Patamon: Male or female?

[Princess Norika]

....why is Patamon refered to as "Pot Roast"?

[UnknownH]

cause he's a flying pig

[Wisemon]

cause he's a flying pig

Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think pot roast is beef, not pork.

[UnknownH]

yeah it is maybe it's the shape then

[Grappleomon Katou]

He looks nothing like a pig...

[Red Mage Dragon Tiamat]

Meh, I am not a big Patamon-fan but I think it is unfair to call him flying pig or anything else.

Why can't the people not show more tolerance?

Let Patamon be Patamon and Veemon be Veemon. Nuff said.

[Princess Norika]

...maybe he's a Moogle from Final Fantasy who got painted orange, got his head pom-pom cutoff and doesn't say "Kupo!" like a normal Moogle.

[UnknownH]

he may not be a pig but davis isn't as stupid as he is in the dub but that's how it is to everyone so we can't do much about then I guess

[Nate Hunter]

Before I start, I'd like to note that I am using "he" throughout this message as both a masculine pronoun AND as a neutral pronoun with no weight of gender identity. Ages of use have rendered the word "He" into a valid "neuter" pronoun, and so I am not in contradiction to the language I use when I do this.

-Other digimon 'change' gender during evolution

Name one Digimon, that has changed gender during evolution DURING THE SERIES. Do not only cite the videogames and cards, because that potential does not make them absolute fact.

-I dont even use voice defense really, but Pata always acts in a decidedly feminine manner. Being submissive, etc

Children also tend to act in that way, are you saying that pre-schoolers are all girls because of it? Patamon is more "passive" than "submissive" during S1, while during S2 Patamon is anything but "passive" or "submissive".

-I'm fairly certain it's voiced by a female...

Well yes, but: So was S1 TK, are you going to say that S1 TK is a female? For that matter, so was Taichi in the original version, Terriermon in the US Dub, and Tomoki "Tommy" Himi in both the US and Japanese versions. Having a voice actress rather than a voice actor does not affect the gender of the character. Also, this sounds like a "voice defense" argument.

-No one knows Pata's gender, because it never really comes up. Especially in the first series, everyone would just assume Pata is male, cause all digimon match their partner gender. But we see later this isn't always true.

No, it does come up quite clearly in episode 8. If Patamon were a female, "she" would not have gone with Takeru to the boys side of the baths in the illusionary mansion, but "she" would have gone to the girls side. Patamon did not do this, AND Gomamon paid the price for sneaking to the girls side. I really expect that there was enough thought put into animating that sequence as a way of indicating that not only are there gender difference among Digimon, but also of defining the gender of each of the Chosen Digimon.

-In English episodes at least, Pata could be a different gender then other languages. I believe Renamon is male in Germany, now THATS weird.

If, somewhere in the US dub, you can find a specific line that defines Patamon as a female or a unique pattern of behavior that indicates Patamon to be a female, then we have a basis for this argument. Then again, they made quite certain to match Tailmon's gender to her partner (they were going to dub her as a he until they learned that she was Hikari's partner).

In addition, the original AND the dub both have (admittedly light) romantic indications between Patamon and Tailmon, and a clear romantic rivalry between Patamon and Veemon. This sort of screams "defined gender" and strongly indicates that Patamon is a male.

Besides, it's much more fitting to draw and write Pata as female. Much much easier! It just fits.

Except that all of the evidence is clearly against it.

1) A Voice Actor defense is as weak as a Voice defense, because some males are high talkers (castration and imbalanced hormones can cause this; a vasectomy is not quite so pronounced but has a similar effect because it slightly lowers the testoserone levels), and very few children have low-pitched voices.

2) Patamon's line of evolution indicates that Takeru's partner Patamon IS A MALE. Pegasus was a MALE horse (the Greeks did not shy from that aspect of life), and the forms he evolves into -- Angemon, Holy Angemon, and Seraphimon -- are all quite decidedly male. Because the show has NOT YET shown us a gender changing Digimon, this indicates that Patamon is indeed a male.

3) Indications of romantic rivalry with V-mon, romantic interest in Tailmon, and of masculine gender are all presented throughout seasons one and two, most notably the "bath scene" in episode 1-08 in which Gomamon was kicked out of the girls side (which defined Palmon and Piyomon as females as clearly as it defined the others as males).

4) As you yourself pointed out, in S1 all the digimon matched their partner's gender, meaning that Patamon is a male. If he isn't a male, then "she" is a lesbian, and so, quite probably, is Tailmon.

I would like to take a moment to declare this horse "dead and beaten" -- though I do not expect that doing so will prevent further beating of it.

As a very belated postscript, I'd like to answer everyone who thinks the cards prove anything: The actual script says "This Digimon cannot be sent to the dark area unless replaced by another Level 3 (Rookie/Child) Digimon." They do not use "kare" or "kano" (him/her), but rather "kono" (this). The cards actually foster a lack of gender, regardless of how Megchan translated them for her Encyclopedia.

[Nate Hunter]

He looks nothing like a pig...

He looks enough like a pig that Takeru expected his evolutions to be something like "Porkymon" and "Hogmon" (Episode 1-12). Honestly, he doesn't look like a pig, but he does look vaguely like a Guinea Pig. With floppy bat-wing ears.