There's always that one middle schooler...

This Troper has a friend who was incredibly androgynous in middle school. He was significantly smaller than me and looked like a younger, short-haired, blond version of his older sister with a beautiful, soprano singing voice. This is particularly hilarious to look back on now, because he has since grown into a broad-shouldered baritone who towers over me.

This troper's friend's little brother (about 12) is completely indistinguishable from his little sisters (about 7 and 8)...it's seriously kind of creepy.On the other hand this troper himself has been mistaken for a girl occasionally

When this troper was in the college cafeteria, he noticed that a person had dropped something. I picked it up and said "Excuse me miss...?". Turned out to be a long-haired man. If people can't tell your gender from behind, it might be time for a new haircut

Your Mileage May Vary. I'm a longhaired Asian man, and I thoroughly enjoy the combined look of shock and disbelief when a guy with a tendency for Me Love You Long Time looked at me from behind and thought I'm an Asian Chick and tried to hit on me. The sheepish look as he walked away was priceless.

Some of us rather enjoy being ambiguous, actually.

Yes, it's good fun. This troper was once hit on by a rather drunk student at a New Year's party -- the look on his face when I turned round to politely say no was ''priceless''.

I find it hilarious, though some of the fun did get knocked out of it when a young girl refused to believe that I'm actually a girl...

And some of us rather like the androgynous type... Especially if they're Asian.

This troper, for example.

And this troper, although it's a case of bi-/pan-/???sexuality rather than a fetish, and she doesn't have a preference for Asians.

There was a girl at this troper's middle school who I thought was a boy for a solid week after meeting her for the first time. Well, she had an extremely short haircut, was a big time {{Pettanko}}, wore loose T-shirts, and her nickname was Sam.

This troper knows a guy by that name who has rather feminine features, a girl nearly fainted while swooning at him this troper is always amazed at the fact he thinks girls aren't interested.

Happens to this troper in online communities a ''lot''. On the one hand, this troper is bisexual and a feminist. On the other hand, ThereAreNoGirlsOnTheInternet. Once led to a funny incident when this troper posted a picture in a picture thread: people actually accused this troper of taking an opposite-sex picture from the internet. (This troper is male.)

GoggleFox, at least for now.

This troper, being female to male {{Transsexual}} this used to get this a lot. This really depends on the beholder - for some I was a "teenage boy", for others "butch lesbian". Sometimes during the same day. One of my friends from middle school initially thought I was gay (back when I was still trying to live as female). The first prize, however, goes to a group of kids coming to ask me if I was a boy or girl. My response? [[YourMileageMayVary "Depends on your point of view."

This troper is also an FTM and gets highly amused when people get into debates right in front of him over whether he's "a he or a she." For some reason, it never seems to occur to these debators to ''ask me.''

I just had a dream (yeah, that's right, the first thing I did after waking up was post my dream on TVTropes) where I was playing an 8-bit ''Shining Force''-style game, and the default choice for gender was Ambiguous, which made your character look sort of like Link, but more gender-neutral. I checked what two of the other genders did - the Male character looked like Ragnar, and the Female looked like Peach. The genders I ''didn't'' check out, but now wish I had, were Conceive, Concive, and Convice. Yes, that's how they were spelled. Well, it was a dream!

Conceive is probably female because females conceive, Convince is probably male because the other is Female, Concive is probably ambiguous, being a mix of the former two.

This troper gets this a little since his main group of friends consists of him, 5 girls, and 1 other guy. My hair is longer than 90% of them...

I think you mean 83.3% (repeating) of them

This Troper regularly gets mistaken for male on the internet, and she has been mistaken for male in real life as well - despite her ''very'' obvious female curves and medium-length hair. Of course, she also has a bit of a ''thing'' for androgyny and takes every opportunity to confuse others about her gender.

This troper was out for dinner one night with two other people. All of us have long hair. A member of the restaurant staff wandered by the table and inquired, "How are we doing tonight, ladies?" Cue this troper's ponytailed husband lifting his head and turning so she could very clearly see his mustache...poor woman was horribly embarrassed. Husband thought it was funny.

