Sweet Polly Oliver: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"As [[Trope Namer|sweet Polly Oliver]] lay musing in bed,''

''and dressed herself up in her dead brother's clothes,''

''She cut her hair close, and she stained her face brown,''

 

A female character dresses up as a man to accomplish some end. Often becomes a variant of the [[Jackie Robinson Story]]. The sports version is especially popular in children's media, since it allows for an [[Anvilicious]]ly contemptuous boys' team for the heroine to win over with her talents.

Contrast with [[Harmless Lady Disguise]] and [[Disguised in Drag]]. Some men may subconsciously see through this, and become [[Sweet on Polly Oliver]]. Since, in most cultures, she needs a new name, may occasion a [[Meaningful Rename]]. Not to be confused with [[Bifauxnen]].

 

 

You can listen to the full version of the song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icx9_jpHg3I here.]

 

 

* ''[[Basara]]''; The story takes place in a future Japan, reduced to a barren desert by a catastrophe at the end of the 21st century. The main character is Sarasa, a girl whose twin brother, Tatara, is prophesied to be the "child of destiny" who will bring back the country's independence and stop the tyrannical rule of the Empire, namely the Red King. When Tatara is killed, Sarasa pretends to be him in order to keep the downtrodden from losing hope.

* In the first manga series of ''[[Sengoku Basara]] Ran Sei Ran Bu'' [[Ms. Fanservice|Kasuga]] disguises herself as [[Dude Looks Like a Lady|her master Kenshin]] in order to serve as a decoy. [[Gag Boobs|Despite her huge assets]] [[Latex Perfection|she can still make a perfect performance]]. {{spoiler|She later disguises herself again as a wounded Date soldier in order to murder Masamune and avenge Kenshin's death.}}

* ''[[Mayo Chiki]]'''s premise.

* Itsuki Myoudouin from ''[[Heartcatch Pretty Cure]]'', taking her big brother's role due to the aforementioned man having aweak heart. Said man is also a case of [[Dude Looks Like a Lady]]. He got better, and Itsuki was able to resume being a girl by the end of the show. It should be noted that while Itsuki is mistaken for a boy several times in the series, pretty much everyone in the school knows she's a girl. [[Even the Girls Want Her|Not that it matters much ...]]

 

* In the [[Child Ballad]] ''[http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch106.htm The Famous Flower of Serving Men]'', the heroine's husband and baby are killed by her mother, and she disguises herself as a man to run away and work.

* In the [[Child Ballad]] ''[http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch063.htm Child Waters]'', the heroine refuses to leave the hero, despite his declaration that he goes to woo another woman. He insists she dress as a footpage and run alongside his horse.

* There's a Spanish ballad about a girl who dresses like a man, calls herself Don Martín and goes to war because her father is [[Retired Badass|too old]]. Then, the prince falls for her (getting extremely confused because he somehow suspects "he" is a girl, but isn't quite sure). Then the prince comes out to the queen and she suggest several tests to expose Don Martín, all of which fail, except the last one: a bath. Don Martín runs away and the prince after her, and they marry.

 

* ''[[The Sandman]]'': {{spoiler|Jim the "cabin boy" in ''Hob's Leviathan'' is actually a girl named Peggy.}}

** There's also Desire, who switches genders as necessary.

* The Spanish comic magazine ''[[El Jueves]]'' had a story, ''Emili<s>a</s>o'' where a girl, Emilia, pretended to a boy to do the mandatory conscription in the Army and be with her boyfriend.

* Agnès de Roselande/Isabeau de Marnaye in the Francois Bourgeon's historical series ''[[Les Passagers Du Vent]]''.

* "Jack", in the ''Deathwatch'' comic strip by [[Paul Cornell]] (Elizabethan ''[[Judge Dredd]]''), is quite clearly a girl wearing a false moustache to work as an actor. And, inevitably, [[Recursive Crossdressing|ends up playing Helen of Troy]] in ''[[Faust]]''. Surprisingly, while the [[Fish Out of Temporal Water]] acts as [[Only Sane Man]] to the [[Medieval Morons]] in just about every other respect, this is the one point where he has a blind spot as well.

