Basic Trope: A tough guy has one stereotypically-feminine interest, or he likes something childish or nerdy, or a tough woman has a stereotypically-feminine interest, but they're embarrassed, so they keep it a secret.
- Straight:
- Bob is a tough biker, but he secretly wears a pink shirt under his leather jacket.
- Charlie is a bodybuilder, but he secretly still plays with toys.
- Alice is a Lovable Jock who believes that Real Women Don't Wear Dresses... yet she secretly likes to wear dresses anyway.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob is a tough biker who exhibits all of the characteristics stereotyped of men, including eating meat, hating sugar, and never crying. He's secretly a drag queen.
- Charlie has all the stereotypical "manly" traits possible... yet he secretly likes to dress in Goo Goo Getup and suck his thumb.
- Alice possesses all the male stereotypes like Men Don't Cry and Real Men Take It Black, only Gender-Inverted, and her hair and clothes make her look like a guy. Secretly, however, she dresses and acts like the most stereotypical Girly Girl possible.
- Downplayed:
- Bob is a pretty generic guy; not very stereotypically masculine or feminine. He's still embarrassed about wearing pink, though.
- Charlie isn't embarrassed to admit he plays with toys because he's a guy; he just thinks it's embarrassingly childish.
- Alice isn't embarrassed to wear dresses on formal occasions, but she's embarrassed to wear them as normal daywear.
- Justified:
- Bob's father had old-fashioned, sexist ideas about what men should and shouldn't wear, which has made his son very self-conscious about his clothing choices.
- Charlie was raised to believe that men were more mature than women, so he sees anything remotely childish as unmanly.
- Alice doesn't want to conform to a stereotype, and is essentially invoking Stop Being Stereotypical on herself.
- Inverted:
- Bob is effeminate, but doesn't want to admit that he's secretly a biker too.
- Charlie is a Manchild with a secret desire to be a bodybuilder.
- Alice is The Fashionista, eats chocolate, cries a lot, and a bunch of other stereotypically feminine things. She secretly plays sports too, though.
- Subverted:
- Bob is embarrassed about his shirt not because it was pink, but because it had a hole in it.
- Alice isn't embarrassed about wearing dresses, she just finds this particular one embarrassing.
- Double Subverted:
- But once the hole is fixed, he's still embarrassed about it being pink.
- ...Because the dress is pink.
- Parodied:
- Zigzagged:
- Bob is embarrassed about his pink shirt... because there's a hole in it. When the hole gets fixed, he's still embarrassed about it... because it clashes with his pants... and then he feels embarrassed for being a man who cares about fashion.
- Alice is embarrassed to wear a dress... correction, she's embarrassed to wear this dress... because it's pink... but she doesn't hate pink because it's stereotypically feminine, just because she happens to hate the colour.
- Averted:
- Bob, Charlie, and Alice wear their non-stereotypical (or, in Alice's case, stereotypical) interests on their sleeves.
- Bob, Charlie, and Alice have an equal distribution of traits stereotypically associated with both sexes.
- Enforced:
- "Bob is such a blatant male stereotype, so let's give him some depth... better not change his character too drastically, though!"
- "Charlie's a bit dull; let's make him more entertaining by giving him a childish secret!"
- "This Alice character is great so far, but how about we have her wear dresses sometimes to avoid
Unfortunate Implications. Let's make her embarrassed about it though, since this is a sitcom, and embarrassment is a good source of comedy."
- Lampshaded:
- "Men don't wear pink... except me."
- "Big boys don't play with action figures... guess I'm not a big boy."
- "I've always wanted to break all of society's expectations of women... but there are some I don't want to break."
- Invoked:
- Dave actively shames Bob for wearing pink.
- Eric shames Charlie for playing with toys.
- Freda shames Alice for wearing dresses.
- Exploited: Bob, Charlie, or Alice are suspected of a crime. The investigator finds out that they have a secret and thinks this secret is evidence they committed the crime.
- Defied: Bob, Charlie, and Alice refuse to let society govern their personalities.
- Discussed:
- "I just found out that Bob sometimes wears pink! He keeps quiet about it though, since it makes him feel like less of a man."
- "My brother plays with toys, but it's his secret because he thinks he's too old for them."
- "My cousin Alice is a jock. She sometimes wears dresses though, but don't tell anyone."
- Conversed: "On TV, men get embarrassed for not conforming to gender stereotypes, while women get embarrassed for conforming to gender stereotypes!"
- Implied:
- Bob blushes when he loses his jacket, but it's unknown whether it's because his shirt is pink or because of the klutzy mistake he made.
- Charlie is embarrassed when someone walks in on him in his room playing with his action figures, but it's hard to tell if it's because of that or because he was slacking off.
- Alice is embarrassed at a party, but it's unknown if she's embarrassed about wearing a dress, or just shy.
- Played for Laughs: Either of these three situations set up a comedic Embarrassment Plot.
- Played for Drama: Bob, Charlie, and Alice get severe self-esteem issues.
Back to Unmanly Secret.
