History Main / GIRL

* Got a nod in the joint Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses[=/=]Mystery Science Theater 4000 riffing of the Chinese ''Franchise/DragonBall'' movie. "[[{{Expy}} Oolong]]" shapeshifts into "Bulma" to get the "Dragon Pearl" from "Roshi"; the riff is "You know, this is an accurate depiction of most Internet relationships: one's really a guy, one's really a really old guy."

* Before the first ''VideoGame/TombRaiderI'' game came out, the main developer gave this as the reason why the main character was made female.

* ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'': Brian Clevenger mentions this trope in regards to ''VideoGame/TombRaider1''.

* An unintentional example in ''Literature/BladeSkillOnline''. The protagonist Yuri, while setting up his game avatar, chooses to let the game's AI set all his avatar's parameters by random generator. Unfortunately for him, he's got a very effeminate face, so the AI sets him up with a very busty and very female avatar. The only way he can change it is to delete his character and start over, but that's not the way he rolls. He's a man, and [[{{Catchphrase}} a man always sees his decisions through to the end.]]

Will ultimately lead to TheReveal where they [[UnsettlingGenderReveal show their true colors as blokes]] and laugh at the incensed regulars. Or a regular will wise up to his shenanigans and unmask him, causing everyone to point and laugh at him as [[SmugSnake he slinks away with his tail between his legs]]. Could also be a practical joke played by a regular to which everyone will simply have a good laugh. Most cases tend to end in the second case, which [[FridgeLogic brings up the question]] of why such trolls even bother doing it since the risk of being exposed far outweighs the potential gain. Note that not everyone who's biologically male and presents as female online is trolling; see CrossPlayer, UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}}.

* Referenced in ''Anime/WelcomeToTheNHK'' where the beautiful CatGirl healer in the RPGEpisode turns out to be [[spoiler:Satou's neighbor Yamazaki, out to [[AnAesop teach him a lesson]].]]

* The main character of ''LightNovel/OnlySenseOnline'' suffers from an involuntary case of this. In real life, he's an extreme example of DudeLooksLikeALady, so when the console for the titular virtual reality game scanned his body, it assumed he was actually female. As a result, he was assigned a female avatar. In the game itself, everyone aside from his sisters, childhood friend, and class rep think that he's actually a girl, despite his protests.

** {{Inverted|Trope}} by [[spoiler:Celty]], who poses as a guy. [[spoiler:This is subverted in the LightNovels in that everyone in the chat had caught on to the fact that "Setton" was actually a girl since pretty much day one, and just didn't think enough of it to point it out until [[InnocentCohabitation she mentioned a male roommate]]. [[BadLiar Celty's not a terribly good liar.]]]]

* ''LightNovel/AndYouThoughtThereIsNeverAGirlOnline'':
** Inverted with Schwein and Master, who play male characters in Legendary Age but are girls in real life.
** Nekohime admitted to Rusian after he confessed to her that despite being a female character, she is an older guy in real life. [[spoiler:Subverted when it’s revealed that Nekohime actually is a woman, Hideki’s teacher.]]

* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'':
** Like any prepared {{troll}}, [[spoiler:Izaya]] poses as a girl on the internet.
** {{Inverted|Trope}} by [[spoiler:Celty]], who poses as a guy. [[spoiler:This is subverted in the LightNovels in that everyone in the chat had caught on to the fact that "Setton" was actually a girl since pretty much day one, and just didn't think enough of it to point it out until [[InnocentCohabitation she mentioned a male roommate]]. [[BadLiar Celty's not a terribly good liar.]]]]
** Discussed in vol 9 of the LightNovels between Bakyura and a new member, who's probably doing this, too: "she" is hinted to be [[spoiler:Aoba. The kid's taking after Izaya fast...]]

* In ''LightNovel/LogHorizon'', there is Tetra. Most of the namesake guild knows, but Naotsugu remains oblivious.
** Inverted with Akatsuki, who is a girl in real life but played as a male Assassin. After everyone gets trapped inside their own avatars, her first appearance is her begging Shiroe and Naotsugu to bring her a rare potion that will allow her to transform her avatar so she can be a girl again. Afterward, she swears her undying loyalty to Shiroe as a way of repaying him.