* Subverted in ''[[Demon Knights]]'' with the Shining Knight (who is a Sweet Polly Oliver in some other versions as well). Her costume looks convincing to the reader (due to the fact that she's very flat-chested) but fools ''no one'' in-universe.

* As a young girl, Martha Washington in [[Give Me Liberty]] habitually passes herself off as a boy to avoid being sexually assaulted. She then gets grabbed by someone ''looking'' for young boys.

 

* In ''[[The Lost Girl]]'', Friendly has a variant of this, as she quickly forgets she ever was a girl.

* There's more than one ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' fic out there that imagine the female Nations as being forced to do this out of necessity (i.e. avoid getting raped by their own soldiers), though this usually happens in historical-themed stories to stress the [[Values Dissonance]].

 

* In Disney's ''[[Mulan]]'', Mulan disguises herself as a man by making her hair shorter and wearing a soldier's outfit so that her disabled father won't have to go.

* ''[[Yellowbeard]]'': Spoofed; one of the ship's officers is named "Mr. Prostitute" and is an obvious woman with a fake mustache.

* The Disney Channel movie ''[[Motocrossed]]'' involved a girl posing as her brother to enter a motocross race, after he breaks his leg. What makes this one more ludicrous is that the siblings have the ''same name'' (Andy, short for both Andrea and Andrew).

** Not quite so ludicrous: {{spoiler|It allows her a legal loophole, given that she signed up as 'Andy,' instead of Andrew or Andrea, which meant she could hold on to her win after she was outed.}}

* After her rescue from Fogg's Asylum by Anthony in ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (film)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'', Johanna dresses up like a boy in order to hide from Judge Turpin. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, she almost gets killed by her own father, Sweeney Todd, when he fails to recognize her and takes her for a witness to his final vengeance upon the Judge.}}

* ''[[Connie And Carla]]'', about two female performers who witness a murder, so they go into hiding by disguising themselves as [[Drag Queen]]s (a spoof of ''[[Some Like It Hot]]'' where two jazz musicians who witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre go into hiding by joining an all-women's jazz band). In other words, they dressed up as men who dress up as women.

{{quote|'''Norma:''' ''YOU NO GOOD TWO-TIMING SON OF A BITCH!'' '''''HE'S A WOMAN!'''''}}

* Happens in the third ''[[From Dusk till Dawn]]'' movie.

* Common in fairy-tale movies (''[[Dragonslayer]]'', ''[[The Brothers Grimm (creator)|The Brothers Grimm]]'') as a way to conceal the gender of daughters who might otherwise be fed to dragons, kidnapped by witches, etc.

* In the 1950 British thriller ''[[The Clouded Yellow]]'', Jean Simmons cuts her hair and exchanges her dress for trousers in order to pass as "Master Fox". The disguise is never seriously tested, which is just as well as she's [[Paper-Thin Disguise|a remarkably unconvincing boy]].

* The Canadian Short "No Bikini" shows that bath and this trope '''do''' mix sometimes. Robin, a 7-yr girl, ''hates'' bikinis, but girls must wear a swimsuit for a swimming class. So she pretends to be a boy so she can attend just in swimming trunks.

* The [[Whoopi Goldberg]] vehicle ''[[The Associate]]'' was a double version; she not only dressed as a man, but went white to win big in business.

* There is a Soviet comedy called ''[[My Dearly Beloved Detective]]'' about two female detectives with the last names of Holmes and Watson. At one point during an investigation they dress up to sneak into a club of bachelor men. The head of the club gets wind of this and states that all the members will undergo "an embarrassing examination"... which consists of every member being forced to give a gentleman's word he's male. Holmes passes. Watson is saved by a man in love with her who takes the blame.

* ''[[Princess of Thieves]]'' centers on Robin Hood's daughter, Gwyn, who dresses up as a man to follow her father.

* Katharine Hepburn takes her turn in ''[[Sylvia Scarlett]]''.

