History AmbiguousGender / Literature

* The Person of Indeterminate Gender from ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'', who is called "he or she" or "it" even by other members of Count Olaf's troupe. The closest we get to a name is "The Big One". Possibly due to the UnfortunateImplications of this writing in the TV adaptation they are changed to an overall more pleasant person who seems to be interested in social issues.

** Dwarfs [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame all look male]], including with beards, and their language only has one third-person pronoun, usually translated as "he". There are a handful of dwarves known to be female (Gloria Thogsdaughter, Cheery Littlebottom, Lars Skulldrinker, [[spoiler:Dee]], and ([[spoiler:Rhys, later Blodwen, Rhysson]])) and one dwarf known to be male (Casanunda). Almost all other dwarves are, simply, dwarves.

'''A Administrivia/{{No Recent Examples|please}} rule applies to this trope'''. Examples for any serialised stories shouldn't be added for '''3 months''' after the ambiguity is introduced (or not until '''end of season''', if the serial uses season breaks). This is to allow time for the story to develop the character and resolve ambiguity. There is no waiting time for non-episodic works.

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** Dwarfs [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame all look male]], including with beards, and their language only has one third-person pronoun, usually translated as "he". There are a handful of dwarves known to be female (Gloria Thogsdaughter, Cheery Littlebottom, Lars Skulldrinker, [[spoiler:Dee]], and ([[spoiler:Rhys, later Blodwen, Rhysson]]) and one dwarf known to be male (Casanunda). Almost all other dwarves are, simply, dwarves.

** Dwarfs [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame all look male]], including with beards, and their language only has one third-person pronoun, usually translated as "he". There are a handful of dwarves known to be female (Gloria Thogsdaughter, Cheery Littlebottom, Lars Skulldrinker, [[spoiler:Dee]], and ([[spoiler: Rhys, later Blodwen, Rhysson]])) and one dwarf known to be male (Casanunda). Almost all other dwarves are, simply, dwarves.

* ''Literature/MagisterusBadTrip'': Frey(ja). They freely transform between a man and a woman (though it's suggested that this might just be an elaborate disguise) and expresses attraction to both genders.

* Ditto for Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's "Literature/TheTellTaleHeart". The narrator's gender remains a mystery.

* In the original Japanese version of ''LightNovel/AnotherNote'', [[DeathByOriginStory A]] is not given a gender. All we know about A, in fact, is that A was being groomed as a successor to L, liked math, and was ultimately DrivenToSuicide due to the pressures of the L Program. (And also that they must have meant ''something'' to B, because B goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge after A's suicide.) However, many translations give A as being male, likely because of the relative lack of prominent female characters in the ''Franchise/DeathNote'' universe. Given the ambiguity, though, it is not uncommon to see fanworks describing A as a girl.

* The gender of secondary character Merideth in Vonda N. [=McIntyre=]'s ''Literature/{{Dreamsnake}}'' is [[GenderNeutralWriting left entirely up to reader discretion]]. (Quite tellingly, when asked who would play the character in a film adaptation, [=McIntyre=] mentioned both [[DudeLooksLikeALady Jaye Davidson]] and [[{{Bifauxnen}} Tilda Swinton]] as possibilities.)

* In ''Literature/RiverOfTeeth'', Hero's gender is kept a secret throughout the story, and the narration uses [[GenderNeutralWriting gender-neutral pronouns]] when talking about them. It is made clear that Hero does not conform outwardly to any gender and several characters seem confused, though only the bad guy makes any verbal note about it. Hero seems prepared to avoid questions regarding their gender and is surprised when Houndstooth does not pry any further even after they become lovers.

* ''Literature/WhoWetMyPants'': We know that there are six males (Reuben, Jared, Oskar, Tim, Teddy, and Bigfoot), two females (Julia and Linzie) and one unknown (Kelly, which is a unisex name) but (with the exception of Ruben, Tim, and Bigfoot), we don't know who is who, so it's hard to tell which are boys and which are girls. We at least know the tortoise is male, since Reuben calls him "''Mr.'' All-the-Answers" and the hippopotamus and hedgehog are female, since they wear dresses.

* In the original Japanese version of ''LightNovel/AnotherNote'', [[DeathByOriginStory A]] is not given a gender. All we know about A, in fact, is that A was being groomed as a successor to L, liked math, and was ultimately DrivenToSuicide due to the pressures of the L Program. (And also that he/she must have meant ''something'' to B, because B goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge after A's suicide.) However, many translations give A as being male, likely because of the relative lack of prominent female characters in the ''Franchise/DeathNote'' universe. Given the ambiguity, though, it is not uncommon to see fanworks describing A as a girl.

* ''Literature/MagisterusBadTrip'': Frey(ja). He/she freely transforms between a man and a woman (though it's suggested that this might just be an elaborate disguise) and expresses attraction to both genders.

