This troper had a classmate in high school who always wore black jackets and jeans, had a deep voice, tended to be outspoken and boisterous in class, and was very comfortable hanging out with the guy crowd. The only thing that prevented this troper from automatically labeling this classmate as male on first impression was the unmistakably female name on "his" name tag (turned out to be a good thing she saw that, as said classmate went by a gender-ambiguous nickname all the time...), and even then, trying to see "him" as a girl nearly broke her brain. She isn't alone in this case; her aunt was initially puzzled to see a guy as the salutatorian until she saw that the "guy" had a dress on underneath "his" robes.

So far as I know, the salutatorian role has never been traditionally female, so, what?

Maybe she was informed that this year it would be, otherwise you got me.

Original troper here: It's because I told her beforehand that the salutatorian was a female classmate of mine (in contrast with the male valedictorian), which is why she got puzzled when she saw a "male" there instead.

This troper's male cousin has been confused for a girl before. Justified in that he wears his hair almost to his shoulders, has yet to reach puberty, watches "Hannah Montana" and other girly shows, wears purple, and lets me put his hair up in pigtails... (And, no, he's not gay - he's crushing on one of his stepsiblings' female friends.)

this troper wishes people would stop trying to "figure out" the genders of her genderqueer and transgender friends. It's not anyone's business, you know? Imagine how jarring it must feel to have people constantly staring at you when you go out in public, analyzing you, eyeballing you like you are something floating in a jar in formaldehyde.

I was confused about what Benimaru's gender is and was quite surprised when I realized that she's supposed to seem masculine to fool people into thinking she's a guy. Say it with me folks, in my view, Benimaru is ''a lady that looks like a dude who looks like a lady''. Or was it King? I don't know, some character from some fighting game.

Benimaru is male. You're probably thinking of King, from the same series.

This troper knew a kid in 3rd grade who had his hair in long dreadlocks past his shoulders. Being the first boy he had seen with long hair, he immediately thought he was a girl. In 8th grade tech class, he was partnered with a girl who looked like the Star Wars kid, but with curlier hair. In high school, he and a few friends often wondered if a punk one year below them was actually a guy, due to his feminine looks, feathered hair, and skinny jeans.

This individual has been on both the giving and receiving end of this trope: ever since he grew his hair out, he's been mistaken for a girl/woman on several occasions and, in high school, there was a girl (who was a lesbian, thus furthering his confusion) whom he didn't know ''was'' a girl until she took off her big, downy jacket to reveal sizeable boobs.

This troper used to be mistaken for a boy a lot in preschool, due to her shoulder-length hair and (apparently) masculine features. Then there was the time in second grade that a kid a year older than her asked "Why do you have a boy's voice?" (This troper is and has always been an alto, and is also often mistaken for her brother on the phone.) This might be why, now, she refuses to let her hair get any shorter than elbow-length.

And This Troper here has a friend working on a webcomic (Goddites is the prototype name), and saw one of the panels and said 'what's that character's name?'. Character's name was Audio. He had one of those long bangs on one side but cropped short everywhere else hair cuts and wore head phones and sprouted a monstrous bell thing with Doc Oct blades from his back. Surprise, it's a twelve year old girl whose nickname is Audio, but her real name is... of all things, Klaudia. This troper fails to see the pun in the name.

Also worth mentioning is that the little girl travels around a After the End/Possibly Crapsack World WITH THREE BISHONENS AND AN ELF CHICK.

One of this troper's teachers once asked him if a classmate of Japanese descent was male or female. Given that the school uniform was the same for both genders and he was something of a bishonen (as well as having some rather feminine mannerisms), it was somewhat understandable. This troper himself also got confused for a girl a few times when he was about 5 and let his hair grow out.

Despite being Straight Gay, Racha is often mistaken for a boy by strangers. This is particularly irritating when she's at work and a name badge is prominently displayed.

@/{{Griffin}} was mistaken for a boy before in real life. Since she had just gotten a haircut and tends to wear loose clothing, she guesses it's understandable. Nonetheless, she was still quite insulted.

I'm mistaken for a guy every couple of months on average even after finishing growing up, but two cases when I was a child/pre-teen stand out in my mind:

Once on World Savings Day at the bank, the teller gave me two of the giveaways, "one for you, and one for your sister", not realising that the girl's name on the account was mine.

