To-do list:
- Bare Your Midriff was turned into a disambiguation page. It's possible that some wicks fit at least one of the tropes listed there, but Zero Context Examples and examples that simply involve the midriff being exposed can simply be deleted.
Like other appearance-based tropes that were cut or disambiguated, Bare Your Midriff mostly consists of chairs and ZCEs.
While there are tropes that tie into a bared midriff i.e. the Ms. Fanservice, No Dress Code or Exposed to the Elements, a crop top/half shirt on its own isn't a trope. Most examples aren't referred to in the work of question, leading to several one-handed troping examples.
Summary of Bare Your Midriff Wick Check:
- A character is wearing a short shirt (35/77)
- ZCE (36/77)
- Applies to another trope (6/77)
Wick check:
The problem with Bare Your Midriff is that like other appearance-based tropes that were disambiguated, it attracts a lot of potholes or ZCEs that state "this character's midriff is exposed".While there are several tropes that tie into an exposed midriff i.e. No Dress Code for when a character wears a crop top/half shirt in a school setting, Exposed to the Elements when a character wears a crop top in cold weather, or Age-Inappropriate Dress if a character is too old or young to wear said crop top, an exposed midriff on its own isn't a trope.
Wicks checked: 77/77
- Carole & Tuesday: Angela's casual clothes show her navel. Crystal's performing outfit shows her midsection too.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: Misato's crop top. Not exactly appropriate attire for lounging around the house with two teens around (especially combined with short shorts), but that's Misato.
- Yes! Pretty Cure 5: Cure Dream in Yes! shows off her midriff. This disappears in her new costume when Go Go comes around.
- Aladdin Titular Protagonists: As part of her Bedlah Babe look. A good majority of Jasmine’s outfits expose her stomach, even her sleepwear.
- Arcane: Jinx: She wears a cropped tank top and low-sitting pants.
- Animal Crossing - Other NPCs: He wears an off-white tank top with multicolored dots matching the rest of his outfit, with his lower torso exposed. While camping in his RV, he wears a black tank top with the same effect.
- Ben 10: Villains (Alien Force): Her top shows her bellybutton.
- BoJack Horseman - L.A. Residents: All of her outfits show her stomach in some way.
- Drawn Together: "His outfit exposes his stomach."
- Eclipse: Kyrie wears an orange crop top that exposes her stomach.
- Eddsworld: Her outfit prominently displays her belly.
- Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Main Characters: The t-shirt she's always wearing stops just short of her belly. It's more noticeable when her jacket isn't on.
- Fresh Off the Boat: The majority of her outfits sure show it off.
- Gorillaz: She occasionally wears outfits that show her stomach in Phase 2 and Phase 4.
- Girl Genius Protagonists: Her normal outfit isn't buttoned up around her belly.
- Grrl Power Antagonists: Her initial outfit consists of a pair of pants and a belly-baring tank top.
- Hazbin Hotel: Her show design has her wearing a black top that exposes her midsection.
- Infinity Train Boiling Point Boiling Isles: The outfit she wears for her, Skara, and Amity's dance exposes her navel, among other things.
- Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? — Evilus: Her outfit is cut to show her midsection.
- Magical Girl Ore: Their magical girl forms wear midriff-baring tops.
- Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!: Other Heroes: Batgirl's/Captain Selene's outfit has multiple parts exposed, including her midriff.
- Pokémon: The Series — Team Rocket Trio: Her standard outfit reveals her midriff for fanservice.
- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: The Gang: Her Hex Girl outfit where she wore a black mini-skirt and corset (revealing her midriff).
- Splatoon – Idol Groups: Both Shiver and Frye wear midriff-exposing outfits.
- Steven Universe — Humans: "She has a white top that exposes her navel."
- Tokyo Mew Mew: Her Mew uniform consists of a crop top and hot pants, leaving her midriff bare.
- Totally Spies!: She generally bares her midriff in larger amounts than Clover and Alex, but not as frequently.
- Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches: The Other Witches: Her stomach is exposed in her Masked JK costume.
- The Simpsons: Most of Lisa's swimsuits are midriff-baring.
