Basic Trope: Two female characters exalt their femininity in contrasting ways.
- Straight: Alice is sweet, kind, and demure. Carol is a mysterious, worldly, and beguiling Aloof Dark-Haired Girl.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice is The Ingenue Pollyanna in a modest white dress, and Carol is a Dominatrix Emotionless Girl in a catsuit.
- Alice and Carol are completely different, down to their favorite types of fruit.
- Downplayed: Alice is a Proper Lady, and Carol is Tsundere and/or has Sugar-and-Ice Personality.
- Justified:
- Alice was raised by a sweet, happy, and kindhearted family, while Carol was raised by a serious and stern family, perhaps dysfunctional family too. and they're either polar opposite friends or lovers.
- Or if they're Sibling Yin-Yang, one of their parents is sweet, kind, and closer to Alice, while the other is aloof, serious, and favors Carol.
- Alice is from a culture where women are expected to be warm and friendly, and Carol is from a culture where women are expected to be serious and aloof.
- Inverted: Bifauxnen and Lad-ette — two girls who are both masculine, but in different ways.
- Gender Inverted:
- Noble Male, Roguish Male — two guys who are both masculine, but in different ways.
- Two guys are both feminine in different ways.
- Subverted: Alice is blond, and likes wearing yellow and pink. Carol has dark hair and likes wearing black. The first few times they appear, become clear that Alice is actually a Fake Cutie and Carol is actually a Perky Goth.
- Double Subverted: It was because the others didn't know them well. After time passes, they definitely match expectations.
- Parodied:
- Alice and Carol are bits of white chocolate and dark chocolate respectively.
- Alice tries to befriend Carol, but Carol tells her they can't be friends because they're both light feminine and they need contrasting personalities to have an interesting dynamic.
- Zig Zagged: Alice and Carol look like this trope at first glance, but over time, they become Rounded Characters, and it becomes clear that they both have "light feminine" and "dark feminine" traits, and are more complex and multifaceted than the simple dichotomy.
- Averted: None of the female characters in the story interact, so their personalities can't be contrasted.
- Enforced: Femininity doesn't just mean one thing, so the creators need to sell dolls both to girls who like "light" dolls and "dark" dolls.
- Lampshaded: "
- Gee, Alice! Carol's your exact opposite."
- "We're hot and cold. Sweet and sour. Red and blue. Milk and lemon juice. Boots and high heels..."
- Invoked: Carol has Dark and Troubled Past, so she seeks a lighthearted girl to fulfill her past of emotional neglect, and then she befriends Alice, The Cutie who grew up in a well-being family.
- Exploited: Mark turns Alice and Carol against each other.
- Defied: Alice and Carol refuse to be friends with people who have different clothing styles or personalities.
- Discussed: Alice points out how nicely their personalities contrast. (Carol flips her off.)
- Conversed: Alice is watching a TV show and points out how strange it is that it's so common to have a pair of women whose femininity contrasted in that way. "You'd think the nice one would just hang out with other nice ones."
Back to Light Feminine and Dark Feminine.
