History Main / UnmanlySecret

** Mr. Cat secretly owns stuffed animals and enjoys cuddling with them.

->'''Hubert:''' (''playing with toy figures'') Tonight...we feast on dead seafood! Pow Pow! Beach Brigade, Sunscreen Rangers Red!!\\

* Butler, Literature/ArtemisFowl's 6-foot-plus OneManArmy and BattleButler, likes watching romantic comedies, though he will never admit this to anyone.

-->My friends would stab me with a broken bottle
-->If they knew I was watching ''[[Series/AmericasNextTopModel Next Top Model]]''
-->Someday I swear I'll get in gear full throttle
-->And find more testosterone

-->'''Shake:''' You read all this in ''Vogue''? That's a girl magazine. I hope you were at the dentist, Frylock!
-->'''Frylock:''' It just comes to the house, I-
-->'''Shake:''' Of ''course'' it comes, when you ''order'' it, you big, fat lady!
-->'''Meatwad:''' Someone down there is a girl!
-->'''Frylock:''' Everyone just shut up about the ''Vogue'' thing!
* On ''[[WesternAnimation/PBAndJOtter PB&J Otter]]'', both Peanut and Munchy refer to their Bucky Spacebeaver toys as "[[LessEmbarrassingTerm action figures]]" instead of "dolls" to try to preserve their perceived manliness. Additionally, Flick Duck tends to behave very secretively about any behaviors or hobbies of his that would be perceived as girlish or too childlike.

->'''Hubert''': (''playing with toy figures'') Tonight...we feast on dead seafood! Pow Pow! Beach Brigade, Sunscreen Rangers Red!!\\
'''Sophie''': What are you doing?\\
'''Hubert''': Oh! Sophie!\\
'''Sophie''': What's a beach brigade?\\
'''Hubert''': It's...a branch of the Strahta military? They're specially trained to...um...maintain peace in...waterfront regions...\\
'''Sophie''': Oh.

--> '''Dark Helmet''': *''after Colonel Sandurz walks in on him''* Did you see anything?!\\
'''Sandurz''': No, sir, [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial I didn't see you playing with your dolls again]].

--> '''Bertie''': Spode, I know all about ''Eulalie''.

-->'''Krep''': Dear diary, I'm so sorry. I slandered you in spirit, but I had my badass image to uphold.

-->'''[[CloudCuckoolander Mabel]]''': You were listening to girly Icelandic pop sensation "[[Music/{{Abba}} BABBA]]?"\\
'''Dipper''': [[BlatantLies No. Heh-heh, I wasn't]]. It's not important.

* Donnie Dunagan was the youngest-ever Marine drill instructor, served three tours in Vietnam and was awarded a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. He is also a FormerChildStar perhaps best known for voicing the title character in ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}.'' He understandably kept this a secret during his military career, but has opened up about it since retiring.

** In Season 7's ''Jenna's Bedtime Blues'', AscendedExtra Jenna Morgan tries to hide the fact that she wears diapers becuase she suffers from Nocturnal Enuresis, aka bedwetting.

* ''WebOriginal/VesterAndFriends'' has Bowser watching kid shows on his Ipad . It always gets embarrassing for him when the others see him on his Ipad.

* Invoked and played with in the ''WesternAnimation/CatDog'' episode "Cliff's Little Secret". The episode revolves around Cliff's growing paranoia that [=CatDog=] have figured out one of his several embarrassing non-macho traits, which include his EmbarrassingFirstName and EmbarrassingMiddleName (his full name is Clifford Maurice Feltbottom), his love of cashmere, and his prolonged problems with bedwetting, all classic examples of the trope. After he's blurted out these secrets himself, [=CatDog=] then reveals the secret of his they'd learned: that he takes ballet. In a subversion of the trope, that's the one secret of his that [[RealMenWearPink he's not ashamed of in the slightlest]], proudly defending that ballet helps him achieve great feats of physical prowess, and that one of his favorite wrestlers practices it for the same reason.

