Pretty sure this episode has been overanalyzed and chewed on to oblivion by now, but I want to take a crack at it cause my head is full of thoughts that have been in my brain for over a decade now (Beware: it's like 2.600 words long)
Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Episode Recap
3. Gender Roles and Misogyny
4. Transness and Transphobia
4.5 The Interesting Bit
5. Headcanon
6. TLDR
1. Introduction
I think this is a very important episode. Not a good one, but a meaningful one.
I used to hate this episode so much when I was a kid. Almost The Otter Woman level of hate. But now that I'm older and in the middle of my own transition, I can appreciate the narrative from a trans lense - and due to that, it's one of the most compelling episodes of the show to me, despite its obvious flaws.
But that's the thing - the flaws IMPROVE on the plot. Hear me out.
So back in the day, I used to really dislike Skipper for multiple reasons. He's just such a textbook republican. He's an anti vaxxer. A military man. A (former) climate change denier. A massive misogynist. And racist about basically every single species that isn't a penguin.
He's like your weird uncle who casually brings up the most rancid political takes during family dinner.
BUT.
He's also undeniably queer. New York City's pettiest little Drama Queen. Shirtless Ninja Action enjoyer. And don't even get me started on the whole thing he has with Julien (this post is already way too long as it is).
And it's his queerness that turns this pain of a character (affectionate) into a tragedy.
What happens if you are transgender in a species where there is no sexual dimorphism? When your gender is determined either by dna test or behaviour?
And what happens if the most misogynistic, queerphobic guy you know suddenly turns out to be a woman? Or worse, transgender?
2. Episode Recap
It starts with Alice giving a heartfelt introduction about penguins for some kids. One of the kids is a massive penguin nerd (couldn't be me) and says whether a penguin is a boy or a girl can only be determined via dna test. Alice claims there's three male and one female penguin in the enclosure. "The birds know which is which".
Cut to the penguins doing a dna test. Everyone spits in a cup and the machine either assigns you a manly man Plus (+) or a ... feminine female Minus (-). Everyone gets a Plus, until it's Skipper's turn. He gets a Minus. And goes into Crisis Mode™. After going through all 5 stages of grief in the span of 73,4 seconds (yes I used a stopwatch), he accepts his cruel fate and asks Rico for a pretty pink bow. He's gonna wear it on his head for most of the episode (and no, I'm not misgendering Skipper here, we'll get to that bit later).
They proceed to go on some missions, each time Skippers "womanhood" gets in the way of completing them. They can't do chest bumps to celebrate their success (even though they're not mammals and there's nothing there but hey), Skipper insists someone opens the door for him in the middle of a chase, and they get lost in the zoo trying to look for a women's bathroom (even though the one in HQ is gender neutral).
Meanwhile Julien (who is jealous of Skipper's pretty pink bow) is deeply troubled because his smoothie blender isn't working. The best way to fix this, of course, is to throw Mort into the electric grid and have him do some tech support. We'll check in on his success later.
Back at Penguin HQ, Skipper abdicates as leader because he thinks he's no longer suitable for the position. The rest of the team hesitates to admit that they agree wholeheartedly. Skipper goes to the only frequently occuring female character in the zoo - Marlene - to learn "how to be a real woman". Marlene - our shining beacon of hope, the only voice of reason in this rollercoaster of an episode - tells him that being a woman doesn't change anything about what Skipper should like or do and that he should just keep going on missions as always. Skipper agrees he still likes being a team leader, just now he's "no good at it".
There's a sudden loud noise off screen. Skipper doesn't want to check it out because it "sounds dangerous", but Marlene drags him outside. Shockingly (heh), Mort didn't manage to fix the electricity and they are under attack from sentient (?) cables. Luckily, the boys are there to save the- nevermind, they're in trouble too. Marlene keeps encouraging Skipper to do something and Skipper's struggle is REAL. Eventually, he comes around and defeats the electrical cables... by dancing with a pretty pink bow. Yeah I'm tired too. Anyway, Skipper and Marlene celebrate and Kowalski admits that "even as a female", Skipper is still "the machoest, manly man" he knows. Rico and Private agree and Skipper's position of team leader is restored.
But all that doesn't address the REAL problem at hand, being that Julien's smoothie maker is still out of juice. Turns out, the DNA Analyzer™ has overloaded the zoo circuits and with a quick fix, the machine is back online and finishes Skipper's female Minus to a male Plus.
Skipper rejoices, saying "I'm a real boy after all!" and everyone but Marlene celebrates with him.
