Female Animal Characters Without Stereotypical Feminizing Gender Signifiers

So many female animal, monster, and alien characters have stereotypical feminizing gender signifiers distinguishing them from the male ones, but there are a few who don’t. Many of the few who don’t tend to be mistaken for male, but not all of them are.

Female Animal Characters Without Feminizing Gender Signifiers

  1. Terk the gorilla and Sabor the leopard from Disney’s Tarzan
  2. Joanna the goanna monitor lizard and Marahute the giant wedge-tailed eagle from The Rescuers Down Under
  3. Blue, Magenta, and Green Puppy from Blue’s Clues
  4. Chirp the robin from Peep and The Big Wide World
  5. Martha, the titular dog from the Martha Speaks books and TV series
  6. Chi, the titular kitten from Chi’s Sweet Home 
  7. Matilda the White Bird from Angry Birds
  8. Tina the Tyrannosaurus rex in The Amazing World of Gumball
  9. Kitty, the titular cat from the Bad Kitty book series
  10. Linny guinea pig from Wonder Pets
  11. Tigress from Kung Fu Panda
  12. Mama Buzzard from the Looney Tunes cartoon “Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid.”
  13. Giant Realistic Flying Tiger from Uncle Grandpa
  14. Freddi Fish, the titular yellow fish from the Freddi Fish game series.
  15. Butter, the baby otter from PB&J Otter
  16. Precious the pug from The Nut Job
  17. Olive the titular Jack Russel Terrier from Olive the Other Reindeer
  18. Snowball I, Snowball II, and Snowball V the cats from The Simpsons
  19. Kevin the bird from Disney/Pixar’s Up.

In the original series of three 10 minute films of Peep and The Big Wide World, Peep the yellow chick was female and Chirp the baby red robin was male, but in the main series, Peep is male and Chirp is female.

The main cast of the Cartoon Network show, Uncle Grandpastill follows the Smurfette Principle because the only female character in the main cast of five is the static photographic cutout of a tiger, Giant Realistic Flying Tiger. Unlike most examples of the Smurfette Principle, she is no more marked with stereotypical feminizing gender markers as not male than the four male characters (Uncle Grandpa, Belly Bag, Pizza Steve, and Mr. Gus) are marked as not female.

In Angry Birds, there is Female White Bird, who is basically White Bird, but with with feminizing gender markers (a bow on her head, eyelashes, rose cheeks, and lipstick on her beak). But since the original White Bird, Matilda, is female, Female White Bird would be a “Ms Female Character” instead. In the cartoon series,  Angry Birds Toons, Matilda the White Bird has been feminized and given pink accents on her head and tail feathers, rose cheeks, eyelashes, and much thinner eyebrows to make it clear that she is female, but she keeps her original, masculine look in the games. 

There is even a female alien character without any feminizing gender signifiers. Her name is Kodos, who is from The Simpsons. She not only doesn’t have any feminizing gender signifiers distinguishing her from her brother Kang, she even looks the same as him. Kodos is not a “Ms Male Character” the way so many other female alien, animal, and monster characters are.

Sadly, female animal, alien, and monster characters not distinguished from male characters by stereotypical feminizing gender markers are the exception rather than the rule.