One-Gender Race: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
Not a tribe, but an entire race or group of humanoids inexplicably made up of one sex. Male is usually the default, but females under the [[Cute Monster Girl]] rules are becoming more common and more obvious. The lack of the other sex is [[Hand Wave|handwaved]] briefly; Disaster wiping out the other half, or voluntary separation are two common reasons, although sometimes it seems they just don't appear.
If the genetic stock is replenished by mingling with other 'races', you often get the strange explanation that [[Gender Equals Breed]], rather than the offspring being actual hybrids; alternately you can get [[Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism]] where two
This is really more about creating a unique culture without having to create an enormous amount of back story. For obvious reasons this used to be an [[Planet of Hats|easy device]] to [[Author Filibuster|soapbox gender issues]], with all the associated political and social biases in place. Sufficiently old mythological legends may be grandfathered in even in a series avoiding One Gender Races, because the alternative gender is rarely depicted or has no instantly recognizable version.
Tends to be on the [[High Fantasy]] of fantastical scale for reasons obvious to anyone with any concept of biology. Assuming sex is genetically determined in the usual way, sex ratios in animals tend to even out over time, even though sexual selection would suggest only a handful of males (traditionally the "unlimited", low-investment sex, at least among
In the right ([[Rule 34|or wrong]]) subculture, expect [[Fanon]] concerning hermaphroditism and various methods of [[Homosexual Reproduction]], especially if the race is all-female.
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* Fairies in ''[[Maze Megaburst Space]]'' are all female, and reproduce with human men on the one day when they're human-sized.
* The Solnoids from ''[[Gall Force]]'' were all female, and reproduced by cloning. Their enemies, the Palenoids / [[Spell My Name with an "S"|Paranoids]], were androgynous but ostensibly male (as far as the viewer can tell; they look more like living suits of armor, but all the voices are male). {{spoiler|The [[Half-Human Hybrid]] created from combining Solnoid and Paranoid DNA was a human boy, who was used to set up the [[Adam and Eve Plot|ending]] of the original OVA.}}
* In the ''[[Saber Marionette J|Saber Marionette]]'' series, the human inhabitants of Terra II were all [[A Wizard Did It|male, cloned descendants of the six male survivors]] of the colonization mission. The Marionettes were a 'race' of [[Robot Girl
* The Taraks (males) and the Mejare (females) from ''[[Vandread]]''; both races (Humans that were deliberately separated by gender) reproduced by couples mixing DNA to create [[Designer Babies]].
* The Zentradi in ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' (and the first part of ''[[Robotech]]'') segregate themselves into single-sex units and reproduce by cloning, and in [[The Movie]], they're even at war with one another.
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* The Amazons in ''[[Wonder Woman]]'' avoided the question by making their race immortal.
** In the original versions, the Amazons were an all-female ''society'', but still human (they just don't age on Paradise Island). [[Post-Crisis]], this was changed to being a race created by the Greek goddesses out of clay (with the souls of murdered human women.)
* The Guardians of the Universe in ''[[Green Lantern]]'' comics were all male, because the females of their race thought the whole "guardians of the universe" project was misguided, and took themselves off to found an all-female society somewhere else. (They were [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien
* The fairy-like Preservers in Wendy & Richard Pini's comic book series ''[[Elf Quest]]'' [[No Biological Sex|are neither male nor female]]. Surprisingly, all the characters who encounter any given Preserver seem to know automatically use the gender-neutral "it". The one known exception is from futuristic series ''The Rebels'' which has an apparently female elf-sized Preserver named Rosie, who has some percentage of human DNA because the Preserver DNA was not complete enough to clone a real Preserver.
* Nearly every mammal species on Earth becomes a
* In a story written by [[Alan Moore]], a female alien anthropologist discovers another alien race composed entirely of males, with a tribal culture. When she describes the fact that it's possible to procreate with a female like her, the young man who acts as her translator is eager to try it (and she's fairly receptive, too). Unfortunately, the way the beings of this species procreate is by [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|stabbing a giant snail-like creature in a special purple membrane]], which causes babies of the tribe's species to bud off the snail (and also increases the numbers of the snails). The young man then brags to one of his elders that he's finally become strong enough to perform the ritual, the proof being outside his hut: a spear covered in red gore, as opposed to the purplish ichor of the snails.
