diff --git a/MultimediaViewer.php b/MultimediaViewer.php
index f67b30dca..f770db06f 100644
--- a/MultimediaViewer.php
+++ b/MultimediaViewer.php
@@ -740,6 +740,9 @@ $wgResourceModules += array(
 		'messages' => array(
 			'multimediaviewer-file-page',
 			'multimediaviewer-desc-nil',
+
+			// messages that are gender-dependent (we need to check if they really depend on the gender):
+			'multimediaviewer-userpage-link',
 		),
 	),
 
diff --git a/resources/mmv/mmv.js b/resources/mmv/mmv.js
index 7697265d0..ed64043e3 100755
--- a/resources/mmv/mmv.js
+++ b/resources/mmv/mmv.js
@@ -67,8 +67,10 @@
 		 * @property {mw.mmv.provider.UserInfo}
 		 * @private
 		 */
-		this.userInfoProvider = new mw.mmv.provider.UserInfo( new mw.mmv.Api( 'userinfo' ),
-			{ maxage: apiCacheMaxAge } );
+		this.userInfoProvider = new mw.mmv.provider.UserInfo( new mw.mmv.Api( 'userinfo' ), {
+			useApi: this.needGender(),
+			maxage: apiCacheMaxAge
+		} );
 
 		/**
 		 * @property {mw.mmv.provider.ImageUsage}
@@ -82,7 +84,7 @@
 		 * @private
 		 */
 		this.globalUsageProvider = new mw.mmv.provider.GlobalUsage( new mw.mmv.Api( 'globalusage' ), {
-			doNotUseApi: !mw.config.get( 'wgMultimediaViewer' ).globalUsageAvailable,
+			useApi: mw.config.get( 'wgMultimediaViewer' ).globalUsageAvailable,
 			maxage: apiCacheMaxAge
 		} );
 		// replace with this one to test global usage on a local wiki without going through all the
@@ -112,6 +114,22 @@
 
 	MMVP = MultimediaViewer.prototype;
 
+	/**
+	 * Check if we need to fetch gender information. This relies on the fact that
+	 * multimediaviewer-userpage-link is the only message which takes a gender parameter.
+	 * @return {boolean}
+	 * FIXME there has to be a better way than this
+	 */
+	MMVP.needGender = function () {
+		var male, female, unknown;
+
+		male = mw.message( 'multimediaviewer-userpage-link', '_', 'male' ).text();
+		female = mw.message( 'multimediaviewer-userpage-link', '_', 'female' ).text();
+		unknown = mw.message( 'multimediaviewer-userpage-link', '_', 'unknown' ).text();
+
+		return male !== female || male !== unknown || female !== unknown;
+	};
+
 	/**
 	 * Initialize the lightbox interface given an array of thumbnail
 	 * objects.
diff --git a/resources/mmv/provider/mmv.provider.GlobalUsage.js b/resources/mmv/provider/mmv.provider.GlobalUsage.js
index 07a03f762..bbd356634 100644
--- a/resources/mmv/provider/mmv.provider.GlobalUsage.js
+++ b/resources/mmv/provider/mmv.provider.GlobalUsage.js
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@
 	 * @cfg {number} [apiLimit=100] number of entries to get from the API. If there are
 	 *         more pages than this, we won't have an accurate count.
 	 *         (Also, influences query performance.)
-	 * @cfg {boolean} [doNotUseApi=false] If true, always returns an empty result immediately,
+	 * @cfg {boolean} [useApi=true] If false, always returns an empty result immediately,
 	 *         without doing an actual API call. Used when the GlobalUsage extension (and thus the
 	 *         API) is not available.
 	 * @cfg {number} [dataLimit=10] number of entries to actually put into the model.
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@
 	 */
 	function GlobalUsage( api, options ) {
 		options = $.extend( {
-			doNotUseApi: false,
+			useApi: true,
 			apiLimit: 100,
 			dataLimit: 10
 		}, options );
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@
 		var provider = this,
 			fileUsage;
 
-		if ( this.options.doNotUseApi ) {
+		if ( !this.options.useApi ) {
 			fileUsage = new mw.mmv.model.FileUsage( file, mw.mmv.model.FileUsage.Scope.GLOBAL,
 				[], 0, false );
 			fileUsage.fake = true;
diff --git a/resources/mmv/provider/mmv.provider.UserInfo.js b/resources/mmv/provider/mmv.provider.UserInfo.js
index e4b17ff30..b64d7b429 100644
--- a/resources/mmv/provider/mmv.provider.UserInfo.js
+++ b/resources/mmv/provider/mmv.provider.UserInfo.js
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
  * along with MultimediaViewer.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
  */
 