 

* In ''The Breadwinner'', a girl named Parvana, who lives in Afghanistan, disguises herself as a boy in order to earn money for her family because her father died and her brother was too young to provide for them.

* The [[Harry Turtledove]] alternate history novel ''[[The Guns of the South]]'' features Molly Bean, a prostitute who disguises her flat-chested self as a man to serve in the Confederate States' unit Castalia Invincibles. She poses as her "cousin" Melvin Bean and joined because the war was taking away all her customers. Ignorant and illiterate, she learns to read and begins to fall for her teacher. How much combat did she see? She was at ''Gettysburg'', y'all. She later serves a surprisingly vital role in defeating the AWB men who are time travelers, by being a popular bedmate while covertly spying on them. Her letters to her lover describe many futuristic marvels (None of which she understands, but her teacher/future husband twigs onto the fact that these guys are from the future). These prompt him to instruct her to go to [[Our Presidents Are Different|Confederate President Robert E. Lee]] and describe everything she'd seen. She does, but her attempts to hide her womanly self make it difficult (Lee can't figure out [[Crowning Moment of Funny|why she keeps on mixing up "I" and somebody named Melvin in her story]]). After she helps take down the AWB, she marries her teacher. In [[Real Life]], there was an actual Molly Bean who enlisted in the Invincibles, but she was discovered and sent home. Her livelihood as a prostitute was pure author's invention.

* This is the main storyline of the historical novel ''[[Pope Joan]]'' (based on what may have been a [[Real Life]] example as well, but is generally considered fictitious).

* The old man's granddaughter in ''[[Swiss Family Robinson]]'' who was disguised as his grandson.

* Alanna of Trebond from the ''[[Tortall Universe|Lioness Quartet]]'' books by Tamora Pierce. As a nine-year old she starts dressing as a boy in order to train for knighthood as [[Meaningful Rename|Alan]], and keeps it a secret until after she's already earned her shield (and thus is formally [[She Is the King|Sir Alanna]]).

** The Witch-King's belief that no man could kill him came from a prophecy by Glorfindel a thousand years before. The prophecy said "not by the hand of man shall he fall." The Witch-King thought he was invulnerable, but he got shivved by a hobbit (not a Man) and his head struck off by a woman (not a man).

* In the book ''Half Magic'' a young girl gets really annoyed at Lancelot so she wishes that she was his match in strength and skill, then conjures a suit of armor and challenges him to a duel. She wins and the crowd cheers her. When the king asks her to remove her helmet she does so, having forgotten she still looks the same underneath. As the mood of the crowd shifts from shock to anger, she's called names and Lancelot is jeered for being beaten by a girl, for all of five minutes before Merlin erases everyone's memories.

* The main character of [http://ib-archive.livejournal.com/36322.html this story] in the Livejournal-based "webzine" ''Imaginary Beasts''.

* In the children's picture book ''Little Kay'' a girl dresses up as a boy to become a knight. The king somehow finds out there's a girl among the men, and asks his advisers how he can figure out which one she is. (This being a children's book, I guess we're supposed to assume the king is too stupid or prudish to go with the obvious.) In an inversion of the Achilles myth, the advisers suggest offering jewels and pretty fabrics and so on, on the assumption that the girl will be the one interested. Since this is a comedy, though, the men all turn out to be raging dandies who ''love'' the gaudy stuff while the girl spurns it. The only one who offers useful advice is the castle maid, who suggests the king have them all drink a toast, since when they all tilt their heads back to drink the men's Adam's apples will be apparent. This proves effective. After the girl is discovered, the sultan is so impressed that he decides to make her a knight anyway, since she is the only one in the army who isn't a complete dandy. Dressed as a boy, she goes off on a quest which will win her the hand of a princess. She rescues the princess, and the princess discovers she is a girl, but they decide to get married anyway.

