Trope Talk thread

The Beard's relationship to its supposed supertrope, Fake Relationship, is unclear. It says it is a relationship done to perpetuate a deception of some sort but aren't all fake relationships? The bulleted list in The Beard's description either have their own subtropes (Boyfriend Bluff, Operation: Jealousy, Citizenship Marriage) or could be subsumed by Fake Relationship — which has a similar list of subtropes.

Further, The Beard's offsite use (in the context of fake relationships and not facial hair) is more commonly the gay slang meaning of "someone a gay person "dates" to hide that they are gay". This is reflected in the image, page quote, and Laconic.The Beard. The first post of the TT thread links multiple examples of this. Sandbox.The Beard WC also shows that this meaning makes up 62% of the sampled usage:

• Used in the "gay pretending to be straight"/hiding sexuality/variations and twists thereof context: 31/50 = 62%
• Discusses a fake relationship but doesn't elaborate: 5/50=10%
• A fake relationship with a non-sexuality related reason: 10/50 = 20%
• ZCE: 4/50=8%

I think we can address two birds with one stone (unclear relationship with supertrope, more specific offsite use) by redefining The Beard to be "someone a gay person dates to hide that they are gay". Fake Relationship and its other subtropes can take the rest of the usage with no problem.

1. AudioPlay.Steam Heart: The Arlington sisters attend the ball as Jeremy and Donald's dates, to hide the fact the two men are a couple.
2. Characters.Being ADIK: At the beginning of the game, Chad is dating Sage, but he is actually gay and probably using Sage as this.
3. Emberverse: Multiple potholes/links describing a mutual bearding relationship
   • She and her husband Rigobert are this to one another. Her longtime love is actually Tiphaine d'Ath, to whom she is Chatelaine. Character blurb says Tiphaine is female and this is done out of societal homophobia
   • Husband of Delia,
   • His wife Delia is also a lover of fashion
4. Characters.Legally Blonde: A rare unwitting example to her pool boy, who claimed to be having an affair with her to hide his homosexuality. Brooke was not aware of this until he perjured himself on the stand at her trial.
5. Characters.Real Time Fandub, Ambiguously Gay entry: He claims he's gay in the Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) dub, but he also had sex with Eggman's wife and mentions that he once got married to Rouge (though considering their dynamic, its possible that they're just in a Marriage of Convenience, or Rouge is acting as The Beard).
6. Characters.The Great Gatsby: Nick chooses to publicly kiss Daisy at a party in order to dispel rumors about his sexuality (considering that he was a still-unmarried man in his late twenties, which back then was very frowned upon).
7. Characters.The Politician, Ambiguously Gay entry: It's implied by Hadassah that Dede may have been The Beard all along. Above line says he is Dede's husband
8. Characters.The Brittas Empire, Ambiguously Bi entry: He's definitely in a relationship with Tim, but was engaged to Jenny beforehand (albeit possibly as The Beard) and Tim sees women such as Penny as being a potential romantic risk for Gavin.
9. Characters.Them 2021, The Friend Nobody Likes entry: ...Her parents are dismissive, her implied-to-be-gay husband is only with her for appearances and her family's money...
10. Fanfic.Recovery: Weiss has only dated boys but isn't interested in them. It's for appearances only. Winter figured this out a long time ago simply by noticing how Weiss would talk about boys while noticing how she would look at attractive girls.
11. Film.All About E: E pretends Matt, her Camp Gay best friend, is her husband when she visits her parents. He has to butch it up significantly so this is plausible.
12. Film.Ben And Arthur, Psycho Ex-Girlfriend entry: Tammy. Granted, one could see how she was being pissed off as being used as The Beard to a gay man for several years, but screaming in his face, refusing to divorce him, and threatening him at gunpoint to stay married is a bit much.
13. Film.Bound 1996: Caesar is this unknowingly to his prostitute girlfriend Violet, who is a closeted lesbian.
14. Film.Out At The Wedding, Example 1 Jeanie's husband is an unwitting beard. She had realized she was lesbian as a kid but was so ashamed by it that she repressed it well into adulthood.
15. Film.The Great Beauty: That's what Stefania appears to be for her husband Eusebio as he is gay. Still they have four kids together even though he loves Giordano as per Jep.
16. GameOfThrones.Tropes B: In Season 2, Margaery is shown to be well aware of her role, much to Renly's surprise. She tries to persuade him that even if he'd rather sleep with her brother, he still needs to father an heir to strengthen his position (and to make her a more convincing beard).
17. Irony.Live Action Film: * In Brokeback Mountain where Heath Ledger played a closeted gay man and Michelle Williams was his beard, the two actors started dating for real during production. They were together for three years and had a daughter. Well, it's real-life troping, but the usage of 'beard' is clear...
18. Literature.The Secret King, Social Climber entry: Frie's marriage to Octav is viewed by many as this on her part given she was also The Beard for much of their relationship. The fact she doesn't seem too upset for her husband to have a lover and reveal he has no attraction to her plays into it. Others believe she may be a Love Martyr.
19. Literature.Veronica Mars, Example 2: Zigzagged with Aurora and Adrian, her gay male best friend: he's openly gay from the start of their friendship and so she never pretends to be his girlfriend, but it turns out that was the Beard: in fact they are a couple, and used his presumed homosexuality to con Aurora's parents into sanctioning "sleepovers" and weekends away that they'd never have approved of if they knew they two were sexually involved. Really, it's just a short step from this to faking Aurora's second abduction and screwing over Tanner for his ill-gotten ransom money.
20. Main.All Love Is Unrequited, Love is a Disease entry: The homophobic bullying Matthew faces forces him to change schools, where Matthew is more determined than ever to stay closeted, and gets an unknowing beard in the form of Lilli, who (much to Matthew’s guilt) genuinely likes him.
21. Main.Insidious Rumor Mill, Love, Sam entry: :Kyle, jealous that Sam is dating his crush and best friend Brian and with the help of his girlfriend Stacy, spreads rumors on social media that Sam is a Stalker with a Crush for Brian who just got lucky enough to actually date the object of her obsession. He also spread the information that Sam's dad is in prison for sexually abusing teens. Everyone at school is critical of Sam and Brian turns his back on her completely. Later, Stacy, thinking Kyle did all of that because he wanted to hook up with Sam, exposes Kyle for orchestrating the rumor mill and everyone, including Brian, shun him instead causing him to contemplate killing himself. That seems really messy but Closet Gay potholes to Kyle tell me Stacy is 'bearding' in the heterosexual sense
22. Main.Unintentionally Notorious Crime: The person who leaked Ashley Madison's servers was most likely trying to expose people guilty of adultery, which in all honesty is mostly karmic justice... for most of its users. But in places such as Saudi Arabia, many people were using it to have homosexual affairs while they were acting as The Beard in their married life... and in Saudi Arabia and several other countries, homosexuality is punishable by death.
23. PlayingWith.Depraved Homosexual, Subverted+Double Subverted entry:
    • The Sissy Villain is introduced... as is his Dark Mistress.
    • ...Who is actually The Beard.
24. Quotes.Situational Sexuality: Referring to the situation in GameOfThrones.Tropes B bullet
    "A man may prefer the taste of hippocras, yet if you set a tankard of ale before him, he will quaff it quick enough."

    — Cersei Lannister on Margarey Tyrell's "marriage" to Renly Baratheon.
25. Recap.Bull S 5 E 5 Fallen Idols: It turns out that the pastor was gay and his wife a lesbian.
26. Series.The First Shop Of Coffee Prince: an Kyul hires Eun Chan to pretend to be his gay lover, so his mother will stop setting him up on dates with women. Pretend to be gay to avoid straight stuff
27. Series.The Principal: A date with a woman that ends on quiet terms is used by Matt Bashir as a front to discreetly meet with another man.
28. Theatre.Legally Blonde: Brooke was unknowingly this to her poolboy, who claimed to be her lover to hide the fact that he was gay.
29. WebAnimation.Queer Duck: Lola Buzzard's bonding with Queer Duck leads to her asking Queer Duck to marry her. When Queer Duck points out that he doesn't think the marriage will work since he's gay, Lola replies that she doesn't mind since a lot of her previous husbands were gay.
30. Webcomic.Dash Academy: Pokey's introduced as such, when he acts as Rainbow Dash's boyfriend/date for the Starlight Dance when Dash tries to stop the rumors of her sexuality. It nearly backfires when Pokey decides to blackmail some nookie out of the deal.
31. YMMV.Das Sporking, Ho Yay entry: Mervin is completely convinced that both Carlisle and Edward Cullen are gay and started out in a homosexual relationship when Edward was first turned to be Carlisle's "companion". The general lack of affection Carlisle shows Esme lead her to conclude that Esme is kept around as The Beard.

1. Fanfic.Vanishing Act: Remember how Akira is The Beard to Makoto during her Confidant route? Shizuka, who has a crush on Makoto, ends up seeing them together and gets the wrong idea. Fortunately, Akira is quick to clear it up
2. Film.Out At The Wedding, Example 2 Alex pays Risa to act like her girlfriend.
3. Recap.Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt S 4 E 09 Sliding Van Doors: Kimmy and Titus are still bound for each other, with her serving as The Beard. I'm familiar with this and know she is a straight woman, he is a gay man — but the example doesn't say this
4. Wrestling.Jacqueline, It's Not You, It's Me entry: Her reasoning for not dating other wrestlers, Derrick King of Power Pro in particular. She did eventually have relations with Marc Mero though that was more like The Beard.
5. WMG.Dragon Ball Z Abridged: It's possible Videl will serve as The Beard. "It's just for appearances' sake, Dende. Nothing has to change between us!"

1. Anime.Cyber Team In Akihabara: In episode 8, Tsugumi crossdresses and pretends to be Hibari's boyfriend so that Hibari will have an excuse to turn down Uzura. Boyfriend Bluff
2. Characters.Hensuki Are You Willing To Fall In Love With A Pervert As Long As Shes A Cutie: She claims to have a stalker and wants to go out with Keiki in order to shoo them off. Also Boyfriend Bluff?
3. Fanfic.Kyon Big Damn Hero: After rumor goes in Kitago about Kyon being engaged, most "unclaimed" girls of the SOS Brigade get one to prevent unwanted romantic attention: Haruhi and Kanae have each other, and Mikuru has Shutaro (a disguised Kyon). Interestingly, it's implied that this trope was very much in effect until that point without anyone meaning to. The ambiguity of the relationship between Kyon and Haruhi, Yuki and Mikuru was apparently enough determent to keep their (many) suitors at bay.
4. Fanfic.Star Trek Mirror. Adaptation Personality Change entry: The original Mirror Marlena appeared to care more about being the Captain's woman than her scientific duties. Here, she regards being The Beard for Mirror Kirk as 'act[ing] against [her] nature' and whilst she puts up with being thought of as the Captain's woman, it’s so she can get on with her science in relative peace, and she makes it quite clear that she'd utterly despise the situation if it weren’t so useful.
5. Fanfic.Uchibi Sasuke: Sasuke and Hinata are this to each other. Hinata drives away Sasuke's fangirls and Sasuke earns her the approval of her family and hides her interest in Naruto.
6. Film.Fifty Four: Steve tells Greg "guys don't get married that young unless they're trying to prove something".
7. Film.Pouic Pouic: Simon Guilbaud pretends to be Patricia's husband to discourage Antoine's courtship.
8. Literature.Veronica Mars Example 1 Implied with Tanner Scott and Lianne. Though it's not explicitly stated whether he married her for this purpose, having a wife and new son in tow surely made it much easier for Tanner and Aurora to pull off a con with a high media profile when the opportunity came their way, since it made them seem like more of a respectable nuclear family, and might have stopped any old creditors who knew them as a father-daughter team from recognising them.
9. Series.Sunset Beach:
   • Gregory admits he keeps Annie around because back-to-back divorces would ruin his family-man image.
     "I care more about Spike, and I'm allergic to the little mongrel."
   • In his paranoia, Wheelchair-bound Ricardo hisses that Gabi is waiting for him to die. He thinks he's just The Beard for her to carry on with his brother.
10. WeirdnessMagnet.Webcomics: Ash Upton from Misfile has, to date, been one of only two people on the whole damn planet to be "misfiled" by a stoned angel (who then moved in with him and is posing as her boyfriend)

1. Characters.Bare A Pop Opera: Unknowingly this to Jason.
2. Characters.The Hour: For Adam LeRay.
3. WebOriginal.Dykes Of War: The Wehrmacht soldier explicitly describes her husband as this. Given the content of the page, looks like this is in an lgbt context as well, but example doesn't have context for it
4. WebVideo.Jai Jamais Su Dire Non: Eugene to Emma.