Viewer Gender Confusion/Western Animation

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Thomas the Tank Engine:
    • Toby's cowcatchers resemble a skirt.
    • And Percy has a rather high-pitched voice, and was sort of a scaredy-cat.
    • Rusty looked pretty androgynous when he first appeared, and they never said his gender (he was a "he" in the books). Then fans had a fit when the new writers called him a "she" in one episode. Writer Gender Confusion, anyone? Throw No Biological Sex (being locomotives, they shouldn't technically have either) into the mix and you can take this anywhere you please.
  • In early episodes of the My Little Pony:
    • It was never explicitly stated that Dream Valley was the ultimate Lady Land. Therefore, some fans assumed any deep-voiced Pony was male. Applejack and Skydancer tend to suffer this kind of confusion the most. (This example was brought to you by an alto. And to it, she says, ;_;)
    • This extends to that in some foreign dubs, that the more tomboyish ponies got rewritten as males.
    • Whoever wrote the episode preview descriptions for the program confused Rarity (of all ponies!) and Rainbow Dash for males in two seperate instances.
    • Background pony Caramel's gender is a mystery even to the animators apparently, since his/her design has been seen on a male and a female pony.
  • Some people still refuse to acknowledge that, despite being dubbed by a woman, Grumpy Bear of The Care Bears is actually male.
  • Garfield:
    • Nermal is a male kitten, despite him given an obviously feminine voice in the cartoon. This might have been just to highlight Nermal's obnoxious cuteness before the mistake was caught, and wouldn't be really relevant except Nermal is still referred to as "he" in the show.
    • It's just as bad in the comic, where he has long, thick eyelashes but is referred to as "he".
    • They've seemed to fix this error in the most recent 3D movies by giving him a male voice actor which makes him sound like a boy in the beginning stages of puberty.
    • The Spanish dubs of the cartoon for Latin America actually went and decided to say Nermal was a girl, except for at least one episode.
  • Strika in Transformers Animated caused a bit of this when her picture showed up, due to not conforming to the usual female mold. Beast Wars Airrazor had a similar problem, leading to She's a Man In Japan.
  • Strika actually caused surprisingly little of this... Because her Beast Machines counterpart looked pretty much the same, and was also female, which meant that the gender confusion had already been gotten out of the way.
  • Transformers Prime. Soundwave has a few moments of this in his original appearance. He doesn't speak, simply repeats messages he's picked up--and the first he repeated was Arcee's, using Arcee's voice overlaid with his own computerized tones. This led some people to think he was female until he repeated another person's message.
  • One of the most oddly persistent examples is the German-Austrian-Japanese co-production Wickie und die starken Männer, known as Chiisana baikingu Bikke in Japan. Many, if not most, of the German-language viewers would swear that the title character is a little girl. This is slightly jarring, as he is regularly referred to as male -- and the captain's son. There was even a scene where he was shown skinny-dipping, complete with a cutesy hint of male genitals. However, clothed, he certainly looks quite girlish. The impression is not only supported by the female voice actor, but also by a confusing bit in the title theme: one of the lines urges the character "Wickie, zieh fest die Segel an" ("Wicky, pull the sails tightly"). This was commonly misheard as "Wicky, sie fässt die Segel an" ("Wickie, she grabs the sails").
  • Moose (Margaret Rose) from Pepper Ann. She's a girl, just very unfeminine. Even characters on the show have mistaken her for a boy due to her deep voice, refusal to wear dresses, and playing sports that are more commonly associated with boys like skateboarding, hockey, football, soccer, and softball. Also, Moose seems rather gender-neutral when it comes to names; anyway.
    • You'd be suprised at how many viewers thought the title character was a boy.
  • The early 90s animated Babar TV series featured a character called Pompadour, dressed in light orange, very effete and fussy, with a high-pitched voice and a tiny little bit of Ho Yay with Cornelius.
  • Mindy from Animaniacs was, despite her name, often confused for a little boy when the series was still new. It's possible that the creators eventually caught on to this, as one episode broke the trend of Limited Wardrobe to feature Mindy in a dress.
    • Later still, during a short which featured Elmyra Duff, Mindy was constantly, specifically referred to as a "cute little girl" by Elmyra. Almost as if to hammer it into the heads of the viewers.
  • Tweety Bird from Looney Tunes;
    • It is actually a guy, although the high-pitched voice and eyelashes often leads to gender confusion, especially in foreign dubs where he is often voiced by a woman (while in English his voice was provided by a man, Mel Blanc). This is alluded to in an episode of Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries: When Tweety has to use the bathroom, he flies towards the female restroom before entering the male one and says "I bet you all thought I was a girl, didn't you."
