Ambiguous Name: Wig Dress Accent

Wig, Dress, Accent is about using physical props and/or fake accents for disguise, in general. However, because of the title, a large number of the examples involve crossdressing, which is already covered by Disguised in Drag / Sweet Polly Oliver. Underuse is hard to prove, but judging from the examples and wicks, there seems to be a disinclination to use this for other types of disguises (which ought to be far more common than crossdressing). I suggest a rename.

How are the wicks?

I could do a wick check to see how many involve crossdressing (non-quantitatitive impression: a large percentage), but I don't know if that would help either way, because using it for that is not actually wrong (both Disguised in Drag and Sweet Polly Oliver have a high chance of involving Wig, Dress, Accent); I suspect under-use for other kinds of disguise, but it's hard to quantify "works that use this but don't have it listed on their page because people though it didn't fit".

This is partially motivated by the ImagePicking thread, where all of the proposed images involved crossdressing (as does the current image), suggesting that people associate the trope with crossdressing rather than disguises generally.

edited 13th Mar '12 7:49:40 PM by lebrel

OK, first 100 wicks:

Crossdressing = 14 examples:

• Theatre.Bacchae
• Bishonen
• Brain Powerd
• Anime.Brain Powerd
• Cellbound
• Clark Kenting
• Manga.Count Cain
• WesternAnimation.Dexters Laboratory
• PlayingWith.Gender Bender
• PlayingWith.Girlfriend In Canada
• Different for Girls - crossdressing but possibly also correct
• Disguised in Drag - crossdressing but possibly also correct
• Game-Favored Gender - explicitly referring to crossdressing
• Roleplay.El Cafe Du Watchog - explicitly referring to crossdressing, in contrast to Paper-Thin Disguise

Not crossdressing = 56 examples:

• Anime.Akazukin Chacha
• Manga.AKB 49 Renai Kinshi Jourei
• Disney.Aladdin
• Series.Alias
• Characters.Alias
• All Grown Up
• Western Animation.American Dad
• A Miracle Of Science
• Anyone Can Whistle
• A Series Of Unfortunate Events
• Battlefailed
• Anime.Birdy The Mighty
• Blackadder
• Recap.Blackadder S 2 E 2 Head
• Headscratchers.Bones
• Recap.Buffy The Vampire Slayer S 2 E 6 Halloween
• Theatre.Bullshot
• Characters.Burn Notice
• Western Animation.Centurions
• Chanters Of Tremaris
• Combat Stilettos
• Series.Connor Undercover
• Literature.Coraline
• Cosi Fan Tutte
• Cute Little Fangs
• Anime.Cutey Honey
• Web Original.Death Note Abridged
• Fan Fic.Decks Fall Everyone Dies
• Theatre.Der Rosenkavalier
• Diabolik
• Recap.Doctor Who S 15 E 2 The Invisible Enemy
• Dollhouse
• Don Giovanni
• Manga.Dragon Knights
• Manga.Eat Man
• Characters.Eighth Doctor Adventures
• Manga.Flunk Punk Rumble
• Anime.Fullmetal Alchemist
• Anime.Ghost Sweeper Mikami
• Characters.Guest From The Future
• Characters.Guild Wars
• Hannah Montana
• Heartbreakers
• Comic Book.Hellboy
• HR Pufnstuf
• I Love You Because I Cant Control You
• Film.Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade
• Is That Cute Kid Yours
• Jackdaws
• Fan Fic.Jedi Padme Trilogy
• Manga.Kamen No Maid Guy
• Kamen Rider Dragon Knight
• Kawaiiko
• Characters.Kim Possible
• Lady In Red
• Literature.La Reine Margot

Unclear / Zero Context = 18 examples:

• Condorman
• George The Dragon
• Characters.Grandmaster Of Theft
• Darth Wiki.Hello Megan
• A Dance With Rogues
• Gush.Anime And Manga
• Bounty Hamster
• Western Animation.Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers
• Characters.Death Note Main Characters
• Characters.Death Note Side Characters
• Characters.Doctor Who Doctors
• Drawn Together
• Pantheon.Emotion - describing Bugs Bunny, so could be anything
• Film.Enchanted
• Western Animation.Gargoyles
• Huntik Secrets And Seekers
• Film.Jumpin Jack Flash
• Characters.Koko Wa Greenwood

Indexes / see also / etc = 10 wicks.