* Leprechauns in ''[[Wormwood Gentleman Corpse]]'' are all male. {{spoiler|Even the queen.}} We aren't given details on how they reproduce.
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* In the ''[[Discworld]]'' series, this is taken to the point where there is no obvious physical difference between male and female Dwarfs; for example, dwarfs of both sexes tend to have long beards. Socially-speaking, there is no issue of gender in Dwarf society, and all dwarfs are treated the same. However, this has the added side-effect of making even ''talking'' about a dwarf's individual sex obscene, and female dwarfs are forced to remain closeted as males. This leads to an interesting situation where female dwarfs begin campaigning to be treated ''differently''. Openly admitting to being female, wearing a skirt, or even ''using female pronouns'' is subversive, but not even the most radical of them would dream of losing the iron helmets or shaving their beards.
** Even dwarfs can't tell the difference; dwarfish courtship mainly involves finding out, very tactfully, what sex the other dwarf is; once they're married, it's just sort of assumed the married dwarfs know which is which (or even if they ''are'' different sexes). Even pregnancy isn't obvious, probably due to the many layers of leather and chainmail that all dwarfs wear.
* The witches in [[Philip Pullman]]'s trilogy, ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' constitute [[Witch Species|a separate, entirely female species.]] They breed with human men, but generally don't get too emotionally attached,
* The quintessential example of this is ''The Left Hand of Darkness'' by [[Ursula K. Le Guin]], winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. The inhabitants of the planet Winter are humans that have been genetically engineered to spend most of their time in an androgynous, sexless form, with monthly periods of "kemmer" in which they develop sexual dimorphism (any individual can manifest either sex) and interest in intercourse. The alien impact this has on a biologically male outside observer is a major part of the plot.
* Chelonians, in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] novels by Gareth Roberts, are a race of hermaphroditic humanoid cyborg turtles. They all self-identify as male, but parents and offspring are referred to as "mothers" and "daughters."
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** Ambiguous case with the Veela. The Slavic fairies they're based on are all female, and the only full-blooded veela (and, for that matter, the only part-veela) mentioned are female, but it's never explicitly stated.
** Similarly, all centaurs seen in the books are male. [[Word of God]] says that yes, they are a one-gender race.
* Used painfully (and deconstructed) in ''[[Tortall Universe|The Realms of the Gods]]'' by [[Tamora Pierce]]. All 'Immortals'--species which cannot die of old age or disease, but ''can'' be killed by physical or magical
* The Draconians from the ''[[Dragonlance]]'' novels are all male in the earlier works. This is explained and expanded on in a later book, ''[[The Doom Brigade]]''. Very short version, Draconians were a created race, and the creators decided at the last minute not to allow the draconians to breed, and put the eggs containing the female draconians into magical stasis. They were eventually freed.
* The Hork-Bajir from ''[[Animorphs]]'' are originally seen this way, the only (externally noticeable) difference being the females have one less facial horn than the males (The free Hork-Bajir who relates this says that there are other differences as well, but refuses to share them).
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* The Arachosians in [[Cordwainer Smith]]'s short story "The Crime and Glory of Commander Sudzal" are a [[Lost Colony]] consisting only of men, as the result of something unexplained about their star which "makes femininity carcinogenic".
* In the ''[[World of Tiers]]'' by Philip José Farmer, the all-male Zebrillas are the males for the all-female Dryad. If the offsping is male, he will be a Zebrilla, else, she will be a Dryad. The Zebillas are tall, bipedal gorillas with human intelligence and the Dryads are a whole race of paragons of feminine beauty. The Thoan RPG even had a picture of a mating between a Zebrilla and a Dryad.
