Why does Heatran have a gender?

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I can see your point there, but I think there are some cases in which the Pokémon really are genderless - e.g. Mewtwo, which was manufactured by humans who would thus know if its gender if it had one, which suggests to me that it does not.

I disagree mainly because there are TWO different Mewtwo roaming around in the anime/movie universe and each have a different gender that is clearly marked by their respective telepathic voices.

[The name master]

Isn't "genderless" really more of a "gender unknown" concept?

Not really. Porygon is man made (entirely out of programming code) and even with today's technology, there is no code that can give a machine a gender. So there can be genderless pokemon!

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I just find it a bit odd that Castform has a gender somehow considering it's clearly stated in the Hoenn game's it was manufactured and no other Pokémon closely resembles it.

[The Shrub Dragon]

I disagree mainly because there are TWO different Mewtwo roaming around in the anime/movie universe and each have a different gender that is clearly marked by their respective telepathic voices.

voice isn't necessarily an indicator of gender though, especially if we once again consider that mewtwo's voice - as you say - is telepathic.  i would have thought that given that, its telepathic voice is identical to the voice that spoke to it most, which is backed up by the fact that in the dub, mewtwo and dr. fuji are both voiced by philip bartlett

[Lord Raven]

Not really. Porygon is man made (entirely out of programming code) and even with today's technology, there is no code that can give a machine a gender. So there can be genderless pokemon!

there is code that can give machine a gender...  porygon isn't really a machine though, it can still breed with ditto lol

I can see your point there, but I think there are some cases in which the Pokémon really are genderless - e.g. Mewtwo, which was manufactured by humans who would thus know if its gender if it had one, which suggests to me that it does not.

maybe they didn't really keep gender in mind?

[The name master]

porygon isn't really a machine though, it can still breed with ditto lol

That's another thing! How can Porygon breed if it's man made and doesn't have a penis? Don't you dare say that there's a code that allows it to produce s**rm or reproduce! I know of no machine that is capable of reproducing! Or any... Whatever Porygon's supposed to be, capable of doing it!

[Lord Raven]

then it's not a machine...

[The name master]

then it's not a machine...

Whatever Porygon is, it can't have a gender and can't breed!

Considering the technology they had at the time, they couldn't give it a gender. They can give it a male/female voice, but that doesn't mean it's that gender! And absolutely no way can it have a reproduction system! That's the one thing we can't do with machines or programs!

[Lord Raven]

you're missing the fact that it's not a machine...  it's a living thing

[The name master]

you're missing the fact that it's not a machine...  it's a living thing

I don't remember programming code being a living thing, unless it's one of these stupid things again....

[Lord Raven]

porygon can breed, that is probably one of the major prereqs to being a living being, especially since it can hatch from an egg

there's ways to reproduce that don't involve 5th grade biology