History Main / TertiarySexualCharacteristics

* Some toilet signs avoid the outdated "women wear dresses" implication by having XX and XY instead, the female and male sex chromosomes, respectively (this would still be a problem to some intersex people however).

* Eyelashes that serve to make the character look androgynous to an extent, while being more subdued and less numerous compared to those of female characters. In older anime and manga, this may take the form of a "unilash" that juts out from the corner of each eye, often to indicate a [[{{Bishonen}} pretty boy]].

* ''ComicStrip/DykesToWatchOutFor'': In "The Indelible Alison Bechdel", author Bechdel discusses the irritation of comic books wherein [[TheSmurfettePrinciple the lone woman]] is distinguished by slapping a female characteristic (lips, long hair, the proverbial bow) on the male default. She also discusses how she was initially unable to draw women and only drew men -- and was finally able to draw women only by thinking of them as lesbians and drawing them rather androgynously.

* The Shea Fontana version of ''WebAnimation/DCSuperHeroGirls features Mrs. Clayface, wife of the villain Clayface, as a character. Aside from her breasts, she also has eyelashes, a bow and lipstick to show she's a woman.

* Ojo from ''Series/BearInTheBigBlueHouse'' is female, but lacks any human hair, eyelashes or makeup, wears no clothing or accessories, has a [[TomboyishVoice low, scratchy voice]] (keep in mind that prepubescent boy characters tend to be [[CrossdressingVoices voiced by women]]) and her fur is darker than Bear's, inverting PaleFemalesDarkMales. Even her name sounds like a boy's name (though it appears to be a derivative of "Jojo", which is typically a girl's name). It's enough to cause some ViewerGenderConfusion.

* Noticeable eyelashes and sometimes eyeshadow. Even if the animal isn't anthropomorphized in any other way (including not possessing hair in the first place), long eyelashes are one of the quickest ways to establish that this character is, in fact, female.

Writers tend to assume that for some reason [[MostWritersAreMale most viewers]] will assume that a non-human protagonist is a guy [[MenAreGenericWomenAreSpecial by default]]. So to make absolutely sure there's no ViewerGenderConfusion, developers will assign [[TitleDrop Tertiary Sexual Characteristics]] to the female characters, and sometimes the male characters as well. The male characteristics tend to be less obvious.

* Averted in ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' for Luz in ''A Game of You''. She's an anthropomorphic parrot wearing a dickey with a bowtie, a typically masculine form of apparel. You have to pay attention to the pronouns others give her to figure it out.

** Ash's Butterfree falls for another Butterfree, who just happens to be the only Pink Butterfree around (and this was before Shiny ''or'' gendered Pokémon were introduced in the main series). As it turns out, possibly as a MythologyGag, Shiny Butterfree do have a pinkish tint, and have distinctly pink hands, feet, wings, and a mouth in the second generation. In future depictions of the Pink Butterfree, she’s depicted with black spots on the bottom of her wings (which is the game’s gender difference for Butterfree), confirming the gender to be female.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** Ash's Butterfree falls for another Butterfree, who just happens to be the only Pink Butterfree around (and this was before Shiny ''or'' gendered Pokémon were introduced in the main series). As it turns out, possibly as a MythologyGag, Shiny Butterfree do have a pinkish tint, and have distinctly pink hands, feet, wings, and a mouth in the second generation.
** The anime began using gender differences starting with ''Best Wishes''. It's most obvious with Pikachu-- he was always [[AmbiguousGender implied]] to be male however, thanks to female Pikachu having heart shaped tails post-''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'', if he had been meant to be female they would have likely needed to {{retcon}} him male in order to avoid having to completely redesign him. Future episodes show Pikachu with gender differences and when DisguisedInDrag Pikachu even has a heart-shaped appendage taped onto his tail. Oddly though, the fact no heart shaped tailed Pikachu appeared retroactively implies literally ''every'' Pikachu seen before has been male.

* PlayedForLaughs in [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/bow this]] ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal.''

* ''Advertising/MAndMs'': The female Spokescandies have eyelashes and wear different footwear than the guys, who normally have sneakers on. The green M&M previously wore high-heeled boots before trading them in for trainers, the brown M&M wears heels, and the purple M&M wears lace-up boots.

* ''Advertising/MAndMs'': The green M&M and later, the brown M&M.

* Orange or orange tabby fur on male cats, especially those paired with white female cats.

* A {{cigar|Chomper}}, especially in [[TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation Golden Age]] cartoons.

** In the spinoff ''WesternAnimation/PussInBoots'' the main cue that Kitty Softpaws is female is that she has long eyelashes, which don't appear till [[spoiler:after she [[SamusIsAGirl removes her luchadore mask]]]] and stay around when [[spoiler:she puts the mask back on]], maybe Puss was just being unobservant that day?

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'':
** Donkey doesn't realize that the dragon is a girl until she leans in close, into the light, and he can see she has long eyelashes as well as pinkish skin and some coloration to draw attention to the lips. Also a hint of purple on the eyelids, too. She looks like she has an enormous makeup mirror stashed somewhere in her treasure hoard.

* In ''LightNovel/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'', [[EldritchAbomination Hyrda-chan]], the goddess of the [[FishPeople deep ones]], looks just like her male counterpart [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Dagon-kun]], with an added pink bow and lipstick.

* This is slightly justified in ''Webcomic/KillLaKillAU, because of the overall artstyle, leaving one to figure out if a character is a boy or a girl by their clothes mostly, as they don't have the usual tells (like eyelashes, for example). A more overt case is Mako, in that, if it wasn't show to a degree with her green bow and dress, one would have thought she was a boy, as she had shorter hair than the other girls, while Shiro verges on DudeLooksLikeALady (with his hair). We also have this with a baby Ragyo, as her incubator has pink decals.