*** There is an Italian tale which has the same scene (except the girl fakes an urgent message forcing her to return home). It seems to have inspired [[wikipedia:Fantaghirò series|an entire film series]]

** There was a similar fairy tale, only that the whole group was a bunch of girls. When they got wind of the 'tests' to expose them, they would try to confuse things even more. When offered jewels and fabrics, some of them ignored them, some of them appraised the valuables, and a couple of them 'stole' some of the gems. When ashes were strewn across the threshold (on the assumption that the girls would try to clean it up), most of them marched right across it, while a few of them tried to clean it up and made the mess worse in the process.

* In the novel ''The Shakespeare Stealer'' a girl disguises herself as a boy so she can be an actor, since it was illegal for women to perform on the Elizabethan stage.

* Exactly the same thing happens in ''No Bed for Bacon'', the novel upon which ''[[Shakespeare in Love]]'' was (very) loosely based.

* ''[[Bloody Jack]]'' is a young adult novel about a London orphan girl who joins the Royal Navy as a ship's boy. Risky, but much more attractive than dying of starvation. This causes problems both comedic and poignant when she {{spoiler|falls in love with a fellow ship's boy, thinks she's dying when she gets her period and has nobody to ask about it}}, etc. It has several sequels, and the character sometimes reverts to this trope in a pinch, even though by then she's filled out a little more and presumably no longer looks like an androgynous eleven-year-old. People still buy it, though.

* Nearly every character in Piers Anthony's ''[[Refugee]]'' (in the series ''[[Bio of a Space Tyrant]]'') ends up dressing as a member of the opposite gender as a defense against ubiquitous space pirates.

* Ruth Mallory in ''[[Someone Else's War|Someone Elses War]]''. She doesn't get the idea until someone else mentions it, however, and [[Sex Slave|wishes she had thought of it]] [[Tear Jerker|much sooner.]]

 

* ''[[Farscape]]'' did this in the episode "Coup By Clam," when Moya was orbiting a planet notorious for its torturously sexist laws. When a tech was sent over to help, Chiana found "him" attractive... and when it was discovered that the grease monkey was a [[Wrench Wench]] in disguise, Chiana [[Fetish Fuel|wasn't bothered]] [[Girl-On-Girl Is Hot|by this at all]]. Unfortunately, the security guard accompanying the tech wasn't so understanding, and came within inches of killing her before [[Magnificent Bastard|Scorpius]] [[Neck Snap|intervened.]]

** Actually, Chiana, being the experienced [[Lovable Sex Maniac]] she is, knew the tech was a Sweet Polly Oliver from the start and just used the ruse of hitting on her to get the mechanic to reveal herself. As Chiana herself put it "I know a man when I see one."

* In the [[Darkest Africa]] sketch in episode 29 of ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', the explorer called Brian is obviously Carol Cleveland disguised as a man, though no special attention is drawn to it.

 

* [[Older Than Print]]: Earlier than the [[Trope Namer]] is the Chinese legend of [[wikipedia:Hua Mulan|Hua Mulan]], a woman who joined the army as a man in lieu of her father, which has been made into a [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney movie]], [[Mulan]]. This story was first recorded in the 6th century C.E.

* Another old but non-military Chinese example, the Butterfly Lovers: Zhu Yingtai, who disguised herself as a man to become a scholar. She fell in love with her slightly clueless roommate Liang Shanbo and arranged to have him marry her 'sister.' This does not go as planned.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* In ''[[Traveller]]'', both the Aslan and the Sword Worlders have specific rules for this. In both these cases this is not a disguise so much as a formalized way to allow vocational flexibility in females without hurting the traditions. In the case of the Aslan it comes about when there are no male heirs and a female has to "become male"; which includes not only carrying out [[A Real Man Is a Killer|male roles]] but vowing celibacy. In the Sword Worlds it is a way for eccentric women who actually want to go adventuring to do so without hurting the [[Stay in the Kitchen]] principle.

 

** English Renaissance drama in general does this frequently for precisely that reason. And after women were allowed to act on the English stage in the 1660s, playwrights continued to include this as part of the plot as a form of [[Fan Service]].

