Boy Meets T-Girl: Difference between revisions

One of the pair is the inevitably shy and innocent [[Girl Next Door|boy next door]] - a straight stock character. The other is inexplicably gorgeous, intelligent, sympathetic, single and seemingly perfect in every way... but for [[transsexualismTransgender|one minor detail]], which serves as a source of dramatic tension at her expense for most of the story. She was assigned male at birth; her backstory involves a [[Gender Bender|long and difficult transition]], of which the boy who's just been smitten by her has no inkling or idea. Effectively, she's left wondering how he will react [[Unsettling Gender Reveal|once he learns of her past]] - and he will be caught completely off-guard, to the point that that he risks losing the girl if he reacts the wrong way or, (if she's "outed" by someone else). fails to defend her honour.

[[The Reveal]] is usually played in one of two ways. If this is being written as porn or erotica, she's transformed into a [[futanari]]-like fetish object that acts as [[Fan Service|"the best of both worlds" sexually]], with all the [[Unfortunate Implications]] that cancarries.<ref>It isn't the "transgender" part that carries the Unfortunate Implications, it's the "fetish object" carrypart.</ref> If this is being written as the sort of teen fiction which turns up in public libraries, she becomes [[An Aesop]] - a [[Public Service Announcement|lesson to bullying teens]] not to judge others on the basis of their sexuality or gender identity.

Despite the trope title, '''Boy Meets T-Girl''' could just as easily be played the other way around; there are just as many transsexual[[transgender]] persons transitioning female-to-male as male-to-female. As indicated, the straight boy/trans woman pairing is more common because a woman, transgender womanor otherwise, is a more readily sexualisedsexualized character (see [[Attractive Bent Gender]] and [[Everybody Wants the Hermaphrodite]]), but at the same time, more free to express emotion if the main character allows anyone to hurt her in some way - as [[Men Don't Cry]], but trans women (as they are women) do. And yes, real life is more complicated as there are [[Queer Romance|various possibilities]] to match trans people with other LGBTLGBT2 community members who would be more aware of the issues and the discrimination involved.

See [[Transsexualism]] and [[Transgender]]. See also the older-than-dirt parent trope, [[Boy Meets Girl]].

* ''[[The Crying Game]]'' has a man unwittingly fall in love with a transwomantrans woman as just one more twist in an already-complex plot.

* ''XXY (2007 film)'' has a boy fall in love with an intersexualintersex main character, who is living as a teen girl but hiding that she medically has some characteristics of both genders (as XX is the usual genetic code for a lady and XY for a gentleman, XXY is unusual and rare).

* ''Transparent'' (Amazon video series): Josh (Jay Duplass) and his crush on Shea (Trace Lysette) in season three. Given that Lysette is a transwoman in real life, it adds a certain extra realism.