye-to-bosom-level with Matsumoto. Harribel's release makes her into an epic Ms. Fanservice, with little more than pasties covering her nipples, and a very tiny miniskirt. No-one in the series proper comments on it, and the only mention of it by any character is Ichimaru Gin in one of the Arrancar Encyclopedia segments, who states he'd never be able to wear such a skimpy outfit.
 * Negi, of Mahou Sensei Negima rarely seems to react to the various Fan Service that surrounds him (and that he sometimes causes). But then, he is, despite his maturity, 10 years old. One of the few exceptions is when Nodoka was so happy he saved her that she forgot she was topless and went to thank him.
 * Gun X Sword: Like The Major, people tend to notice Carmen 99's getup a lot less then you'd think is normal. During the Beach Episode, the only one with any real modesty issues is Wendy.
 * In Onegai Twins, Miina and Karen think that Maiku might be gay because he isn't distracted by all the fanserivce. Hilarity Ensues.
 * Given that Hayate the Combat Butler's Hayate is a Chaste Hero, you'd think they'd play this trope straight. Twice Pettanko Hinagiku has distracted him though (which she seems to appreciate), and he seems to notice his co-worker Maria every once-in-a-while. When the buxom Athena talks to him though, she has to make sure he notices her. He seems completely unfazed upon encountering his master while she's bare, but he disguises this by saying that he's not interested in her, despite her being only three years younger than him. Several times, he is somewhat distracted, but still recovers himself before the girl in question even gets over the shock of being seen. He's not clueless about sex appeal, just not affected by it like normal guys. Pointed out when Miki shoves a magazine in his face, and states that he's the perfect one to take Hinagiku out because of his reaction.
 * In Urusei Yatsura, Lum's very skimpy Fur Bikini never receives anyone's attention, even Ataru, except maybe at the very beginning.
 * In Sailor Moon, the Sailor Senshi are always seen wearing super-mini skirts, even revealing panties every now and then -- even while fighting Princess Snow Kaguya and her Snow Dancers in a freezing winter storm in the Sailor Moon S Movie -- but no-one seems to particularly care for their inappropriate outfits.
 * Keima of The World God Only Knows is never really distracted by the sexy, but occasionally he has to pretend to be for the sake of "capturing" a possessed girl. Cue intentional explosive nosebleeds.
 * In Ookiku Furikabutte, none of the characters (not even the perverted ones) on protagonist's team seems to notice that their coach's boobs are bigger then her head. Hilariously, the catcher for one of the opposing teams they face sees her to be a "big distraction" that makes him "feel funny" but has no idea why (while the camera zooms in on her chest).
 * In Full Metal Panic, towards the beginning in the first arc, Kaname is naked minus a ripped patients uniform and her underwear for a good portion, but none of this is focused on or even pointed out by any of the characters, including Kurtz, a borderline super pervert, due to the seriousness of the situation and the various military fighters coming after the group.
 * Lucy from Fairy Tail can't never seems to distract anyone with her looks. At least on missions, they try it anyways, unsuccessfully. The boys at Fairy Tail though are more or less distracted. In one episode when Grey was in Lucy's body, he kept trying to lift up his shirt and the men would have hearts in their eyes and shout "Yeah!"
 * In an episode of Code Geass R2 a group of girls from an Ashford Club dress scantily to have Lelouch Distracted by the Sexy. It doesn't work because it's actually Sayoko posing as him. Made hilarious by the fact that Sayoko actually says "Those bodies have no effect on me!", making the girls suspicious and causing Lelouch to tell her "Please don't have me say things like that."