This troper and his friend were in a LAN cafe some years ago (in the dark ages of dialup when online gaming was slow and unreliable), and we got involved in a multiplayer (Quake 2 or Red Alert 2) with another group of lads. I had to leave early to get my bus (living well out of the city) leaving my friend on their own. After I had gone, one of the other lads told them they were really lucky to have a girlfriend who liked games, and was good looking too. His reply "oh that wasn't my girlfriend" at which point they asked if I was single and if so could they set me up with them. He has never told me what happened after this. The irony is that his hair was (and still is) longer than mine, and he's far more effeminate. The only thing he has going for him is that he's a foot taller.

This troper's little brother is growing his hair out, and waiters keep calling him "young lady", or something along the lines of that.

This troper looked very boyish in middle school. Needless to say the annoyance of being confused for male has led her to grow her hair out and swear not to cut it short again.

there's this one lesbian chick at my school for who it's nearly impossible to recognize as a girl unless you hear her voice, and that weirded me out, and still does. I mean, glasses, baggy sweatshirt, everything

This troper is (mentally) androgynous and intentionally tries to achieve this trope. So far I've been able to fool a group of second graders at my school, who keep following me around trying to figure out my gender. It's very amusing.

This troper regularly gets mistaken for female at work. This usually lasts until I say something (I have a rather deep voice) or they notice the face fuzz (I keep forgetting to shave that off), which leads to frantic back peddling by the customer in question. This troper actually quite enjoys it.

Just earlier at work this troper got into the elevator with someone who looked ambiguously {{Bishounen}} - youthful Asian face with pale skin, ponytail, rugged outfit consisting of non-collared green shirt and cargo pants, and glasses (lately a number of Chinese guys from Chinese telecom vendors like Huawei and ZTE have been dropping by, and have the same general appearance, hence the presumption). Upon careful inspection of what that person was carrying (which turned out to be a bag full of medicial products), he realized the person in question was the (female) company nurse (who's really pretty in fact).

As a child, this troper was always asked if I was a boy or a girl, thanks to my grandmother's insistence ( and my mother's agreement) that my hair be kept as close-cropped to my head as possible without cutting off the tops of my ears. Fortunately, puberty took care of any future gender confusion, although I didn't have short hair again until I was 17.

Averted about ten years ago by a slender friend of mine with long, straight blonde hair. He's never been mistaken for the opposite gender (unless some manga lover thought he might be Pettanko), but has often been teased about looking like the fourth Hanson, especially from behind. Once at the Hastings music store, a truck roared past and someone yelled out the window "Hansens rule!"; then later that same day, another friend (who was a DJ at the university radio station) played MMMBop and dedicated it to him just to rub it in. He was pretty embarrassed by the attention. He has since moved to New York, cut his hair short, graduated from NYU, gotten married, and is currently an FBI profiler...

The long-haired troper Tropers/{{JET73L}} was once a fairly ambiguious (from behind), unattractive person before losing some weight, and while losing said weight became a barely ambiguous, YMMV, AmbiguouslyGay person (where the ambiguity was thanks to a large but unusually androgynous skeletal structure). It was zig-zagged in a story about ''{{Neverwhere}}'' (following {{Pot Hole}}s may be spoilers for the book or story), where Islington (an angel presented as a masculine-leaning androgyne in the book) prefaces the story as a "him" (after the events of the book), has a flashback to being an "it", and is referred to as a "she" (as an etymology reference) at the end of the flashback long before the events of the book.

This troper had this happen to him once. At that time, my hair was growing past shoulder length, and since I was wearing a thick winter coat and a wool hat, it was the only feature that was visible at that moment. At the supermarket, a female employee approached me and said "Ma'am, you dropped this". I turned around, she stared at me again and said "Here you go, ma'am. *{{Facepalm}}* Shortly after that incident, I decided to get a haircut.

This male troper was once called "ma'am" when visiting a restaurant by the waitress. Instead of saying something, I decided to basically be a pain, asking for things constantly, "accidentally" spilling my soda and making them clean it, and sending back my food once. At the end, instead of leaving a tip, I wrote a note saying "don't call a man '''ma'am'''".

Way to be a jerk about it.

Yeah, you sound like an absolute tool. You shouldn't be bragging about being a total ass because someone mistook your androgynous self for the wrong gender, and the poor waitress certainly didn't deserve your antics and your cruel snarky note instead of a tip. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

I found that tale to be amusing.

