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Gendered Outfit

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Often, when a character has a Gender Flipped or Distaff Counterpart version, gender-specific changes will be made to that character's outfit. For example, pants will become a skirt, a necktie will become a scarf, and a vest will become a corset. Other popular, but relatively minor, changes include removing a collar for an Impossibly-Low Neckline or Navel-Deep Neckline, changing a unitard into a leotard (to show off sexy legs), changing a full shirt into a crop top, or changing an outfit that was once loose-fitting into Sensual Spandex. Also, when the male version tends to be a Walking Shirtless Scene, the female counterpart will at least don a complimentary bra, to avoid Nipple and Dimed.

Since Distaff Counterparts are more common than Spear Counterparts, and Stripperiffic costumes are more common amongst women, most changes will be male-to-female and the costume will be Custom Uniform of Sexy.

However, male examples do exist. A tuxedo or a tie, for example. Or a baseball cap.

This is a Sub-Trope of Distaff Counterpart and Spear Counterpart and often a manifestation of the Rule of Sexy. In video games, it can be considrered an Acceptable Break from Reality if the same clothing item is used.

See Multi-Gendered Outfit when someone combines articles of specifically masculine and feminine clothing.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 

    Comic Books 
  • Batgirl:
    • Bette Kane, the first "Bat-Girl", wore a masquerade-style mask instead of a cowl in addition to a dress with a short skirt.
    • Barbara Gordon, the second Batgirl, wore high heeled boots in her first 20 years of appearances. Her cowl was also modified to let her long hair flow out.
    • Averted with Cassandra Cain, the third main Batgirl. The only giveaway for her gender is the Form-Fitting Wardrobe.
    • Stephanie Brown, like Barbara, wore an outfit that let her hair fly free.
  • Batwoman sports a look pretty close to Batman's, but she has fake long hair attached to the cowl as a bit of a disguise (and also very noticeable lipstick).
  • Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers's classic costume as Ms. Marvel (technically her second, but the first one didn't last long) is a gendered version of Captain Marvel's, complete with a Scarf of Asskicking, Thong of Shielding and Bared Midriff. Picture for reference. Her later outfit as Captain Marvel largely averts this, being far more modest and militaristic than her previous outfits. The aforementioned scarf is the only element that she retained from her last costume.
  • In Earth X, Thor was transformed into a woman as another humility lesson given by his father, Odin. For no explained reason, this costume places Thor's usual metal discs on her breasts like cups, gives her thigh high boots, and frames her figure with holes that show off every curve of her body. Remember, for all intents and purposes, this is a character that was once male. So that means either Thor decided that not having a penis meant that it was time to make a sluttier costume... or Odin did.
  • Fantastic Four: The team share the same outfit design. But for a while after The Infinity War, the Invisible Woman wore a highly Stripperific version of the FF uniform. She-Hulk wore a leotard version of their costume while she was on the team, but that was arguably more like a feminine analogue to The Thing's shorts (i.e., the The Big Guy of the team wears less clothing, even if she's a Big Girl.)
  • The Flash: Jesse Quick. Her original costume was pretty similar to her dad's look, albeit she also wore a jacket over and swapped the yellow tights for mid-length compression shorts. When he passed away, she switched to a distinct costume, though while aesthetically close to the Flash family, she opted for a leotard instead of full tightsnote . Later, she donned a costume similar to her dad's again, but swapped his tight-fit shirt for a loose one and replaced the trunks-over-tights with just tiny short-shorts, and thanks to Depending on the Artist, her shirt would sometimes be baring her midriff.