The penguins have learned nothing.
3. Gender Roles And Misogyny
The gender roles and misogyny in this show are always... something (I'll probably write an analysis about that at some point), but they're especially icky in this one.
We have the masculine, presented by Rico burping and being "gross", picturing monster trucks and whatever these poses are supposed to be:
They don't act this way in most of the other episodes. It all feels very weird and performative.
On the other hand, we have the feminine. We get an insight into what Skipper thinks "girl stuff" is: Princesses. Eyelash bashing. Makeovers. Poodle skirts and lipgloss. Sewing chiffon curtains. "Oh no that sounded dangerous! Let's gossip about boys instead :)"
"Oh the boys have it covered, let's make them some lemonade :))" Send help. Within mere hours, he's internalized it all. Meanwhile Marlene is just standing there like "girl... your feminism..."
During the episode, Skipper experiences all kinds of misogyny. Partly from others, but mostly from himself.
Kowalski, Rico and Private, who normally look up to their leader, are suddenly extremely condescending towards him and his capability.
They make fun of him for being a girl, chuckling when Kowalski breaks the news of the dna result. When it comes to penguin work, they say "We'll start with an easy one" even though they've been doing missions together like this for years. And Skipper has always been the leader! Why would he suddenly need easier missions??
These scenes just scream: "You know. Cause you're a girl now and therefore less capable than you were before we knew about that. :)" (This is a real phenomenon btw. more on that later). Even the gender non conforming Private is not helpful today. Like? "I'd be honored to take orders from a girl" Bitch ??? I'm reporting you to HR
And after various gender-related incidents (which as previously stated were just based on misogyny and could have easily been solved indepenently from that) Skipper abdicates?? And nobody is protesting??? Skipper, be it because he is being treated differently or due to his internalized misogyny, lost all confidence in his own abilities and it's actually heartbreaking. He's forced to abandon what he was (literally) born to do. Miss Understanding is a commentary on misogyny in the workplace without even meaning to be.
Finally, when he fights the electric cables "girl style", even Marlene says something like "Yeah! That's how a girl fights!" NO! Girls can use their fists and raw violence, they don't need to do a special dance with a pink ribbon, are you kidding me? And instead of being like "Wow, women can fight too! Skipper, you're so cool, welcome back!", his team mates jump straight to calling him a Macho-Man, denying him his (assigned) femininity based on his gender-norm defying actions. To them, a woman cannot be a fighter, a leader or a hero. Not even when fighting "girl style".
4. Transness and Transphobia
It's no secret women continue to experience gender based discrimination in the workplace to this day. A lot of my friends who are trans women told me about how they started losing confidence in their abilities during/after transitioning because people treat them differently and expect them to be less capable than men. I don't want to derail this analysis too much, so I'm just leaving you with a fun little post with some examples about sexism in the workplace.
Now, Skipper can probably not wrap his head around transness. I can only assume his knowledge about what a transgender person actually is is roughly on the same level as it is with most conservative republicans. Which is next to nothing apart from misinformation and harmful stereotypes that don't bear repeating here.
You can already tell by his reaction to his "actual" dna result that to Skipper, biology matters more than identity. "I'm a real boy after all!" Bestie...
This showcases an interesting phenomenon I have observed about transphobia - "biological facts" are super easy to adjust to. Meanwhile, cis people (at least the flavour of Cis People™ I am talking about here) still get the pronouns, name and gender of the trans people in their environment wrong after YEARS of social transitioning. Skipper still has a deep voice, his usual personality and looks, and still people refer to him as and treat him like a girl. Because the results of a dna test are more important than how the affected person actually feels and identifies as. I see Cis People™ make these arguments all the time. "I can't treat you like your preferred gender because your voice still sounds like this" or "because you act like this". It's all transphobia, whether it's intended or not. Otherwise adjusting to new names and pronouns would be as easy for them as when someone marries and changes their last name, or when they accidentally misgender a dog on the street.
The narrative of this episode fully agrees with this exact mindset. It erases all of Skipper's prior accomplishments and forces him into a role he feels most uncomfortable in. But because Skipper, too, is a misogynist, he thinks the way his team acts towards him now is the "correct" way he should be treated. Oof.
4.5 The Interesting Bit
And now we get to The Interesting Bit - the reason this episode compels me so much.
Skipper has always identified as a boy, even when the DNA Analyzer™ told him otherwise. The "femininity" he displays in Miss Understanding was purely performative and stems from his deeply internalized belief of What A Woman Should Be Like.
