This article examines how gender is constructed, negotiated, and reproduced through local narratives in the thematic villages of Malang City, Indonesia. Drawing on qualitative research within the framework of feminist theory and gender studies, this study explores storytelling as a gendered social practice embedded in everyday community life and local cultural production. Using in-depth interviews, participant observation, and textual analysis of oral and visual narratives, this research investigates how stories told by community members articulate, legitimize, and sometimes contest gender roles, identities, and power relations within village spaces shaped by tourism and creative initiatives. The findings reveal that storytelling functions both as a site of gender reinforcement—where normative femininity and masculinity are reiterated and naturalized—and as a space of negotiation, particularly through women’s narratives that subtly or explicitly challenge dominant representations. Thematic villages, while frequently promoted as sites of cultural creativity, economic empowerment, and participatory development, also operate as gendered spaces in which narrative authority is unevenly distributed and certain voices are selectively amplified or marginalized. By foregrounding local narratives as analytical entry points, this study highlights the role of storytelling in shaping gendered meanings of place, labor, belonging, and community identity. This article contributes to gender studies by demonstrating how localized narrative practices provide critical insights into the everyday production, regulation, and transformation of gender beyond formal institutions, emphasizing the importance of narrative and place-based approaches in feminist qualitative research and community studies.