A magician called the "young man in the first row" up to the stage. Took me a moment to figure out he was addressing me, but on the plus side, just giving my name made the entire audience laugh.

This troper used to work at a deli in a grocery store. The choice was a tie or some kind of ladylike bolo-bow, and she chose the tie. Unfortunately a black tie worn in conjunction with short hair under a baseball cap, a white men's work shirt, chest-obscuring apron, and her alto voice meant she got called "sir" by customers until she started caking on the mascara.

This troper has run into a few individuals who thought they were the opposite gender until he heard them speak, for example there was this very skinny guy at a garage sale with long hair, a very feminine type of face, and appeared to have breasts. We thought he was a girl until we heard him speak with a fairly deep voice. Another time there appeared to be a gay man dressed in leather dancing at a party as it turns out it was a lesbian with very short hair.

This troper once roleplayed the Pokemon Darkrai, which canon states is genderless. She soon ended up in an argument with people who insisted it was male, since he/it is often shipped with a female character, and is offhandedly referred to as male in a spinoff game. It's important to note that the anime isn't in the same continuity as the main games, and said spinoff series likely isn't either. One other person added in that it could be female, since he/she/it has what looks kinda like a skirt, and the stones around its neck could be interpreted as a necklace. To keep the peace, this troper just agreed with the majority and began referring to Darkrai as a male.

This troper refuses to believe Darkrai is anything but a girl. Especially after having to write for one that was pregnant...

This troper spent TWO WEEKS sitting next to a person in class she could not figure out the gender of. She finally decided s/he was male. Later, she found out s/he was bisexual. Oh, and she can truthfully say s/he does not have breasts. My friends and I had to stuff the bust of the wedding dress we put him/her in to make it fit.

Wait, their sexual orientation resolved your gender confusion? I presume you mean they're like, an androgyne or possibly transgender, but I'm perfectly willing to think "yay for bisexuals!" and move on.

This troper once met a friend of her cousin, looked like a slim not very tall teen boy with a very androgynous face, no breasts, tried to guess the gender by the voice, no success as it was really androgynous too. When my cousin and I were finally alone I dared to ask... she was a girl, with a very girlish name but most people actually make that mistake. It annoyed her to be treated as boy by her teachers but didn't mind when girls she fancied did, he even made out with some clueless ones who didn't even notice.

This troper has had a couple of these experiences:

When I was fifteen and starting at a new school, I noticed (from a name list) that there were a total of three guys in my class. Not all of said guys showed up during the first week, so I ended up assuming a female classmate to be one of them. To be fair, said classmate wore loose hoodies, was skinny with narrow hips, had shorter hair than the actual males and wore no make-up.

A few years later, I had to attend a course with dressmaking students, who I had come to expect to be exclusively female. Within a few hours I realized that one of them was, in fact, male. He wore the kind of clothes that are common for both genders and actually didn't have all that feminine a face, but he wore make-up and his body language was exactly like that of his female classmates'.

This troper grew a beard so that strangers would stop referring to him as "miss" by mistake.

This troper once attended a family reunion, where she met a distant cousin of ambiguous gender. Asking around, she got several conflicting answers. From family members. Yeah.

This troper went to high school with a girl named Angela who's about six feet tall, broad-shouldered, flat-chested, and has hair of that just-above-the-shoulders length that looks perfectly ordinary on boys and girls. And while all the other girls wear black dresses for orchestra, she wears a black shirt and trousers like the boys - that's about when I started wondering if she's transgendered. On the other hand, the shirt and trousers does just look better on her than a dress would.

This troper was just told by a girl that "I'd kiss you if you were a boy". It must be the hair.

This troper had a friend in high school named Danny who had long hair, tie-dye shirts and talked just like Rocky from Rocky And Bullwinkle. He(she?) was kinda scrawny as well.

This is a staple at gay pride festivals. Aside from the obvious {{Drag Queen}}s/Kings and transgendered people, there have been times when this troper looked at someone from a distance, thought "He's cute, I wonder if he's single...", only to realize upon closer inspection that "his" hairline wasn't quite right for a man and "he" had small breasts, and that this troper had been checking out a ButchLesbian the entire time.

This troper was extremely effeminate as a child and was often mistaken for a girl, but a few rather... notable examples come to mind...

