Follow TV Tropes

Following

Gonky Femme

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/09747c5e26048789dbc5bd3c34eec742.jpg

"...an immensely fat old lady wearing an elaborate ginger wig and a brilliant pink set of robes that flowed all around her, giving her the look of a melting iced cake. She was looking into a small jewelled mirror and dabbing rouge onto her already scarlet cheeks with a large powder puff, while the tiniest and oldest house-elf Harry had ever seen laced her fleshy feet into tight satin slippers."

The gonky femme is a woman that looks far manlier than the sweet, girly character she actually is. She enjoys make up, boys bands, ponies, wears pink dresses, and so on, making her more like a Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak rather than a Tomboy with a Girly Streak.

She may be too bulky and mannish, or very tall and hideous, but no matter how designed, she is decidedly unfeminine. More often than not she has a muscular build or an excess of fat and her face breaks the standard female design, even sometimes having non-human features. In some cartoonier shows she can be so ugly that she breaks the medium's art style.

Her femininity can take many forms. She can be motherly and nurturing, with mostly domestic skills and interests, or a seductive and charming woman, or weak and susceptible, vain and superficial, or energetic and bubbling. As long as she acts feminine but looks otherwise, she is this trope.

Some of these characters, however, can be physically strong and even aggressive when annoyed, but tend to act girly most of the time.

Because of their masculine appearance, their gender is mostly evident by Tertiary Sexual Characteristics. It also may raise some Viewer Gender Confusion. This trope is a staple of many caricatures of trans women, in which case the femininity is often of a particularly garish and over-the-top sort—that is, when they're not going for an Unsettling Gender-Reveal subtle enough to initially fool the audience along with other characters.

If the girl is tall — and she usually is — she may overlap with Huge School Girl or Gentle Giant. See also Lady Looks Like a Dude when the character definitely looks like a man. Compare with Butter Face where only the face is "scary, ugly and even masculine" but the body is feminine. Contrast against Brawn Hilda, where a girl does not only look mannish, but acts just like that.

Work Subpages


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime and Manga 
  • Shinobu Kandadori from Crayon Shin-chan is a beefy and manly pro-wrestler woman using a dress and Girlish Pigtails, but besides her appearance is very sweet and feminine.
  • Lola from One Piece may be a large woman with a big, odd face, but she's still quite ladylike and wants someone to marry her. Not to mention, her Japanese voice is quite feminine-sounding, too.
    • When Lola's family is introduced in the Totland Arc, it's quite clear where she gets it from; her mother is one of the biggest Gonks in One Piece's World Of Gonks, and also a very feminine Queen of Hearts Expy who loves all kinds of sweets and usually wears a pink dress. Most of her (85) kids also inherited both her Gonk genes and her taste for bright colors and sugary confections (though Lola herself resembles her father Pound more, he's also a Gonk).
  • Naoko Sukeban, the resident girl gang leader from Cutie Honey, most prominent in Universe. She has a not-so-secret crush on Honey, longs for an older girlfriend to spoil her and is quite the hopeless romantic, much to the annoyance of the rest of her gang. Did we also mention she's at least 6 feet tall, muscular and has a masculine jawline?
  • Gori from Aggretsuko typically wears a pink dress with a necklace, and can be quite adorable at times. She also happens to be a large, muscular gorilla.
  • In The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You, the leader of the Gorira Alliance is a monstrously ugly schoolgirl, yet she's perfectly happy at the thought of wearing a wedding dress while posing for a photo with her boyfriend. She's also overjoyed at receiving a stuffed toy from said boyfriend.
  • Debusen: Every single member of the Home Ec club (except for Koyama) is an ugly-looking girl who happens to be a Supreme Chef.
  • Project A-Ko has Mari, who is a Huge Schoolgirl looking like Kenshiro in drag and who alternates very girly voice and mannerisms with manly grunts and a violent side.

    Comic Books 
  • The concept behind the Legion of Super-Heroes character Monstress seemed to be "What if She-Hulk actually had a physique like her cousin?" She initially looked literally like a female version of the Incredible Hulk (it was eventually made a tad less explicit by turning her orange instead of green). Yet her personality was incredibly girly and outgoing and sweet. She loved dressing up, and flowers, little animals, and all the rest of it. Oh, and yes, she would cheerfully smash a supervillain over the horizon should the situation call for it.