  • Galacta: Daughter of Galactus: Galacta wears a gendered version of Galactus' armor.
  • Martian Manhunter's Distaff Counterpart, Miss Martian, wears a cute skirt and a t-shirt under her red "harness."
  • Usually, if a male character has a look that's almost, but not completely, a Walking Shirtless Scene look (like Martian Manhunter, above), his female counterpart will have much more fabric covering her chest. Usually. Some exceptions:
    • This Thanagarian warrior makes Hawkgirl's bustier look downright modest.
    • Some of DC's minor female Martian characters, like Cay'an, nearly let it all hang out.
  • Valkyrie in The Mighty Thor wears something quite similar to Thor himself... but has a leotard in place of Thor's unitard to better expose her legs.
  • Robin (1993): During her tenure as the Girl Wonder, Stephanie Brown was the only Robin to wear a skirt.
  • Shazam!: Mary Marvel wears a skirt instead of tights for her uniform.
  • Back when She-Hulk's transformations were uncontrollable, her tops were like cousin Bruce Banner's pants (but not his shirts) - stretching almost to the point of coming off entirely.
  • A number of Spider-Women, both mainstream and alternate universe, tend to be like this, usually exposing the top of their head to show off their hair or perhaps expose their arms and have long gloves. Spider-Girl is a happy aversion, as she wears Ben Reiliy's costume, which still looks the same. Another aversion is Spider-Gwen, who wears a distinct, all-covering bodysuit with a hood.
  • Superman:
    • Supergirl's costumes over the years have had many gendered components, including (in various combinations) short skirts, short shorts, low necklines, heels, ballet slippers, thigh-high boots, and bared midriffs.
    • In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl, teen Supergirl and Batgirl's costumes played it straight (Kara wore skirt and boots; Barbara wore high-heeled boots and her cowl let her long hair flow) but their adult selves' costumes avert it.
    • Superboy (1994): In the "Hypertension" storyline, Kon-El's counterpart on this world (a clone of Kara called "Supergrrl") wears a version of his costume, except that while Kon's outfit is split betwen blue and red with a point at around his navel, the blue part of hers goes all the way down to her crotch, creating a "swimsuit" effect, even though her legs are covered.
    • The Death of Lightning Lad: Garth "Lightning Lad" Ranzz wears black trunks and orange leggings whereas his sister Ayla -Lightning Lass- Ranzz wears a blue short skirt.
    • The Legion of Super-Heroes!: Unlike her male teammates, who wear pants, Saturn Girl wears a green skirt. Nonetheles, she will replace it with a full bodysuit after her first appearance.
    • Power Boy, the Spear Counterpart to Power Girl, went from leotard to unitard in Supergirl (2005).
  • In Thor, Thor lost his ability to wield Mjolnir, leaving Jane Foster to take up his power herself. Jane's Thor costume, though very similar to the original's, lacks any covering on her upper shoulders. Thor's traditional outfit was also bare-armed, but Jane's shoulders are bare up to the neck. Also, she wears a Breast Plate which is very form fitting in the front.
  • Wonder Woman
    • Wondy's Earth-11 counterpart, Wonder Man aka Dane of Elysium, wore a more masculine version of her strapless leotard costume as a top with wide straps and a skirt of pteruges. Following Flashpoint and Earth-11's replacement with Earth 11 her new counterpart "Wonderous Man" wears a long sleeve red shirt and long blue pants with stars on the hips under armor similar to Diana's own.
    • Wonder Woman (1942): When Steve Trevor twice gained temporary powers similar to Diana's and used the title Captain Wonder (he was brainwashed by Dr. Psycho when he chose the name) he wore a red shirt with long blue pants that had a line of stars down each side and a yellow mask with a red star in place of Diana's golden tiara.