When this troper was about four he met some friends of his parents who had never met either him or his sister. As she wasn't there at the time, they assumed he was her. A particularly egregious case given that she was one at the time...

When this troper was about seven he was on a cruise for a family reunion. On the first night he went to a magic show and was called up to help the magician as his "lovely assistant"...

When this troper was about nine he played a non-speaking role in some opera (he forgets which). He was originally told he couldn't audition as the part was a boy. Fortunately the director of the opera knew this troper and cleared things up immediately, but still...

Luckily when this troper turned twelve and started going through puberty he became much more masculine, to the point he's now almost brutish in appearance. Now if only he could find something in between...

This (male) troper is invariably assumed to be female by telemarketers. Also, he once procrastinated way, way too long over getting a haircut and ended up being mistaken for female by strangers in the supermarket.

This troper is called ma'am with a regularity that his friends find truly humorous, at work, in a shirt and tie, with a couple days worth of facial hair growth.

He's also been told by ANGRY straight identifying men or gay identifying women that he is "too pretty to be a boy", and as he is currently 27 years old, is fairly sure puberty isn't waiting in the wings to change anything.

This troper had a classmate in middle school who went by Nicky, had a deep voice, nothing in the way of chest... imagine my surprise when halfway through the semester I found out Nicky was short for Nicole.

This troper, being a transboy whose voice gives him away and whose chest is as stubborn as all hell [hoodies help!], nonetheless actively cultivates this in places where he's not known. He likes to keep running tabs on all the "is that person male or female?" looks he gets. It's a look with which he is intimately familiar.

Some years ago me and a friend went to a Cyber Cafe which was mostly used for LAN gaming (this was before broadband, when online gaming was a little clunky). I left early as I needed to get the bus, and afterwards when my friend was on his own, one of the other gamers got talking to him and mistook me for a girl. I did have long hair at the time (still do, in fact it's even longer now). Then again, at least once I was "seen out with a girl" which turned out to be said friend (who also had, and has, long hair, and other than being tall even by male standards, is far more girly than me). Annoyingly though, the few times I've hoped people would think I was a girl (usually when buying something girly or childish, not something I make a habbit of, but it happens from time to time) they end up calling me "sir". Of cource, if asked it would be for my girlfriend, or sister, but they never ask.

Me and my mother were once walking along somewhere when some random bloke we passed just said "Hello ladies" probably because he ''liked'' one of us. In retrospect I should have turned around and said that I was a 14 year old male.

On a game This Troper plays called Lands of Illithia, one of the admins has a personalized, chibi-fied Angel avatar that looks completely female in the version cropped for the forum, and it doesn't help that I used to constantly misread his name as Kestrel. Narrowly avoided thanks to this troper's past, which taught him in several ways never to assume gender (although it is hilarious to see someone try to go from calling you "ma'am" to "man" after turning around and revealing the beard under the NewAgeRetroHippie Hair).

Screw Mister "I'm the Page Pic For the Trope", until I played the game, I thought ''Zidane'' was a girl. Not in the least because I had a female friend who looked a frell-load like him, only we were 12. Although I think I always knew Kuja was a guy. And in a set of sketches I've done redesigning the characters from IX, Kuja gets more manly in dress but more flamboyant in other ways while Zidane... is kind of the same

This troper (despite being straight-acting and wearing clothes and hair similar to any other fairly masculine working class boy) didn't hit puberty very well and is small and slight with feminine Slavic features. He actually lost a few johns he was trying to pick up because they thought he was a girl in drag. Working as a male prostitute. Somehow.

This lurker's friend honestly thought Itachi was female when he was first appeared against Asuma/Kurenai in the manga. It took the corresponding anime scene and the voice of CrispinFreeman to convince him otherwise. He'd only seen that one page out of the entire series, and therefore missed all the references to Sasuke's Nii-san, so I guess it's not too unreasonable

A counsellor at my summer camp had short-cropped hair, an ambiguous chinline, and unisex clothes. I took them for male until I heard their voice, a soft lilt -- and then they turned out to be male all along. What's worse, they couldn't see what I was talking about and thought it was extremely strange I should ask. (''Still'' can't see them as male...)

ThisTroper went to "Nerd Camp" with Frances, an afro-having, jeans-and-polo-shirt-wearing girl who spent the first week being apologized to for all the ''he''s and ''sir''s she recieved.

