Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple

"Americans are more accepting of gays when they're in a clear-cut gender role relationship. Like Ellen and Portia."

— Seth, The Boys, "We Gotta Go Now"

When it comes to gay couples in media, this is the most common setup for them. Whichever gender they are, one is very feminine while the other is very masculine.

For gay male pairings, this means a Manly Gay or Straight Gay character and a Camp Gay or Macho Camp one. For lesbian pairings, a Butch Lesbian and a Lipstick Lesbian. This usually also shows itself in their character designs, with one being shorter and daintier (sometimes even twinky if male) than their One Head Taller, and often more muscular, lover.

This trope goes back to the idea that there must be a "man" and a "woman" in a same-sex relationship, and often invokes Opposites Attract. Because this trope is often based on this misconception, it's less common in works written by actual queer people. In real life, at least where queer men are concerned, a Camp Gay man and a Manly Gay man are unlikely to be each other's type, and any exceptions would be noteworthy because they're exceptions (such as a Chubby Chaser and The Bear). With lesbians it's not as cut and dry, but not all queer women are pure butch or fem, and many resent being pigeonholed into such categories. However, fiction only cares about averting this trope when it means pairing together two Manly Gays or Lipstick Lesbians for fanservice reasons. Two Butch Lesbians or Camp Gays in a relationship are all but unheard of where the media is concerned.

For more platonic versions see Tomboy and Girly Girl and Sensitive Guy and Manly Man. Also, see Uke and Seme for Japanese tropes heavily associated with this concept. See also Gay Guy Seeks Popular Jock, where the gay guy is generally less conventionally masculine than the popular athlete. Depending on what sort of story we're watching, there may be a wedding with a Gay Groom in a White Tux. See also Lover and Beloved, which focuses on age difference, but usually has the older partner (the Lover) as being more masculine while the younger partner (the Beloved) is usually more feminine.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Akuma no Riddle, Tokaku and Haru become a couple at the end of the manga. Tokaku is a stoic Bifauxnen and assassin, while Haru is a sweet Girlish Pigtails-wearing Pollyanna.
• Ymir from Attack on Titan is a tall, muscular young woman who usually wears trousers and is The Lad-ette. Ymir's in love with the shorter and more feminine Krista.
• A Hide Your Lesbians variation occurs in Canaan with Canaan and Maria. They never make the full leap to romance but their relationship is heavy on the subtext. They're also a Starcrossed Lovers example, with Canaan's life as an Action Girl not meshing well with Maria's civilian life.
• Citrus: Mei has a more masculine personality (aggressive, dominant, emotionally cold) while Yuzu is much more feminine (energetic, fashion-obsessed, stereotypically girly).
• Played with in Gunbured × Sisters. Maria, a dhampir who grew up fighting to survive on the streets, seems at first glance like a Butch Lesbian, with a short fuse, foul mouth, and more boyish taste in clothing, not to mention being much more of a physical fighter than Dorothy. Dorothy, a nun who is seemingly the Lipstick Lesbian of the two and passes herself off as a proper lady and prefers long gowns, is actually the more dominant and sexually rapacious partner between them (Maria is a Reluctant Fanservice Girl at best).
• Hetalia: Axis Powers: Chibitalia and Holy Roman Empire are a Puppy Love example. Chibitalia is a meek artist who wore female clothes while HRE is a bold warrior who wears boy's clothes. Played with as HRE actually mistook Chibitalia for a girl. As an adult, Italy became a keet and started wearing men's attire.
• The Island of Giant Insects: Lesbian Jock Matsuoka and Lipstick Lesbian Mami.
• In Kase-san, Yamada is a sweet, shy girl who loves flowers, while her girlfriend Kase is an outgoing athlete with Boyish Short Hair.
• Lonely Wolf, Lonely Sheep is about two women named Kakimoto Imari who fall in love and bond. Big Imari is tall and tomboyish while Little Imari is petite and girly.
• Love Gene XX: Enforced by law in-universe. Women are split into two demographics: Adams, who take traditionally masculine roles such as breadwinning or fighting, and Eves, who take traditionally feminine roles such as homemaking and bearing children. It's shown multiple times in-story that when a pair of Adams tries to get together, the law states one of them has to become an Eve for it to go through.
• Suzu from Love Me For Who I Am is a Long-Haired Pretty Boy who likes crossdressing. He has a more boyish-looking and overprotective boyfriend named Haruto.
• Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Kobayashi is sufficiently androgynous to the point that she is often mistaken for a man, while Tohru has a large bust and wears conventionally feminine clothes. Kobayashi goes to work, Tohru stays home and keeps house.
• My-Otome and to a far lesser degree My-HiME have Natsuki and Shizuru. Natsuki is a Badass Biker Action Girl while Shizuru is Ojou Lady of War. In My Hime they only have Ship Tease which after a lot of trouble from Shizuru turns into a Relationship Upgrade at the end, but My Otome has the two clearly as a couple.
• Konoka and Setsuna from Negima! Magister Negi Magi. Konoka is a very girly and cheery Ojou with healing powers while Setsuna is a serious swordswoman with some Bifauxnen looks who is determined to protect Konoka from anything. This aspect of their relationship is emphasized on some occasions when they dress up and Setsuna ends up wearing male clothing to contrast Konoka's elegant dresses.
• Revolutionary Girl Utena has the tomboyish Utena and feminine Anthy, who are also Lady and Knight. Both are implicitly bisexual, and Utena, by her own insistence if nothing else, averts Gender Nonconforming Equals Gay. Is she right about that in the end? Only the audience can say. (Fans, who by-and-large support them as a couple, tend to say no.)
• Flum and Milkit from Roll Over and Die. Flum takes on the profession of Adventurer, which effectively make her the breadwinner of their relationship, on top of being a Short Tank and an Action Girl, Flum is obviously the masculine side. Meanwhile Milkit takes on the role of the housewife in all but name.
• Haruka and Michiru from Sailor Moon are one of the most iconic examples in manga. Haruka is a cool bifauxnen who always wears the boy's school uniform and Michiru is her Ojou girlfriend who plays the violin. This is somewhat an example of Character Exaggeration in the '90s anime. In the manga, Haruka is still butch but has her feminine moments and even occasionally wears girly clothes. In the '90s anime, she is much more masculine and is even a Bokukko (in the manga she uses the girly pronoun "atashi"). In the manga, Haruka actively disguises herself as male while in the 1990s anime, she's a tomboy who just gets mistaken for male.
• Subverted in Sweet Blue Flowers. Yasuko is Fumi's first girlfriend. She's a tall, boyish-looking girl who prefers masculine clothes outside of school and is the captain of the basketball team. Yasuko, however, doesn't enjoy being forced into a masculine role in order to fit people's expectations and is actually bisexual, not lesbian. Yasuko and Fumi break up, and after being Put on the Bus Yasuko grows her hair out and undergoes a Girliness Upgrade. Fumi's girlfriend at the end of the manga is her short, girly childhood friend Akira.
• Tetsuo and Taichi from Yuureitou become this in the epilogue. Tetsuo is a cool-headed Byronic Hero transgender guy and Taichi is a sensitive Lovable Coward Distressed Dude that Tetsuo meets. The two start out with an Odd Friendship that quickly ends up romantic. This aspect of their relationship is emphasized when Taichi is forced to be Disguised in Drag and pretends to be Tetsuo's wife. He initially loathes it but soon finds it comfortable and notes that he wouldn't mind being Tetsuo's cross-dressing lover.

