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)
Whether they are for fanservice or not, most of the entries just talk about the midriff in the outfit. It's kind of hard to communicate anything else but that. I know it might not be clear to see what's fanservice or not visually but I don't think it always translates well when you are trying to describe tropes like Bare Your Midriff in text. Just saying what the character wears isn't good enough but being overly detailed about their attributes isn't what we want people to do either. Who Wears Short Shorts was supposed to be for fanservice and the description made that clear but everyone was using it for any character with short shorts so decided to disambiguate it.
I don't think clarifying the fanservice would do anything and it's likely that people won't even notice that the description changed.
Edited by MacronNotes on Mar 3rd 2023 at 3:12:53 PM
Macron's notes
Disambig per what ![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
said.
Professional Wick Checker
Agreed. This goes for other tropes as well, not just BYM.
She / Her
(x3) In regards to "clarifying the fanservice", just to be 100% sure, are you also discussing the option of renaming it to something that makes it clearer that it's about fanservice (kinda like how the current title to Sexy Surfacing Shot illustrates the fanservice aspect unlike the title to the aforementioned Who Wears Short Shorts)?
(she/her)
Yeah I was talking about that too.
Well, Sexy Surfacing Shot is an about scene framing while Bare Your Midriff is about costuming. I don't renaming it to focus on the fanservice aspects would help and people are still going to add characters they find attractive. Most people are aware that BYM is supposed to be a fanservice trope (or at least partly) so I don't think there's any confusion there.
Edited by MacronNotes on Mar 2nd 2023 at 9:10:01 AM
Macron's notes
She / Her
Ok and thanks. For the record, I meant to list that as an example of a title that makes it clear that it involves fanservice in some way.
EDIT: Come to think of it, how do you know most people are aware that BYM has to be played for fanservice?
Edited by RandomTroper123 on Mar 2nd 2023 at 10:07:52 AM
MacronNotes, I agree with everything you've said. I think it would be the best move to disambig rather than try to tool BYM.
Weeaboo extraordinare
If this is a fanservice trope, can we talk about how creepy it is how often this trope gets applied to underaged characters even when it wasn't intended as fanservice?
EDIT: If we're disambiging, I guess it doesn't really matter.
Edited by supernintendo128 on Mar 2nd 2023 at 11:11:24 AM
pee pee poo poo
Professional Wick Checker
Regardless of what happens to the trope, that discussion is for the Fanservice tropes and underage characters thread, not here.
The following is part of a question I have about most Fanservice tropes, but I'm going to stick to a midriff example here for relevance:
We're in agreement that a character wearing a navel-exposing outfit isn't inherently Fanservice, but then you have less clear-cut cases. Take Pokemon's Misty, for example. Her usual outfit leaves her belly button visible, but, while she is a Proud Beauty who draws attention to her own looks at times, the series generally doesn't give attention to her navel specifically. If we did keep the trope and emphasize the fanservice aspect, would characters like her actually count?
Professional Wick Checker
She's a child who's neither sexualized nor in an Ecchi work. Her case is just a character wearing a crop top that naturally exposes their belly, nothing more, nothing less. There are certain things that work as clues for whether this might be used for fanservice or not (check the genre, if it's a harem it's most likely fanservice regardless of age, etc.) but this won't matter if it gets disambiguated.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Also, Misty is a water type trainer from a water type gym with a pool in it. It's not a stretch to say that she's in the short top because it's beach-y. Also, Short Tank.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Let me clarify what I trying to get at a little: I was trying to use Misty as an example of a character with an exposed navel who is used for Fanservice, but said Fanservice doesn't give any real focus to their navel over other parts of their appearance or general looks (she is used for Fanservice on occasion, like when she enters the Beauty Contest in "Beauty and the Beach"). Does that kind of character count?
Edited by badtothebaritone on Mar 2nd 2023 at 12:11:56 PM
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
No. If this is a fanservice trope, the fanservice isn't from the character, it's from the outfit specifically.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Okay, that's what I was initially thinking. Thanks for clarifying.
