10 Gender Bending Episodes of Animated Shows 205444

Gender-bending plots have proven to be very common in animated shows. This is thanks in part to the trope’s versatility: it can be presented as either the main plot of an episode or a complimentary side plot. Usually, it involves one or more characters switching their physical sex, but it can also cross over with body swap episodes, where male and female characters have their minds exchanged.

One reason why these plots are so popular is that they offer a unique chance to show a different perspective. Along with the obvious insight into the opposite sex, it’s a way to remind audiences of the dangers of making blatant assumptions, especially as the spectrum of gender has become more complicated as time goes on. Note that this list is only covering episodes that feature characters changing physical sex or swapping bodies, so sorry Adventure Time fans, but « Fiona and Cake » isn’t here.

10 « Bend Her » – ‘Futurama’ 71685r

Season 05, Episode 13 (2003) 1g242w

To win gold medals in the Robot Olympics, Bender (John DiMaggio) disguises himself as Coilette from Robonia to compete in the fembot league. However, Bender has Professor Farnsworth (Billy West) turn him into a real fembot to avoid a mandatory oil test that would expose him. Things get more complicated when Bender attracts the interest of famed robot actor, Calculon (Maurice LaMarche), and begins a relationship with him to acquire more wealth.

While a lot of the humor in « Bend Her » hasn’t aged the best, it contains a lot of Futurama’s signature satire and willingness to tackle difficult issues. In many ways, the outdated comments of disgust from Bender’s co-workers can be used as a way to highlight the stupidity in today’s views of trans athletes. Meanwhile, there are still some legitimately funny moments, particularly in the third act, where the Planet Express crew performs a soap opera tragedy to get Bender out of marrying Calculon.

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9 « Stan Goes On the Pill » – ‘American Dad’ 475a3g

Season 01, Episode 14 (2014) 3v1n5

Rather than listen to his wife, Francine (Wendy Schaal), when she talks about her day, CIA Agent Stan Smith (Seth MacFarlane) decides to take an experimental pill designed to allow male agents to listen to female ones. It works, but as a side effect of taking a full pill instead of half, Stan’s body is turned into a woman’s. This attracts the attention of his superior, Deputy Director Avery Bullock (Sir Patrick Stewart), who withholds information about a cure, so he can try to sleep with Stan.

« Stan Goes on the Pill » isn’t one of the strongest episodes of American Dad, but it has its moments. The message about listening to others is a solid one, and the way Stan learns it by trying to get a new fridge for the lounge is a solid payoff. It also has a funny sub-plot involving Roger (Seth MacFarlane) and Clause (Dee Bradly Baker) trying to make a business selling all of Stan’s old suits.

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8 « Girls Behaving Oddly » – ‘The Emperor’s New School’ 4z2661

Season 01, Episode 06 (2006) 5v5u19

After getting an A- in gym, Melina (Jessica DiCicco) finds herself kicked off the cheerleading squad. This causes her to spiral as she questions her identity without cheerleading, pushing her to try to make friends with local cool-girl Moxie (Grey DeLisle). Worried about their friend, and fearing they might get replaced, Kuzco (J.P. Manoux) and Kronk (Patrick Warburton) turn themselves into girls to befriend Moxie, with predictable results.

The gender-bending in this episode of The Emperor’s New School is a side-story to the main tale, but it’s got a lot to offer. It shows the lengths Kuzco and Kronk are willing to go to Melina in her time of need, even if their intentions are a bit selfish. Plus, it compliments the main theme of the episode: that you should be happy with yourself and avoid going to great lengths to be something you’re not.

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7 « Out of the Past » – ‘Batman Beyond’ 5lq6e

Season 03, Episode 05 (2000) 1x2eo

After viewing Batman: The Musical for his birthday with his ward, Terry McGinnis (Will Friedle), Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy) is beginning to feel his age. He is offered a second chance at life by his old lover, Talia al Ghul (Oliva Hussey), who has improved on the youth-giving Lazarus Pits so that they no longer cause insanity. Bruce is at first hesitant to accept the offer, but after his age leads to him and a woman nearly dying to a mugger, he reconsiders.

The ending of the episode reveals that Talia is, in fact, Ra’s al Ghul (David Warner), who possessed his own daughter’s body to stave off death long enough for him to eventually transfer his mind into Bruce’s. It’s a grim, harsh reminder of the sacrifices one must make when trying to cheat death, and helps Bruce come to with his age rather than try to fight or lament about the inevitable. Plus, it follows in the tradition of beautifully twisted body horror episodes from the animated Batman shows, with this one pulling heavily from H.P. Lovecraft’sThe Thing on the Doorstep.

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6 « The Princess Most Fair » – ‘Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero’ 2t1f3i

Season 01, Episode 10A (2015) 612e5w

Part of the job of being a part-time hero is that Penn (Thomas Middleditch) and his friends Sashi (Tania Gunadi) and Boone (Adam DeVine) travel into other dimensions and inhabit native bodies to complete a mission. In « The Princess Most Fair », they travel to a fairy tale land, where everyone, including their villains, Rippen (Alfred Molina) and Larry (Larry Wilmore), inhabit bodies of the opposite sex. What’s more, everyone is forced to sing their truest feelings, which causes tension between the heroes.

