Viewer Gender Confusion/Film

Examples of Viewer Gender Confusion in Film include:

Films -- Animation

One of the strangest examples is the title character of The Brave Little Toaster. Fans are pretty evenly split between "the Toaster is male" and "the Toaster is female". You never hear anyone referring to Toaster by a pronoun (except for a single line of dialogue—yelled over a roaring waterfall) and Toaster's personality is fairly gender-neutral, unlike any of the other characters. And thanks to Cross-Dressing Voices, the fact that Toaster's voiced by a female is no help. And we're still talking about a machine.
- Blanky is just as bad. The fact that he/she/it is The Chick in the Toaster's Five-Man Band doesn't help.
- The toaster is the perfect example of a gender-neutral character. The voice acting, dialogue, (most of) the pronoun references, actions, attitudes, fears, thoughts, character development, none of that suggests any particular gender, but it doesn't suggest It's Pat-style androgyny or a robot either. With Slippy Toad the demeanor and voiceover begs the question, but the only reason you'd consider the toaster's gender is if you think about it years after watching, or if someone else brings up the question.
- In the book, not only is the toaster explicitly without gender, this is something of a plot point when the group encounters a mated pair of squirrels that cannot conceive of a genderless being. The toaster ultimately convinces both of them separately that it is the same gender as they (male for the male and female for the female) -- but really it's just to spare their feelings.
In Bambi, who really can be mistaken for female is Flower, the skunk. When he is a child, his voice and speech patterns sound nothing like a male, he acts shy and bashful, is very fluffy, and spends much of his time smelling flowers. A couple years after his introduction, when Bambi meets him again, his voice has deepened and he gets an only slightly more effeminate girlfriend.
- There is the picture book of the Disney movie that actually called Flower a female, and made "her" a mother!
The leader of the Blue Meanies from Yellow Submarine.
The makers of Monsters vs. Aliens themselves seem to be confused over the gender of Insectosaurus. A behind-the-scenes book labels the creature as a "she" while, within the canon of the actual film, the monster is a "he".
The twin dolls 3 and 4 in 9 look completely identical (save for their stamped-on numbers), act alike, and never speak, making it completely ambiguous as to what gender either of them is. This is compounded by the fact that, as living ragdolls, they don't have any external characteristics indicative of sex. The creator has urged fans to come up with their own theories regarding the two.
In the Chinese animated film Nezha Conquers the Dragon King (1979), the title character is a little boy but he looks and acts more like a little girl—the hair style, clothing, and voice don't help either.
The starfish, Peach, in Finding Nemo. Its voice actor is a woman, but her voice is just masculine enough to make it sound like a guy.
- Conceivably intentional, as some varieties of starfish are hermaphroditic.
Tarzan: Anybody else have to be reminded that the gorilla Terk (voiced by Rosie O'Donnell) is female?
- Lampshaded by Tantor in The Legend of Tarzan.
- Likewise Sabor, the leopard. Word of God states that Sabor is female, but even Kingdom Hearts labeled it as male.
A large number of viewers of trailers for Kung Fu Panda, who were unaware of just whom Angelina Jolie had been cast as, were in for a shock when they finally saw the film and Master Tigress spoke for the first time. In everyone's defense, not only did the lack of Tertiary Sexual Characteristics make it very hard to tell her gender, even her voice actress originally assumed, when the casting call was made public, that Jackie Chan would be playing the tiger. This confusion only added to the Stupid Sexy Flanders associated with the character (although for some viewers it didn't lessen the appeal).
Not many people would have thought Kazuma from Summer Wars was a guy, given both his hair-style, Cross Dressing Voice and Vague Age, which all fits somewhat perfectly for a Gamer Chick stereotype.
Two of the background race cars from 'Western Animation/'Cars: According to their toy bios, the pink race car sponsoring Tank Coat is actually male, and the blue race car sponsoring Rev N Go is actually female.
Laverne, one of Quasimodo's gargoyle friends is apparently female (as far as stone can have a gender).
Remember the alligator from All Dogs Go to Heaven? You always thought it was a female, right? WRONG. It's male.
Rolly from One Hundred and One Dalmatians. He's been given blue collars the animated series and his cameo in House of Mouse, which only the female puppies wear, which can cause this. Oddly he's the only one to be given a blue collar..

