Skirts and Ladders

They don't mix.
As You Know, the Magic Skirt is a trope in place to preserve the modesty of women before the audience. The trope can't be counted on to be in effect in-universe with regards to the other characters. Some (un)fortunately, only some skirted female characters are aware of this, and thus this trope.
Basically, a Genre Savvy, skirted woman refuses to climb, scale, ascend, mount or escalate a ladder or ladder-like device while men are nearby for fear of subverting Magic Skirt, and well, you know...
She's not always successful. But if she's lucky, not all men in-story are perverts. If it's the who does this, then it's Male Gaze.
And yes, the trope's name is a reference to the popular board game Chutes and Ladders, sometimes called Snakes and Ladders. Creepy connection, isn't it?
==Anime and Manga==
*In a scene cut by 4Kids, but uncut by the FUNimation Dub, during Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Duelist Kingdom arc, Tea and the cheerleading squad (lead by Tristan) were scaling a secret tower via rope. Tristan suggests that Tea go first so that if she falls they can catch her. She refuses initially, blushing and indicating her skirt. Tristan doesn't understand, so Bakura explains the problem. She ultimately allows it so long as they both wear blindfolds (which eliminates the original purpose of catching her if she falls).
**And then the way they climb makes it a moot point, as even if the guys weren't blindfolded, they were walking up the side of the tower in a manner that prevents them from looking up her skirt anyways, except maybe when she went in the window.
**Also, in Eggman's water fortress, Mai Valentine and Vivian Wong go up first. Joey, told by Tristan, looks up that Vivian's given shorts to wear under her slit skirt.
*In E's Otherwise, Yuuki, Kai and Asuka are being pursued by a killer cyborg. Escaping into the sewer, Yuuki leads them up a ladder while carrying Asuka on his back. Asuka (who's wearing a short skirt) requests that Kai go up first. Not understanding, Yuuki heads up the ladder anyway, giving Kai a perfect view (he blushes tomato-red). She cries afterwards, since Kai is basically her Love Interest (and Yuuki still never got it).
*Great Teacher Onizuka starts with this scene.
*In Bastard!! (the anime), when Dark Schneider goes off to rescue Tia from a ninja along with the royal army AND the Royal Princess, they run into a problem like this during the assault on the tower. Since the ground-floor is a battleground, DS has to go up last to protect the ladder, but the princess refuses to go up first since she's wearing a rather short skirt. (She originally wore it under a rather fancy set of armor, but DS had her take it off once it became clear that it was completely useless and very encumbering.) DS rolls his eyes, throws her over his shoulder, and climbs up the ladder with her hanging there. Thus, instead of him potentially looking up her skirt, she winds up having her boobs bouncing off his back and her hips grinding against his face all the way up. Judging from her expression, she'd probably have preferred it the other way around.
*An early episode of Digimon Frontier had Zoe suspect this trope was in effect once she was offered "Ladies First" up a ladder.
*The first time we met Kamome in Cyber Team In Akihabara, she is going first up stairs in a very short skirt providing a Panty Shot; when some boys enjoying the view remark her this, her first action is to demand money from them in exchange for the fanservice, so she doesn't denounce them as perverts.
*Out of all anime, AIKa R-16: Virgin Mission uses this tropee.
==Film==
*The Mel Gibson/Goldie Hawn movie Bird On A Wire featured this in the trailers for the movie. Hawn's character doesn't invoke this, though, until they're halfway up a fire escape and the wind is lifting her skirt.
*Parodied in one of The Naked Gun movies. Priscilla Presley climbs up a ladder.Leslie Nielsen: Say, nice beaver.Priscilla Presley: Thank you, I just had it stuffed. [Hands him a stuffed beaver.]
*David Fincher's The Game has this. When climbing out of an elevator, Christine wants Nicolas to go first. Nicolas complains that it'll be that much harder to pull Christine up than for her to go first. Christine says that she's not wearing any underwear.
**A few minutes later, when they are chased by dogs in the alley, Christine doesn't hesitate. Nicolas calls her on it.
*In Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Vanessa climbs a ladder in an extremely short skirt. Austin watches appreciatively for a few seconds before remembering he has to go beat the Bad Guys and save the world.
*Spaceballs has the droid Dot Matrix climbing a ladder between spaceships, followed closely by Barf. She tells him to "stop looking up my can!".
==Live Action TV==
*In 2 Broke Girls, Han accidentally looks up Caroline's skirt while she is standing on a ladder writing on the blackboard. He rushes off in embarrassment but not before thanking her.
==Video Games==
*In Star Ocean: The Last Hope, the group is on top of the tower Citadel on Lemuris, they find a long cloth leading down to the ground. Edge suggests he go first to test for strength, at which Reimi complains and calls him a pervert. She gets her wish and heads down the cloth first (this entire scene makes no sense; she doesn't wear a skirt but a panel of thigh armor over top of leather shorts).
*Resident Evil 2: Ada either leads Leon up a vertical ladder (while wearing what's almost a miniskirt), or asks him for a boost up to a high ledge. Leon is clearly taking in the view in the latter.
**Attempting to do this to Ashley (or doing it by accident if an enemy throws you to the ground near her) in Resident Evil 4 (again, playing as Leon) will cause her to call you a pervert.
***Hacking the game reveals that they are, indeed, white.
**thedarkid's excellent Let's Play of Resident Evil 2 has a screencap of Leon getting a view up Ada's skirt. About 80% of the way down the page."Leon is never one to pass up an upskirt view. No matter how contrived the reason."
**In the remake of Resident Evil 1, you can unlock Jill's RE3 outfit. There are at least two cutscenes where she falls backward or is shown from below, allowing an upskirt view. In some RE3 cutscenes, you can also see upskirt.
*In Timesplitters: Future Perfect, Cortez is with the beskirted Jo-Beth for the horror-movie–themed level. Halfway through the level, they find an ominous hole in the ground with screams and roars coming from it. We then get this little gem:
**Jo-Beth: *hearing the screams* ...er...you go first.
***Cortez pauses; the camera focuses on her skirt
**Cortez: Okay.
*Happens before the first full moon in Persona 3 where Yukari warns the MC and Junpei. Also odd, as she wears a skirt that, in battle, would show everything if not for the fact that her legs end in shadow past the hemline.
*Though not a ladder, in Final Fantasy VII, if you choose to climb the stairs up the Shinra Tower, Tifa will eventually realize she's wearing a miniskirt directly above her two male companions, stop, and refuse to continue until you go ahead of her.
==Western Animation==
*In Phineas and Ferb One of Candace's inventions (long story) is picked up by Doofenshmirtz's hook, she's forced to dangle from the edges of her with her friend hange onyo her legs. She glances up her skirt but quickly looks down after that.
*In Futurama, uniforms for both sexes are skirted, which leads to a scene with Zapp Branigan climbing a ladder and Kif looking away, but not out of respect for his captain's modesty.
Category:Miscellaneous