Gender-coding

Synonyms:	female-coded, male-coded, feminine-coded, masculine-coded,
See also:	Coded, Queer-coding, Neurodivergent-coded, Race-coding, Family-coded
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Gender-coding is the process of assigning traits or behaviours to certain genders. While there have been discussions in more recent years of coding outside of the gender binary, many references to gender-coding are specifically referring to the genders of male and female.

The concept of gender-coding appears in business and workplace discussions and academia, such as in research and analysis about how certain gender-coded words or phrases are utilised in job adverts to encourage or discourage applicants from certain genders. Sales, too, often discusses gender-coding, such as in how certain things are marketed. Research into gender-coding in media analysis which shares similarities with queer-coding also exists, such as research into children's television shows where characters may be inanimate objects or animals, where gender-coding is more prevalent. It differs from queer-coding in some ways, though; a key one being that the coding is rarely being done to circumvent any barriers, censorship, or controversy.

In fan spaces, discussions around gender-coding can be a mix of elements of the gender-coding seen in business and academia, and elements of the concept as per the media analysis akin to queer-coding. Canonically male characters being discussed as being female-coded or feminine-coded tend to be the more common types of discussions, with discussions of female characters being discussed as male-coded and discussions of gender-coding overlapping with trans-coding or non-binary coding being less common.

Use in fandom

Discussions about gender-coding in fandom seem to more commonly discuss male characters being female-coded than any other variation. Views on the concept of gender-coding as used in fandom are mixed. Some fans feel that the concepts rely on and therefore reinforce the stereotypes and biases society associates with different genders. For example, when male characters who are sensitive or affectionate or female characters who are hard and assertive are being discussed as coded for the opposite gender, the coding analysis only works if the stereotypes, which can be harmful, are accepted as true.

Other fans see more merit in discussions as the stereotypes and biases of society underpin so much information people take on, that many people will have unconscious biases that lead them to perceiving the coding in the intended way. For example, when robot characters are coded as male or female, many people pick up on the intentional coding.

Coded means a character is not explicitly stated as belonging to a group, but is implied to.

For instance, queer coding was - and in some cases still is - used because openly depicting a queer character might lead to legal or social backlash. So they add implications and signals.

Another case is with robots, AIs or entities which don't have a human gender or race, but is still presented in a way that suggests they belong to one of those.

Like JARVIS and FRIDAY in MCU fandom - both are AIs with no physical base for gender and wouldn't have the same concept of gender as a human. But one is coded as male and the other as female.

RavensQueen502 

Characters often applied to

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Criticisms and Controversy

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Examples of meta and discussions

• Tony Stark as the most female-coded superhero
• Comment chain under 'Coded' anything has gone too far post at r/FanFiction, discussing female-coding and the MCU, ^{Archived version}
• hey you keep calling anakin 'female-coded'? what does that mean? padawanlost Tumblr post replying to an anon, ^{Archived version}
• 'To Offer another perspective on “male”/“female” coding', post and discussion at r/Choices, ^{Archived version}

Further Reading

• 'Looking from the Outside In – Gender Representation in Animation', Tansy Gardam, FourThreeFilm, 3 September 2015, ^{Archived version}
• 'The Effeminacy Double Bind (Transfem Coding In Fiction)', May Peterson, 15 November 2019, ^{Archived version} - How trans-coding and gender-coding can both play a role in transmisogynistic portrayals of trans women in media.