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Light Feminine and Dark Feminine
aka: Light Feminine Dark Feminine
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This is a character contrast trope. Both female characters are decidedly feminine, but in different ways. The Light feminine is generally angelic and feels love. The Dark feminine is generally devilish and plays with desire. Either type can be the girly girl portrayed in the Tomboy and Girly Girl contrast. When a love interest is involved, it's likely to lead to a Betty and Veronica love triangle: Betty being the Light feminine, and Veronica being the Dark feminine.
As with any two character trope, the two characters have to have some sort of relationship with each other, be it friends, family, love interests, or rivals for a love interest, so the two characters can be playing the traits directly off each other.
The dark feminine character is not a villain or a whore but half of a good girl, bad girl or naughty and nice pair. Remember not to put a square peg in a round trope. Remember Dark Is Not Evil.
Compare the innocent child and the seductress of The Three Faces of Eve as well as the sweet-naive one and sexy one of the Four Girl Ensemble. The Spear Counterpart is Noble Male Roguish Male.
Not to be confused with Pale Females, Dark Males.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- In Code Geass, Shirley is the Light Feminine to contrast with either Kallen as the Dark Feminine, both being part of the Ashford Student Council and love interests for Lelouch. Kaguya could also be the Light Feminine to C.C's Dark Feminine, with those two being a part of the Black Knights.
- The manipulative and deceptive Haruhi, and the meek and mild Mikuru,
 from Haruhi Suzumiya.
- The Silk Hiding Steel Haruna and the Genki Girl Yui in Corrector Yui.
- Oniisama e...:
- Nanako Misonoo and Mariko Shinobu contrasting with the Bifauxnen and Lad-ette duo of Rei and Kaoru. While cute, mild-mannered and softspoken Nanako sits firmly on the Nice Girl spectrum, Mariko is a fair-skinned, raven-haired mixture of Yandere and Tsundere from day one. It's lampshaded in a scene at the start, when Nanako tells Mariko that she's fascinated by the latter's ruby-red lips and she explains that she keeps them like that via biting on them... then tries to get Nanako to do it, but she gets scared and runs off.
- Also Nanako and the very elegant and aloof Fukiko "Miya-sama" Ichinomiya, who displays her own share of femininity in a very sophisticated and high-class way.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Mai Valentine/Kujaku plays Dark Feminine to first Tea/Anzu's and then Serenity/Shizuka's Light Feminine.
- There's more than one of these duos in Bleach. I.e., Rangiku Matsumoto is a good Dark Feminine due to her Hard Drinking Party Girl and Ms. Fanservice sides, and she has two prospect Light Feminines in Barrier Warrior Orihime Inoue and Nice Girl Momo Hinamori, with whom she occasionally doubles as Lovely Angels.
- Rangiku and Momo's zanpakutos also fit in the trope. Haineko is a Cat Girl Tease and interested in fashion, boys and her looks; by contrast, Tobiume is very cute and ladylike looking and refers to herself as a Yamato Nadeshiko (though technically, she's more of a Tsundere), as well as less open about her own share of fangirlism.
- Mawaru-Penguindrum gives us Himari Takakura (Silk Hiding Steel Girl Next Door) and either Masako Natsume (Action Girl Large Ham) or Yuri Tokikago (Badass Normal who swears by the Rule of Glamorous).
- Detective Conan:
- Yukiko Kudo and Sharon Vineyard aka Vermouth.
- There is also the happy, friendly Ran and the Broken Bird Haibara (the former being the subject of Shinichi's Single-Target Sexuality and the second being implied to have strong feelings for him.)
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
- Homura Akemi embodies both sides. She starts as "Light" as she's a shy, clumsy and kind Meganekko, then switches to Dark as she reinvents herself as a Broken Bird Dark Magical Girl.
- For Madoka, it's Mami (Light) vs. Homura (Dark) (but see also the spoilered part above). For Mami, it's Madoka (Light) vs. Kyouko (Dark). For Yuma, it's Mami (Light) vs. Kyouko (Dark).
