Dronkey's gender

[A51 Trooper]

This is something that I've not heard being discussed before. After studying the ending scene in Shrek 2 were Dragon arrives with the Dronkeys, I noticed a brightly colored red one just like the one in SSS. After seeing the scene in Shrek the Third were the princesses storm the castle while Puss and Donkey rescues the Dronkeys from the Zoo, the red one is nowhere to be seen. Their names are, according to the Shrek Wikia, Debbie, Coco, Bananas, Peanut, Parfait and Eclair. The article mentions that Eclair has been missing since Shrek the Third. 

I think the community may want to come up with an answer on what gender we need to refer Dronkey as. Either that or always refer to Dronkey as an it. This was brought up by Rubbermaid, who needed someone to correct the gender of the playable Dronkey, when he was editing the character's page.

[m0th64]

Can we just just use "they" and consider Dronkey genderless? Who says dronkeys even have gender lmao

[that guy who's absolutely pissed off]

Dec 22, 2015 19:43:44 GMT m0th64 said:

Can we just just use "they" and consider Dronkey genderless? Who says dronkeys even have gender lmao

They are the offspring of gendered parents. In all likelihood they're gendered but sterile, like mules, but who knows what's going on in Shrek world.

Could someone do some comparison pictures? A comment on the Shrek Wiki says there's a bonus scene that suggests Eclair was eaten by Dragon.

[Deleted]

This is our dronkey:



This is eclair:

[Deleted]

Eclair and other dronkey have been missing since Shrek 3, that other dronkey is red and is our dronkey, it's Debbie or Parfait

I believe it's debbie, since she was named after dragon's mother and she has red fur, so she resembles dragons more.

[m0th64]

Idk, I guess I just think it's presumptuous (and maybe even sexist/transphobic) to try to impose a gender on a character when we don't even have a name for them. If we absolutely have to gender the Dronkey though, they're voiced by Tara Strong, who is a cis woman, so it would follow that Dronkey is likely a girl as well. 

[Deleted]

Dec 23, 2015 2:59:52 GMT m0th64 said:

Idk, I guess I just think it's presumptuous (and maybe even sexist/transphobic) to try to impose a gender on a character when we don't even have a name for them. If we absolutely have to gender the Dronkey though, they're voiced by Tara Strong, who is a cis woman, so it would follow that Dronkey is likely a girl as well. 

Dude you are going too far.

Tara strong voices male characters too, we aren't imposing shit, there's only 6 dronkeys, and one of them is red, we know there is a missing dronkey that's named debbie after dragon's mother, which is probably red and that's why she got the name.

How can you think trying to figure out what the name of a character is in a videogame is something sexist?

[m0th64]

Dec 23, 2015 3:07:42 GMT @eirexe said:

Dec 23, 2015 2:59:52 GMT m0th64 said:

Idk, I guess I just think it's presumptuous (and maybe even sexist/transphobic) to try to impose a gender on a character when we don't even have a name for them. If we absolutely have to gender the Dronkey though, they're voiced by Tara Strong, who is a cis woman, so it would follow that Dronkey is likely a girl as well. 

Dude you are going too far.

Tara strong voices male characters too, we aren't imposing shit, there's only 6 dronkeys, and one of them is red, we know there is a missing dronkey that's named debbie after dragon's mother, which is probably red and that's why she got the name.

How can you think trying to figure out what the name of a character is in a videogame is something sexist?

Because there's literally nothing in the game that even hints at Dronkey being a gendered character. Like, there's no basis to argue either way and there's no reason at all that the character's gender matters. For all we know, all of the Dronkey skins could represent totally different characters, and they likely do, considering two of them don't even vaguely resemble any of the Dronkeys shown in the movies. Plus, the name of the character is just "Dronkey" so it's probably just a fill-in for the entire species as a whole. Why can't we just list the character as androgynous or unspecified and let people relate to it how they want? 

[m0th64]

Like I know our community likes to joke around a lot and I always try to keep politics and social justicy stuff out of my gaming, I was even willing to put up with a Slammer taking the tag "wolf tr*nny" on here despite the use of a transphobic slur. That said, I also want this community to feel welcoming to everyone, including gender-nonconforming people, one of whom happens to be in my own gaming crew, and frankly it made us really uncomfortable seeing people try to gender a character that doesn't even have a name or any gendered characteristics. It's kind of not cool. I'm gonna leave this thread before I go into total buzzkill mode, but I just felt like I had to say something on their behalf. 

[Deleted]

Dec 23, 2015 3:31:26 GMT m0th64 said:

Like I know our community likes to joke around a lot and I always try to keep politics and social justicy stuff out of my gaming, I was even willing to put up with a Slammer taking the tag "wolf tr*nny" on here despite the use of a transphobic slur. That said, I also want this community to feel welcoming to everyone, including gender-nonconforming people, one of whom happens to be in my own gaming crew, and frankly it made us really uncomfortable seeing people try to gender a character that doesn't even have a name or any gendered characteristics. It's kind of not cool. I'm gonna leave this thread before I go into total buzzkill mode, but I just felt like I had to say something on their behalf. 

I hope this is a joke.

We are discussing the gender of a fictional character, not wether or not people are going to get offended because we call a character in a different way.

That's like saying calling melee jigglypuff a she is wrong, it's not, stop being offended for everything.

[that guy who's absolutely pissed off]

It's not sexist or transphobic to try to work out which particular Dronkey the Dronkey in our game is. If you think the Dronkey represents all Dronkeys and you want to imagine the particular one you're playing is whatever gender you wish then do so, we can't stop you. The voice actress argument is bull since female voice actors will often voice male characters and vice versa. (Even the cis ones)

As for nothing hinting Dronkey is a gendered character, really? We're to assume that any character where their gender isn't categorically specified is, what? Monogendered? Transgendered? Gender fluid? Or are we just not supposed to talk about it because reasons?

The idea that the community becomes non-welcoming to gender-nonconforming people because we wanted to investigate what boils down to a piece of trivia about a character is preposterous.

If you want Dronkey to be a monogendered species in your headcanon then go for it. Want to consider Black Knight to be female? Go for it. Cyclops is trans? Go for it. Do want you want but don't imply that this is a transphobic community because some members considered that the in-game Dronkey might be female.

[Boasting Toast]

I think the idea that using factual evidence to find a fictional character's sex is sexist or inconsiderate towards any party is asinine. Finding a character's gender so we know to call it a he/she is not transphobic or sexist in any way, and I have no clue where you got that idea.

[m0th64]

My issue isn't that, my issue is that so far you guys haven't presented any "factual evidence" at all. The only argument you've made is that Dronkey's default fur is red and brown, therefore it's a girl. Nevermind that all of the Dronkeys have red and brown fun to begin with. It's a dumb and unnecessary argument for us to be having. Call it whatever you want, I really don't care, but acting like this character has to have an "official" gender for some reason, even it means fabricating arguments from unrelated information, is just weird and uncomfortable. Just leave the space on the wiki blank since clearly no one knows. 

[A51 Trooper]

My suggestion is that we should refer to Dronkey as an 'it'. Unless someone can come up with a better reason/answer. 

[Rubbermaid]

I agree with m0th64 /A51 Trooper on this, at least mostly. Whilst it has been a pretty interesting endeavour trying to identify the gender of our Dronkey, we really have nothing concrete to go on at all, and it's not like using "it" is particularly difficult or liberty-destroying. It would be nice for this "drama" not to have to make it into The Slam Bros.