@@RandomPerson0498 Not officially but c'mon. He's male and he lays eggs, and he totally also has aggressive short guy energy. I don't know how it can be any more clear.
Broke: Birdo is a crossdressing man Woke: Birdo is a trans woman Bespoke: Birdo exists beyond the human conception of gender and cannot be defined. Also she's dating Yoshi.
Whether or not Birdo is canon trans now, Birdo really fits the trans vibe with having half the populace finding your gender a complete confusion, no matter how much it's stated.
@@pogars6811 "don't be putting people in bubbles" this is a video game character and it won't hurt anybody, especially the character, to think of them as transgender. also the comment is pretty straightforward imo, it fits the trans experience of having your gender constantly debated back and forth
I think the reason it was so confusing for a while, is because it was SUPPOSED to be confusing. I think it was considered funny to a Japanese audience at the time to have a character who's gender was questioned so heavily, that even in lore there is a mix of answers. The western releases had less references to Birdo's gender because, unlike Japan, it would've been more controversial in the states at the time (in a similar way that Bugs Bunny stopped cross-dressing for a while). Eventually, however, being trans was looked at very differently, in both Japan, and the US, and Birdo's gender isn't played for laughs anymore, and it simply left Birdo as being a "she", instead of "he" or "confused". But maybe I'm misreading the whole situation.
This is pretty spot on. It’s tricky because just like in the US, there are a variety of opinions here in Japan about the character. Generally I think it’s safe to say Nintendo’s coming around.
@@PaperWill I hope you're right, and it's heartening to hear Japan is coming around. I'd really like to visit there some day, and there are, unfortunately, a lot of places I have to rule out because of who I am.
@@yangwen-li5881 weird thing to do, but since you're in there, could you please take a look for the gene that determines whether I give a shit about your opinion?
Your explanation of why Super Mario 2 wasn’t in Europe or America is the best I’ve ever heard. Like I’ve been watching videos on Nintendo content for years and the impression I’ve always gotten was “oh we don’t think the westerners can the skill to do a harder game” not “western people are favoring more casual games and we don’t want to tank our brand with a poorly received sequel” which makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE.
as a trans women I think the constant changes in what she's labeled as just shows how trans people get misgendered and shit. I'd like to believe that she is trans because I've always loved her without knowing she might be trans and before I even knew I was trans or what trans even meant. I've always loved her feminity and knowing it's a possibility that she's a trans woman makes it all so much better.
Just like you pointed out, the changes in Birdo's gender status and Nintendo's non-malicious, but non-committal stance really reflects the journey a lot of transgender individuals seem to take. I agree 100%. If I ever remade this video, I'd want to emphasize that Nintendo was never intentionally misgendering Birdo, they just struggle with how to present her. Hopefully they come around to embracing the trans stuff sooner.
@@PaperWill I hope so too. I know many anime and mangas from Japan that don't do trans people any justice and do a bad job presenting them. although most that I've seen are made in the 80s and 90s so I assume that's why
@@gameproadvancesp148 I think it would need to be a radically different franchise from the Mario and Yoshi's World style of platformer. Something like WarioWare or Luigi's Mansion would be great.
Birdo is how I realized I was trans. As a kid, I always felt like a girl trapped in a boy's body, and I was a huge Mario fan. When I was 11, I read that Birdo was transgender, and found out what that meant, and I was like "No way, I'm the same!" That's why Birdo will always he my favorite Nintendo character.
@@chompythebeast the people who say representation of minorities doesn't matter are usually just upset that there was any representation of the minority in the first place.
Mario is how I realized I was a drug addict. As a kid, I always felt like I was high after doing drugs, and I was a huge Mario fan. When I was 11, I read about how Mario ate mushrooms, and found out what that meant, and I was like "No way, I'm the same!" That's why Mario will always he my favorite Nintendo character.
It's funny that Birdo is my favorite Nintendo character, when i was a kid. I remember the whole questioning about Birdo's gender in the internet thing, and i was like "whatever gender she is, she/he is the cutest character i ever played in Mario Kart Wii" and oh boy, she still is my favorite character in the Super Mario Franchise. Yes, i do believe as a headcanon, that Birdo is a trans-woman.
