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Hermaphrodite: Difference between revisions
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For most fictional purposes a hermaphrodite is an individual that's both male and female; specifically, one that has both male and female genitals. Biologists don't use the word that way, but we are talking about storytelling here, not biology. In real life, however, applying the term to a human is not only inaccurate, but likely stigmatizing and offensive. While sexually ambiguous humans ''do'' exist, [http://www.isna.org/faq/hermaphrodite a true human hermaphrodite has yet to be found, so the term you're probably looking for is "intersex"].
The word Hermaphrodite comes from the Greek deity Hermaphroditus. This child of Hermes and Aphrodite was born a hermaphrodite according to Diodorus Siculus [[Older Than Feudalism|(1st century BCE).]] According to Ovid he was a very handsome young man with whom the nymph Salmacis fell madly in love. He rejected her advances, but Salmacis clung to him and prayed fervently to never be parted from him. The [[Jerkass Gods|gods]] [[Literal Genie|granted her prayer]] by [[Fusion Dance|merging the two of them]] into a [[Biological Mashup|single being]], half male and half female. [[Be Careful What You Wish For]].
Hermaphrodites tend to pop up in [[Hentai]] [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] (where it's called ''futanari'', literally "dual form"), western erotic comics, and [[Science Fiction]] and [[Fantasy]] erotica. Sometimes entire alien species or fantasy races are hermaphroditic [[One-Gender Race|One Gender Races]], thanks to [[Bizarre Alien Biology]]. Hermaphroditism is also a popular way to explain [[Mister Seahorse]] situations.
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** In another Go Nagai work, [[Violence Jack]], there's Blue Mad Saulus' lover. On the outside it appears to be female but has a man's voice (at least in the English dub) and in the manga has a huge penis.
* Baron Ashura from ''[[Mazinger Z]]'' is a strange being formed from the halves of two lovers, sewn together down the middle. What his/her genitals look like is a mystery though, and that's probably for the best.
* The futanari (meaning Two-Form) subgenre of [[Hentai]] contains many examples. However, many futanari aren't true hermaphrodites; they're characters that combine male genitals with an otherwise female form, a phenomenon commonly known as "dick girls" or "shemales" in English-language fetish circles (even though both terms are considered grave insults when applied to real people.)
** The ''Rebis Dungeon'' (of the eponymous [[Hentai]] manga/doujin artist Rebis<ref>Not to be confused with "Negative Man"/Rebis</ref>) collection of works is simply ''rife'' with futanari of almost any kind. Of note is that the artist appears to be an avid ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' fan -- and [[Rule 34|yes, he has hentai fanart of it]], which includes hermaphroditic Slaaneshi Daemons.
* Yubel in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]''. Is never referred with either male or female pronoun {{spoiler|even in its past life}}, and has a [[Yandere]] fixation on Judai and speaking in a feminine voice slightly more often, but refers to itself using male pronouns.
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== Literature ==
* The lengthy '''[[Wraeththu]]'' series, in which 99.9% of the (many, many) characters are fully functional, half-and-half hermaphrodites. Also, [[A Wizard Did It|magical]].
* {{spoiler|Roselle Pollard}} in Dean Koontz' ''The Bad Place'' is fully reproductively functional as both sexes {{spoiler|and by self-impregnation, gives birth to a protagonist and the villain, plus two other children}}.
* The central character of [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[All You Zombies]]'' had internal male genitalia discovered during a cesarean section, and complications forced the doctors to supersede her external female genitalia with them. Both sets of genitalia were fully functional; in fact, {{spoiler|s/he's not only the mother, but the father and ''daughter'' as well, via [[Stable Time Loop]] orchestrated by the protagonist much later in life, making four distinct characters the same person}}.
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* In [[H. Beam Piper]]'s sci-fi novel ''[[Uller Uprising]]'', the Ullerans are a race of silicon-based, vaguely reptilian [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Proud Warrior Race Guys]] who happen to be hermaphroditic. The rather imperialistic Terran colonists have gotten used to every army unit needing to have a few troopers assigned to baby-sitting duty.
* The Titanides from [[John Varley]]'s [[Gaea Trilogy]] are...complicated. Genetically engineered to resemble the [[Our Centaurs Are Different|centaurs]] of myth, they, shall we say, ''divert'' from that model by having ''both'' genitalia on their horsey halves AND nonetheless sort themselves into males and females based on the ''third'' set of genitals at the base of the humanoid torso. They also universally sport breasts, regardless of which humanoid genitalia they possess, since all of them can bear (and thus nurse) children.
** Another [[John Varley]] character, Kenneth "Sparky" Valentine from ''The Golden Globe'', is specifically ''not'' a hermaphrodite despite his trick [[Magic Plastic Surgery|reversible penis.]] He's just an actor who uses it to play female roles.
* In the ''[[Well World]]'' series, the communistic states on some of the more hivelike planets have engineered humans to be full hermaphrodites to [[Individuality Is Illegal|make everyone "equal".]] It doesn't work. The population of the [[Well World]] itself contains a variety of hermaphoditic species as well.
