The Sims 4 has gender-flexible customization, but it is not completely gender-neutral. Create a Sim still begins with a male or female selection. From there, you can independently adjust a Sim’s physical frame, clothing preferences, pregnancy capability, milk production, toilet use, pronouns, sexual orientation and romantic interests. That separation is the key to understanding what EA changed: the game offers far more control over gender expression and behavior than it did at launch, while still retaining a binary creation choice and some gendered language in its interface and text.
What EA changed in The Sims 4
EA expanded Create a Sim (CAS) customization in 2016 after experimenting with a simple idea: any Sim should be able to wear any clothing. The June 2, 2016 Sims Roundtable described the update as a broader set of choices for the characters players could create. EA also said it worked with GLAAD during development to make the changes authentic and respectful to transgender players.
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Producer Kevin Gibson summarized the design goal in the roundtable: “The Sims is a simulation game that should reflect life.” Senior Producer Lyndsay Pearson described the prototype as being “based around what would happen if we could let any Sim wear anything.” Those changes established flexible presentation and body-related settings, but they did not remove the male/female selection that appears at the start of CAS.
EA added a separate pronoun system in 2022. The May 24, 2022 announcement introduced They/Them, She/Her, He/Him and Custom Pronouns for English-language clients. Pronouns are selected on the name tab in CAS, beside the plumbob, rather than in the original gender selector. EA explicitly warned that customizable pronouns would not make the game “100-percent gender neutral.”
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What “gender-neutral options” means in practice
In The Sims 4, gender-related controls are modular. A Sim’s initial gender selection, body presentation, clothes, biological functions, pronouns and attractions do not have to point in the same direction. You can therefore create combinations such as a Sim with a feminine frame, masculine clothing preferences, They/Them pronouns and attraction to multiple genders.
This flexibility is different from replacing the game’s gender model with a fully nonbinary system. EA’s current help documentation still shows male and female icons in the top-left of CAS. The options below modify how a Sim looks, behaves or is described after that initial selection.
Current Create a Sim settings
EA Help’s sexuality, romance and attraction guide identifies five groups of settings in the expanded Gender tab. Each controls a different part of gameplay.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches| Setting | Available choices documented by EA | What it controls |
|---|---|---|
| Physical frame | Masculine or feminine | The Sim’s body frame and related physical presentation, independent of the selected Sim gender. |
| Clothing preference | Masculine, feminine or both | Which clothing categories appear in CAS. The clothing filter can be adjusted or removed so items are not restricted by the preference. |
| Pregnancy capability | Become pregnant, get other Sims pregnant, or neither | Whether the Sim can become pregnant, impregnate another Sim, or do neither. |
| Milk production | On or off through the Gender tab control | Whether the Sim can produce milk. |
| Toilet use | Standing or sitting | Which urination animation and interaction the Sim uses. |
These controls are not pronouns. A clothing preference does not change the words used for a Sim, and a pregnancy setting does not assign a gender identity. They are gameplay and presentation choices that can be combined in any supported arrangement.
How to change a Sim’s pronouns
You can set or revise pronouns in Create a Sim. The route is the same whether you are making a new household or editing an existing Sim.
- Open Create a Sim. For an existing household, choose the option to modify the Sim in CAS.
- Select the Sim whose pronouns you want to edit.
- Open the name tab beside the plumbob at the top of the Sim’s information panel.
- Open the pronoun menu. Choose They/Them, She/Her, He/Him or Custom Pronouns.
- If you choose a standard set, confirm the selection and save the Sim.
- If you choose Custom Pronouns, enter all five grammatical forms described in the next section, then confirm and save.
EA’s August 4, 2022 explanation says you can return to CAS later to change a Sim’s pronouns. Changing pronouns does not require you to change the Sim’s body frame, clothes, pregnancy capability, attraction settings or initial gender selection.
Entering custom pronouns correctly
The custom form asks for five grammatical cases. Entering each one makes the game’s text substitutions more consistent.
| Field | Use in a sentence | Example for a “ze” set |
|---|---|---|
| Subjective | The subject performing an action | ze |
| Objective | The person receiving an action | zir |
| Possessive dependent | Ownership before a noun | zir |
| Possessive independent | Ownership used on its own | zirs |
| Reflexive | An action directed back at the subject | zirself |
The “ze” examples above illustrate the five fields; they are not an EA-prescribed pronoun set. Use the forms that match the pronouns you want the game to display. Check capitalization and spelling before saving, because the game inserts the text into generated sentences rather than rewriting every sentence around it.
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EA’s launch documentation described the first version as English-only. That was a statement about the 2022 release, and the currently reviewed EA Help guide does not confirm broader language coverage. Players using a non-English client should therefore check how their installed language handles the pronoun fields instead of assuming every translation supports them identically.