* The Myrddraal in ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' are presumed to be this, as they're all male looking (though they're usually referred to as "it" rather than "he", suggesting that they simply don't have a gender). As Myrddraal are a mutant offshoot of [[Our Orcs Are Different|Trollocs]], they don't have to worry about
** The Aes Sedai - men and women are born with The Power, but since Saidin was tainted by the Dark One at the end of (and in large part ''causing'' the end of) the Age of Legends, male Aes Sedai have been out of fashion - as in, hunted down and Gentled by the Red Ajah, out of fashion. Which makes them suicidally apathetic. Turns out, though, that the practice effectively culled the magic property from humans, in a pseudo-genetic way. Awkward.
* Justified with the Confessors in Terry Goodkind's ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series, since male Confessors don't have the recovery time after using their powers that their female counterparts have, they turn into absolute tyrants. {{spoiler|Male infanticide has been practiced since the last male Confessor was killed, and YMMV on whether it's made more or less horrifying by the Confessed lovers of Confessors having to do the killing.}}
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== Mythology ==
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: [[Greek Mythology]] has many humanoid beings that appear to be of a single sex, such as female harpies, male satyrs, male centaurs, and female nymphs (which are minor deities that can interbreed with human men). This has inspired many of the other examples on this page. In late Classical works there were female centaurs and satyrs, but these are unusual cases; kentaurides (the female centaurs) were barely spoken of in ancient Greek literature and only one example, Hylonome, is mentioned by name, while the satyresses (the female satyrs) are [[Canon Immigrant
** Originally satyrs were depicted as human men with beards, bald foreheads, pug noses, pointed ears, horses tails, and constant erections. Technically, only the tails and ears set them apart from standard image of a 'wild man'.
** The original Greek depiction of the very human Amazon civilization variably implied they replenished their numbers the way most warrior cultures did, from [[Abduction Is Love|invading villages]]. And depending on how charitable the writer was, any male children were either returned to be reared in those villages, or killed.
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** All-male satyrs mate with all-female dryads, and all-male fauns mate with all-female nymphs. The two races are close enough to immortal that it doesn't much matter anyway; both can also mate with humans to create [[Half-Human Hybrid|Half Human Hybrids]].
** The all-female race of hags. Hags mate with male humans (and subsequently kill and eat them) to either produce a female hag or a male hagspawn which have almost none of the magical abilities of their mothers, and Hags in ''[[Pathfinder]]'' give birth to all-female [[Changeling Tale|changelings]].
** D&D medusas (based on gorgons) ''aren't'' a
** There are four species of sphinx; three of which are always male (evil hawk-headed heirocosphinxes, neutral but brutish ram-headed criosphinxes, and good human-headed androsphinxes) and one of which is always female (neutral human-headed gynosphinxes - they're the ones who like [[Riddle of the Sphinx|riddles]]). All three male sphinxes can mate with the gynosphinx and have offspring of their own type, but gynosphinxes can only be born of an androsphinx father. For this reason, and the temperament, gynosphinxes prefer androsphinxes.
** In 2nd Edition AD&D, the standard version of the minotaur was an all-male race. New minotaurs came into being when a human male was cursed to become one by the gods, or when a minotaur abducted and impregnated a human woman. Note that this only applied to the "default" version, and minotaurs from specific game-settings such as [[Dragonlance]] did come in two genders. (4th Edition averts the trope altogether.)
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** [[Blood Bowl]] has [http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat1290340&prodId=prod1560097 orc cheerleaders], which are female. Then again, [[Blood Bowl]] is essentially an alternate universe.
** According to one supplement, the the Gene-Seed—the stuff that makes [[Space Marines]] grow to nine-foot tall poison-drinking, car-lifting supermen—is [[Artistic License: Biology|only compatible with male genetics]].
* ''[[Transhuman Space]]'' features a few [[Straw Feminist]] geneticists trying to engineer an
* [[Xevoz]] gets hit hard with this one - six races, with two more added later on, and every single member is male, or at least lacking any distinct female traits (one race is [[Energy Beings]] after all). Unless you consider that ony the drones in an insect colony are male, and the two character types under the [[Big Creepy-Crawlies]] race are heavily implied to be soldiers rather than drones.
