performance:gender

Suit gender questions ("are you a boy or girl?")

From: Chilly Mousie
Subject: FL: Rather odd question I've gotten while in costume…

Was at work pondering this last night. Even though I'm kinna short and not busty, my character costume of Rollie makes it sorta ambiguous on whether or not the person inside is male or female. Rollie's character is male (no bits, but character doesn't wear pants).

What I wanted to ask is how do you deal/respond when someone asks if you are a “boy or girl” especially when you can't talk in costume? That goes also for if you happen to have a furless lackey with you also.


From: Thrashwolf
I have had it happened before…so i play it out…i look at my crotch….making a gasping gesture…throw my arms in the air…and my spotter…bless his heart you know who you are explains that im a boy


From: boogi

Was at work pondering this last night. Even though I'm kinna short and not
busty, my character costume of Rollie makes it sorta ambiguous on whether or
not the person in side is male or female. Rollie's character is male (no
bits, but character doesn't wear pants).

A rather comical way to do this would be to kinda pat yourself down all over your chest down to your crotch, then put your arms out and nod your head or bounce your head a little. Not everyone will get the joke.

What I wanted to ask is how do you deal/respond when someone asks if you are
a “boy or girl” especially when you can't talk in costume? That goes also for
if you happen to have a furless lackey with you also.

When I'm in Kattarina, my Ren fem kitty, the transformation is so complete, that no one thinks that there's a guy under all that. I was at a renfest in Maryland. My experiences were fairly similar to Robert King when he wore Samantha. I have a couple other minor changes to her to complete the look a little better. One is furry legs, so all I gotta do is hike up the dress to climb the rock wall if they have it. [chuckles]


From: boogi
Chilly wrote;

I donno about patting the crotch. That seems a little strange to do.
Especially around adults. The thing is that the costume's character's
male and I'm female. *shrugs*

[chuckles] You don't have to pat it. Just 'pat' yourself down to there, without patting that area, then look down, and maybe cover it up. Thrash had a good method, though quite comical. Back at FC01, a few fursuiters had a 'tail line,' and someone pulled down Yippee's shorts, and he crossed his knees and legs and covered himself up with his paws. Everyone's got their own way of doing this.


From: Buster Bunny
You also have to be extreamly careful how you deal with such a question as your own gestures can be looked down on by clients who hire you to come to their establishment.

Best thing to do is to do the head nods and leave it be, move on to something else to entertain people.

Some examples of behavior that go bad are, I was recently asked this at a halloween event in Reynoldsburg (Ohio). My character was jumped on from behind by a group of out of control teens. As soon as I was jumped on I did defend myself. But this is some reasons why you should walk away from that question when asked. Evaluate your source before you react. You could be heading into a serious problem you cannot control.

What I wanted to ask is how do you deal/respond when someone asks if you are
a “boy or girl” especially when you can't talk in costume? That goes also for
if you happen to have a furless lackey with you also.

Well seeing how I play a few female characters, The best way is to grab something on your costume like your ears or pointing to something that Identifies male/female. When you hear the right answer nod or shake your head to them. Don't pay too much time to them as a question like that can lead to other things such as unwanted behavior on the part of the public. I really attempt to avoid that question when asked, Yet I will address it to maintain the integrity of the character's personality.


From: Yippee Coyote
Subject: FL: the Pee-Pee dance (and miming gender)

Chilly wrote:

What I wanted to ask is how do you deal/respond when someone asks if
you are a “boy or girl” especially when you can't talk in costume?

It's like any A-or-B question I get. You can either try showing one or two fingers or be coy and nod “yes” so they realize you can't really answer multiple choice.

Another way is just some vague signals I'd found that work. They're kinda gender-stereotyping, but they seem to work. For a boy, make a body-builder type pose (almost to say “I'm Strong”) or for a girl, hold your paws together next to your head and tilt your head to the side, (like miming as if to say “Aww, sweet”).

Be careful of people who grope you to test the truth of your gender declaration. Helps to have a lackey nearby, or just walk away with your hands up as if to say, “I'm not playing with you anymore.” I'd wondered about an easy way to pantomime that you have to go to the bathroom without pantoming opening an imaginary fly (which can easily be misinterpreted) … but then I thought, why not just an exaggerated pee-pee dance?


From: Trouble
Chilly wrote:

What I wanted to ask is how do you deal/respond when someone asks if
you are a “boy or girl” especially when you can't talk in costume?

Wrists seem to be a good indicator of femininity. When I'm a female character I have flailing or “flaming” as I call them wrists. Very dainty and expressive. Also, swishy hips help accentuate the feminine actions. When we pause, we naturally tend to shift our weight and cock our hips. Also a slight swish to the step helps.

But if someone asks me the boy/girl question I respond a few ways. If I'm a male character, I'll stop and look at them like I can't believe they just asked me that and doubted my masculinity. If a girl asks, i might grab her and smooch her. I also may do some chest pumping or muscle flexing. Do a big pimp walk or the such.

If i'm a female character, i may point to the characaters eyelashes or makeup, start walking swishy, get huffy, or whatever.

It's fun!


From: Ritchey Mulhollem
You can always come down to Houston and go fur suiting with us at the Edwards theater on I10 and Loop 610. I went down there with Harmless the gryphon just before Halloween. BIG mistake! The area there was mostly teenagers. Him and I both received multiple propositions for sex from both male AND female. It was so bad I had to start saying NO! (Yes, I said no to sex!)

Well, one guy offered me his girlfriend.
I said “No thanks”.
He said, “What? You too good for her?”
I said “No, wrong species!”
He said “Oh, sorry.”

AHHH!! I now have a fool proof answer! Right? Ur, um, no not exactly.

I got this one guy who came up and said, “You're cute! Wanna have sex?” I said, “No, sorry, you're the wrong species!” Then he said, “OH! That's ok! I'm into bestiality!”

Geez! Give a poor bird a break already! :<


From:Single Speed Cheetah
I look at my crotch, then look at the person with paws facing up on both sides of my shoulders. In other words I'm saying, 'I don't know' . On the other paw, I have had one kid try to figure out my gender with a more direct physical approach :“>


From: TopFox
Subject: costume sex…
Noticed a few folks talking about people trying to guess, grope costume characters sexuality. Haven't had time to respond to each note, but thought I'd make a few comments.

I've played male and female characters. Guessing whether the person “inside” is male or female is the second most popular game guests play with costumes. (The first is “where do they see from?”)

At Dland the most popular way of guessing a character's sex was patting the chest. Can't count the number of times guys (and sometimes girls) would come up and roughly pat/pound on your chest to see if any breasts were obvious. Other times they'd shake a hand and make a guess. At least on one occasion a guy dropped to his knees in front of me and began squeezing my legs and thighs to “prove” his point.

Sometimes no one knew how sexual they were getting. The Tigger costume is positioned so that the belly sits on a male's crotch. We'd all laugh of times when parents would tell their children to 'rub Tigger's belly' and make him happy. Everyone would watch to see if Tigger developed a 'tumor' in his belly :) Some Tiggers had real trouble keeping *ahem* limp in these situations.


From: Teddy Ruxpin
Subject: Furrys on the streets
[longish report about a parade snipped]
The funniest event was some kid who yelled out 'Are you a boy or a girl?' (Berry bear is 'in the fur' but as for most teddy bears has no gender-specific features.) I yelled back 'I don't know, how do you tell?' which got a few laughs and no reply from the kid.

/home/furryfursuit/faq/data/pages/performance/gender.txt · Last modified: 2011/08/11 12:02 (external edit)

Page Tools