History Main / AnimalGenderBender

** Reindeer are the only deer species in which both sexes normally grow antlers, in fact the males shed theirs around the time the story takes place, so that means every deer pulling Santa's sleigh had to be either a doe or a male with sticks glued to his head. Though granted, the deer are usually portrayed looking like some sort of white-tailed deer lookalike species instead of real reindeer, so maybe CallASmeerpARabbit is in effect. Also note that the male reindeer might have been neutered, meaning they'd shed their antlers around the same time as the females (that is, after Christmas).
** The original special inverts it for the does by portraying them without antlers like other species of deer.

* In Canada, a milk ad showed a family of anthropomorphic cattle dining at the kitchen table. The "mother" and "daughter" cows were white dairy Holsteins with udders, but no horns. The "father" was a black beef Angus with horns, but no udder. Strangely, the "son" was a white dairy Holstein with both an udder and horns. When Dad asks "Where are we going to get some milk?", his family plans to [[LactatingMale milk him]]. Dad says he shouldn't have to produce milk, because he's the breadwinner who "just brings home the bacon." Dad then pulls a live pig out of his pocket, and the commercial ends. Why were there three genders (female cows, male bulls and female bulls), and why would female cows milk the only male without an udder?

* The elephant herd in ''Film/TheJungleBook2016'' shows all the adults brandishing tusks of varying lengths. In elephant society, females form herds and take care of the calves, while adult bulls live alone or in bachelor groups, and play no part in raising the calves. But in the Asian elephant, only the males have tusks, while females are usually tuskless; sometimes small tusks (called tushes) may grow, but these are very small and usually only visible when the mouth is open. Which means that the elephants in the movie are all bulls, accompanied by a calf that is probably still too young to be weaned--a very odd combination. Alternatively, the elephants are a mixed-sex herd, with the short-tusked ones being females. Upon closer inspection, the elephants appear to be modeled off of African Elephants, which do have females with tusks, but this also raises the question of why an African species is present in a Western Asian setting--especially since every other animal in the movie is from India.

* The 1998 film ''Film/DrDolittle'', where a female voice is coming out of a male pigeon. Female pigeons are not as colorful as their male counterparts.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'': When Abu gets [[ForcedTransformation turned into an elephant]], he lacks tusks; in real life, it's ''female'' Indian elephants that don't have tusks, not males.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}: When Abu gets [[ForcedTransformation turned into an elephant]], he lacks tusks; in real life, it's ''female'' Indian elephants that don't have tusks, not males.

* In ''ComicBook/GrimmFairyTales'' #54 (as pictured above), Sela saves a pair of mallard ducks from The Horde, one of which is badly injured. Her companion explains that "they mate for life" and that the male would never leave the female. Unfortunately, both ducks are male, as their green heads show. In mallards, the females are brown with some colorful strips, but only male ducks have the iconic green head. Plus, even if they got that right, [[ArtisticLicenseOrnithology mallards don't mate for life]]. [[MemeticRapist Quite the contrary]], as a matter of fact.

** Averted with Miltank, a cow Pokemon, which is always female, and Tauros, a bull Pokemon, which is always male. Breeding them can result in either when most Pokémon take the species of their mother.

* Charmy, a male honey bee from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'', has a stinger. Adding to the strangeness, he also doesn't lose it and die when he stings something.

You might not know it from the way they're portrayed in fiction, but farm cows and bulls are the same species, just different sexes. How about only female mosquitoes drinking blood? Or that female lions lack manes? Or only male cardinals are red? Or that it's male peafowl, not females, which are vividly colored and have trains? Animal Gender Bender is when all members of an animal species are shown to have a well-known attribute of that species, but in RealLife, ''only'' [[RealityIsUnrealistic the male or female normally has it]]. So you end up with male cows, male blood-drinking mosquitoes, female lions with manes, red female cardinals, and female peacocks, as well as male goats with udders, male bees with stingers, female moose with antlers, spotless female snowy owls, male calico or tortoiseshell cats,[[note]]calico and tortoiseshell males do exist, but they either have the genetic anomaly of XXY chromosomes, which are usually sterile, or are [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_%28genetics%29 chimeras,]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_%28genetics%29 mosaics,]] or have somatic mutations, which are usually fertile; all three are extremely rare (only 1 in 3000 torties and calicos are male) and extremely valuable (though only chimera and somatic ones are valuable in terms of breeding them),[[/note]] female roosters, male kangaroos with pouches, female rams, colorful female betta fish with long fins,[[note]]female bettas can be bred to be as colorful as males, but never with the long fins that the males are known for,[[/note]] and so on. Prehistoric and extinct animals aren't immune either; many times you'll see a "female" ''[[PteroSoarer Pteranodon]]'' with a long crest. Barring the theory that perhaps these characters are meant to be transgender, intersex, or otherwise an anomaly of some sort, it's best to assume that this is pure {{artistic license}}.

