History Main / TertiarySexualCharacteristics

* A {{Cigar|Chomper}}, especially in GoldenAge cartoons.

* The female locomotives from ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'' were all specifically designed after real locomotives that appear "feminine" to the show's writers. For example, Daisy has eyelashes and lipstick, Mavis and Flora both have cowcatchers and runningboards that resemble skirts, both Emily and Molly have large drive wheels, Rosie and Lady are both colored pink, and Belle's smokebox is extended in a way so that she appears to have long hair.

* ''Ms. VideoGame/PacMan'' has a bow on her head. In the AnimatedAdaptation, Sue, the DistaffCounterpart of Clyde, became a purple ghost with eyelashes and earrings.

** Gender-specific physical differences were created for some Pokémon in ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'' and carried forward for future games (for example female Pikachu have heart shaped tails and male Torchic have small dots on their backsides). Fortunately, they mostly tend to be arbitrary markings or based largely on gender differences in reality, so good on Game Freak's part. Female Wobbuffet appear to wear ''lipstick'', but [[RuleOfFunny it's just for the lulz]]. Mercifully, none of the [[SuperMode Mega Evolutions]] or [[UndergroundMonkey Alolan Forms]] have visual gender differences, even though their basic forms did.

* In ''VideoGame/EverOasis'', male and female [[PlantPeople Seedlings]] are sexually dimorphic. Male Seedlings have woodier, more branchlike horns, female Seedlings have split-down-the-middle horns that resemble seed pods.

[[caption-width-right:300:They've got bows, makeup, pink attire, skirts, and high heels. Yup, [[DisguisedInDrag definitely girls]]. I swear that's WesternAnimation/{{Minnie|Mouse}} and WesternAnimation/{{Daisy|Duck}}.]]

** Speaking of the Saiyans it's shown that female Saiyans e.g Goju's mom Gine had a skirt on her Battle amour and Fasha from Bardock's squad has a pink LeotardOfPower.

* Creator/ArinaTanemura depicts her characters with overt sexual dimorphism, quite typically like many other manga creators: guys tend be taller, have noticeable sternocleidomastoid muscles (SCM), smaller eyes which are mostly [[TsurimeEyes tsurime]]; while girls tend to be shorter, have no noticeable SCM, much bigger and childlike eyes which could be either [[TaremeEyes tareme]] or tsurime (although being girls, their tsurime look [[MasculineLinesFeminineCurves softer and less sharp]]), and of course, absurdly long and luscious eyelashes. What's notable about Tanemura's style is that she has designed transvestite characters on more than one occasion (examples include Maora from ''Manga/TheGentlemensAlliance'' and Maimai from ''Manga/SakuraHimeKaden''), in which a male character, when donning a feminine outfit, barely resembles his male self at all: his physical appearance (all of those traits mentioned above) completely changes accordingly to his so-called "[[DisguisedInDrag female disguise]]." That is to say, thanks to some weird rules in the Tanemura multiverse, a tall and hunky guy can completely turn into a little petite girl merely by putting on a skirt, some makeup and girly accessories. These characters tend to serve as [[ShockingSwerve mere plot twists that will put even the most adamant suspensions of disbelief to shame]].

* In ''Anime/KamisamaMinaraiHimitsuNoCocotama'', Cocotama gender is determined mainly by whether their eggshell-shaped underpants have zig-zags or curves at the waistband. Male Cocotamas wear underwear that has zig-zags, while underwear with curves are worn by females.

** Guys tend to have a dark, yellowish or brownish complexion; pasty guys are almost certainly to be some sorts of [[DudeLooksLikeALady femboys]] or [[MixedAncestry halfs]]. [[PaleFemalesDarkMales Girls are paler]] and more pinkish; some designs may have girls with [[UnkemptBeauty natural rosy cheeks and lips]].
* In ''Anime/{{Berserk}}'' Casca despite managing a SweetPollyOliver with her amour still wears pink a tunic in the anime, skin tight legging making her buttocks pronounced and even thigh-high boots in contrast to male of the Band of Hawk.

* Female characters from ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croket! Croket!]]'' have shinier eyes, longer eyelashes and mouths that show no teeth or tongue when open (completely blank). The mouth thing is more typical of [[Main/ShoujoDemographic girls' manga]] (''Croket!'' is a boys' manga), and it's especially jarring to see a female character next to a male one with fully visible teeth, a tongue and a uvula.

** [[TokenMiniMoe Liechtenstein]] from wears a cute little ribbon, bought for her by her [[BigBrotherWorship Onii-sama]] Switzerland. This was required since, without her previous long braided hair, she looked very much like a boy (which she attributes to [[ACupAngst her non-existent chest]], but may very well be because [[OnlySixFaces she simply looks almost identical to her adoptive brother]]).

