Sweet on Polly Oliver/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A woman masquerades as a man, and another man is attracted to "him."

  • Straight: Alice masquerades as Bob, and Charlie 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."
  • Justified: Attraction is also based on scent, and Alice still smells like a girl.
    • Charlie is bisexual or pansexual, and is too attracted to Alice at this stage to make a big deal of her gender.
    • Charlie 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.
  • Inverted: Bob masquerades as Alice, and Charlie, who is gay, wonders why he's so attracted to "her."
  • Subverted: It looks like Charlie has fallen for Bob, but he's really just getting close to Bob because he thinks Bob knows Alice.
    • Charlie has fallen for Bob... because he thought Bob actually was male.
    • After Charlie 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.
  • Parodied: Bob reveals "he" is really Alice, but it turns out that "Charlie" 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.
  • Deconstructed: Alice's betrayal of the trust of those around her makes all the people she fooled this way never forgive her.
  • Reconstructed: Charlie, realizing she had good reason for what she did, helps her change the system so others won't have to go to such extremes.
  • Zig Zagged: Charlie is attracted to "Bob" but then Alice reveals herself, except Charlie just came out of the closet, so Alice gets a sex change, but it turns out Charlie 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.
  • 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 Charlie, so tries everything to get Charlie to think he's gay.
  • Defied: Charlie 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?"

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