I fix my examples all the time
![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Thumbs_up_emoticon_3268.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
for disambig.
If I remember right, Shes Got Legs was in a similar situation, and TRS retooled it to Leg Focus and made it so it was necessary that the legs were given some sort of emphasis (like characters commenting on it, or the camera zooming in on them) for it to be a valid example. I feel something similar could work here. It seems like the best way to treat these "body part for fanservice" tropes.
(she/her)
^ Fixed the missing "not" in that quote.
Shes Got Legs definition was tightened a decade ago to be about the camera focusing on someone's legs or in-universe attraction based on the legs. It was then renamed to Leg Focus years later to help curb misuse because the redefinition didn't stop that.
As for retooling Bare Your Midriff to be about belly shots and in-universe attraction to a character's midriff, I think it might be better to yard that as the the wick check didn't find any examples of it.
Edited by MacronNotes on Mar 3rd 2023 at 3:31:44 PM
Macron's notes
She / Her
You're right, before being renamed to Leg Focus, Shes Got Legs had something rather similar; people were often misusing it to discuss long and well-toned legs or (sometimes) leg-revealing outfits in general, regardless if they're played for fanservice or not.
EDIT: ![[nja]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/user_ninja_2074.png "[nja]"){kind=small}
'd
Edited by RandomTroper123 on Mar 3rd 2023 at 12:30:29 PM
I think the following concepts regarding bare midriffs are tropable:
- Feminine Midriff: A character's bare midriff indicates femininity or girliness; this can include examples where, for example, the only female member of a team has a bare midriff whereas the male members don't; the female version of a uniform or outfit bares midriff whereas the male counterpart covers it (think for example Supergirl vs Superman; it can overlap with Chainmail Bikini when applied to an armor); or a bare midriff on a male character indicates he's Camp Gay (e.g. Xandir from Drawn Together) or In Touch with His Feminine Side (e.g. Bow from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power).
- Exotic Midriff: A character, tpyically female, has a bare midriff to indicate she's from an exotic (i.e. non-Western) culture - as bare midriffs, until the mid-20th century, were a cultural taboo in Western civilization. Bedlah Babe is a subtrope of it for Middle Eastern women, but it's also true for characters from India (where it's pretty much Truth in Television), Polynesia, South America, Romani people from Europe, or various fantasy cultures (for example Kida from Atlantis: The Lost Empire). Can be seen as a form of Foreign Fanservice. Sometimes used as a PG alternative for cultures with No Nudity Taboo.
EDIT: Otherwise I agree with turning Bare Your Midriff into a disambig, covering (heh) Tank-Top Tomboy, Bedlah Babe, Exposed to the Elements, No Dress Code, Chainmail Bikini, Seashell Bra, Fur Bikini, Walking Swimsuit Scene and so forth.
Edited by Snicka on Mar 3rd 2023 at 2:36:55 PM
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
As was already stated, new tropes would be a job for TLP/the Salvage Yard and not TRS.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Mar 3rd 2023 at 7:52:12 AM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Snicka, I don’t see how Tank-Top Tomboy would tie into this disambig. But the other examples do fit, namely Fur Bikini and Seashell Bra.
Tank-Top Tomboy was mentioned on the previous page as one of the potential disambiguated tropes. If a female character wears a tank top (that may or may not be midriff-baring), it indicates she's either an Action Girl, a Tomboy or The Lad Ette; however, if it is midriff-baring, it's often because it's a more feminine variant of the sleeveless tank tops of badass male heroes.
Edited by Snicka on Mar 3rd 2023 at 4:33:20 PM
French Fry
Well, Momoko Asuka wears a belly shirt as a default outfit even if she's 10 years old (and later 11)!
French guy
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.
However, it's already been proven that a lot of people just can't handle fanservice tropes. They apply them to absolutely everything. So can we trust that people won't do that here?
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness