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-   -   Mienshao is a "she" (https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=456911)

Palamon August 15th, 2021 4:16 PM

Mienshao is a "she"
 
i know bold to assume a pokemon's gender
fun fact up until generation eight all Pokemon were referred to by it/its pronouns in the Pokedex instead of they/them pronouns.

But are there any Pokemon you see as "masculine"/male or "feminine"/female for whatever reason? Be it because of a personal playthrough where you had an idk a Female Lucario or whatever. Just in your opinion. I'm not talking about Pokemon that already have 100% "gender ratios" or whatever I'm mostly talking about Pokemon that can be either male/female or even genderless, I suppose.

Here's some Pokemon I have considered "female" (regardless of what gender ratios say) in the past. I'll put these in Pokedex order, if I can. This is going to be pretty long, so buckle up.

Brain always calls both Clefairy and Jigglypuff a "she", even though, oddly, a lot of Clefairy have been depicted as male in the Pocket Monsters manga, and Magical Pokemon Journey, both of these Clefairy are male, but because of that episode in the anime my brain can only use she on Clefairy. Same with Jigglypuff. But, only Jigglypuff, not Wigglytuff.

Vulpix is another example of a Pokemon I slip a lot and use "she" on them instead of "it" or "they". Leave it to Mystery Dungeon for this one, too, where the starter Vulpix can literally only be female for this conclusion.

I've slipped a lot and called Eevee a "she". This is funny to me because Eevee are a predominately male species of Pokemon, but my brain has conditioned me to think of Eevee as a "girl Pokemon" or a "Pokemon that is mostly female" even though it's the exact opposite in the games. In the anime, most Eevee are depicted as female, strangely enough, so the stigma stays. in PMD you also can only play Eevee as a girl, and the partner Eevee is also a girl.

Chikorita and Bayleef because of the anime, Mystery Dungeon Special, and Mystery Dungeon games. Chikorita is honestly a very feminine looking Pokemon, I cannot see Chikorita as anything except a girl. If Chikorita wasn't a starter, I'm sure their gender ratio would instead have been 75% female/25% male, but honestly, Chikorita has always screamed "girl Pokemon" especially since Ash had one in the anime that was a girl.

The Togepi line, due to Dawn calling her Togekiss a "big sister" has over the years, made me see these Pokemon as more female than male. I do think Misty's Togepi in particular, though, was probably a boy. But, I've caught myself using she on a Togetic and Togekiss before.

Sunflora is a "she" to me because of the one from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon being so girly, saying things like "oh, my gosh!" all the time.

Sometimes call Corsola a "she" too mostly because Misty used one.

Only Torchic and Combusken for me have felt like "female" to me. For the most part, it's again because Mystery Dungeon only let you be Torchic if you were a girl that this solidified in my brain that way. But, not Blaziken. Blaziken is separate for me for some reason.

Delcatty is a "she" for me, also, but not Skitty, because I've played as a male Skitty in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and thrive off of it.

Mawile is another Pokemon I've always seen as female because they look like medusa? Yeah.

Pretty sure everyone and their mom has called Gardevoir a she before, so I'm skipping that one.

Because of Team Charm from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, I've always seen Medicham as a more graceful and feminine fighting type Pokemon. Fun fact, btw, in Meditite's art by Ken Sugimori, Meditite is depicted as female. Male Meditite's ears are higher on their head.

Roselia and to some extent Roserade have slipped up on saying she when playing Pokemon various times.

Cherrim is a she because Cherrim is Erica... oh wait. (I'm just kidding btw I don't see Cherrim as male or female.)

Since Dawn's Buneary is pretty much... one of the only Buneary seen in the anime, and Dawn's Buneary was a girl, my mind follows suit.

Due to how often Snivy is depicted as female in most media they're in, I can only see Snivy as female. But only Snivy. Servine and Serperior aren't like this for me.

Audino has always felt like the "Chansey" of Unova for me, so in my mind, I always accidentally slip and call Audino "she" even though Audino is another pink Pokemon with a 50/50 gender ratio.

Leavanny has always felt like a "mom" Pokemon to me since their Pokedex entry is described as sewing leaves for baby Sewaddle or something to that extent.

Gothita line are literally "goth girls". Or "Goth Ralts line", so I've always seen this line as female.

And now the title of the thread. Mienshao. Ever since I've seen Mienshao, my brain has always thought Mienshao is a more feminine fighting type Pokemon, so whenever I talk about Mienshao I always say "she". Every time. I also always accidentally think it's a Psychic type Pokemon and not a fighting type Pokemon, so there's a story for you guys.