* While not technically a "race" in the usual sense, [[Eclipse Phase]]'s combat-tailored [[Amazon Brigade|Fury]] biomorphs are almost all female, in order to reduce unnecessary aggression.
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** Half Giants are all male, though they can procreate with other races. A quest explains that {{spoiler|they originated when a group of Agallan giants betrayed their kin and for this they and their offspring were cursed to be small. There were no women among the traitors, so all Half-Giants are male.}}
* Mithra and Galka in ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'', where players can create only female and male types, respectively. The Galka reproduce by reincarnation, with it suggesting that the number of Galka in the world is a fixed figure (or decreasing, if being killed before their time prevents reincarnation). Even with no need for sexuality, the Galka still seem to fall in love with females of other races. Among the [[Catgirl|Mithra]], males are rare and as a result, have been forced into protective status (probably not too enviable a position, with them most likely being treated as little more than objects and forced into passionless sex for reproduction only on a constant basis). Doesn't really change that ''Wings of the Goddess'' (which takes place during the Crystal War) just ignores this and keeps the mostly female motif present in the modern day (giving us ''one'' token male that just seems to exist as Square telling people to stop asking questions about the males at conventions).
** Later, an all-female [[Exclusively Evil|enemy race]] called the Lamia was added to the game, though their status as a
* Also in the ''Final Fantasy'' franchise, the [[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance|various incarnations]] [[Final Fantasy XII|of Ivalice]] (aside from the all-human original [[Final Fantasy Tactics]]) feature the Gria. Except for humans, most other races are effectively all-male, as well, but it appears simply because they have no alternate gender appearance, and ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2]]'' has a Luck Stick vendor and exchanger who are described in-game as male and female, respectively, in spite of appearing completely identical. The Seeq have an official female sprite, though it's just a Seeq Viking with a pink outfit and lipstick, and not playable.
** Officially there are male Viera, though none have appeared in any games. According to canon sources, they live separate from the female half of the species and the two populations only meet when it's babymaking time. A young, spoiled Viera appears in a series of missions in TA2, and wants the player to help her capture a Wyrm so that she can take it home and impress her father. So far, Gria have only appeared in one game of the Ivalice series, and their role was tertiary at best, so no word yet on how their society functions.
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** Of course, the genders only seem like that to us, apparently in the game files they are reversed (i.e. The "woman in a racing swimsuit" is the ''male'' of the species)
* The asari from ''[[Mass Effect]]'' are a literal one-gender race, who reproduce through parthenogenesis. Of course, they're also among the wisest and most ancient races in the galaxy, powerful users of biotic techniques, and the founders of the Citadel Council, which governs 80% of known space. But the player is likely to be more interested in their ability to 'merge' with anyone, regardless of race and gender. The asari even have a [[Fantastic Racism|Fantastic Self-Racism]] against asari who join with other asari. Partly because the race feels that nothing new is gained from merging with other asari, and partly because only "pureblooded" asari can be born with a genetic birth defect that turns them into deadly sex vampires.
* ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'' (probably) has the titular Valkyria, a [[Proud Warrior Race]] actively worshipped by basically everyone. While we only see two living examples in-game, being that the Valkyrur are something of a lost culture, {{spoiler|the directions to open a Valkyrur ruin addresses the observer as "sister", and}} no mention of male Valkyria is ever made. Given that Valkyries of Norse myth, which they're based on, are always female anyway, it's probably a safe assumption that the Valkyria are as well. {{spoiler|Of course, we later find out that they're really a bloodthirsty race of walking hydrogen-bombs who are also [[Magnificent Bastard
* Possibly the silliest example is ''Gender Wars'', in which humanity has separated along gender lines into two warring factions of exaggerated stereotypes, both of which reproduce through technology, along with stealing ''required genetic materials'' from the other side.
* A number of ''[[Pokémon]]'' are all-male or all-female (Jynx and Kangaskhan, for example), while others are simply male and female versions of each other (Volbeat/Illumise, Tauros/Miltank, possibly Braviary/Mandibuzz and the Nidoran family), or evolutions that cut across gender lines.
