Having a female voice-actor doesn't mean they're necessarily making Strawberry female. As I recall from the book, he was portrayed as a rather effeminate character, so he could still be male.

Yup, very odd time for kids. So much truly bizarre stuff back then that really makes no sense when you go back and look at it. One of the reasons I'm the twisted freak I am today.

As a kid, I had a pretty solid separation between fantasy and reality, moreso than anyone I've known. Films and TV shows didn't really bother me, horror movies mostly just bored me or made me laugh at how goofy and unrealistic they were. Violent stuff mostly did the same, it just looked too unreal to bother me.