The fool - man or woman?

[HappyHippo]

I didn't vote, becasue there wasn't a 'neither' option. I've only read the Farseer books so far, but I get the impression the Fool's androgynous. Maybe hermaphrodite would be more correct, coz androgynous is more 'neither one nor the other', whereas hermaphrodite woudl be 'can work as either'. Possibly ...

[sassy1]

i really can't decide... I (stupidly) read the 3rd trilogy first, then the 1st & 2nd, so until I had read the Liveship Traders I thought the fool was just a really feminine man, but once I'd read the middle ones, I wasnt so sure...

In one way I want to know, to stop the curiosity, but I think, once I knew, it would spoil the whole thing, it would strip the fool of a whole lot of mystery

One bit that made me almost convinced that the fool was a woman was when it was her who taught Althea how to dress like a man.... how would she know if she wasn't a woman dressing as a man?

[the_faery_queen]

there's too much evidence to say he's male.
the fact that the white prophetess woman knew him as a child, when she had him tatooed, and called him male, would imply that she knew what he was.
the fact he covered himself up when revealling the tatoo doesn't say much. the fool was always very tidy, very clean and very priate, i can't imagine he would flash his bits at anyone, male or female. he would always keep himself covered as much as he could.
there were more reasons why i thought he was male, but i can't remember what they are now *shrug* i prefer to think he's male. i prefer the idea of a gay relationship between him and fitz

and perhaps dressing as a girl, when he's a man, would give him an idea of how to pass off being the opposite gender enough to understand how althea could do it in reverse?

[Kania]

i've always thought of the Fool as male. If he wasn't, why wouldnt he try to make a move on Fitz? If he was a girl he would've. And, as said, the White Woman always called him male; they were supposed to be opposites.

I dont know. What ever you reckon. I think hes male. My mum cant stand him though

[the_faery_queen]

being male wouldn't stop him making a move on fitz. the fool never cared about biilogy when it came to sex. i just don't think he was that type of person. but i guess maybe you mean that if he was a girl, he would know that fitz wouldn't say no, so he would make a move

[Seanie]

Originally Posted by Kitera

Anyhow, the Fool is always the Fool and he (or she) will always be one of the most mysterious and best characters that was ever created.

Agreed!!!

I voted "cant decide", although i think of "him" as a "he", i think its meant to be a mystery

[Quokka]

I don't think the Fool was entirely human and likewise I don't think his (I'm not calling the fool it) gender was strictly one or the other.

There's alot of things to hint that the Fool was a man and a woman at different times in the series, in live ship traders didn't the Fool not only show Althea how to dress like a man but how to use material to help hide her breasts? (its been awhile since i read it), I just got the impression then that the Fool was sharing something very personal.

I definately dont think it was an issue for why the Fool didn't act more forceful with Fitz, I think the Fool wanted Fitz to make that decision on whether he wanted more from the relationship before he was certain that the Fool was a man or a woman.

[tawnylyra]

Part of me really wants to know the answer, but the majority of me doesn’t, because like it's been previously stated, that's part of the Fool's mystery.

However, whenever I mention or think of the Fool I call him, well, a him.

I also agree with The Faery Queen, in that I myself prefer the idea of Fitz and the Fool in a gay relationship rather than the Fool being a woman and them having a man/woman relationship. Not that it ever seems to move in that direction, but if it did, that’s what I picture, for whatever reason, I can’t exactly explain it.

I don’t know what he is, I think he’s not human and therefore his “plumbing” is not as simple as ours is perhaps, but I also think it isn’t as important. If I had to pick though, I’d pick male.

[TheBlueFool]

I'm pretty sure the Fool's male, for example in the last part Fitz carried him around dead and it described him as wearing nothing but a piece of dirty sacking and when Fitz went through the stone to where the old market place was, he peeled the sacking away from the Fool. Don't you think he would have noticed if the Fool possessed breasts?
Another indication of the Fool's masculinity was when Fitz and he switched bodies so that Fitz could heal his friend. To do so he had to mend every little bit of the Fool, don't you think he would have noticed-'Hey this guy doesn't have a penis...'? :P
And Amber is described as manly, for example when Malta sees her for the first time she describes her as "flat-chested and narrow hipped" and Brashen notes her features as too sharp to be womanly.
That's just what I can gather from the story anyway.

[TheBlueFool]

Then again, delving into the psychological aspects of the male/female thing, I think the Fool was just a 'person'. People will say he acted very feminine, but I know some people who don't stick to their gender roles where sensitivity and perception and such are concerned. I'm guessing the Fool simply was one of those people. Just because he was male doesn't mean he had to be a big manly man.

[sassy1]

Originally Posted by TheBlueFool

I'm pretty sure the Fool's male, for example in the last part Fitz carried him around dead and it described him as wearing nothing but a piece of dirty sacking and when Fitz went through the stone to where the old market place was, he peeled the sacking away from the Fool. Don't you think he would have noticed if the Fool possessed breasts?

Maybe people from the fool's race don't have breasts, or very noticable breasts. And I think Fitz would have been too focused on trying to get the fool out to actually notice anything at the time.

Originally Posted by TheBlueFool

Another indication of the Fool's masculinity was when Fitz and he switched bodies so that Fitz could heal his friend. To do so he had to mend every little bit of the Fool, don't you think he would have noticed-'Hey this guy doesn't have a penis...'? :P

Maybe he didn't care again, he was probably too busy trying to heal everything at once to notice anything else. I mean, he couldn't help but notice things like that afterwards once he knows the fool is recovering, but i think that maybe now he's admitted to himself that he does love the Fool, gender is not that important to him

Originally Posted by TheBlueFool

And Amber is described as manly, for example when Malta sees her for the first time she describes her as "flat-chested and narrow hipped" and Brashen notes her features as too sharp to be womanly.

Amber is described as a very manly woman, but in the Tawny Man trilogy, he's described as a very feminine man... maybe women from the Fool's race don't have such features. Maybe they give birth to tiny-weeny babies, so they dont need such wide hips, and perhaps they dont have very prominent breasts, or maybe they 'grow' breasts if they get pregnant or something.

heck i dont know, but they is just some of my ideas.

I kinda like the idea of the Fool being man and woman (hermaphrodite, right?), dont know why hehe

[Sathai]

I thought maybe The Fool was a woman when reading Fool's Errand and Golden Fool, but then decided he's a man by the time I was done with Fool's Fate.

[The Fool]

I dont think The Fool is a man or a woman, i dont think "he's" human. Also i cant recall, can humans be white prophets? I always thought of The Fool as a member of a race of people who occasionally produced a white prophet.

[Rawled Demha]

Originally Posted by HappyHippo

I didn't vote, becasue there wasn't a 'neither' option. I've only read the Farseer books so far, but I get the impression the Fool's androgynous.

androgynous as in not man nor woman. "neutral" from neutered would be my choice. thus i too lack a vote...

[Sathai]

Originally Posted by The Fool

I dont think The Fool is a man or a woman, i dont think "he's" human. Also i cant recall, can humans be white prophets? I always thought of The Fool as a member of a race of people who occasionally produced a white prophet.

Yes, The Fool was of a different species. You don't have to be male or female to be human though, animals aren't human but have different sexes too.