    Fan Works 
  • In the Facing the Future Series, Sam's ghost fighting costume is similar to Danny's (in fact, it was made from one of the suits he was wearing during his transformation), except most of the gloves except the middle fingers have been cut away, she replaced the collar and boots with her own, the midriff has been removed, and she wears a coat with laced sleeves.
  • Averted in Sol Invictus. Luffy still has the trademark red vest and blue trousers of her male counterpart.
  • In Shazam! fanfiction Here There Be Monsters, Joyce Albright designs two superhero costumes resembling her husband's, Captain Midnight, but hers is clearly modeled after a female outfit.
    Plus two new arrivals who had crashed the party and only gotten in by showing i.d.'s from the Secret Squadron.
    They were wearing kind-of copies of Captain Midnight's uniform. Except the guy's was blue, with an eye-mask to round it out, and the girl's was, well, a girl's costume. At least it was red, like the original Cap's. He called himself Mister Midnight and she called herself Midnight Maid.
  • Canon in G: Aside from using the male and female school uniforms on the opposite characters, the story also adapts characters' signature outfits (particularly their expanded wardrobes from the 2006 show) as men's or women's clothing, though nothing is fanserviced up. Makoto has a military cap instead of hair ribbons, whereas Sayuri's hair bow becomes Satoru's tie.
  • Kara of Rokyn: At some point, the main character complains that her suit is a version of her cousin's, except with a skirt instead of long pants.
    "You wanted me to be your good little heroine, to do what you did with your life. My dad put me out there in that copy of your suit, with a skirt. I got the same name as you, except for the last four letters."
  • In The MUSHU-Verse, Inviso-Belle's suit is salmon and grey compared to Danny's black and white.

    Films — Animated 
  • Phoebus and Esmeralda both wear matching white undergarments (an undershirt and a slip, respectively) at the end of The Hunchbackof Notre Dame Disney, the former having somehow lost his armor after being knocked into a river shortly after betraying Frollo and saved from drowning by Esmeralda, while the latter due to her dress being destroyed by Frollo so that he can have her burned at the stake.
  • In The Incredibles, while all four Incredibles wear similar one-piece outfits with a contrasting "gloves, boots and briefs" motif, Helen and Violet's outfits have opera "gloves", thigh-high "boots" and bikini-shaped "briefs".
  • King Magnifico and Queen Amaya from Wish (2023) both wear white, blue, and gold outfits. Subverted, however, by the fact that King Magnifico is the Big Bad, while Queen Amaya eventually betrays him and sides with protagonist Asha and her friends and help them defeat her own husband.

