People Are Pointing Up 14 Examples Of How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters.

Female Animal Characters

What’s the difference between a boy and a girl in a cartoon if the figure is an animal? Also, is it important to say for sure what gender the character is? The people in charge of the most popular cartoons seem to think it’s important, but the way female animal characters are portrayed in cartoons is giving some people a very bad headache.

A few years ago, famous news and entertainment websites even had articles with lists of female cartoon characters that “sparked” someone’s “sexual awakening.” When talking about Jessica Rabbit, one person wrote, “I feel like I’m not the only one who would have this as their cartoon crush.”


People seem to be split into two groups when it comes to this question. One group is tired of “sexy” cartoon characters, while the other group doesn’t see anything wrong with them. One person wrote on Twitter, “I just keep in mind that it’s all made up and I shouldn’t take it as a nature show.” There was nothing wrong with that, but when other Twitter users started sharing pictures of cartoon animals being sexualized, it became clear that there was a pattern.

Recently, one Twitter user pointed out a weird pattern they noticed while watching animated movies

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

Image credits: slimyhipster

The user argued that anthropomorphized characters that are female are given exaggerated features

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

Image credits: slimyhipster

A Twitter user named slimyhipster posted a drawing of a character’s male and female designs with the caption, “I’ve been watching more animated films lately, and I go [wild] every time the animal designs are like this.” “Like, okay, there’s always been criticism of fantasy species, and the females always look like recolored human women while the males look like actual cool monster designs,” the person continues. “But this isn’t how male and female animals are different in real life. You can argue about “stylistic choice” all you want, but when the only constant design feature for animated female creatures is boobs and eyelashes, we have a problem.”

Soon enough, other users on the platform were quick to share the examples they witnessed themselves

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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Most of the cases involved a heavily sexualized female character

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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Someone mentioned “the sexy lady goose” from the 2004 movie “Balto III: Wings of Change

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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And characters from the 2020 anime “Seton Academy: Join the Pack!”

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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But one of the most disturbing cases was the duck from Marvel’s 1986 movie “Howard the Duck”

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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Someone posted two deer from Open Season (2006) as a side-by-side comparison

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

One user mentioned the female characters in “Ice Age” (2002-2016) as well

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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Also, Angelina Jolie’s character in “Shark Tale” (2004)

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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And many others

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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Surprisingly, there had already been some research on the subject. Katia Perea, who has a Ph.D. in sociology, says in her paper, “Disney’s pedagogy and gender coding set the stage for the princess master narrative that has become associated with animated women: young, thin, demure, attractive, orphaned heroines and their cute animal friends who wait passively for rescue from an unknown prince.”

“This picture fits into Disney’s “female triptych” of the princess, the witch, and the fairy godmother. It reinforced heteronormative gender coding in the form of the princess, the witch, and the fairy godmother. To compete with the huge popularity of Disney’s style of being sweet and cute, Warner Bros. artists turned their cartoons into a cacophony of weirdness. “Disney’s young women were shown as sensible and beautiful damsels, but Warner Bros.’s were shown as sexualized broads and dames,” she added.

“These female characters’ genders were made clear by sexualized traits like breasts and curves, as well as by their clothes, haircuts, and long eyelashes.” Even though Warner Bros. women are more sassy and overtly sexual than Disney women, the message is still the same: women exist to make men want them. “Disney’s damsels, like Snow White and Cinderella, reinforced domestic gender roles, while Warner Bros.’ sarcastic and sexy dames, like Petunia Pig or Bugs Bunny in lingerie drag, reinforced women’s objectification and, at times, violence against women, like the girl cat being chased by the boy skunk Pepe Le Pew,” Katia writes in her 2018 paper.

However, there were some who didn’t have a problem with the animated design of females

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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There were people who argued that it’s better when the female is “prettier and more colorful”

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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To illustrate the point that it’s not essential to give exaggerated features to female characters, Twitter users shared good examples seen in cartoons

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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Someone mentioned an animated movie from the 1970s, “The Aristocats

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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And the fish parents from Finding Dory (2016)

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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Kitty Softpaws’ character in “Puss in Boots” (2011)

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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And two people shared Kung Fu Panda (2008) as a great example of anthropomorphized designs

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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Naturally, huge discussions like these sooner or later always retreat to jokes

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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Which were quite spot on, actually

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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And were mocking big studio execs

People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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People Are Pointing Out How Animators Exaggerate Female Animal Characters And Give 14 Examples

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