* The main character of ''LightNovel/OnlySenseOnline'' suffers from an involuntary case of this. In real life, he's an extreme example of DudeLooksLikeALady, so when the console for the titular virtual reality game scanned his body, it assumed he was actually female. As a result, he was assigned a female avatar. In the game itself, everyone aside from his sisters, childhood friend, and class rep think that he's actually a girl, despite his protests.

* A scene in episode 1 of ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' has a Mirror item reformatting all of the player's VR avatars to reflect their actual selves from real life. One quick scene shows a crowd of girls suddenly revealed to be mostly men using female avatars, and there is a minor RunningGag of a specific couple composed of a cute girl revealed to be a skinny man and a lean boy revealed to be a pudgy man who remain friends despite the shocking reveal, and later reunite after the end of the Incident in real life as friends.

Based on the belief that ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet. Some forums, particularly male-dominated ones, will be the victim of a special breed of {{Troll}} who will pretend to be a girl just to rile up the [[AllMenArePerverts boy]] nerds in the community. They display obvious CamWhore traits and may even steal photos of attractive girls off Website/MySpace or Website/{{Facebook}} and claim that they are them.

* In ''Manga/MonthlyGirlsNozakiKun'', Mayu's classmate creates a blog to post Mayu's [[BuxomIsBetter racy]] drawings and names it Mayumayu's Blog. Mikoshiba finds the blog and assumes that it's a girl's blog and tries to contact "her"; but because he doesn't want to seem like a creep, he uses a female alias, Mamiko. Both guys then start contacting each other regularly, believing they're talking to a girl.

-->-- '''Aech''',[[note]]Ironically, Aech "himself" is actually a girl offline[[/note]] ''Film/ReadyPlayerOne''

* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'': [[MadScientist Dr. Stanislaus Braun]], an old man whose physical body is extremely decrepit from spending two centuries on life support, takes the form of a little girl named Betty in the Tranquility Lane sim.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Megatokyo}}'', this is used - in a rather twisted fashion - during a flashback. Piro plays an MMO with a male character, starts chatting with him outside the game, and eventually starts to wonder if 'he' isn't actually a girl... eventually, he seizes on an opportunity to ask him for a picture. He gets it, and sure enough, 'he' is a cute girl, whom he starts to fall in love with. Then she dumps him by revealing that she's actually a guy, the picture was fake, and she was just playing with him for kicks. The twist? [[spoiler:The picture was real, and she really IS a girl. Exactly why she pretended to be a {{GIRL}} is, as yet, unknown, but Piro is still pissed at her for pulling that stunt...]]
** Also, Piro himself is [[CrossPlayer cross playing]], and out of the flashbacks, Miho tells him that she sometimes believed ''he'' was really a girl.
* [[http://thenoobcomic.com/comic/365/ This strip]] in ''Webcomic/TheNoob'' has quite a few of them.

* Before the first ''VideoGame/TombRaiderI'' game came out, the main developer gave this as the reason why the main character was made female.
** Interestingly enough, Brian Clevenger from ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' also once said the same thing in regards to the same game ''almost word for word''.

* ''WebAnimation/RobotboxAndCactus'': In "The Internet", Robotbox proclaims Cactus's cybergirlfriend to be, in reality, a fat 43-year-old virgin man.

Based on the belief that ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet. Some forums, particularly male-dominated ones, will be the victim of a special breed of {{Troll}} who will pretend to be a girl just to rile up the [[AllMenArePerverts boy]] {{nerd}}s in the community. They display obvious CamWhore traits and may even steal photos of attractive girls off Website/MySpace or Website/{{Facebook}} and claim that they are them.

* Before the first ''VideoGame/TombRaider'' game came out, the main developer gave this as the reason why the main character was made female.

* A recurring gag (and sometimes basis of mockery) among the VirtualYouTuber community is the notion that the "girl" behind the anime avatar is a middle-aged or old man using a voice changer.

* [[http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=365 This strip]] in ''Webcomic/TheNoob'' has quite a few of them.

''Due to technical reasons, "Girl" redirects to this trope. See AlwaysFemale for women-exclusive tropes of GirlyGirl if you were confused.''

If you think this is bad, though, be grateful you're not dealing with a MailerDaemon.

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[[quoteright:260:[[Webcomic/PennyArcade https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/215540346.png]]]]

* Got a nod in the joint Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses[=/=]Mystery Science Theater 4000 riffing of the Chinese ''Franchise/DragonBall'' movie. "[[{{Expy}} Oolong]]" shapeshifts into "Bulma" to get the "Dragon Pearl" from "Roshi"; the riff is "You know, this is an accurate depiction of most Internet relationships: one's really a guy, one's really a really old guy."

* ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'': Tricking people into cybersex by pretending to be a girl is one of Yami Bakura / Florence's hobbies. Then he ends up doing it with Marik completely by accident.
* Ian plays a female character in the Literature/StatlessAndTactless group's RP sessions. It's presented as harmless.
* In Brazilian website chargesdotcomdotbr, there was a story featuring a character nicknamed "Espinha", who entered a chatroom for lesbians and scored a date. When he went to talk to a friend for an advice on how to tell his date the truth, he learned his friend (also a male), ''was'' his date.

* Creator/HarryPartridge's animated musical fan video, [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline "Back to Tamriel,"]] ends with him settling down with a gorgeous, well-endowed "elf mademoiselle." As TheStinger, he asked her if she's a woman in real life, to which she replies, in [[VocalDissonance the most masculine voice imaginable]], [[BlatantLies "Yes."]]
* ''WebVideo/{{AFK}}'': Steven is male, but online plays a female character. Blows back on him when the Game becomes real and finds himself in the body of his avatar. Also inverted with Maybel.

* Following the Ashley Madison dating site scandal, it became known that a huge percentage (in the range of 90%) of the alleged female users looking for infidelities in their site were actually the company employees creating false profiles and sending fake messages to atrract the money of hopeful men.

* Referenced in ''Anime/WelcomeToTheNHK'' where the beautiful CatGirl healer in the RPGEpisode turns out to be [[spoiler:Satou's neighbor Yamazaki, out to [[AnAesop teach him a lesson]].]]

* ''Manga/FlunkPunkRumble'' (aka ''Yankee-kun to Megane-chan'') inverts this for comedic effect.

* In ''Manga/GhostInTheShell 1.5'' Batou is net-dating a hot young woman who's actually a ninety-year old man.

* In ''LightNovel/LogHorizon'', there is Tetra. Most of the namesake guild knows, but Naotsugu remains oblivious.
** Inverted with Akatsuki, who is a girl in real life but played as a male Assassin. After everyone gets trapped inside their own avatars, her first appearance is her begging Shiroe and Naotsugu to bring her a rare potion that will allow her to transform her avatar so she can be a girl again. Afterward, she swears her undying loyalty to Shiroe as a way of repaying him.
* The protagonist of ''Manga/MyDadsTheQueenOfAllVTubers'' is a big fan of the #1 VirtualCelebrity of the setting... and then finds out that behind the scenes, his waifu is actually an old man. ''His own father'', no less. CringeComedy [[HilarityEnsues ensues]].
* ''LightNovel/AndYouThoughtThereIsNeverAGirlOnline'':
** Inverted with Schwein and Master, who play male characters in Legendary Age but are girls in real life.
** Nekohime admitted to Rusian after he confessed to her that despite being a female character, she is an older guy in real life. [[spoiler:Subverted when it’s revealed that Nekohime actually is a woman, Hideki’s teacher.]]
* The main character of ''LightNovel/OnlySenseOnline'' suffers from an involuntary case of this. In real life, he's an extreme example of DudeLooksLikeALady, so when the console for the titular virtual reality game scanned his body, it assumed he was actually female. As a result, he was assigned a female avatar. In the game itself, everyone aside from his sisters, childhood friend, and class rep think that he's actually a girl, despite his protests.
* Referenced in ''Manga/CodenameSailorV'', when [[GamerChick Minako]], [[GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak who was already going at the arcades when they still were men-only places]], beat the record at a game and the previous record holder accused her of being a guy in a ''really'' convincing disguise - and [[HilarityEnsues demanded she took off "his" disguise, ending with a kick in the face]].
* ''Manga/RecoveryOfAnMMOJunkie'' has a double whammy, with protagonist Moriko Morioka joining the MMO ''Fruits de Mer'' as a male character named Hayashi and becoming good friends with the ludicrously adorable Lily, who's played by a male office worker named Yuta Sakurai. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity (and romance) ensues]]. Their guildmaster Kanbe is aware of both their true genders, but keeps silent out of respect for their privacy.
** Their guildmate Himerelda is an example that everyone is aware of: she's a housewife playing a male elf but she doesn't adapt her behavior to her character's gender at all, making Himerelda come off as the guild's GayBestFriend-slash-CoolBigBro. Her husband is the guild's sub-leader Pokotaro and she'll occasionally log onto his account; she acts the same way as she does with Himerelda, which weirds out the rest of the guild since Pokotaro is a BigFun type normally.
* In ''Manga/MonthlyGirlsNozakiKun'', Mayu's classmate creates a blog to post Mayu's [[BuxomIsBetter racy]] drawings and names it Mayumayu's Blog. Mikoshiba finds the blog and assumes that it's a girl's blog and tries to contact "her"; but because he doesn't want to seem like a creep, he uses a female alias, Mamiko. Both guys then start contacting each other regularly, believing they're talking to a girl.