Obvious misuse = 2 examples:

• Ditto Aliens - misuse for animals in clothes
• UnfortunateImplications.Comic Books - misuse for ethnic differences in appearance/accent

So out of the ones where I could figure out what was going on, 14 of 70 involved crossdressing (20%). The problem of course is that we have no idea what that percentage "should" be.

The example in AKB49 – Renai Kinshi Jourei is also crossdressing.

Regarding the name, well I would certainly have expected this to be about crossdressing using simple props, not disguise in general. But there are of course also an obvious overlap as mentioned above. I am not sure wether a rename is needed but perhaps something like Plausible Disguise if then.

I'm curious how people would expect to disguse themselves without physical props and an accent. This is practically the definition of the word "disguise", and accordingly, this page appears mostly like a "list of disguses in fiction".

It's the supertrope to things like Latex Perfection and Clark Kenting. And "disguises in fiction" also includes shapeshifters, magical disguise spells, mind control that makes people see you as someone else, et cetera.

I think this is suppose to be the quick and dirty type thing toss on a wig and a dress then make your voice sound a little different and done. (it works for crossdressing too in a lot of works especially Bifauxnen or Bishounen toss a wig on, opposite sex clothing, and change your Japanese Pronouns and done.)

No makeup, no fake boobs, no nothing.

edited 14th Mar '12 10:06:42 AM by Raso

Maybe changing the name to Wig Clothes Accent would stop people thinking it's about male-to-female crossdressing.

Why does "accent" make people think of crossdressing?

I think it's the part about "dress" that makes people think of crossdressing.

Yeah, I don't get why there's such a large tendency to associate this trope with crossdressing either, but like That Human said, I suspect it's the word "dress". (As if the disguised character can't possibly be an actual woman.)

It is also the word "wig". Since Long Hair Is Feminine but most males have short hair many male crossdressing as females use wigs to compensate. A female crossdressing as a male may use a fake beard instead.

Of historical note:

This was brought to the TRS ages ago as being too close to Paper-Thin Disguise and Strangely Effective Disguise. The differences between this, Paper-Thin Disguise, and Clark Kenting were hammered out at that time, and Strangely Effective Disguise was merged into Paper-Thin Disguise.

It goes:

• Paper-Thin Disguise - Ridiculously obvious to the audience, but somehow fools the characters. (implausible disguise)
• Wig, Dress, Accent - May fool the audience, fools the characters (plausible disguise)
• Latex Perfection - Fools everyone (impossible or improbable disguise)
• Clark Kenting - Maintaining a secret identity via a Paper-Thin Disguise, that we the audience are supposed to accept as plausible.

So, no, Wig, Dress, Accent isn't the supertrope of any of those. Or at least isn't supposed to be.

edited 15th Mar '12 11:57:09 AM by ccoa

Huh. Both Canonical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions and Laconical List of Subtle Trope Distinctions say:

• Wig, Dress, Accent is when a character physically disguises himself.
• Clark Kenting is when a character disguises himself to maintain an Alter Ego.
• Paper-Thin Disguise is when the audience isn't fooled by the disguise.

Which seems slightly different.

Anyhoo, the question is whether Wig, Dress, Accent needs a different name.

Well, it has been a couple years or so since then, so trope drift may have occurred.

If we go back to those definitions, maybe we need a disguise supertrope.

edited 15th Mar '12 11:58:46 AM by ccoa

Clocking due to lack of activity.

How about we turn this into a supertrope of the other disguise tropes, and move all examples to the appropriate subtrope?

This clock has long since expired with little activity. Locking.