    Literature 
  • Discworld
    • In the epilogue of Monstrous Regiment, after the protagonist's status as a woman has been revealed and accepted along with almost everyone else's, she notes with some dissatisfaction that her new uniform comes with a skirt. She was perfectly okay with the pants.
    • It's not stated in the books, but while the Ankh-Morpork City Watch uniform is generally drawn as having a bit of leather skirting over trousers, Angua is usually shown with enough skirting to make an actual skirt, and bare legs. The fact Cheery Littlebottom wears a skirt is specified in the books, although until her gender becomes publicly known, Vimes thinks of it as a kilt.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Doctor Who:
    • Two Fourth Doctor companions get to wear girl versions of his outfit:
    • Sarah Jane ends up in a furry grey frock coat and a long, multicoloured striped scarf in shades of pink in "The Seeds of Doom".
    • In the Doctor Who story "Destiny of the Daleks", Romana II tried out several outfits/bodies in a Costume-Test Montage at the start of the first episode, which the Fourth Doctor all complained about. She ended up wearing clothes exactly like those worn by the Doctor, but pink and white.
  • Star Trek:
    • Star Trek: The Original Series had the males wear shirts and pants while the females wore longed-sleeved uniforms with high miniskirts. This was then averted in later shows. Although the 2009 reboot, naturally being faithful to the original series, brings the miniskirts back. The original pilot however actually had both men and women alike wearing pants (notably the original female first officer). Female extras in both the original series and the reboot movies can be seen wearing pants.
    • Star Trek: The Next Generation made a brave attempt at a fully gender-neutral take on this with several male extras wearing a variant of the minidress uniform. It was a very forward-thinking take on gender presentation for the dawn of The '90s, but ended up being phased out very quickly on the grounds that it looked equally silly on both sexes.
    • Exaggerated in the Mirror Universe. The women wear skirts and bikini tops in TOS and a midriff-baring version of the prime universe flight suits in Star Trek: Enterprise. Justified by the Terran Empire being a somewhat chauvinistic society where "Captain's Woman" (read: mistress or concubine for the CO) is a staff position aboard ship.
  • In Super Sentai (and by extension Power Rangers), the designs of most female rangers don't differ that much from their male teammates, save for the addition of a skirt or a leotard-like pattern. Since the teams are all color-coded, the female rangers will usually wear pink and yellow, and occasionally white or blue as well. The skirts do serve a purpose, though. The Japanese stunt team that does most of the show's fight scenes is overwhelmingly male. The skirts are used to cover up the... anatomical differences that are obvious in skintight spandex.
    • In Power Rangers this was avoided with the some of the early female Yellow Rangers, namely the ones in Mighty Morphin', Lost Galaxy, Lightspeed Rescue, Time Force and Wild Force. This was because the Super Sentai counterparts of those Rangers were originally male and the suits in the American footage were kept unchanged to match the Japanese stock footage as much as possible.
    • Whenever a Sentai team is part of a military or governmental organization, such as Chouriki Sentai Ohranger, Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger and Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters, they almost always wear a uniform when not in ranger form. Said uniforms usually feature long pants for the men and skirts or shorts for the women. Power Rangers tends to avoid this, as the adaptation either doesn't feature a governmental organization or keeps the unmorphed uniforms the same for both genders.
    • In Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, Takeru Shiba (Shinken Red) is revealed to be a stand-in for a young girl named Kaoru, who is the real heir of the Shiba clan. When Kaoru takes Takeru's place as (Lady) Shinken Red, her outfit is almost identical aside for the addition of a skirt.
    • In Power Rangers Samurai, in addition to the usual costumes the Rangers have an armored Mega Mode. These lack skirts regardless of gender; instead girls have a different cut to their chestplate and a less scowl-y mouthplate (save Lauren, the counterpart of Kaoru from Shinkenger (above), who uses the male version of the Red Ranger helmet).
    • Nowhere is this better emphasized than in Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. In this anniversary series, the team can transform into the forms of past rangers. When the female Gokaigers transform into the forms of past male rangers, their version of the suit almost always has a skirt. This causes some Stock Footage Failure in the adaptation Power Rangers Super Megaforce. As mentioned above, several male yellow rangers in Sentai were adapted into female characters in Power Rangers. When yellow ranger Gia transforms into past ranger forms, several of her transformations feature a skirt, despite the original yellow rangers not having them.
    • In the Rescue Sentai GoGoFive video special, Kyoko (the wannabe sixth member of Gogo Five) inherits the powers of guest hero Demon Hunter Zeek after he dies. When Kyoko transforms into Zeek-Jeanne, she wears a female version of the Zeektector armor with the helmet that shows the lower half of her face.
    • Power Rangers Dino Fury, lampshades this trope, as Green Ranger Izzy initially morphs with a skirt, matching the Pink Ranger, only to rip it off after noticing it (saying she doesn't like skirts), allowing her to match the male Green Ranger of Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Cardfight!! Vanguard: The Aqua Force clan is the most visible incarnation of this trope in the game. The naval uniform worn by the units are the practically the same except for one thing: men wear typical white slacks, while the women wear black compression shorts.
  • Warhammer 40,000: Imperial Power Armor comes in two varieties: the huge ones used by the all-male Space Marines, and the smaller, thinner ones used by Sisters of Battle, both featuring exaggerated pauldrons and religious iconography. The Battle Sisters' power armor also features breastplates that are molded to resemble an actual bust, possibly to make clear that the Sisters are female and thus slip by the Ecclesiarchy's ban on having "men under arms".