Fennekin is another example of a Fire Type starter I've always seen as "a girl" I don't know if it's because Serena's was female or not, but honestly have always referred to Fennekin as a she for some reason.

Because Primarina is heavily used with feminine language, I can only see the Popplio line as girls. Although, I'm pretty sure my Popplio when I played US/UM was probably male, I just don't know, the Pokemon has always seem to be marketed as the "feminine water starter".

I've probably accidentally called Lurantis a she on a couple of occasions, too.

That's pretty much it for Pokemon my brain seems to classify as "girls/female/feminine" here's some (this list won't be as long) Pokemon my mind seems to always call "male" or as a "he".


I'm going to start with every single starter I didn't mention in the female section? My brain slips and calls almost of them a he. But here's the starters I mostly slip and call he:

-Charmander line
-Squirtle line
-Totodile line
-Treecko line
-Turtwig line
-Piplup line (because of the anime)
-Tepig line
-Oshawott line
-Chespin line
-Froakie line
-Rowlet line
-Litten Line
-All three Galar starters

I've slipped up countless, and countless times referring the mascot of the Pokemon franchise, Pikachu, a "he" because in 99% of Pokemon media, and Pokemon merchandise Pikachu is often depicted as their male form. Very rarely has Pikachu ever been marketed with its female form. In most recent memory, the only female pikachu marketing I can think of is Cosplay Pikachu. So, because of this, and because male and female Pikachu's tails are completely different, and most of the time, Pikachu is predominantly shown as its male form I always seem to think of Pikachu as a boy even though we know female Pikachu look a little different. I remember the anime did recently show us a female Pikachu, though, so who knows, maybe I'll eventually not see Pikachu as a "Pokemon that is a boy" because of the media.

Due to Team Rocket's Meowth obviously being male, this is yet another Pokemon my brain has always seen as male. I think there's been a few female Meowth over the years, but because the anime had team rocket's meowth be as prominent in the anime as he is, this rubbed off on me.

Always have seen the Machop line as male even though they can be female.

Have slipped and called the Slowpoke line "he" in recent memory. Don't have much to say about this matter.

Have definitely addressed the Shinx line a he before. Mostly because of PMD making it so you can only play Shinx as a guy, so the stigma stayed.

Munchlax line, Snorlax specifically, is apparently a caricature of someone. I don't remember who, but from what I remember the caricature is a man, so I always call Snorlax a he.

Lucario has always been heavily marketed, in my opinion as a "masculine" or "male" Pokemon, so whenever I think about it, I always lean towards referring to Lucario as a he.

Rypherior, Electrivire, Magmortar and Dusknoir are all evolutions I've definitely said "he" when talking about them, Dusknoir especially since the Dusknoir from PMD was a male.

Have probably called the Timburr line male before, and I wouldn't put it past me if I have multiple times.

Have likely called Rockruff a "he" because media heavily masculinizes dogs in media. I can name very few dogs in media that are ever written as female. :|

Honestly, there's a lot of Pokemon I've slipped up and called he or she, so I'm not going to even bother listing any other ones right now. These are just the ones that I recall seeing more fully as male or female, as opposed to just accidentally slipping an using "he" or "she" for them, I, for the most part, don't really care to gender Pokemon because it's not really necessary to me. I know I said that despite how long this thread is already, but for the most part, I don't really care, these are just some Pokemon that I have I guess gendered in my mind for well over a decade now, so I figured I'd just get it over and talk about it.

Notice I didn't mention any legendary Pokemon in here. Well, to be perfectly honest, I didn't feel like it. But there's a lot of legendary and mythical Pokemon my brain has assigned gender pronouns to like Mespirit being a "she" because of mystery dungeon, and Tapu Koko being a "he" because the anime just gave me that impression, but I'll be here all day if i keep going like this.

...Anyway, are there any Pokemon you guys "gender" be it because of heavily influenced by other medias of Pokemon, because of your own personal play through of a Pokemon game, and etcetera? Feel free to share your thoughts, even if it's only a sentence or two. I don't expect anyone to word vomit about this to the same extent as me.

moon August 15th, 2021 7:58 PM

I don't like gendering things based on femininity/masculinity or stereotypical colors, so nope. I'm sure many automatically do though, it's just how we've been taught; especially stuff like colors changes over time in society anyways c:

Palamon August 15th, 2021 8:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adventure (Post 10393850)
I don't like gendering things based on femininity/masculinity or stereotypical colors, so nope. I'm sure many automatically do though, it's just how we've been taught; especially stuff like colors changes over time in society anyways c:

Well, in my defense, almost all of the Pokemon I mentioned were just things that I thought when I was younger that have just...stuck in my mind because of the anime. I didn't mention this in the thread when I posted it originally, but sometimes, the voice acting of a Pokemon would make me lean towards calling certain species of Pokemon by certain gendered pronouns like Roselia and Roserade having a feminine cadence in their voices.

A lot of the Pokemon I mentioned that in the female section aren't really based off of color stereotypes (apart from Clefairy, Audino Corsola and Jigglypuff, I guess) but I didn't really think of it that way when I was typing up this essay mess of a thread since it's like...41 paragraphs.

I get you, though, 100%. I just feel like a lot of people probably do gender Pokemon (and even animals to this extent? Like people assuming all dogs are male? That kinda thing.)

Mizumanta August 16th, 2021 2:59 AM

I've never see Diancie as male.

moon August 16th, 2021 3:16 AM

Yee. I've seen Tapu Koko as a girl because we used to have a bot on the PC Discord server called Tapu Boto with a Koko pfp that we called she/her :3

NikolaP August 18th, 2021 1:08 AM

This is something I've often thought about, and is in fact what comes naturally to me because Croatian is a far more gendered language than English - all nouns have either masculine, feminine or neuter gender (and this also applies to the names of animals, so that all animals have a "default" gender; for example, a cat, fox or bird are feminine by default).

In particular, words that end in -a sound feminine to me (excluding explicitly boy's names that end in -a, such as mine), so I automatically think of any Pokemon with a name that ends in -a as feminine: Roggenrola, Lugia, Corsola, Abra, Kadabra...

I tend to call very feminine-looking Pokemon "she" in my head, unless the individual in question is male. I agree with many of your impressions: the Clefairy line, the Mienfoo line, for example, strike me as quite feminine, and I like catching females of species like that. Very masculine-looking species I like catching males of, like the Machop or Timburr lines.

Igglybuff, Jigglypuff and Wigglytuff on the other hand are masculine Pokemon for me, haha.

A very feminine-masculine pair of Pokemon for me that you haven't mentioned are Zacian and Zamazenta, especially in Hero of Many Battles forme. Zacian's lighter colours and thinner frame, as well as its eyelashes and long braids, leave quite a warrior princess or Valkyrie impression on me, while Zamazenta's darker colours and buffer build, as well as the beard-like mane, make me think of a barbarian hero or knight.

Come to think of it, for many Pokemon I have a preferred gender to catch. They're mostly nonsensical, or based on a gender difference I like or related to the default gender of the animal they're based on in Croatian, or what gender their name sounds like in Croatian...

For example, female Misdreavus because it looks feminine, female Numel because camels are feminine in Croatian, female Grookey just because...

Funnily enough, I happen to have used a female Litten as my starter in Moon and to this day I think of my female Incineroar whenever I see one and like using females of that line. In my head it's an extreme cage fighting tigress/kitty that secretly likes headpats, kind of like a mix of Tigress from Kung Fu Panda, Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother from Hoodwinked and any number of female action heroes.

colours August 20th, 2021 12:59 PM

shaymin/skymin are both feminine to me tbh

Geewithabee August 20th, 2021 3:09 PM

Kirlia is female, to me.

Ninetales August 20th, 2021 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colours (Post 10395734)
shaymin/skymin are both feminine to me tbh

It’s interesting because to me Shaymin’s land form I associate more with feminity whereas the sky form I subconsciously categorize as more masculine. This definitely stems from the Giratina and the Sky Warrior movie, as the Shaymin has a noticeably higher pitched tone and slightly more docile demeanour whilst in land form. Conversely, sky form Shaymin has a slightly deeper voice and is irrefutably more bold.

Palamon August 21st, 2021 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drew.wilsford (Post 10395770)
Kirlia is female, to me.

This is pretty much the general consensus I've seen for both Kirlia and Gardevoir, so I expected at least one person to say this.

Devalue August 21st, 2021 1:39 PM

Reads Inteleon, Sirfetch'd, Dartrix, Incineroar, Gumshoos, Diggersby, Bouffalant, Hariyama, Kadabra + Alakazam, and the Machop line as male. Affects mainly human-like Pokemon. Does not extend to other evolutions. Associates them with male characters (see: James Bond) or more typically male clothing/hairstyles (example: Alakazam's moustache).