ThisTroper also gets a lot of this herself, proving that TertiarySexualCharacteristics -- short hair, androgynous clothes, and a newsboy cap, in her case -- matter more than GagBoobs and HartmanHips in determining gender.

This troper has blue eyes and used to have blonde hair, which apparently automatically means "girl!" On the other side, one of his females friends used to be called a boy when she was younger. Common Superpower}} That doesn't happen anymore...

This troper has this kind of problem, SPECIALLY in my ID Pictures (Last time I voted, somebody asked me: "Why are you carrying a girl's ID?). And I'm not even the "Bishonen" kind of girly look (that would be cool, at least, I could get lucky with otaku chicks), I just look as a weird lesbian.

This male troper had been mistaken by a girl several times before I hit puberty (and even then it was hard to tell). But there is one occasion that sticks out most. One in middle school when I was walking with his best friend, and some guy sticks his head out a nearby bus window to pretty much say that I was hot. In all fairness, I had shoulder-length curly hair, a high-pitched voice, long eyelashes, and feminine stance, but it was still disturbing. BrainBleach please?

This troper knew someone who once accidentally had a man follow her into the girl's loo. To be fair, about the only feminine aspect this girl had when clothed was not particularly obvious. This did once result in the following conversation (when she wore a tux to a concert): #QUOTE#'''Troper:''' ...you ''are'' a girl, aren't you?\\ '''Friend:''' Yes. (groping) I have lumps. You're a guy, aren't you? Don't demonstrate that!

This troper is called female about half the time by anyone who doesn't know me. This is probably due to my long, shoulder length now past my shoulders length hair that curls at the bottom occasionally, my shortness, my high voice, and my skinniness. I'm also often mistaken as female (or my mom) on the phone pretty much EVERY time if its someone who doesn't know me. I actually find this rather amusing and enjoy the reactions this gets.

While not regularly by any stretch of imagination, this male troper has been confused for a gal on occasion. Including on my way to the bathroom. I blame the glasses.

This troper was at the Husky Football Cheer Night, which was basically a halftime show in which the field was completely taken over by cheerleaders from various high schools/other cheer organizations. 99% of these cheerleaders were girls, and the few boys could be spotted simply because they weren't moving. Except for one boy, who this troper's father and her only managed to figure out was a boy due to the lack of pompoms (because this kid was just as cheer-y as the girls on either side) and use of binoculars to confirm the hypothesis.

This troper's ex-girlfriend (and said ex's ''mother'') both thought, upon first seeing this troper, that she was a boy. Granted, this troper had ''extremely'' short hair at the time, and tends to wear male-looking/made-for-guys clothes (she is currently wearing a boys' Batman shirt), but seeing as the ex and her mom saw this troper at the "welcome to high school, freshmen" party for an ''all-girls' school'', this troper is rather more amused by it than usual.

She was also called a guy at a Yu-Gi-Oh! card swap around the same time. The boy who had done so apologized ''a lot''... this troper is pretty sure it was mainly because she and her friend were the only girls there over 10.

(This troper also does occasionally go out of her way to dress in a relatively androgynous way, especially at Model UN, where western business attire is required -- this troper has not yet worn a skirt to any of the 3 conferences she has attended.)

This (female) troper has rather androgynous features, prefers more unisex clothing styles, and is lacking in the curves department. In photos from when I had shorter hair, I look like a boy. I've even been asked "Are you a feminine looking guy or a weird looking girl?" I've also been asked if I "used to be a guy". The confusion tends to end when I speak since my voice is fairly feminine.

This troper was watching Michael Jackson videos on TV in the early nineties and was quite impressed with the "pretty girl" in the pirate shirt singing and dancing.

This troper, when he was little, was always mistaken for a girl by people who didn't know him. It went on for most of my childhood; even when dressing as a male character for Halloween, people simply think I'm a girl dressing like a boy. It finally came to an end once I hit puberty; then, people could tell I was, in fact, male. Sometimes, I look back and wish that at least once, I had dressed like a girl to further convince them before I drop a Bridget on them, just for the fun of messing with people's heads.

This troper once spent most of a semester trying to figure out if the TA was male or female. Short hair, high voice, flat-chested... and Chinese, so I couldn't tell from the name. I finally decided on female. After having decided on male.

Also, a girl I'd seen around on campus... I'd thought "''she's really not all that good-looking'', and then she came up to where I was working and ordered dinner. In an extremely unambiguously masculine voice. Oops.

