All about gender and sexual identity. For romance, see Love Tropes. For eroticism and sexual behavior, see Sex Tropes. For tropes that bend gender lines, see Gender-Blending Tropes.
Categories:
Gender-dividing tropes:
- Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: When the males and females of the same species are wildly different, occasionally going to the point of them seeming to be a completely different animal.
- Game-Favored Gender: In a game where you can pick your character's gender, one gender is considered more useful than the other.
- Gendered Outfit: A character that has a Gender Flipped or Distaff/Spear Counterpart will have gender-specific changes on their outfit.
- Gender Equals Breed: When two animals have children, the male offspring will resemble their father and the female offspring will resemble their mother.
- Gender Incompetence: One gender is viewed as more competent than the other.
- Gender Nonconforming Equals Gay: If a person doesn't "conform" to traditional male or female standards, they must be gay (or queer).
- Gender-Restricted Ability: Only men (or only women) can use the Applied Phlebotinum or a particularly special technique.
- Gender-Restricted Gear: Certain items can only be used/equipped by characters of a specific gender.
- Girls vs. Boys Plot: A stock plot, where boys and girls fight in a battle of the genders. In this case, they're divided by the nature of the competition.
- Men Buy from Mars, Women Buy from Venus
- Men Like Dogs, Women Like Cats
- Menswear Ghetto: Female-only clothing outnumbers male-only clothing.
- Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality: A scale that examines how the relationships between men and women are portrayed in fiction.
- Unisex Series, Gendered Merchandise
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Females have eyelashes, lipstick and/or bows to distinguish them from males.
Other Tropes:
- Action Girl: Kick butts and chew bubblegum.
- Adaptational Sexuality: An adaptation changes a character's sexual orientation.
- Adopting the Gender Binary: A member of a race without a concept of binary gender transitions to a binary gender/the opposite binary gender.
- Affirmative Action Girl: A female character is added to a team for the sake of diversity.
- All Abusers Are Male: A work always depicts men as being guilty of domestic abuse.
- Ambiguous Gender: When the gender of a character is unclear.
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: When the gender identity of a character is unclear.
- Armoured Closet Gay: A man who is vocally homophobic turns out to be a closeted gay man.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: Gender Bender with the person (usually a man) becoming sexier after the transformation.
- Beer Goggles: Being drunk causes a person to see someone as more attractive than they actually are and/or flirt with them.
- Best Woman: A bride and groom have friends of the opposite sex fill the role of best man and maid of honor.
- Big Beautiful Man: A heavyset man who is considered attractive.
- Big Beautiful Woman: A heavyset woman who is considered attractive.
- Bi-Wildered: Confusion about one's own or another's bisexuality
- Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Aliens reproduce differently from Earth organisms.
- Bizarre Alien Sexes: Aliens have different genders or more genders than humans do.
- Body Sushi: Sushi being eaten while it's on a naked woman lying down.
- Boyfriend Bluff: A man pretends to be a girl's boyfriend to protect her from predators.
- The Bro Code: A set of unspoken rules between guys.
- Bros Before Hoes: Putting your friend before your love-interest.
- Bury Your Gays: Gay people get killed.
- But Not Too Bi: Someone is bisexual but seems to favor a particular sex.
- But Not Too Gay: Gay couples aren't seen doing romantic or sexual things as much as straight ones.
- Butch Lesbian: A lesbian who looks and acts stereotypically tough and masculine.
- Camp Gay: A male homosexual who looks and acts stereotypically soft and feminine.
- Camp Straight: A male heterosexual with stereotypical feminine traits.
- Cannot Talk to Women: A guy who has trouble talking to girls.
- The Casanova: A man who strings along many love interests, but is not in a serious relationship with any of them.
- Cast Full of Gay: Most if not all of the cast is some manner of LGBT, usually gay.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: A cast full of pretty/handsome young men.
- Category Traitor (The Gender Traitor variant)
- Chickification: An action-oriented female becomes more girly and helpless.
- Chromosome Casting: The characters are either all male or all female.
- Closet Gay: A character is hiding their true orientation.
- Coax Them Out of the Closet: A character's friends try to get them to come out of the closet.