Birdo is canonically a trans woman but Japan didn’t think it would go over well in the US. The same thing happened with one of the characters in Paper Mario for the GameCube (there’s a trans ghost girl in that game but she’s only trans in the Japanese version) Edit: the paper Mario character’s name is Vivian
I don't know if this was part of the reason they chose it, maybe it's just a great coincidence, but fyi, Vivian traditionally has been given to both men and women. (I mention it because, in the US, it's now almost exclusively given to women.) Likely they chose it simply because it's related to the Latin word for "alive."
Vivian’s a shadow (not a ghost), and it’s only in the English localization where her transness is erased. But there’s still a few hints in her character arc that indicate that she’s trans, particularly the way her sisters treat her, and when I first played the game without having read any of the fan wikis or the like I had a feeling she was trans. Or at least I found her very relatable in the gender feels.
@@justadude5712 Idk abt the swimmer, but I know there's one in the Battle Mansion in X/Y. She's a Beauty trainer class and in Japanese, she says “I was a Karate King just half a year ago; the power of medical science is awesome, wouldn’t you say?!” and in English, she says “Yes, a mere half year ago I was a Black Belt! Quite the transformation, wouldn’t you say?” making it more ambiguous.
I love birdo so much! I was beginning to think Nintendo decided to forget about her over recent years (not including her in MK8 or the deluxe version, and not being in a mario party for 10 years), so I was so happy to see her as one of the characters in Mario Party Susperstars!
birdetta is my favorite mario character, it makes me so happy to see such a interesting and respectful video about her! it feels to me like her identity has always been pretty clear, but the game devs just wanted to avoid actually adressing it in a more serious manner, which is both disappointing and ironic, considering how trans folks are treated in real life.
Your discussion of Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic misses a very important detail: "Yume Kojo" was a real world event that took place in Japan in 1987 that the game was a promotional tie-in for. The 4 playable characters were the existing mascots for the event, and because it was an event that only Japan saw, THAT is why it would have no appeal in the west without a reskin.
Birdo's transition timeline: very early trans woman (possibly even not out as a trans woman but lived as maybe a drag queen or other "crossdresser")->trans woman (who probably passes as a cis woman to the point that being trans is never mentioned)->detransitioned trans woman (only in Japan, and likely working through internalized shit while dating Yoshi)->trans woman again->nonbinary trans fem->and maybe trans woman again (but likely in a more open way about trans-ness, hence being...imprisoned...in Captain Rainbow) honestly given many trans people's own struggles with gender, this isn't too unreasonable haha
Coming at this from a trans perspective Birdo has always resonated with me pretty strongly, growing up in an era where discussion of the subject was always just something we don't do, it was nice seeing this character who experienced those struggles alongside me and now gets to be out and proud and loved for it. Even if it sarted out as a horrible joke that kinda, feels like part of the experience. I thought I looked like a joke when I wore my first dress but years later I'm so comfortable exclusively wearing skirts and knowing the world sees a woman, just like Birdo in modern Mario Canon. Honestly when this video showed up in my feed I was worried this was gonna be full of painful misunderstandings but I really appreciate how you went about the subject matter and it's nice to see all this history in one place, so thank you for putting this together and help celebrate a character who's important to so many people like myself.
9:38 WAIT WAIT WAIT so Nintendo has always been unwilling to clarify if Birdo is a transgender, transvestite, or cis woman, but there was also a time where they very heavily implied Yoshi was canonically gay???
@@undercomposition In the Doki Doki Panic series (I’m not sure if it’s just that game or if it’s from a series), yeah, she’d be Katherine. But in her Mario series debut, she prefers Birdetta, so the way I see it at least, the DDP character is Katherine, and the Mario character is Birdetta. It makes sense to me at least Also, hell yeah! I long for the day that she finally gets her preferred name used.
based on the japanese phrasing and that one mario USA commercial it seems more likely birdo was thought of as an okama/drag queen stereotype rather than transgender. In the end it depends on whether you want to lump the two together or not, but it seems to be pretty consistant throughout the years.
Yo I'm happy to finally see a video about Birdo that is both 1) not transphobic and 2) has a good amount of knowledge of her character and the franchise's history. There's a few errors here and there (You label Robirdo as being from All Stars/USA instead of Mario Advance and you mistakingly say "Super Mario Bros. Melee) but on the whole I think this is quite good!