Comic Books

• Batwoman comics contain several variations:
  • Downplayed with Kate Kane and Sophie Moore. Kate was more masculine in appearance than Sophie, but both were skilled Army cadets.
  • Played straight when the earlier relationship between Kate and Renee Montoya is depicted in flashbacks, with Renee being definitely butch. This evens out and becomes downplayed when they reconnect years later, with Kate being more butch than previously.
  • Subverted with Kate and Maggie Sawyer. At first glance they fit the archetype, with Kate being femme and Maggie being butch, however, they are both in fact butch. The versions of the characters in DC Comics Bombshells are both femmes.
• Blue Is the Warmest Color: Emma is masculine in comparison with Clémentine, who's more feminine, though it's a mild example.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The femme Willow has a brief relationship with the butch Lake.
• Future Foundation: Julie and Rikki are both bisexual, getting into a relationship over the course of the series. In Julie's case, she's more feminine, long-haired, girly and her superhero outfit emphasizes her figure. Rikki is a short-haired tomboy and her outfit's far more utilitarian, akin to a Wrench Wench getup.
• The Girl from the Sea: Morgan is short-haired and slightly tomboyish. Kelpie has long hair and more of a feminine look while in human form. It's not that big of a contrast though, making it downplayed.
• Her level of butchness has varied over the years, but during Gotham Central, in which her lesbianism was revealed to the readers and then the other characters, Renee Montoya definitely fit into this dynamic with her much more feminine girlfriend of the era.
• On-off lovers and central characters Maggie (femme) and Hopey (butch) in Love and Rockets. Maggie was feminine even in her most punk period during her youth, while Hopey went back and forth as a young woman but got very butch when she was older.
• The Sandman (1989): Subverted with lesbian couple Hazel and Foxglove who are both butch, then played straight as Hazel starts dressing in a more conventionally feminine way after she gets pregnant.
• Shortcomings: Sasha is rather feminine and she describes an ex-girlfriend of hers who looked like a handsome young man. Ben questions why a woman who likes women would date someone boyish since to him it seems like it defeats the purpose.
• Tim Drake: Robin: Tim's neighboring boat in the marina is the home of Tammy and Lauren, a lesbian couple with one muscular butch partner and one dress wearing femme partner.

Fan Works

• Another Day in Bluffington Duology: Patti and Beebe play with this trope. As kids, they were almost polar opposites of each other: Beebe loved shopping for clothes, while Patti was more into playing sports. As adults, the roles are reversed: Beebe owned a construction company and occasionally played softball, while Patti became a housewife.
• Becoming Free is a Frozen (2013) fanfic where The High Queen Elsa falls for a pants-wearing stable-worker she hires named Freya.
• Calamity Jane Meets Doctor Isles looks at Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles’s lives in a Western AU, with Jane initially posing as outlaw ‘Jake Wyatt’ to find the man who killed her parents while Maura trained as a doctor in Boston and came down to Jane’s home town of Hollow Creek to get married, but Maura breaks off her relationship with her fiancé and ultimately gets involved with Jane. While the two keep their relationship discreet, they privately acknowledge that Jane is the ‘man’ in their dynamic, but witnessing some more abusive martial relationships during a visit to Boston discourages both from thinking about their relationship in terms of a conventional marriage.
• Camellias emphasizes this in Blake and Weiss' relationship by portraying Blake in a masculine, borderline bifauxnen formal getup while Weiss wears her standard dresses.
• Codex Equus has a zigzagged example in Prince Stoltur Skjöldur and his husband, Blue Suede Heartstrings (now Prince Caerulus Melodia Equestria). Being a god of Pride, Stoltur is vain, bold, and assertive, while Caerulus, a god of Humility, is more empathetic, sensitive, and merciful. However, while Stoltur is the dominant partner, he has been helping Caerulus build his self-esteem by taking turns in being dominant/submissive during sex and encouraging him to take lead in general. This is extremely beneficial for Caerulus, who went through a particularly bad Trauma Conga Line that all but destroyed his sense of self-worth by the time he got out of it.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: Germany is the manly one while Italy and Japan are the feminine ones. Yes, ones.
• The Horsewomen Of Las Vegas portrays Bayley (masculine) and Sasha Banks (feminine) like this, as Bayley is a cop and Sasha is a nurse.
• In the Plan B fanfic Interpretive Steps for a New Tango, neither Bruno nor Pablo is particularly feminine but the heteronormative Argentinian culture they grew up in causes them to assume that they have to conform to masculine/feminine roles if they try out things like dancing, and Pablo's fear that he's being forced to play the submissive "woman" role to Bruno causes him to temporarily break up with him until he realizes that they don't need to follow this trope to be happy together.
• Ryuko and Mako are this in Natural Selection in regards to their personalities since both have similar dress codes. Ryuko is an aggressive, temperamental tomboy on her best days while Mako is chirpy, bright, and a total sweetheart.
• The School for Good and Evil (2022) fanfic Not a prince: Lesso wears masculine clothes like pantsuits and spends most of the story wearing what is described as something a prince wears. Dovey is a fairy godmother and only ever wears dresses. However, the two are best friends and in love with each other, with the ending strongly implying that they get together at the end.
• Soda at 70 Proof has a Puppy Love example with Fanny as a Tomboy with a Girly Streak and Rachel as a Girly Girl, which they both note during a conversation prior to their Relationship Upgrade.
• Inkopolis Chaos: Jade is a tomboy and Katelin is not. Both are secret agents and they're also both dating. In the third story, there usually seen together, and feel upset when apart from each over if the other is in danger.
• Total Drama Legacy: Storm Jackson-Wilkins and Serena McGrady are a textbook example. Storm is a tomboyish Passionate Sports Girl, while Serena is a hyper-feminine Kawaiiko. Simply put, they're on opposite ends of the futch scale◊. And wouldn't you know it, they're an Official Couple.
• Wicked Wiles: Dwarfs gender the world differently from humans. But, in human terms, Grumpy would be a butch he/him lesbian. He falls for a more feminine dwarf who uses she/her pronouns.

Films — Animated

• Adolescence of Utena: The movie is a different continuity from the Revolutionary Girl Utena TV series where this trope is played more straight. Utena wears her hair short, dresses more explicitly bifauxnen, and is more openly physical with Anthy, while Anthy wears her hair down and is more romantically demonstrative around Utena.
• ParaNorman: Implied with Mitch Downe and his unseen boyfriend. Mitch is a Straight Gay jock whose sexuality is revealed as a last-minute twist, and the first and only thing we find out about his boyfriend is that he loves chick-flicks.