- Coming Of Age Queer Romance: A character in their late tweens or early teens realizes they're queer and gets together with another queer character.
- Coming-Out Story: A LGBT character comes out of the closet and reveals their sexual identity to their friends, family, and associates.
- Coming Out to Spouse: An LGBTQ+ character comes out to their spouse.
- Coming Straight Story: A straight character has to reveal to gay friends and people who assumed them to be gay that they are not gay.
- Common Hollywood Sex Traits: Sex works in an unrealistic way in movies. - Rogue launched trope; restore once properly relaunched.
- Creepy Crossdresser: Crossdressing characters (often men) portrayed as evil or deranged.
- Crippling Castration: Mutilating or destroying a person's genitals.
- Crotch-Glance Sex Check: Seeing an animal's crotch to find out their sex.
- Crotch-Grab Sex Check: Grabbing a person's crotch to find out their sex.
- Cure Your Gays: People attempt to "cure" homosexuality under the belief that having a sexual orientation other than straight is an illness.
- Date My Avatar: A person creates a fake version of themselves for the sake of dating or misleading people online.
- Depraved Bisexual: A bisexual person whose malevolence is expected or made worse for being bisexual.
- Depraved Homosexual: A gay man whose malevolence is expected or made worse for being homosexual.
- Discount Lesbians: Nonhuman characters used to represent a homosexual relationship.
- Disguised in Drag: Any scenario where a man dresses as a woman for purposes of disguise.
- Does Not Like Men: A woman doesn't like men.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Female abusers and male victims aren't treated in the same level of seriousness as male abusers and female victims.
- Dragged into Drag: Girls love helping boys dress as girls.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: A feminine-looking man is mistaken for a woman.
- Effeminate Misogynistic Guy: A misogynistic man who ironically acts very feminine.
- Entitled to Have You: Someone believes that they are more deserving of the person they're attracted to than the one the person truly loves.
- Eternal Sexual Freedom: Characters do something sexual that was not allowed in the time period they're set in, and it's not mentioned not to be allowed.
- Even the Girls Want Her: A woman is so beautiful that even other women desire her.
- Even the Guys Want Him: A man is so attractive that even other men desire him.
- Everyone Is Bi: Gender does not factor into the characters' formation of relationships.
- Everybody Is Single: A majority of the cast is not married or in a relationship.
- Everybody Wants the Hermaphrodite: An intersex character has the most admirers.
- Eunuchs Are Evil: People who have had their sex organs removed are depicted as villains.
- Experimented in College: Someone who currently identifies as straight pursued same-sex relationships when they were in school.
- Extra Y, Extra Violent: A Y chromosome is supposedly linked to aggression, so an extra one leads to extra aggression (naturally, women are exempt).
- Extreme Omnisexual: A character will have sex with anyone and anything, no limits.
- Fag Hag: A woman who hangs around with gay men.
- Fake Period Excuse: Someone fakes being on her period to get out of a situation surreptitiously.
- Faux Yay: An extended ruse where characters pretend to be gay.
- Faux Action Girl: A supposedly a female badass, but it's only an Informed Attribute.
- Favors for the Sexy: A beautiful character (usually female) compels those around them to pamper them or give them things.
- Female Gaze: Scenes where the camera focuses on the male anatomy to entice female viewers.
- Fembot: A female-looking robot.
- Femininity Failure: A Tomboy tries to be feminine but can't pull it off.
- Feminist Fantasy: A story which is about a woman, or women in general, who are major characters making things happen of their own agency and volition and saving the day under their own power (likely literal "superpower").
- Females Are More Innocent: Females are portrayed as being more innocent than males.
- Final Girl: A female character who survives the story while everyone else dies.
- Flawless Token: The female or gay character can do no wrong.
- Foe Romance Subtext: A pair of rivals/enemies are intentionally given romantic subtext in their interactions.
- Forced Out of the Closet: A closeted gay person is outed against their will.
- Gay Best Friend: A character has a friend whose only notable quality is that they are gay.
- Gay Option: A video game makes it possible for same-sex relations to occur.
- Gay Panic: A character's real or perceived homosexuality is toned down to appease Moral Guardians.
