History Main / GenderBenderFriendship

* ''KingOfTheHill'' has a variant when Peggy unknowingly shops in a store for crossdressers and befriends someone who assumes she's also a man in drag. Unfortunately, he doesn't realize the truth until he'd already invited her to participate in his drag show...

* One of the plots in ''{{Tootsie}}''.
* ''{{Zerophilia}}'' is about a genetic condition that switches people's genders after sex, in the end the hero/heroine [[spoiler: discovers his girlfriend/friend and boyfriend/rival are the same person.]]
* In ''SororityBoys'', the three male leads are kicked out of their fraternity and dress up as women to seek refuge in what is deemed the "ugly" sorority house. In the process, one of the men ends up being friends with a girl he'd met earlier and hit on unsuccessfully, but now has a chance to get to truly know. Of course, HilarityEnsues.

* ''SomeLikeItHot'': Two male musicians on the run are forced to to hide in an all-girls band. As girls. Naturally, they become quite chummy with the other musicians.

* ''TheFairlyOddParents'': Timmy once accidentally wished himself into a girl, then using it to find out what present to get his crush, [[RichBitch Trixie]]. After becoming best friends with her under his assumed gender, he turns back into a boy, goes to the party and attempts to act sensitive. [[ResetButton He's promptly thrown out by security]]. It should be noted that although Trixie had him thrown out, it looked as though she was genuinely touched by his attempt. She even remembered his name. Since he was only thrown out so she could maintain her reputation, one wonders how she would have responded if they had been alone... [[AxCrazy wait, nevermind.]]

* On ''{{Futurama}}'' [[ActionGirl Leela]] pulls a SweetPollyOliver to join the military with [[IdiotHero Fry]] and [[TokenEvilTeammate Bender]]. During a talk with Fry she finds out he has a crush on one of his female co-workers.

* ''GachaGacha: Secret''

* This happened in ''TheZackFiles'' once, except that the [[GenderBender Gender Bent]] character was trying to set the girl up with his friend, not with himself.

* ''SomeLikeItHot''

* On ''{{Charmed}}'' Prue accidentally turns herself into a man while casting a spell to find the FemmeFatale MonsterOfTheWeek. She's far from happy, but also gets a chance to talk to her current LoveInterest and find out what he thinks of her.

* Inverted in [[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]]. Shampoo ''loves'' Ranma when he's a boy, because he beat her in a fight and she comes from an obscure Chinese Amazon-like tribe that marries men who beat them. When he's a girl, Shampoo wants to tear him to shreds, because he beat her as a girl too and that's another tribal custom.

* ''Cybersix'' has a combination of this with the main character's SecretIdentity male persona Adrian with her best friend/love interest Lucas.

* One of the major plots of the [[Film/Thor Thor]] fanfic [[http://savu0211.deviantart.com/gallery/43010983?offset=24 (All) Father Loki]]. After Loki’s girlfriend, Sigyn, discovers that he had impregnated Angrboda, he transforms into a woman to eliminate the risk in future relationships. It’s Loki’s daughter, Hel, who suggests that he spend some time with Sigyn in his female form to patch up their broken relationship.

One of the major plots of the [[Film/Thor Thor]] fanfic [[http://savu0211.deviantart.com/gallery/43010983?offset=24 (All) Father Loki]]. After Loki’s girlfriend, Sigyn, discovers that he had impregnated Angrboda, he transforms into a woman to eliminate the risk in future relationships. It’s Loki’s daughter, Hel, who suggests that he spend some time with Sigyn in his female form to patch up their broken relationship.

* Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch did this deliberately with a spell to turn her into a boy so she could find out what her boyfriend talked about with his friends when girls weren't around.

[[quoteright:327:[[{{Tootsie}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tootsie_gbfriendship_327_1530.jpg]]]]

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' has a WhatCouldHaveBeen example: originally, [[BaldBlackLeaderGuy Roy]] was going to use the [[ChekhovsGun Belt of Masculinity/Femininity]] to have some "girl talk" with [[KnightTemplar Miko]]. Burlew [[AvertedTrope decided against it]] this when he realized Miko wasn't quite fit for "lighthearted romantic comedy" situations, so instead, Roy realized his physical attraction to Miko had been preventing him from realizing how [[PerpetualFrowner utterly]] [[LawfulStupid unlikable]] she is.
* ''{{Misfile}}'' is built around this trope.

