Doctor Girlfriend
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Dr. Mrs. The Monarch (formerly Doctor Girlfriend, birth name Sheila) is a fictional character on the Adult Swim animated series The Venture Bros. She is the professional partner and wife of the supervillain The Monarch. Dr. Girlfriend is voiced by co-writer Doc Hammer, though she was voiced by Jackson Publick in her first appearance, “The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay.” After the finale of season 2 and beginning with season 3, she is referred to as Dr. Mrs. The Monarch.
"Skilled and capable, she is often the only thing that makes the Monarch's plans even remotely viable." [1]
Background
Dr. Girlfriend (first name Sheila) is a veteran super-villain, serving as second-in-command for many different super-villains and having used an assortment of costumed aliases over the years. She has a doctorate in an unnamed field, and appears proficient in mechanics and general sciences, as evidenced by her having built the Monarch's first pair of functional wings, his ill-conceived "sunshine gun", and several tracking devices used for her own purposes.
At the start of the series, Dr. Girlfriend’s relationship with the Monarch had already begun to suffer due to his vendetta against the Venture family. In hopes of trying to bridge the gap between the two sides, she briefly convinced the Monarch to reach out to Hank and Dean Venture as a friend when Monarch confided to her the revelation that Dr. Venture emotionally neglected his children on a regular basis. Despite her efforts, the Monarch continued his vendetta against the Venture family throughout the first season, until their breakup in "Trial of the Monarch".
In season 2, Doctor Girlfriend had gone back to working with her former lover Phantom-Limb, going by Queen Etherea again. However, Phantom-Limbs pompousness grated against her and she eventually reunited with The Monarch, the two of them marrying in Showdown At Cremation Creek.
Personality
Dr. Girlfriend’s attractive appearance and intelligence and her supposed reputation as "easy" has resulted in her gaining a favorable reputation amongst super-heroes in the Venture Bros. universe. Many heroes have attempted to convince Dr. Girlfriend to become their arch-enemy, though she’s turned them down due to her preference to stay with the Monarch and not strike out on her own. Phantom Limb acknowledged that Dr. Girlfriend had the strength and determination to be one of the world’s greatest villains if she would commit herself to her craft.
Rumors of transsexualism
One of the running gags of the show’s run is the rumor amongst characters that Dr. Girlfriend is in truth a transsexual. These rumors are partially based upon the fact that the character is voiced by Doc Hammer, whose portrayal of the character’s voice is a deep, raspy masculine sounding tone. Hammer also played Dr. Girlfriend in live-action on a first-season Venture Bros. DVD extra which showed behind-the-scenes, on-set interviews with the cast of a fictional live-action Venture Bros. movie.
Jackson Publick (who voiced Dr. Girlfriend in the show’s pilot episode) admitted in a first season DVD commentary that his first attempt at providing her voice was primarily a poor imitation of Harvey Fierstein. (Reviews tend to observe her voice more resembles that of Tony Curtis[citation needed].) Furthermore, the animation for the pilot episode “The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay” and season one premiere episode “Dia de Los Dangerous!” have Dr. Girlfriend appearing to have an Adam's Apple, an error in animation that was removed for all subsequent episodes involving the character.
The writers themselves have fueled the rumors by having characters on the show acknowledge the rumor that Dr. Girlfriend used to be a man. One example of this rumor was a conversation between Pete White and Billy Quizboy in the episode “Tag Sale—You’re It!” in which they recount a rumor that she has a transplanted baboon uterus. (On the other hand, in “The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay,” White and Quizboy were shown to be gossips when they expounded the theory that Dr. Venture and Brock Samson were a gay couple, so their conversation at the yard sale may be more of the same.)
There is also Brock Samson’s own skepticism that Dr. Girlfriend is a transgender woman. While shown to be utterly indiscriminate in his sexual pursuits, Brock has never once thought about having sex with Dr. Girlfriend, much to Dr. Girlfriend’s own disappointment. He later incurred the wrath of Phantom Limb during a team-up by repeatedly insisting that she must bear scars from breast implants (Phantom Limb claimed she doesn’t).
Also, the episode “Victor. Echo. November.” has the character herself acknowledge and debunk the rumors when Triana Orpheus and her friend Kim encounter Dr. Girlfriend in the ladies’ room. Dr. Girlfriend sighed and said, before being asked any questions, “Yes, I belong in here, I just have a deep voice.”
The writers have implied that Dr. Girlfriend’s deep voice is the result of Dr. Girlfriend being a long-time smoker. In the episode “Fallen Arches,” Blacula-hunter Jefferson Twilight inquires, upon hearing Dr. Girlfriend’s voice, whether she merely smoked cigarettes or ate them (which prompted an offended Dr. Girlfriend to leave). In the episode "Home Is Where the Hate Is", the Monarch catches her smoking a cigarette. Dr. Girlfriend states that she has been smoking since 1989, and the Monarch starts listing all the clues he should have picked up on. Sergeant Hatred interjects, "I'll say it. The three-pack-a-day voice." Jackson Publick has denied that Dr. Girlfriend’s raspy voice was the result of her having her throat cut at some point in her past. In the episode "The Invisible Hand of Fate", she is briefly seen as a teenager at college, where her voice is recognisably deep but occasionally breaks into its original, lighter tone. Publick has also commented that much like her passion for the clothing of Jacqueline Kennedy, Dr. Girlfriend’s voice is based upon the former first lady’s own deep, semi-masculine voice. This may also give the smoking theory more credibility, as the former first lady was herself a heavy smoker.