    • Alluded to in an Around the World in 80 Days parody, where Tweety is seen coming out of a male (bird) restroom and says something to the tune of "See? I am a boy."
    • This has not been helped by Warner Bros in the past few years, who noticing this, played it up -- selling a line of Tweety Bird clothing for girls with him wearing bows and flowers in his head feathers.
    • Another source of confusion might be the title of the 1952 short Ain't She Tweet (although, in the context of the cartoon, "she" refers to the character of Granny).
    • His creator Bob Clampett explains that he's a boy during an interview when the host referred to Tweety as a girl. He has eyelashes and the high-pitched voice because he is supposed to be a baby bird.
    • Alluded to in The Looney Tunes Show where Sylvester is unsure if Tweety is a boy or girl, until he whispers it to him --- We don't see it though...
  • Speaking of Tiny Toons, god knows how many people have thought that Little Sneezer's a female. Given the Tertiary Sexual Characteristics (long eyelashes and high-pitched voice, same characteristics as Tweety mentioned above) deployed onto him, it's understandable.
  • Rorek, from Teen Titans (not the dragon) was mistaken commonly for a girl with the scarf over his face.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Smellerbee was assumed to be male during her debut episode. However, since she was given a minor role, had an ambiguous voice actor (Nika Futterman, to be exact), hadn't hit puberty yet and was in a team of Lost Boys-style Freedom Fighters, you can't really blame the fans. Even the official site described her as being a boy. It wasn't until Season 2 that more fans realized she was female.
    • Lampshaded, as Iroh refers to her as a "young man" when they meet, making her rather upset.
    • Additionally, her French voice actor is a dude.
  • Another case of am ambiguous voice actor: Cooper from Ben 10. He had neck-length blonde hair and big blue eyes. At least in its Time Skipped sequel, Ben 10 Alien Force, Cooper got himself a haircut and a new voice actor. By the way, Cooper and Ben was voiced by a woman in the original.
  • A parent once wrote on the comments of the blog for Pocoyo that he/she (can't remember) was having a debate with his/her child over Sleepy Bird's Gender. The argument for Sleepy Bird being female is that she gives birth to a Baby Sleepy Bird in one episode, but the child argued that Sleepy Bird looks like a boy.
  • Linny Guinea Pig from Wonder Pets
    • She wears a cape and baseball hat, is female. She is the gender neutral character in the gang, is hardly ever referred to as female, and always chooses to wear masculine or gender neutral clothing. Plus, she is supposed to be the age equivalent to a five year old, so you don't know if her voice is supposed to be feminine or it's just a five-year-old boy's voice.
    • Cleared up in the newest episode, the circus episode, where Linny's voice sounds (slightly, really slightly) more feminine, she wears a costume that vaguely resembles a dress and is outright referred to as "she" by the ringmaster during her act.
    • There have been a few episodes to showcase her gender, though most people seem to have been confused at first (her name sounds enough like "Lenny" to make that mistake, too). The irony here is that all 3 main voice actors are girls, though there's no mistaking by how Tuck's voice sounds that he's a boy.
  • Blue's Clues:
    • The title character, Blue, is female, though many viewers believe her to be male. This is likely due in large part to the color blue being traditionally associated with boys. However, anyone who watches the show long enough will eventually learn Blue's gender, thanks to phrasing such as "I'm looking for my puppy, Blue. Have you seen her?"
    • Magenta is also a good version. Due to the fact Blue is female a lot of people thought, and still, think they were inverting the Pink Girl, Blue Boy, and gender roles, way of thinking. Thus Magenta is commonly thought to be male.
  • Franklin:
    • The character of Snail in the children's cartoon series certainly caused a lot of confusion for viewers. The character was a soft lavender color and had a voice that sounded female causing people to think Snail was a girl. (Actually, it didn't just sound female -- it was female. Snail was voiced by Kristen Bone, Maggie of Maggie and the Ferocious Beast.) However, Snail is a boy. OK, technically snails are hermaphrodites... but since this is a kid's show...
    • Then there's Rabbit. Another character people tended to think was female, but was really male.
    • On the other side of the coin, there's Badger. Hmm... badgers are usually tough, fierce, and rather rowdy by nature... traits stereotypically associated with males. So, Badger must be a male, right? Wrong. Badger is a girl.
    • Likewise, Skunk is a girl but people have mistaken her for a guy.
  • Rocky of Rocky & Bullwinkle fame is referred as a he, but there is nothing masculine about him whatsoever. June Foray's voice for the character is distinctively female. To muddy the waters even further, in the Made for TV Movie Boris and Natasha, Rocky was made human... and became a woman.
