Fictional characters who have changed gender

[Sampiro]

I can think of two but I'm sure there are many more:

The prophet Tiresias in Greek mythology became a woman for seven years for pissing off two coupling snakes (and either a prostitute or a wife or a priestess during that time, but gave birth to a daughter) and then became a man again after disturbing the same two coupling snakes again.

Virginia Woolf's Orlando is probably the most famous literary sex change.

I know that Lazarus Long had a female clone but didn't become female himself. Are there any other characters who went from m to f or f to m? (I feel I'm overlooking somebody really obvious.)

[mbh]

Robert Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil is the story of an old man whose brain is transplanted into the body of a young woman.

[Hey, It's That Guy!]

In comic books, Dr. Fate, the Crimson Avenger, Dr. Mid-Nite, Speedy, and Robin are all male superheroes who were replaced at various times by women. The actual people in the costumes didn't change gender, but the heroic identities themselves did.

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

The first two "Buckwheats" in "Our Gang" were portrayed by girls, Carlena Beard (Stymies real-life little sister), and Willie Mae Taylor. The "real" Buckwheat, Billie Thomas, was referred to as "she" in his first outing as "Buckwheat." (Previously, Thomas had appeared as an unnamed little boy wearing a flat-topped derby hat.)

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

I've also read that there is some ambiguity as to Farina's gender in the early shorts, but I haven't seen them to verify that.

[Peter Morris]

Ziggy from Quantum Leap. Referred to as 'he' in early seasons. Al made a joke about getting him a girl computer with a giant pair of (somethings.. hard drives, maybe). In later seasons Ziggy gained a voice (female) and was thereafter called 'she.'

In the original 4-issue miniseries The Books Of Magic one of the four magicians that instruct Harry Tim, starts as male, and turns female when they enter some magic kingdom. I don't know if he/she is a DC comics regular character, or only in this story.

In The Ballad Of Halo Jones from the anthology comic 2000 AD there's a character The Glyph that had several dozen sex changes, which eventually erased her personality, and left her "invisible" ie people would forget she was in the same room.

[gonzoron]

The novel Commitment Hour is about a tribe of people on far future (post apocalyptic?) Earth that switch genders every year until their 21st(?) birthday when they must decide which to be for the rest of their lives. It's been a while since I read it so I don't remember too much else.

Several characters known as "Jumpers" in the Wild Cards series had the ability to switch minds telepathically. Through the use of this power, Dr. Tachyon, one of the main characters of the series, was forced into a woman's body for a while.

In Family Guy: Stewie Griffin, the untold story,

SPOILER:

30 years in the future, Meg is a FTM transsexual named Ron.

This one probably doesn't count, but in the D&D Ravenloft setting, a character named Thakok-An was in love with a character named Kalid-ma. Kalid-ma came originally from the Dark Sun campaign setting, where he was a male, but due to a mistake, the original Ravenloft version was written up as female, with a male Thakok-an. In later books, this was corrected, and Kalid-ma was referred to as male, with Thakok-an as female. No in-continuity reason was ever given, so the characters themselves didn't change gender, but the authors' conception of them did.

[Kamino Neko]

Originally Posted by Big Bad Voodoo Lou

In comic books, Dr. Fate, the Crimson Avenger, Dr. Mid-Nite, Speedy, and Robin are all male superheroes who were replaced at various times by women. The actual people in the costumes didn't change gender, but the heroic identities themselves did.

There is, however, Dr Occult, who is a male and a female in the same body. Still not quite on topic, but closer.

A few actual comic book gender swaps, both accidental and deliberate...

In the 1985 Legion of Substitute Heroes special, Color Kid briefly had his gender switched when Infectious Lass accidentally infected him with 'Grandin Gender Reversal Germs'. (His final line was 'Hey -- I'm a guy again!', which is a lot funnier in the book than I make it sound.) His costume, BTW, looks much better on a woman than a man.

I haven't read the issue in question, yet (I've got a few weeks, or months, before I get to it.), but apparently Tenzil Kem was deliberately infected with GGRG in the post-ZH Legion.

Then there's the whole Sean/Shvaughn Erin thing, which I'm also a few weeks away from reading at the rate I'm going, so I'll leave it to someone else to explain better.

Guy Gardner was briefly changed into a woman.

Superman's gotten changed into a woman a couple times.

Two manga:

Ranma of Ranma 1/2 is cursed to turn into a woman when hit with cold water - hot water changes him back to a man.

