____In today's more liberal world all kinds of lines are being crossed, blurred and tangled up into enormous knots of confusion. This kind of thing is expected in your everyday world when you live within driving distance of places like South Beach. In fact, it's a perk of living in South Florida (and believe me, it's probably the only one). However, gender roles and gender identity are rarely questioned in other realms, or so I thought.____Last night it was brought to my attention that the name I bestowed upon my overactive female kitten actually belonged to a male.
Nermal, the ditsy and annoyingly happy counterpart to the ever dry and wry Garfield, was drawn with gray stripes and eyelashes. These are obvious female traitss. Nermal was also voiced by a female, Desirée Goyette. I'm not talking a female voice that is ambiguous like Bart Simpson's speaker, Nancy Cartwright, but Nermal had a decidedly woman's voice. When this was brought to my attention last night, I immediately felt guilty for corrupting the gender identity of the cat. However, the name and the gender confusion sort of fit. I guess it works being that Nermal the actual cat is extra large, super aggressive and has a throaty meow. Speaking of androgynous eighties childhood characters, I purposely named my effeminate male cat Atreyu after the confusingly femme character in The Never Ending Story. I guess they match now. Don't ever be a pet of mine.So, I started to think back on other characters from childhood that were in the middle of identity crises.
Tweety -
Male or Female? Decidedly male. Don't believe me? Tweety's sex has always been shrouded in mystery, but the experts at the wiki have come to a conclusion. Here's another site with some more evidence.
Big Bird -
Oh, Big Bird. Big Bird was a tough one for me growing up. My grandmother and Big Bird shared a lot of the same traits; the hair for one. Big Bird was also tall and nervous like grandma. So, Big Bird was obviously female to me. Most people have been wise to the truth of his maleness.
Blue Meanie -
Maybe not as confusing gender-wise because Blue Meanie is obviously a male, but the voicing of Blue Meanie, the make up, the fuck me boots, the weird half pointed hand gesture, etc all point to drag queen.
Him -
This Blue Meanie rip off from PowerPuff Girls is named "Him", so no question there even if he is totally drag queen.
Atreyu -
Let's just say I had many confused feelings about Atreyu.
Care Bears -
I am fairly certain that there is more than enough confusion going on up there in Care-a-Lot. How many can you confidently identify?
Are there any others I forgot? Let me know.
