Furry Female Mane

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A subcategory of Tertiary Sexual Characteristics and Long Hair Is Feminine, this is when female anthropomorphic animals have human-like heads of hair while their male counterparts do not. So while males are free to have what looks like a "bald" head (or at most, tufts of fur on their head indicating hair), females must have a more "obvious" indicator of their gender (the other option would be hiding the perceived "baldness" with hair accessories à la Minnie Mouse).

Non-mammal examples overlap with Non-Mammalian Hair.

Is the little sister trope to Non-Mammal Mammaries and a subtrope of Humanoid Female Animal.

Examples of Furry Female Mane include:


Comic Books

  • The female characters in Marvel Comics' Animal Superhero series Peter Porker The Spectacular Spider-Ham, such as Mary-Jane Waterbuffalo and the Scarlet Pooch, all have long hair, in a different shade to their fur. Peter himself has the brown hair of his human counterpart, but is otherwise furless, being a pig. And Nick Furry, Agent of S.H.E.E.P., somehow has stubble growing over his fur.
  • In Albedo: Erma Felna EDF, the Felna family, who are cats, has the rare genetic trait of the female members having thick human like head hair.

Film

  • Occurs with the female characters in An American Tail, though Tony Toponi is one male inversion.
    • Tanya Mousekewitz plays it straight in Fievel Goes West but averts it in the other movies.
  • Somewhat Inverted with the mice in The Great Mouse Detective. For example, Olivia Flaversham doesn't have human-like head hair, but her father, Hiram Flaversham, has head hair (albiet balding, leaving just fur on the crown) and a moustasche. Miss Kitty Mouse lacks human-like head hair too.
    • The majority of the mice (whether male or female) however, don't have human-like head hair, though Dr. Dawson does have a moustasche.
  • Inverted in The Jungle Book where Hathi Jr, a male baby elephant has human hair on his head. Played straight with his mother Winifred in the show Jungle Cubs where she is shown as a calf as with her eventual husband Colonel Hathi, however.
  • Both of the squirrels from The Return of Hanuman have short White-Haired Pretty Girl.
  • Averted in Robin Hood. Maid Marian achieves some flowing-hair effect by wearing a thin veil over a hat that fits neatly over her ears.
  • Beans from Rango.
  • Non-furry example: Ogre Fiona and other female ogres from the Shrek movies have hair on their head, but the male ogres (like Shrek) are bald with or without a few stands.
  • Kate in Alpha and Omega. She even flips it.
  • The Lion King plays this straight with Shenzi, whom unlike the other hyenas in the film, actually appears to have human hair on her head. Inverted with the lions, obviously.
  • Rita, a female rat from Flushed Away, has red hair on her head. Roddy, a male rat, has brown hair on his head.
  • Rare non-animal example: Cars actually both inverts this, averts this, and plays this straight, where many of the vehicles in the film lack any "hair", except for Luigi and his Uncle Topolino, who have vinyl toupees; Professor Z who has damaged wiring on his roof resembling a bald head; Rastacarian, who has black wiring on his roof resembling dreadlocks; and Signora Bernoulli, who has black wiring hiding under her scarf.

Puppet Shows

  • The main feature distingishing Fozzie Bear and his mother in The Muppet Show is Ma Bear's grey curls.
    • And there is of course the long blond hair of Miss Piggy.

Video Games

  • Coco Bandicoot from the Crash Bandicoot series.
  • Berri in Conkers Bad Fur Day
  • Gurdy the moogle from Final Fantasy XII, though the rest of her brothers (except for Horne) has this too. Note that the rest of the moogles in the game are bald.
  • Inverted in the Super Mario Bros. series games where all of the male Koopalings, as well as Bowser and Bowser Jr. have hair, while Wendy O. Koopa, the only female Koopaling, does not. Morton is the only male koopaling without hair.

