Why aren't there any female Minions?
For anybody who has ever questioned the lack of female Minions, filmmaker Pierre Coffin has some answers for you.
The gender and sexuality of the tiny yellow troublemakers who first appeared in 鈥淒espicable Me" have been debated since the animated franchise鈥檚 original film was released in 2010. One widespread theory was that Minions were gender neutral, since they don both traditionally male and female attire. Other fans viewed them as boys who occasionally cross-dress: all of the Minions have male names, such as Stuart, Kevin, and Bob.聽
One 鈥淒espicable Me鈥� enthusiast that, if all male, Minions could be 鈥渢he new gay icons,鈥� as they demonstrate to children that 鈥渁 little gender bending is fine!鈥� and even kiss on several occasions in the first movie.聽
Now, as the "Despicable Me" spinoff movie "Minions" hits theaters, the filmmaker has spoken, and it鈥檚 official: all Minions are, in fact, male.聽
Why make such a choice in a time when male-dominated children鈥檚 movies are so rare?
鈥淪eeing how dumb and stupid they often are, I just couldn鈥檛 imagine Minions being girls,鈥� Coffin told . According to the French animator, all of the title characters are voiced by male actors.
The film is not without female characters, of course: the villain, Scarlett Overkill, is voiced by Sandra Bullock.聽
But the gender imbalance has drawn criticism from some concerned parents.聽
鈥淲hy can鈥檛 we show children a fantasy world where gender equality exists?聽 鈥楳inions鈥� does the opposite, reproducing and in fact, managing to exaggerate sexism so that females have hardly any place or representation in the world at all,鈥� , the mother of three girls. 鈥淚鈥檓 appalled and disgusted that movies like 鈥楳inions鈥� are allowed to be made in 2015 and shown to little kids, teaching a new generation to expect and accept a world where girls go missing.鈥�
Despite such concerns, 鈥淢inions鈥� opened at the box office with record numbers this past weekend, garnering $115.2 million in North America and making it the second biggest animated film opening in history. The film has received mixed reviews from critics, earning a on Rotten Tomatoes.
Now only one question remains on the minds of movie-goers: if there are no girl Minions, how does the species propagate?
There are currently two competing fan theories to expain where the little guys come from. One is that regular humans are turned into Minions by a Minionizer machine, a ray gun-like instrument similar to the one seen on the Minions ride at Universal Studios theme park. Another is that they are cloned from a single strand of mutated DNA, as suggested by one of the short films.
Coffin has declined to reveal the exact origin of the tiny yellow henchmen so far, but the Minions aren鈥檛 done telling their story yet: they鈥檒l be back soon enough in 鈥淒espicable Me 3,鈥� slated to open in June 2017.