But as previously mentioned, he is unaware of the concept of being transgender. We've already seen the 5 stages of grief Skipper went through when he was told he was actually a girl. Imagine how bad it would be if he knew trans people were a thing. He would not accept himself as a trans guy. They'd have to invent like 15 more stages of grief specifically for this occasion.
But that's not all! Because as we know, Skipper has always thought of himself as a Manly Man. Penguins don't have sexual dimorphism, so his gender identity has been formed entirely through internal feelings instead of external traits.
That means, in my interpretation, Skipper has been a trans man all his life without even realizing it!
This gives us an extremely unique perspective that humans (as a sexually dimorphic species) can't really experience themselves: What if you've spent your entire life thinking you're a cis guy and grown up to be the standard republican misogynist? What if then a dna test tells you suddenly that you are a ~biological female~ and therefore you (and your team) enforce all these horrible gender roles on yourself? All that externalized misogyny suddenly implodes and becomes internalized. And as a misogynist yourself, you can't unlearn it because you are convinced this is an undisputable truth. It's in your nature to act certain ways and to have ~girly interests~. You cannot help being inferior to men no matter how qualified you are.
But deep inside, you know how wrong it feels. You're still you, good old Skipper, competent, capable... manly. Acting like this - not like your authentic self - makes you experience dysphoria. You feel terrible, but lack the vocabulary and emotional intelligence to describe what's wrong. You're trapped by your own ideology.
Unable to question his deeply rooted bigoted beliefs, Skipper would have settled in this absolutely miserable existence for the rest of his life if it hadn't been for the DNA Analyzer™ resetting and revealing the "actual" result.
What if a misogynist turns out to be a woman? A queerphobe turns out to be queer? What if your worldview about gender roles and your own gender identity are at odds with each other? Which side do you eventually settle on? It's such a unique perspective on being a trans guy and I am absolutely fascinated by it.
Luckily Skipper doesn't have to burden himself with these gut-wrenching existential questions because the end of Miss Understanding had to restore the Status Quo to not disrupt the canon of the other episodes. But I think it's a thought experiment well worth exploring.
5. Headcanon
In my heart, Skipper is a trans guy who never knew he was trans. Maybe his parents knew (Skipper is a gender neutral name), but until that dna test, he was blissfully unaware of his transness.
The dna test (that shouldn't have mattered in the first place) ended up ruining his career and uprooting his entire life. Not only because of the way people treated him, but the way he started to perceive himself.
What I think might (should) have happened is that the team couldn't bear to see him that way. So Kowalski decided to tamper with the evidence.
He tinkered with the machine so that it would turn Skipper's "female" Minus into a "male" Plus as soon as he replaced the fuse in front of everyone, leaving no room for doubt that yes, Skipper is a "real guy", even according to the DNA Analyzer™. The rest of the team would never know.
Kowalski probably did this behind Skipper's back and keeps even him in the dark for his own sake.
6. TLDR
Skipper is both extremely queer and extremely conservative
In Miss Understanding, he gets assigned female by the DNA Analyzer™ and tries to perform what he thinks femininity is
He has to face real misogyny from both himself and his team to the point he voluntarily quits his position as leader
In the end, he defies gender roles and in turn gets denied the femininity that was forced on him in the first place (instead of being acknowledged as a strong woman)
there is no sexual dimorphism in penguins. Skipper's gender identity was formed by internal feelings instead of external traits, meaning he was a trans guy his entire life without even knowing about it
Skipper would have probably trapped himself in his own misogynistic ideology for the rest of his life if it hadn't been for the dna test result changing last minute
My headcanon is that Kowalski tampered with the DNA Analyzer™ to make him think he's a cis guy cause Skipper couldn't handle having to conform to the gender role he imposed upon himself
This episode gave me a new attitude towards Skipper as a character and gave me new appreciation for him. I know some people in real life who are queer but so deeply repressed they'd rather trap themselves performing a comphet way of life than to accept themselves for who they are. It's a tragic thing and sadly not a rare occurance so maybe Miss Understanding has been eye opening for some. Or I'm reading way too much into this (highly unlikely. I am very normal.)
I know a lot of people headcanon Skipper as a trans woman which is also very cool, but I prefer my interpretation, especially because of the unique perspective the lack of sexual dimorphism offers us. A trans guy who thought he was cis all his life? That's wild!
Thank you so much for making it this far! I doubt many people are going to read this, so it means a lot to me <3