** {{Zigzagged|trope}} with Binky Barnes. When his character first starts developing not manly interests, he tries to hide them, but then gets found out anyway. Though some people try to make a big deal of it at first, his perceived fierceness and reputation as a bully allows him to quell any teasing or bullying simply by growls, posturing and [[DeathGlare death glares]]. In later seasons, he still sometimes tries to hide it, but just as often is open about it. In Season 15's "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," he doesn't care one bit that his friends in the Tough Customers gang know that he's going to be performing a clarinet solo, but is terribly afraid that one of them might find out that he still sometimes holds his mother's hand. When they do find out anyway, they chew him out... for not having a juicier, more embarrassing secret!

** [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]] with Binky Barnes. When his character first starts developing not manly interests, he tries to hide them, but then gets found out anyway. Though some people try to make a big deal of it at first, his perceived fierceness and reputation as a bully allows him to quell any teasing or bullying simply by growls, posturing and [[DeathGlare death glares]]. In later seasons, he still sometimes tries to hide it, but just as often is open about it. In Season 15's "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," he doesn't care one bit that his friends in the Tough Customers gang know that he's going to be performing a clarinet solo, but is terribly afraid that one of them might find out that he still sometimes holds his mother's hand. When they do find out anyway, they chew him out... for not having a juicier, more embarrassing secret!

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder: Film -- Animated]]

[[folder: Film -- Live-Action]]

[[folder: Jokes]]

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

[[folder: Web Videos]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[folder: Real Life]]

* PlayedForLaughs in ''VideoGame/AITheSomniumFiles'' when Date manages to blackmail a {{yakuza}} [[TheDon boss]] called Moma by threatening to expose his love for Tesa, a popular e-girl IdolSinger. One of his underlings says he'd never be into "pussy shit like that" only to be InstantlyProvenWrong by his [[LaughablyEvil embarrassed boss]] and shooed out of the room. [[spoiler: Moma's love for Tesa [[AntiVillain leads him to pull off]] two separate BigDamnHeroes moments for Date and Tesa/Iris, and in the GoldenEnding he manages to get the rest of his gang to fall for her as well (by forcing them to watch her videos until they did).]]

* PlayedForLaughs in ''VideoGame/AITheSomniumFiles'' when Date manages to blackmail a {{yakuza}} [[TheDon boss]] called Moma by threatening to expose his love for Tesa, a popular e-girl IdolSinger. One of his underlings says he'd never be into "pussy shit like that" only to be InstantlyProvenWrong by his [[LaughablyEvil embarrassed boss]] and shooed out of the room. [[spoiler: Mona's love for Tesa [[AntiVillain leads him to pull off]] two separate BigDamnHeroes moments for Date and Tesa/Iris, and in the GoldenEnding he manages to get the rest of his gang to fall for her as well (by forcing them to watch her videos until they did).]]

* PlayedForLaughs in ''VideoGame/AITheSomniumFiles'' when Date manages to blackmail a {{yakuza}} [[TheDon boss]] by threatening to expose his love for a popular e-girl IdolSinger. One of his underlings says he'd never be into "pussy shit like that" only to be InstantlyProvenWrong by his [[LaughablyEvil embarrassed boss]] and shooed out of the room.

!Examples

This can also be used in reference not only to things that are considered "girlish," but anything that's considered antithetical to manliness, such as something dubbed "childish" or "nerdy." The latter would overlap with the ClosetGeek.

* In ''Manga/MonthlyGirlsNozakiKun'', Kashima ''thinks'' Hori, her rough and tough drama club president, has secret girly hobbies and interests such as reading shoujo manga and being a princess. This is due to her being LockedOutOfTheLoop about him being Nozaki's shoujo manga assistant and misunderstanding his actions around Nozaki.

* ''Literature/TheBerenstainBears:'' In ''Ghosts of the Auto Graveyard'', burly junkyard owner Two-Ton Grizzly is terrified of anyone knowing that he's [[spoiler:afraid of the dark, and his wife and daughter do most of the night work at the junkyard.]]

* ''Lierature/TheBerenstainBears:'' In ''Ghosts of the Auto Graveyard'', burly junkyard owner Two-Ton Grizzly is terrified of anyone knowing that he's [[spoiler:afraid of the dark, and his wife and daughter do most of the night work at the junkyard.]]