* In ''Lightnovel/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'', [[EldritchAbomination Hyrda-chan]], the goddes of the [[FishPeople deep ones]], looks just like her male counterpart [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Dagon-kun]], with an added pink bow and lipstick.

* While Comicbook/{{X 23}} is very clearly a young woman, creators Chris Yost and Craig Kyle [[WordOfGod have said that the arrangement of her claws was intended to be this]], and that two claws in the hands and one in the foot is a female trait for ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'s particular mutation.

* In one ''Growing Paynes'' strip in ''Comicook/{{The Dandy}}'', the Paynes attend a wedding, and the boys wear kilts. Percy hasn't had a haircut in a while, and people keep mistaking him for a girl. In the end, he gets frustrated and proves he's a boy by lifting up his kilt to show off his... blue underwear.

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Anastasia}}'' - At the end, Bartok gets a love interest. You can tell she's female because she has eyelashes, a FurryFemaleMane and her mouth is drawn to look like there's lipstick on it.

* ''{{Theatre/Mystere}}'': Bebebe has a pink bow or two in her hair, which makes the performer appear more childlike.

* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros''

* In ''VideoGame/{{The Sims 2}}'', you can build male and female Servos (robot butlers). The male looks like a generic robot, but the female looks like the male with a pink bow and lipstick.

** Gender-specific physical differences were created for some Pokémon in ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'' and carried forward for future games (for example female Pikachu have heart shaped tails and male Torchic have small dots on their backsides). Fortunately, they mostly tend to be arbitrary markings or based largely on gender differences in reality, so good on Game Freak's part. Female Wobbuffet appear to wear ''lipstick'', but [[RuleOfFunny it's just for the lulz]]. Mercifully, none of [[SuperMode Mega Evolutions]] or [[UndergroundMonkey Alolan Forms]] have visual gender differences, even though their basic forms did.

* When Amy Rose first appeared in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD'', her defining sexual characteristics are being pink (a contrast to Sonic's blue), eyelashes, and a skirt. When she was redesigned for ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', her femininity was more emphasized by changing her hairstyle (up until then, it was exactly the same as Sonic's), giving her an actual bust size (she was changed from eight years old to twelve), and giving her large golden bracelets to wear on her wrists. [[ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog Archie]] gave her secondary characteristics. Played straight with most characters in the games, where the only differences are eyelashes and clothing styles.

** Inverted in ''Videogame/KirbysEpicYarn'' with an angler fish couple Kirby is responsible for reuniting, as the male is smaller, pink and wears a bow around its body.

* In ''Videogame/BoxBoy'', the only difference between Qucy and the other two boxes is that she's got a big grey head bow. That being said, Qbby (and later Qudy and Qucy herself) can avert this due to the gendered clothing options not being restricted to any one character.

* In ''{{Webcomic/Goblins}}'', all female humanoids have an hourglass figure. Goblins, however, don't typically have hair on their heads, and it is not considered an attractive trait. Complains, however, finds those that do have head hair to be [[http://www.goblinscomic.org/11012015-2/ absolutely gorgeous]].

Compare SecondarySexualCharacteristics and NonMammalMammaries. For more drastic and often bizarre differences between the sexes, see BizarreSexualDimorphism.

* Bruce Coville's book ''Literature/AliensAteMyHomework'' features a female alien with no real sexual characteristics the human protagonist could recognize except for her voice, but even then he wasn't sure at first. (For an added bonus, one of the other aliens is neither male nor female and asks to be referred to by the pronoun "it.")

* In a case of GettingCrapPastTheRadar, ''WesternAnimation/BeCoolScoobyDoo'' had Fred identifying the Mystery Machine as "she." Shaggy questions "The Mystery Machine is a girl??" After which Scooby looks under the chassis and asks "How can you tell?"

* The Big Brother Ponies in G1 of ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' were, realistically, a bit larger than other adult Ponies (all female). They also had overall bolder color schemes, and were given hilariously exaggerated "masculine" names, accessories, and occupations. (The Fandom has not ignored the fact that [[http://www.kimsites.net/dreamvalley/5th_edition_ponies.html#big_brother_ponies5 the hats]] [[http://www.kimsites.net/dreamvalley/6th_edition_ponies2.html#big_brother_ponies6 and collars]] given to the Big Brothers make them look like [[HoYay some kind of equine Village People tribute band]].) However, their most prominent designating male feature was... big hairy feet. Because draft horses in RealLife are a OneGenderRace. Uh...
* The Franchise/{{Lego}} Life on Mars theme has the female Martian Cassiopeia, whose gender is distinguished from the male Martians by her eyelashes.