Views Brionne + Primarina, Gothita's line, Lopunny, Mawile, Gardevoir, Bellossom, and Hitmonchan as female. Applies similar reasoning as above. Adds eye style for Brionne. Says female for Hitmonchan due to the -chan ending. Brings the Japanese honorific (typically female, but not always) to mind before Jackie Chan. Might be assisted by the outfit too.

Leans no particular direction for Slowbro + Slowking and Mr. Mime + Mr. Rime, oddly. Suspects either pink coloration or no strongly masculine features. Overrides the name, unlike with Sirfetch'd.

Mentions other Pokemon possibly playing a role indirectly also. Knows all Tauros are male. Affects Bouffalant, the Unovan Tauros. Tied several Pokemon with strongly gendered features/names to one gender, such as Jynx and Tsareena. Assumes that for more Pokemon.

Geewithabee August 21st, 2021 5:31 PM

Purrloin seems female.

Bellsprout August 21st, 2021 5:58 PM

I've always seen all the eeveelutions as feminine. I've also always viewed Blaziken as female.

moon August 24th, 2021 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bellsprout (Post 10396199)
I've always seen all the eeveelutions as feminine. I've also always viewed Blaziken as female.

That's interesting! I've seen most of them as male, except perhaps Glaceon and Espeon and Umbreon.

plsnokaizo August 25th, 2021 4:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adventure (Post 10397904)
That's interesting! I've seen most of them as male, except perhaps Glaceon and Espeon and Umbreon.

Odd, I've viewed Umbreon as masculine and Vaporeon and Sylveon as feminine.

moon August 25th, 2021 8:42 PM

Again proves how artificial such notions are 😇

NipahRika August 27th, 2021 8:29 AM

I always did assume that Jigglypuff and Clefairy were female! Also always thought Gardevoir was female.

Sheep August 30th, 2021 4:43 AM

I got really used to Espeon being female and Umbreon being male. They're such a cute couple. :3c There are lots of other ones I prefer being female too, though they're mostly all common ones like Meganium, Gardevoir, Gorebyss, etc. I really prefer Flareon female too, but that's mainly because my OC owns a female one which I'm very attached to haha.

(Feebas) September 5th, 2021 4:21 AM

I have always had the idea that Milotic is a female, even though the gender ratio is 50/50. I don't know why, but whenever I see Milotic (specifically third gen spriting), it makes me think of a woman with longer hair covering her chest (like mermaids and mythical creatures). Additionally, since it is known as one of the world's "most beautiful Pokemon," and societal stereotypes recognizing words like "beautiful" and "gorgeous" as feminine words and "handsome" as a more masculine word.

You all see it?

https://img.pokemondb.net/sprites/ruby-sapphire/normal/milotic.png

Pokémonlover1 September 7th, 2021 1:53 PM

I think of Hoopa Confined as a female, yet I think of Hoopa Unbound as a male. It's most likely just the movie and the talking Hoopa (Confined) plush, though. (For some reason, Hoopa Confined reminds me of Kirby (mainly the similar high-pitched, childlike voices that are both done by female seiyuus), yet I still see it as female)

I also see Keromatsu (Froakie) as a male, and Piplup as a female (both Japanese and English for Piplup)

Duck September 7th, 2021 3:58 PM

I usually go for it or they when referring to most Pokémon (or he, since that's the default pronoun in my native language), although I guess a number of Pokémon do have a design that tends towards the "masculine" (Lucario, Machamp, Blaziken) or "feminine" (Lopunny, most fairy types really).

One thing I only recently discovered is that everybody's favorite AG good boi Zacian is actually "canonically" AG good girl Zacian. Apparently one of Zacian's entry refer to it as "Zamazenta's elder sister" (although they still use the it pronoun). Maybe it's the same real world bias I just mentioned (fairy = girl) being displayed in-game?

It's worth noting that Zamazenta's dex entry doesn't mention any gender.

Geewithabee September 20th, 2021 8:09 AM

Maractus seems female.

RedDragonThunderzord December 12th, 2021 10:39 AM

Chikorita and Snivy both seem like they should be female to me.

Thagnoth December 13th, 2021 1:36 AM

A preface: It irks me that there exist any Pokémon that aren't split to have both male and female versions. So if you notice I keep saying I'll be pretending a lot of mons are 50%/50%, that's why. XD

Hitmonlee: Because Hitmonlee looks like it's wearing a skirt, and since I've always associated -chan with cute anime girls, Hitmonchan had always been female in my head. Only very recently I learned it was actually 100% male, not the other way around. Now I can't help seeing it as a cute boxing femboy. I like to pretend Hitmonlee, Hitmontop, and Hitmonchan are 50%/50%.