    Comic Strips 
  • Popeye: Alice the Goon (pictured), a large ogre-like monster whose only clothing was a flowery hat, has a very feminine personality. That doesn't stop her from trying to beat up Popeye when her boss, the Sea Hag, orders her to.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 
  • Doris, the ugly stepsister from Shrek 2. She has a husky voice and looks that fit an ugly stepsister, but then she gets so sickly sweet and dreamy when describing Prince Charming. She is also very nice, and becomes a loyal and close friend to Princess Fiona.
  • Cupcake from Rise of the Guardians is large, bulky and tough-looking with choppy hair, but loves ponies, unicorns, and pink, and happily skips around when she's having fun.
  • Happy Heroes: The Movie: The large, buff, masculine-looking nurse is enough to scare Big M. and Little M., accidentally proving the doctor right that they are terrified enough to be taken to the hospital.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In Porky's Revenge, the final Porky's film, the ugly, mannish female gym teacher Ms. Ballbricker who had up to that point been an antagonist to the fellows, is revealed to have a soft feminine side when she thinks a man is in love (or at least lust) with her.

    Literature 
  • Discworld:
    • In the novel Going Postal, they put a golem into a dress and rename it "Gladys", in order to make it proper for "her" to clean the ladies' bathroom. The golem promptly starts to identify as female, though without otherwise changing "her" behavior overmuch. Though the following book, Making Money reveals the etiquette book by Lady Deirdre Waggon placed in her head somewhat helped. Adora, annoyed with the concept of a golem becoming so submissive, replaces it with Revelentia Flout's traitise on feminism.
    • Dwarfs look like small bearded men regardless of gender, so Cheery has to employ Tertiary Sexual Characteristics to show her femininity (She's not getting rid of the beard, of course. It's one thing to declare that you're a girl, and another to declare that you're not a dwarf).
  • In From Russia with Love Rosa Klebb is described in quite ugly terms, but when Tatiana is ordered to report to Klebb's apartment for a late night briefing, Klebb is dressed in a babydoll-ish nightie and giggles while trying to seduce Tatiana.
  • Harry Potter:
  • Maxine the Ogre from Jen Calonita's Fairy Tale Reform School. She has warty skin, a lazy eye, a giant girth, and she's the tallest girl in FTRS, but she loves cute things and aspires to be a royal lady-in-waiting.
  • Taura the genetically engineered super-soldier in the Vorkosigan Saga. Despite being over eight feet tall, with functional fangs and a "lupine" face, she was always trying to be more feminine, dressing in girly pink whenever her duties permitted. Later on she comes to Barrayar where and Alys Vorpatril shows her how feminine can still be strong.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In one episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, a long distant aunt of Sabrina turned out to be a stereotypical ugly big nosed witch, nevertheless she was a total sweetie that helped people in need and taught Sabrina a lesson about not judging people over their appearances.
  • Parodied in Sister, Sister. Former Alpha Bitch Rhonda was a beautiful, fashion-savvy girly girl. She showed up again in a later episode and, as a result of puberty, had the appearance of a huge, thug-looking woman (her character was played by a man). She still acted feminine, and her physical change made her sweeter, probably to compensate.
  • On Glee, Coach Beiste is a subverted Brawn Hilda who eventually reveals that she's actually closer to this trope. Mercilessly mocked by the students for being a massive brick of a woman with a deep voice who coaches football, she eventually breaks down and confesses to Mr. Schue that she's never kissed a man and wishes she could be more feminine.
  • Early episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies feature Jethrine, Jethro's Half Identical Twin. Giggly and girly, played by Max Baer Jr. in a dress but voiced by a female voiceover actor.
  • Miranda (2009): Miranda Hart bases her whole comedy persona on the idea of a six-foot tall woman being both physically and socially awkward and clumsy.
  • Pick a woman in a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch. A few (often young, attractive dumb blondes) are played by actresses like Carol Cleveland, but most are played by the all-male Pythons in drag, even in ladylike roles like the typical housewife. The Pythons often adopted high-pitched voices and feminine mannerisms while in female roles, in contrast with their obviously male appearances.
  • Yo Gabba Gabba! has Foofa, the most feminine of the show's toy monsters.
  • The Wiggles has Dorothy the Dinosaur, originally the show's only major female character, who's noticeably feminine and giggly for a dinosaur.

    Mythology and Religion 
  • La Fiura, from southern Chilean mythology is a horribly deformed woman whose appearance is so repulsive it drives people insane. She is also characterized by wearing a beautiful red dress, having shiny long hair and make up. Despite her hideous appearance she is incredibly seductive, being able to lure any man with her hip swinging and sexy mannerisms. So basically Lena Hyena from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, except seeing her ugly face doesn't ruin the effect.

    Puppet Shows 

    Theater 
  • Panto dames are always played by men, and are often this if they aren't Brawn Hildas.

    Toys 
  • The Trash Pack has Unlady Bug, one of the few female Trashies. She starts out with the standard ladybug mold... and is then given hairy armpits, thick buck teeth, a dark unibrow, and slimy drool. But, she still wears makeup and fantasizes about crushes.