Films — Live-Action

• 100 Girls: Tomboyish Arlene and Girly Girl Wendy become a couple after both turn out to be lesbians near the end of the film.
• Adam (2019):
  • Gillian is pretty feminine but wore a tuxedo while going to the prom with her girlfriend who had on a dress, as seen in a past photo.
  • Casey likes butch women and trans men, whom we see her dating, while she's more feminine.
• Alena: Alena and Josefin. While it's a milder example than many, Josefin's style was fairly masculine, and Alena's is feminine.
• American Fiction: Cliff and his many boyfriends are portrayed this way. He doesn't behave in any stereotypical manner, but the brief interactions with his lovers show he prefers effeminate men.
• Anna: Anna has long hair with a more feminine look, while her girlfriend Maude always has short hair and looks pretty tomboyish. In terms of other things though, it's ironically reversed, as Anna shows no interest toward most traditionally female things (she models, but only as cover for her being a KGB assassin), while Maude enjoys it along with partying and decorating.
• August In The City: Ana is a soft Butch Lesbian, with her girlfriend Nic (Nicole), being a Lipstick Lesbian. August, in both past and present, also had a feminine style. She once was with Clem, a woman who had more of a tomboy style.
• A.W.O.L.: Joey is a mildly butch woman, with shorter hair starting out, often wearing a ball cap and sleeveless shirts. Rayna, her girlfriend, has long hair with more low cut blouses and jean shorts, plus an overall girly manner.
• Below Her Mouth: Dallas is very butch, while Jasmine's quite feminine (although her sexuality is left ambiguous).
• Best in Show: Christy Cummings (played by real-life Butch Lesbian Jane Lynch) ends up in a relationship with the very feminine Sheri Ann Cabot at the end of the film.
• The Birdcage (based on La Cage aux Folles): Albert is a Drag Queen while Armand is a stage director who can act out camp direction to actors but is generally much "straighter" than Albert.
• Blue Is the Warmest Color: Emma and Adèle. Emma is the more masculine, and Adèle the more feminine.
• Bonnie & Bonnie: Kiki is short-haired and somewhat tomboyish. Yara is long-haired and more girly.
• Bound (1996): Corky is a leather jacket-wearing thief who now works as a contractor and gets mistaken for a man in dim light. Violet is a Femme Fatale. They become a couple.
• Bros: Bobby, who's Camp Gay, dates Straight Gay Aaron.
• Downplayed in But I'm a Cheerleader. Megan is a very feminine closet case while Graham is an Aloof Dark-Haired Girl with shorter hair who acts as her Closet Key. The most butch girl at the Cure Your Gays camp actually turns out to be straight.
• Cassanova Was A Woman: Cassanova hallucinates a couple of women, with one more butch and the other feminine, quite unlike her with her girlfriend, who are both average.
• Chasing Amy: Alyssa's girlfriend is very much butch, while she's a girly Lipstick Lesbian (or rather lipstick bisexual/pansexual, as is soon revealed).
• Colette: Colette and Missy, though the former experiments with masculine styles at times and the latter is more of an elegant bifauxnen transvestite than a Butch Lesbian (all assuming you even see Missy as a woman).
• Cynara: Poetry in Motion: Lipstick Lesbian Cynara and Butch Lesbian Byron have a passionate though brief relationship after they fall for each other.
• Deadpool 2 reveals that the stoic, snarky Butch Lesbian Ellie/Negasonic Teenage Warhead has a girlfriend in the peppy, more feminine Yukio.
• Drive-Away Dolls: Jamie and Marian become a couple by the end of the film. It's even indicated they'll be married. The former is a tomboy, the latter a Lipstick Lesbian.
• Duck Butter: A mild example as neither is that extreme, but for the day which they spend together Nima (a short-haired tomboy who likes slightly masculine clothing) and Sergio (who's long-haired with a more feminine style).
• Fear Street gives us Deena and Sam. The former is a Tomboy and Action Girl, while the latter is a more feminine cheerleader. The third film 1666 reveals their relationship parallels the supposed villain Sarah Fier's with Hannah Miller. Sarah was an unconventional farmhand who was "raised like a boy" and Hannah more traditionally feminine.
• Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives: One woman, Stephanie, was butch but remade herself as femme when involved with another butch lesbian, a form of abuse as her girlfriend was also very controlling.
• Ellen is more masculine and Jill is more feminine in The Fox.
• Future World (2018): Ash, a very feminine-looking female android with long hair and revealing clothing, becomes a couple with tomboyish mechanic Lei by the end.
• Gia: Gia is more butch as she's pretty tomboyish when not working as a model, in comparison with her lover Linda, who has a feminine look and manner.
• Girls Like Magic: Jamie and Maggie become lovers during the film.
• The Guest House: Tomboyish goth girl Rachel gets in a relationship with the very feminine Amy.
• I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry has a scene where Alex and her gay brother are guessing who of the titular duo is Femme and who is the Butch, which for them apparently is the same as Bottom and Top.
• The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love: Butch Lesbian Randy and feminine girl Evie get into a relationship.
• Jack & Diane: Jack, who's a mildly butch lesbian, is drawn to girly Diane. They fall for each other and date, although it's a very bumpy ride.
• Jenny's Wedding: Obliquely discussed by Jenny's parents a couple times. Her mom wonders whether she or her girlfriend Kitty will wear a suit at their wedding (they both want dresses). Jenny's dad also seems to believe that one must be the "man" sexually, which angers Jenny. Both are actually feminine women and Jenny's annoyed by their assumptions.
• The Kids Are All Right. Short-haired and abrasive Nic is clearly the "man" in the relationship, right down to her Tomboyish Name, the fact that she's the primary breadwinner in the family, and that her partner Jules frequently complains about feeling neglected by her. Jules, conversely, is long-haired, slightly flaky—Nic cites six jobs or endeavors that she's taken on over the years—and as the neglected "woman" eventually has an affair.
• The Killing of Sister George features the butch June "George" Buckridge with the femme Alice 'Childie' McNaught and Mercy Croft, the butch trying to break them up.
• Renato the Manly Gay and Albin the drag queen in La Cage aux folles (1978).
• Legend (2015): Ronnie is very much a manly gay man, while his lover Mad Teddy has quite the camp manner, though both are no one to mess with as they're crazed gangsters. The other men he sleeps with are also more effeminate pretty boys.
• Lost and Delirious: Paulie and Tori, respectively.
• Love Is Not Perfect: Elena is an elegant feminine bisexual. Adriana, who is bisexual as well, has a mild goth style and tomboy air. They become lovers.
• Maggie & Annie: Maggie is a Butch Lesbian and Annie's initially got more conventional looks, getting into a relationship with her. Annie eventually copies her short haircut, though she never becomes butch to this degree.
• Margarita: Margarita has long hair and wears more feminine clothing. Her girlfriend (later fiancée) Jane has short hair and more masculine clothing. Otherwise however they aren't very different.
• My Animal: Heather is mildly butch in her style. Jonny has a far more feminine look in comparison with her. Both girls soon fall for each other.
• The New Mutants: There's a mild example with Dani and Rahne. Dani has long hair and a pretty average style, Rahne's short-haired with boyish clothes. Otherwise though neither is that butch or femme.
• The Novice: Alex, a bisexual woman, has fairly average looks and dates Butch Lesbian Dani.
• Out at the Wedding has a woman pretending to be a lesbian because she's afraid her family won't accept her boyfriend because he's black. Alex ends up invoking this when she pays a butch lesbian to act like her girlfriend. The true example is Risa and Alex's sister, Jeannie. Her recently-married sister turns out to be in the closet and is using her husband as a beard. Jeannie ends up falling for her sister's "girlfriend" and Risa, in turn, falls for her back.
• Princess Cyd: Katie is a mildly butch lesbian, with the feminine Cyd (though she's bi).
• Rafiki: Kena is more on the butch end of the spectrum and Ziki tends to be much more feminine. The police later ask them mockingly when under arrest which one is "the man."
• Riot Girls: Scratch and Nat are both punk girls, with differing styles/personalities despite that. The first is a mohawk-wearing, aggressive butch lesbian, while Nat has a slightly more femme look (e.g. her long hair) and milder personality.
• Room in Rome: The video we see of Alba's partner indicates she has a more feminine style, while Alba dresses fairly masculine. It's also implied that Natasha, who's even more feminine, may get into a more serious relationship with her, but it isn't confirmed. At the very least, they're together throughout the film.
• Sheroes: Butch Lesbian Ryder and Lipstick Lesbian Daisy are a couple, secretly at first.
• Show Me Love: Agnes is a tomboy lesbian with a crush on Elin, who seems to be a straight Girly Girl initially. Elin then falls for Agnes too though. At the end, they become each other's girlfriends.
• Signature Move: Zaynab is a Butch Lesbian, and becomes a couple Alma, who's pretty feminine compared with her. Initially though they resist having an official relationship.
• The Stepford Wives: The 2004 remake introduces the gay couple made up of Straight Gay Jerry and Camp Gay Roger. In contrast to the Stepford program giving the wives a Girliness Upgrade, it makes Roger more conformist.
• They/Them (2022):
  • Butch bisexual Veronica and Lipstick Lesbian Kim become a couple.
  • In their final scene, Manly Gay Stu and Camp Gay Toby have some Ship Tease.
• To Catch a Killer (2023): Lammark and his husband Gavin. Lammark is an FBI investigator while Gavin appears to either work from home or as some kind of academic, having dinner ready for him when he arrives. Gavin also appears to be a lot sassier and more idealistic compared to Lammark's gruff, analytical character.
• Tomboy: Laure pretends she's a boy, falls for a far more feminine girl named Lisa and they hit it off. The ending is ambiguous. Laure's gender gets revealed and Lisa is initially upset, however, they appear to start a friendship afterward. It's also possible that Laure may be transgender, subverting the trope if so.
• V for Vendetta: Valerie and Ruth, the sole queer couple shown in the film, are a slight example of this. The latter cross-dresses when we first see her while having short hair later and more masculine clothing. Valerie is highly feminine, dressing mostly in dresses with long hair.
• What Keeps You Alive: In a downplayed example, Jules is masculine in her style, with short hair and men's tops. Jackie on the other hand wears her hair long and has slightly more feminine clothing. However, aside from that, they don't fall into this very heavily.
• When Evil Calls: Kirsty is a short-haired tomboy who's basically The Lad-ette, while her girlfriend Molly has very feminine looks along with her demure, regal mannerisms.
• The World Unseen: Amina is a tomboy who always wears shirts and trousers (when not pressured into wearing feminine clothing by family) while being an independent, bold woman. She's also running a business, which was considered a male activity when it's set. Miriam, her secret lover, is a dutiful housewife who is submissive and shy, only ever wearing dresses.
• Yes or No: Girly Pie and masculine Kim gradually become a couple, realizing they like girls from each other. Some other couples with the same dynamic appear briefly in the background too.
• Yves Saint Laurent is a biopic focusing on the love affair between effete fashion designer Yves and his Straight Gay lover and business partner Pierre.