    Video Games 
  • In Aion there is a certain questable suit of armor (available around lv30; getting the full set requires repeating the quest with 5 or 6 different characters) which looks like a normal, full-body suit on male characters. For example: the one usable by cleric-types looks like a crimson Badass Longcoat. On female characters, any of these armor sets — including the full-plate heavy set — looks like a frilly pink dress.
  • Arcanum: While most items of clothing can be used by male and female characters, the female version has noticeable cleavage (admittedly justified in that you couldn't tell genders apart otherwise).
  • Darkstalkers, SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, Capcom Fighting Evolution, and M.U.G.E.N: All over the place with Dimitri's "Midnight Bliss" technique.*
  • Demon's Souls plays this trope perfectly straight for the most part. Discounting the nine gender-exclusive armor (five for males, four for females), almost every piece of armor in the game looks quite different on male and female characters. However, unlike most examples of this trope, the female ones aren't played for Fanservice, they're simply visually distinct from the male version. Its spiritual successor Dark Souls and its sequels Dark Souls II and Dark Souls III mostly do away with this, but it returns with a few outfits in Bloodborne.
    • On the other hand there were a couple of particularly noticeable examples in Dark Souls II, made more jarring because it was otherwise so uncommon. The Desert Sorceress Set includes a Top that's basically a strapless leather bra when worn by women (which had a secondary effect of enhancing their bust size), but is a small leather chestplate with a strap that goes over the left shoulder on men, while the Skirt gives the men standard knee-high boots while the women get thigh-highs with lace trimming and high heels. Also the Black Witch Trousers (prominently worn by NPC Manhunter O'Harrah) appears as trousers with flat slippers when worn by a man, but a pencil miniskirt with high heels on a woman. Interestingly, when you wear the full Black Witch Set the difference is invisible because the Black Witch Robe completely covers the player's legs, but O'Harrah only wears the Trousers.
  • In Disgaea Dimension 2, Laharl is transformed into a female version of himself named "Laharl-chan." Her outfit is very similar to the male version, except with longer pants (they're slightly ripped at the thighs instead of completely ripped off at the shins), slimmer shoes, and a bra covering what was the male version's bare chest.
  • The Elder Scrolls series provides several examples:
    • Morrowind: Initially averted, but once the Tribunal expansion is installed, the cuirass piece of certain armor types (netch leather and steel, amongst others) now become much more form fitting on female characters with a different model.
    • Oblivion: True for armor and clothing. One can take a dress off of a dead female character, put it on their male character, and suddenly it is a suit with pants. The "Huntsman's Leather Vest" in particular switches between an open waistcoat or a Fur Bikini (which is smaller than the default underwear) depending on the gender of the wearer.
    • Skyrim: The very same piece of clothing or armor will change drastically in appearance when equipped onto male or female characters. The most infamous example being the much-sought-after "Tavern Clothes".
  • Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas alter clothing based on gender. For example, you can find pre-War businesswear, which gives bonuses for speech checks. On male characters it has trousers, while on female characters it has a short skirt, but is otherwise a modest cut. Especially noticable in New Vegas's Dead Money DLC, in which Vera Keyes' dress (which increases barter, speech, and charisma as well as offering slight protection) becomes a tail coat with the same color scheme if work by a male Courier.
  • In Fate/Grand Order, the standard Chaldea uniform will include pants for males, but skirts and tights for females (with an extra strap on the shirt under the breasts). Between the optional costumes for the two protagonists, female Ritsuka will often have skirts, shorts, crop tops or dresses.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • In the remake of Final Fantasy III, Refia's Job outfits are sometimes at-odds with the three boys of the group, such as with the Thief, Summoner, and Ninja. It's not hard to pick her out of the lineup.
    • It's similar with Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, which is gender-split 50-50.
