Basic Trope: A woman looks like a man.
- Straight: Alice has short hair, a relatively flat chest, and a deep voice, leading others to mistake her for a man.
- Exaggerated:
- No one sees Alice as a woman, and even her family forgets she is a woman too.
- Alice is in the 6.5 feet to 7 feet range, built like a brick shithouse, has short hair, a relatively flat chest, a Larynx Dissonance baritone voice, a hairy and muscular body, a masculinized face, some visible beard and she goes shirtless without being censored.
- Downplayed:
- One person mistakes Alice for a man, but it is cleared up quick. Alice herself is a tomboy.
- Alice is tall and has a masculine body shape, and the people who mistake Alice for a man have only catched glimpses of her or seen her from a distance. Once they meet her in person and/or hear her talk, all confusion is cleared immediately.
- Justified:
- The character in question is not a human but of a humanoid species whose females look masculine to a human.
- Alice is a Transgender woman who looked like a manly man prior to transitioning.
- Alice uncannily looks like Distaff Counterpart of her father due to his stronger genetics.
- Alice is a member of an alien species where the women look like men and the men look…weird.
- Alice is a tall and muscular woman who dresses in a gender neutral manner.
- Inverted: Dude Looks Like a Lady.
- Subverted:
- Alice is actually a Transgender man and currently in the process of transitioning.
- Alice is actually a man who poses as a crossdressing woman.
- Double Subverted: Alice was joking about being a man.
- Parodied:
- Alice has large breasts, so she is clearly a woman, but she is still mistaken for a dude due to her deep voice and her Boyish Short Hair.
- Alice looks, dresses, acts, and sounds completely Girly Girl according to the audiences, but in-universe characters still mistake her for a dude. Bonus points if there are so many Dude Looks Like a Lady in the cast.
- ... And to make things "worse", even Alice herself forgets the fact that she is also a woman too!
- Zig Zagged: Some people think Alice looks like a dude, some don't.
- Averted: Alice is female, and looks female.
- Enforced:
- The author is a feminist, and is trying to subvert gender stereotypes.
- Alice is played by a man.
- Lampshaded: "Sorry, miss, I thought you were a man."
- Invoked: Alice decides to look male to avoid unwanted attention, or for disguising reason.
- Exploited: Alice uses the fact that she looks like a dude to pull a Sweet Polly Oliver in a place that doesn't allow women.
- Defied: When Alice realizes she looks male, she quickly decides to undergo a Girliness Upgrade.
- Discussed:Bob: "Hey, Alice! Have you ever been mistaken for a man?"
Alice: "No. Have you?" - Conversed: ???
- Played for Laughs:
- Characters, including Alice, joke about how she looks like a man.
- Alice land a date with a gay man because he doesn't see her as a woman.
- Played for Drama:
- Being mistaken for a man causes Alice to hate herself and have an identity crisis.
- Alex's parents wanted a boy, and she was Raised as the Opposite Gender. Alex wants to appear more feminine but has trouble deviating from her upbringing.
- Deconstructed: Alice begins to hate her masculine features, since it means she'll never be taken seriously as a woman.
- Reconstructed: In the end, Alice embraces her masculine looks, and instead of pushing her self to be more feminine, she decides to go the Bifauxnen route.
- Implied: A masculine-looking Ambiguous Gender person is called "Alice."
- Untwisted: Alice goes outside with gender-neutral outfits and no makeup, and is mistaken for a man, making her realize that wearing makeup and dress was the only way she can do to make people see her as a woman.
Back to Lady Looks Like a Dude