# Anthropomorphized animals in comic strips: why all male?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 16, 2015, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684 "2015-11-16T11:25:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2015, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/1 "2015-11-16T11:25:06Z")
Something I noticed a while back is that all the main anthropomorphized animals in comic strips are male. Comic strips from newspapers, that is. I’m sure there’s some webcomics that have female main characters. Note I said “main characters”. There’s often a female or two in strips with main males, but they’re always minor.
OK, I’m sure there are exceptions. There may even be one in a new strip in the local paper. It’s called Phoebe and her Unicorn. The unicorn is named Marigold Heavenly Nostrils and so far it’s been impossible to tell their gender. It hasn’t made any difference to the comic, so far anyway.
Anyway, think about it: Snoopy, Heathcliff, Marmaduke, Opus, Garfield and Odie. the two animals from “Get Fuzzy”, the three from “Over the Hedge”, Pogo, Grim and his friends from “Mother Goose and Grim” (Mother Goose is actually a minor character, despite being in the strip title), Pig and Rat from “Pearls Before Swine”, Earl and Mooch from “Muts” – all male. And I’m sure there’s a whole bunch more that I can’t think of off-hand.
So the question is: Why? Why are anthropomorphized animals so overwhelmingly male?
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2015, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/2 "2015-11-16T11:35:38Z")
I would think the overwhelming maleness of _cartoonists_ would play into things.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2015, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/3 "2015-11-16T11:55:19Z")
I think it’s that. If you look at comic strips in general, with the notable exception of Blondie and a few story strips (Apartment 3G, Mary Worth, and so on), most comic book characters are male. Sure, Hagar the Horrible has Hagar’s wife and daughter, but Hagar is the protagonist, not his wife and daughter.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2015, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/4 "2015-11-16T12:42:33Z")
Plus, the few comics I can think of that were made by women seem want to be about the lives of real women and the humor in everyday life. But there are enough men in comics that comics about normal men are already taken, so they get more creative.
Plus there’s just that general rule that women can connect with both men and women, but men connect better with men. It’s less true now than it used to be, but remember that the newspaper comic audience is typically more conservative–they like things the way they used to be.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/5 "2015-11-16T13:50:25Z")
Same reason [anthropomorphized animals in animated cartoons are typically male](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=311368)?
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2015, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/6 "2015-11-16T14:24:57Z")
Krazy Kat (probably\*).
\*Krazy was always referred to as “he,” but everyone thinks Krazy is female. George Herriman has said he/she was willing to be either.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2015, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/7 "2015-11-16T15:44:05Z")
> [@](#):
>
> …Earl and Mooch from “Muts” – all male.
I’ve never seen any indication that Mooch was male or female. And of course all the pet animals (as opposed to the wild ones like Crabby) are presumably neutered.
And while comic-strip humans are also biased male, the bias doesn’t seem nearly so great as with the animals: Sally Forth and The Pajama Diaries focus mostly on the female characters, Jump Start seems to be split about equally between Joe and Marcy, Dagwood gets more screen time but the strip is still named after Blondie, the female recurring characters in Non Sequitur seem to get more time than the males… But I can’t think of any comic-strip animal that’s definitely female, other than love interests for the male animals.
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### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2015, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/8 "2015-11-16T16:00:57Z")
> [@dtilque](#):
>
> Something I noticed a while back is that all the main anthropomorphized animals in comic strips are male.
Are you sure you’re not suffering from selection bias? Check out Kevin & Kell, for instance, or [Accidental Centaurs](http://www.accidentalcentaurs.com/).
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2015, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/9 "2015-11-16T16:08:55Z")
There are female characters in most of the strips the OP mentions, usually as quasi-love interests for the male characters.
Pogo had Miz Ma’m’selle Hepzibah and Miz Beaver along with Mrs. Rackety Coon and Miss Sis Boombah.
Heathcliff has a female cat that sits on the fence with him.
Pearls Before Swine has Pigita and Patty Crocodile.
In Peanuts, a girl Freida had a girl cat Faron.
Comic strips work like comic books and tv shows and video games and entertainment of every kind. Until extremely recently women were underrepresented, mimimized, stereotyped as mothers or love interests or helpless beings to be saved, and generally not depicted as equally human. I’ve been reading a lot of 40s mysteries because I’m collecting old paperbacks. Even in books where there is an approximately equal mix of characters the men, even the minor characters, are people, distinct and different, while the women are types, cardboard cutouts to mouth dialog.
That’s why women have been screaming so loudly in recent years that they need to see realistic role models in popular culture. Men take for granted that the complex powerful world will be mirrored in entertainment with male heroes. Women and other minorities could never hope to get more than crumbs. It’s way past time that changed.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2015, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/10 "2015-11-16T16:15:13Z")
> [@Quartz](#):
>
> Are you sure you’re not suffering from selection bias? Check out Kevin & Kell, for instance, or [Accidental Centaurs](http://www.accidentalcentaurs.com/).
Are either of those _newspaper_ strips. Like the OP specifies. In the sentence immediately after the one you quoted.