@/{{Siiner}} is currently only not mistaken for female by the fact that he is a BASS, and tends to wear skin tight shirts with baggy raver pants to avoid the "Flat chested goth chick" appeal. And I still get called "Ma'am" more often than sir. Must be because I don't talk much.

This troper's had people mistake her for a boy on numerous occasions. When she was small, it was understandable, as she had short hair, wore neutral clothes, and was constantly falling out of some tree or other. Later on, her voice turned out to be fairly low, which didn't help (every so often she'd answer the phone and be asked, "Hi, is Dr./Mrs./Mr./whichever title they were using for either parent in? ...Oh, is this their son?" and end up with flustered apologies) and she got pretty tall. She also, however, has very long hair, a fairly obvious chest, and even more obvious hips. This ''still'' hasn't stopped people from mistaking her; going down the walkway of her old school one day, a couple of boys were heard wondering about her gender.

This troper's cousin has a a very feminine face and used to have fairly long-ish hair. Before he cut his hair and his voice changed, it wasn't that hard to mistake him for a girl...

This Troper intentionally created a male character with this trope in mind. She gave him shoulder-length hair, a tunic long enough it could be mistaken for a dress and HartmanHips. Yes, you heard right. Viewer reactions were priceless!

This somewhat flat-chested (yet wide-hipped) Tropette has been mistaken for male ever since she started wearing her hair short; the first instance happened the day after she first had her waist-length hair cropped to ear-length, and an old lady at her job addressed her as "Sir". Said Tropette replied, "I'm a Miss", plus she was also wearing a long skirt. The old lady then glared at her as if to say "Don't contradict me, you cross-dressing young whipper-snapper".

A while ago, I was on holiday in Egypt and a trader at Edfu asked my mother if I was her son. Now, I know I'm not particularly attuned with the feminine arts, but I'm not ''that'' mannish!

More of a listener gender confusion, but I was told my reaction to finding out that Cher's hit single ''Believe'' was, in fact, sung by a woman was priceless.

One of my best friends in primary school was a boy with very long curly hair and a thin face that could be mistaken for a girl at first glance. One time in class he was sitting next to another friend, who was feeling depressed for some reason; the substitute teacher said to the depressed boy, "Why are you so sad? You're sitting in-between two beautiful girls!" My poor friend had to raise his hand and say, "Um, I'm a boy." (Incidentally, I saw him a few months ago and he still has the hair, but has now grown a thick beard.)

Apparently all this troper has to do to pass for a boy is wear a baggy shirt and not talk much. This is odd, as she has long hair and more or less feminine features. It may have something to do with her dislike for skirts and makeup. She's not very girly. In fact, a male friend once told her she didn't understand women.

This troper thought the redhaired Stygian Triplet of ''{{Dogma}}'', played by Barrett Hackney, was female. Something about the hair, the sneery expression, and the fact that this troper was brought up in an English private school, where hockey is seen as a decidedly feminine game. Someone else commented on a devArt picture of them making lewd comments about Barrett under the assumption that he was a girl, until this troper set him straight and apparently induced a StupidSexyFlanders moment.

This troper has known a few confusing girls: I went to elementary school with two sporty-looking girls: one was slim with short hair and the other was muscular with long-ish hair, and both had gender-neutral names. While the slim girl wore girly shirts every once in a while, the stocky girl never did and it took me a while to make sure she was female.

When I got to college there was a PerkyGoth cosplayer girl who could've easily been mistaken for a boy (she ''loved'' dressing as male characters, especially Ero-sennin and Sasuke and for a second I thought she was the deliberately confusing Japanese lab tech on ''{{Bones}}'') if it weren't for her painfully large breasts (she talked about getting them reduced), and on a lesser note there was a girl who looked like the nail salon lady from ''LegallyBlonde'' and talked like a stereotypical gay guy - I had to do a double-take to make sure she wasn't an exceptionally good drag queen.

Also, years of anime knowledge confused me when I started hearing about ''Avatar'' -- why is Haku trying to kill that short wizard from MagicKnightRayEarth?

This Troper intentionally went for this reaction by playing as Shinta during a multiplayer game. To quote her friend: "Aww, you took the only girl!" Same friend later went over some confusion as to whether the {{Persona}} protagonist was a boy or a girl. Granted, I personally think both would look good in dresses, but still! Then again...