Literature

• The first novel in Katherine V. Forrest's Kate Delafield detective series, Amateur City, has the very Butch Lesbian Kate starting a relationship with Lipstick Lesbian Aimee, and feeling some genuine identity disorientation when she finds herself bottoming to Aimee in bed and enjoying it.
• Black Dogs: Short-haired, leather-clad elven swordswoman Sinai is in a relationship with Jacyl, also an elf, who has her hair long, wears dresses, and likes to buy clothes, among other pursuits more traditionally feminine.
• The Chronicles of Dorsa: Tasia, a feminine bisexual princess, becomes a couple with Joslyn, her butch lesbian bodyguard.
• The Day of the Jackal: (written in the 1970s, set in the 1960s). One scene is in a gay bar in Paris, where "nances" sit at the bar and wait to be cruised by "butches."
• Dragonvarld: Melisande is a more feminine woman who usually wears rich gowns who's described as soft due to having sedentary, more intellectual pursuits. It's revealed early on that her lover is Bellona, commander of the warrior women stationed at the monastery to guard it, who is described as slim, strong and muscular, wearing armor mostly.
• In the Emberverse, Tiphaine d'Ath, who as a leading knight of the Portland Protective Association favors short hair and masculine-style clothing, is partnered with the exceedingly feminine style-setter and noted beauty Delia.
• Girls Don't Hit: Joss pegs one half of a female couple early on as the "butch" one (there isn't much explicit about them to support it though). She also presents herself in a slightly more butch manner at one point when out with Echo while seducing a target.
• Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating: Ishu is short-haired and doesn't really care about her appearance, dressing casually (though she will dress up on special occasions) while showing no interest in feminine things. Hani on the other hand has long hair, dresses in a fashionable girly way, and shows many feminine interests. They get together, first in a fake relationship but then for real.
• Last Night at the Telegraph Club: Drag king Tommy Andrews and femme Lana Jackson live together, Lily finds out. She meets several other butch-femme couples too. Lily (femme) at the end is indicated to maybe get together again with Kath, who's by then become butch as well.
• Malazan Book of the Fallen: Adjunct Tavore Paran, who is described as short-haired, plainly dressed, and plain looking, and her tawny-haired lover T'amber, described as the World's Most Beautiful Woman and who is literally the goddess Eres'al. Played With, in that of the two, T'amber is the better fighter.
• Subverted with cousins Rei and Yoshino from Maria Watches Over Us. Rei is a tall girl with Boyish Short Hair who is into kendo, while Yoshino is a short girl who has a heart condition and wears her long hair in braids. When it comes to their actual personalities, however, Yoshino is the loud and more tomboyish one of the two.
• A Master of Djinn: Fatma likes to wear really nice Western men's suits with a bowler hat and cane, eschewing traditional women's clothing of Egypt, including hijab, while having a job too that's conventionally male as a detective. On the other hand, her lover Siti is more feminine, though she does have short hair, wearing beautiful, elegant and expensive dresses with a casually graceful air.
• Minority Monsters: Baroness Camp Von Glamor the Lesbian Harpy and Gondul the Gay Valkyrie.
• Though it's not explicitly stated, housemates Misses Murgatroyd and Hinchcliffe from A Murder Is Announced fit this trope, with Hinchcliffe being the butch and Murgatroyd being the femme.
• Of Fire and Stars: Princesses Dennaleia, a very feminine lesbian, and Mare, a firm tomboy who's bisexual, become a couple.
• Patience and Sarah is a historical novel about two women in 19th century America who fall in love. Patience is a traditionally feminine well-to-do woman and her lover Sarah is a scandalous figure who wears men's clothes and does men's work. The two play around with the gender roles associated with this dynamic. Patience is a few years older than Sarah and is more assertive, while Sarah is naive and sensitive. Patience is the one who usually takes the lead and she's prone to getting a rise out of Sarah. Near the end of the novel, Sarah is the one that has an unfortunate encounter with a handsy man, with Patience being the one to rescue her before it gets more aggressive.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: Renly Baratheon is a very manly-looking guy who acts quite masculinely aside from a taste in fine clothing, while his lover Loras Tyrell is a fey Pretty Boy. However, this is toyed with a bit. Loras is more reckless, impulsive and the better fighter of the two. Renly, on the other hand, is more diplomatic and cerebral.
• Star Wars: Aftermath: From what's described, Esmelle and Shirene, her wife, are an example. Esmelle is long-haired, thin and her manner is more girlish. Shirene is short-haired and bulky with a more practical, down to earth personality.
• Tell Me How You Really Feel: Tomboy Rachel and Girly Girl Sana have a mutual attraction all throughout the book, until at last the pair act on their feelings, indicating they become a couple at the end.
• The Teresa Knight Trilogy: Straight Gay Carl was with Camp Gay Andre, whom Teresa explicitly identifies as the "feminine" partner in the relationship.
• The 1928 novel The Well of Loneliness is about a woman named Stephen who is diagnosed with "gender inversion" (an outdated 'disorder' that theorized gay people are mentally the opposite gender). Stephen falls in love with a nurse named Mary while working together during The Great War.

Live-Action TV

• 13 Reasons Why: Tony, a greaser with a leather jacket, violent past, and anger issues (although he's a Nice Guy), used to date Ryan, a vain Camp Gay guy who likes poetry.
• Accused (2023): In "Robyn's Story" Jamie, a closeted man with a conventional look, dates flamboyant gay drag queen Robyn.
• Batwoman (2019): Kate and Sophie were an example during their relationship. The former is quite butch in her looks, while Sophie's very feminine. The same goes for Kate with Julia and Reagan, who are both very feminine too.
• Betty: Kirt dates a very femme girl, while she's a Butch Lesbian herself.
• The Boys (2019): "We Gotta Go Now" has this enforced In-Universe by the marketing team of Vought that, for PR reasons, think Queen Maeve and her ex-girlfriend Elena should be respectively portrayed as a Lipstick Lesbian and a Butch Lesbian, "like Ellen and Portia." Even though Queen Maeve is not even a lesbian. That goes without mentioning Vought's decision to switch Maeve's so far largely tomboyish image into that of a Lipstick Lesbian, rather than simply handing that role off to Elena and at least avoid a jarring shift in their marketing. Instead it's proposed for Elena, who is more of a Lipstick Lesbian, to make herself over as a Butch Lesbian, which she of course refuses.
• Carnival Row: Vignette and Tourmaline dated in the past. Later they rekindle their relationship and marry. They're a Tomboy and Girly Girl pair.
• Cold Case: In "Best Friends" Butch Lesbian Billie and Lipstick Lesbian Rose become a couple.
• Control Z: Alex has a slightly masculine look. Her girlfriend is more feminine.
• Conversations with Friends: It's downplayed, but tomboy lesbian Bobby and femme bisexual Francis used to date before becoming just friends. They rekindle their relationship later in the finale.
• Counterpart (2018): Butch Lesbian hitwoman Baldwin dates Lipstick Lesbian barista Greta (who was unaware of her profession at first).
• Daisy Jones & The Six: Simone has a more feminine style, and starts seeing Butch Lesbian Bernie.
• Das Boot (2018): Carla is a bit butch, and her lover Simone classically feminine.
• Dates: Erica is quite feminine while Kate's mildly butch in their clothing and mannerisms. The pair hit it off and become a couple.
• Degrassi: The Next Generation:
  • Marco (a short Pretty Boy who loves pop music, fashion, and musicals) and his boyfriend Dylan (a well-built athlete).
  • Another prominent romantic relationship was between fashionable Lovable Alpha Bitch Paige and tough-as-nails delinquent/bad girl Alex.
• Deputy: Butch Lesbian Bishop dates Lipstick Lesbian Genevieve. They break up as Genevieve doesn't accept Bishop's coming out as nonbinary. Bishop moves on and dates Julie, another Lipstick Lesbian.
• Euphoria: Rue is pretty tomboyish, compared with Jules's highly feminine attire and looks.
• Everything Now:
  • Mia is a fairly tomboyish girl, with short hair and grungy, boyish clothes. Both the girls she's linked to, Carli and Alison, are quite feminine.
  • Camp Gay boy Will later becomes involved with more masculine bisexual boy Theo.
• Extraordinary Attorney Woo: Episode 2's client is revealed to be a closet lesbian in a Secret Relationship with her "best friend." The client is feminine and has long hair and makeup, while her girlfriend is a suit-wearing Bifauxnen with a short haircut.
• Feel Good: Conventionally feminine George and really boyish Mae.
• Fellow Travelers:
  • Straight Gay man Marcus and Drag Queen Frankie date in the early 1950s.
  • Jokingly invoked by Timothy Laughlin when he and his ex-boyfriend Hawkins Fuller are at a fancy fundraising gala while attired in tuxedos. Although they're both Straight Gays, Tim is a Pretty Boy while Hawk is Tall, Dark, and Handsome, so Tim recognizes that some people who see them together might assume that he's the "feminine" partner.
    Tim: It feels like we're on a date.
    Hawk: I should warn you, I may make a pass.
    Tim: A girl can hope, can't she?
• First Kill: Girly Juliette and tomboyish Cal become a couple.
• Gentleman Jack pairs the outrageously masculine (for the time period) Anne Lister with the very feminine Ann Walker.
• Subverted on Glee with Kurt and Blaine. It would seem at first glance that Kurt is the fem partner and Blaine the masc. Kurt may be more outwardly flamboyant, but Blaine isn't quite Straight Gay himself, and their personalities, mannerisms, and interests ultimately have more similarities than differences.
• In a The Golden Girls episode in which Blanche and Dorothy are mistaken for a lesbian couple, Blanche is all too happy to declare that she handles the cooking and cleaning, while Dorothy "takes out the garbage."
• Gossip Girl (2021): Max's dads are an example before breaking up. Roy is a Straight Gay average guy, and Gideon's a Camp Gay crossdresser with long hair.
• Gotham Knights (2023): A downplayed example as femme lesbian Stephanie and tomboyish bisexual Harper get together near the end of the first season. Neither is that pronounced however in their style.
• The Haunting of Bly Manor: The feminine Dani falls in love with and ultimately marries Jamie, the more masculine gardener of Bly Manor (both are lesbians).
• Hightown: Jackie is quite butch, and her ex-girlfriend was very feminine. She also knows another female couple who have this dynamic. Later she's also with Leslie, who's more feminine as well (although the contrast isn't as strong).
• In the Dark: Jess, who's feminine, and her second girlfriend Sterling, who has very butch looks in comparison.
• Intergalactic: Butch Lesbian Verona and Ash, who's a more feminine bisexual woman, get involved over the course of the first season.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt are depicted as the "bride" and "groom" when Louis is held by Lestat in a Bridal Carry after their Metaphorical Marriage, plus Louis moves into Lestat's townhouse, which is analogous to a wife relocating to her husband's home after their wedding (this was standard practice during The Edwardian Era). Louis is the younger and more slender Pretty Boy of the two men, with his beauty being remarked upon In-Universe, whereas Lestat is more conventionally handsome with a square jawline and broader shoulders. During lovemaking, it's generally Louis who's the bottom and Lestat who's the top, and because the latter is mentoring the former in vampirism, Lestat and Louis are also Lover and Beloved. Although Lestat is only slightly larger and taller than Louis (Sam Reid is 178 cm / 5'10" while Jacob Anderson 175 cm / 5'9"), his vampire strength is much greater than that of his boyfriend due to Lestat being a lot older, so in a fight, Lestat can easily turn Louis into a bloody pulp, but the latter can't even leave a scratch on the former. Claudia dubs Louis as the "housewife" when she's irritated at how passive Louis is in the face of Lestat's more aggressive personality. There's also the gossip around town that Lestat is Louis' Sugar Daddy despite the latter being rich in his own right, a rumour that Louis never openly refutes even though it's emasculating for him to be perceived as the "kept woman." In "The Thing Lay Still", they dance together at the Mardi Gras ball with Lestat leading and Louis in the female position. Lestat intends to forge his own Vampire's Harem with Louis as the male equivalent of his Top Wife and Antoinette Brown as his second wife, who was previously his mistress and whom Lestat has turned into a vampire.
• Intimate: Gruff, emotionally unavailable Leo is in a relationship with the feminine Florian. Their roles in the bedroom are also clearly defined at Leo's insistence. After their straight friends tell them they are considering switching things up in the bedroom with her pegging him, a fight ensues when Leo outright calls Florian the '"woman" in the relationship.
  Leo: I don't mean biologically speaking, just… of course we're both men… but on a social...
  Florian: …level we're a gay couple between two men.
  Leo: …in which you're the woman.
  Florian: I'm not a woman! And I'm not gonna turn into one because, I dunno, I'm letting you pay for my coffee once in a while… or because I'm bossy? Is it that? Cause you're the top you’re the "male part"? If Isabella takes Max from behind, does that make her the man in their relationship then?
  Leo: In that moment, maybe, yeah.
  Florian: Is this the only way you can feel comfortable with being gay?
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia parodies the idea in "Mac Fights Gay Marriage." Charlie and Frank are considering entering a domestic partnership for health benefits, but neither wants to be "the woman" in the relationship. They decide to consult Mac's ex Carmen (the only LGBT person they know), who frustratedly explains to them that neither of them would be "the woman" because they're both men.
  Frank: Two dudes getting married? That doesn't seem very gay.
• Jupiter's Legacy: Jacinda is a short-haired tomboy, her girlfriend Gabriella has long hair and more of a feminine look.
• Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire: Arcadius (Manly Gay) and Bruce (Camp Gay), before the former was killed.
• Law & Order: The episode "Married With Children" involves a woman being tried for the murder of her ex-wife, who had sole custody of their daughter after their divorce. When it's mentioned that the defendant was a stay-at-home mom and the victim the family breadwinner, the judge makes a snide comment about not expecting a gay couple to fit such a "traditional" dynamic.
• A League of Their Own (2022):
  • Butch Lesbian Vi, the gay bar's owner, is married to Edie, a Lipstick Lesbian (unofficially, this being the 1940s).
  • After adopting her butch style, Max begins a relationship with the more feminine lesbian S (Esther).
  • Lupe, a Butch Lesbian, dates the pitcher of the Comets, a Lipstick Lesbian.
• Lip Service:
  • Cat, a Lipstick Lesbian, seems to prefer soft butch women, dating Sam and Frankie (who both qualify).
  • Tess, also a Lipstick Lesbian, dates Fin (a proud Lesbian Jock).
• The L Word:
  • Shane is bifauxnen and always dates more feminine women.
  • Jenny is pretty girly and thus had this dynamic with the very butch Moira (before his transition to Max anyway). She also later dates Shane for a short period.
  • Mostly girlish Alice has a relationship with tough Butch Lesbian soldier Tasha.
  • Elegant, high-class femme Helena hooks up with her intimidating butch cellmate Dusty while in jail.
• The Mick: Sabrina (a girl with long hair who likes to wear blouses, skirts, or dresses pretty often, while having traditionally feminine interests) is with Alexis, a short-haired lesbian jock in "The Juice" who's only shown wearing her uniform and workout clothing. They don't last long, however.
• Motherland: Fort Salem: Raelle is a short-haired, taciturn tomboy. Scylla is long-haired, having a more average feminine appearance. They become lovers at Fort Salem during basic training.
• In the Murdoch Mysteries two parter "Do the Right Thing", the Closed Circle of the Brakenreids' ship back to Toronto includes two women travelling together. Caroline is tall and wearing a fashionable Edwardian summer dress, Penny is stockier and, while also well-dressed for a boat trip, is in a men's cream suit. When Margaret asks them about their relationship to the murder victim, they say he was always making advances but was "not our type". Margaret later tells her husband that she thinks they might be sapphists.
• The O.C.: Marissa, a privileged rich girl, had a relationship with Alex, a bad girl bartender.
• Once Upon a Time: Ruby and Dorothy. Downplayed as they're both Action Girls, but Ruby (who wears stylish clothes and makeup and has salon-perfect hair at all times) presents as much more traditionally feminine than Dorothy, who wears a practical and utilitarian dress, ties her hair back in a simple ponytail and is generally rougher and more unkempt.
• One of Us is Lying:
  • Cooper is more Manly Gay and a jock. His boyfriend Kris is a bit camp; he's flamboyant and wears earrings.
  • Janae is a Butch Lesbian who starts dating Maeve, a much more feminine bisexual girl.
• Only Murders in the Building:
  • Mabel, who favors a feminine style, is revealed to be bisexual as she dates tomboy lesbian Alice in season 2.
  • Camp Gay Howard and more Straight Gay Jonathan get together in Season 2.
• Orange Is the New Black:
  • Nicky and Lorna are Friends with Benefits (though Lorna later cuts off the benefits). The former is a loudmouthed Lad-ette with Messy Hair and the personality of a frat boy, the latter is a sweet, cheerful, idealistic, always dolled-up Girly Girl.
  • A downplayed example with Piper, a privileged, somewhat naive, self-described WASP, and her regular Love Interest Alex, a street-smart Aloof Dark-Haired Girl and former drug dealer who grew up poor.
  • Piper also serves as the feminine to her Love Interest in season 3, Stella, an androgynous girl with Boyish Short Hair and many tattoos.
  • Poussey Washington is a Sassy Black Woman who keeps her hair buzzed. Her looks and mannerisms are conventionally unfeminine. Her German girlfriend who we see in flashbacks, however, was very feminine. She later dates Brook Soso, a bubbly, insecure Granola Girl.
  • Season 5 has Big Boo, a Brawn Hilda who is by far the most butch character on the show, having a sexual relationship with Linda, a very elegant businesswoman (who is pretending to be an inmate.)
  • Season 6 has the long-haired, conventionally feminine Daya romantically involved with the short-haired pimp/drug dealer Daddy who is clearly a Butch Lesbian (although for Daya it's Situational Sexuality, and Daddy may be transgender).
  • Nicky briefly has a relationship with Egyptian ICE detainee Shani, who's very feminine.
• The Pact: The Butch Lesbian Cat (who has short hair, masculine dress sense, and an Ambiguous Criminal History) enters a relationship with the feminine bisexual Tish.
• Pandora: Jax and Cordelia, her ex, are a mild example. The former has long hair and is more prone to wear stylish dresses. Cordelia has short hair and is more tomboyish in her clothing style. She'll wear a dress at formal affairs though.
• Discussed and defied in the first episode of Queer Eye (2018), where the heterosexual Tom asks the gay Bobby if he's the husband or the wife in his marriage. Jonathan and Bobby point out that it's a misconception, a little sexist, and that lines between masculinity and femininity are becoming increasingly blurred, even with straight couples.
  Bobby: We both wear the pants.
• Tony and Steve from Reaper are two gay demons who have been together since before they fell from Heaven. While both are pretty campy, Tony is the more aggressive of the two and is more traditionally masculine, while Steve wears bright pastels and is the more effeminate and levelheaded of the two sticking with the original plan of simply being good when Tony and the other reformed demons instead try to violently slay the Devil, ascending back to angelhood in the process.
• RFDS (2021): Matty isn't very campy, but he is a flight nurse rather than a doctor and is nonconfrontational and a little neurotic by nature, and does a drag act in episode 8. He starts a relationship with Ferret, a Manly Gay hunter he meets on the job with Eliza.
• The Rising: Neve is a short-haired young woman with masculine clothing who's a biker. She and Alex, a woman around her age with long hair and a more feminine dress style (but not by much), become a couple (in spite of Neve being a ghost while this happens).
• Riverdale: Kevin plays up the Camp Gay and Gay Best Friend stereotypes. So far his main love interests were Moose (a macho Armored Closet Gay football player) and Joaquin (a member of a biker gang).
• Roswell, New Mexico: Season 2 sees Isobel, who's fairly feminine (with long hair, wearing makeup, jewelry, skirts, etc often) date a more butch female bartender who has short hair and more masculine attire.
• Schitt's Creek: The effete, style-obsessed, high-strung, and woefully nonathletic David is paired with the Straight Gay Patrick, who was closeted for most of his life.
• The Shannara Chronicles: Tomboy Eretria is with Girly Girl Lyria in Season Two.
• Spartacus: Blood and Sand uses this sometimes. The first example is butch gladiator Barca and gentle slave Alexios, which ends tragically when Barca is murdered and Alexios is unable to defend himself from being repeatedly raped by another Jerkass gladiator, driving him to kill himself. In the latter part of the story, hot-headed macho gladiator turned rebel Agron is paired with the gentler, calmer, and less intimidating, though still pretty deadly, Nasir. Other gay pairings in the show don't have this arrangement.
• Swarm: Dre, after adopting the name Tony and a more masculine look (short hair, T-shirts, jeans, boxers) becomes involved with Rashida, a feminine woman with long hair who wears fairly revealing blouses or dresses.
• S.W.A.T. (2017): In "Never Again" Chris, a fairly butch woman, is dating Kira, who's quite femme. In an unusual example, both are bisexual.
• Switched at Birth: Natalie is fairly feminine, in contrast to her girlfriend Hilary, who's more masculine and has short hair. The latter pointedly refuses to wear a dress for the prom, going in a tuxedo instead. They get barred as a result, because their school dress code requires girls wear dresses. In protest, they stage their own prom dance on the lawn outside with friends.
• Tipping the Velvet (2002): A lot of the lesbian couples the series display this dynamic. Here it's shown as working-class butch women who are in men's clothing beside aristocratic rich feminine lesbians wearing fine dresses, hats, etc., the accepted high society attire of the day.
• Twenties: Hattie's been with Lorraine and Ida B. While she's very butch, to the point of being mistaken for male, both are quite feminine.
• Utopia Falls: Reserved and more girly Sage is slowly drawn into a romance with bold, tomboyish Brooklyn during the first season.
• Vida:
  • Vidalia was feminine, while her wife Eddy is really butch.
  • In the second season, feminine Emma gets involved with Nico, who's butch.
• We Are Who We Are: Discussed by Richard while speaking with his wife Jenny. He claims all same-sex couples must have this dynamic, that it couldn't work anyway else. Sarah and Maggie are an example in terms of their clothing/hairstyles to a mild degree, though otherwise don't qualify.
• The Wilds: Mildly butch lesbian Toni and feminine Shelby officially get together in Season 2 once Shelby's admitted her attraction to women. Toni's ex Regan was also more femme, we see in flashbacks.
• In Will & Grace, Will is the manly man to Jack's feminine man. Behind the scenes, the actor who played Will won the part over an actual gay man who was perceived as too manly to be a convincing gay man (which is Hilarious in Hindsight, because the actor in question was John Barrowman).
• The Wire Kima is a Lad-ette and her wife is a ladylike academic. Omar's first onscreen partner, Brandon, is very effeminate, but later seasons has him mostly paired with other Straight Gay men.
• Yellowjackets: Van is a butch lesbian who has short hair and masculine clothing, while her girlfriend in the 1990s, Taissa, wears her hair long initially with a more feminine dress style.

Music Videos

• The official lyric video "Unconditionally" by Katy Perry features a feminine-looking woman singing the lyrics to a more masculine-looking woman, who is played by androgynous model Erika Linder.
• In Kid Moxie's "Better Than Electric" video, the femme Elena Charbila dances with the androgynous Olga Sokolova.

Theater

• Downplayed with The Children's Hour and its second film adaptation. It's not noticeable due to Values Dissonance; however, Martha was considered tomboyish for the time. Her Ambiguously Bi best friend and crush Karen is more of a girly girl compared to her. The two are Mistaken for Romance by a student, which causes a scandal. Martha is very closeted about her sexuality and ends up Driven to Suicide before she gets to even date a woman.
• RENT has the Straight Gay-bordering-on-Manly Gay Collins with the flamboyant, more feminine queer character Angel (whose gender identity is not really clarified).

Video Games

• Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk: Regina's boss Glide tells her that she won't find a husband if she carries on with her hard-drinking, monster-fighting lifestyle. Regina replies that she can always marry Ayesha. However, this is an Atelier Series game: Regina's behaviour may be in-universe butch, but visually this would be a very Feminine/Feminine couple.
• Zig-zagged in Cyberpunk 2077:
  • Male V's Gay Option is Kerry Eurodyne, who himself blends a lot of masculine and camp traits. V can be made to look either very campy, with long, colorful hair, makeup, feminine clothing, and long, painted nails, or almost indistinguishable from a perceived straight man. You can't, however, make him act in a camp way. Behavior and personality-wise, Kerry will usually be a more feminine one, due to his leaner build, Guyliner, slight lisp in some dubs, and penchant for drama, contrasting V's more stoic nature and more muscular build. While Kerry is fully capable of protecting himself, he has nothing on V, who works as a mercenary and is practically a One-Man Army.
  • Female V's Gay Option is Judy Alvarez, who, likewise, cannot be neatly put in either the "butch" or "femme" box. Female V can also be anywhere from a typical butch, to a very feminine woman. Judy's more introverted and works as a techie, and while she can take a more active role, she prefers to stay on the sidelines. V, on the other hand, is a mercenary One-Man Army like her male counterpart, with a Ladette personality. Worth noting that Judy's past girlfriend was a very femme Maiko, and it's implied she was in love with the Femme Fatale Evelyn, making her the more masculine one, with her more tomboyish clothing, penchant for working with machines and fiery outbursts.
• Dead Estate: Cordelia and Fuji are the game's Official Couple, with Cordelia being a curvy, large-breasted Hot Witch and Fuji being an incredibly tall and ripped Amazonian Beauty.
• The Devil in Me features one of Supermassive Games' first ever confirmed same-gender romantic couples, pairing the Butch Lesbian Jamie with the Lipstick Lesbian Erin. It's quite the contrast to the studio's first potential queer romance in The Quarry (which came out just a few months prior), in which Ryan and his Gay Option love interest Dylan are both very much presented as low-key Straight Gay (or bi) guys with no especially stereotypical behaviours of any sort.
• Dragon Age II lets you play with this. A male Hawke (especially the default with the beard and rugged look) seems pretty "butch" compared to Fenris or Anders (your uncle will even say that he doesn't have to ask "which one of you is the girl" if you're romancing one of them). Hawke can be designed and played much less butch, but the male love interests are pretty no matter how you swing it.
• Dragon Age: Inquisition:
  • If neither Camp Gay Dorian nor Manly Pansexual Iron Bull is romanced by the Inquisitor, they will eventually fall for each other.
  • Also, since the Inquisitor's looks and personality are entirely up to the player, any gay or lesbian relationship they pursue can end up like this.
• Haven (2020): In both same-sex romance options, Kay is the emotionally vulnerable, animal-loving biologist and expert cook, while Yu is the more hard-nosed mechanic. Their appearances also invoke this, albeit the other way around; Kay is taller, slightly more muscular, and has short hair, while Yu is shorter, fairer-skinned, and has long, flowing hair tied with a ribbon.^note It's worth noting that in the original release before the gender options were patched in, Kay was male and Yu was female, giving them non-stereotypical interests but a fairly standard difference in frames for their respective genders which then carried over into the same-gender romance versions.
• The Last of Us Part II: Ellie and her girlfriend, Dina, with Ellie being more masculine and Dina more feminine. Ellie is a Butch Lesbian, with oversized clothes and shoulder-length hair (with some kept in a bun), while Dina has much longer hair and somewhat more fitting clothes. Dina is a Friend to All Children who loves romance books, cats, and wants to settle down on a farm one day, while Ellie prefers comic books, dogs, and doesn't seem to be as family-oriented. After the timeskip in the epilogue, we see Dina washing dishes and hanging out laundry to dry, while Ellie is tasked with herding their small herd of sheep, and writes about hunting a boar in her journal. Their hobbies somewhat subvert this: Ellie likes to draw, play on her guitar and write lyrics, while Dina has a penchant for electronic devices and likes to tinker.
• Life Is Strange franchise Downplays this, but it's still present.
  • Life Is Strange: Both Max and Chloe are rather tomboyish. As kids, they played pirates and drew superhero comics. Chloe is a tall, aggressive ladette punk girl with short blue hair who steals a gun, and is quick to get physically aggressive. For her part, Max goes by a gender-neutral nickname, is almost always seen wearing unisex clothing, "doesn't get" makeup, and wears a loose, jaw-length bob. However, she's shorter, more sensitive and supportive than Chloe and even likes going to tea rooms with her friend Kate.
  • Life Is Strange: Before the Storm: In this prequel, Chloe is still a rather butch punk rocker, though not quite as hard as she gets to be three years later, in the original game. Her romantic partner in this game, Rachel, is a Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak. She wears her hair long, shows an affinity for fashion and cosmetics, and has a much girlier room than Chloe. However, her personal fashion style is quite grunge, preferring torn flannel shirts and jeans to more feminine attire.
  • Life Is Strange: True Colors: Alex and her Gay Option love interest Steph are both for the most part tomboyish women with similar Nice Girl temperaments. However, Alex notably dons a skirt for the spring festival where she can ask either Steph or Ryan out on a date (which Steph comments on with some surprise, since she wasn't aware Alex even owned a skirt), while Steph is never seen wearing anything other than trousers or shorts. If you choose to hook them up together, Alex being significantly shorter than Steph will become more obvious whenever they kiss or hug, which also plays into this trope.
• Mass Effect:
  • A lesbian Commander Shepard is always the "butch" one in every relationship, whether it be with Liara, Kelly, Samantha, Diana, or Samara. Although the last one is a Lady of War only slightly more femme than Shepard.
  • Downplayed with a gay male Commander Shepard. Kaidan Alenko and Steve Cortez are not effeminate by any means, but Shepard himself is a tough-as-nails Manly Gay and there's still a clear Sensitive Guy and Manly Man dynamic.
• The Outer Worlds: Parvati sees herself and Junlei as potentially being one:
  Parvati: Will she think I'm as pretty as I think she's handsome?
• Pokémon X and Y features a subtextual version between Brains and Brawn Frank and Sly. Psychics are effeminate-looking young men while Black Belts are muscular and masculine. Frank and Sly have some heavy Ho Yay in their dialogue.
• In the Distant Finale game of Power Instinct series, Groove on Fight, there's Rudolph Garthheimer (selectable character and also Sub-Boss) and Damian Shade (NPC in Arcade version and Secret Character in the Sega Saturn port), which also are the first gay couple in the series.
• SIGNALIS: In the game's final chapter, Elster is revealed to have been in a relationship with her Gestalt Officer Ariane. Elster is a cold and stoic Robot Soldier, while Ariane is a warm and passionate human non-combatant.

Web Animation

• The Acorn Princess follows two gay couples—the titular princess and her knight Nutalia, and the Flower Prince and his lover Beetle. Nutalia and Beetle are the more masculine of the pair, the former being a coolheaded and dashing figure while Beetle is muscular and boisterous, while Acorn and Flower are more soft-spoken and sensitive.
• The page image is from Harry Partridge's "Stephen The Lesbian".

Webcomics

• Bernard and Ward in Angel Down form one of these, with Ward being Straight Gay bordering on Manly Gay, Meanwhile Bernard is a full-blown male Meganekko.
• Crimson Dark: Kari is revealed as being a lesbian, and fairly masculine in her appearance. Ren, though she also has boyish short hair, is the more feminine partner, somewhat girlish in comparison.
• Darkest Night: Butch Lesbian Mags is secretly having sex with Ava, a more femme girl who has a boyfriend. Later she gets involved with her feminine trans woman friend Nessa after she and Ava break up.
• In El Goonish Shive, both Ellen and Nanase and Catalina and Rhoda. The former pair have shifted over time as to who is more masculine/feminine but they're rarely equally butch/femme. The latter pair are clearly butch/femme with Catalina being a Tomboy and Rhoda being more of a Girly Girl.
• Everything is Fine features same-sex couple Sophie and Kate. Sophie wears a tuxedo to the trial, while her wife Kate wears a dress.
• In Friendly Hostility, Bootsie asks Collin and Fox at one point which one of them plays the woman. Collin is incensed and chews her out, saying that a gay couple doesn't need one member to be more feminine than the other and that his love of cock has no impact on his masculinity. Fox, however, correctly guesses that Bootsie was actually referring to the plaid skirt she found while doing their laundry and explains that Collin sometimes likes to roleplay as a slutty Catholic schoolgirl while they're having sex. So Collin is more feminine than Fox, but not by that much considering that he's also an aspiring dictator who Hates Everyone Equally.
• Learning with Manga! FGO features this duo in the form of the Male Protagonist and Astolfo, the romantic counterparts to Gudako and Mash. The Male Protagonist is perpetually horny (a trait usually associated with overeager boyish types) and fairly average in masculine looks, while his crush Astolfo is more subdued, wears a lot of reds and pinks, and is pretty to the point of borderline femininity. Later strips would show that the Male Protagonist invokes the trope since androgynous boys (and Ambiguous Gender Identity people in general) are his type.
  • The one time we see Dr. Roman in any kind of pairing, he (a passive long-haired Pretty Boy in canon) is forcibly paired up with the Berserker from Fate/stay night (a beefy, masculine brute).
  • The Children Kingdom invokes this with their designated "parents," as they choose Altera (a warrior with anger issues whose historical counterpart was male) to be their father and Helena and later Mash (both level-headed and somewhat calm women) to be their mother. Appearance-wise, however, all the girls in question are femme.
• Lovebot's leading couple consists of Xada, who while having luxurious long hair is muscular and has the generally masculine job of robot repair/customization and computer hacking; and Lacey, a sensitive robot who prefers pastel colors and often wears feminine leaning clothing.
• Dillon O'Brien from Ménage à 3 and Sticky Dilly Buns is a flaming Camp Gay character whose partners are usually masculine, Manly Gay, or bisexual characters. These include the promiscuous underwear model Matt and the hunky construction worker Jerzy. It's also made explicit that Dillon "always bottoms."
• Played with in Nortverse's main couple Beverly and Tara. Beverly is a muscle bound Amazonian Beauty and the more dominate partner in the bedroom - but in the way she dresses and in personality, she is the more conventional Girly Girl in the couple, and Tara is more chapstick. They both wore dresses at their wedding.
• Ebony Larsson and Siobhan Pattinson in Outsiders. Based on their personalities and what they wear, it is clear that Ebony is the more masculine of the two, while Siobhan is the more feminine.
• Princess Princess (2012): Tomboy Amira and very girly Sadie become this at the end when they marry.
• Rain:
  • Maria is a tough Tomboy with a Girly Streak while her girlfriend Chanel is an Otaku Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak.
  • Rudy is an effeminate Camp Gay boy with a sassy attitude while his boyfriend Ryan is a Straight Gay whose very laidback.
• Rock and Riot is about two rival Greasers cliques in The '50s. Connie is a cool butch greaser while her girlfriend Carla is a Seemingly-Wholesome '50s Girl. Connie is a lesbian while Carla is a panromantic asexual.
• Sun Jing and Qiu Tong from Their Story. Sun Jing is One Head Taller than Qiu Tong, wears a tie in her Custom Uniform, and is tomboyish while Qiu Tong is more feminine. Official artwork that predates the comic depicts Sun Jing as even more butch, having short hair and wearing more boyish attire. In the webcomic itself, Qiu Tong is initially Oblivious to Love and initially rejects Sun Jing's Love Confession however they end up the Official Couple.
• In Vápnthjófr saga Hillevi is a blacksmith and (retired) warrior, her wife Nanna is a priestess of Freya.

Web Original

• The first game of Roulette Rampage features heavy ship tease between Nabiki Kaname (a tomboy who was raised on a ship and aspires to be more masculine) and Ai Senzaki (a catty and extremely feminine delivery girl). They both are revealed to truly have a thing for each other, but despite how close they got they were never able to confess to each other before Ai's execution in Chapter 3.

Web Video

• Illuminated pairs up the non-actiony and intellectual Jane Porter with the more assertive and trouser-wearing Lady of War Captain Amelia.
• Kontrola:
  • Natalia is a bit of a tomboy, while Majka's quite feminine and they have a long on/off relationship.
  • Sylwia is also friends with lesbian couple Kasia and Areta who fall into this. Kasia is feminine, Areta's a Butch Lesbian judging by her style.
• Out With Dad: Rose has long hair, feminine clothing and acts basically like the straight girls. Her girlfriend New Vanessa (or Nessa) on the other hand has boyish short hair, masculine clothing (she almost invariably wears tank tops) a ton of piercings, and a far more brash personality. In their case, it doesn't work out.
• In Stoneybrook Revisited: A Baby-Sitters Club Fan Series, the tomboyish Kristy is married to the Girly Girl Shannon.
• There Will Be Brawl depicts Captain Falcon as Manly Gay (with a touch of Macho Camp), with Pit as his twinky Camp Gay boyfriend.

Western Animation

• Adventure Time: Marceline and Princess Bubblegum have a lot of Unresolved Sexual Tension, before undergoing a Relationship Upgrade in the finale and later explored in the mini-series special, "Obsidian". Bubblegum is a Tomboy Princess in her own right but leans more towards Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak, while Marceline is a punk rocker who both looks more tomboyish and is more laidback than Princess Bubblegum.
• Amphibia: There's a lot of subtext between Lady Olivia and General Yunan, respectively a Proper Lady who always wears elegant gowns and is very concerned with etiquette, and a Blood Knight who always wears armor and has cropped short hair. After they officially become allies and start getting closer, Yunan calls Olivia "milady" and they're frequently seen Holding Hands. After the Time Skip in the finale, they're shown to have undergone a Relationship Upgrade.
• Clarence: Jeff's moms, EJ is a butch woman and Sue is a femme woman.
• Hazbin Hotel: Played with in regards to girlfriends Charlie and Vaggie. Charlie has a Tomboyish Name, prefers to wear suits, and is a bifauxnen, whereas Vaggie has a more feminine name, wears dresses and hair bows and looks more conventionally feminine. However, Charlie is more soft-spoken, cheerful, and optimistic, while Vaggie is more aggressive, grumpy, and cynical.
• The Legend of Korra: Korra and Asami are a rare example involving two bisexual women. The former is a tomboyish Action Girl while the latter is a Girly Bruiser who always wears makeup. This is pronounced even more in the last season, which is also when they get together, as the former cuts her hair shorter.
• The Loud House: "Singled Out" has Lynn's roller derby friend, Lainey, and her girlfriend, Alice. While both of them indulge in giggly romance, Lainey is still the rowdy, rough sports jock of the two.
• The Owl House: Luz and Amity become this when they start dating in Season 2. The former is a Tomboy with a Girly Streak with Boyish Short Hair and an androgynous appearance. The latter is a Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak who wears more feminine clothing such as skirts and dresses and a pink uniform.
• Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World: Kirsten and her wife Dana. Kirsten dresses in pink overalls while Dana is a self-proclaimed "Jewish American Bulldyke" in a mullet.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power:
  • Spinnerella is more stereotypically feminine, being the kinder, more compassionate member of the pairing, while Netossa is brash and combative. They're unambiguously shown to be in a relationship, and Word of God later clarified that they were married.
  • Downplayed example with Bow's dads. Lance is generally shown to be more emotionally open than the more reserved ex-soldier George; additionally, Lance has long hair while George has short hair and a moustache. That being said, it's not a huge thing; it's just them not having exactly the same personality.
• South Park pairs 10-year-olds Craig Tucker and Tweek Tweak, with Craig having the more stereotypically masculine traits (stoic, stable, doesn't want to talk about his feelings) and Tweek having exaggerated versions of the stereotypically feminine (wildly emotive and worried about everything). When paired, Craig provides encouragement and stability and Tweek gives him something to care about, bringing out the better aspects of both of them.
• Steven Universe:
  • Ruby and Sapphire are Discount Lesbians since they're from a species of alien who have No Biological Sex but are treated as women. Ruby is color-coded with red, has Boyish Short Hair, is Hot-Blooded, and wears martial arts-inspired clothes. Her girlfriend, Sapphire, has long hair, is a calm Proper Lady, color-coded with blue, and dresses like a princess. Invoked and Inverted at their wedding, Sapphire ties her hair back and wears a suit while Ruby is wearing a dress. Their re-fusion in these outfits leads to Garnet wearing a dress-suit hybrid.
  • Pearl and Mystery Girl have an Interspecies Romance, with Pearl as a Discount Lesbian. While Pearl is a sex-less femme-presenting alien, Mystery Girl is a tomboyish punk woman.
• Total Drama: The 2023 reboot has Bowie, a fashionable Camp Gay character and self-proclaimed prom king and queen, function as a Closet Key for Raj, an outgoing and masculine hockey player. The feeling is mutual and the two decide to start a relationship after the show.

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