Comic Books

 * Batman is the undeniable master of this.
 * Supergirl, before the '90s. She flies and wears a skirt. Thankfully, as of the late '00s, she also wears sensible biker shorts under it.
 * Power Girl is the superhero exception. The inability of men to ignore her obvious assets has even been used as a plot point in the occasional story. She cut a hole in the chest of her leotard! She has no reason to complain when people look. Thouhg it Depends on the writer. For the most part, she only takes offense when people are being obvious perverts about it and/or assume she's just a Brainless Beauty.
 * A plot point in one Buck Godot Zap Gun for Hire story ("The Gallimaufry").
 * Whether it's sexy per se is a matter of opinion, and her outfits aren't exactly Stripperiffic so much as looking like she forgot something when she got dressed, but Delirium more often than not walks around wearing ripped-up mesh shirts and/or open tops that expose her nipples, and nobody ever comments on this. Mind you, the nipples are pretty much the only thing there to see, because Delirium is a child. And it's probably not the first thing you notice about her, anyways. But still, it isn't even mentioned once. It's hard to tell how old she's supposed to be physically, apart from "definitely not an adult". The general fandom consensus seems to be 13 or 14 (which is still kinda young for Distracted by the Sexy, granted), but it seems to fluctuate depending on the artist (justified by her being an Anthropomorphic Personification).
 * Aayla Secura in the Star Wars comics set around the Clone Wars. She's a hot blue-skinned alien who bares her midriff belonging to a species whose hat for the females is being nubile dancers. Of course, the fact that she's also a Jedi Knight might have something to do with the way she is treated. The fact that most of the people around her are either fellow Jedi or subordinate Clone Troopers is also a factor.
 * Occurs in Sin City quite a bit. Marv's parole officer is a hot lesbian who first shows up in-story, wearing a pair of panties and nothing else. Marv doesn't seem to care. In another story, Wallace spurs the advances of Blue Eyes, a deadly assassin who seduces men to their deaths. While he isn't aware that she's an assassin at first, he still does not succumb to taking advantage of her when she throws herself at him.
 * In an issue of Action Comics, Cat Grant all but thrusts her newly augmented chest at Clark Kent, and he doesn't even glance downwards.

Films -- Animation
"Flynn: (mid-"smoulder") This is kind of an off-day for me, this doesn't normally happen."
 * Aladdin. Princess Jasmine's skimpy top and gauzy harem pants barely get a mention by the other characters, and this in a part of the world where such attire would be deemed thoroughly inappropriate for a member of nobility or royalty. (The custom of veiling in the Middle East originated among noblewomen in the Byzantine Empire, as a way of distinguishing themselves from more revealingly attired, lower-class harem girls and prostitutes. The more respectable a woman is, the more she wears.) Granted, she wears a concealing hood when out on the streets of Agrabah, but often goes without it when traveling to other places.
 * In Tangled, charming rogue Flynn Rider tries to use his good looks, in the form of chat-up lines and his devastating "smoulder" look, to try and seduce Rapunzel into doing what he wants. Unfortunately, Rapunzel has lived isolated from the world in a tower all of her life, has no experience with or understanding of seduction techniques, and consequently has no clue what he's doing -- and is appropriately unimpressed. This causes Flynn no small amount of frustration.

Films -- Live-Action

 * Barbara Carrera's and Kim Basinger's wardrobes in Never Say Never Again.
 * Goldie Hawn's thong swimsuit in Overboard.
 * The athletes in the "Ain't There Anyone Here for Love" number in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes seem quite oblivious to Jane Russell strutting around their gym in a low-cut top. Though if you've seen The Celluloid Closet you know the real reason.
 * Tracy Ryan is wearing only a pair of panties and an unbuttoned dress shirt, (NSFW) when she's casually talking to Sebastien Guy in the kitchen in Girl for Girl.
 * An argument occurs between the main characters, a doctor and his wife, in Eyes Wide Shut. The wife (Nicole Kidman) accuses the doctor (Tom Cruise) of being aroused by seeing naked female patients. He assures her that he thinks nothing of it.
 * The scene in True Romance in which Clarence confronts Alabama's ex-pimp, Drexl has a pretty nifty example. Drexl informs Clarence he has taken no notice of the pair o' titties on the tv screen next to him, to which Clarence responds with a neat retort that among other things explains both yes he has noticed, and no he does not care.
 * In the 2004 remake of Alfie this trope is used to demonstrate that a relationship is in major trouble.
 * NakedGun 33 and 1/3: Tanya's failed attempt to distract a guard.