* The eponymous character of the Thomas T. Thomas novel ''Crygender'' (it stands for 'cryptic gender") is a former terrorist who elects to become a (surgically created) hermaphrodite in order to "hide in plain sight."
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* Melissa Scott's novel ''Shadow Man'' involved humanity becoming a five-sexed race as a side-effect of adaptation to faster-than-light space travel. Of course, not everyone accepted it.
* Ralf Isau's novel ''[http://isau.de/shop/index.html Galerie der Lügen]'' (translating to "Gallery of Lies") has a hermaphrodite {{spoiler|protagonist}} and {{spoiler|an ex-hermaphrodite [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]].}}
* Pie O'Pah in ''[[Imajica]]'' is a bit like Desire as mentioned above -- "he" is whatever his current sexual partner is most attracted to. Another main character who falls in love with him learns to see his true form, which rather than having two sets of genitals has one unusually-shaped organ that can somehow fulfill both jobs.
* Thorn of Gary Jennings' ''Raptor'' is a hermaphrodite born during the last years of the Roman Empire. Thorn is remarkably convincing as either gender, and switches between them as needed. Unlike some fictional examples, however, Thorn is sterile.
* The entire planet of Winter in Ursula K. Le Guin's ''[[The Left Hand of Darkness]]'' is populated by humans who are hermaphrodites and androgynes. Most of the time, people are genderless, unless they're in heat. Two lovers in heat will assume genders at random (though some people have preferences, male or female) and if one gets pregnant, she remains so until the baby is born, then goes back to being an androgyne. This is explored in great detail - and made slightly complicated by the fact that the narrator translates pronouns as "He" most of the time (though a later book referred to all Getheniens as "she").
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== Music ==
* A "big, fat hermaphrodite with [[A Flock of Seagulls]] haircut and only one nostril" stole [["Weird Al" Yankovic|Al's]] lucky, lucky autographed glow-in-the-dark snorkel in the (not really) autobiographical song "Albuquerque."
* Singing comedian Steven Lynch had the song "Hermaphrodite" (pronounced to be a pun with Aphrodite) which is about him having a hermaphrodite "girlfriend."
* In the music video for the [[Rammstein]] song "Pussy", Flake Lorenz played a hermaphrodite. There's also their song "Zwitter", which translates to 'hermaphrodite'.
* The [[wikipedia:Genesis (band)|Genesis]] song "The Fountain of Salmacis" (from ''Nursery Cryme'') tells the Hermaphrodite story.
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* In ''[[Orion's Arm]]'' humanity has six "normal" genders, two are intersex (Ferm, Merm), one is a fully functional Hermaphrodite (Herm), and the sixth has no genitalia (Neut). And that's just humans.
* Bernard Doove's [[Furry Fandom|felinoid]] [[Chakona Space|centaurs]], named [http://www.furry.org.au/chakat/ chakats], are a genetically engineered race, intentionally designed with fully functional equipment for both sexes. Many of the other species in his Chakat universe are hermaphrodites. The pronouns "shi" and "hir" that he came up with are often used by [[Furry Fandom|furries]] with "herm" characters.<ref>Also, more rarely, "xie" and "xir".</ref>
** In general, the [[Furry Fandom]] produces many more hermaphroditic characters than your run-of-the-mill fandom.
* In ''[[The Return (fanfic)|The Return]]'' [[One-Gender Race|Succubae]] reproduce two ways. One is [[Viral Transformation|turning]] that results in a succubus regardless of what gender they were as a human. The other is one succubus impregnates another. [[Beware My Stinger Tail|Tails]] are implied to be [[Naughty Tentacles|involved]].
* [[Touhou Project|Yukkuris]] are biologically hermaphroditic, their only restriction being that two yukkuris of the same type can't have a baby together (unless they're Rinnosuke-types). However, they are always referred to by the same pronouns as the characters they're based on --[[
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* Cartman's mom from ''[[South Park]]'' was infamously revealed to be Cartman's father as she is a hermaphrodite (and had sex with basically the entire town). It was later revealed that the town was lying to protect the Broncos, as {{spoiler|Jack Tenorman, Scott Tenorman's father had sex with Leanne at the Drunken Barn Dance}}.
* Fluffy and Uranus from ''[[Duckman]]'', Duckman's teddy bear secretaries they appear to be female and have feminine voices but they have male genitals.
* In ''[[Futurama|Bender's Game]]'', Hermes' equivalent in Cornwood is the centaur Hermaphrodite (pronounced like Aphrodite like the song mentioned above).
* Yuck of ''[[Yin Yang Yo!|Yin Yang Yo]]'' are the combination of all the bad stuff from Yin and Yang (A brother and sister team) creating Yuck. Even when he was seen leaving a bathroom stall, beside the boys' and girls' rooms was a Yuck room.
* The main character of ''[[Kaeloo]]'' is a either a [http://i43.tinypic.com/2zq644m.png true or sequential hermaphrodite]. Her friends seem to think she's female.
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