@@PaperWill Hey, as a creator myself, I know the feeling xD This one popped up on my homepage as I was in the midst of considering a Birdo video myself, so the topic naturally caught me eye. I don't blame you too much on the Robirdo thing, the Mario Advance port is *mostly* just faithful, but they had to throw you the curveball I guess. :P
@Natalie i think its because nintendo always tries to have "good values" so they attracted a lot of "good values" people. that means a lot of homophobia and stuff like that.
I remember when I was a kid, my sister would get me to play as birdo since we would both want to play as yoshi, but eventually I ended up just liking her anyway. Now that I'm older, and have come out as trans myself, it honestly makes me happy that a character that I've loved since I was a kid is trans as well.
Technically non-binary or genderless if you want to compare it directly with human beings definition of gender because Birdo as an entire species are hermaphrodite and reproduce asexually, same as the Yoshi species. All Birdo can produce and spit out eggs and gender as a what we understand is meaningless to the Birdo and Yoshi species.
It doesn't actually seem all that difficult from a purely biological standpoint. First, it seems like "birdo" is the name of the species and Katherine is one specific birdo, so it's possible that some of these descriptions were for another character, much like how not every toad is Toad and not every yoshi is Yoshi. And much like Yoshi, her species is most likely a dinosaur who produces eggs regardless of gender (possibly the origin of the name, just implying that her species is bird-like, which would further imply her species was documented before yoshis were known for their egg-producing proclivity). Being sentient, we can definitely see that Katherine considers herself female and we know how other characters and whomever gives voice to the instruction manuals and in-game text react to this preference, but we never see how any other birdos react to it. This could very well be normal for their species, especially since birdos and yoshis appear to be either asexual, hermaphroditic, or could even have a completely different reproductive structure than humans and other animals do. Humans sure love putting things in boxes though, so it appears denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom aren't quite as forward-thinking as you'd expect them to be and they are ascribing traditional gender norms to her. So what gender is Birdo? That's easy - female. Gender is specifically a set of social norms, and she identifies with and adopts those norms, so she is female. What sex is Birdo? That would require a deep dive into the biological functions of the birdo species' reproduction processes as a whole and we may even end up with an answer that is only analogous to what we already know, which would still be us ascribing the aspects of our society onto her, which we already know from your video is a messy and confusing endeavor ultimately resulting in the further divide of the birdo species from the rest of humanity. So, like, just let her be a girl though.
@@threeicedcreams Technically yes, since that's where the eggs are produced and also presumably where she produces the typical mouth functions like respiration and ingestion! A true cloaca would be at the end point of this process, but Birdo clearly has a different physiology than birds or lizards in our world. It's possible that this is her only orifice other than the eyes and earholes, but also possible that she somehow shifts the eggs to her mouth from elsewhere in the body. Yoshis, on the other hand, definitely have their cloacas in a more traditional location, suggesting that the two species aren't very closely related.
hi, trans man here. i've always believed that birdo was transgender no matter what since there's little to no transgender representation when it comes to video games- especially mtf. sadly, i've seen this character get a lot of hate/backlash for being trans, and it's honestly pathetic that people get so pissy about a fictional character's gender. but also, i blame nintendo as well, as whenever they state her being transgender there's always a joke about misgendering her, which also allows their audience to treat her like a joke as well... ik it's just a character but it makes me genuinely sad because i too go through this struggle quite often, and ik japan's outlook on the lgbt community can be rocky but i just hope that nintendo in general can just respect her.
@@yangwen-li5881 what makes you think i care about random gay men's opinions? besides, trans women were the ones to bring lgbt rights to light. even though i'm also gay i think yaoi is diagusting lol. idk why you're mad?
Dude, Birdo was my favorite character ever as a kid, when I first played as her in Mario Party 8 and Sluggers for the Wii….I never knew that I needed this video until now. Finally more people are noting about the gender ups and downs with her. She’s trans in my heart!