While waiting for a ride, this troper was approached by another person, who asked if I was a girl. Granted, my hair was pretty short at the time and my back was to her. Another time, I was an acolyte during a church service with another guy, which requires you to wear rather loose robe (I can't remember what it's called). Our pastor came up and greeted us with a "Hello, Gentlemen." And this pastor has been at the church for as long as I can remember. Ah, and an example that isn't myself would be at camp this year, there was a young boy who had long, wavy hair. I thought he was a girl for a few days until some of my cabinmates realized that it was not the case.

This troper had that happen once (at least to her knowledge). I was in a movie theater and a little kid decided to sit in the same row and kind of sidled up close to me. Her mother smiled at me and told her "Not to bother the boy." To be fair though, my hair was cut pretty short and I was wearing a jacket. And it was in a movie theater, although the movie showing was The Princess and the Frog. So yeah... My sister and I thought it was pretty funny though.

This troper's little sister is very androgynous in appearance, has a love of baggy men's clothing, and, despite the fact that she is only 12, is taller and more mature-looking than me. This results in awkward yet funny situations with straight female friends who think she my older brother, and tell me that "my brother is hot".

This Troper's friend has a feminine body, and his voice is high-pitched. I myself can also qualify for this trope; I'm a girl, but I wear baggy men's clothes and have short hair.

In early middle school, this (female) Troper used to have a very short haircut and a preference for boys clothing. Due to her feminine face and flat chest, it was rather hard to tell her gender. Though people tended to assume she was male.

My really hot girlfriend. Mm.

This (female) troper does this on purpose after a few odd instances convinced her that it would be amusing. The first instance was at Otakon, admittedly, and she was cosplaying a male character so for the person to think she was actually a guy was kind of a compliment. She thinks of herself as gender-neutral anyway.

There was someone during college orientation. I saw him/her a few times, as we all moved through the crowd. I bumped into him/her once or twice. I stared at his/her ''marvelous'' arse. I am still confused. If I ever find out, I'm sure I'll GoMadFromTheRevelation. And then jump his/her bones. 'Cause it doesn't really matter

This Troper had a short haircut. People that didn't know called me a young man, or sir for weeks.

This (female) Troper is tall with a squareish jaw and a liking for baggy clothes. However, she also has thigh-length hair and sings soprano, and does start to wonder why people regularly call her 'sir'.

This troper had a friend in high school she thought was a boy for the first day she knew her. Said troper has also been called "sir" when crossplaying, and, being mentally androgynous, is actually very pleased about it.

This Troper was told "Take off your coat young lady" by a new teacher while at school, she tried to cover herself by saying "and you too young man" but no one else was wearing a coat...

Back around seventh through ninth grade, I wore my hair in a bowl-cut (think early Beatles), was (and still is) small-chested, and very much liked to wear mens' t-shirts, which were usually a little too big. Once, I was hanging out at the mall with a (same-sex) friend of mine. While we were paying, the (male) cashier kept looking at me kind of weird, but I didn't think too much of it. Finally, the cashier goes, "Dude. You are ''crazy'' pretty. If I were a girl, I'd ''totally'' date you." Being a naive little middle schooler, I confusedly answered, "But I'm not a lesbian." He laughed and told me that he thought I was a guy. Ten minutes later, a girl walked up to us and informed my friend, "Your boyfriend's really cute!" I actually kind of enjoyed the whole 'androgynous' look, but ultimately, I made a ''damn'' attractive guy, but a rather unattractive girl when I had short hair, hence why I prefer to wear it at least to my shoulders these days.

On the first day of each school year, this Troper's Head of School visits every advisory and names each returning student. If he messes up, you get a twenty-dollar starbucks gift card (he ''never'' messes up).This Troper's Heterosexual Life Partner (well, I'm straight, she's bi, close enough) was a very, ''very'' curvy girl with long hair and a preference for high heels. Over the previous summer, she had cropped her hair and started dressing as a guy more regularly; she wore baggy jeans, a sweatshirt, and her chest bindings on the first day. Yeah, this troper got to share her twenty bucks worth of coffee.