* This happened in ''TheZackFiles'' once, except that the [[GenderBender genderbent]] character was trying to set the girl up with his friend, not with himself.
* In the now-discontinued French TV-series ''Vice Versa'', the main character Thomas sometimes uses his double Emmanuelle/Julia in order to get information on his crush.

May occur with either GenderBender or [[{{Crossdresser}} crossdressing]] (DisguisedInDrag or SweetPollyOliver) scenarios. Compare and contrast JumpingTheGenderBarrier and DroppedABridgetOnHim. Like most GenderBender tropes this is generally subject to the FirstLawOfGenderBending, but there are exceptions.

* ''FutabakunChange''. Although in the end, [[spoiler:Misaki finds out, accepts it, ''and'' finds a way to GenderBender ''herself'' in the same way to make herself a compatible mate to Futaba-kun/chan, similar to the ''Zerophilia'' example below.]]

* SabrinaTheTeenageWitch did this deliberately with a spell to turn her into a boy so she could find out what her boyfriend talked about with his friends when girls weren't around.

!!Examples

* One of the plots in the film ''{{Tootsie}}''.

* An intensely awkward example happens in SergeyLukyanenko's ''NightWatch'' when Anton's had his mind swapped with Olga. He can't tell Svetlana what's happened until they reach her warded apartment...after she's had a very private conversation with "Olga" about Anton.

* In the now-discontinued french TV-series ''Vice Versa'', the main character Thomas sometimes uses his double Emmanuelle/Julia in order to get information on his crush.

* ''CuteXGuy''. One of the few cases of a girl-turned-guy becoming friends with her male crush.

Oh no! Somehow your [[GenderBender sex has changed]]! Just when you were working up the nerve to confess your love to that classmate you like! But wait, this situation isn't hopeless...

Now you're the same sex (this trope only seems to happen to heterosexual people) as them. If you become their best friend, maybe you can learn enough about them to date them as your true self, and they'll never figure out that you are the same person! Of course like [[ASimplePlan all the best plans]] [[HilarityEnsues it can and will go awry]].

* ''[[CuteXGuy CUTExGUY]]''. One of the few cases of a girl-turned-guy becoming friends with her male crush.

* ''{{Fudanshism}}'' runs off of this; the protagonist [[WholesomeCrossdresser disguises himself as a girl]] when his sister is too sick to go to a convention where he runs into his crush. To the protagonist's increasing bafflement his crush quickly becomes good friends with his female alter-ego while continuing to ignore the real him.

* {{Sabrina the Teenage Witch}} did this deliberately with a spell to turn her into a boy so she could find out what her boyfriend talked about with his friends when girls weren't around.

* ''Webcomic/OrderOfTheStick'' has a WhatCouldHaveBeen example: originally, [[BaldBlackLeaderGuy Roy]] was going to use the [[ChekhovsGun Belt of Masculinity/Femininity]] to have some "girl talk" with [[KnightTemplar Miko]]. Burlew [[AvertedTrope decided against it]] this when he realized Miko wasn't quite fit for "lighthearted romantic comedy" situations, so instead, Roy realized his physical attraction to Miko had been preventing him from realizing how [[PerpetualFrowner utterly]] [[LawfulStupid unlikable]] she is.

* In ''{{Ichinensei ni Nacchattara}}'', the high-school protagonist gets hit by a truck after a DivingSave the day he planned to confess to his crush and is rebuilt as an elementary school girl by a lolicon scientist. His crush turns out to be the scientist's sister. He lives with them from then on -- the sister unaware of his true identity -- and does enjoy some pleasant situations from time to time, though he doesn't exploit his position as much as he could. Interestingly, the protagonist's best friend in school is the girl he saved from getting hit by that truck, who has a crush on the protagonist's original self.

* In ''KanaeteAizen'' (Grant My Wish, Aizen) what appears to be a "shy boy wishes for a hot girl and wakes up as one instead" BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor plot actually turns out to be a GenderBenderFriendship {[plan}} on the part of a (seemingly) LiteralGenie to get Aizen to confess his love for his Unlucky but soon to be VictoriousChildhoodFriend Yuzu.

* The whole premise of {{Misfile}} is built on this trope.