- Gay Romantic Phase: A character is only gay for a while before " growing up" and becoming straight.
- Gayborhood: A neighborhood inhabited by gay people.
- Gayngster: A gay gangster.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: The cast has an equal number of male characters and female characters.
- Gender-Inverted Trope: Trope specific to one gender is used with the other in mind.
- Gender Is No Object: Many jobs in fiction are equal-opportunity, even if they weren't in real life.
- "Gender-Normative Parent" Plot: A boy/girl's femininity/masculinity causes a conflict with their parents.
- Gender Rarity Value: A person who is valuable because they are the only surviving member of their gender.
- Gender Reveal: A character's true gender is revealed.
- Gender Scoff: Expressing frustration in dealing with the opposite sex.
- Gender-Separated Ensemble Episode: Characters split up on the basis of gender for an installment.
- Gendered Insult: An insult having to do with a person's gender.
- Gendercide: An entire gender is exterminated.
- Get Back in the Closet: When a work jumps up the rough framework for what's "inappropriate" because it contains gay content.
- Girls Have Cooties: Boys refuse to hang around girls on account of them possessing a "virus".
- Girls Love Chocolate: All women love chocolate, especially if they're a Girly Girl.
- Girliness Upgrade: A tomboy becomes more feminine as time goes on.
- Guys are Slobs: Men are stereotyped as being messy and unhygienic.
- Harmless Lady Disguise: A man disguises himself as a lady to avoid suspicion.
- Hates Wearing Dresses: A woman doesn't like wearing dresses.
- Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?: A work repeatedly says a character is gay, but we never see them engage in homosexual activities.
- Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: A character who displays non-conforming or homoerotic behavior feels compelled to remind everyone that they're straight.
- He-Man Woman Hater: A man who is an over-the-top misogynist.
- Hereditary Homosexuality: Homo- or bisexuality runs in families.
- The Hero Doesn't Kill the Villainess: Female villains either survive while their male counterparts die or are killed by someone/something other than the hero.
- Heteronormative Crusader: A homophobic activist who fights against what they view as sexual deviancy.
- Hide Your Lesbians: Homosexual relationships/people hidden under a veil of subtext.
- High-Heel–Face Turn: The sole female villain ends up reforming.
- Ho Yay: Two characters of the same gender interact in ways that fans can interpret as indicating that the characters are a couple.
- Homosexual Reproduction: Two people of the same gender manage to produce a child.
- Homosocial Heterosexuality: Women are passive things for men to fight, barter, or haggle over.
- If It's You, It's Okay: A character falls for someone of a gender they're not normally attracted to.
- I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: A woman tries to use her breasts to persuade men.
- I Have Brothers: A female character who learned male oriented skills from her brothers.
- I'm a Man; I Can't Help It: Men have limited self-control when it comes to sexual arousal.
- Improbably Female Cast: For some reason, there are next to no men in this setting. Women do everything, plain and simple.
- Incompatible Orientation: Someone is attracted to a person who doesn't swing the same way they do.
- Intimacy Via Horror: Females are stereotyped as being unable to experience sources of horror without being scared out of their minds, and when they're dating a male, he'll use this as an opportunity to comfort her for the sake of romance.
- The Lad-ette: A girl with stereotypical boorish masculine traits.
- Lady Land: A female dominated society where men are either subservient or absent.
- Lady Looks Like a Dude: A masculine-looking woman is mistaken for a man.
- A Lady on Each Arm: A man is shown with each arm around a woman.
- Last Het Romance: A character realizes that they're gay after a failed heterosexual relationship.
- Late Coming Out: A character comes out as queer later in life.
- Leg Cling: A Stock Pose in which a powerful man stands in a dominant fashion while a woman (usually under-dressed) clings to his leg in submissive, helpless fashion.
- Lesbian Jock: A lesbian who plays sports.
- Lesbian Vampire: A female vampire who preys on young women.
- Less Embarrassing Term: A character finds the word for something embarrassing, so they insist on calling it something else.
- LGBT Fanbase: A work of fiction that has gay fans.
- Light Girl, Dark Boy: When in a Gender Bender situation, the boy has darker skin and the girl a lighter one.