[QUOTE=The OP]
Something I noticed a while back is that all the main anthropomorphized animals in comic strips are male. **Comic strips from newspapers, that is.** I’m sure there’s some webcomics that have female main characters.
[/QUOTE]
ETA: Huh, I see K&K is published in one newspaper. I’d still call it a webcomic, though.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2015, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/11 "2015-11-16T16:25:25Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> I’ve been reading a lot of 40s mysteries because I’m collecting old paperbacks. Even in books where there is an approximately equal mix of characters the men, even the minor characters, are people, distinct and different, while the women are types, cardboard cutouts to mouth dialog.
Are the books you have in mind all written by men, or were some of them written by women?
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### Author:  [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2015, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/12 "2015-11-16T16:31:16Z")
Men like other men unless they are raging assholes (and even that is up for grabs sometimes).
Women like men for the most part (see above).
Women who like women (and IMO even then its often a fake liking) are not so common.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2015, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/13 "2015-11-16T16:31:22Z")
I don’t know, it seems to me there’s a bigger difference between being published in zero papers and being published in one than there is between being published in one and being published in two hundred. The moment you’re published in even one paper, you lose most of the independence that webcomic authors have.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/14 "2015-11-16T16:35:53Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> I don’t know, it seems to me there’s a bigger difference between being published in zero papers and being published in one than there is between being published in one and being published in two hundred. The moment you’re published in even one paper, you lose most of the independence that webcomic authors have.
AFAIK, that one paper is in the author’s hometown and the only change he’s had to make is the format of the Sunday strip so it fits in the available space.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/15 "2015-11-16T16:41:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> I’ve never seen any indication that Mooch was male or female.
From the cartoonist’s[own web site](http://www.mutts.com/meet-the-cast#):
“The tuxedo kitty and Earl’s feline pal, with **his** (emphasis mine) own way of thinking and talking (“Yesh!”), and loves Little Pink Sock.”
Mooch occasionally tries to woo Shnelly, the female cat who has only ever had her ears depicted in the strip.
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### Author:  [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/16 "2015-11-16T17:08:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Dagwood gets more screen time but the strip is still named after Blondie
They actually made an effort to focus the strip on Blondie around 10-15 years ago, when she first set up her catering business. Since then, there has been an emphatic shift back not only to focusing on Dagwood almost exclusively, but to placing a heavy emphasis on the rather tiresome hook of his food obsession.
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### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2015, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/17 "2015-11-18T08:31:31Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> Same reason [anthropomorphized animals in animated cartoons are typically male](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=311368)?
Should have known there was a previous thread on the topic. Someday, we’re going to get to the point where all legitimate questions have been asked at least once.
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> Krazy Kat (probably\*).
>
> \*Krazy was always referred to as “he,” but everyone thinks Krazy is female. George Herriman has said he/she was willing to be either.
Looks like an early ambiguously-gendered character. Unless someone knows about that unicorn I mentioned in the OP, I think we may have another.
> [@Quartz](#):
>
> Are you sure you’re not suffering from selection bias?
I figured there was a distinct possibility I was. The selection would be by the people who run the local papers I’ve read over the years, though.
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> There are female characters in most of the strips the OP mentions, usually as quasi-love interests for the male characters.
Yeah, call them the Women’s Auxiliary.
> [@](#):
>
> Heathcliff has a female cat that sits on the fence with him.
Ditto Garfield (Arlene).
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### Author:  [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2015, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/18 "2015-11-18T15:14:48Z")
Years ago, Berke Breathed [gave an interview](http://www.avclub.com/article/berkeley-breathed-13726) to the AV Club where he addressed (sort of) that very question:
> [@](#):
>
> **O:** You seemed to make a conscious effort to keep Bloom County racially balanced, but you rarely engaged racial issues. By contrast, you discussed gender issues a lot, but seemed to have problems keeping female characters in the strip. Any theories as to why?
>
> **BB:** I did some strips about this … and I want everybody to stop dribbling their mochas down their shirts for one second, while I mention it again: Throughout cartoon history, there aren’t any–repeat, ANY–primary animal cartoon characters that are females. If one was female, she was primarily a girlfriend to the main character. Minnie Mouse. Look at kids’ TV. If there’s a female character in a big furry suit on Barney or Sesame Street, she has long eyelashes and flits and flutters about like some nightmarish caricature from Jerry Falwell’s wet dream. This isn’t a conspiracy. It’s just nearly impossible, and it has something to do with the metaphorical response that a talking-animal character somehow evokes in the reader. Everyone has tried. Interesting human female characters are there, of course–Doonesbury in the thick of it–but the risk is that they become an icon for their “group,” and you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. I just never nailed it, not that I tried hard enough.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2015, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/19 "2015-11-18T15:21:10Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#):
>
> Years ago, Berke Breathed [gave an interview](http://www.avclub.com/article/berkeley-breathed-13726) to the AV Club where he addressed (sort of) that very question:
I see you quoted this very same thing in the earlier thread. 🙂
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2015, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropomorphized-animals-in-comic-strips-why-all-male/737684/20 "2015-11-18T15:25:49Z")
I was going to counter with Megan from Sherman’s Lagoon but then realized that however large she looms in the strip, she is the _only_ female there.
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