Sexist Gender Flips

A lot of television programmes have male protagonists. This is something which TV Tropes (enter with caution) chalks up to the Most Writers Are Male theory, which extends to the school of thought that most viewers are also male, and therefore are more likely to identify with a male character. In fact, even programmes that are allegedly 'Gender Neutral' will still have a male protagonist because girls are believed to have an easier time identifying with male characters than boys do with female characters. Think about it: have you seen a television programme or film (especially a children's cartoon) that was targeted at both genders and had a female protagonist?*

But something that comes up a lot, particularly in children's programmes, is what I call 'The Gender Flip Episode'. The Gender Flip Episode is, as you can probably guess, an episode in which our main character spends an episode as a member of the opposite sex (in almost every example, the flip is male to female) through some form of magic, 'Science' (a very vauge term thrown around quite liberally in Televisionland, but that isn't what we're focusing on today), or it could be the result of a strange (and markedly Freudian) dream sequence. You would think that The Gender Flip Episode would be an opportunity for the writers to show that the line between genders is more blurred than one might think, as the character has become, in a sense, both male and female. It could also be a commentary on gender equality, as our character may find herself being treated differently to how he had been treated before. But, more often than not, the episode only succeeds in perpetuating gender stereotypes by having the character suddenly find interest in 'girl' things like makeup and fashion, and discard old 'boy' things like comics, video games and race cars.

The majority of my examples are children's programmes because I feel that these are the programmes that are supposed to at least try to teach the younger generations about equality, sexism and the like, and yet they seem to be the worst offenders, sacrificing potentially thought-provoking material for cheap gags about a previously male character suddenly acting feminine. I won't even go into what this says about camp men.

So let's have a look at some of these gender flips...


Ozzy and Drix:' Out of Body Experience'
Osmosis "Ozzy" Jones is a cell who lives inside a young teenage boy named Hector. After Hector nearly drowns, Christine performs CPR, saving his life, but causing Ozzy to end up in Christine. The City of Christine is pink, clean (with "such darling shops!") and filled to the brim with female cells who are infatuated with Hector and, by extension, Ozzy. As the episode continues, Ozzy becomes more and more 'girly' which consists of him turning pink, looking at himself in the mirror and talking about shoes and puppies, which is, of course, horrifying for such a tough, manly cell like Ozzy, who has to fight against it by arm-wrestling and doing press-ups. Oh, and he can't drive when he turns pink. Nice. Hell, The City of Christine is so girly, it drives Chief Maximus, the one male inhabitant, to villanous insanity, with its lack of sports channels, mandatory dance lessons and burping laws. Because of course no woman is interested in sports (forgetting the fact that, I don't know, dance is a sport!). Not to mention, said Cheif Maximus is the chief of police and has control over the women on the force. Just putting that out there. Mind you, I should point out that they also put forward the more positive stereotype that girls are smarter than boys ("Wow, your brain advisors actually have... brains!") which was quite cute, and the police force are pretty tough and competent, so at least the 'girls are weak' stereotype is left well alone, but overall I find that the episode is fairly black and white about genders.

Malcolm in the Middle: 'If Boys were Girls'
Lois, expecting a fifth child, is asked if she would prefer a girl or another boy. This question makes her imagine if her sons were daughters instead. At first it seems that everything would be better: a petty fight over a pen is solved with words and a group hug, a trip to the mall to buy clothes is something they look forward to, and they are all cooperative and well behaved. But as the episode goes on, Lois begins to realise that Renee, Mallory and Daisy are just as bad, if not worse than  Reese, Malcolm and Dewey; trying to manipulate their mother, taking diet pills, getting pregnant and marrying sleazy men. Now, this example I like because it shows that daughters can be just as bad as sons. This episode does delve into a lot of female stereotypes, such as girls loving clothes and shoes (although this is all in Lois' imagination, so you need to bear that in mind) and the girls being portrayed as manipulative and bitchy is certainly questionable, but it has the overall message that having four daughters would not be better than four sons, because teenagers will be a handful regardless of sex. Saying that girls are just as bad as boys rather than saying they are just as good as boys is an interesting angle to take on the war of the sexes, and 'If Boys Were Girls' is a gender-flip episode that I enjoyed and that I readily applaud.

Fairly OddParents: 'The Boy Who Would Be Queen'
Timmy needs to think of the perfect gift for his crush Trixy's birthday, but he can't think of what girls like. When Wanda suggests he wishes to be a girl, he and Cosmo mock her, causing Wanda to turn him into a girl anyway. Now able to think like a girl, Timantha (yes, that's the name he goes by) heads out to find Trixy a gift, only to find that boys and girls aren't all that different. The funny thing about this episode is that it tries to counter sexism by saying that it's okay for boys to like 'girl' things and for girls to like 'boy' things, and it does come close to putting that message across ("Hey, I like 'Kissy Kissy Goo Goo' and 'Skull Squisher'!"). Unfortunately it does come across as quite sexist because it defines 'girl' stuff as being romance shows and beauty salons and 'boy' stuff as being violent comic books and dead frogs. I can only really say that at least this cartoon tried not to be sexist, and it did basically say that if you are a boy and you like romance shows then you aren't a freak, and the same goes for girls who like comics, so I suppose you have to give it some credit.

*Incidentally, if you are aware of any gender neutral programmes with a female protagonist, feel free to post a comment because I'm interested to see how many there are, as I obviously haven't seen every television programme ever.

In fact, if you know of a Gender Flip Episode that handles the concept with a decent level of dignity and doesn't rely too heavily on stereotypes, leave a comment as well. If enough comments are posted, I may make a sequel to this, giving examples of well-done Gender Flips.