- Lipstick Lesbian: A lesbian who acts feminine.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: A sex-crazed person whose benevolent is expected or Played for Laughs for being likable.
- Madonna-Whore Complex: Women are either respectable and prude virgins or disgusting whores! There is no such thing as a woman who is in-between!
- Magical Queer: A (usually camp) gay man who is Closer to Earth.
- Male Band, Female Singer: A band with one female member who's the singer.
- Male Gaze: Scenes where the camera is focused on a woman's breasts and/or butt to entice male viewers.
- Male-to-Female Universal Adaptor: Aliens with human genitals.
- A Man Is Always Eager: Men always want sex.
- Masculine, Feminine, Androgyne Trio: Evening out the gender ratio by grouping a masculine character, a feminine character, and an androgynous character together.
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: A gay couple where one acts masculine and the other acts feminine.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: A pairing consisting of a girl who acts masculine and a boy who acts feminine.
- Masculine Lines, Feminine Curves: Curves are visibly softer and more delicate than lines, which makes them perfect for drawing women while straight lines are perfect for drawing men.
- Matriarchy: A state or society where women are in positions of power and men have little or no role in its affairs.
- Men Are Better Than Women: Men are more all-around capable, reliable, or flat out superior, than women.
- Men Are Strong, Women Are Pretty: The primary virtue of a man is to be strong, capable, tough and daring. The primary virtue for a woman is to look pretty.
- Men Are the Expendable Gender: Male death and suffering is regarded as less important than female death and suffering.
- Men Are Tough: The man is portrayed as a tough being.
- Men Are Uncultured: Men love sports and hate opera, classical music, and visual arts.
- Men Get Old, Women Get Replaced: After the characters have aged up, the male characters seem to be still around and active in the story, while women have moved on, settled down, or have simply died/disappeared.
- Menstrual Menace: Weirdness ensues as a girl gets her period.
- Mentor in Queerness: A, usually older, out character who acts as support for a newly-out or questioning character.
- Mistaken for Gay: Someone is incorrectly assumed to be gay.
- Mistaken for Misogynist: A man accidentally says or does something that could be interpreted as sexist.
- Monogender Monsters: A male (or female) hero will fight monsters of the same gender.
- More Deadly Than the Male: The female is more dangerous than the male.
- Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls: If a work brings up fanfiction, it'll most likely fall into the romance genre, and the author(s) will be a girl.
- Most Gamers Are Male: Men are the usual demographic when one thinks of "gamers", owing partly to their competitive nature, physical demands, and violent and/or sexual content.
- Most Writers Are Male: Most published writers are male, so male protagonists, all-male teams, and misconceptions regarding women are more prevalent.
- Mother Nature, Father Science: Nature is caring and feminine, Science is industrious and masculine.
- Motherhood Is Superior: Women are better parents than men.
- Moustache de Plume: A pen name used to conceal gender.
- My Girl Is Not a Slut: Sexually promiscuous women are seen as dirty, but sexually promiscuous men are seen as cool.
- Nature Adores a Virgin: Virgins are highly desirable.
- Never a Self-Made Woman: Female characters in positions of power got there through their connections to more important men.
- Nipple and Dimed: Female nipples get censored.
- No Biological Sex: A being that does not biologically have a sex, but may still identify with a gender.
- No Bisexuals: There are no bisexuals, only straight people and gay/lesbian people.
- No Heterosexual Sex Allowed: To solve an overpopulation problem, a government forbids heterosexual sex.
- No Periods, Period: A female character is incapable of going through her menstrual cycle.
- No Woman's Land: The world outside of the safe place the woman lives is deeply misogynistic and dangerous.
- Non-Heteronormative Society: A culture or society with decidedly non-Western views of gender and sexuality.
- Non-Human Non-Binary: A non-binary character is also a non-human character.
- Not That There's Anything Wrong with That: A backpedaling move to avoid being viewed as homophobic.
- Old Friend, New Gender: An old friend that you haven't seen in a while has had a sex change.
- Omegaverse: A setting where humans have a secondary sex (alpha, beta or omega).
- One-Gender Race: A race consisting of only one gender.
- One-Gender School: A sex-segregated educational institute.
