Female Animal Character Design in America/The West (and How Profoundly Sexist and Boring it is)
Okay, so, I love animation, as you know. I’ve seen a lot of animated movies and shows in my time, especially featuring animal characters. Yet, they don’t give me the same spark that I used to have for them. If anything, by middle school, my “tomboyish” (read: baby-butch, gender non-conforming) self was tired to death of experiencing them in a lot of ways. I couldn’t put my finger on it, until much later. I realized that they were often trite, male-dominated (excluding the inevitable love interest), and, ultimately, much less untethered in human social mores than I initially thought. And as someone who was (is) probably more into animals due to them being cool and tough and uncontained regardless of sex, it was very disappointing to see that, even in movies made to be an escapist fantasy, the girl animals were often frightened, frail, conceited, delicate and coquettish just like in other media.
What’s more, they also all had the same “look” and didn’t offer much for cool character design at all.
This is a comprehensive list of all the attributes that female characters physically display. Oftentimes, lady animal characters are just hodgepodges of 3 or 4 (sometimes more!) of like 20 different traits.
Please note that girl animals that are love interests tend to follow MORE of these tropes than side characters do, 5 or higher. Think about Sarabi from The Lion King compared to Nala. Since Nala was supposed to be the love interest, she had to be the “prettiest” in the cast (for some ungodly reason), while Sarabi, a mother, looked less striking.
[Abbreviations commonly used: TMC (than male counterparts), MMV (mileage may vary; maybe up to interpetation based on the situation at hand)]
Breast Bump, even on creatures that don’t have breasts at all
(Comparatively) long hair on head or the implication thereof
Imbalanced anthropomorphism (more human-like/has more human features for females tmc)
Building off the previous point, female characters have more clothes/are fully clothed tmc (including accessories such as necklaces or bows)
Softened facial exaggeration (in animation and/or design) to emphasize prettiness
“Defanged”/”Declawed” to seem less scary; that is to say, they have less or fewer sharp claws and teeth (or natural weaponry in general) tmc
Whiter scleras and teeth tmc
Smaller hands/feet/paws/talons/etc tmc
Implication of being “smoother” tmc
Rounder features/bodies tmc
Main coloration is something blonde-ish/light colored, sometimes a ruddy color (almost NEVER dark, esp darker tmc)
Has blue, sometimes green or, rarely, grey eyes (almost NEVER brown or black, ESPECIALLY if males have brown or black eyes. If they are brown, they are a brown lighter tmc)
Pink and blue dichotomy between female and male characters, resp
DRAMATICALLY smaller and/or skinnier tmc
Smaller mouth, smaller nose, smaller snout/probiscis/beak/etc tmc
COMPLETELY different skull/skeleton shape tmc
Makeup or impossibly impeccable grooming implied in natural fur/feather/scale/skin pattern (this INCLUDES mascara/long lashes and tweezed or drawn-on eyebrows)
BONUS SPECIAL: ACTUAL animal dimorphism being done accurately, but played for laughs (usually at the expense of a smaller, male animal)
One example here, with the tropes pointed out:
The Lion King, Simba and Nala
[#6 (whiskers), #9, #11, #12, #15, #17]
More examples of this under the cut, if you don’t believe me!
areudirty
yousharknotpass
titsay
origamiaround
theartofmadeline
blakekathryn
