My kids are watching “Back at Barnyard” right now. I find it irritating to the point of distraction that the male cows have udders. Not only that but they don’t have horns. I believe the show has also sometimes shown normal (udderless) bulls. For some reason the show appears to have created a third sex of “male” heifers with udders. Even my 8-year-old knows this is inane and has commented on it.
My question is why is this show doing this? Are they actually just that stupid that they think male cows have udders? Has no one, at any point in the production of either the movie or the TV show ever pointed this out to the animators? Have they ever been asked about this? It drives me nuts when my kids have the show on.
Not all bulls have horns. Many (female) cows do. It is a common misconception that horns are a male trait.
But yeah, the udders on the bulls are an annoying error. Barnyard also featured that mistake. (Is Back at the Barnyard related? A spin-off or something?)
Maybe it’s a censorship thing. If the bulls are not castrated, they should have giant scrotums there instead. Also, these would be difficult to animate during running scenes.
I’m sure there are several bovine programs, being broadcast on the secret TVs they have in barns, which give large mammaries to human males.
And, as has been pointed out, horns are not gender specific in cattle although a bull’s horns are generally going to be longer and thicker than a cow’s. Some breeds have them, some are born hornless (polled). Many horned cattle are dehorned by the farmer.
It’s acknowledgement of the bovine transgendered. These were bulls who felt trapped in a cow’s body, or vice-versa. The ones you saw were probably halfway through their gender reassignment.
That movie really annoyed me. Fortunately we saw it on DVD so I didn’t offend other theater goers with my constant exclamations that male cattle do not have udders.
You don’t think this makes us…well…fanbois? I mean, it’s one thing if you’re debating the pass code on Kirk’s safe in episode 115, that’s standard geek fare. It’s quite another to go on and on, emotionally, about Bovine Udder dysmorphic syndrome in a spin-off cartoon from a minor movie.
Is this one of the rare occasions where the female of a species is the “norm”? The female is cow or heifer. A male cow/cattle/kine/bovine is called a bull, anyway. Unless he is a castrated bull, then he is a steer.
Like “goose” - the female goose is a goose, the male is a gander. Barnyard critters, maybe that’s why. But let’s see: goat is not gender specific, a female goat is a doe or nanny, the male a buck or billy; the female duck is a hen and the male is a drake; the female horse is a mare or filly, the male a stallion or colt unless he’s castrated, then he’s a gelding ; the dog - the female dog is a bitch, the male dog is a dog; the cat - the female cat is a queen, the male is a tom. Sheep - the female is a ewe, the male a ram, unless he’s been castrated in which case he’s a wether. Chicken or fowl - the female is a hen, the male a cock or rooster, unless he’s castrated in which case he’s a capon. But if someone says “chicken”, they usually mean female, don’t they?
I was about to proclaim some universal rule and have proven myself wrong so that’s that. :smack:
According to several sources, one of which cites Nick magazine (October, 2006), the director of “Barnyard” thought that bulls and steers with udders would be funny. The inconsistency with which udders appear is said to have resulted from a mid-production change in plans, but there’s no cite for this.
Grimly, Merriam-Webster’s agrees with you. As I cannot let this illogic stand, I am hereby renouncing my renouncing of my ambitions for world conquest. Third on my agenda after the conquest will be making referring to “male cows” punishable by death.
Now if you’ll excuse me I have an army of undead cyborg winged venomous flame-spitting howler monkeys to raise.