- Elemental Flux: Calvin lampshades this with the uniforms of the female guards at the Boiling Rock, pointing out how it leaves several important organs undefended, something the guard he asked had wondered herself.
- Drop Dead Gorgeous: Doesn't go very far, but Amber's shirts are a bit short.
- My Boss's Daughter: Both Lisa and Tina wear clothes that bare their midriffs.
- Tammy and the T-Rex: Tammy and Michael are introduced wearing crop-topped shirts.
- Troop Zero: Smash is seen wearing a shirt that bares her belly button.
- Tropes A to H: Kuja wears a sort of crop top that puts his abs on full display. This turn out to be true for all the Genomes aside from Zidane.
- Tomb Raider: Lara seems to be quite fond of wearing clothes that show her stomach. They don't in the 2013 reboot, though.
- Touhou Project: "Fanart often shows the blouses worn by characters such as Reimu, Marisa, Flandre or Sanae riding up when they raise their arms."
- Tropes A to E: Wendy wears an ensemble of this type to the Wood Stick Festival in "The Love God".
- Henneko The Hentai Prince And The Stony Cat: The school uniform's top is just long enough to reach the skirt, which means the girls will show some skin with the slightest movement.
- Villains Don't Date Heroes!: Fialux's costume leaves her stomach bare, as Night Terror notes approvingly.
- TabletopGame.Infinity: Quite a few of the female soldiers, especially those from the Ariadna faction, who invariably wear crop-tops and military-style short shorts to go with it.
- Cardcaptor Sakura: Sakura has two outfits that shows her belly button. Weblinks Are Not Examples
- Itoshi no Karin: The Meln-costume exposes quite a bit of Karin's tummy.
- Joan Jett: A few of her outfits show off her midsection.
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons: Wearing a workout top or a tube top (or gifting one to a villager) has the character's lower stomach showing.
- Last Cloudia: All of the female summer units wear two-piece bikinis, thus exposing their stomachs by default.
- Tokyo, Mobius, and Mystic Ruins 15 years later: Rouge's casual grown-up outfit consists of a high-cut top and skirt.
- Animalympics: A gender-inverted example with René Fromage. He spends the entirety of the movie in a cropped sleeveless shirt that exposes his bare stomach.
- Captain Planet and the Planeteers: A male example, Captain Planet's outfit seems to do this (Though it isn't known whether this is because animation of cartoons at the time was still getting there.) Linka in at least 2 episodes has her wear a shirt that shows her stomach.
- My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Forgotten Friendship: The swimwear worn by Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Sunset Shimmer and Trixie include bared midriffs.
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
- Bow's regular outfit exposes his abdomen. When dressed in a tuxedo, he deliberately removes his cumberbund to bare his midriff (which he then regrets as they are in an ice palace). And Adora and Glimmer panic in response to him covering up for his parents. Taken to a ridiculous extreme when even Bow's spacesuit has a little belly window.
- Huntara wears a crop top that shows off her imposing abs (plus she lives in a hot, dry environment).
- The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: Princess Mindy wears a pink top that leaves a bit of skin above her tail exposed.
- The Wild Thornberrys: Debbie, in most of her outfits.
- Bakugan: Julie and Runo. Runo stops after season 1 while Julie continues until season 4.
- Cowboy Bebop: Faye, Ed, and Judy (the host of Big Shot).
- Danganronpa: The Animation: Sayaka's idol outfit gets changed to this.
- Love Live!: Some of the performance outfits fall under this.
- Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: Panty and Scanty's transformation.
- Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys: "Rebecca."
- Rolling Girls: Ai, who wears her jacket open.
- Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure: "Cure Summer, Cure Flamingo and Cure La Mer."
- Avatar: The Last Airbender - Katara: "Her Fire Nation disguise. Along with her swimming attire."
- Fairy Tail – Celestial Spirits: To go with her Belly Dancer motif.
- Freedom City: The Beth Walton incarnation.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind: Due to how his sweater is designed. Helps when Diavolo needs a quick switch.
- Last Cloudia: Graphel and Phal
- The Most Popular Girls in School - Overland Park Students: Same goes for her back when she turns around.
- Characters/Motorcity
- Pokémon Adventures - Hoenn: In his contest outfit he does this.
- Pokémon: The Series — Serena: "Her Fennekin outfit and her contest uniform in JN105 and JN132 come to mind."
- Pokemon XY Gym Leaders: Korrina's pajamas, See for yourself.◊. Weblinks Are Not Examples
- Puyo Puyo 7: In Quest with the ver. Ulala costume.
- Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld: Princess Ingvie and her archers of House Citrine.
- Shining Pretty Cure: Cure Peridot and Amazora.
- Superwomen Of Eva 2 Soaring High: "Hawkgirl's costume."
- Uber Drama Island: Aubrey.
- American Beauty: On the poster. Oddly, the belly button in question doesn't belong to any of the movie's stars.
- Catwoman (2004): Whenever Patience Becomes Catwoman. Probably the only thing to admire in this movie. One-handed troping and no context.
- Dirty Dancing: Some of Baby's outfits.
- Shin Angyo Onshi: Hwang and Sando.
- How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?: Everyone on occasion when they workout.
- A-Teens: "The girls both do this in "Sugar Rush" as well as in Upside Down and Perfect Match. Marie does this in Halfway Round the World, Floorfiller and I Promised Myself."
- Angry Gran: The young women granny beat the living daylights out of.
- Pump It Up: Plenty of females in the BGAs do this.
- Love Is Strange: Rachel.
- Final Fantasy VII Abridged: Tifa and Yuffie.
- Sym-Bionic Titan:
- Kimmy in the "Ballad of Scary Mary".
- Also Ilana's P Js in "Tashy 497".
- Daria:
- Quinn nearly all the time, and it's notable since she changes wardrobes a bit.
- Kevin in a rare male example.
- Jane's outfit when she tries to look "normal" for an assignment.
- Daria's costume when she was in personality drag as Quinn.
- Several of the outfits chosen by the Fashion Club, especially Sandi's outfit for the party at the end of Is It College Yet?
- Neo Yokio: DarlaThe Demon from episode 5.
- Sym-Bionic Titan:
- Kimmy in the "Ballad of Scary Mary".
- Also Ilana's P Js in "Tashy 497".
- Mean Girls: "Most of her tops show off her belly button. How she gets away with this at school is anyone's guess." This is an example of No Dress Code.
- Sly Cooper: Allies: ...and what a midriff it is. Especially when made to dress as a belly dancer in Thieves in Time. This sounds more like Bedlah Babe, also one handed troping.
- The Man Who Sold the World: Huntress's outfit. The Hunter lampshades this, wondering how the hell nobody shot her there and calling it dangerous (and indecent). Sounds more like Chainmail Bikini since he's pointing out armor that doesn't protect her rather than the midriff.
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind: Nausicaä at the end of Book 6 and part of Book 7, thanks to Heedra tearing her shirt off during an attack. This is more applicable to Clothing Damage.
- Clone High: "Joan of Arc wears a black T-shirt that reveals her midriff. Even in the winter, she still wears outfits that show off her midriff." The later is more applicable to both Exposed to the Elements and No Dress Code.
- Tropes A to C: Vicky's shirt exposes her bellybutton.
- Along with Trixie in her Wonder Gal outfit, Veronica in her Wardrobe Malfunction, and few of the female students in Dimmsdale Elementary are like this too, the school itself has rather lousy dress code for allowing ten year olds walk around with their belly buttons revealing.
- The former is a ZCE while the latter is another example of No Dress Code.
- Along with Trixie in her Wonder Gal outfit, Veronica in her Wardrobe Malfunction, and few of the female students in Dimmsdale Elementary are like this too, the school itself has rather lousy dress code for allowing ten year olds walk around with their belly buttons revealing.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Mar 7th 2023 at 2:58:47 PM
(she/her)
I suggest rewriting the description to focus on the fanservice aspect.
I'd like to apologize for all this.
