The first time I can remember seeing a queer character on both television and in movies was Him from The Powerpuff Girls. Growing up I had a core group of cartoons I would watch. One of those was The Powerpuff Girls. Something about three genetically modified girls built to fight crime and save the city of Townsville on a daily basis really hooked me. Or maybe it was their lack fingers and extremities that caught my attention. Whatever it was I watched it faithfully. They also had an array of villains. From a sinister yet genius ape to a group of green thugs. The one villain that stood out was Him.

Him was a devil like character the girls faced on a semi regular basis. The appearance of this villain is a very gender bending one. Him came strutting in his thigh high boots, red dress with pink fur trim, curled beard, and lobster claws. This red devil has a higher pitch to his speaking alluding to a more feminine type of character, but then when things got dark with Him their voice would drop like 100 registers to a deeply sinister voice. Further pushing my confusion on what gender Him was.

Looking back on it now Him didn’t conform to any gender. Him was a genderless villain. So since Him was genderless I refer to Him by his name instead of assigning a gender pronoun to Him. This is an important character. Kids growing up need to see more gender representation portrayed in the world. Gender is fluid, and does not fit into the two boxes that society says we have to fit into. Him is a perfect example of that. Also, the show didn’t shove it down our throats. They just presented the character and gave Him a story. They just let the character live and not point out what gender it identified with. Kids should know that you don’t have to fit in a box. It is okay to be your own person.