Basic Trope: Someone assumes that a monster is a male and is surprised when she turns out to be female.
- Straight: Alice locks Bob in a dungeon with a large furry creature that has horns, nine eyes, two tails and large bat-like wings. When the monster lunges at Bob, he shouts, "He's coming at me!" and the monster says, "I'm a she!" to which Bob acts surprised.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob takes way too long to clue on to the monster being female, even after being told.
- Bob thinks all monsters are male and is surprised every time one turns out to be female, even if it's fairly obvious.
- Downplayed: Bob thinks the monster is male for a second, but clues in quickly.
- Justified:
- Bob is sexist and believes in stereotypes.
- Bob is a Boomerang Bigot who believes "only a man could be this vicious".
- The monster is of a species which has very limited sexual dimorphism.
- Bob is mixing this monster up with a similar monster that belongs to a One-Gender Race of males.
- Bob thought he saw a penis on the monster.
- Bob thought he saw the monster mating with a female monster earlier, but it turned out that either they weren't mating, the other monster was a male or they're lesbians/bisexual.
- The monsters have size dimorphism and Bob assumed they gave live birth because of fur. They actually laid eggs which meant larger females have a reproductive advantage.
- The monster is female, but has traits that are generally more associated with males of her species.
- Inverted: The monster is surprised when she finds out that Bob's friend Carol is female.
- Gender Inverted: Bob is surprised when he finds out the monster is a male.
- Subverted:
- Bob thinks the monster is female and is surprised when he finds out it has long eyelashes, but it turns out that he's male.
- The monster talks in a woman's voice. Bob acts surprised. When the monster says, "Are you surprised I'm a lady?!", he says, "No, I just didn't realize you could talk."
- Double Subverted:
- But then another monster shows up, who Bob thinks is another male but is surprised to find out she's female.
- But then Carol says, "I'm surprised you're a lady."
- Parodied:
- The monster has a lot of Tertiary Sexual Characteristics to show its a female yet Bob still thinks its a male.
- The monster then chews Bob out about being sexist.
- Zigzagged: Bob has a hard time sexing the monster and is surprised every time he comes to a different conclusion.
- Averted:
- The monster's gender is not revealed.
- Bob says, "It's coming for me!". When the monster says, "I'm a she!", he is not surprised.
- Bob knows the monster is female.
- Enforced: "Bob said something sexist in the previous episode. Let's have An Aesop against sexism—but we can't not have any action or the viewers will get bored, let's have him think a monster is a boy when she's not."
- Lampshaded: "Why'd you assume her sex, Bob?!"
- Invoked:
- The monster disguises herself as a male of her species in order to mislead others.
- Alice intentionally calls the monster a "he" before locking Bob in the dungeon with it.
- Exploited: In the second of confusion about her gender, the monster eats Bob.
- Defied:
- The monster wears a large female sign round her neck.
- Bob decides not to assume monsters' genders.
- Discussed: "Why did I think she was a boy? She's a monster! It's not like I saw a willy or anything!"
- Conversed: "Why was that character so surprised she was a lady monster?"
- Implied:
- Bob is surprised when the monster tells him she's pregnant, but it's unknown if it's because of this trope or about the pregnancy itself.
- The monster's gender is never officially revealed, but there are strong hints that the monster could possibly be female (e.g. it's shown taking care of young), which still surprises Bob.
- Played for Laughs: Cringe Comedy happens when the monster becomes angry because she thought Bob was sexist.
- Played for Drama: Being mistaken for a male is the monster's Berserk Button and she chases after him with intent to kill him.
Back to Female Monster Surprise.