- Fullmetal Alchemist has the Elric brothers, Roy Mustang, and Mustang's five subordinates versus the Big Bad and the seven Homunculi, who represent the seven deadly sins. There's one female in each group of eight - Action Girl Riza Hawkeye as Light Feminine, The Vamp Lust as Dark Feminine.
- In addition, during the latter parts of the series, on the heroes side we have both Hawkeye and Major General Olivier Armstrong, who also play on the pairing.
- Princess Tutu has Ahiru/Duck as Light Feminine and Rue as Dark Feminine. The former is a cheerful and clumsy Genki Girl whose mission in life is simply to get Mytho, the boy she admires, to smile. The latter is an elegant and aloof Ojou who also cares for Mytho, but in a far more possesive way due to her Broken Bird nature. Both girls have white and black costumes of their respective Magical Girl personas, Princess Tutu and Princess Kraehe. Also, they're both based on Odette and Odile from the ballet Swan Lake.
- Bitter Virgin has manipulative, vain Kazuki as Dark Feminine and meek, childlike Hinako as Light Feminine.
- Umineko No Naku Koro Ni has kind, motherly Shannon and decadent, sadistic Beatrice. Of course, since the two are one and the same, Beatrice becomes more Light Feminine as the series goes on.
- Gundam SEED Destiny invokes the trope with the softspoken and lady-like Lacus Clyne and her much Hotter and Sexier Body Double, Meer Campbell. Heartbreakingly, Meer pulls an Heroic Sacrifice for Lacus and perishes in her arms.
- Axis Powers Hetalia:
- The two sisters Ukraine and Belarus. Ukraine, a Fragile Flower and Naïve Everygirl of a Team Mom is the Light, while Belarus, the Stalker with a Crush Yandere who dresses as an Elegant Gothic Lolita is the Dark. They're also the extremely rare example in which the duo crosses into Tomboy and Girly Girl as well: Ukraine is sweet and gentle but she dresses like a boy and has Boyish Short Hair, whereas Belarus is stubborn and Yandere-like but looks very dainty in her Elegant Gothic Lolita dress.
- Among the Nyotalia ladies, Female!England (Girlish Pigtails, Meganekko, depicted in a nurse uniform) is the Light to the Dark of Female!France (The Ojou, with a bottle of good wine in her hand, wears classy dresses). Similarly, Female!Japan (Yamato Nadeshiko with a kimono and hakama) and Female!America (Stripperiffic Plucky Girl with a rather smart mouth) have similar looks.
- Urotsukidoji, the controversial cult anime, brought us human girl, Ito Akemi (Light feminine), and Man-beast girl, Amano Megumi (Dark feminine)!
- Initial D gives us the only team made of girls: the driver Mako Satou, who is a Nice Girl, and her best friend/co-pilot Sayuki who goes the Femme Fatale way.
- In One Piece, Nami and Robin are both interesting mix of both types of femininity. Nami is not afraid to show her feelings and tell if she is fond of someone (as a friend, that is), and she has a soft spot for cute animals and children, but she is more known for being greedy, wearing skimpy clothes and using her feminine attributes to blackmail just about everyone. Robin is polite, motherly and has many Proper Lady traits, but on the flipside she is something of a Broken Bird, she always thinks up macabre things, and she is absolutely ruthless in battle.
- Hikaru Hiyama and Madoka Ayukawa from Kimagure Orange Road were a Tomboy and Girly Girl duo as little girls, but switched to this as teenagers. Bright, naive, cheerful Hikaru is the Light, while harsh yet kindhearted and very sexy Madoka is the Dark.
- Ranka Lee (Light - Moe, A-Cup Angst, naive, youthful) and Sheryl Nome (Dark - Broken Bird, Buxom Is Better, Stripperiffic when on-stage) in Macross Frontier.
- In the American arc of Marmalade Boy, Jinny Golding was the flirty Femme Fatale Dark to Doris O'Connor's mature Cool Big Sis Light.
- Himeko (Light) and Chikane (Dark) in Kannazuki no Miko.
- Sonic X has Amy (light) and Rouge (dark).