This troper has above shoulder-length brown hair, an androgynous face, is kind of chubby, and is interested in Mario, Sonic, and Legend of Zelda. I have a really deep voice and wear male boxers. I speak in a masculine pattern and to add on top of that, her name is Jordan. (Her middle name is Rose, but she abbreviates it to make people guess) Not to mention, she's incredibly tall and strong.

This troper used to be a tomboy for years, wore gender-ambigious clothes and had a short haircut, but nobody ever mistook her for a guy, probably because they already knew her (she lived in a place that was almost like a village) and because her face and voice aren't that close to a guy's. But then she moved to a different place, and had to change her entire wardrobe to make people believe that she's not a guy.

This troper experienced being on the receiving end of this as a child (up until about 14 when he got all ugly and troll-faced), and now knows a rather sizeable amount of people who fit this trope. Apparently this troper likes hanging out with people whose gender he can't tell easily. On an semi-related note, this troper recalls a certain conversation with a cousin about the flaws of JRPGs when said cousin notes that not being able to tell the male characters from the female irks him, pointing out a specific example of being very, very attracted to a certain character, then freaking out upon realizing said character was male. Que this troper laughing hysterically over the phone for about 5 whole minutes.

This (male) troper was surfing channels and came across a volleyball match. The camera angle was such that there was close-up of one player's bottom on the screen. The troper started feeling really awkward because he got mildly aroused by what he was seeing. Then the camera switched back to the wide angle, showing the Troper that he was actually watching a Women's league game.

This troper's step-mom went to use the restroom in a movie theatre once and a little old lady promptly dragged her out by her ear. My step-mom is a very large woman who also happens to keep her hair buzzed. Also, she was seeing a movie with my mom (my parents are lesbians), which probably didn't help. All in all, it was quite funny in hindsight...

This troper once went to an acting convention. On the first day, he sat at a table with several other students, one of whom had a very angry looking face hidden behind sunglasses and a short, spikey hair cut. This troper assumed it was a boy, but when 'he' stood up, he had ''boobs''. Turns out ''he'' was actually a very butch ''she''. Go figure.

This troper has a classmate that is extremely prone to this. The first instance was when she was paired with the classmate for an RE project on world religions. Classmate promptly mistook a goddess for a god. The second instance was this year, with a Media Studies project, and classmate mistook ex-PM Margaret Thatcher for a man. Sort of justified, as she never saw pictures of either individual.

This troper was on a school trip when she saw one of her fellow travellers. Their name was Parker. They wore trunks and had a boy's voice, but they also had long blonde hair and braided their hair. This troper cept her mouth shut and hoped for a sign on whether they were a {{Bishonen}} or a {{Bifauxnen}}. Finally, their name was revealed to be be Gwendeline and thus female; Parker was her middle name. Acording to her, even her parents were confused when she was in the womb.

OK, so ThisTroper has the MostCommonSuperPower and HartmanHips, and while I wish it weren't quite so uh, prominent, BabyGotBack. But apparently this isn't enough: a PrinceValiant Haircut and big shoulders plus a bit of above average height, and I still get called "Sir" on a regular basis. Anyone got a likely explanation? Is it about walking wrong, or something?

Maybe they think you're just trying too hard and thus MUST be a male pretending to be a female?

This has happened to this troper over the phone. Twice. While at his grandparents house, someone called for them. When I said they weren't home, they asked if I was their grand''daughter''. The second time it happened, I said, in a very irriated tone, "No, this is their grand'''son'''." That person has never called again.

"She's dead, this is her son."

This troper had a girl in her 6th grade PE class... with a super short hair cut, torn up jeans, and decidedly masculine mannerisms. From sixth grade all the way to graduation, she wore a dress only once - a band concert in eighth grade where dresses were required. She was also the only one allowed to wear a pantsuit instead of a dress for graduation.

This troper has been accused of actively encouraging this trope. Between not subscribing to standard gender in general, kinda male 70's rockstar-ish hair most of the time, clothing choices and binding, it's not surprising to that I've heard the phrase, "Is that a guy or a girl?" said sotto voice about me a few times. Also, been called sir, I get apologized profusely to when I speak as I try to explain that I don't really care. I'm skinny apparently and have unisex hair, boobs do give me away when I chose to have them though.