* Happens fairly regularly in [[Opera]]—Beethoven's ''[[Fidelio]]'', for one.

* The plot comic opera ''The Firefly'' has pretty little street singer Nina run away from home to Bermuda disguised in boy's clothes. Unfortunately, the boy in question happens to be the notorious pickpocket Antonio Columbo.

* In the comedy ''A Servant of Two Masters,'' one of the "masters" is a woman disguised as her own brother, trying to find her beloved - who is the other one.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[Jade Empire]]'' features a theatrical production in a culture where only men may be actors; naturally, if the player character is female, [[All Up to You|she takes the part anyway]]. Of course, [[Recursive Crossdressing|it's a a female part]]...

* Sypha Belnades in ''[[Castlevania]] III: Dracula's Curse''. Being a witch, she had to disguise herself to avoid being [[Burn the Witch|burned]]. The game and manual were fairly good about concealing this fact until the very end. ''Judgment'', however, gives her large breasts and a fanservicey outfit.

* In ''[[Rival Schools]]'', Akira goes undercover in a body-concealing motorcycle helmet and leather jacket to investigate her older brother's disappearance. This is necessitated by the fact that her brother attends an [[One-Gender School|all-male school]] for [[Delinquents]].

* A common trope in the early ''[[Metal Gear]]'' (particularly in ''Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'', ''Metal Gear Solid'', and ''Metal Gear: Ghost Babel'') had Solid Snake having to rendezvous with a female ally who has already infiltrated the enemy by disguising herself as a soldier. Particularly in ''MG2'' and ''MGS'', the only way to determine who is Snake's contact is to follow said contact to the Ladies' room.

* {{spoiler|Rei Ijuin}} in the original ''[[Tokimeki Memorial]]'' because apparently her father wanted a boy.

 

* Spoofed [http://the-whiteboard.com/autotwb1092.html here] in ''[[The Whiteboard]]''.

* Emet from ''[[Warrior U]]'' dresses as a boy so that she can learn to become a warrior.

* In ''[[Strays]]'', [http://www.straysonline.com/2012/01/page-202/ Meela's brother cut her hair so they could pass as brothers, rather than the brother and sister their enemies were looking for. She didn't like it.]

 

* [[Huge Schoolgirl]] Dacey "Dawson" Ashcroft in ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' pretends to be a guy due to the negative attention she received in her previous school, feeling it easier to get through highschool if everyone believes her to be a man. Luckily, she doesn't look all that feminine, and unlike some of the other female Southridge students lacks large breasts.

* Amber Jarrett in ''[[Decades of Darkness]]''

 

* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "War Is the H-Word", Leela disguises herself as a man named "Lee Lemon" in order to join the army. Zapp Brannigan is still attracted to her without seeing through the disguise leading to some... confusing feelings.

{{quote|'''Zapp:''' (after the Leela feminine reveal) I've never been so happy to be beaten by a woman!}}

* Combined with [[You Go, Girl!]] on ''[[Doug]]'' when Patti tries out for the softball team.

* An episode of ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'' had Heloise disguise herself as a boy in order to see a list of "Guy Stuff" that Jimmy and Beezy wouldn't let her see.

 

* During the [[American Civil War]], some of the corpses of fallen men were discovered not to have been men at all. At least 240 women are known to have served in the ACW disguised as men, as you can read about here: http://www.amazon.com/They-Fought-Like-Demons-Soldiers/dp/1400033152/ref=pd_cp_b_1 Several maintained their disguises after the war in order to qualify for pensions. It was a lot easier for women to get away with this back in the days before routine physical examinations, since often the only physical standards enlistees had to meet were "upright and breathing". Also, many 18th and 19th century women were relatively small-breasted due to inadequate nutrition, and many figured out the trick of padding out your waist instead of trying to completely eliminate your breasts, which was helped by often ill-fitting uniforms.

* Joan of Arc did not disguise herself as a man, but chose to wear men's clothing while fighting for practical reasons.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Disguise Tropes]]

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:Costume Tropes]]

[[Category:Identity Index]]