* Also shows up in ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', where a guy [[CrossPlayer cross-plays]] as [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Invisible Woman]] and [[ComicBook/XMen The White Queen]]. Made rather obvious, since he was playing up the {{Stripperiffic}} costumes. Also inverted with the only ''real'' girl among them playing ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}.

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''Film/{{Gamer}}'', Kable's wife, a character in Society, is being controlled by Gorge, a topless and terribly obese home dweller.
* In the "People Can Lick Too" segment from ''Film/CampfireTales1997'', Amanda's chatroom pal Jessica is actually a guy who has been stalking her for the last few days. And now he knows that she'll be alone tonight.

* Peter guesses this will be the case when he starts chatting with an unseen woman in ''Me and You and Everyone We Know'', but his brother takes over the chat and goes to meet her anyway. Turns out she's a real adult human woman... the brother she meets is six.
* In ''Film/{{Fanboys}}'', everyone guesses that Rogue Leader, Windows' online girlfriend, is a guy. When Windows heads to a coffee shop in Austin, Texas to meet Rogue Leader in person, he realizes, to his horror, that Rogue Leader is actually [[spoiler:a 10-year-old girl]].

* ''[[http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/features/trilbyghost.htm Trilby and the Ghost]]'', a short story by [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] taking place in the ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'' [[TheVerse 'verse]], involves Trilby discovering a ghost who can't pass on to other realms because he's never met his japanese girlfriend Nariko face-to-face. Predictably enough, 'Nariko' is actually a southern gentleman named Frank, which only makes Trilby's job more complicated.

* A variant: In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}},'' a mission requires hacking the identities of people on an apparent anti-[[PuppeteerParasite Yeerk]] website. While doing so, Marco takes an extra moment to look up his online girlfriend, who turns out to be a seventy-three-year-old retired postal worker.
* Exploited in ''Literature/NickelPlated''. KidDetective Nickel pretends to be an underage girl (or boy, which he actually is) to catfish online pedophiles and then blackmail them into sending him money. Then he sends the screenshots to the FBI anyway.

* ''Series/{{Psych}}'': Shawn and Gus pretend to be a woman in an online poker chatroom and arrange to meet one of the other players. The guy from the chatroom laments, "Man, all hot women on the Internet ''are'' guys! Only you're two guys, which is weird."
* In an episode of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', [=McGee=] develops an online relationship with a girl who turns out to be [=DiNozzo=] playing a prank.
** At the end of the episode, Ziva tells [=McGee=] the truth, but since Tony had grown sick of the prank, [=McGee=] takes revenge by playing along just to mess with [=DiNozzo=].
** In a prior episode, [=DiNozzo=] admits to having cybersex with a person called [=HotJugs24=]. The name probably should have been his first clue.
* Subverted in the 1990s ''[[Series/TheJerrySpringerShow Jerry Springer]]'' parody ''NightStand'', where two straight guys met online pretending to be lesbians revealed themselves to each other... and decided to date anyway.