While I understand why you'd want to rewrite the description, I think the trope decayed. I found very few examples that fit "a bared midriff used for fanservice", but as my wick check shows, there's a lot of "character has a bared midriff" without the narrative acknowledging it, which makes it chairs.
Edited by MadAboutLove97 on Mar 1st 2023 at 11:02:26 AM
(she/her)
I think it's common to have midriff as mild but it's kind of differentiate that between non-fanservice examples as I don't believe it's for fanservice every time. How would one describe a potential example besides "X's outfit showcases their stomach"? Focus on other fanservice aspects or specific scenes?
Also, I am not sure I feel about having so many fragmented fanservice tropes about a specific type of fanservice but that a topic for a another day
Macron's notes
Professional Wick Checker
I know that we shouldn't immediately choose renaming as our first option, but even after retooling the trope, the name would be non-indicative. The name is stuck in so many users' minds as "character with exposed midriff," it needs to reflect the fanservice aspect that isn't taken into account. Sexy Exposed Midriff or Sexy Bare Midriff maybe?
But I don't think slapping fanservice to every trope that has such a fanservice potential is a good idea. You can come up with any appearance trope and add the "fanservice" reason regardless of whether this is really its intentional purpose and is significant or not. Hmmm, I'm a bit undecided on this.
the Retromancer
I like to think that characters with open navel are commonly a nonconformist tomboy, or some PG variant of Shameless Fanservice Girl, but I don't have specific research.
And somehow I just don't think so about male examples.
Maybe it'd make the trope more clear if "short T-shirt" and "underwear-looking street clothing" are split off.
TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
I think the first case is covered by Tank-Top Tomboy already.
Amonimus, that's an interesting take. Usually in Western media examples, I see 'bare your midriff' used for fashionita Alpha-Bitch type girls, mostly in works made in the late 90s or early 2010s.
Also, selkies, as much as I think renaming Bare Your Midriff to include the words 'sexy' or 'fanservice' would help with all the ZCEs, I also think about the one-handed troping that would start bringing in.
Edited by MadAboutLove97 on Mar 1st 2023 at 10:41:05 AM
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
I've seen it used for a variety of characters so I don't attach it to one "type" in particular. It's hard for me to see any meaning here simply because of how broadly the trope appears to be used. Narrowing it down to fanservice would only work if there are enough examples and if we can trust people to understand that not every usage would be for fanservice.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Professional Wick Checker
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
This is slightly ambiguous in animanga since apparently anything can be done for fanservice regardless of other factors. But where do we draw the line between "this is done for intentional fanservice" and "this is just a meaningless/random fashion choice"? Maybe depending on how the character is portrayed (sexy shots & close-ups, tropes like Ms. Fanservice applying to them, etc.)?
WarJay77, you have a good point. The trope is so broad that even two unrelated characters from different series with no similar personality traits could only be connected by "they both wear a midriff-bearing top".
I say we disambig Bare Your Midriff and list tropes that would work with different wicks. For example: I suggested ones like No Dress Code if a character wore a crop top to school, or Age-Inappropriate Dress if a character is see as too young or too old to wear a crop top.
Edited by MadAboutLove97 on Mar 1st 2023 at 11:21:28 AM
the Retromancer
Tank-Top Tomboy neatly covers half of meaningful examples I could think of.
TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
For more Shonen-specific Deuteragonist examples, there's also Shorttank.
Midriffs aren't just for tomboys though, as the description says they're tied to girliness in general, to the point it's considered a Tertiary Sexual Characteristics and male characters wearing midriff-baring outfits can be a visual cue to them being Camp Gay, Camp Straight, In Touch with His Feminine Side, and other androgynous tropes.
A "midriff for fanservice" trope could be renamed to tie in to the skinny / fitness beauty standard and the idea of body confidence since that's the heart of using a midriff-baring outfit for fanservice. The character is basically bragging about their flat stomachs. A Scrawny Nerd doesn't wear this because they're insecure about their body even though they're skinny, and fat characters don't wear them because it looks like a pot belly.