  • Snooky Wookums the kitten from Krypto the Superdog is said to be male but much like Nermal has an obviously feminine voice and long eyelashes. To make it more confusing, in the episode where the dogs are turned into puppies they call Snooky "nanny"; then later when Mechanikat turns into a kitten he calls "him" "Poppa".
  • In Code Lyoko:
    • This is sometimes done by the production staff themselves. There are a lot of male background characters with effeminate names or appearances, which causes some confusion, such as boys standing in girls' bathroom lines. Emmanuel Maillard, a boy cursed with long hair, an effeminate name, and a necklace, has a girl's voice in one of his two speaking appearances. (His name was "Mike" in the other one.)
    • On the viewers' side of things, Odd's gender-neutral hair, taste for the color purple, and exitable, flamboyant nature have lead many to mistake him for a flat-chested girl. His masculine voice helps a bit (though probably not in the French version, where his voice is higher than most people over the age of eight), as does the fact that he's dated every girl in the school.
  • Poof from The Fairly OddParents, to the point where even his parents weren't sure if it was a boy or a girl when he was first born. Turned out Poof was a boy.
  • A large number of KaBlam!! fans were shocked when they realized that June was female (she's got tomboy written all over her). Um, HELLO! Her name is JUNE!
  • Has no one else thought Ceviche was a girl? Imagine viewers' shock at some of the things Ceviche said until someone finally called him a "he". This particular example made the episode where Panini makes Ceviche her boyfriend to make Chowder jealous... extremely awkward, shall we say.
    • Some people confuse Chowder for a girl since he wears purple and pink shirt and is touchy-feely at times. The fact that his voice actor was pre-pubescent at the beginning of the series definitely doesn't help (his voice has dropped in later episodes, though).
  • Thanks to Grey DeLisle voicing Wubbzy in her brightest, most feminine voice, it's easy to forget that Wubbzy's a boy.
  • Zero from INK: Invisible Network of Kids. She's a tomboy, she has a boyish voice and her eyelashes look more like face paint a'la A Clockwork Orange.
  • Mitzi, the monkey, from Little Bear was female. This series is set pre-feminist revolution so it's justified; you wouldn't expect a girl to be so tomboyish in this setting, especially since the other girls are so feminine. Plus her name is rather gender vague and she does act like the boys.
  • Peppermint Patty, for those unfamiliar with the strip, due to her tomboyish appearance and being voiced by a boy in some Peanuts specials.
  • Kaeloo:
    • It gets this so often that her gender's become something of a Base Breaker. The fact that she is voiced by a man in every language really doesn't help with this. There's in-show evidence going both ways, but Word of God confirms her to be female (at the moment), and have even made it the center of focus of a few episodes. "She" has recently been confirmed to be a Hermaphrodite, or a sequential hermaphrodite.
    • Translator Gender Confusion has also happened. In the English dub, she was male for around 10 episodes before the translators noticed something was amiss. Since then, she's been consistently referred to with the correct pronouns. However, considering the recent Gender Reveal, this could be accurate.
    • Some viewers have initially mistaken Stumpy for a girl due to his petite frame, high-pitched falsetto of a voice, jumpy nature and tendency to dress in drag. This also happens with Quack-Quack of all characters at times, likely because of his sheer non-information and the fact that he might look to some people as if he's wearing purple eyeshadow.
  • Mucha Lucha has a few of these, though Snow Pea stands out. Snow Pea's young, cute, feminine, and wears a costume that covers their entire body. So it's hard to tell whether they're a cute little boy or just a little girl. It doesn't help that all Snow Pea ever says is "Snow Pea". It has been hinted that Snow Pea is male, as he danced with a Distaff Counterpart once.
    • If it helps, in the spanish version he is called "Frijolito" wich actually means "Snow pea", but in spanish nouns are gender locked and frijolito is a male noun.
  • Remember the baby from PB and J Otter? Butter was a girl, though she's a baby and looks more like her brother than her sister so it's very easy to mistake her for a boy.
  • Many viewers have initially mistaken Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic as a boy. This also happened with Scootaloo. There's a pony named Lickety-Split in Friendship Is Magic who has eyelashes, which is only on females.
    • Many G1 ponies, especially the ones with deeper voices. Applejack and Gusty are prime examples.
  • Piglet. Dressed in pink, has a squeaky voice (in some dubs, he's voiced by a woman), and has a bashful personality.
    • Also Rabbit, whose voice sounds like an old woman, a gay man or a normal man. The choice is yours.
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