Futaba Shimeru of Futaba-kun Change! - in fact, the entire Shimeru family - has a strange genetic quirk that causes them to change gender when excited.

[Scott Plaid]

Originally Posted by Tengu

Futaba Shimeru of Futaba-kun Change! - in fact, the entire Shimeru family - has a strange genetic quirk that causes them to change gender when excited.

I have the first two volumns of that!
Also, wasn't there a Supervillian that had the apperence of a steretypical superhero?

Ah, yes, it was Captain Power, also known as Dr. Christina Carr.

Come to think of it, the same page I am lining from has a whole list. Bottom of the page.

[CalMeacham]

Camelot 3000 was a sci-fi retelling of King Arthur, in which Sir Tristan is dismayed to find out he has been reincarnated as a woman. Isolde doesn't seem to mind, though.

I think you're misrecollecting here. No one is "re-incarnated" in Camelot 3000 and no one changes sex, as far as I can recall. It doesn't fit the OP's description.





The Japanese animation Rei Rei, about Kaguya the moon goddess, features a character who temporarily changes gender.

[Giles]

Originally Posted by Tengu

Ranma of Ranma 1/2 is cursed to turn into a woman when hit with cold water - hot water changes him back to a man.

That was who I first thought of when I saw the OP: Ranma changes gender hundreds of times in the course of the manga and anime series, just as his father changes between human being and panda. And there's the running joke in the series that a lot of people think that Ranma-kun (boy) and Ranma-chan (girl) are two different people, and may be in love with one of them and want to kill the other.

[mbh]

In Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light, the lead characters have machines that can transfer one's mind/soul from one body to another.

One of the characters, originally a woman, used it to become a man.

Another character would switch genders with each new incarnation. After a few centuries, only that character could remember what his/her original gender had been.

It's been a while since I read the book, but I seem to recall that a third character was forced to switch genders for political reasons.

[mbh]

In Norse myth, the gods made a deal with a jotun to build a wall around Asgard. They did not believe he could finish the job in time, so they promised him an exorbitant fee.

When the jotun and his draft-horse worked much faster than they had expected, it looked like the Aesir would be screwed.

Then Loki transformed into a mare and, um, distracted the jotun's draft-horse. Mare and stallion disappeared into the woods.

The jotun could not finish the job in time, and the Aesir were saved.

Months later, Loki gave birth to Sleipnir, who became Odin's steed.

[Bryan Ekers]

Offhand, I know of two in the comics:

• The Ultra-humanite, a mad scientist and the first supervillain to confront Superman (before Lex Luthor, even) had his brain transplanted into the body of an actress named Dolores Winters.
• Walter Langkowski, "Sasquatch" of Marvel's Alpha Flight underwent a transformation where his consciousness ended up inhabiting the female body of another team member; Snowbird.

In both cases, though, the characters retained their male attitudes and never fully adapted to their female forms.


Then there was that Prelude to a Kiss movie a few years back...

[JerH]

Originally Posted by mbh

Robert Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil is the story of an old man whose brain is transplanted into the body of a young woman.

I have a 1960s pulp adventure novel called The Death of the Fuhrer where the same thing is done with Hitler's brain.

[Corii]

Marion Zimmer Bradley's Lythande is about a woman posing as a man until the end of the world (rather complicated).

The Beacon at Alexandria by Gillian Bradshaw is about a woman in ancient Greece who poses as a man to become a doctor in Alexandria.

[Der Trihs]

I remember a short story set in a world were reincarnation is a known fact; the government is seeking to capture and suppress the existence of the reincarnation of Jesus Christ; "The bad news is, she's black".

[dotchan]

The Starlights from anime version of SailorStars is rather ambiguous in gender. IIRC, they're women (or genderless), and then they take the bodies of (rather androgynous) men, and change again into women when they transform.

I also seem to remember that Naoko Takeuchi (Sailor Moon's mangaka) was not entirely happy about this change, since she wanted it so that only women could be Sailorsenshi.

[priapus]

Myra Brekenridge( by Gore Vidal) changes to Myron."Where are my breasts? Where are my breasts?"

[Otto]

Originally Posted by priapus

Myra Brekenridge( by Gore Vidal) changes to Myron."Where are my breasts? Where are my breasts?"

And then back into Myra for the sequel, Myron.

Starhawk of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is another of the "merged lovers" type of sex change.

[MovieMogul]

Wasn't there a recurring MTF transexual on Ally McBeal?