Films -- Live-Action

Many a viewer of the original Stargate genuinely thought Ra was a woman; Jaye Davidson is just that pretty.
This trope is purposely and famously exploited in Neil Jordan's The Crying Game, also by Jaye Davidson.
Destoroyah from the Godzilla franchise is officially a male Kaiju. However, that hasn't stopped fans from thinking he's a female due to the fact that some aspects of his body structure are similiar to that of female crabs.
- And, then there's also Mothra Leo from the Mothra Film Trilogy. For the record, Leo is a boy. Yes, you heard me. A Male Mothra. (Mothrus?)
  - Even the dub of the films had trouble with this and constantly referred to Leo as both a "he" and a "she" and even an "it".
- And then there's the 1998 remake where that version of Godzilla could reproduce asexually.
- An interesting variation of this occurs with the monster Rodan. In the original 1956 film Rodan, both a male and a female Rodan are featured. Since then, fans have argued whether or not the Rodans(?) featured in later films are male or female.
  - The Showa Rodan is a male. Likewise, so is Fire Rodan from the 1993 film Godzilla VS Mechagodzilla II. On the other hand, it's never made clear which gender the Final Wars Rodan is.
- Some people have mistaken Gigan, a male cyborg kaiju, for a female due to his high-pitched roar.
- Battra, Mothra's Evil Twin, has also been mistaken for a female.
- And it doesn't end there, with Kroiga from Latitude Zero. With the brain of a human female, but the body of a male lion.
There are people out there who think the Newborn from Alien Resurrection is a female. For the record, it's a hermaphrodite. The actual prop used for the film had both male and female genitalia. This actually applies to all members of the Xenomorph species, even the Queen. H.R. Giger intended the Aliens to be neither male nor female, but an unsettling blur of both sexes.
Some viewers of The Year Of Living Dangerously were surprised to learn that Billy Kwan was played by a woman, Linda Hunt. She's the only actor to receive an Academy Award for playing a character of a different sex.
Legolas from the 1978 The Lord of the Rings film. And how!
- Aragorn being confused about Legolas' gender is a Running Gag in DM of the Rings.
Jodie Foster's daughter in Panic Room (played by the then 11-year old Kristen Stewart) has a fairly gender neutral haircut, somewhat androgynus looks and wears uni-sex pyjamas and can easily be mistaken for a boy on first viewing.
In I Am Legend, Sam the German shepherd isn't revealed to be female until she gets hurt, at which point Will Smith calls her by her full name of Samantha.
- The daughter Marley is this for some viewers. Whenever we see her she has a fairly short hairstyle and gender neutral clothes. It isn't actually said whether or not she's a girl until about an hour into the film.
Vidocq intentionally leaves the true sex of the Alchemist vague for most of the film. The character is covered in loose black robes and wears a head-covering mask. The letters written by the Alchemist vary from demonic threats to feminine coyness, and the character's shrill, metallic voice sometimes has a distinctly feminine edge, especially the moans in some battle sequences. All these are Red Herrings. The Alchemist is male.
In Heroic Trio, the Big Bad looks like an effeminate male but has a female voice. This confusion might only be thr Western audiences who might not be as familiar with Chinese legends concerning eunuchs making for extremely powerful soldiers while simultaneously making them evil and manipulative.
Many fans thought Buckwheat from the Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts was a girl.
- That's because initially the character *was* a girl, played by Matthew (Stymie) Beard's real-life sister Carlena. Even after male actor Billie Thomas inherited the role, the character continued to be portrayed as a girl for several shorts.
Alexa in 50 First Dates, which is intentional on the part of the movie.
Robin Williams' daughter in What Dreams May Come is very androgynous, and it's perfectly possible to go through most of the movie thinking she's a boy.
Dennis, the kid who wanted pancakes, from Cabin Fever. He has very long hair, a somewhat feminine face, has a gender neutral voice, and is prepubescent from the looks of it.
Angel from Rent has some of this, but it's not due to androgyny- it's more like Ambiguous Gender Identity, since they are biologically male, dating a gay man, wear women's clothes, usually get alled she, and at least one character is unsure what pronoun to call them by. Interpretions vary between crossdresser, MtF, Drag Queen, genderqueer, and everything else.

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