Miltank: While I guess it makes some sense in hindsight, I found it odd that Miltank is 100% female, and that Tauros are 100% male. I'm going to continue pretending they're both split 50%/50%.

Gallade: It's strange to me that Gallade is 100% male. Seems like a fluke that they made Gallade 100% male while Gardevoir is 50%/50%, while Gardevoir is probably intended to be 100% female. I like to pretend Gallade is 50%/50% as well.

Braviary and Mandibuzz lines I thought were 50%/50%, but apparently they're split: Braviary is all-male, and Mandibuzz is all-female. I think Braviary is more feminine, especially compared to Mandibuzz, so I found that neat. I suppose Mandibuzz does tangentially remind me of Yzma with the hair and the fluffy neck!

Wormadam are 100% female, and Mothim are 100% male. If I'm being completely honest, I thought for a long time that it went Burmy -> Wormadam -> Mothim, similar to the cocoon-esque mons, so that surprised me.

Grimmsnarl I think should be split as well.

The rest of the 100% Male mons (Nidoking line, Volbeat, Throh, and Sawk) make sense, although it's weird that Throh and Sawk can breed. They've always seemed more like clay statues to me, with the patterned grooves on their face and gi, as well as their weird nosebrow... things, that look plopped on like you would to add a nose onto a clay face.

The female flowers: Why are Petilil, Lilligant, Flabébé, Floette, Florges, Bounsweet, Steenee, and Tsareena 100% female?? This doesn't make any sense to me, especially since I've always known Budew, Roselia, and Roserade are split 50%/50%, as Platinum was the game I played most. Again, I'm going to continue to pretend these ones are all split 50%/50%.

Why are Milcery and Alcremie 100% female?? They don't have any counterpart mons, and they're literally just animate sweets—shouldn't they be Gender Unknown?

While I understand why they'd say Hatterene line is 100% female, I still (surprise!) pretend they aren't.

̣: ˙ : ̣: ˙ : ̣: ˙ : ̣: ˙ : ̣: ˙ : ̣: ˙ : ̣: ˙ : ̣: ˙ : ̣: ˙
Somewhat unrelated:

I found it strange that Cresselia, Heatran, Kubfu and Urshifu have genders at all! Why can't Cresselia be male?? I'm assuming they can if they have a gender, just that they won't let you in the games—so what could they breed with? How did Pokémon scientists first discover they had genders? Could other Legendaries have genders or breed without one?? With so many people running around with the regional legendaries on their team, couldn't we easily figure out??

Manaphy and Phione both have unknown gender, and yet can breed with Ditto to produce Phione exclusively! Yet Manaphy eggs exist?? (???Help!???)

On another, completely unrelated note, while I was browsing Bulbapedia's list of mons by gender ratio, I saw that Nidoqueen and Nidorina apparently cannot breed to this day??? This is most likely a bug that has over time been accidentally made into a feature, but since I doubt they've touched on this in the anime, I think that this should be entirely retconned.

I'm also going on a tangent over all of the egg groups I think are strange!! Why can't I just stay on-topic???? (lll¬ω¬)

Shrew December 14th, 2021 12:09 PM

Back in Gen II, the pokemon given 7:1 male gender ratios were definitely for rarity reasons. They were the pokemon who you could only get limited copies of in Gen I. I'm certain that's the only reason why Eevee has that gender ratio. Same for Chikorita and other feminine starters that have been added since then. I would prefer it if Eevee was 50/50, where I would aim for female for my own preference when catching. I'm glad Let's Go Eevee had 50-50 ratio.

For some reason I ascribe gender to genderless pokemon. Starmie is a girl. I can't really decide for Staryu. Magnemite line is male. Every other genderless non-legendary, I think of as male... hmmm, except Carbink, which I think of as slightly feminine. Sinistea and Polteageist as slightly feminine too. Funnily, I usually think of Ditto as male, but the one I used in story mode, I usually alternated in my mind how I saw it.

As for Genderless legendaries, Mew is probably the hardest for me to ascribe gender. Very fitting given its role in the series. Articuno, Suicune, and Moltres are pokemon who I used to think of as feminine when I was younger, but now it's harder for me to decide.

...It appears I decided it would be funner to talk about interpretations that are opposite or impossible in the games. :P


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