Literature
"Salmissra: You interest me, ugly one, I've never coupled with an ape before.
 * In the Belgariad, The Pig Pen Beldin isn't impressed by the seductive Queen of the Snake People in Nyissa.

Beldin: Forget it, I like my women fat and hot-blooded. You're too cold for me, Salmissra."


 * The Lensman universe takes it one step further, with entire planets of essentially human beings in which complete nakedness is the norm, and others in which the inhabitants wear only the minimum of garb. In fact E.E. Smith was fond of this trope, and the Osnomians and like peoples in the Skylark universe also wore very little (then again, they had telepathy machines and tended to execute perverts).
 * One of the survivors in World War Z tells a story about watching a stag film at his friend's bachelor party post-war. The lead actress is having sex on the hood of a BMW Z4, but the survivor can only think about what a shame it was that no one builds cars like that anymore.

Live-Action TV

 * Parodied in a sketch of The Benny Hill Show, where Sue Upton went to the beach in a conservative blouse and below-the-knee skirt, sat on a beach chair, and was immediately surrounded by guys trying to look down her blouse and up her skirt. She changed into a skimpy bikini and all the guys went away.
 * The Big Bang Theory: Penny tries to get the attention of the four scientists who are trying to figure out a way to improve on the design of a television set by saying something along the lines of: "Hey guys it's getting kinda hot in here. I think I'm gonna take all my clothes off". This does not work.
 * Star Trek Voyager: Seven of Nine. Just... Seven of Nine.
 * Star Trek the Next Generation: Lt. Deanna Troi in that "bunny suit", as it was often referred to by fans.
 * For that matter, most of the female outfits in the Original Series -- even the female Starfleet uniforms.
 * In The Sopranos, a lot of the time is spent in a strip club, but little if any is spent watching the show there.
 * In Arrested Development, Lindsey goes to prison to visit her father George, then gets offended when none of the other inmates hit on her. She keeps visiting in increasingly slutty clothes, hoping for some catcalls, but the men act like they don't notice her, frustrating her immensely. Eventually, George begs her to stop, revealing that he's been bribing the guys to act respectful and her attention-seeking behavior has nearly exhausted his savings.
 * In the Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch "The Dull Life of a City Stockbroker", the title character shows no reaction to any of the outrageous circumstances surrounding him, including an attractive topless clerk at the chemist.
 * American Idol's Bikini Girl. Reprised the following year by the Bikini Boy.

