Gender-Inverted Trope

• Main
• All Subpages
• Create New

An Always Female, or Always Male trope, that is applied to the opposite gender.

While it's not possible to pull off with every trope, as some of them require certain biological features, and others are automatically seen in a different light when gender-inverted, (like the Mama Bear and the Papa Wolf, or the Action Girl and the Action Hero), making them an entirely different trope, others are only based on certain generic concepts associated with the gender, and nothing stops the writers from playing with them.

It might be Played for Drama, with people who doubt their own sexuality due to their opposite gender traits, Played for Laughs as a character's unique quirk, or even not intended at all: For example, maybe a writer simply thought that gypsy men are hot, and didn't even realize that Hot Gypsy Woman is a lot more common trope.

Conversely, it can be our own fault, due to cultural dissonance, as our trope definitions are largely based on western and Japanese works, so it is possible that for example an Indian or Latin American show's characters can be only described with our vocabulary as "Like this trope, but male", even though it could be considered a different trope over there, but none of us knows enough about the culture to make a page for it.

In trope lists, it is often referred to as Rare Male Example and Rare Female Example. See also Distaff Counterpart, Spear Counterpart.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, Shute Sutherland is a Rich Bastard with a Boy Posse, sporting a Nobleman's Laugh.
• The relationship between Suzumiya Haruhi and Kyon is sometimes described as Belligerent Sexual Tension, but with a male Tsundere, and a female Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran have a milder example of this relationship.
• In Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?, the male lead gets Magical Girl powers.
• In Iono the Fanatics, the protagonist is a young queen of a foreign country. She likes girls, too: she has 1000 courtesans. She goes so far as to call herself a "skirt chaser".
• In Haiyoru Nyaruani, it is the heroine Nyaruko who is the perverted one and the male protagonist Mahiro punishes her for indecent behaviour by stabbing her with a fork, making her bleed and squick.
• In RIN-NE, Sakura is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold while Rinne is a Tsundere, an inversion of the usual Takahashi Couple.
• In Saiyuki, three of the protagonists are a male version of the Three Faces of Eve: Son Goku (the Child), Cho Hakkai (the Wife) and Sha Gojyo (the Seductress).
• In The Weatherman Is My Lover, Amasawa is a Cosplay Otaku Guy.
• In Axis Powers Hetalia Poland, Finland, Sealand and Prussia have many characteristics of a Plucky Girl. Albeit their versions are highly flamboyant (Poland), Finland, childish (Sealand) and/or narcissistic (Prussia) ones.
  • And let's not forget that Germany and England are male versions of the Tsundere trope.
• Brock from the Pokémon anime is Team Mom supreme. He cooks, cleans, heals injured Pokémon, and even Ash's mother praises his domestic skills ("He's a better seamstress than I'll ever be"). It's overt from his first episode, as we first see him taking care of his nine brothers and sisters in their parents' absence, and his stated goal is to be a Pokémon Breeder (one who raises/cares for Pokémon). Eventually he leaves to become a Pokémon Doctor.
• Kamille Bidan from ZetaGundam and Dilandau Albatou from Vision of Escaflowne are male versions of The Ophelia at some point of the story. They both get better.
  • And in the second case, Dilandau actually starts out as a girl.
• Ishida and arguably Yumichika from Bleach are also genderflipped Plucky Girls.
• There's more than one male Yamato Nadeshiko in manga and anime. Some examples are: Kiminobu Kogure from Slam Dunk; Shuichiro Oishi, Seiichi Yukimura and Choutarou Ohtori from The Prince of Tennis; Shouma Takakura from Mawaru Penguindrum; Japan (obviously) from Axis Powers Hetalia; Haku from Naruto; Yukito Tsukishiro and Fujitaka Kinomoto from Cardcaptor Sakura; Seiichiro Aoki from X 1999; Miyazaki from the Tokyo Babylon OAV, and arguably young!Subaru before It Got Worse; Taro Misaki from Captain Tsubasa; Andromeda Shun from Saint Seiya; Tomohisa Kaname from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Rey from Saint Beast, etc.
• Misaki from Hana no Mizo Shiru is an endearingly clumsy boy who initially behaves irritably, but gradually warms up to his love interest over time, acting more shy and easily flustered around him. Said love interest also finds his teary face adorable. Unsurprisingly, he's from a Boys Love manga.

Film

• In The Princess and the Frog Dr. Facilier is a male example of Bare Your Midriff

Live Action TV

• In Veronica Mars, Wallace is a male Girl Friday, and Logan often acts as a male Femme Fatale.
• In The Brittas Empire, Tim is a Clingy Jealous Guy to Gavin.
• One episode of El Chapulin Colorado featured a House Husband whose life was so similar to a Housewife's it was Played for Laughs. He complained about his wife wanting to watch a game instead of taking him to the movies like she promised; tells her "don't touch me" like some wives usually do on TV while mad at her husbands. When the husband of a former patient of his (he was a gynechologist before becoming a House Husband when his wife started making more money then he did) showed up needing help, Chapulin encouraged him stating he needed to show men could work.
• Renn Kousaka/Go-on Blue from Engine Sentai Go-onger, a near-perfect example of a male Yamato Nadeshiko and Team Mom.

Video Games

• In Team Fortress 2, thanks to Australium, Australian women have Badass Moustaches.
• Thanks partially to the fact that Falena is ruled by Queens rather than Kings, many tropes are gender inverted in Suikoden V. Bodyguard Crush, Brotherhood of Funny Hats, White-Haired Pretty Girl, and White-Haired Pretty Boy all have gender inversions in this game.
• Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World has Emil, a male Shrinking Violet.
• There are some males from Fire Emblem who are White Magician Dudes: Corple and his Expy Sharlow from Seisen no Keifu, Sleuf from Thracia 776, Saul from Binding Blade, Moulder from Sacred Stones, and Rhys from Path of Radiance.

Western Animation

• In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang is the male equivalent of a Magical Girlfriend who fights using She Fu. Meanwhile, Toph the Big Guy is a 12-year-old blind girl.
• During the episode in Yukon of Total Drama World Tour, Noah receives a Marshmallow Hell from Owen, after Bridgette didn't let him hug her.

Real Life

• It has been suggested that the Mr. Fanservice appeal of many male soccer player uniforms, which involves a small piece of bare thigh between the socks and the shorts, might be based on the same principle as the female Zettai Ryouiki trope.