(PCM) There has been a strong debate brewing online as to whether famous cartoon cat “Garfield” is a boy or a girl. We have always just assumed that Garfield was a boy cat given the voice from the cartoon series and the way in which the character came across on the big screen, but it appears we could be wrong!
In fact, the debate over Garfield’s gender became so heated that the characters Wikipedia page had to be placed on lock down mode, as for the past 60 hours or so there was an page editing battle going on where Garfield’s gender was changed back and forth between “male” and “none”. For the looks of things the page has now settled the debate on “none”, however Garfield can’t really be a genderless cat, right?
FACT: Garfield has no gender. This. Is. Canon. pic.twitter.com/umm4OmeeVx
— Virgil Texas (@virgiltexas) February 24, 2017
The debate began after a Twitter user by the name of Virgil Texas discovered an old interview with Garfield creator Jim Davis in the publication Mental Floss where he said, “Dealing with eating and sleeping, being a cat, Garfield is very universal. By virtue of being a cat, really, he’s not really male or female or any particular race or nationality, young or old.”
The debate continued to progress, so far, that even the Washington Post decided it was time to get to the bottom of everything once and for all and they launched an investigation. After finally once again speaking with creator Jim Davis, who should have the final say on the subject, (but hey, you know the internet) Davis has confirmed that Garfield is indeed a male cat and has a girlfriend cat named Arlene.
Despite the confirmation from Davis the internet still does not appear convinced and Garfield’s Wikipedia page still has the cat’s gender listed as “none”! Fans dug through tons of old Garfield comic strips citing numerous occasions over the characters four decade existence where Garfield and his owner Jon consistently used male pronouns when referencing the Garfield character. Of course there is always a counterpoint, as other people are claiming that the use of the male pronouns were only used once in self-identification therefor leaving the debate over Garfield’s gender still open.
This debate over a cartoon character’s gender is vaguely reminiscent to the debate that occurred a few years back as to whether or not Hello Kitty was actually a cat or a little girl. You can read more about that debacle here!
There you have it folks! People on the internet will fight over anything and everything even it happens to be a gender fluid cartoon cat! Time for you to weigh in! Do you think that Garfield is a male or female character?