Awful name: New Crowner 10/24/11: Dropped A Bridget On Him

None of those would do anything for the way this is being misused which is primarily confusion with Viewer Gender Confusion.

edited 23rd Aug '11 3:17:34 PM by shimaspawn

Technically making the Trope Namer and proposed page image not examples to begin with.

edited 23rd Aug '11 3:21:50 PM by ArtemisStrong

I would totally go for Crying Game Surprise, but that's just as opaque...

Exactly. People like you and me would totally get it, but those who hadn't seen it would be like "Why is this trope not about crying?"

Which is precisely why I was wondering why Dropped A Bridget On Him wasn't about men getting crushed by women.

I haven't actually seen the movie. The meme was just that funny that I'll always remember it. It's on my to-see list, though.

Hm... if we wanted to be bland and go with a theme, we could have it be Incompatible Gender Surprise...

edited 23rd Aug '11 3:28:44 PM by USAF713

x8? I'm not disagreeing with you guys, just saying an internet meme I happened to come across years ago was more helpful in explaining the trope to me than the current description.And that thanks to the internet I knew Samus was a Girl, Bridget wasn't, Snape kills Dumbledore and just now the Crying Game Spoiler years before I picked up the works.

Anyway, Like I said in post141 the current description would make me think Sexual Disorientation as well, but from what I know of the trope and the meme it doesn't fit.

The Death Note example is misuse right? been awhile, not sure.

I again put up That Hot Chick Is A Guy for a suggestion.

It is; that's Viewer Gender Confusion. Removing it.

Sounds like it would enhance the confusion with Viewer Gender Confusion not clarify it.

Um, nothing short of putting something like "Character" or "In Universe" would do that.

I've got some suggestions for an improved description, but am finding them impossible to integrate with the current writeup:

edited 23rd Aug '11 9:05:06 PM by Stratadrake

We need to nail down the definition before we do anything else.

They are NOT spear and distaff counterparts. Samus Is a Girl is a reveal to the viewer that after seeing a Badass kick a bunch of ass, they're actually female. They have nothing in common save that they're revealing gender. Nothing.

Traumatic Gender Discovery or Traumatic Gender Reveal, maybe? I don't have a problem with the current title, but those are all I've got right now for alternates.

edited 24th Aug '11 5:42:54 AM by Willbyr

I might not be too up on the appropriate terminology, so please disregard if that's the case... but isn't using "gender" for this wrong? If I'm understanding things correctly, "gender" designates that which the person identifies with (and thus is a purely psychological designation), while "sex" involves what the person is biologically (and only biologically). The gender would be revealed at the outset, the surprise is that the sex isn't what the character thought.

That said, given that using the word sex generally makes people think only of the activity and not the biology of a given person regardless of whether they're currently participating in said activity, I suppose "gender" does have its place here.

At any rate, if we want to make it clear that this is supposed to be the reaction in a work for such a character, wouldn't we want something along the lines of In Universe Sex Reveal? Or, if we don't want to deal with the misconception about what definition of "sex" we're using, In Universe Gender Reveal?

Please let us not get into the whole sex-vs-gender thing.

Yes 32, you're correct. However, gender has been misused in Real Life for a polite word for sex (in this context) for a long time. If we try and change that, we're just going to confuse everyone.

More to point, our own trope naming conventions (see Gender Bender and other tropes) started out using the "gender = sex" convention, and I think it's spread too far to put that particular genie back in the bottle.

I support a rename. Less because of the possible Fan Myopia of naming this after Bridget, but more due to how it's not really that related to Dropped a Bridge on Him.

If the Trope Namer itself isn't actually an example of the trope, the name is just wrong.

The trope namer is an example of the trope. Specifically with Johnny being the one that has the reaction to them.

Perhaps if we do rename, adding Plot to the end of the title will help separate it from the Audience Reaction.

Well it killed the girl (figuratively) and the boner (literally).

I dont know if it would best be "plot" but yeah something to invite more inuniverse-ness would be good.

Hmm where was it that I saw Sweet Polly Oliver (god bad name there too) as related in where the viewer actually knows the the sex before the reveal while this is both the viewer and the person in question. (saw it last night in a related trope.... now I cant find it.)

edited 24th Aug '11 9:19:23 AM by Raso

Sweet Polly Oliver is actually the true Distaff counterpart. It's a woman disguised as a man and the reveal tends to end far more happily. It's generally to a man who realises that his companion is a woman and then they hook up. The crossdressing also always deliberate as opposed to this trope which can be just Dude Looks Like a Lady.

edited 24th Aug '11 9:20:13 AM by shimaspawn

Johnny had the most memorable (and hilarious) reaction to the current Trope Namer in Guilty Gear, but I seem to recall, from victory quotes, that several others had this happen to them. So yes, Bridget will always have a place on this article.

Fair enough regarding sex/gender... I wasn't sure how much that would affect the renaming process.

As for in-universe/out-of-universe... we already have the out-of-universe version of the trope already in Viewer Gender Confusion, right? I think the only way we would want to make this include both is if we cut Viewer Gender Confusion, and I don't think that would serve anyone well.

But this isn't supposed to just be about the confusion, its about the shock. So if a viewer is confused about the gender and shocked when it turns out to be different, that would be this trope (although should probably keep that kind of thing out of the examples as much as possible). That's why I keep saying we need to get the definition ironed out. How's this for a laconic:

"Character is shocked when another character's gender turns out to be different from expected."

Not sure it emphasizes the shock aspect enough though, and bolding or italicizing "shocked" doesn't help.