Edited by BlackMage43 on Mar 2nd 2023 at 12:08:21 PM
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
I think we can disambiguate with all the tropes that have been mentioned.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
That last paragraph isn't really true nor all that relevant. There are plenty of skinny and fat characters in crop tops out there because it isn't really about the confidence level of the character that matters, but what the creator thinks the audience will find sexy titilating or wants to make sexy/titilating. And there are plenty of people out there who think very skinny people are hot / chubby and fat people are hot.
And on that note, I agree with a disambig.
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Thumbs_up_emoticon_3268.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
Disambig
She / Her
I agree with rewriting this to make it clearer that this is a Fanservice trope like Cleavage Window and/or renaming it to make it clearer that it's FS. Thus, examples that are Fan Disservice instead are inversions.
EDIT: Also, I feel it's noteworthy that there are Bare Your Midriff examples that are played for fanservice yet the entry doesn't/didn't acknowledge it. And we don't have to disambiguate all tropes that the OP suggests (or implies in this case) to disambiguate.
Edited by RandomTroper123 on Mar 2nd 2023 at 7:30:56 AM
Trans Siberian Anarchestra (it/they)
Are we also discussing Navel Window in this thread, which is Bare Your Midriff but more specific?
I feel like a lot of 'clothing attribute which can appear in a variety of contexts but keeping examples lists clean is hard because sometimes they are also just there because Author Appeal' could be listed together on a page like Analysis.Fanservice.
Edited by Noaqiyeum on Mar 2nd 2023 at 8:09:02 PM
The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable
Speaking as someone who recently bought a handful of athleisure crop tops because they cute... I think there is definitely a fanservice angle to midriff-baring. Seeing the belly button is basically seeing the crotch and boobs :-) Tells could be an impractically skimpy outfit that exposes the navel (think along the lines of Chainmail Bikini) or disproportionate focus on the ab region.
But it can't exist as is, so that would be a job for the TLP.
Disambiguate in the meantime. Bedlah Babe is another disambig trope that comes to mind.
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
This thread doesn't cover any other tropes. We've already got almost 6,000 wicks on our hands with this one.
They can still get their own TRS threads in the future if a wick check determines it's necessary.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Mar 2nd 2023 at 1:59:44 PM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Logic Girl
On the whole "Don't know whether it's played for fanservice or not", I can definitely relate because I have a hard time telling if something is for fanservice because I'm ace. Like I can usually tell if someone's doing that slow walk and feeling their legs, or if Sexophone music is playing, but otherwise I'm a hopeless case.
For every low there is a high.
Professional Wick Checker
I don't think it's hard to spot. Plot-irrelevant partial nudity and meaningless exposure (i.e. Underboobs) are usually done for fanservice and Pandering to the Base. Except for when it's a random design decision to make a character bare their midriff.
She / Her
Plus, from my experience, fanservice is at least rather detailed (though the same applies to Fan Disservice).
Crown Description:
Bare Your Midriff attracts Zero Context Examples and examples that have no meaning beyond a character wearing a short shirt. What should be done with it? Note that tropeworthy concepts related to midriffs can be taken to the Trope Launch Pad independently of this thread.
To-do list:
Like other appearance-based tropes that were cut or disambiguated, Bare Your Midriff mostly consists of chairs and ZCEs.
While there are tropes that tie into a bared midriff i.e. the Ms. Fanservice, No Dress Code or Exposed to the Elements, a crop top/half shirt on its own isn't a trope. Most examples aren't referred to in the work of question, leading to several one-handed troping examples.
Summary of Bare Your Midriff Wick Check:
Wick check:
The problem with Bare Your Midriff is that like other appearance-based tropes that were disambiguated, it attracts a lot of potholes or ZCEs that state "this character's midriff is exposed".While there are several tropes that tie into an exposed midriff i.e. No Dress Code for when a character wears a crop top/half shirt in a school setting, Exposed to the Elements when a character wears a crop top in cold weather, or Age-Inappropriate Dress if a character is too old or young to wear said crop top, an exposed midriff on its own isn't a trope.
Wicks checked: 77/77
Edited by GastonRabbit on Mar 7th 2023 at 2:58:47 PM
TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall