Agent Peacock/Playing With

Basic Trope: An effeminante badass male character, who's badassitude is aided rather than hindered by his effeminacy.

Straight:
- Bob is a highly competent pirate captain whose dandified appearance and effeminate mannerisms are as much a part of his personality as his being a master swordsman. This combination serves to make him seem particularly secure in his masculinity which makes his opponents uncomfortable.
- Alternatively, Bob is a Casanova who uses the fact that most women assume that he's Camp Gay (based on his natural feminine personality and appearance) to get into their pants.
Exaggerated: Bob is the best secret agent in the world: he's a master of disguise because he's taught himself so much about makeup, he's got superb balance from walking in heels, he's so beautiful that Even the Guys Want Him (as well as all the girls), and he uses things like stilettos and straightening irons as deadly weapons when he doesn't have his color coordinated gun handy.
Downplayed: Bob is an effeminate member of a Glam Rock band; lugging heavy amps around has made him stronger than average.
Justified:
- Bob's naturally flamboyant personality and Bishounen looks have made him the target of bullying. He learned martial arts so he could protect himself while continuing to be himself.
- Bob was raised as a girl by the queen of the amazons because she didn't have a female heir. He now rules Lady Land but his gender is an open secret.
- Bob's dad did all the stereotypically masculine things with him, taking him hunting, enrolling him in boxing classes and the like, while his mum nurtured his feminine side. He was determined to make both proud.
Inverted: Alice is a wimpy passive butch girl.
Subverted:
- Bob is shown to be highly effeminate-- wearing makeup and walking very swishy-- and then beats a guy up for irritating him. However it turns out that Bob is just undercover as an effeminate man, and in actuality he's quite butch.
- Alternatively Bob bursts into tears after beating up the guy. He's naturally effeminate, but absolutely hates doing anything badass despite being good at it.
- Alternatively, Bob is effeminate and set up as a huge badass, but then loses miserably to his opponent.
Double Subverted:
- It seems Bob is naturally effeminate but hates doing anything badass (despite being shown to be good at it); however it turns out that his reluctance to be tough is just a ploy, and he's actually been working as a super assassin without anyone knowing.
- Alternatively, Bob is initially shown to be quite effeminate, as well as quite badass. He then claims that the effeminacy is just a ploy and that he's normally quite butch, however it turns out that he's actually even more effeminate than initially shown and was playing at being masculine as part of another cover.
- Alternatively Bob is effeminate and set up as a huge badass, and then seems about to lose horribly to his opponent, but then at the last second, he starts fighting in earnest; turns out he was just getting them to let their guard down.
Parodied: Bob is an effeminate man who after being buried in a shipment of designer clothes gains fashion based super powers.
Deconstructed: Bob feels the need to be the alpha-male because he was teased for being effeminate when he was younger.
Reconstructed: Bob was always the alpha-male because his extroverted flamboyant personality makes him a great leader.
Zig Zagged: Bob was originally Alice, who was a Badass Princess Bifauxnen who's elected to live as a Camp Gay man. The hardships of being a trans man as well as being an effeminate male have made Bob the toughest guy in the kingdom.
Averted:
- Bob is effeminate but not badass
- Bob is badass but not effeminate.
- Bob is neither effeminate nor badass.
Enforced: Bob is effeminate, and the author makes him badass to avoid Unfortunate Implications.
Lampshaded: "Bob's so sexy even lesbians want him... though the dress he's wearing probably helps."
Invoked: Bob is badass, and effeminate by nature. He plays up his effeminacy to freak out opponents.
Exploited: "Uh-oh, this guy's pretty girly, so we're in for a tough fight"
Defied: Bob makes sure he never does anything unladylike in his career as a Drag Queen, and makes sure he butches it up when he's working as a riot cop.
Discussed: "No, I'm just a hairdresser-- despite what fiction may say, I'm not a super spy"
Conversed: "Ever noticed how in all these animes the campiest dude is always the toughest?"
Played For Drama:
- Bob must learn to cope with the fact that people often don't take his strength seriously because of his flamboyant personality.
- Bob's angst about societal norms and masculinity initially hurt his confidence, until he realizes his femininity is a part of his toughness and he goes on to be the hero.
Played for Laughs: Bob is shown as Always Camp and people's shock at this mincing girly boy being the world's best swordsman in the world is frequently shown.

Back to Agent Peacock