Birdo is. . .an interesting character. No matter how you slice it, she's female. But is she transgender or AFAB? I'm starting to think that it's the former and that, from All Stars onwards, Nintendo of USA decided to just keep calling Birdo a female. Meanwhile Nintendo of Japan I guess thought her being trans was funny and decided to misgender and mock her for it. Tho thankfully after Captain Rainbow, even they stopped and accepted Birdo for who she is. Birdo marks the progression of transgender acceptance, being proud and happy with her identity as a woman regardless of the mean things other say behind her back. Despite not being one of my favourite characters, as a transgender woman I can sympathize with Birdo and feel happy that she's now actually being respected by her creators. To quote another work that came from Japan in response to a transphobic character: "What's the big deal? That's so closed minded!"
You do know that this is a fictitious pink dino-whos-a-whatsit we are talking about? Find human inspiration from HUMANS like Wendy Carlos. Waiting on make believe for validation is stupid.
@@satsubatsu347 It's just nice to have a made-up character that reflects people. Even if you want that person to find validation from humans specifically, they kind of already get that from the creator(s) of the character because those creator(s) felt the need to make that character. Besides, when you have the world that shits on you because you are "not normal"(straight, white, good at sports, not autistic or crippled) and there is no human in real life or media that says "Hey, you matter", people will take anything they get.
id say say once again its a split of canons. in the us outside of a few cases like her original appearance and the few smash entries, birdo is pretty clearly intended to simply be afab. its just the chances that localization teams were calling birdo her to be inclusive is heavily outweighed by the chance that it was just to not stir up trouble with american audiences that would typically not be as receptive to such things even as a joke. in japan yeah she is 100% trans but once again not really for the sake of inclusivity as highlighted in the video.
@@satsubatsu347 Well, yes and no. I do agree that having real life representation is important, and arguably more important than in fiction. However, fiction can play a key part in self-identity. Take James Bond for example. In almost every James Bond film, he does a lot of cool action hero stuff, he’s very suave and cool, and he gets the girl, often by saving her. Yes, these are stories of that one guy doing that. However, if you can see yourself in James Bond, it is easier to see yourself in that role, doing and being those things. A lot of men who grew up with James Bond don’t just see him as a cool guy, but as the ideal guy, someone who they should strive to be like. Similar to the way that old myths and legends were created as parables and guides for how to live, we take modern stories and interpret them into our own self-mythologies. What we believe the ideal version of ourself would look like. Without much in the way of fictional representation, it can be harder to create that ideal self. In my personal experience, when I started transition, it was a lot harder to form ideas of who I wanted to be. Not having many figures I could see myself in and say “yes, I want to be like them” led to a lot more self reflection than I ever did before that point. Having to form a new identity is difficult, without having that fictional ideal to guide you on that path. However, I agree maybe the pink dinosaur that was originally written as an “isn’t cross-dressing funny” joke isn’t where we should be looking for representation. It’s funny that Birdo can be seen as that if you choose to read it that way, but I suppose when you’re so severely lacking that fictional, mythologised representation you’ll take it where you can get it I suppose. And another thing you’re absolutely correct on. *Everyone* should stan Wendy Carlos, whether they’re trans or not. She’s an amazing composer (her work on The Shining is especially iconic imo) and was an absolute pioneer of early synthesiser music. I also have a love of electronic music and she’s now a personal idol of mine.
@@satsubatsu347 yeah cuz (white) cishet ppl don’t understand how important any kinda representation is, even in fiction. thats the “normal” stop it with this crap. think outside your little box.
Sounds like the good majority of confusion stems from a cultural joke in poor taste that made it to localization and Nintendo has been paying for it ever since. The pronoun mix ups keep up all the way to Tennis Aces so I’d say it’s definitely relevant in some way still It’s a tough one and I don’t think Nintendo will ever come out and explain why this all happened, though I think it’s good that they still use her in stuff. In fact, she’s been consistently in use for her entire existence as a character!
I agree. Birdo's gender status originated as a point of humor, but as society's views on transgender issues have evolved, so has our approach to a character like this. I've received some comments and DMs implying that I'm trying to intentionally confuse the audience because Birdo is simply trans, there's no debate. These kind of bum me out, to be honest. I didn't make Birdo's gender history confusing; NINTENDO did. My point, which I thought I emphasized in the conclusion, was that I do believe Birdo is trans. But an objective look at Nintendo's handling of the history shows there was some nuance and confusion along the way.