This troper, way back when she was eight, recieved her first Pokemon game for Christmas: Crystal. I was playing away when I saw the rival character, with his long red hair and bishonen androgony. Later, what does said troper name the rival? Rita. His hair and general apearance fooled my fragile childs mind into thinking he was a girl, and so I named him appropriatly. It was only much later that I realised my mistake (along with the fact that I'd misspelled "Squirtie", the name for my Totodile, as "Squitie". Much laughs were had). Yeah, this troper was an awesome(ly ditzy) eight year old.

This troper never had problems being identified as a male in real life; however, in a somewhat funny inverse of {{GIRL}}, he ''has'' been mistaken for a girl online...several times. This is because he didn't talk rudely about women (might, at worse, say "She's cute" but never "She's so hot" or anything coarser like that), was very concerned about and railed against sexism (to the point that most people thought I was a woman complaining about sexism), dislikes toilet and sexual humor (which, supposedly, is a guy thing), and generally was believed to act too meek and mild to really be a guy. It didn't help that my very common last name, which was part of my handle for a couple of years, is also a female first name, which people assumed ''was'' my first name for no reason. Several times they would ask "Hey, you're a girl, right?" and they would act shocked (and disappointed) that I would respond "Actually, I'm a guy." And even after he adopted a male avatar, some people just began assuming I was a girl pretending to be a guy. There's a reason I tend to lurk more than I used to online...

This troper, apparently due to being short, slim, Asian, and effeminate, is mistaken for a girl a few times a month. It was worse when he had long hair. He would be called "miss" or "ma'am" a few times a week.

This troper saw at least two people at her town's fair that had completely indeterminable genders. One was very skinny with boy-short hair and androgynous pretty features, and the other had medium-ish hair and equally unhelpful facial features.

This troper is always being mistaken for a boy, though not as much recently. When she was a little, she was thought to be a boy because of the boyish clothes she wore. Apprently, nobody noticed the pigtails she wore her hair in everyday. Now, as a teenager, she's mistaken for a boy merely because her hair is very short despite that she wears feminine clothing (unless she's wearing a dress or skirt, which isn't often). An example: One time in her social studies class, when she was 14, the class had to choose a partner for a class assignment. A boy in the class said he wanted to be partners with "the boy wearing the pink shirt." The class looked around for who he described and he pointed to her. When everyone stared at him after they saw who he was pointing at, he asked why everyone was staring at him and she nicely said that she's a girl, not a boy and stood so he could see her full outfit (which was a pink floral tunic, flower jeans, heels and a blue headband with a flower on it) and also told him her name. His response was, "Oh, sorry. I forgot your name. I just thought you were a boy who liked pink." Another classmate said, "Yeah, to be honest, we all used to think you were just a boy with a girl's name until we saw you wearing a skirt a month ago." Well, at least they weren't intolerant of people. But still, it wasn't that hard to tell that this troper was a girl!

I think someone did the Real life equivalent of a natural one on a spot check on me - They mistook me for a girl despite that I ''HAD STUBBLE''.

Watching La Roux performing on, er, some New Years type show with my mom: #QUOTE#'''Mom:''' He sounds like a girl. #QUOTE#'''Me:''' That ''is'' a girl.

This is one of those things that always confuses me. I mean transgendered people are usually easy to spot as they tend to be adults and have more obvious features that show if they are a guy or not (adam's apple, broad shoulders, hands, etc being the easiest). But you sometimes see teenagers who you can't spot the gender of straight away. That confuses me. If they are straight, it makes no sense, as the opposite sex is unlikely to be attracted to what they can assume is the same gender. If they are gay, it makes a bit of sense, as they may assume other gay people are attracted to the same gender looking like women (ie: "butch" lesbians). I think its hilarious if they ever get offended by being called the wrong gender though. If you portray yourself as an "either gender" person, you have no right to complain if people call you the wrong gender. Though it's rather disturbing when they do it just to troll people as there must be some severe pyschological problem there.

Here's some reading for you. It should give you a little more insight on the subject.

This troper was walking near a college campus, holding hands with a guy, when a truckfull of screaming people yelling "WOOOOOOOOO!" passed them. It would have gone unnoticed, if the truck hadn't stopped and backed up. Then a guy leaned out said "We're sorry, we thought you were a guy." So polite bigots. Yeah.

