Markup View

Author: Generality

Oct 26th 2011 at 7:42:44 AM

A couple of points, though you seem to have hit on these already:

Apex hunters such as wolves, bears, and lions, because they are [[CarnivoreConfusion considered "evil" in an anthropomorphic society]], tend to be portrayed as male (I suppose this applies to humans too). However, more mature and realistic works know that in most cases, it is the female who tends to be more dangerous.

In animals which engage in complex courtship rituals, such as most birds, the males tend to be larger and more vibrantly coloured. But because these are more "pretty", they tend to be portrayed as female.

The opposite is true with insects, where females tend to be bigger and stronger and more likely to have distinguishing marks while males are tiny and nondescript. Because of this insects like mosquitoes, mantises, ants and bees are usually portrayed as male. Spiders seem to come out all right, though; somehow it's become common knowledge that the female attempts to eat the male during/after coitus, so spiders tend to be portrayed as [[TheVamp vamps]], especially the Black Widow, probably thanks to her very indicative name.

You probably also need a more pithy title, though I can't think of one right now.