* ''Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings'': In the ''Farseer'' trilogy, there's the Fool, who the narrator Fitz believes is male. The ''Liveship Traders'' trilogy has a totally different dramatis personae, including the female Amber. It's never stated that these two are the same person, but more and more clues are dropped as the trilogy progresses, and because Amber advises Althea on how to disguise herself as a boy, we start to think he/she is really female and was disguised as male in the earlier books. But in the ''Tawny Man'' trilogy, where we and Fitz are told outright that [[spoiler:both characters are the same person]], there's a section where [[spoiler:Fitz inhabits the Fool's body and can presumably tell what sex he/she is, but never tells us! Fitz implies that the Fool's kind are so different from humans that neither gender is appropriate -- but then there's the Pale Woman to account for, who is clearly female, leading to the conclusion that not all Whites are the same]]. This is in line with the Fool's claim that where he comes from, people don't insist on the existence of only two genders.

* ''Literature/TheTraitorSonCycle'': The Outwaller shaman Walks On Clouds is always referred to as "he/she" in the narration, and POV characters who meet him/her for the first time find themselves at loss as to their gender or biological sex. He/she eventually claims he/she's a "changeling", able to take on a more masculine or feminine quality at will, but how far does this stretch is unclear.

** Taken to the extreme in ''Literature/IronCouncil'', where one of the characters, devotee of a god of secrets, doesn't even know their ''own'' gender. Followers of this deity forfeit knowledge about themselves to honor their patron, and this particular priest lost knowledge of what sex he/she happened to be. Self-examination can't clarify matters, as the character is blind to their own body features.

* In ''Raptor'', Thorn (the main character) is intersex. "He" lives most of his life as a male but lived in a convent for a year and can easily pass as attractive members of both genders (voice midway, taller than some men but shorter than some women, etc). Early in the book, he deliberately dresses in ambiguous clothing, confusing his hunting companion who simply can't figure out his gender (and won't ask, since he figures Thorn is deliberately hiding it). [[spoiler:He meets another one. They have lots of sex. Then the second one turns out to be a real bitch.]]
* Creator/RobinHobb's ''Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings'' sequence consists of several trilogies. In the ''Farseer'' trilogy there's the Fool, who the narrator Fitz believes is male. The ''Liveship Traders'' trilogy has a totally different dramatis personae, including the female Amber. It's never stated that these two are the same person, but more and more clues are dropped as the trilogy progresses, and because Amber advises Althea on how to disguise herself as a boy we start to think he/she is really female and was disguised as male in the earlier books. But in the ''Tawny Man'' trilogy, where we and Fitz are told outright that [[spoiler:both characters are the same person]], there's a section where [[spoiler:Fitz inhabits the Fool's body and can presumably tell what sex he/she is, but never tells us! Fitz implies that the Fool's kind are so different from humans that neither gender is appropriate -- but then there's the Pale Woman to account for, who is clearly female, leading to the conclusion that not all Whites are the same]]. This is in line with the Fool's claim that where he comes from, people don't insist on the existence of only two genders.

* In ''Literature/{{Chrysalis}}'', it's explicitly stated that the Terran WasOnceAMan, but it's unclear what their gender was in life, or, in light of their new status as an uploaded consciousness with an inhuman body, if they even have a gender now. The Terran creates a simulation of themself with a human body watching television in a living room, but even this fails to enlighten. [[spoiler:Chapter 10 reveals that the Terran is an extreme example of a MindHive, as the minds of five separate human researchers of mixed sex merged into a single consciousness that behaves like- and entirely believes itself to be -a single entity.]]

* ''Literature/RWBYFairyTalesOfRemnant'': In the two fairy tales about origin of the Faunus (''The Shallow Sea'' and ''The Judgement of Faunus''), the god of the Faunus is always referred to with gender-neutral pronouns. Whether this is because the god has particular views on their gender or the Faunus themselves do is not clarified, but the term "god" is always used in a gender-neutral way and never means "male god". This is in stark contrast to ''The Tale of Two Brothers'', where the two divine brothers are always referred to as male by both each other and the story itself.

* ''Literature/RWBYFairyTalesOfRemnant'': The both fairy tales about origin of the Faunus, the god of the Faunus is always referred to with gender-neutral pronouns. Whether this is because the god has particular views on their gender or the Faunus themselves do is not clarified, but the term "god" is always used in a gender-neutral way and never means "male god". This is in stark contrast to ''The Tale of Two Brothers'', where the two divine brothers are always referred to as male by both each other and the story itself.

* Creator/HPLovecraft, who took a great deal of inspiration from Poe, wrote several short stories, among them "The Nameless City", "The Festival", "The Hound", "Ex Oblivione", "Cool Air", "The Music of Erich Zann", and "What the Moon Brings", all of which never explicitly state the gender of the protagonist.