- The One Guy: The one male member of a group otherwise composed of females.
- Only Has Same-Sex Admirers: A character attracts people of the same sex but never anyone of the opposite sex.
- Otokonoko Genre: A Japanese genre of romantic/erotic stories focusing on male crossdressers.
- Outfit-Rip Sex Check: A character is made to have their sex revealed by having their clothing ripped off.
- Out of the Closet, Into the Fire: After a character comes out they are quickly killed, harmed, or cosmically punished.
- Pale Females, Dark Males: Female non-human characters have lighter-colored bodies than male ones.
- Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: A character desires romance and/or sex, but is too afraid of sexuality.
- Pass Fail: When trying to live life as another demographic proves unsuccessful.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Males are associated with the color blue, while females are associated with pink.
- Pink Is Erotic: The color pink represents eroticism and scenes of a sexual nature. Although this is generally associated with women, men are rarely associated with pink.
- Platonic Boy/Girl Heroes: A duo consisting of a young boy and girl who are required to work together.
- Psychosexual Horror: A subgenre that explores psychosexual development as a subject matter, including themes of sexual development and sexual activities.
- Pragmatic Pansexuality: Often going against a character's sexuality to sleep with others in an effort to achieve their goals.
- Preserve Your Gays: A queer character is almost killed, but survives in the end.
- Pride Parade: An annual parade (and subsequent festival) celebrating LGBTQ life and culture.
- Promiscuity After Rape: A character who became sexually promiscuous as the result of being sexually abused in the past.
- Property of Love: When being in love makes you essentially your lover's property.
- Psycho Lesbian: A mentally unhinged lesbian, mostly motivated by unrequited love for a straight female character.
- Purely Aesthetic Gender: When a video game gives the option to play as a female character, the only significant difference from playing as a male character is the player character's physical appearance.
- Queer Character, Queer Actor: A gay character is played by a gay actor, or a trans character is played by a trans actor, etc.
- Queer People Are Funny: Homosexuality is funny.
- Questionable Consent: It's unclear whether or not someone gave consent to have sex with another.
- Quickly-Demoted Woman: Getting our strong, successful woman out of the way so we can make way for the male lead by making them trade roles.
- Rainbow Lens: A character has a queerness-unrelated trait that can be interpreted as a metaphor for queerness.
- Raised as the Opposite Gender: A character is raised as if they were the opposite gender.
- Raised by Dudes: A girl grew up surrounded by masculine role models (father, uncles, older brothers, etc) and becomes like them for lack of a feminine role model.
- Rape and Switch: The idea that getting raped can change a person's sexual orientation.
- A Real Man Is a Killer: A man discovers that he must kill something in order to prove his worth.
- Real Men Eat Meat: Men who don't eat meat are looked down upon.
- Real Men Hate Affection: Men who don't like hugs or other forms of affection.
- Real Men Hate Sugar: It is considered manly to abstain from sweets.
- Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: Traditionally feminine women are depicted as weak, worthless, and incompetent.
- Real Women Have Curves: Relatable female characters have Weight Woe.
- Samus Is a Girl: An Action Hero is subsequently revealed to be an Action Girl.
- Secondary Sexual Characteristics: Elements of a creature's physiology that result from it being male or female.
- Settled for Gay: A woman settles for marrying a gay man.
- Sexbot: A robot built for the purpose of humans having sex with it.
- Sexist Used Car Salesman: A man sells a used car to a woman they think doesn't know anything about cars.
- Sexual Deviance Is Evil: Having a sexual behavior or orientation outside of the norm is associated with evil.
- Sexy Scandinavian: A hot, exoticized Scandinavian.
- Sexy Man, Instant Harem: A man who is The Casanova will often attract women.
- Showing Up Chauvinists: A woman surprises others by performing well in a traditionally male-dominated field.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Someone is only attracted to a specific person.
- Sissy Villain: A villain who acts effeminate.
- Situational Sexuality: Someone normally heterosexual will become homosexual if there aren't any members of the opposite gender around to placate their lust.
- Slut-Shaming: Attacking a person for being promiscuous.
- The Smurfette Principle: The one female member of a group otherwise consisting of males.
