History Main / GenderMisdirection

* Alluka from ''Manga/HunterXHunter''. Turns out that the second youngest "brother" in the Zoldyck family is a girl (and maybe a {{transgender}} girl, it's unclear). Not important to the story, but it had fans in an uproar. Made more confusing by the fact that one of the actual brothers, Kalluto, is a case of DudeLooksLikeALady, so fans were already used to expecting a feminine looking figure, especially in that family, to actually belong to a boy.

* Done in ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' when Luna Loud repeatedly frets over whether a classmate named Sam returns her affections. It isn't until the end of the episode that we learn Sam is a girl and Luna is actually bisexual.

This trope loses its subtlety in languages that have gendered definite and indefinite articles or gendered verb forms and adjectives. The use of the character's name instead of pronouns is a major giveaway that this is the case. [[GenderBlenderName This is, however, also possible to subvert by using diminutives usually associated with one particular gender (Alex is usually a male short form, but it can also be for Alexandra. Sam can be a short form of Samantha).]]

* During most of the first season of ''Series/{{Alias}}'', Sydney and SD-6 run up against an organization led by a mysterious character referred to as simply "The Man." In the season finale it is revealed that The Man was a woman... [[spoiler:Irina.]]
* In ''Series/{{Lost}}'', Danielle Rousseau abducts Sayid thinking he was one of those who had kidnapped her daughter. She questions him about her whereabout, but only refers to her as "Alex" and "child." The [[GenderNeutralWriting ambiguity of such nouns]] were conveyed onto the DVD set foreign subtitles that translate "child" as "son." In season two, we meet a girl who only later is revealed to be Alexandra, her long lost child.

* In the first ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode Captain Samantha Carter is intentionally referred to as Captain Sam Carter so that O'Neill can shoot his mouth off about having 'some new guy' added to his team as she walks in behind him.

* The mysterious BigBad of ''Series/{{Utopia}}'' is [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname only known as Mr. Rabbit]]. [[spoiler: This is one of her many, ''many'' misdirections.]]

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* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'''s module ''Castle Caldwell and Beyond''. The quest ''The Sanctuary of Elwyn the Ardent'' mentions that the information in the initial briefing was written in a way that implies the character is male, and the party should be allowed to believe this so that they will not immediately realize the woman's voice is actually Elwyn, and instead spring the surprise at the final battle.

* Done in ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' when Luna Loud repeatedly frets over whether a classmate named Sam returns her affections. It isn't until the end of the episode that we learn Sam is actually a girl and Luna is actually bisexual.

* In-universe one in ''Series/ThePuzzlePlace''. The viewers, as well as Julie and Kiki, know Jodi's karate instructor Grand Master Li is a woman, but the Ben, Leon, and Skye do not. So when they refuse to accept that Jodi is better at karate then Ben even after beating him more than once, they video call Grand Master Li and presume the man she's sparring with match is Grand Master Li. Leon's question about if boys are better than girls is answered when the man informs him his partner is Grand Master Li.

* The season 2 premiere of ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'' introduced KnightOfCerebus [[SheIsTheKing Lord Dominator]], who's set up as an AlwaysSomeoneBetter version of erstwhile BigBad Lord Hater and is only seen as a suit of towering armor until the ending reveals her to the audience as an adorable [[PsychopathicManchild Psychopathic Womanchild]] of a GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe. The other characters continue to assume Lord Dominator is male and refer to "him" with male pronouns until [[spoiler:she gets a very public SamusIsAGirl reveal in "The Battle Royale."]]

* The season 2 premiere of ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'' introduced KnightOfCerebus [[SheIsTheQueen Lord Dominator]], who's set up as an AlwaysSomeoneBetter version of erstwhile BigBad Lord Hater and is only seen as a suit of towering armor until the ending reveals her to be a adorable [[PsychopathicManchild Psychopathic Womanchild]] of a GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe. The other characters continue to assume Lord Dominator is male and refer to "him" with male pronouns until [[spoiler:she gets a very public SamusIsAGirl reveal in "The Battle Royale."]]

* In ''LightNovel/MaoyuuMaouYuusha'', Hero comes to the Demon world to search for the Maou (translated as "demonic ruler"), and is extremely surprised to discover that ''she'' is in fact a very polite, buxom redheaded woman. Though her title in Japanese is technically gender neutral she's assumed in story to be male until the reveal, and some translations refer to her as the Demon ''King'' to keep the ambiguity.

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* Season one of ''WebVideo/PrettyDudes'' has [[spoiler:Eagle]], who is referred to in the first several episodes and doesn't appear until the final moments of the fifth.
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* In ''Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}}'', Gozer is assumed to be a man, but appears in the form of a woman.
-->'''Winston''': "I thought Gozer was a man."
-->'''Egon''': "It's whatever it wants to be."

* In the TV series ''Series/TheAvengers'', Steed's boss, codenamed "Mother" (or some variations on "grandma" in translations), is a man in a wheelchair.

This trope loses its subtlety in languages that have gendered definite and indefinite articles. The use of the character's name instead of pronouns is a major giveaway that this is the case. [[GenderBlenderName This is, however, also possible to subvert by using diminutives usually associated with one particular gender (Alex is usually a male short form, but it can also be for Alexandra. Sam can be a short form of Samantha).]]

-->"I thought Gozer was a man."
-->"It's an ancient Sumerian deity, it's whatever it wants to be."

This trope loses its subtlety in languages that have gendered definite and indefinite articles. The use of the character's name instead of pronouns is a major giveaway that this is the case. [[GenderBlenderName This is, however, also possible to subvert by using diminutives usually associated with one particular gender (Alex is usually a male short form, but it can also be for Alexandra. Sam can be a short form for Samantha).]]

* In ''Dandelion Among Lilies'' when Kanae's older sister asks if she could come over with someone she is surprised to see it's a girlfriend, not a boyfriend.

* Alluka from ''Manga/HunterXHunter''. Turns out that the second youngest "brother" in the Zoldyck family is a girl (or possibly a male to female {{transsexual}}, it's unclear). Not important to the story, but it had fans in an uproar. Made more confusing by the fact that one of the actual brothers, Kalluto, is a case of DudeLooksLikeALady, so fans were already used to expecting a feminine looking figure, especially in that family, to actually belong to a boy.

* {{Averted}}: On the episode "All Mixed Up" of ''CougarTown'' they do a similar thing with Jennifer Aniston's character who repeatedly brings up "Gabriel" while discussing Jules' son. Then it turns out Gabriel was her dog.

* Done InUniverse on ''TheCommish'', where Tony's new NumberTwo is a female but his wife doesn't realize that until she meets her, because Tony always refers to her as "Syd."

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' we hear about Dr. Clark, who turned Gray Fox into the Cyborg Ninja. In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' we discover that Dr. Clark is a woman, Para-Medic from ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3''. In this case it's one-half this trope (in universe, since the character who referred to her as man had never actually met her) one part RetCon since they decided to combine two different characters.