The Fool (spoilers for all RotE books, including LST)

[Omie]

I believe Robin Hobb deliberately planted not-quite-evidence to suggest that the Fool is both male and female and not only kept the 'evidence' vague but continually changed it so that readers would always be left in doubt.

But at the same time I think that people are missing the point when they question the Fool's sex. His ambiguity is what makes the character. He even sang a song about it! I refer to him with the male pronouns without really caring if he possesses, er, a dangle, simply because 'he' is thought of as male for six books out of nine. As for Amber, she is undoubtedly a female character. She's not a bloke in a frock. Similarly, Lord Golden is effete but definitely male. The Fool of the Assassin books is androgynous in a childlike way.

'Is the Fool a man or a woman?' Yes. Or possibly no.

He's either and neither at once and that's kind of the point. Gender is neither as binary nor as important as people make it out to be. It's so refreshing to read fiction where that point is addressed, and even more refreshing that it's dealt with so succinctly in a fantasy series when even writers of supposedly more 'relevant' fiction stumble over the issue time and again

EDIT: I should point out I'm not criticising anybody. It's interesting to look at the evidence for the Fool's sex. But I just think the interest should be framed more as 'Was this a deliberate attempt by Hobb to throw us?' rather than 'Does this prove the Fool is male/female?'. It's also fun to re-read the books and see just how crafty Hobb could be by leading our suspicions and then thwarting them again. (If you can call things like having him cover his chest with a blanket 'crafty').