    • And certain jobs in Final Fantasy V. Though save for the White Mage, Black Mage, Dancer, and Mystic Knight jobs, Faris will wear the male version of said outfit.
    • Downplayed in Final Fantasy XI, where many outfits look the same regardless of gender, including the stripperiffic subligar sets. When the outfits do have gendered variations the most that tends to happen is the spontaneous generation of Zettai Ryouiki.
    • Final Fantasy XIV has most gear look the same on either gender (which means you can have Stripperific men and entirely-covered women if you wish), but there are some exceptions. Bliauds, for instance, have a low-cut collar on women, while men wear a shirt underneath, and leg gear designated as "bottoms" is usually trousers on men and a short skirt + tall socks on women. Certain artifact gear, such as ARR's Dragoon armor, also has some notable changes, like baring the midriff on female characters. Likewise, racial starter gear are different between genders. Some glamour-only pieces are also gender-locked so that a piece that is "designed for female/male characters" can't be worn by the other sex (this seems to happen most with swimsuits and formalwear).
  • Maki from Final Fight 2 wears a female version of the Bushin gi that serves as Guy's standard outfit.
  • Played with in Fire Emblem: Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates: Female and male units of the same class generally wear about the same amount of actual armor, but the clothes worn underneath tend to be more revealing on the ladies.
  • In Friday Night Funkin', Girlfriend's parents both wear a black jacket and black boots. On Daddy Dearest, he wears a full jacket and the boots are part of his Long Pants, while on Mommy Mearest they're instead a skin-tight jacket and thigh boots with garter straps attached.
  • In Genshin Impact, the region of Fontaine (France) has a police force called the Gardes: both men and women Gardes wear knee-high boots and a tall hat, but the men's outfit consists of a long-sleeved jacket and trousers, where the women wear a one-piece tunic which functions like a combination jacket and skirt. Additionally, the men carry batons, while the women are unarmed.
  • In The King of Fighters: Maximum Impact 2 and Regulation A, Secret Character Lilly Kane wears a modified version of her brother Billy's garb from pre-Real Bout Fatal Fury and KOF '95. Key differences between their attire includes Lilly wearing a white tank top under her overalls, said overalls having a heart-shaped window (revealing the aforementioned tank top), and her pants being shorts instead of Billy's jeans.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild:
    • Link's Champion tunic is blue and coupled with beige pants. The outfit Zelda is mostly seen in has her own tunic in the same shade, but with more elaborate gold and white embroidery to give it a blouse-like appearance. The Champion's Ballad DLC reveals that all of the Champions' blue pieces were made by Zelda herself, so it's implied that her outfit is meant to coordinate by her own design.
    • The other Champions play this part as well. The male Revali uses his blue Champion's fabric as a scarf, while the female Urbosa uses it as a skirt. Played with in the cases of Daruk and Mipha, who both wear the fabric as a sash.
  • MapleStory and its sequel are a pretty clear example. Most of the armor kits in the games come in both male and female versions, although gender-neutral options do exist. The male pieces will usually look more standard, while the female counterparts will feature elements like skirts, shorts, heels, dresses, or openings that reveal skin.
  • Monster Hunter: The franchise has male and female versions of each outfit. Female versions tend to be more figure hugging, sport fewer Spikes of Doom, and sometimes have things like skirts or heels or other gendered characteristics. Some also expose a lot more skin.
  • Thoroughly averted in PAYDAY 2. All the female characters wear pants, shirts, and jackets, and once you factor in the masks and heavier armor, it's impossible for a person who isn't familiar with the game to differentiate them from the male characters.
  • In PokĂ©mon, the male and female choices for the PokĂ©mon Trainer player class are like this for PokĂ©mon Red and Blue, PokĂ©mon Ruby and Sapphire, the remakes of Gen I and the PokĂ©mon Ranger spinoff series. Also other trainer classes that are essentially gendered counterparts usually have this, such as Cool Trainers and Picnickers/Campers.
    • The Grunts of the regional teams also typically have different outfits depending on gender, even if on occasion it isn't particularly noticeable at a glance.