Video Games

 * Zero Suit Samus in Super Smash Bros Brawl... if only because her partner was Pikachu. Averted in that Snake has, as an easter egg, a highly suggestive codec conversation concerning Zero Suit Samus. "Mei Ling, Samus took her clothes off!"
 * Metal Gear Solid
 * Similarly, shirtless Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid: Snake Escape, if only because his partner was a monkey implanted with his personality.
 * Liquid Snake runs around shirtless outside in Alaska. Sniper Wolf runs around in Alaska wearing Absolute Cleavage. The most shamelessly egregious example of this, though, is with Meryl, during her ending. She (dressed in a tiny black halter top) tells Snake that he (shirtless at the time) can't go outside dressed like that, or he'll freeze, and runs off to find something warm to put on herself. He puts on a shirt, and she puts on an orange jacket which has no sleeves, leaving her arms totally bare. The game attempts to Hand Wave it by saying that everyone on the project is using "anti-freezing peptides", but Snake, injected with the same peptide, is the only character in the entire cast to respond to the cold even vaguely like a normal person.
 * All female soldiers in the Command & Conquer: Red Alert series. Just look at the RA 3 trailer: what kind of military uniforms have cleavage like that?
 * In Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the Nazi Amazon Brigade all wear low-cut skintight leather and stiletto heels. In the 1940s. In bitterest Teutonic winter. Nobody comments on this.
 * Persona 3 lampshades this a little. There are various armors one can get during the game that change a character's appearance. They are... Yeah. Try handing one of these off and Yukari will bitch you out while Mitsuru is simply shocked, but doesn't say anything audible. They'll still wear them, mind. And since this is an ATLUS game, being Distracted by the Sexy can land you a game over real quick.
 * Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura also averts the trope. The game lets you walk around in your underwear, but everybody civilised refuses to talk to you. However, the even more revealing Barbarian Armor is socially acceptable. Although the shopkeepers comment and charge you MORE.
 * This trope is played straight in The King of Fighters, where nobody finds anything special about Mai Shiranui, despite being flanderized into an even greater Ms. Fanservice than in Fatal Fury.
 * The Final Fantasy series:
 * Rydia, Rosa, Terra, Celes, Tifa, Yuffie, Lulu, Yuna, Rikku, Paine, Fran, Ashe, and -- eventually -- Penelo.
 * Special mention goes to FF6's Celes. She spends 95% of the game wearing a Leotard of Power with a cape, and nobody ever blinks an eye. When she tries her hand at being an Opera singer and wears a Pimped-Out Dress, Locke blushes at seeing her. However her artwork has her dressed in much more modest gold coloured clothing.
 * Let's not forget Terra's Morph/Trance. The guys in the game swoon when she winks at them, but none of them have a problem with Terra transforming into her Esper side, casually shedding all her clothes and fighting the enemies nude. The Barbie Doll Anatomy helps.
 * Sigma Star Saga has every female Krill wearing what amounts to an alien bikini, yet no one seems to bat an eye. Well, Recker does a couple of times early on, but that stops after the first chapter.
 * Averted hard in Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier, where half the jokes in the game are comments on the wardrobe of the female cast. Especially Kagura, with her tiny dress and huge... tracts of land.
 * City of Heroes allows the player to build a character who is dressed in the next best thing to total nudity, if that's what you're into. None of the contacts or villains will react to it or even notice.
 * Pretty much every female in the Jak and Daxter series is smokin' hot and always bares her midriff, but Ashelin wears the skimpiest outfit of all. Daxter flirts with nearly everything with tits, but other than that (which has died down in later games), no one spares a second glance.
 * Gloria from Devil May Cry 4. She's dressed like an even more Stripperiffic version of Lady Gaga, she's "qualified" to wear that outfit, she's an agent of a freaking religious cult and the only character who addresses her outfit is Dante... who laughs his head off. but still, man.
 * Nobody in the Halo universe acknowledges that Cortana is naked. Even in the first game where her figure was very noticeable. On the other hand, she is an A.I., which doesn't "walk around" like many other Stripperific examples -- most of the time she talks, no-one can see her as she's doing it through Master Chief's Suit, not even the player. Most people probably won't figure it's worth telling her to "put some clothes on", as she has no nipples anyway. Or she wouldn't listen, and just find their discomfort funny. Or they'd prefer to avoid the whole What Measure Is a Non-Human? since... she's an A.I. To make it even weirder, in Halo Wars, the A.I. Serina is wearing a fairly conservative set of clothing. Guess the more skin a translucent computer girl shows, the more processing power.
 * In Pokémon, some Pokémon can have an ability called "Oblivious" which prevents them from being affected by the infatuation status caused by the move Attract. Prior to Pokémon Black and White, the Red Flute item can also negate the effects of Attract, in case a Pokémon has been Distracted by the Sexy.
 * You can run around in next to nothing in Fallout 3 and none of the NPCs will comment on it. While Dukov will flirt with female player characters even if they walk in wearing so much power armor that you cannot tell the gender of the person inside.
 * In a volcano stage in Tales of Hearts, female characters consider disrobing because of the heat. In two cases]], this flusters the male characters, but when the young Beryl offers, she's greeted by uncomfortable silence. Also of note: Kunzite refuses to participate in these conversations.
 * In the first Diablo, the succubi were so sexy they actually caused some controversy; their bosoms and rear ends are clearly visible, and they aren't wearing anything except arm warmers and thigh-high boots. The player characters don't seem to notice. The players, on the other hand, that's another story.