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** It becomes ridiculous when you consider legendaries. Presumably the reason Legendaries are Genderless (besides breeding Legendaries being a [[Game Breaker]] should it ever happen) is because they're immortal and don't need to breed. But then you get Legendaries like Heatran (male or female) and the Genie Trio (Thunderus, Tornadus and Landorus) who are specific genders confusing the issue.
* The Dremora from ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' are all men, except for one (randomly generated) Dremora lord from ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] IV: Oblivion''. In addition, both the Golden Saints and Dark Seducers of the [[Expansion Pack]] have a similar but reversed gender ratio, though there are considerably more male Golden Saints and Dark Seducers than female Dremora. It's proclaimed by an in-game book as [[Justified Trope|justified]], saying that Mehrunes Dagon (creator of said Dremora) sees females as inferior in war. No one said the god of war was politically correct, and Dremora are entirely immortal and entirely sterile, technically not even making them a species at all. As they have no interest in sex at all, and may not even [[Nonhumans Lack Attributes|be equipped for that in the first place]], gender is more of an aesthetic concern, anyway.
* Zig-Zagged in ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. The developers clearly didn't write the races as a
** When new races were added, things got different. It may be a joke to the common hairstyles of the blood elves but most blood elves appear to be female, especially since they're quite frail looking. (Then again though, the [[Reality Is Unrealistic|males are actually the most realistically-proportioned character models in the game]]) Draenei seemed to be well balanced, as do the Goblin and Worgens, although it's not uncommon to see a higher male to female population in the playerbase.
** Oracles, Murlocs, and Kobolds seem rather one-gendery.... though they maybe don't have any sexual dimorphism at all. Furbolgs are a good example of this. The one female furbolg seen looks exactly like every other furbolg out there.
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* Only male Grendels and either male (in ''2'') or female (in ''3'') Ettins occur without player intervention (or breeding, once you have both genders) in the ''[[Creatures]]'' games.
* Neireids in ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]'' are all female, and reproduce with Human (and possibly Sepp, who can breed with humans) males, producing neireid offspring. All the Redflanks that appear in the game are males and all the Sky-people females, but in the case of the Redflanks it's mentioned by Grunzford that the Redflank females died out awhile ago, which is why there are fewer and fewer Redflank as time goes on, as well as why the current population always appears to be older.
* ''[[Darkstalkers]]'': The [[Catgirl
* Archers from ''[[Disgaea]]'' were always female and created by their [[World Tree]] until the third game, but the males were referred to as "rangers" instead. Then there are the succubi and catgirls. Since each class is gender-specific, there are duplicate [[Spear Counterpart|male]] and [[Distaff Counterpart|female]] counterparts of most classes. Since the "monster" classes are all gender-specific, as well, but monsters are, through Mediators, capable of marrying and even producing offspring, it's safe to assume that [[Gender Equals Breed]].
* ''Every'' race except Poms in ''NeoSteam''. Even the ''Humans''. Humans are all male, with a female counterpart race in Taxn Humans. Lupine and Tarune are all male, with an all-female counterpart race in the Lyell. Elves are just plain all female, with no male counterpart. They're not actually stated to be all male or all female, but those are the only options available to [[PC
* You rescue eighty dragons in ''[[Spyro the Dragon]]'', but every single one is male and female dragons are never mentioned. Averted in the third game, which features female baby dragons, which means that the female dragons were off laying their eggs in solitude -- [[Fridge Brilliance|Gnasty missed them completely]].
* The Valkyries in ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]'' are a female only race due to a long emigration from their home planet. It took them hundreds or thousands of years, and all the men were killed for failing to stop and ask for directions.
* The Kaka clan of ''[[Blaz Blue]]'' are at least close to being a {{spoiler|genetically engineered}}
* In ''[[Daily Life with Monster Girl|Monster Girl Quest]]'', all the monsters are female, and survive by raping human males. Early on, we find out that this isn't their fault: The human's goddess has forbidden sexual intercourse with monsters. Again, they're all female, so it's just a slow form of genocide.