* In ''Franchise/{{Madagascar}}'' the lemurs are led by King Julien. Lemurs in real life are matriarchal. This hasn't stopped fans from [[TransAudienceInterpretation reading something deeper into Julian's effeminate behavior, though.]]

** There is also a technical example in both the series and [[WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}} the films]] it's based on. Julien, a male ringtailed lemur, is ruler over all lemurs. In real life, lemur society is a matriarchy (a society ruled by females). Julien is also shown to be gender-confused at times, [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} among other things]], and most of the other lemurs aren't especially bright either, so there's a good chance this is just some sort of mix-up. Male lemurs have extra claws on their wrists, which Julien appears to lack - probably just because of simplified cartoon anatomy, but... Well, as a result it's become common {{fanon}} to portray him as designated-female-at-birth transgender.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'' the lemurs are led by King Julien. Lemurs in real life are matriarchal. This hasn't stopped fans from [[TransAudienceInterpretation reading something deeper into Julian's effeminate behavior, though.]]

* Gonzalo from ''WesternAnimation/PussInBoots: The Three Diablos'' is a male calico. A bonus point for having a sister, Perla, who has a cream tabby pattern as orange, cream, and (the rare anyway) apricot colors are, although neither rare, let alone improbable on female cats, more common on male cats.

* Santa Claus' reindeer are often portrayed as male. However, when reindeer lose their antlers depends highly on age and sex -- only female reindeer would naturally have their antlers on Christmas. Then again, male reindeer could also have antlers on Christmas if they were neutered.

** An episode of WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes, "Golden Yeggs", had the mobster Rocky force [[EggLayingMale Daffy Duck to lay golden eggs]] after hearing about his fame, despite the fact Daffy is obviously a male duck. What's even more jarring is that the [[EggLayingMale goose who actually did lay the golden egg and pinned it on Daffy is a male goose]], or gander, himself.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/RenAndStimpy'' had a swarm of mosquitoes feasting on Ren's blood on their camping trip. The point of view of the mosquitoes had them speak in [[EggLayingMale male voices after feasting and declaring that they will lay eggs]] afterward.

* The bee in the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/RainbowBrite'' was a male. Worker bees are female.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Barnyard}}'' features male cattle with udders. Director Steve Oedekerk admits the reason he put udders on the steers is because he thought [[RuleOfFunny "It'd be funny to give them the incorrect anatomy"]] and he had figured that city folk thought that all cows would look like this. Muddying things even further is there's a scene with a bull -- no, not a male cow, an actual ''bull'' -- riding a mechanical man. Perhaps bulls and cows are separate species in this universe.

* In ''VideoGame/Deltarune'', both Noelle and her dad Rudy have antlers. While both male and female deer alike grow antlers, they shed and grow them at opposite ends of the year.

* [[ADogNamedDog Violet Sabrewing the violet sabrewing]] from ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' is almost entirely purple. Female violet sabrewings in real life are mostly green.

* ''Advertising/SexualViolenceWithTheBirdsAndTheBees'': The bee guy in the second episode has a stinger. In real life, only female bees have stingers, since they are modified ovipositors.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'' the lemurs are led by King Julien. Lemurs in real life are matriarchal. This hasn't stopped fans from reading something deeper into Julian's effeminate behavior, though.

See InsectGenderBender for the insect (especially eusocial insect) subtrope. LactatingMale, PeacockGirl and EggLayingMale are subtropes. Compare TransAudienceInterpretation. Contrast TertiarySexualCharacteristics and BizarreSexualDimorphism.

See InsectGenderBender for the insect (especially eusocial insect) subtrope. LactatingMale, PeacockGirl and EggLayingMale are subtropes. Contrast TertiarySexualCharacteristics and BizarreSexualDimorphism.