* Female avatars on ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' have ponytails. Many of the alternate avatar images, as well. The male version of Vestments of the Treeslayer is a tree. The female version is the same tree, with a little bow tied to one branch.
* The only seen female Krogan in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series is wearing a full body covering robe while males are almost always wearing combat armor, and the few who don't wear simple shirts and trousers. However, they still were able to split off from the males and form their own exclusively female clans that are doing just fine on their native DeathWorld Tuchanka without any males protecting them from wild beasts and raiders, so it's more likely that the one example of female clothing were special priestess robes rather than common clothing for women. [[spoiler:And even then she still had no problem at all with taking a shotgun from the person next to her to shoot a cyborg assassin coming up behind him.]]

* In ''VideoGame/HaloReach'' to amusement/derision of fans female Spartans are skinnier, curvier and have JigglePhysics in contrast to previous games and lore which asserted that Spartan's gender were indistinguishable when wearing PoweredArmour.
** In ''Anime/HaloLegends'' Female Sangheili aka Elites are more humanoid with far less pounced mandibles and even have hair.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** As far as secondary characteristics go, males lack eyelashes and have more angular muzzles and narrower ears than females. Some are noticeably taller and stockier, but not all; for example, the exposed muzzle is the only way to determine Wonderbolt (and Shadowbolt) genders (unless they [[BadassMustache really want to let you know]]). There are, however, a couple of mixed and non-standard character designs in the background cast, which have been cause for endless confusion. Also, most male ponies [[note]] usually generic background ones, which in turn was one of the major inspirations for the fandom creation of Doctor Whooves [[/note]] tend to have ruffled or spiky hair while almost all female ponies' hair are completely smooth and straight. In one episode, Rarity was shown to wear false eyelashes, and she's been seen applying mascara to Fluttershy. The main difference seems to be the size of the male ponies who are always one-half or one head taller than all the females (with the obvious exception of [[LargeAndInCharge the Princesses]], of course). For ponies, who are around three heads tall, this is actually quite a large difference.
** One particularly unconventional difference is that female ponies' eyes are usually rendered with two catchlights (and fillies have three), while the males only have two.
** Female phoenixes have pink feathers and different head feathers. [[SubvertedTrope Or so it might seem at first]], but [[ShownTheirWork if you know much about real birds' sexual characteristics]] you will know that it is [[RealMenWearPink the smaller pink phoenix]] [[InvertedTrope who is the male]] (or just look at the confirmed-female phoenix, Philomena).
** Male Breezies have shorter manes and rounder eyes, but still look just as girly as the females with their eyelashes.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', only females have visible eyelashes.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'' had Jimmy making a DagwoodSandwich and then using it as a CompanionCube. He made it female be putting a ribbon on it.
* This trope is played with quite commonly in the ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' episode [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gssbQvhHihE "From Here to Maternity"]]. The situation involves shopping for essentials for a baby that Filburt and Dr. Hutchison are expecting to be hatched from an egg while Heffer nurtures it. Filburt and Heffer obviously expect the little tyke to be of opposite genders, considering that instances involve Heffer picking out a frilly pink dress while Filburt picks out a football jersey. There is even a montage involving Filburt playing baseball with the egg and teaching it how to shave, while Heffer dresses the egg up in a tutu and dances ballet with it and plays tea party with the ''bowed'' egg.

** Guys tend to have smaller eyes, (smaller eye holes as well as smaller irises), and their eyelashes aren't prominent. Girls tend to have larger eyes, and their eyelashes are drawn as prominent clumps.

* ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' has human females and thus through their figures and clothing it is easy to tell their genders. The girls do however have a trait the men don't in that they are not allowed to look unpresentable thus they don't ''https://i.imgur.com/IylRUes.jpg appear goofy]] or their [[https://i.imgur.com/pSKBdGe.jpg jaws do not deform]] when hit by certain attacks.

* In ''Barbapapa'', all of the girls have flowers on their head. Since the Barbafamily consists of amorphous blobs, it's the only sign. Interestingly, they all have eyelashes. This is best illustrated in [[https://www.google.de/logos/doodles/2015/45th-anniversary-of-the-publishing-of-barbapapa-5112521539190784-hp.gif the Google Doodle for the 45th anniversary of the books]].

* ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowersa'':

* Lady X Subsistance from ''VideoGame/RumbleRoses'' to emphasize she is supposed to be a female despite being a robot has wide hips, high heeled shaped feet, and feminine eyes.

Writers tend to assume that for some reason [[MostWritersAreMale most viewers]] will assume that the protagonist is a guy [[MenAreGenericWomenAreSpecial by default]]. So to make absolutely sure there's no ViewerGenderConfusion, developers will assign Tertiary Sexual Characteristics to the female characters, and sometimes the male characters as well. The male characteristics tend to be less obvious.