capnport

(Note: Neutral pronouns will be used throughout this essay.)

Pleakley is a character from the Lilo & Stitch franchise. A one-eyed, three-legged alien (later revealed to be a member of a species called "Plorgonarians,") Pleakley is well known for their extravagant crossdressing disguises. But what if I told you that these disguises aren't just crossdressing, aren't just drag, but that Pleakley is a transgender woman? It is my belief that, given solely what we're shown in canon, this makes complete sense.

I did not believe Pleakley was a transgender woman at first. After watching the movies and the show, the evidence became too much to deny, and I finally let myself accept it. Was it authorial intent? Well... it was the early 2000s. However, whether intended to be transgender or not, Pleakley is a character whose complicated relationship with gender and the idea of being a woman is an inherent part of who they are. In jokes, yes, but also in serious moments and in day-to-day occurrences. Once you notice it, you can't stop noticing it.

But... let's just get one thing out of the way first.

"Pleakley is an alien! Do they even have a gender?"

That's something people who are less familiar with the Lilo and Stitch franchise may be asking- not about Pleakley's identified gender, but about assigned sex and the gender imposed upon them by their alien society. It's a sensible question to ask if you're unfamiliar with the topic. After all, Pleakley doesn't particularly look like us humans would expect from a male or a female, and walks around without needing to wear pants.

The television show answers this question for us by showing us other Plorgonarians. The episode "Mr. Stenchy" gives us a peek at the Plorgonarian homeworld, where we see a couple of Plorgonarians who look like, quite possibly, the most gender-stereotyped aliens I have ever seen. I'll just provide an image for you here, because describing them with words would be inadequate...

Later, in the episodes "Spooky" and "Fibber," as well as in the movie "Leroy and Stitch," we see Pleakley's family. Fibber also gives us a shot of another, unrelated female Plorgonarian, who Pleakley's mother plans on marrying them off to.

From this rather large selection of Plorgonarians- seriously, we see way more Plorgonarians than we do any other individual alien species in the franchise- we can see that there is a difference between "male" and "female" Plorgonarians. The Plorgonarians shown to be "female" have hair on their heads rather than just eyebrows, whereas the "males" are bald, or in Pleakley's brother's case, bald with a handful of singular sideburn hairs sticking out.

Plorgonarian gender roles are also strikingly similar to humans. Pleakley is expected to dress masculinely and get married to a woman. One of the first few things Pleakley's mother says to them when she visits Earth in the episode "Fibber" is a scandalized, "Pleakley! Are you wearing female Earth clothes?!"

"No," Pleakley responds. The titular experiment of the episode, a lie-detector experiment, buzzes to show that was a lie. "Well, yes," Pleakley adds. "I mean, it's strictly a disguise for an important military mission! And it highlights my washboard abs!"

The lie-detector experiment buzzes again.

The next time we see Pleakley and their family together in the episode, Pleakley has switched into wearing their original Galactic Federation uniform, some of the very few masculine clothes they still own. They continue wearing masculine clothing for most of the episode, and only switch back to their preferred dresses after the episode's heartfelt moral about accepting people for who they are.

As Pleakley's family prepares to leave the planet, Pleakley's mother tells Pleakley, "Try wearing men's clothes more often!"

"Oh, don't worry, I will!" Pleakley responds. The lie-detector experiment buzzes yet again.

In general, the episode Fibber is absolutely packed full of queer-coding for Pleakley, but the gender stuff is what I'll be talking about here. Pleakley's mother repeatedly addresses Pleakley as "son," and Pleakley's sister addresses them as "brother." This is especially egregious at one point in the episode, where Pleakley's brother is sitting right there at the very same table.

"Do the math, brother," Pleakley's sister says (emphasis hers), while her other brother is two seats away.

It's also revealed in this episode that Pleakley isn't Pleakley's first name, a fact that shocks Lilo and Nani. Pleakley is their last name. Their first name is Wendy, and while on Earth that name may be considered a girl's name, it's a boy's name on Plorgonar.

"He was always embarassed by his name," Pleakley's mother sighs. "I don't understand why. It means 'brave warrior' in Plorgonar."

"Oh, how I wanted that name," Pleakley's brother grumbles.

Pleakley does refer to themself by the name Wendy later in the series, but only when talking to themself when no one else is around. They do not want other people to call them by their very masculine first name, although they don't seem to have a problem using it for themself.

