Godzilla has been around for more than half a century, but a good number of fans are still confused about the monster's gender. While the English versions of the movie often use the male pronoun to refer to the beast, the actor who played the monster for almost two decades is unsure.
Japanese actor Haruo Nakajima, who donned the Godzilla suit from 1950s through 1970s, reportedly said during an interview in 2005 that he had no idea what Godzilla's gender was.
The different versions of the film have only made matters worse.
The birth of Baby Godzilla, in 1967's "Son of Godzilla" indicted that the beast might actually be female. And in 1998, the Roland Emmerich-directed Godzilla had the beast pregnant, further confirming its female status.
But the Gareth Edwards-directed reboot of the film makes multiple references to the monster as male, and this has once again sparked a debate on Godzilla's gender.
So ... is Godzilla a male or female radioactive reptile? Just curious ... It's Friday, after all.
— Brenda McCorkle (@brendamccorkle) May 16, 2014
@TimOfLegend Mothra (male) and Godzilla do get together. So either the Japanese were very progressive back then, or Godzilla is female. — Amir Badeanlo (@amirbadeanlo) May 15, 2014
@FWgrandall According to Wikipedia, Godzilla is referred to with gender neutral pronouns in Japanese. In the English dubbed, male pronouns.
— Langpup (@Langdoggydog) May 16, 2014
A good number of Godzilla fans also believe that the monster might be a hermaphrodite -- an organism that has both male and female reproductive organs. At the same time, there are many who wouldn't want to associate Godzilla with sex.
"I think (s)he's a tranny," a fan wrote on Toho Kingdom forum. "Godzilla's always as smooth as a Ken doll, so there's no way to know for sure. However the thought of sexual relations of such beasts never ceases to scare the hell out of me."
Meanwhile, reviews of the latest reboot of "Godzilla" are mixed with Peter Travers of Rolling Stone noting that there are a lot of plot complications.
"It would take an insomniac to wade through all these plot complications without dozing," Travers wrote. "The actors are top-tier, but they over-emote to sell a human drama that never rises above soap opera."
Drew McWeeny of HitFix was all praises for scenes featuring the monster, stating that Edwards' approach is different from how others would have handled it.
"There are some images during that final stretch of the film that any fan of Godzilla will be amazed by, images that feel like they were pulled out of the collective dreams of all of us who have been fans of the big guy over the past 60 years," he wrote.