@@PaperWill I'm transgender and I think you did a wonderful job of wording that. I would love to say that birdo is obviously trans but when it says she is indeterminate gender I think that her species just may not have gender. But either way I like the representation by a Mario character so...to me she is trans.
@@hollya.6727 First, thank you for saying I handled the topic well. I've actually wanted to do a lot more transgender-history videos in gaming too. But, I need to keep reading, researching, and listening to people's experiences before I get into trickier, heavier trans topics. I'm on my way though! As for the video...When I started the project, I told myself that I'd follow the canon and not inject my own pro-LGBT bias into conclusions. But the truth is...yeah, Birdo is just **clearly** transgender. Like you said, there are lots of ways to interpret canonical inconsistencies, but at the end of the day, here's a character, born biologically male, saying "Hi, I'm a woman". That's really the only thing that matters.
@@PaperWill if there were anyway for me to help you with this I would love to. Also I think that would be a very interesting video series. Sadly up until recently most of our representation has been someone is a serial killer or tricks men for money. So I'm guessing that like birdo many characters would have to be recreated as a respectable trans person afterwards but regardless it is interesting.
In short it was joke character based on crossdressers. At the time it was ok to make jokes about them and trans people, but as time marches on society stops finding it funny. Is like the joke about two guys kissing, 20 years ago was funny, now not that much because we are used to.
I would honestly not chalk up Nintendo to get brownie points for writing and accepting Birdo as trans. With her complicated history, to me, it just goes to show how far Nintendo goes to avoid any representation in the LGBT community. I know from other Japanese media that having a man cross-dress/present as a woman was more accepted. The pronoun shift to try and classify her as just a girl in English translations feels like they want to write out any trans ideals. In general, I think all of this is due to ignorance, rather than trying to add diversity. I don't know, I just see it as another LGBT character misrepresented, because the initial writing of the character was so questionable and muddled.
For many decades, and this is not just something from Japan because everyone did even the USA, it was normal to make fun of transgenders and crossdressers since there break rigid gender roles at the time and was sexually opresive. But as societies changed and got better with human rights and liberty of expression there started to question this kind of representation in media. I still remember even back in early 2000s shows where there still made fun of crossdressers but nowadays there stop being funny because we realise it was wrong. Birdo and other similar characters would always have this baggage from coming out in a time period where this kind of insensitivity was normalised, but at least there are trying to give a new light to this characters to remedy that.
Honestly, a co op Yoshi/Birdo game would be really fun. They could have virtually the same moveset, but have Yoshi throw eggs in an arch, while Birdo shoots them straight ahead. Could be a really fun puzzle platformer.
I've always loved Birdo and honestly am proud to have her as a trans-rep. I was always confused on her gender as I've heard she was a male, but honestly love the way her representation has evolved.
What I like about Birdo is that no matter how she is being described or referred to by other people, she's always just happy being herself. She doesn't give a crap what others think of her, she just wants do do her own thing. That's admirable.
the moment you said captain rainbow i was hoping for you to mention birdo's unmentionable item. i assure you i am very disappointed by your lack of immaturity in this regard in all seriousness though, thankyou for not using this as an excuse to abuse trans people like so many others do. it is refreshing to see a video that covers her while also allowing her some dignity
Nintendo probably values Birdo about as much as they do Waluigi. They’re both relegated exclusively to being playable in sports and party games, and I’d very surprised if either got their own full game
In Japan, "crossdressing" characters was and still are played for comedic effect. I use that language to distinguish how they view them. Given that the concept of transgenderism didn't really exist there until really recently, and that they don't use third-person pronouns at all, it's hard to come to the same definitive consensus as one would in English. And the general way characters that have some degree of dysphoria are depicted as, is as people that know that how they act doesn't reflect their sex, accepts that yet continues to act contradictory to it and consider themselves to be of their sex. That's how it is there. Also, Super Mario USA was released in 1992 on the Famicom. It was not not released as part of All-Stars first. The robotic Birdo was an extra boss in Super Mario Advance, a remake released on the GBA.
@@Nakia11798 Is recent in the sense we starting to talk more openly and acepting about transgenders and other non conformity genders such as non binary. Before that it was seeing from exotic, weird or even ostracised by many societies at the time.
