Masculine Girl Feminine Boy / Live-Action TV

• Several couples in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. but the most glaring one is Kasius and Sinara - so much various character and the two themselves point it out a few times.
• When Rosie O'Donnell hosted SNL in 1994 she did a sketch "The Tomboy & the Sissy" with her as the 'tomboy' and David Spade as the 'sissy.' They are high school outcasts who become friends and help the other become more masculine and feminine.
• Battlestar Galactica: Lee "Apollo" Adama and Kara "Starbuck" Thrace from the rebooted series are an interesting example of how to flip a gender dynamic: it's not so much about the way they look and dress as how they behave with each other. Apollo tends to be the softer, more introspective of the two, while Starbuck is louder, brasher, and more of an alpha than he is. Despite this, no one in-universe sees them as less masculine or less feminine for it.
• Better Call Saul: Jimmy McGill and Kim Wexler. Jimmy is highly emotional and driven by his feelings while Kim is calmer and more rational and prefers to carefully plan a logical solution to a problem. Jimmy is a flamboyant dresser who makes a big effort to disguise his thinning hair while Kim is more practical and low-maintenance, dressing more soberly and sporting a Tomboyish Ponytail. Jimmy also appears to do most of the cooking, while Kim has the more stereotypically masculine interests:
  Kim: "They're on the fourth hole. Assuming they're playing nine, that should give you about 45 minutes safely.
  Jimmy: "You gotta teach me to play golf. A lawyer should be able to play golf."
  Kim: "Any time."
• The Big Bang Theory: Penny and Leonard. It's a product of Penny's personality that she doesn't take any crap from people while Leonard will just suffer through humiliation to avoid conflict. In Season 6, Bernadette's father tries to take Howard fishing as a bonding exercise. Howard realizes he had better learn how to fish and asks Raj and Leonard to help him figure out who he can ask to train him in Typical Guy Stuff. One Gilligan Cut later, they are knocking on Penny's door. It's also revealed that she rebuilt an entire tractor engine all by herself at the age of twelve. It's also sometimes played with, as she certainly likes girly things and can be quite emotional at times, leading to this gem when she first tells Leonard that she loves him.
  Leonard: Are we just going to pretend this isn't a big deal?
  Penny: ...That's exactly what we are going to do, because... [tearing up] you're about to make me cry. And we both know if I start crying, you're going to start crying!
  Leonard: [tearing up as well] Yeah, you'd better go.
• Black Sails: Rackham and Anne Bonny are both pirates. But he prefers to use his mind over his brawn and wears flamboyant clothes that got his historical counterpart his nickname of "Calico" Jack. Anne is sexually aggressive, possessive of him, and does the killing in the relationship.
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Detective Rosa Diaz and Detective Charles Boyle are a platonic example. Rosa is a stoic, tough, and short-tempered Badass Biker Ladette who is Hell-Bent for Leather and loves gratuitous violence, while Boyle is a sensitive Extreme Doormat foodie who loves romantic comedies like 27 Dresses and played with dollhouses and read Nancy Drew books growing up.
• Carrusel: Valeria is louder, more outspoken, and has a stronger personality than her boyfriend David.
• Castle: We have tough-cops Beckett & Gates (who is even addressed as 'sir.'). Castle, Ryan, and even Esposito have strong metrosexual tendencies (lampshaded in one episode when they were going on about a line of men's grooming products, and Beckett said that it was 'Like Sex and the City with boys.'
• Chuck: Sarah and Chuck, even more so in the first two seasons before he Took a Level in Badass, but their personalities always fit. Chuck is the one who is in touch with his feelings, wants to talk things out, and can't stand to have fights unresolved. Meanwhile, Sarah is extremely guarded, tries to keep up a stoic front, hesitates to commit, and is always on the traditionally 'male' side of all their relationship-related arguments. Right down to Chuck being the one who wanted a big wedding.
• Creeped Out: In the episode "Itchy", protagonist Gabe is shy and gentle and his father is a stay at home parent. All the female characters that appear in the episode are in more conventionally masculine roles: his teacher is an army instructor, his best friend a tough cadet, and the school bully is a girl (it's also mentioned that his mother is in the military.)
• Doctor Who:
  • In a nutshell, this is the relationship between the Fifth Doctor and Tegan Jovanka.
  • Newly married Amy Pond and Rory Williams seem to have this dynamic, as Amy is an Action Girl, while Rory is a bit of a Non-Action Guy and a nurse (and while male nurses are common these days, it's still a profession that's predominantly female where he comes from).
  • The Doctor lampshades it by referring to them as 'the Ponds' after their marriage, instead of 'the Williamses.' Rory doesn't seem very bothered by it. According to the Doctor, it's just because Amy has an awesome surname, but he still refers to Rory as "Mr. Pond" and "Rory Pond". The series for its part leaves the question of whether Amy actually takes Rory's surname open until "Asylum of the Daleks" when she is shown signing a document as "Amy Williams" and it is later indicated that she uses the name Amelia Williams when she becomes a writer.
  • Although Rory has taken NUMEROUS levels in BadAss to the point of becoming a Memetic version, he still remains by choice utterly under his wife's thumb. Hell, managing to spend two thousand years waiting and not going insane was for her benefit.
  • Not a couple, but Danny Pink and Journey Blue are two soldiers who appear in "Into The Dalek". Mr. Pink (present day, earth) is now a math teacher and is rather sensitive because it's implied he killed at least one civilian and deeply regrets it. Ms. Blue (future, space) is still a soldier and is pretty gung-ho about killing Daleks especially since her brother died moments before she encountered the Doctor. In the end she asks if she can go with the Doctor and Clara. She could... if she hadn't been a soldier.
• Frasier: KACL's food critic Gil Chesterton and his unseen wife Deb. Gil extremely flamobyant, well-dressed and familiar with musical theatre. Deb runs a chain of automotive repair shops and is implied to be a military reservist. It's heavily implied that they're both Ambiguously Gay and acting as each other's beards.
• Friends: Chandler wasn't that feminine in early seasons (he and Joey shared the same manly interests) but the show starts making girly jokes about him (wimpy, unathletic, enjoying romantic comedies, etc.) after he's paired with the strong-willed, domineering Monica. In one episode, Monica bought a different set of wedding china than the ones Chandler picked out because, in her words, the ones Chandler picked out were "too feminine."
• Game of Thrones: Brienne and Renly are specifically the Action Girl and Non-Action Guy pairing. Brienne adores Renly because his sweet and caring nature is so different from the malicious, violent men that she has encountered in her life. Renly is fond of Brienne (to the point where Loras is even a bit jealous of her) because he admires a woman who, despite the numerous obstacles she has faced in her pursuit of a masculine occupation, is able to beat the formidable Knight of Flowers in the melee.
• The Good Place: Chidi Anagonye is a nerdy, polite, well-mannered, and slightly timid and neurotic intellectual who loves French poetry while Eleanor Shellstrop is a hyper-sexual, alcoholic, foul-mouthed, strong-willed, and uncouth Lad-ette who says "man" a lot. These two care and support each other despite their obvious differences. Funny thing is that when they shared a house together in episode 5, they acted like a stereotypical husband and wife but with reversed genders, Chidi complains that he has to do all the dishes while Eleanor is a slob.
• Happy Endings: Jane and Brad, not as pronounced as some examples, Jane is fairly feminine, she's just take charge and aggressively helpful (read: controlling), Brad meanwhile is Camp Straight, but is also a classic example of the male breadwinner. Also they both look exactly as masculine and feminine as normal, Brad is usually dressed in a suit and classically handsome, and Jane shows off her legs every chance she gets.
• How I Met Your Mother: The men are sentimental, mild-mannered, reserved, romantic, blissfully domestic (Marshall) or kid-crazy (Ted), and are often made fun of for stereotypically feminine traits, while the women are tough, uncouth, uncultured, boisterous, insensitive, commitment-phobic (Robin, who was literally raised as her father's son, was allowed to join an all-boys hockey team), or sex-obsessed (Lily), and often engage in hypermasculine actions as comedy. However, Barney takes the aggressively-heterosexual male stereotype and drives it so far over the edge he overshadows everyone else, though he also gets his nails done and obsesses over clothing, making him feminine.
• Intergalactic: Genevieve, who's somewhat tomboyish, a skilled fighter and a convict, finds gentle, sensitive prison guard Drew attractive (he often looks like a lost puppy, which probably helps). This draws out Genevieve's softer side, and Drew is quite keen on being a proper gentleman with her, saying he wants to wait until they have sex for instance (after she very bluntly propositions him).
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Dennis and Dee Reynolds are a brother-sister example: Dennis is a Camp Straight Non-Action Guy, the more polite and cultured of the two (until he gets angry), and the one more likely to burst into tears (Berserker Tears, but still). Dee is The Lad-ette, more uncouth, uncultured, and overtly aggressive than her brother, not to mention more physically capable than him.
• Joan of Arcadia: Grace and Luke. She wears a motorcycle jacket and a butch haircut; he is shy and wears his emotions on his sleeve. In one of the last episodes he tries to toughen up, and she pretends to turn into a girly girl, after which they return to normal with great relief.
• Just Shoot Me!: Female boxer Kelly likes being with Finch, thinking he's soft and sensitive. She's unhappy at him sparring with her ex-girlfriend Maria, a tough Butch Lesbian, since they're too much alike then, dumping him.
• Kamen Rider
  • In Kamen Rider OOO, Shintaro Gotou is shown to be more compassionate and gentle than his female sidekick/assistant Satonaka, who hates sweets, can wield a gun with the best of them, and fights evil only because she is paid to do so.
  • Kamen Rider Wizard has the main character's two sidekicks: tough, gun-wielding policewoman Rinko and compassionate, klutzy, dorky Shunpei.
  • Kamen Rider Gaim initially features tough, assertive Mai who has no problem facing down a gang of bullies or challenging others to Inves battles; and soft-spoken Mitsuzane who dislikes confrontation and wears pink pants with his dance uniform before his Face–Heel Turn.
  • Kamen Rider Drive has an example with the villains Heart and Medic. In keeping with his name, Heart is emotionally expressive and is warm and loving towards his fellow Roidmudes; while Medic, though feminine, is much more ruthless, aggressive, and emotionally detached.
  • Kamen Rider Amazons: The Nozama Corp's "Pest Extermination Team" has no-nonsense Action Girl Takai, and Mamoru, who when not fighting as an Amazon is gentle and cries easily.
  • Kamen Rider Revice: Ikki is the gentle older brother in his family who cares for his siblings, prefers to resolve things diplomatically, and often wears pink. His sister Sakura is a physically aggressive, short-tempered, and outspoken karate champion.
  • Kamen Rider Gotchard has the gentle and sensitive Hotaro who enjoys cooking (although isn't good at it), and the more logically-minded, emotionally distant Rinne.
• Liv and Maddie: Athlete Maddie and nerdy Joey are a sister-brother example.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Galadriel and Elrond are such a pair. Galadriel is a Warrior Princess that Elrond would rather expect to appear covered in grime and mud, while Elrond himself is a savvy politician Non-Action Guy. Galadriel is also the one with a forceful personality, she is assertive, verbally aggressive and quick to anger, while Elrond is rather affably and more temperate than her, never losing his temper the way Galadriel does.
• Modern Family: Claire plays the part of the masculine girl in two pairings:
  • With her brother Mitchell, she was more into sports while he was more into theatre.
  • With her husband Phil, who has no trouble getting in touch with his feminine side and had a history of more feminine hobbies (i.e. cheerleading)
• Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide:
  • Moze's Masculine Girl to Ned's Feminine Boy. In the first season 3 episode, her new grade resolution is to be less aggressive (followed by flashbacks of her beating up others), while Ned's new grade resolution is to be tougher (followed by flashbacks of him being scared of others).
  • Sometimes Moze is also a foil to Cookie's Feminine Boy. In one early season 1 episode she tries out for several different sports, while Cookie tries out for cheerleading.
• Once Upon a Time in Wonderland: Alice comes across as the very proactive, no-nonsense, sword-swinging Action Girl, whilst Cyrus is a lot more gentle and sweet. The drive of the narrative also revolves around Cyrus being a Distressed Dude and Alice being on a Quest to rescue him. Plus the flashback reveals that she was the one to first make a romantic move on him.
• Orphan Black: Sarah her brother Felix. One's a Street Smart, leather-clad Action Girl; the other's a supportive, flamboyant Non-Action Guy.
• The Orville: Downplayed in the case of Ed Mercer and Kelly Grayson. Ed is certainly no stranger to a gunfight or combat, and Kelly can be diplomatic if she has to be, but Ed's primarily a Guile Hero relying on tricks and talking his way out of situations while Kelly's approach is far more direct. It's evident when Darulio shows up and doses them both with a fantastic date rape drug. Ed shows up to the "date" with wine and fresh-baked bread while Kelly's approach is pretty much a beeline to the bed.
• Pantanal: Juma and Joventino. She was a tough girl, good fighter, and had a rifle (for self-defense, as she lived alone in a land of rude men). He was sensitive and not so good with physical activities. As he was raised in a big city, he was perceived as a "flower" by the rude "peões" (local equivalent of cowboys) from Pantanal (a swampy rural area in Brazilian countryside). Although he Took a Level in Badass along the soap, she remained more badass than him, fighting and killing–without her gun– the man who was hired to kill her husband's father and brothers a few days from giving birth to her daughter.
• Relic Hunter: Nigel and Sydney were pretty much a straight inversion of classic adventure stereotypes. She was the action star, impulsive, fearless one and he was always in need of being rescued. Sort of uneven in that she also often got to be the smart one and the people person.
• Roseanne: Darlene and David spend the majority of their relationship with the gender roles flipped. When Darlene gets pregnant Roseanne even comments "I can't think of a better mother..than David."
• RuPaul's Drag Race:
  • In Season 1's makeover challenge (which became a Once a Season tradition), the contestants had to give glamorous drag makeovers to a group of rugged female kickboxers. Interestingly, three of the five women were already conventionally pretty, just tomboys at their core; the challenge was just as much about getting them to present feminine grace as it was about the makeup and outfits. The episode spent a great deal of time exploring the dynamic between the women who practice a violent bloody sport and the men who wear makeup and heels to entertain.
  • Invoked in Season 6's makeover challenge, which featured straight couples getting married. The challenge was to make the men into drag brides, meanwhile the women were whisked away and fitted for tuxedos by a designer specializing in masculine suits for women and transgender men.
• Schitt's Creek: Best friends and Amicable Exes David Rose and Stevie Budd reverse most gender roles with David being emotional, prissy, pansexual, and concerned with fashion and beauty while tomboy Stevie dresses in jeans, t-shirts, and flannel shirts and avoids expressing or even feeling emotion. In the first season, David asks Stevie's help in removing a bug from his room, leading to her inviting him on a hunting trip so he can prove his masculinity. While Stevie identifies as straight, several jokes have been made about her being mistaken for a lesbian.
• Scrubs
  • J.D. and Elliot. In a flashforward Imagine Spot, Elliot even does the "bride carries the groom" thing. Elliot seems to have this in most of her relationships. Kelso once commented on her and Keith's relationship:
  Kelso: No, no, continue. You were having an argument, but it was like he's the chick and you're the dude!
  • And before that, she was dating a male nurse named Paul Flowers.
  • A non-romantic example from the same show would be J.D. and Denise ('Jo'), copied nearly word-for-word:
  Denise: It's like you're the chick and I'm the dude.
• A Square One TV sketch, Battle of the Bulge Caterers, featured the Drill Sergeant, and the mopy Private Matter.
  The Sergeant: Private Matter?
  Private Matter: Turkey and American, Sir.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine gives us Major Kira Nerys and Vedek Bareil Antos, respectively. She's a Fiery Redhead Action Girl who'll beat the crap out of anyone who looks at her the wrong way, while he's a soft-spoken Good Shepherd who never lashes out at anyone. (That one time he punches Sisko doesn't count, as he's Not Himself at the time.)
• Star Trek: Picard: Sibling Zhat Vash agents Narissa and Narek are the reverse of Men Use Violence, Women Use Communication. Narissa is far more aggressive and bloodthirsty than her baby brother (which is what she calls him, and the use of "baby" indicates that he's not very manly), and she insists that Soji be killed ASAP. Narek, however, states his preference for a more subtle approach, which is his seduction and manipulation of Soji, to carry out their mission. They also have contrasting reactions to facing Elnor — Narissa is eager to fight, whereas Narek immediately surrenders.
  Elnor: Feldor stam torret. (Please, my friend, choose to live.)
  Narek: ("Oh, Crap!" face) I do. I very much choose to live.
• Two mild examples of this from Stranger Things:
  • Mike and Eleven: he's a sensitive but creative Dungeons and Dragon kid, she's a headstrong Little Miss Badass who can Neck Snap grown men with her mind. True Eleven can be very girly when she's given the opportunity but she's still unarguably tougher than Mike.
  • Jonathan and Nancy: he's a shy photographer who loves music, she's a driven Cool Big Sis who's a crack shot with a revolver. At one point in Season 2, Nancy comforts Jonathan when he is distressed over his Mama Bear mother Joyce violently removing the The Mind Flayer from his younger brother Will.
• The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: Nerdy Insufferable Genius Cody and Tomboy Country Mouse Bailey. Downplayed because Bailey isn't overly masculine, but due to her upbringing on the farm, she's more physically adept than Cody is, and more fond of physical labor. Bonus points for both of them having Gender Blender Names. This trope is especially exemplified in the episode "Roomies," where Bailey beats Cody in every typically masculine activity, from throwing darts to basketball.
• That '70s Show: Donna and Eric. She's a tall athletic ladette and he's a sensitive dorky guy. Other characters will some times point out that she's physically stronger than him. And an entire episode is about how she is much better than him at basketball, and how Eric is teased about this by his friends. Donna is told by her mother that she has to start pretending that she is weaker than her man, or she will just end up being a lonely Crazy Cat Lady.
  • The same dynamic usually applies to Fez and whatever girl's he's currently interested in.
• Warehouse 13: Myka is a no-nonsense Action Girl and Pete, while he's ex-military, is generally more open about his emotions, and has a minor superpower he calls "vibes" which if he were female would look a lot like "feminine intuition".
• Will & Grace:
  • In one episode, gay Jack and straight boozehound Karen go to a meeting of an organization that promises to "cure" gayness. There they meet a married couple with a stereotypical effeminate man and very masculine woman who praise the organization. After they walk away, tipsy Karen asks "Was that two men or two women?"
  • Will and Grace in general subscribed to this so much that it might honestly be considered a Gender Flip of a traditional sitcom. Grace was a stereotypical sitcom man: a brash, lazy, slovenly, Big Eater who found gay porn to be exciting the same way a lot of men feel about lesbians. Will, who started Straight Gay but Flanderized into Camp Gay, was much more a traditional female sitcom character: much more calm and rational (initially,) who was the more uptight and decorated their entire apartment and did all the cooking and cleaning.
  • Jack and Karen could be Will and Grace up to eleven (he was obsessed with fashion and jewelry, she was a violent drunk.)
• Luján and Marcos, from Rebelde Way, natch. She loves doing crunches and he has trouble speaking up. It's even suggested she likes him because of his soft, demure nature; that's quite a difference from the other boys at the school.
• Victoria: Even if you disregard that Victoria is the monarch and Albert is the consort (which would have been awkward enough in the 1840s), they will often play with the gender roles of their time period. Victoria is very dedicated to her duties as the monarch, so she will not let anybody doubt her ability to rule the country just because she's a woman. And even though she often wears beautiful gowns and jewelry, she might also wear masculine-looking uniforms while doing something more active outdoors. She found it hard to go through her first pregnancy because it made people expect her to become more passive, that is, more "feminine". And even after her daughter was born, she was more interested in returning to her work, riding horses, and inspecting army troops than in caring for her newborn baby. Not to mention that she's a generally more extroverted person than her husband, which would have been quite funny to their contemporaries... Albert on the flip side might be good at plenty of traditionally masculine activities, like fencing and hunting and horse-riding. But he still is more brooding and introverted and sensitive than what was ideal for a man back then, in a huge contrast to his more macho brother Ernst. And he also was much more excited than his wife about having a baby, and he's more likely than her to bond with their children and play with them.