There's a person who swipes cards at lunch at my school. They have chin-length hair, mustache stubble, and look a bit more like an old lady than an old man, and their name tag says "J.R."\\ I also used to know a six-foot-tall-ish, flat-chested, broad-shouldered, androgynously good-looking kid with, again, that confusing chin-length hair, who often wore long basketball shorts and wore a shirt and pants for orchestra (girls are supposed to wear long dresses), and who didn't shave her legs. It took me until I found out that she has a girl's name to realize that's she's a girl. I think J.R. and the androgynous orchestra kid's voices are about the exact same pitch.

There's a person in my highschool class whose gender I'm still not sure of. Ze has a very girly high-pitched voice and a somewhat feminine face, but is flat-chested and otherwise lacks TertiarySexualCharacteristics. Hir first name is a masculine one as far as I know, and I'm pretty sure I heard someone refer to hir with a male pronoun. I've actually considered that ze is transgendered, angrogynous, neutrois, etc. I don't want to offend hir by asking hir gender or using the wrong pronoun, so I've taken to using hir first name everytime I address hir. Damn, that was confusing to write.

This (female) troper has short hair, a flat chest and usually wears plain shirts and pants. While my family and friends are amazed that anyone could think I'm a guy, it doesn't change the fact that over ten people have either asked or speculated within my hearing that I'm a boy.

This troper went to dinner with an old friend whom she hadn't seen in a few years and his family. He had grown his hair to his shoulders, and looked quite effeminate. The waitress called him 'her' the whole time we were there. He didn't bother to correct her, and we all thought it was hilarious. Also, there is a boy at my school who is a year younger then me, and or the longest time me and my friends could not tell if he was a guy or a girl. He had shoulder-length blond hair, a slim build, and wore a purple sweater. And he hung out with a group of girls. It took half the school year to figure out he was a guy.

Two words: my girlfriend. seriously at one point I actually called her a gay guy though I don't know if this trope is subverted by the fact that she actually wants to be a guy

I was like this when I was younger I enjoyed the androgyny, of course back then I could do it and not feel like a creep, I had a higher voice than normal, my hair was long because I refused to get it cut and it didn't help that I job shadowed my mother for the better part of two years. it finally culminated in a family rule that if my mother could call me pretty it was time for a haircut. yeah it was pretty bad...

On another note I was working behind the scenes at a Christian conference last fall, while I was escorting my second hand boss and longish time family friend to her room at the hotel, we met security along the way and they followed us the rest of the way. To this day for the life of me I could not discern the gender of whoever it was that was with us. It? had broad shoulders like a guy would, shortbuzzed hair, wearing a suit, but the breast area looked a bit more packed, also I don't know if they had a baby face or what but the facial structure screamed woman. mind you the entire time I'm doing this, I'm running on fumes, I'm looking forward to staying until three in the morning packing everything up, and was currently lugging a very important suitcase.

This (female) troper often got mistaken for a boy when she was a kid. Not much anymore, though it still happens occasionally.

When this troper was ten, he went to drama class. One of the other students was named George (like the tomboy in ''TheFamousFive''), and had shoulder-length hair (like this troper himself). George's face and voice were completely devoid of clues, at least to me. I never did figure it out, especially since s/he played "second kid" (gender irrelevent) in the big play, and just avoided referring to him/her by pronouns. This troper has himself been called Miss, when answering the door without his ponytail in. The weird part was, I also hadn't shaved yet...

This female asexual troper is androgynous, coupled with VagueAge. It can be equal parts amusing, frustrating, and sad how uncomfortable people can get if they can't tell your gender.

This female troper was this as a baby because her hair didn't grow until she was four. It was a mild version though. When her parents got her ears pierced at the age of two and put her in frilly dresses, people would still go up to them and ask why they would put a dress and earrings on a boy.

