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We all know this one: Little girls kick people in the shins when they're angry. There doesn't seem to be any particular reason for it, but fiction writers everywhere seem to have agreed that when little girls are violent, the ideal expression of this violence is to kick people in the shins. Girls' lashing out violently at everyone about them is treated as cute and adorable, rather than, say, a sign of instability.
Compare with Agony of the Feet. Probably related to Girl Scouts Are Evil when it is invoked. It seems pretty likely that a girl who does this is going to grow up to be a Kick Chick (in fact both tropes might come from a similar line of thinking).
Compare Groin Attack, in which the kick happens...quite a bit higher up.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- Sakura from the Cardcaptor Sakura anime and manga kicks her older brother in the shin with her rollerblades in the first issue/episode, as well as a couple other times in other episodes.
- Happens to poor Aoki-sensei in Kodomo no Jikan, among other things.
- Rozen Maiden has Shinku, who often kicks Jun when he displeases her enough. Suiseiseki, the other Tsundere, isn't averse to this tactic either.
- In Chrome Shelled Regios, Felli usually kicks things when she gets upset. If said thing is a person, it's usually in the shins. Note that she once kicked a refrigerator so hard she dented the door, so you can probably guess this hurts a lot. Indeed, when really angry, she once kicked her brother's shin so hard that it broke.
Fan Fiction
- The Doctor Octopus fanfic series The Life After Death Trilogy has Mouse, Ock's adoptive daughter, utilize this on several occasions.
Film
- Pharaoh's son kicks Moses in the shins in The Ten Commandments, presumably so we don't feel too bad when the little brat dies.
Literature
- The First Law gave us the daughter of Crummock-i-Phail, who gets away with quite a bit more than her siblings do. Her father remarks that he always remembers who she is by her kicking.
- Nazca (of the Gentleman Bastard Sequence) was given steel-toed boots by her father for the very purpose of indulging in this practice whenever she so pleases.
- Turtle from The Westing Game is known for this, especially in response to her braid being touched.
- In The Wee Free Men, when the nine year old witch needs to distract the Elf Queen: "Tiffany kicked her on the leg. It wasn't a witch thing. It was so nine-years-old, and she wished she could have thought of something better".
- A generation earlier, Esk from Equal Rites likewise used kicks against the Dungeon Things.
- Subverted in To Kill a Mockingbird: Scout Finch tries to do this. In the book she's surprised to see her victim fall back in real pain -- "I had meant to kick his shin, but aimed too high."
Live Action Television
- One of the "Punishment Games" in Silent Library involves having a player stand there and let a little girl walk into the library and kick him in both shins.
Video Games
- little Kay might be doing this to Edgeworth in case 4 of Ace Attorney Investigations. It's kinda hard to see if it is this or his privates.
- Laura from Silent Hill 2 does this often, but she's regarded as a Bratty Half-Pint by the main character.
Web Original
- Invoked in the Something Awful Let's Play of Princess Maker: Lizzie's last name is Shinkicker. (And she does indeed kick much shin, as well as ass.)
Web Comics
- During the shopping trip in Freefall, Florence's friend's daughter does this on occasion. Most notably when she punishes a stranger for grabbing Florence's tail ("You pull the doggy's tail again, I kick you again!").
Western Animation
- Happens to Pete in A Goofy Movie when he tries to show Goofy how much better he is at handling children.
- Though they're teenagers, the spirit of this trope still applies when Kim Possible and her sidekick Ron switch bodies and are confronted by Shego. Ron (in Kim's body), always more The Chick of the pair, kicks her in the shin and they run away.
- Gender-swap version in Teen Titans Mas can’t do much without his brother Menos, but how many other twelve-year-olds will run up and kick someone who’s six times bigger than they are?