- Some of My Best Friends Are X: Claiming to have friends from a certain group, and then make offensive comments about their group when they're not around.
- Sour Prudes: Someone is prudish and looks down on people who like sex.
- Speculative Fiction LGBT: LGBT people feature a lot in sci-fi and fantasy.
- Starring Smurfette: The main character is a different gender from the rest of the cast.
- Stay in the Kitchen: When a character or the narrative insists that women should be barred from action and stay on the sidelines.
- Stereotype Reaction Gag: Someone is offended by a stereotypical assumption, only to then immediately demonstrate it.
- Stop Being Stereotypical: Wishing that other members of your group would stop acting like walking clichés.
- Sweeps Week Lesbian Kiss: Promoting a same-sex kiss as a Ratings Stunt, regardless of context.
- Sweet on Polly Oliver: Straight guy find another guy attractive... because that other "guy" is actually a girl.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: A female character dresses up as a man to accomplish some end.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: Someone cheats on their spouse and is treated as if being unfaithful was the right thing to do.
- Tampon Run: A man has to buy tampons for a menstruating woman.
- Territorial Smurfette: The sole female character will get antagonistic toward any new female who tries to join the group.
- There Are No Girls on the Internet: The idea that all women on the Internet are actually men pretending to be women.
- Threesome Subtext: Subtext about the possibility of a shared romantic and/or sexual relationship between three characters.
- Token Lesbian: The only member of a group who is a lesbian.
- Tomboyness Upgrade: A Girly Girl becomes more tomboyish as time goes on.
- Trans Character, Cis Actor: A transgender or non-binary character being played by a cisgender performer.
- Trans Chaser: A cis character has a fetish for transgender or gender-nonconforming people.
- Trans Equals Gay: The mistaken belief that a Transgender person is just a gay person that "leveled up."
- Trans Equals Hypersexual: Transgender or gender-nonconforming characters are depicted as having an Extreme Libido, no sexual boundaries, bizarre kinks, or otherwise over-the-top sexual proclivities.
- Transparent Closet: Someone denies being gay, but does a very poor job of hiding their sexuality.
- Two Girls to a Team: A team otherwise consisting of males has two female members.
- Ugly Slavic Women: Eastern European women are hideous and masculine-looking.
- Unexpected Virgin: Someone who's revealed as a virgin and it comes as a surprise.
- The Unfair Sex: Female characters get away with shenanigans that male characters could not or wouldn't even dare to try.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: The confusion caused by the person a character was crushing on turning out to be the opposite gender of what they assumed.
- Urban Legend Love Life: A character is rumored to have had numerous romantic partners.
- Used to Be a Tomboy: A Girly Girl who used to be a tomboy in the past.
- Vanity Is Feminine: Femininity means being shallow, envious, and obsessed with beauty.
- Virgin-Shaming: Attacking a person just because they never had sexual intercourse.
- Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child: Parents take issue with their son or daughter not conforming to traditional gender stereotypes.
- Wanted a Son Instead: A parent is upset that they have a daughter instead of a son.
- Wet Blanket Wife: The wife who nags her husband to not endanger himself too much and to think about his family.
- Where Everybody Knows Your Flame: A gay bar/club will always be very gay.
- "Which Restroom?" Dilemma: Someone has trouble deciding which restroom they should use.
- White Male Lead: In Western Media, more often than not the protagonist is a White guy.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Positive or neutral depiction of crossdresser characters.
- Womanliness as Pathos: Women inherently cause drama or intense feelings.
- Women Are Delicate: The belief that women by nature are very vulnerable.
- Women Are Wiser: Women are depicted as more intelligent and rational than men.
- Women's Mysteries: How to handle menstruation, and maybe also how to do magic.
- Wondrous Ladies Room: In fiction, the ladies' room takes on a kind of mystique.
- Wrong Genetic Sex: A character's genetic sex doesn't match their actual gender.
- Xenafication: A girly female is made more action-oriented and capable of defending herself.
- You Go, Girl!: A girl proves that she's as good as the boys in athletics.
- Your Normal Is Our Taboo: What's regarded as normal in one society is verboten in another and vice versa.