* On the Israeli sitcom ''Series/{{Shemesh}}'', the title character, having recently discovered the internet, pretends to be a woman on a women only chatroom, mostly for the thrill; he stays there for the more honest intention of learning how to relate to women. HilarityEnsues.
* An episode of ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' had an intern talking to a girl online only to find out it was a man. In response, he created a new account, pretended to be a girl, and got him to arrive at the hospital.
* In ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', Wolowitz meets a slutty troll in an MMORPG. [[spoiler: It's the creepy janitor at the University.]] Among the main group, [[InTouchWithHisFeminineSide Raj]] plays as female characters almost exclusively.
* An episode of ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' has Craig give Francis a tip for free travel. Pretend to be a girl in a chatroom, flirt with a random guy from the location they want to go and then ask him to pay for a plane ticket so they can meet up. The last scene of the episode shows Francis getting off a plane and saying "Thanks" to a guy holding a flower and a card saying 'Debbie'.
* In the British sitcom ''Series/MyFamily'' it's mentioned that this has happened to Nick, and most of the others think the same of his current online girlfriend. [[spoiler: A SubvertedTrope as she turns out to be a genuine... lesbian. Nick himself was the GIRL.]]
* In TheTeaser of an episode of ''Series/TheJohnLarroquetteShow'' John goes to an internet lesbian chatroom pretending to be a woman.
-->John (typing): What are you talking about?
-->Girl 1: ''[something mundane]''
-->John: Sounds hot.
-->Assorted girls: MAN IN THE FORUM! LOG OFF!! LOG OFF!!

* On ''Film/{{Catfish}}: The TV Show'', this has happened several times. The show, based on the documentary of the same name, follows Nev Schulman as he profiles people who are in extensive online relationships with people they've never met.
* ZigZagged in one ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' episode. Ted dated a girl he met while playing ''World of Warcraft''. Ted was playing a cute night elf, while the girl was playing a burly warrior.

* Invoked in the second season finale of ''Series/{{Friends}}'' where Chandler has been talking with a woman and finding himself falling for her, causing Phoebe to point out that there's a chance it could be a man. Chandler attempts to deny the possibility. However, [[AvertedTrope it turns out he's right]] when he finally meets her in public - and it turns out it's none other than his ex, Janice.

* This is the idea behind Frogg Marlowe's song "Ain't No Women":
-->I got the "ain't no women in ''VideoGame/SecondLife''" blues.

* "LOL, Internet" by Jakob Bienenhalm is about a loner who finds an attractive woman by the username of melli17 on a dating site. When he invites her to his home in real life, melli17 turns out to be a ''man''.

* Any player of any online [=RPG=] may cite that their [[FunWithAcronyms acronym]] aptly describes their population: '''M'''ostly '''M'''en '''O'''nline '''R'''ole '''P'''laying '''G'''irls.
** These days this has been somewhat muddled, as close to 50% of the MMORPG players in recent times are women (apparently they are among the most popular "real" video games among the female populace), but often play as men due to either sexist character designs or horny teenagers hitting on them. There ''is'' a portion that plays male just to be in a hot guy's body, but we don't talk about those.
* Played straight ''and'' subverted in one of its oldest forms. On the Original [=TinyMUD=], back in [[TheEighties 1989]] there were only male characters. Then within about 3 weeks, a bunch of women showed up. about half of them was a single, actual teenage girl, Claire. Almost all the rest were played by guys.
* In ''Videogame/FateGrandOrder'', it's revealed in the final stage of the first story arc that "Magi☆Mari", the virtual idol that Dr. Roman Archaman constantly consults and is completely obsessed with is none other than [[spoiler:Merlin, who runs the site from Avalon. Roman is utterly dismayed at this fact]].

** Jade was once a member of an "all-female" gaming group, when she went to their first face-to-face meeting she learned that literally every other member was a man
* Before the first ''VideoGame/TombRaider'' game came out, the main developer gave this as the reason why the main character was made female.
** Interestingly enough, Brian Clevenger from ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' also once said the same thing in regards to the same game ''almost word for word''.

* [[http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=365 This strip]] in ''Webcomic/TheNoob'' has quite a few of them.
* in ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'', Drowbabe is one according to Minmax.
** Which, considering how "she" is role-played, should be obvious to any reader who has ever made contact with a female of their own species.
** Also [[http://www.goblinscomic.com/02152011/ according to Minmax]], [[spoiler:Forgath]] is an [[InvertedTrope inversion]].

%%* From ''Webcomic/PlusEV'': Corbin knows this trope.

-->-- '''Aech''', ''Film/ReadyPlayerOne''

Largely on the way to becoming a DiscreditedTrope, as the internet becoming more accessible in the ''2000s'' and the rise of social media in the ''2010s'' has made it ''much'' more likely that the person online is the actual gender they claim to be. Not to mention the rise of awareness of {{Transgender}} people from the ''2010s'' as well, which has made accusing people of this trope much more likely that ''you'll'' be the one being ridiculed/called out for being transphobic.