This female troper has recently started seeing a guy with long hair past his shoulders (she has a thing for that). He's kinda tall and lanky, but, as I put it, "guy pretty". Anyway, he's mentioned to me that in the past, to his frustration, he's been mistaken for a girl. A week or so ago we were hanging out downtown, just talking, when this random dude was walking by. When he saw us he asked, "Do you two lovely ladies have a dollar?" I looked down to hide my giggling since the guy I was with had mentioned, not ten minutes prior, a time when he overheard another guy asking someone if he was male or female. He said no in as deep a voice as he could. The random dude said, "Oh, woops! Lady and gentleman!" and walked on. Unfortunately, it doesn't help that he has a gender-neutral name.

Same troper has also been mistaken for a guy. Twice. Once was when I was about fifteen and first met a couple friends in my art class. I had short hair and wore a baggy hoodie all the time, and the friends told me later that they didn't know I was a girl until I spoke to them. Second time was when I was on the train that same year. I was wearing a dress under the hoodie (which was zipped up) and the hoodie hid most of the dress. An attendant was showing someone to their seat, which was next to me. The attendant pointed to the seat and said something along the lines of, "next to him." Looking back on it, it's pretty funny, but at the time I was just confused since I thought it was clear that I'm a girl. (In the attendant's defence though it's clear now since I don't dress as tomboyish as I used to.)

When I first heard "Young Blood" by The Naked And Famous on the radio, I thought something along the lines of "Whoever's singing, he sort of sounds like a cross between the guy from Passion Pit and the guy from Silversun Pickups". As it turns out while there ''is'' a male vocalist in the band too, the bulk of that song is sung by Alisa Xayalith. So in other words, I assumed a female vocalist was male because she reminded me of two different male vocalists who are commonly perceived as sounding female. Huh.

I was once friends with an openly gay woman who dressed in men's clothes (and, when I met her, had shaved off her hair for Shave For A Cure). Little to no actual gender confusion ensued, but she did once tell me about a man accidentally following her into the girls' toilet.

Is this troper the only one who, after becoming so used to feminine men in manga/anime ends up assuming any character in that medium without overt secondary sexual characteristics (read: tits and ass) is a man? Of course, this ends up backfiring...

This somewhat butch troper has been mistaken for a guy on a few occasions, usually by older people though. She also has a friend whom she, upon first meeting him, wasn't sure what his gender was. He tends to wear his hair long and wears somewhat androgynous clothes, and it doesn't help that he has the unisex name Dan.

Last winter, this troper puts on a big coat and put her long hair in her beanie and went to the local shopping center. She soon ran into two girls around her age who asked her to a movie. Troper accepts despite never meeting them before. Once inside, troper removes her coat and hat, revealing her breasts and long hair. Needless to say, those girls weren't too thrilled about the reveal.

This troper has been mistaken for a boy a total of five times so far, mostly by waiters. She isn't particularly pretty, got her hair cut shorter than some boys' less than a year ago, and has a tendency to wear loose-fitting clothing. A good example was when she was with a male friend, waiting for a female friend to change into her band uniform. A woman and her daughter went in after a rather polite "Excuse us, gentlemen." After I realized what she'd said, I practically cackled and considered walking in to wash my hands just to confuse/frighten her.

I used to live life as a femme boy and got hit on/checked out by straight men, asked by nurses when the last time I had a pap smear, etc. Then I transitioned to female and finally got the confidence to cut my hair short. I got a job at a gas station where the uniform shirts were waaay too big for me and got called male pronouns pretty often by customers. It seems to be my accidental mission in life to confuse people.

This troper was at the bus stop recently and saw a kid (around 8-10 years old) with whom I'm assuming was his/her father. Said kid had chin-length hair and rather androgynous facial features. I never asked, though. Also, this troper's own little brother was mistaken for a girl at least once as a toddler before he got his first haircut.

I recently (ahem) acquired the GameBoyAdvance version of ''FinalFantasyV'' and couldn't decide if Faris was a dude or a chick. To clarify, Faris' portrait appears feminine, but the character's sprite gives them a manly swath of a chest when viewed from the side. I went with "girl".

This tropette knows a girl with very boyish features who wears her hair short. She's often mistaken for a boy, and gets teased. This troper has noticed recently that she's generally wearing more pink and more frills lately... Hope it's not because of teasing.