  • In Splatoon, female Inklings wear shorter shorts than males. Other than that though, almost all of the equipable clothing averts this, being identical between genders save for some minor form tweaking here and there for some. Only a few outfits show remarkable differences between genders, such as the Octoling Armor having slight bare midriffs on female Inklings (though not nearly as much as with the Octolings themselves), the female School Uniform having a color-matching skirt, and the male version of the Squid Girl Tunic being a sleeveless shirt instead of the original dress. Splatoon 3 deemphasizes gender, with outfits that altered based on gender in the previous games instead giving both options as separate items.
  • Cammy wears a gendered version of Bison's uniform as a downloadable costume in Street Fighter IV.
    • Also, all the Delta Red members (which consists of three males and another girl besides Cammy) that appear at the end of Super Street Fighter II wear the same uniform as Cammy's.
  • The original Valkyria Chronicles approaches this in a relatively realistic way; while men and women of the Gallian military technically wear different uniforms, the outfits for both genders consist of conservative (if somewhat colorful) military fatigues which only differ from each other in some minor cosmetic details. In fact, of the thirty female members of Squad 7, only three (Alicia, Isara, and Rosie) wear a skirt of any kind.
    • Valkyria Chronicles II plays it somewhat straighter; though female units wear skirts instead of pants, their uniforms are otherwise functionally identical to the males'. This is partly justified by the entire playable cast basically being high school students.
    • Valkyria Chronicles 4 plays with the trope. The Alliance military uniform is the same for both genders, being sensible combat fatigues. That said, there's a considerable difference in fit and sizing between the men's and women's uniforms. Due to a paperwork snafu or rather, her paperwork not reflecting reality, Kai is sent a men's uniform when Squad E receive critically-necessary winter uniforms. A too-large, too-broad insulated uniform would be just get in the way in the field, so makes do with just the cloak, layers of her own clothing, and a teammate's spare thermals.
  • Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines: The different clothing and armour options change appearance quite drastically depending on the player character's clan and gender. What looks like a kevlar vest on a male Ventrue becomes a stripper cop outfit on a female Malkavian.
  • Take a piece of chest armor in World of Warcraft. Put it on a male human. It covers his entire torso. Now, have the male human take the armor off, and give it to a female human. The exact same piece of armor that was just shown obscuring the torso of the male is now inexplicably baring her midriff. This tend to be more common (and more often Exaggerated) with older armor models, but it does pop up sometimes with the newer armor sets. Breastplates for female characters feature defined breasts, and are frequently much shorter than on the male models of the same race (though this is frequently subverted for Night Elf males). Leg armor is also commonly shorter on female character models. It is however definitely possible to make absolutely Stripperific male costumes. Alternatively, there are cosmetic-only shirts available for those who do not wish to bare skin.
    • Some chestpieces are also more revealing on a male character than on female characters. A harness that will simply have a strap across the chest of a male character will include a bra for a female character. This is mainly due to a technological limitation: the supposed armor is just a texture which actually replaces the underwear the character normally has on when stripped of gear. The other big difference is with shoulders, in general the male characters have absurdly huge shoulder armor while the female characters do not.
    • However, other types of gendering in clothing do not happen. If you put a dress on a male character it doesn't turn into a suit, and the formal suits don't have skirts on female characters. Some of the cultures do have distinctly gendered standards of dress, but most do not. There are also skirts available on all armor types, and most cloth sets also have trousers as an option. Cosmetic jewelry is also retained on male characters, although they have less jewelry by default. Fans, flowers, and other "girly" accessories with gameplay purposes are also not changed for male characters, nor are ultra-masculine ones changed for female characters (except for being scaled down to fit their models).