- Fruits Basket:
- In the manga version, the kind and sweet Yamato Nadeshiko Tohru Honda is the Light to the sexy Broken Bird Rin Sohma's Dark.
- Later in the manga, we also get sweet, happy Tohru and the depressed, broken Akito.
- There's also Tohru's friends, Uotani (a tall, blonde, outgoing, tough former gangster) and Hanajima (a Perky Goth Strange Girl who's frail and tends to creepily threaten people with her psychic powers, if they upset Tohru).
Comic Book
- In Bone, Rose is the Light Feminine, while her twin sister Briar is the Dark Feminine.
Fan Fic
Film
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: Russell is the Dark Feminine, while Monroe is the Light Feminine.
- Sunrise: The Woman from The City is the Dark Feminine (hedonist, cheater), while The Wife is the Light Feminine (goody-goody all the way through).
- Batman Forever has Two-Face's molls, Sugar (played by Drew Barrymore) and Spice (played by Debi Mazar). Subverted in that both of them are "bad", and "Sugar" is probably worse because she gives The Riddler the cube with the information about Bruce Wayne's Secret Identity.
- In the original script Sugar was called "Lace" and Spice was called "Leather".
- Discussed in Black Swan.
- Pepper Potts and Natasha Romanoff/"Natalie Rushman" in Iron Man 2 and The Avengers.
- Lili is both of these over the course of Legend, first as an innocent and naive virgin in a white dress, then as a sexy and cunning Manipulative Bitch in an extremely low-cut black gown. It's all an act, however. She's actually a Fake Defector trying to fix her own, terrible, mistake.
- Maria and her mechanical doppelganger in Fritz Lang's Metropolis are an example of this trope. Maria is loving, kind, and saintly, whereas the machine-woman is a demonic temptress deliberately created by Rotwang and Joh Fredersen to discredit her.
Literature
- Gone with the Wind: Melanie is the Light Feminine, while Scarlett is the Dark Feminine.
- The Jack Weyland book Michelle and Debra has the obedient Michelle as the light and her rebellious best friend Debra as the dark.
- The two leading ladies in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance. Priscilla is the demure, fragile, domestic (read: conservative) Light Feminine; Zenobia is the mysterious, sensual, outspoken, transcendental feminist (read: liberal) Dark Feminine.
- In Animorphs, Cassie and Rachel have shades of this: Cassie is a down-to-earth Friend to All Living Things who only fights the Yeerks because she has to, while Rachel is a borderline-Dark Action Girl who honestly enjoys the war on some level, despite having the appearance and fashion-obsession of a supermodel. Despite all this, they're also best friends.
- Funnily, not to be confused with their inverted skin tones.
- Also, possibly Rachel in The Separation, when she literally splits into two different people after her starfish morph goes wrong. One is timid, caring, gentle, and pacifistic; the other is dark, ruthless, and obsessive.
- Ellony Leckery and Pharinet Palindrake in The Chronicles of Magravandias, Ellony being a straight example of The Ingenue while Pharinet is something of a Yandere when pushed. Other female characters in the story, particularly those who fill similar roles or are related to them or are named for them are more balanced between the two extremes.
- Antonia and Matilda in The Monk, as highlighted by Ambrosio's interest in both of them, their similar appearance, and the roles each of them play in the story.
- Virginal Rowena and desirable Rebecca from Ivanhoe.
- Twilight: Alice is the Light Feminine and Rosalie is the Dark Feminine.
- Practical Magic has motherly Sally (light) and seductive Gillian (dark). That goes double for the movie adaptation.
Live-Action TV
- In Smallville, Lana is Dark while Chloe is Light after Lana starts dabbling in the Luthor business and Chloe's character is softened by Jimmy.
- 2 Broke Girls: Max is the Dark Feminine, Caroline is the Light Feminine.
- Lampshaded by Sophie, the title character in "And the Upstairs Neighbor", when she compares them to a chocolate and vanilla cupcake respectively.
- London and Maddie of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
- June (light) and Chloe (dark) in Don't Trust the B---- In Apartment 23
- Degrassi has the noble Emma as light and her best friend the provocative Manny as dark.