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* [http://www.msfhigh.com Msfhigh], has the Legion, who are a race of Green Skinned Space Babes, who reproduce by converting other races into Legion. They used to be similar to the Borg, but now they act nicely, and retain free will. They're still a bit love-crazy, though.
* [[Not So Distant]]'s Albategna (of which the main character Sadachbia is one) are hermaphroditic. In english the pronoun "he" is used to refer to Sadachbia simply as a default, because "it" would be rude and English hasn't used the pronoun "ou" since the 13th century.
* [[Schlock Mercenary|Carbo-silicate amorphs]] are, for all intents and purposes, a
* The Elves of [[Fetch Quest Saga of the Twelve Artifacts|Fetch Quest: Saga of the Twelve Artifacts]] are in danger of becoming this, especially with factors both genetic and historical.
* [[Bardsworth]]: The faeries are all female and the demons all male. New faeries are born by combining magic and a [http://www.bardsworth.com/archive.php?p=186 tree]
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== Western Animation ==
* While not a concrete example, female [[Transformers]] are exceedingly rare. In fact, in some continuities, they don't exist at all. Why a mechanical race even has genders is a frequently-debated topic, as are... how to put this delicately?... [[Slash Fic|other questions related to gender functions]].
** In the Generation One cartoon, the Transformers were built as civilian and military hardware by the Quintessons for sale to other species. Though the Quints themselves are a
** The idea of Transformers being a genderless race seems to have been thrown for a loop by the new [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Aligned_continuity_family Aligned] continuity introduced by Hasbro; in which, one of the [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Thirteen_original_Transformers Thirteen Original Transformers], Solus Prime, is explicitly revealed to have been female (and thus the first female of their race).
* Similarly, ''[[The Smurfs]]'' do have some females... three in fact, but at least two of them weren't "natural" members of their species but rather the results of Gargamel creating golem-like beings to infiltrate the Smurfs, and Papa Smurf subsequently making them "real". Smurfs appear to reproduce by [[Delivery Stork|stork]].
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** This is made more confusing by the presence of male pixies in their [[Spin-Off]].
** We also never see any male fairies...
* ''[[My Little Pony]]'' actually made ''more'' sense without the "big brother ponies," when the ponies appeared to be a
** According to one of the comics, little ponies reproduce by looking in a [[Magic Mirror]] and wishing for a baby, hence the identical babies. The real question is, where did the babies without an adult counterpart come from? The "old way," maybe?
** Not surprisingly, when [[Lauren Faust]] (who watched the older cartoons growing up) came on board for ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', she promptly made sure to avert this trope - Equestrian ponies come in both genders and reproduce the way Earth horses do, no ifs, ands, or magic mirrors.
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* The barramundi is a species of fish where all start as male and slowly change to female throughout their lifecycle (resulting in the vast, vast majority of large fish being female).
** The clown fish essentially does the opposite. Fish are either sexually immature males, mature males or females with one mature male and one female living in a given population of clown fish. When a female dies, the mature male becomes the female and an immature male becomes the mature male. This means, that buy the time Nemo met his father in [[Finding Nemo]], he would have actually been his mother.
* Aphids reproduce mainly by parthenogenesis, and they are indeed [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/911/are-aphids-born-pregnant born pregnant]. Some aphids do have males and sexually reproducing females at certain times, such as in the fall so that they can produce eggs that can survive through the winter, but for the most part aphids are a
* While there are female bees and male bees (drones), as a general rule the bees you'll see are female. Only the queen reproduces in a beehive, and she can choose whether to make sterile female workers (diploid), another queen (diploid individuals fed royal jelly for thirty days), or a drone. Drones are haploid, meaning they were not fertilized, and their sole purpose is to mate with the queen to give her a lifetime's supply of sperm. Once they mate, they are cast out of the hive and die or die thanks to their genitals being ripped out of them after intercourse.
* ''Mycocepurus smithii,'' a species of ant, was recently discovered to be entirely female, reproducing asexually.
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