Basic Trope: A woman masquerades as a man, and another man is, much to his confusion, attracted to "him."
- Straight: Alice masquerades as Bob, and Charles wonders why he's so attracted to Bob. Much angst and/or hilarity ensues, until Bob reveals she's actually Alice.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice masquerades as Bob, and every man "he" meets declares undying love for "him."
- Alice gets a complete sex change to become Bob, and Charles still falls for Bob. Eventually he's relieved to find out that Bob is "really Alice".
- Downplayed:
- Alice acts and dresses like a boy, but never says she is. Everyone is fooled at first, but soon begin to realize and Alice acts and dresses more and more feminine as time goes on with some Lampshade Hanging.
- Alice masquerades as Bob. Charles thinks Bob is a good-looking guy, but not like that. Okay, maybe a bit like that. But it's just a momentary crush.
- Justified:
- Attraction is also based on scent, and Alice still smells like a girl.
- Charles is bisexual or pansexual, and is too attracted to Alice at this stage to make a big deal of her gender.
- Charles is blind, so he goes by scent, sound and touch, none of which Alice-as-Bob has done particularly well at masking.
- Alice's disguise isn't that good.
- Charles is Too Dumb to Fool—he never picked up on the fact that Alice was disguised as a boy in the first place.
- Alice is an Attractive Bent-Gender so Even The Guys Want "Him".
- Inverted:
- Bob masquerades as Alice, and Charles, who is gay, wonders why he's so attracted to "her."
- Alice is pretending to be Bob, and does so very successfully, causing the completely heterosexual Dana to develop a crush on her.
- Gender Inverted: Bob masquerades as Alice, and Dana is attracted to "her".
- Subverted:
- It looks like Charles has fallen for Bob, but he's really just getting close to Bob because he thinks Bob knows Alice.
- Charles has fallen for Bob… because he thought Bob actually was male.
- After Charles finds out that Bob is really Alice, he's done with her… She's not the person he had to rationalize his crush on, and she pretty much deceived and humiliated him on top of that.
- Double Subverted:
- …and then sticks around when Bob says that he doesn't, because he's fallen for Bob for real. He's relieved when Bob reveals that he is Alice.
- Charles may have fallen for Bob when he thought Bob was male, but Alice is fine as well.
- Alice lets him know that the only thing that seperates Alice from Bob is gender and that Charles fell in love her, despite thinking she was Bob. Alice also reveals that she had excellent reasons for hiding her gender and never meant to get as close to Charles as she did because she didn't want him to feel that betrayal.
- Parodied: Bob reveals "he" is really Alice, but it turns out that "Charles" is actually Dana. Not one to be shown up, Alice takes off her mask and reveals "she" is really Zack, and then Dana turns off her hologram emitter, revealing "she" is E'ri'kh of the thousand genders. They decide to start dating.
- Zig Zagged: Charles is attracted to "Bob" but then Alice reveals herself, except Charles just came out of the closet, so Alice gets a sex change, but it turns out Charles is really more bi than anything else.
- Averted: Alice masquerades as Bob, but no one shows interest in "him."
- Enforced:
- Executive Meddling says gender-bending hijinks are hilarious, so the Sweet on Polly Oliver subplot is shoehorned in.
- The Heteronormative Crusader Moral Guardian doesn't appreciate with Homoerotic Subtext plot, so the creator decides to make the guy attracted to the Sweet Polly Oliver instead.
- Lampshaded: "Why is it I have more guys hitting on me when I'm cross-dressing than wearing a dress?"
- Invoked: "Bob" wants to humiliate Jerk Jock Charles, so tries everything to get Charles to think he's gay.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Charles realizes that at most he feels If It's You, It's Okay towards Bob, who has acted completely straight from the word "Go", so he ignores his "feelings".
- Discussed: "Remember that your disguise is imperfect, and some people will notice on an unconscious level that you're a girl."
- Conversed: "Why is it none of these characters ever think to rub a sweaty jersey on themselves to mask their smell?"
- Deconstructed: Alice's betrayal of the trust of those around her makes all the people she fooled this way never forgive her.
- Reconstructed: Charles, realizing she had good reason for what she did, helps her change the system so others won't have to go to such extremes.
Back to Sweet on Polly Oliver.