- In Buffy the Vampire Slayer there are the two slayers, the responsible Buffy and the destructive Faith.
- Also with Willow (light) and Cordelia (dark), particularly in their interactions with both Xander and Buffy.
- How I Met Your Mother has the motherly, married, Girl Next Door Lily and the vain, independent, sexy Robin.
- Merlin has Guinevere, the good hearted heroine, and Morgana, the villainess.
- Though interestingly, Gwen is linked more with desire than Morgana, who (despite a couple of early Femme Fatale scenes) almost comes across as asexual in her complete lack of interest in men.
- And as an added ironic bonus, Guinevere (light) is played by mixed-race Angel Coulby, and Morgana (dark) is played by extremely pale Katie McGrath.
- In the episode The Hunter's Heart, Guinevere gets a turn at playing the dark feminine in contrast to visiting Princess Mithian's light.
- Robin Hood
- The first 2 series has Marian as the light feminine, who was replaced by Isabella, the dark feminine.
- In the third series, in which Isabella and Kate are rivals for Robin's affection, Kate would also count as the light feminine in contrast to Isabella's dark. However, after Isabella's Face Heel Turn it became a blatant Madonna Whore Complex.
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: Hilary (dark) and Ashley (light).
- Xena: Warrior Princess (dark) and Gabrielle (light). Granted, Xena was a Tomboy Princess, but in her first appearance she was also quite decidedly The Vamp.
- Most of the final two contestants of Americas Next Top Model counts. This is evident with pairs such as: Cycle 1's Adrienne (dark) and Shannon (light), Cycle 2's Yohanna (dark) and Mercedes (light), Cycle 3's Eva (dark) and Yaya (light), Cycle 4's Naima (dark) and Kahlen (light), Cycle 5's Nicole (dark) and Nik (light), Cycle 10's Whitney (dark) and Anya (light), Cycle 12's McKey (dark) and Samantha (light), Cycle 12's Teyona (dark) and Allison (light), Cycle 13's Nicole (light) and Laura (dark), Cycle 14's Krista (dark) and Raina (light), Cycle 15's Ann (light) and Chelsea (dark), Cycle 16's Brittani (light) and Molly (dark), Cycle 17's Lisa (dark) and Allison (light) and Cycle 18's Sophie (light) and Laura (dark).
- New Girl: Jess is the Light Feminine while Cece is the Dark Feminine.
- Snow White and Red Riding Hood from Once Upon a Time. Their names are more than enough to tell you which is which.
- Anne Boleyn (dark) and Jane Seymour (light) in most portrayals, particularly in The Tudors.
- Gossip Girl: Serena (light) and Blair (dark).
- The Vampire Diaries:
- Elena is the Light Feminine and Katherine is the Dark Feminine. Elena and Katherine, whom are both doppelgangers, share an uncanny physical resemblance, but in terms of morals, Elena is known as good and moral, while Katherine is known as bad and immoral. Both share a common love and interest in Stefan and are often in competition for his affections.
- This could also apply to Caroline (Light Feminine) and Rebekah (Dark Feminine).
- Kahlan (light) and Cara (dark) from Legend of the Seeker.
Music
- Alvaro Véliz's songs "Ni tú ni ella" ("Neither you, nor her") are abut a guy who can't choose between two loves. The girl he's "singing" to is the Light Feminine — sweet, gentle, kind, whom he cares for dearly. The other girl he's referring to in the lyrics is the Dark Feminine — sensual, a Blithe Spirit, passionate and able to bring his wilder side.
Mythology
- In an apocryphal Abrahamic mythology, Lilith (the first wife of Adam) represents the Dark Feminine — while Eve (Adam's second wife) is the Light Feminine.
Newspaper Comics
- Non Sequitur: Kate is the Light Feminine, while Danae is the Dark Feminine.
Theatre
Video Games
- Dark Stalkers: Here, Felicia can be seen as the Light, and Morrigan as the Dark.
- Shin Megami Tensei I has Yuki (Light) and Yuriko (Dark) Yuriko is actually Lilith, making this a religious shoutout.