    Video Games 
  • Densetsu no Stafy 4: One of the residents of Tear Lake is Saimami, a polite rhinoceros woman in a pink apron and makeup. She's not particularly cute-looking in contrast to most of the other cast, what with her bulky appearance.
  • Hollow Knight: Salubra cuts a large, flabby figure, with a tonality to match; this doesn't discourage her from wearing jewelry or tending to her eyelashes.
  • Rayman Origins: Big Mama, the Optional Boss at the end of the game, wears a lot of jewerly and before you fight her, you can see her painting her nails. This despite the fact she's a giant and horrendous monster. Subverted at the end of her fight as she is revealed to be a nymph named Voodoo Mama, who got transformed into said monster by the nightmares.
  • SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos:' Demitri's Midnight Bliss transformation on Hugo turns the giant, burly man into, well, a giant burly woman with only few gendered traits to certify that the transformation did happen. Demitri squeezing the life out of Hugo actually completely changes Hugo's physique, making Hugo look more like Poison.

    Web Animation 
  • Ollie & Scoops: Julia Goldberger has a balding head and an odd, long, curled nose, but she's the most popular girl in school, and acts the part.

    Webcomics 
  • Skin Horse: Hitty may look like a hammer-wielding wrecking ball on threads and communicates solely through Hulk Speak, but she is a lady and you will remember that. She's quite receptive to charm and honeyed words, as her beau Mustachio learned.

    Western Animation 
  • Adventure Time:
    • Lumpy Space Princess sounds like a man and is a nondescript blob of lumps, but is a stereotypical Valley Girl that cares mostly about typical shallow teenage issues such as dating, parties, drama and her looks.
    • Muscle Princess also fits, she is bulky and muscular, but is as feminine as the other princesses, if not more.
  • The Amazing World of Gumball: Tina is of the "Trying to compensate" kind. She is a huge Tyrannosaurus rex with a deep man voice, but in one episode she is seen auditioning for the cheerleaders.
  • Cow and Chicken: Cow is as ugly as most characters and is voiced by a man, but has primarily girly interests, such as tea parties and dolls.
  • Fish Hooks: Koi is big and gonky, has a deep voice and is a Dumb Muscle, but she acts as girly as the rest of her friends.
  • Futurama: The Crushinator is a huge blocky robot literally built like a truck and with a masculine robotic voice treated as "a fine lady" by Bender (who sleeps with her, but only after romancing her first). She's later seen at the Miss Universe as Miss Earth Moon and is seen in a bikini in another episode. In humorous contrast, her two sisters are more humanoid Farmer's Daughter Robot Girls.
  • God Rocks!: Butter Blossom, one of the Lava-Java, has large lips and noticeable problems with her teeth that make her less than what you would call attractive, yet she doesn't have a problem kissing Carb.
  • Gravity Falls: Grenda is fat and very masculine-looking compared to her friends, Mabel and Candy, but rarely if ever acts tomboyishly, and personality-wise, don't differ to the aforementioned girly girls she has as friends.
  • The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: In the episode "Duck!", Grim dreams that he is married to a skull-faced dragon with a lion's mane, high heels, a pearl necklace and an apron. The monster is described as a "beautiful wife" by Grim.
  • Harvey Beaks: Princess is a burly, chubby owl with a gruff, masculine voice, who likes to dress as a stereotypical fairy princess with a pink tutu-like dress, a tiara, and a wand.
  • Harvey Street Kids: Subverted with Lotta, she may not be as petite looking as Audrey or Dot, but is very sweet and more interested in girly things than her thinner cohorts.
  • Hey Arnold!: Patty was at first a girl that was tall and big enough to beat the official bully, Helga, and no characterization was given apart from being scary, strong... and wearing a skirt and a headband. In a later episode she has her own A Day In The Lime Light where she is shown to be feminine, polite and graceful enough to excel in Manner Classes, even getting to tutor the show's girliest girl, Rhonda.
  • My Gym Partner's a Monkey: The Pretties are typical Brainless Beauties in fancy dresses and done-up hair except they're a rhinoceros, a hippopotamus, and an African buffalo.
  • The Simpsons: In the episode "The Regina Monologues", Homer meets his British half-sister. Imagine Homer Simpson in a dress and you should have an idea of what she looks like.
  • Spliced: Princess Pony Apehands is indeed, a pony crossed with a gorilla, and while she acts like a young girl most of the time, can become very aggressive when annoyed.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: Pearl is a huge whale girl with inhuman strength and a tendency to cause everything to shake whenever she is crying, jumping or dancing, otherwise is the typical shallow boy-crazy teenage girl. She also wears pink.
  • What It's Like Being Alone: Princess Lucy is a short, fat, warty, and all-around hideous mutant orphan who thinks of herself as wealthy and beautiful princess and frequently acts like a Spoiled Brat as a result.
  • Woody Woodpecker: In the short 'A Fine Feathered Frenzy', Gorgeous Gal is a huge elderly featherless bird who wore a green dress, lots of jewelry, and a white wig. She was so unattractive that when Woody saw her, he turned white as a ghost. Despite her appearance, she has a lovely voice and her personality is flirty and romantic.

Top