-( function ( mw, oo ) {
+( function ( mw, $, oo ) {
 
 	/**
 	 * Gets user information (currently just the gender).
@@ -25,10 +25,14 @@
 	 * @constructor
 	 * @param {mw.Api} api
 	 * @param {Object} [options]
+	 * @cfg {boolean} [useApi=true] If false, always returns an empty result immediately,
+	 *         without doing an actual API call. Used when the current language does not have genders.
 	 * @cfg {number} [maxage] cache expiration time, in seconds
 	 *  Will be used for both client-side cache (maxage) and reverse proxies (s-maxage)
 	 */
 	function UserInfo( api, options ) {
+		options = $.extend( { useApi: true }, options );
+
 		mw.mmv.provider.Api.call( this, api, options );
 	}
 	oo.inheritClass( UserInfo, mw.mmv.provider.Api );
@@ -40,10 +44,22 @@
 	 * @return {jQuery.Promise.<mw.mmv.model.User>} user
 	 */
 	UserInfo.prototype.get = function( username, repoInfo ) {
-		var provider = this,
+		var user,
+			provider = this,
 			ajaxOptions = {},
 			cacheKey = username;
 
+		if ( !this.options.useApi ) {
+			// Create a user object with unknown gender without doing an API request.
+			// This is used when the language does not use genders, so it would be a waste of time.
+			// (This might maybe result in incorrect text if the message does not have a translation
+			// and the fallback language does have genders, but that's an extremely rare edge case
+			// we can just ignore.)
+			user = new mw.mmv.model.User( username, mw.mmv.model.User.Gender.UNKNOWN );
+			user.fake = true;
+			return $.Deferred().resolve( user );
+		}
+
 		// For local/shared db images the user should be visible via a local API request,
 		// maybe. (In practice we have Wikimedia users who haven't completed the SUL
 		// merge process yet, and other sites might even use a shared DB for images
@@ -75,4 +91,4 @@
 	};
 
 	mw.mmv.provider.UserInfo = UserInfo;
-}( mediaWiki, OO ) );
+}( mediaWiki, jQuery, OO ) );
diff --git a/tests/qunit/mmv/provider/mmv.provider.GlobalUsage.test.js b/tests/qunit/mmv/provider/mmv.provider.GlobalUsage.test.js
index 558e04090..23f42a711 100644
--- a/tests/qunit/mmv/provider/mmv.provider.GlobalUsage.test.js
+++ b/tests/qunit/mmv/provider/mmv.provider.GlobalUsage.test.js
@@ -155,15 +155,16 @@
 		} );
 	} );
 
-	QUnit.asyncTest( 'GlobalUsage doNotUseApi test', 2, function ( assert ) {
-		var api = {},
-			options = { doNotUseApi: true },
+	QUnit.asyncTest( 'GlobalUsage useApi test', 3, function ( assert ) {
+		var api = { get: this.sandbox.stub().throws( 'API was invoked' ) },
+			options = { useApi: false },
 			file = new mw.Title( 'File:Stuff.jpg' ),
 			globalUsageProvider = new mw.mmv.provider.GlobalUsage( api, options );
 
 		globalUsageProvider.get( file ).done( function( fileUsage ) {
 			assert.strictEqual( fileUsage.pages.length, 0, 'Does not return any pages' );
 			assert.ok( fileUsage.fake );
+			assert.ok( !api.get.called, 'API was not called' );
 			QUnit.start();
 		} );
 	} );
diff --git a/tests/qunit/mmv/provider/mmv.provider.UserInfo.test.js b/tests/qunit/mmv/provider/mmv.provider.UserInfo.test.js
index 07362c558..0933bb901 100644
--- a/tests/qunit/mmv/provider/mmv.provider.UserInfo.test.js
+++ b/tests/qunit/mmv/provider/mmv.provider.UserInfo.test.js
@@ -148,4 +148,19 @@
 			QUnit.start();
 		} );
 	} );
+
+	QUnit.asyncTest( 'UserInfo fake test', 4, function ( assert ) {
+		var api = { get: this.sandbox.stub().throws( 'API was invoked' ) },
+			username = 'Catrope',
+			repoInfo = {},
+			userInfoProvider = new mw.mmv.provider.UserInfo( api, { useApi: false } );
+
+		userInfoProvider.get( username, repoInfo ).done( function( user ) {
+			assert.strictEqual( user.username, 'Catrope', 'username is set correctly' );
+			assert.strictEqual( user.gender, mw.mmv.model.User.Gender.UNKNOWN, 'gender is set to unknown' );
+			assert.ok( user.fake, 'fake flag is set' );
+			assert.ok( !api.get.called, 'API was not called' );
+			QUnit.start();
+		} );
+	} );
 }( mediaWiki, jQuery ) );