    Webcomics 

    Western Animation 
  • Adventure Time: Fionna, Finn's female counterpart, wears a skirt instead of shorts and a bunny-eared hat instead of a bear-eared one.
  • Danny Phantom's Opposite-Sex Clone Dani Phantom wears a different version of his black and white jumpsuit with baggier sleeves and legs with a bare midriff and a touch of Fashionable Asymmetry. It's not a particularly sexier version considering Dani is physically 12-years-old.
  • In the DC Animated Universe, Supergirl wore a white t-shirt and blue skirt in contrast to Superman's classic outfit. This outfit later became canonized in the comics.
  • The Loud House: The genderbent versions of the Loud siblings from the Season 1 episode "One of the Boys" wear modified versions of the originals' outfits in accordance to gender (except Leon, who just wears a diaper like Lily prior to Season 5). Even the counterparts to the sisters who don't wear relatively feminine clothing, including Lynn, Lana and Lisa, bear notable differences.
    • Loki wears sneakers in contrast to Lori's slip-ons, his tank top is noticeably oversized to an extent, and his shorts appear to be of a looser type than Lori's cargo-like ones.
    • Whereas Leni has a turquoise dress, Loni has a sweater with that color, alongside a dress shirt, formal pants and brown dress shoes that contrast Leni's sandals.
    • Luna's skirt is replaced with pants for Luke, with a color change from light purple to black. Luke's T-shirt also has less cropped sleeves than Luna's, and he notably wears a jean vest, something not present in Luna's outfit.
    • Luan's counterpart Lane changes her tank top and skirt to a short-sleeved dress shirt and shorts with suspenders.
    • The male version of Lynn Jr. (who has the same name as her) wears a different jersey with short sleeves in place of long ones and a 0 that replaces female Lynn's 1.
    • Lucy's black dress, striped tank top and arm warmers get changed to a T-shirt over a striped long-sleeved shirt for Lars, with the addition of jeans and sneakers in contrast to Lucy's slip-ons.
    • Lana's T-shirt is removed from Leif, and her overalls' legs are shortened for him. Plus, Leif's backwards baseball cap has a wider hole than Lana's.
    • Lola and Lexx have the most contrasting outfits overall. Whereas Lola dresses in a pink princess dress with opera gloves, a sash and tiara, Lexx has a crown, white shirt, greyish-blue pants and brown short gloves and boots, with the pink being relegated to just a cape. Lexx's concept design retained the pink color for his whole attire, though.
    • Levi's white lab coat and green gloves take place of Lisa's green sweater.
    • In place of Lincoln's polo and jeans, Linka wears a blouse and skirt, and although she wasn't seen with footwear in the episode, concept art shows that she would wear slip-ons rather than Lincoln's sneakers.
  • The Powerpuff Girls' Spear Counterparts, the Rowdyruff Boys, are another rare male example. Skirts and hair ribbons become pants, shorts, hats and ponytails between the two genders.
  • Young Justice (2010): Miss Martian wears her same t-shirt and skirt from the comics. In the second season her default outfit changes to one with pants that only leaves her hands and face uncovered.

    Real Life 
  • Commonly downplayed in practice by school, law-enforcement, military, or other uniforms which permit female members to wear a skirt instead of trousers but do not usually require it (however, as usual with uniforms, the choice may not be up to the individual wearing the uniform, but to their boss).
  • Used as Loophole Abuse to hilarious effect in Sweden. Train conductors were forbidden from wearing shorts, despite the scorching heat, so men began wearing skirts on the job, daring their employer to try and do something about it. If skirts are banned for men, it's sexist. If skirts are banned for EVERYONE, it's ALSO sexist.
  • Traditionally the University of Oxford had two versions of its formal subfusc clothing, for men and women. Since 2012, there are still two versions, but no restrictions on who can wear either.
  • High school or college cheerleading squad uniforms could have a sleeveless shirt and pants format for men while the women wear skirts with a midriff bearing top or tank top.
  • British hospitals have their staff's uniforms colour-coded to denote rank and department. In at least one county, this requires Healthcare Assistants (roughly equivalent to a Nurse's Aide in the US) to wear tunics that are coloured salmon pink. Not every male HCA is confident enough in their machismo to be comfortable with this, so the male uniform is a plain white tunic with epaulettes in the colour of the equivalent female uniform. More subtly, the female nurse's uniform tunic is long enough to act as a short dress while the male version is intended to be worn tucked into a pair of trousers.


 
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Hellgate London: Templars

You might notice there's a slight differance in dress code between the male and female members of the Templars.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (16 votes)

Example of:

Main / GenderedOutfit

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