There are two or three people at my school I'm not sure about; one of them would be both a very pretty girl and a very handsome boy. Their long hair does not help things. The other two are more heavyset with short hair so I'm not sure if they have chick-boobs or man-boobs. If they're girls, they're tomboys. Also, when one of her friends had short hair, another friend mistook her for a boy due to her dressing like one. Of course, he never saw her from the front; the girl in question is aything but {{Pettanko}}. Likewise, her slightly {{Pettanko}} friend has been informed she'd make "a really hot dude" by one of our other friends who thought she was a boy at first and thought she was hot (before being told her name, whic is very clearly a girl's name)

This troper, as a child, was often mistaken for a boy because of her hair cut. (It didn't help that her name didn't become popular in North America until a while after she was born.) Then puberty jumped out of the bushes and hit her with the boob club, followed by a few whacks from the hip stick. In a couple of conversations with the visually impaired, however, she apparently still sounds and according to one, even smells like, a youngish man.

Zigzagged with this troper but YMMV. I used to look very much like a boy very early on, but later (like 2 or 3) my hair started to look like a girls'. By pre-school my hair went back to looking like a boy's. It didn't stop me from encountering boys with hair like that of a girl, even to this day. I still continue to look like a man.

I am the ultimate Bifauxnen, however I do occasionally manage to do something girly, like wear a tighter shirt, (which doesnt help so much since I'm such a Pettanko) Or Jones Brothers t-shirts.And when I'm in spandex Its obvious I'm a girl since its a girls uniform and in band because I am wearing a dress and a push up bra, which uhh helps me Unfortunately because of my ambiguity I am often confused for a Butch lesbian and I have been confessed to once and someone tried to set me up on a date with one of her girlfriends. Needless to say it did not go over well since I'm straight. They have not known which gender I was since I was 7. I had a long pony tail back then. It might have been that I wore boys' pants but that was because girls' pants were meant for those who do not have butts. Even with girls' pants, unless they are flat out skinny jeans (and sometimes not even then) I am ambiguous. Now I have nail polish and a shorter pony tail. Still think I am a man, hermaphrodite or butch lesbian.

I wonder if I'd find you attractive, since I seem to have a thing for these kinds of people.

This troper has an online friend who changed hir account's gender settings for whatever fursona shi was playing (on different sites) at that moment, once shared a story of being ditched by hir boyfriend, and was generally referred to as male by the head admin, but I was completely confused. After asking on chat, I discovered shi was genderqueer.

This tropette is officially convinced that she has a {{Fetish}} for androgyny. At the very least, this seems to be the case when it concerns animated/fictional characters.

This troper (Killing Joke) has been mistaken for a woman five times on the Avatar:The Last Airbender wikia by fellow users, because apparently the novel TheLovelyBones is associated with women only. Or at least that was the apparent reasoning most of the times. I also evidently come off as feminine, even when I'm just typing. Go figure. This has led to some rather priceless lines (although they're kinda YouHadToBeThere.)

"I just thought so because of the name. You swore more than any girl I know though. :)"

"Lovelyb0nes is new to the wiki, so let's welcome her with open arms!" (Edit:"I'm an idiot. Let's welcome him with open arms.")

This troper has an unusually deep voice, and people have joked that she is really a guy in disguise, despite the fact that she's far from a tomboy.

The same troper's brother is a very good example. He has very feminine features, and one summer grew his hair down to his shoulders. That year, when with this troper and their mother, people would often refer to them as "ladies". Even now that his hair is shorter, those with poor eyesight will still mistake him for a chick.

This troper, full stop. She might be very petit, but she's a {{Pettanko}}, keeps her hair very short, has a surprisingly deep voice, and has boyish features. And just about always wears mens' clothing. People who don't know her are always certain she's just an {{Uke}}. Oh, and the GenderBlenderName doesn't hurt either.

This troper has a case of this. I've always been vaguely feminine looking, and I do enjoy it. Most of my friends refer to my looks as those of a "cute emo chick", and several of my friends have started to refer to me using female pronouns, much to my chagrin. Sad that it doesn't really help when I'm trying to flirt with guys.

This troper's older brother has had really long hair for as long as she can remember. More than once, while this troper and her brother were out to eat with their mother, a waitress has asked "What can I get you ladies?" or something similar, before awkwardly apologizing once they see his prominent facial hair.

My bestie had a run in with one at K-Mart, apperently "she" had a 5 o'clock shadow, boobs(the person in question was chubby, it could have been moobs) and a voice that sounded like a pubesent boy... we have no idea what it was, but it continues to be a running gag You can head back to AmbiguousGender now Sir, I mean Ma'am, I mean...