- Catherine: Catherine is the Dark Feminine, while Katherine is the Light Feminine.
- Dragon Age: Origins: Leliana is the Light Feminine, while Morrigan is the Dark Feminine. Leliana is eventually revealed as a subversion of the trope, while Morrigan will defrosts as the game progresses. Hence standard BioWare deconstruction takes place. The same pattern is followed in the sequel Dragon Age II with Merrill (light) and Isabela (dark)
- The two female love interests in Mass Effect 1 are Liara (young, naive, virginal academic) and Ashley (gun-toting, suspicious of aliens, snarky soldier) largely follow the trope. The expanding cast and changing personalities prevent this from applying to the later two games, however.
- A similar setup from the same developers occurs in Jade Empire, with Silk Fox as dark opposite Dawn Star's light.
- Two possible occurrences in Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark: Aribeth will take up a position opposite Nathyrra, but what the positions are depends on your choices while recruiting the former character.
- Final Fantasy X: Lulu and Yuna have the visual dynamic, and Yuna does play the Light Feminine part rather well, but Lulu never exhibits any of the personality traits of a Dark Feminine.
- Overlord: The potential queens fall into this. In the second game, the first two mistresses fall into Tomboy and Girly Girl — but also serve as a collective "Light Feminine" to the third.
- Fire Emblem 7: The Shrinking Violet Florina has these dynamics with Serra (a borderline Fashionista as well as a White Magician Girl), Fiora (a more self-assured Lady of War) and Nino (an Black Magician Girl). She falls more into Tomboy and Girly Girl with Farina and Lyn, and with Ninian it's unclear because they are both very Light Feminine.
- Fire Emblem The Sacred Stones gives us Eirika and L'Arachel. Eirika is a gentle Lady of War and The Messiah, L'Arachel is a bombastic Genki Girl.
- The light goddess Palutena and and dark goddess Medusa of Kid Icarus are literal examples of this trope.
- Ar Tonelico 2: Cloche (Light) vs. Jakuri (Pitch Black). Luca is kinda shady.
- Touhou: Reimu vs. Marisa, rivals. Satori vs. Koishi, sisters. Keine vs. Mokou, very close friends. The Aki sisters.
- The Florian Sisters of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha As Portable: The Gears of Destiny. The caring Idiot Hero of a big sister Amita serves as the Light Feminine, while the coy, flirty, and cynical little sister Kyrie serves as the Dark Feminine.
- Chun Li and Juri Han from Street Fighter IV. Both women are Kick Chicks, but while Chun Li is an Action Girl who's very firmly on the side of good, Juri is a mix of Bastard Girlfriend and Dark Action Girl.
- The Legend Of Zelda Twilight Princess: Kind and benevolent Zelda is Light, while playful and snarky Midna is Dark.
- Dangan Ronpa: Chihiro, Aoi, and Sayaka are the Lights to Sakura, Junko, Celes, Kirigiri, Touko, and Syo's Darks. Played with in that Chihiro's actually a guy, Syo is a split personality of Touko, and that at very first sight Touko has Light Feminine looks due to her butt-long braids, glasses and very cute sailor uniform.
- The King Of Fighters:
- Garou: Mark Of The Wolves gives us Badass Adorable Hotaru Futaba and Good Bad Girl Bonne Jenet.
Visual Novels
- Aoi Shiro: Nami (Light) vs. Kohaku (Dark - she's not even very feminine), former lovers (or something to that effect).
- Akai Ito: Yumei (Light) vs. Nozomi (Dark), archenemies. Both of them are very feminine.
- Lilly Satou from Katawa Shoujo is the girly girl to her Bifauxnen sister Akira, AND the Light Feminine to Shizune Hakamichi's Ms. Fanservice Dark Feminine.
Webcomics
Web Original
- Monster High plays with this trope. while Draculaura dresses mostly in Black clothing, she is actually Light feminine. Whereas Cleo Is Dark feminine, despite wearing a lot of glittery gold... and being deathly afraid of the dark.
Western Animation
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