Now that the nuances (or lack thereof) of Plorgonarian gender are explained, let's move on to where it all began. The first movie. Lilo and Stitch (2002), the one everyone's seen even if they haven't seen the rest of the franchise. For most of the movie, Pleakley's disguise as a human woman has been played for comedy alongside Jumba's disguise as a human man. Look at these aliens, trying to disguise as humans! Ridiculous!

Then we get a scene of Jumba and Pleakley camping out and spying on Lilo and Stitch. Or, well, Jumba is spying. Pleakley, behind him, sets out their sleeping bag. Then, nervously checking to make sure Jumba isn't watching, they sneak out one of their wigs and put it on, looking at themself in a handheld mirror. Their expression starts as a frown, but once they see how they look in the mirror with the wig on, they smile, sitting up straighter and playing with the wig a bit, getting lost in their own reflection.

Then Jumba turns around. "What are you doing?" He asks.

Pleakley freaks out, whipping the wig off their head and trying to hide it, eye wide, visibly distressed, and yells "Nothing!"

In the end it turns out Jumba just wanted a turn with the wig, and the two have a playful "fight" over it. It's a fun scene of them bonding, isn't it? But Pleakley's nervousness, enjoyment of the way they look as a woman, and fear of other people knowing they enjoy the way they look as a woman are all things that will come up again later, in Stitch! the Movie, the TV series, and even Leroy and Stitch.

There's another point to be brought up here, which is that while Jumba also wants in a turn wearing the wig, having hair is a whole different thing for Jumba's species than it is for Pleakley's species. Jumba is bald because he's bald, both male and female members of his species have hair, he just happens to be bald. Meanwhile, as we see in the TV series, the visible difference between a female Plorgonarian and a male Plorgonarian is that a female Plorgonarian has hair on her head and a male Plorgonarian does not. With a wig on, Pleakley instantly goes from looking like a man to looking like a woman.

The franchise has repeatedly shown that Pleakley likes looking like a woman not just because it's part of a disguise, and that they have insecurities over this since it generally isn't considered socially acceptable (at least not on Plorgonar). They'll insistently defend this by reminding everyone it's for their disguise.

In the episode "Yaarp", Pleakley walks into their bedroom, where Lilo, Jumba, and Stitch already are.

"I can't get these earrings to stay on. Has anyone seen the duct tape?" They ask. The other three turn to stare at them, not even saying anything yet, and Pleakley immediately gets defensive. "What?! I'm going to the store! It's my disguise, remember?!"

Pleakley's desire to be a woman goes far beyond a disguise, however.

In Stitch! the Movie, while the 'ohana is waiting for a call from the movie's main villain, Pleakley ends up getting a call from the New You Wonder Girdle company about an order. Of course, they pick up the phone as it rings and put it on speakerphone in front of everyone, right before it's revealed who's calling and why. Pleakley immediately hangs up, and awkwardly tries to deny that the call was for them. "Oh, wrong number! Girdle, heheh, I wouldn't need a girdle for my disguise, because it's an undergarment! W-why would I use... a girdle?"

The phone then rings again, and Pleakley picks it up and yells, "I didn't order anything!" (This time, it's actually the villain.)

"HunkaHunka," one of the episodes of the TV series, shows Pleakley explicitly wanting people to look at their "disguise" and not just see a human woman, but a beautiful one. Just being seen as a regular human woman, or even an ugly one, would be enough for a disguise- no one would look twice.

But when Lilo's crush Keoni Jameson asks Pleakley to the Valentine's day dance (which... Keoni, you're like 12, Pleakley is in their late 20s and as far as you know they're married), Lilo, Stitch, and Jumba respond incredulously.

"Oh," Pleakley says once Lilo's thrown Keoni out of the house and everyone's discussing it, blaming it on an experiment, "And I suppose he couldn't have just fallen for my brilliant Earth female disguise?"

"I don't think so." "Impossible." "Naga." Say Lilo, Jumba, and Stitch respectively.

Pleakley huffs and walks out of the room to look at themself in the bathroom mirror. For the rest of the episode, they dress up as some of "the world's most beautiful women" that they saw on a television show, and try to prove they're a beautiful woman, too.

"There!" they yell at one point, bursting into their and Jumba's bedroom, "tell me I'm not beautiful!"