Web Comics

  • Most female characters on Sabrina Online. The eponymous skunk has short white hair, her kid sister Tabitha has white pigtails, Amy has long blonde hair, Zig Zag has long silver hair, etc. Sabrina's boyfriend R.C. also has hair.
  • Played straight throughout Kevin and Kell, except for lions: Males have the large mane; females have no additional cranial hair.
  • Florence Ambrose in Freefall.
    • Justified because she is genetically engineered to have an anthropomorphic anatomy, although Mark Stanley mentioned in the Fourth Wall Mail Slot thread that had he started drawing her today, he wouldn't have included the human-style hair to indicate her gender.
  • The female foxes in Faux Pas have longer fur on the back of their heads to suggest hair.
  • Lackadaisy features this.
  • Carry On subverts it: The women actually wear wigs.
  • It'd be easier to talk about characters on Last Res0rt who DON'T have hair...
  • Averted in The Cyantian Chronicles, both genders have hair. Male wolves in particular tend to wear it long.

Western Animation

  • Pictured is Gadget from Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers who has long, flowing head hair while Chip, Dale and Monterey Jack are either bald or only have tufts. Tammy the squirrel also has styleable head hair, but Foxglove averts this by only having tufts of fur.
  • Although not a furry, Smurfette from The Smurfs embodies the spirit of this trope: Males of a species can be bald but females must have plenty of head hair.
  • Rebecca in Tale Spin, and her daughter Molly.
  • Inverted with Rita and Runt from Animaniacs. Runt has human-like head hair, but Rita only has tufts of fur. Interestingly, Runt is a talking, but otherwise normal, quadrupedal dog and Rita is a Talking Animal/Civilized Animal who is both bipedal and quadrupedal cat who is portrayed as a Funny Animal in a few appearances.
    • Played straight with Minerva Mink, who has human-like head hair.
    • Slight example with the Warner kids. Yakko and Wakko (when his hat is off) look bald. Dot, however, has tufts of fur on the sides of her head.
  • In the TV series of Brian Jacques' Redwall novels, Rose in the Martin the Warrior arc has a long ponytail, despite human-like hair being avoided or only mildly used in earlier seasons.
  • All the female characters in Arthur except Fern.
    • Most but not all of the male characters are "bald" (other than the fur). Francine's father is a strange combination - he's has fur and hair, but he's got Male Pattern Baldness leaving just fur on the crown of his head surrounded by hair. (He's a monkey, BTW.)
  • Petunia Pig from Looney Tunes has a full head of hair, but Porky Pig doesn't.
    • Lola Bunny in Space Jam has a larger, blonde tuft of hair on her head, but has her ears tied up in a ponytail as a substitute for long hair. Bugs Bunny only has smaller tufts.
      • Her long-running, print-only predecessor, Honey Bunny, averted the trope. She did sometimes arrange her ears to resemble a hairstyle, though.
    • Similarly, Melissa Duck has a full head of hair, but Daffy Duck doesn't.
  • Mousey Galore from Pinky and The Brain is a straight example, but Billie subverts this by having a large, stylish tuft of fur.
  • Shirley The Loon and Fifi La Fume have a full head of hair, but Buster Bunny, Plucky Duck, Furrball, Hamton J. Pig, and other male Tiny Toons don't.
  • Daisy Duck is occasionally a borderline example, depending on the show:
    • Her "classic" design averts this trope, although she does have long tufts of feathers on the back of her head.
      • This makes for hilarity in Disney Party, a game based on Mario Party, where Daisy is rendered in classical style... with her sound when being damaged being "My Hair!"
    • Quack Pack exaggerates her tufts so that they look like a pixie cut, but they still look very much like "styled" feathers.
    • House of Mouse Daisy is a pretty straight example, as she has a very long ponytail, though at least it's white like her feathers.
  • Some female characters in DuckTales (1987), like Mrs. Beakly and Magica De Spell, had hair.
  • The Chippettes in the Alvin and The Chipmunks cartoons and in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel have human-like head hair, whereas Alvin and his brothers only have tufts of fur on their heads.
  • Played with in Darkwing Duck: Whilst Morgana, Gosalyn and the other female characters have hair, Drake/Darkwing, Honker and most other males don't. Inverted by Launchpad and Tank, who have hair.
  • Cleo from Heathcliff and The Catillac Cats had long blonde human hair. The only other cats to have hair on their heads were Wordsworth, who had a lock of longer hair on his forehead, and Hector.
  • Rare plant example: Many of the female characters from Veggie Tales, with the sole exception being Mrs. Asparagus.

Real Life

  • Inverted with lions.
  • Hairless dogs can have fur left on the top of their heads, resembling a human-like head of hair.