Thanks to their experiences jumping into other bodies, the characters don’t react negatively to their current predicament, and the boys seem to enjoy the chance to look good in dresses. The main meat of the episode is about honesty between friends, which is always good for young viewers to learn, as while it can be hard to hurt their feelings, sometimes it’s needed to maintain a healthy camaraderie. The fact that the episode is told entirely in song is also impressive, and it gives the cast a chance to show off their singing voices.

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5 « Operation F.U.T.U.R.E » – ‘Codename: Kid’s Next Door’ 64156a

Season 03, Episode 1 (2004) 372l28

For his bad behavior, Wally Beetles (Dee Bradly Baker) a.k.a. Numbuh 4, is sent to a girls-only boarding school, since he has escaped from all others. There, he learns that it is a front for a girl named Margaret (Candi Milo), who, with the aid of her future self, intends to turn the world’s population into girls. Wally is only barely able to escape, and for the next seventy-five years, leads a resistance against Margaret’s tyranny in a dystopian future.

Codename: Kids Next Door is well known for exaggerating childhood issues, in this case, boys vs girls, to their extreme, while also mixing in fun action and good morals. This episode is no different, as the ultimate message is about equality between the sexes, and is told in a way that doesn’t demonize one sex, but stresses the importance of both being treated fairly. If anything, the episode’s enemy is stereotypes, as Margaret’s plan wasn’t just to make everyone girls, but stereotypically feminine girls with no interest in « boyish » things.

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4 « Oh, Brother » – ‘Dexter’s Laboratory’ 4x1fz

Season 03, Episode 11A (2003) 6863b

Frustrated with Dee Dee (Kathryn Cressida and Allison Moore) once again wrecking his lab, Dexter (Christine Cavanaugh and Candi Milo) decides that life would be better if he had a brother. He creates a machine that re-writes reality so that he has an older brother, named Doo Dee (Pamela Adlon). Unfortunately, he has no interest in helping Dexter with science, being interested in sports, bullying Dexter, and receiving all of their parent’s love and affection.

« Oh, Brother » is an episode that explores the idea that you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, and that things can always be worse than they are now. The flaw in Dexter’s plan was that he believed Dee Dee being a girl was what made her destructive, but Doo Dee has many of Dee Dee’s core personality traits, such as a love for physical activity and disregard for boundaries. It shows audiences that physical sex is only one small part of what makes up one’s personality.

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3 « Witch-ay Woman » – ‘Johnny Bravo’ 2p651d

Season 04, Episode 3B (2004) 6f4bh

Johnny Bravo (Jeff Bennett) stumbles into the abode of Madam Voila (Grey DeLisle), a fortune-teller who is having one of his chauvinistic attempts to woo her. She curses him to live as a woman (Grey DeLisle) until he learns what it’s like to be one. At first, Johnny has fun with the experience but soon comes to loath the constant unwanted advances from strangers.

« Witch-ay Woman » is a memorable episode from one of the most memorable of Cartoon Network’s early cartoons. It offered the writers a chance to give Johnny a taste of his own medicine, and though the show’s style prevented the lesson from sticking to the next episode, it still offered a good moment of retrospection for the character. Plus, De Lisle sounds awesome as female Johnny, especially when her voice contrasts with Bennett’s as Johnny’s inner thoughts.

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2 « Carpet Diem » – ‘Gravity Falls’ 2u4a2w

Season 01, Episode 16 (2013) 694c2h

When a new room is discovered in the Mystery Shack, both Dipper (Jason Ritter) and Mable (Kristen Schaal) want it, since they’re experiencing some sibling conflict. Grunkle Stan (Alex Hirsch) decides that he will give the room to whichever of the twins sucks up to him the most, leading to fierce competition. However, the twins discover that a carpet in the room can switch people’s bodies, which they use to try and sabotage the other’s attempt to claim the room.

« Carpet Diem » might not be one of Gravity Fall’s best episodes, but it’s a very solid, if at times formulaic, body-swap story. There are some good jokes sprinkled throughout, such as Mable being forced to have « the talk » with Grunkle Stan, and watching everything devolve into chaos as more and more people get body swapped. The lesson is also pretty solid, with an emphasis on respecting personal boundaries and a dash of seeing that neither sex has an easier time than the other.

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1 « The Boy Who Would Be Queen » – ‘The Fairy OddParents’ l5857

Season 02, Episode 6B (2001) 1p1w3b

Desperate to attend Trixie Tang’s (Dionne Quan) birthday party, Timmy Turner (Tara Strong) claims that he has an amazing gift to give her. The problem is that he doesn’t know what girls like, and when Timmy and his fairy godfather, Cosmo (Daran Norris), joke about the only way he could is if he was a girl, his godmother, Wanda (Susanne Blakeslee), does just that. However, this proves to be a blessing in disguise, as Timmy, under the persona of Timantha, learns something interesting about Trixie.

Unlike the average episode of The Fairly OddParents, « The Boy Who Would Be Queen » challenges gender stereotypes instead of embracing and enforcing them. It explores the idea that the interests of boys and girls are tied to individuals, not their sex or gender, and that refusing to try something because it’s « a boy/girl thing » is just limiting one’s experiences. It also gave Trixie an amazing level of character growth by showing that she secretly loves male interests like comics and dead frogs, which the show sadly never capitalized on in future episodes.

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NEXT: 10 Best Animated Shows for Parents and Children