List of crossdressing characters in animated series


This is a characters who cross-dress, whether LGBTQ+ or not, in animated series. This includes some characters listed on the list of animated series with LGBTQ characters page, drag queens, drag kings, tomboys, and others who cross-dress.
Crossdressing generally runs counter to established gender norms and can be seen as a form of transgender behavior but it doesn't always indicate such an identity, even though popular media often "lump crossdressing and homosexuality together." There is also the phenomenon of "situational crossdressing" where heterosexual characters crossdress as a plot device or "other non-gender-expressive reasons," especially superheroes and supervillains.
The names are organized alphabetically by surname, or by single name if the character does not have a surname. If more than two characters are in one entry, the last name of the first character is used.

History

Harry Benshoff and Sean Griffin write that animation has always "hint at the performative nature of gender" such as when Bugs Bunny puts on a wig and a dress, he is a rabbit in drag as a human male who is in drag as a female. This was proceeded by cross-dressing in motion pictures began in the early days of the silent films. For instance, Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel occasionally dressed as women in their films. Even the beefy American actor Wallace Beery appeared in a series of silent films as a Swedish woman. The Three Stooges, especially Curly, sometimes appeared in drag in their short films. The tradition has continued for many years, usually played for laughs. Only in recent decades have there been dramatic films in which cross-dressing was included, possibly because of strict censorship of American films until the mid-1960s.

Drag queens and drag kings

LGBTQ+ crossdressers

Heterosexual crossdressers

Citations