Note that many people consider some or all of the following terms to have negative connotations.

A male adopting a female gender role might be described as effeminate, foppish, or as a sissy. Even more pejorative terms include mollycoddle, milquetoast, milksop, sop, mamma's boy, and namby-pamby.
A female adopting a male role might be described as butch, as a tomboy, or as a mannish woman. More pejorative terms include amazon (see amazon feminism), virago.
Women who maintain a traditionally feminine identity might be described as femme or girly girls.

Sexual orientation and gender roles

Traditional gender roles include male attraction to females, and vice versa. Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and others do not conform to these expectations. An active conflict over the cultural acceptibility of non-heterosexuality rages worldwide.The belief or assumption that heterosexual relationships and acts are normal is described—largely by the opponents of this viewpoint—as heterosexism or in queer theory, heteronormativity.

Perhaps it is an attempt to reconcile this conflict that leads to a common assumption that one same-sex partner assumes a pseudo-male gender role and the other assumes a pseudo-female role. For a gay male relationship, this might lead to the assumption that the "wife" handled domestic chores, was the receptive sexual partner in anal sex, adopted effeminate mannerisms, and perhaps even dressed in women's clothing. A related assumption is that all androphilic people, including gay men, should or do adopt feminine mannerisms and other gender-role elements, and that all gynophilic people, including lesbians, should or do adopt masculine mannerisms and other gender-role elements; it is unclear how bisexuality fits into this framework.

Same-sex domestic partners also challenge traditional gender roles because it is impossible to divide up household responsibilites along gender lines if both partners attempt to fill the same gender role. Like all live-in couples, same-sex partners usually do come to some arrangement with regard to household responsibilities. Sometimes these arrangements do assign traditional female responsibilities to one partner and traditional male responsibilities to the other, but non-traditional division of labor are also quite common. For instance, cleaning and cooking, traditionally both female responsibilities, might be assigned to different people. Some people do adopt the sexual role of bottom or top, but this is not universal, and does not necessarily correspond to assignment of household responsibilities.

Cross-dressing is also quite common in gay and lesbian culture, but it is usually restricted to festive occasions (though there are certainly people of all sexual orientations who routinely engage in various types of cross-dressing, either as a fashion statement or for entertainment). Distinctive styles of dress, however, are commonly seen in gay and lesbian circles. These fashions sometimes emulate the traditional styles of the opposite gender (for example, lesbians who wear t-shirts and boots instead of skirts and dresses, or gay men who wear clothing with traditionally feminine elements, including displays of jewelry or coloration), but others do not. Fashion choices also do not neccesarily align with other elements of gender identity. Some fashion and behavioral elements in gay and lesbian culture are novel, and do not really correspond to any traditional gender roles. For example, the popularity of rainbow jewelry, or the gay techno/dance music subculture. In addition to the stereotypically effeminate one, another significult gay male subculture is homomasculinity, emphasizing certain traditionally masculine or hypermasculine traits. (See Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures.)

The term dyke, commonly used to mean lesbian, sometimes carries associations of a butch or masculine identity, and the variant bulldyke certainly does. Other gender-role-charged lesbian terms include lipstick lesbian, chapstick lesbian, and Stone Femme. "Butch," "femme," and novel elements are also seen in various lesbian subcultures.

External social pressures may lead some people to adopt a persona which is perceived as more appropriate for a heterosexual (for instance, in an intolerant work environment) or homosexual (for instance, in a same-sex dating environment), while maintaining a somewhat different identity in other, more private circumstances. The acceptance of new gender roles in Western societies, however, is rising.