One-Gender Race: Difference between revisions

See also [[Mono-Gender Monsters]], [[Gendercide]], and [[One-Gender School]].

 

 

== Anime ==

* Angels{{spoiler|, Seeds of Life (Adam/Lilith), and probably the Evas themselves by extension}} in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' are strongly implied to be hermaphrodites: the genome analyses shows that they have 24 chromosome pairs, which includes both Y and X sex chromosomes (meaning they have the karyotype XXYY).[[hottip:*:Probably counts as [[Art Major Biology]], considering the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XXYY known biological consequences of doubling up on sex chromosomes] and that the very existence of paired Y chromosomes generates a bit of [[Fridge Logic]].

* Fairies in ''[[Maze Megaburst Space]]'' are all female, and reproduce with human men on the one day when they're human-sized.

* In the ''[[Saber Marionette J (Anime)|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|Robot Girls]] that served as [[Replacement Goldfish]] because they were not apparently able to create females (having an X-chromosomes apparently didn't help), though their owners tended to have an ironically non-sexual attitude towards them.

* 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]].

* While this is not true in all ''[[Transformers]]'' comics, some (especially those written by Simon Furman) display the Transformer race as free of gender, with the only "females" being failed alterations or side projects. While this makes sense as they are sexless robots, it's noteworthy that they all look and act "male". Being as the fandom is male-directed, I think we can guess why.

* The Amazons in ''[[Wonder Woman]]'' avoided the question by making their race immortal.

* 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|Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]], and practically immortal, so the continuation of their race was not a consideration.) When they died and were resurrected by Kyle Rayner, he intentionally made half of them female, to give them back that perspective(it didn't really work).

* 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.

* 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.

== Film ==

* The Draks from the movie ''[[Enemy Mine]]'' are masculine ("I... am ''not''... ''a woman!''"), but reproduce asexually. The Barry B. Longyear books on which the movie was based stated that yes, Draks ''could'' have more than one child in their lifetime. The books also confirmed that Draks don't ''always'' reproduce asexually. And that ''falling in love'' could result in pregnancy all on its own.

* Closely related to this trope: pretty much all the Immortals shown in the ''[[Highlander (Film)|Highlander]]'' movie ([[Fanon Discontinuity|notice that there is only one]]) are male. One theory is that since an Immortal must suffer a violent death to become... well, ''immortal'', and that in past times women were less likely to suffer violent deaths, there would be fewer female Immortals. At the same time, women were less likely to have sword training at the time of their death, and would find themselves more likely to lose a duel, even discounting any physical disadvantage. There are a number of female Immortals on the TV show, most of whom are [[Action Girl|skilled, tough and clever]] enough to have at least survived a few duels.

* A Garry Shandling vehicle named ''What Planet Are YOU From?'', starring the comedian as a member of an all-male alien race [[Mars Needs Women|sent to Earth to procure a mate]].

 

== Live Action TV ==

** Tribbles. One sex, seemingly born pregnant, according to Dr. McCoy ("Seems to be a helluva time saver!").

* The Sontarans on ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' are a militant all male race who reproduce through cloning. According to some of the [[Expanded Universe]] material their species originally reproduced normally & was far less war fixated until the day a horredously narcissistic military man, one General Sontar started cloning himself & slaughtered the rest of the population. The canonicity of this is disputed, however.

* In the paper-and-pencil RPG ''[[Castle Falkenstein]]'', Dwarves ''are'', in fact, exclusively male. They mate with the females of other Faerie-kind; male offspring are Dwarves, while female offspring are the same kind of Fae as their mother.

* In ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'':

** 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]].

** 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.)

** Nixies in the [[Mystara]] setting are an all-female race of water-spirits.

** The third-party setting ''Oathbound'' has aurads, who appear male and reproduce via circle-jerking. (No, really.)

* The Orks in ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' (and possibly the Orcs in ''[[Warhammer]]'') seem to be all male, early [[Retcon|non-canonical]] references to female Orks notwithstanding; however, since Wh40k Orks are actually a type of animate ''fungus'' that reproduce via spores, attempting to assign a gender to them is basically an exercise in futility.

** [[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]].

* [[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.

** 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 (Video Game)|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).

* Also in the ''Final Fantasy'' franchise, the [[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance|various incarnations]] [[Final Fantasy XII (Video Game)|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 a 2]]'' 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.

** 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.

** 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.

* 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.

* In ''[[Monster Girl Quest (Video Game)|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.

 

== Webcomics ==

* For a very long time, the webcomic ''[[Freefall (Webcomic)|Freefall]]'' left it apparent that all of the robots (whose enormous population forms a major part of the cast) were considered male by default. Only in strip ''[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1500/fc01403.htm # 1,403]'' does the question finally come up. Disappointingly, the explanation is as stereotypical as it is silly: the robots determine themselves to be male or female based on how much ''talking'' they do.

* In ''[[Angels 2200]]'', the ''Humans'' have become (almost) entirely female after a mysterious plague wipes out 99.5% of all males on Earth. The few surviving men are carefully protected to ensure the survival of the species.One of the major questions of the series is whether this affected the colonies as well, as it occurred during a major insurrection (and may have been a caused by a biological weapon).

* [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.

* The Elves of [[Fetch Quest Saga of the Twelve Artifacts (Webcomic)|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]

== 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]].

** 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]].

* The Pixies from ''[[Winx Club]]'' are a female-only race. They don't need males since they are created by a magical tree in their village. Amore (the pixie of love) got really sad when this was pointed out to her by Jolly.

** We also never see any male fairies...

** 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?

* The Amazonians from ''[[Futurama]]'', who ousted their male population under the compulsion of the mysterious Femputer. The other men died from [[Out With a Bang|crushed pelvises from Snu-Snu]].

* The rolling stock from ''[[Thomas the Tank Engine]]''. Passenger cars such as Annie and Clarabel, Henrietta, and Old Slow Coach are always female, while freight cars such as the Troublesome Trucks, the Spiteful Brakevan, Hector the hopper car, and Rocky the repair crane are always male.

* 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.

* 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.

[[Category:Fantastic Sapient Species Tropes]]

[[Category:One Gender Race]]