Known limits and text errors
Pronoun selection changes text that refers to the Sim, but it cannot guarantee perfect grammar in every message. EA explained that the system may replace a pronoun token without changing the verb that follows it. Its example was “They likes…” when correct English would be “They like…”. This can appear in notifications, descriptions or other generated text.
Some gendered terms can also remain. EA specifically mentioned words such as mother, father, policeman and policewoman when it cautioned that the game would not become completely gender neutral. Those terms are embedded in particular interactions and text strings; selecting custom pronouns does not convert every occupation, family label or animation into a neutral form.
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The practical result is a game that supports more varied characters while retaining legacy assumptions in parts of its vocabulary and logic. Treat an occasional mismatched verb or gendered label as a limitation of the text system, not as evidence that your CAS settings failed.
Gender, pronouns and sexual orientation are separate
The Sims 4 also has sexual-orientation settings. EA’s guide separates them from the Gender tab and from pronoun selection. Sexual orientation controls attraction and romance behavior; it does not define a Sim’s gender or the pronouns used in text.
| Control group | Documented choices | Does not determine |
|---|---|---|
| Gender and body settings | Male/female starting selection, physical frame, clothing preference, pregnancy capability, milk production and toilet use | Pronouns or romantic attraction |
| Pronouns | They/Them, She/Her, He/Him or five custom grammatical forms | Body frame, reproductive capability or attraction |
| Sexual orientation | Attraction to men, women, both or neither; whether the Sim is exploring romantically; and WooHoo interests | Gender selection, body presentation or pronouns |
For example, a Sim can use She/Her pronouns while being attracted to women, men, both or neither. Another Sim can use They/Them pronouns, wear any available clothing and have no pregnancy capability. The settings are intentionally independent, so configure each one for the behavior or presentation you want.
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Gender-nonconforming clothing
Start with either male or female in the top-left selector, then open the Gender tab and set the physical frame you prefer. Choose masculine, feminine or both for clothing, and adjust or remove the clothing filter if you want to browse the full catalog. This changes what the Sim can wear without changing pronouns or attraction.
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Select the body and clothing settings that fit the character, open the name tab and choose Custom Pronouns, then complete all five grammatical fields. Set pregnancy and toilet-use options separately. The resulting Sim can present in a way that does not match the initial binary selection, while the game uses your chosen forms in supported text.
A trans character with specific reproductive settings
Choose the physical frame, clothing and pronouns that fit the character. Then set “become pregnant,” “get other Sims pregnant” or “neither” according to the gameplay you want. Reproductive capability is a gameplay rule and does not force a particular pronoun set.
Changing settings after a household is created
Pronouns can be changed by returning to CAS, as EA’s pronoun documentation states. The same CAS editing route is where you revise body, clothing and gender-related options. If a change does not appear immediately, finish editing and load back into the household so the game can regenerate the relevant text.
- If clothing remains restricted, revisit the clothing preference and its filter rather than changing pronouns.
- If pregnancy interactions are unavailable, check the pregnancy-capability choice; attraction settings do not control pregnancy.
- If romance or WooHoo options do not match your intention, edit sexual orientation and romantic-exploration settings separately.
- If a sentence contains a wrong verb or a gendered family or occupation term, that is a documented text limitation rather than a missing CAS selection.
Timeline: from clothing flexibility to pronoun customization
| Date | Change or documentation |
|---|---|
| June 2, 2016 | EA’s Sims Roundtable described expanded CAS options, including the goal of allowing any Sim to wear any clothing, and discussed collaboration with GLAAD. |
| May 24, 2022 | The Sims Team announced customizable pronouns for English-language clients: They/Them, She/Her, He/Him and Custom Pronouns. The announcement listed PC 1.88.213.1030, Mac 1.88.213.1230 and Console 1.59. |
| August 4, 2022 | EA published detailed instructions for the five custom-pronoun forms, the ability to revisit CAS, English-only launch support and known conjugation problems. |
| EA Help guide reviewed in 2026 | The current guide documents the separate controls for physical frame, clothing, pregnancy, milk production, toilet use, attraction, romantic exploration and WooHoo interests. |
Is The Sims 4 fully gender neutral?
No. It is more accurate to call The Sims 4 gender-flexible or gender-customizable. You still choose male or female at the start of CAS, and some text remains gendered. However, the game lets you decouple that initial choice from body frame, clothing, reproductive settings, toilet use, pronouns and sexual orientation. For players who want characters whose presentation or behavior does not follow a traditional binary pattern, those independent controls provide substantially more room than the original CAS system.
The most reliable way to build a character is to treat every menu as its own decision: appearance, gameplay functions, language and attraction. That approach matches EA’s documentation and avoids assuming that one setting automatically changes the others.
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