Visual Novels

 * Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney
 * Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney -- Trials and Tribulations has Dahlia Hawthorne, who leaves every male character she meets lovestruck... except for Miles Edgeworth and Diego Armando.
 * This is basically an Edgeworth superpower. Back in the first game, April May flaunts for all it's worth. The Judge is charmed, Phoenix is irritated... and Edgeworth never changes expression.
 * Not to mention nearly every time Mia Fey appears...

Web Comics

 * Dominic Deegan: "Katya, your country has made me immune to boobs." Except Katya's.
 * In Tales Of Gnosis College, Professor Corwin has naked coeds running around his lab engaged in various peculiar behaviors. He responds by being observant and taking careful notes.

Web Original

 * The Boobs of Steel article on this very wiki is a detailed, scientific discussion of whether or not cup size is actually proportional to strength, and why. The writer at least was definitely Not Distracted by the Sexy.

Western Animation
"Wonder Woman: And what's wrong with the way I dress?!
 * Sometimes happens on The Venture Brothers, but as often as not, is subverted afterward.
 * Stripperella. Although it seems to swing between this and Distracted by the Sexy regularly, as convenient to the story. Played straight in just about every scene except when she's performing on stage as her civilian persona (at which point people are supposed to be distracted, or she's not doing her job properly). The majority of the villains she fights are all too well-aware of how dangerous she is, and fights accordingly.
 * Justice League. This trope is generally played straight with almost all of the superheroines, though there are exceptions, such as Green Arrow's interest in Black Canary. One minor exception involves a conversation between the Flash and the Elongated Man in the episode "The Ties that Bind". As the scantily clad Fire walks past them during the conversation, Elongated Man very clearly twists his head and stares as she walks past. Wonder Woman once walks past a dress store and notices a skimpy bikini and she asks the Flash who would wear something that demeaning. This is once lampshaded. In an episode involving criticism of the Justice League as role-models, a talk show host remarks, "And what about this Wonder Woman? I've seen showgirls that dress with more modesty than she does!" It annoys her to no end.

Flash: (to Green Lantern) You wanna take that one?"


 * In an episode of Batman the Animated Series, Joker's working on a plan when Harley Quinn enters, wearing a very skimpy dress, and asks whether he'd like to "rev up his Harley". He doesn't even look up and bluntly pushes Harley off the table. In another, she emerges out of a pie dripping with the form-clinging filling all over her. Joker's response? To literally give her the boot out the door.
 * Sym-Bionic Titan has Kimmie try to seduce Octus into doing her math test by going into a sexy dance routine (with much booty-shaking and a bit of pole-dancing... presumably the censors were sleeping during this scene). Octus' response? Not even blinking at her routine, and an irritated "No!" when she's done. Though they do end up dating by the end of the episode.
 * South Park episode "Raisins" had Cartman and Stan as the only boys who weren't stunned by the girls at the Hooters-like restaurant, Cartman because he was focusing on the food and Stan because he was dealing with a break-up. Stan's case is also worth pointing out because the other boys took him to the restaurant specifically to distract him.

Real Life

 * Jungle Pam Hardy. We're surprised anybody ever got around to actually drag racing Jungle Jim.
 * Life-drawing classes. You're pretty much used to it after the first two sessions. Doesn't hurt that life drawing models aren't necessarily those you'd desire to see otherwise. Art models run the gamut of body types. Also, it's work. (Well, school, but it amounts to the same thing.) When you're forced to do something, that pretty much sucks all the enjoyment out of it no matter what it is.
 * Communal showers. They start out disturbing, and end up just being awkward or a non-problem.
 * People working in Theater or Dance get used to naked or nearly naked bodies as an everyday occurrence.
 * Nudist beachs/clubs have this as a requirement. And it's pretty easy. (See "Life drawing classes" above.)
 * Male gynecologists (and pretty much doctors in general). Likely relates to the reasoning mentioned above for life-drawing classes, only more so. Doctors have to deal with a lot of Fan Disservice -- very much a matter of "not distracted by the unsexy".
 * Like the aforementioned doctor-types, tattoo artists and piercers who deal in genital work get quickly acclimated to all sorts of things, or they don't have jobs for very long.

I know I'm not going to get any, so why would I fall for that?