Later on in the episode, they flirt with surfer boys on the beach.

This subplot culminates when Pleakley receives a secret admirer letter and runs to the Valentine's day dance, slamming open the door and turning on the lights and unleashing havoc as the episode's experiment flies loose and turns everyone's attention onto them. Then the antidote is released throughout the crowd, and everyone recovers and leaves.

"So it was all an experiment's fault? I guess my attractive Earth woman's camouflage is a miserable failure after all." Pleakley says, voice cracking and sounding like they're about to cry.

But then Keoni Jameson comes up to them, and it turns out his crush was real. "Wow," he says after Pleakley sprays him with the experiment's antidote, "You're beautiful and quirky."

"I am?" Pleakley asks. But then... "I am, aren't I? Woo-hoo! My camouflage is beautiful after all!"

The look of pure delight on Pleakley's face upon realizing someone actually finds them beautiful is one I haven't seen since Amnesio, 21 episodes ago.

Speaking of the Jamesons, now it's time to move on to the final, the most important, the strongest bit of evidence I have towards Pleakley being a transgender woman. Warning for transphobia and publicly being outed, because... that's what happens.

The episode is "Nosy." The experiment of the episode is designed to find out people's secrets, and then share them to everyone. Lilo and Stitch first meet him outside a movie theater, spoiling the movie to everyone around, and take him home to try and find his one true place. Meanwhile, Nani's applied for a new job, and her new boss- Keoni's dad, Mr. Jameson- says she can have it if she holds a successful brunch for him and Keoni.

So, the brunch is held. It's a disaster. Pleakley doesn't quite understand Earth customs, Jumba irradiates the ham, and Nosy is around spreading secrets.

Near the end of the brunch, Nosy has a lot of secrets to spill at once.

"[Stitch is] no dog," Nosy says, "he's an alien! You know, from outer space? He was created by evil scientist Jumba here. Just like I was!"

"Uh," Nani says, "let's all go inside for some coffee."

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?!" asks Mr. Jameson.

So of course, Nosy responds. "I'll tell ya what's going on! I heard Nani talking to her boyfriend David on the phone, and she said Mr. Jameson is a snob with bad shoes. And, oh yeah. Aunt Pleakley is-"

Pleakley immediately covers Nosy's mouth with their hands, shoving the watermelon slice they're holding into Nosy's mouth as they do so. But Nosy swallows the entire watermelon slice, rind and all, and keeps going.

"-not a woman!"

The year is 2003. Transgender representation in media... isn't really there, to put it lightly, and when it is it's often offensive. This is a Disney show for children. Nosy has just outed Pleakley as "not a woman" to several humans. You'd expect this to be treated as a joke, right? Or at least for it to get brushed off like the rest of the secrets Nosy has spilled.

There's a pan-up to Pleakley's face with an awkward smile...

And then they immediately drop the smile and run into the house, slamming the door behind them. Everyone stands there, awkwardly staring after them.

There are almost three minutes left in the episode, and we do not see or hear Pleakley again. Not even when Gantu slams in, loudly stomping onto the roof before jumping down into the backyard.

"So, Aunt Pleakley's not a girl, huh?" says Keoni to Lilo. "Good thing I only had a crush on your aunt for that one week."

...Well, it is 2003.

Finally, in the movie that ends the series, Leroy and Stitch, Pleakley goes back into space and changes back into more masculine clothes. But when they're sad and alone, they take out a wig and put it on. They look at their reflection... and just briefly, for a moment, they smile a bit.

In conclusion, even if Pleakley wasn't intentionally written to be a closeted trans woman using "disguises" as an excuse to go out and about as a girl, their gender presentation and desire to be seen as a woman is written in such a way that I find it hard to see them as anything else.

Their genuine distress after being outed by Nosy is the nail in the coffin on the whole thing, but it isn't the only bit. Pleakley isn't happy as a man, which they feel pressured to be by their biological family and by society as a whole. Pleakley is happier as a woman, in dresses, being called "she" by even people who know them (such as Lilo in the episode Tank).

I have never seen a more transgender character who wasn't explicitly on-screen stated to be transgender. I hope with this essay I've enlightened you on why interpreting Pleakley as a transgender woman makes sense, and why it makes much more sense than interpreting them as a cis man who just likes crossdressing. Thank you for reading.