I believe in Japan you weren’t really considered transgender until you get surgery or medical treatment. It’s kind of weird and complicated. Because if you try to socially transition you’ll just be considered a cross dresser
I personally entertain two Ideas about Birdo. First is the idea of Birdo as a drag queen. It some of the “thinks he’s a girl” stuff feel less downright offensive. There’s also Birdo as a sexless species where femininity is the norm, compared to toads and yoshi where being female is an entire character trait, which would understandably find that weird. Cultural Clash happens all the time in our world so it isn’t unreasonable to expect this from Mario’s too. I do feel the Transgender connections are a really key part of what Birdo is nowadays though, even if that aspect is mostly erased outside of parody. I feel with the latter idea a trans woman having a significant role in Birdo culture would be a really interesting concept to run with. Maybe they could have something to do with why they’re named after birds? Also as a bonus note: Birdo’s role in Captain Rainbow is intended as a parody of the confusion regarding her gender in the games. It isn’t exactly an official stance.
I should also mention that the conceptualization of gender is somewhat different in Japan. In earlier eras there were actually a group of *arguably* transgender folks who were allowed to express their gender differently. To this day there seems to be an abundance (at least compared to North America) of crossdressing and transgender characters. They made Ranma 1/2 for goodness sakes!
Indeed, but how open really where back then is still debatable since most trans people used to work in entertaiment, sex services or in some places as gurus, sight seers or any special class of the clergy system from a couple of religions out there Still way more open than the West thou.
Idk if you’ll ever see this comment but, having gone through your back catalogue after getting into your vids through your Yandere Simulator video, I *really* appreciate how you handle trans issues, especially stuff that isn’t clear-cut like Birdo and fan theories about The Path. As a trans viewer, it seriously means a lot to have somebody not fall into either dismissing the possibility of transness out of hand or shying away from actually diving into the topic out of discomfort; it’s really cool and rare and I’m so glad you’re doing it! :)
This is truly a great video. A deep dive into the mysterious representation of trans people....it's really like..wtf is even going on in the heads of the creators? How do they see trans people? Is it all some joke? That point about how it must represent the minds of trans individuals (always being misgendered) was a really solid point to end on.
I was born in 79, :p I remember there was some outrage at how the manual described birdo. But to me it was so blessed. LGBTQ representation was pretty light and scarce, I still remember staying up watching a bad skinemax movie about lesbian vampires not cuz of the boobs (not just for the boobs) but mainly to see a story about how 2 women could be romantically involved. During the 90s I identified as gender bent or gender fucked and it was not exactly a good wholesome scene it was dismissed as performative and everyone misgendered everyone else back then but it was as much a community as we had back then. Birdo is basically a fossil of the old LGBTQ scene how stuff didn't exactly fit but we took what we could get piece stuff about ourselves. I'm glad things have progressed as much as they have, I'm glad to identify as agender. I'm glad I came to terms with my sexuality too. But especially grateful that we understand things better now and ill be thankful if no one else has to go through the crap we put up with before.
Hey Leyton! Thanks. I actually feel bad, it's been too long since my last Mac video. After my next video drops I'm definitely doing another Mac compilation!
Technically non-binary or genderless if you want to compare it directly with human beings definition of gender because Birdo as an entire species are hermaphrodite and reproduce asexually, same as the Yoshi species. All Birdo can produce and spit out eggs and gender as a what we understand is meaningless to the Birdo and Yoshi species.
Nintendo has done this before with other characters too. Such as Gracie Grace in the animal crossing series, where these days she's referred female but in earlier games was male but feminine looking.
ayy i saw and liked this vid a year ago and forgot about it. today i rediscovered your channel with your video on children's entertainment in my recommended and i watched your vid on cult entertainment too. I love your channel bro :)
I love birdo. I've personally recognized her as trans woman for a while but whether or not thats canon doesn't bother me. I feel there's enough in the characters history to justify the interpretation and hey more representation. Getting to play as her always made me smile.
Great vid! 2 things. Robo Birdo appears in the Gameboy Advance version. I dont think that boss is in the japanese nes version. Also the Ostro and Birdo names being swapped is not only in the instructions but the cast credits at the end of the game.
The easiest answer is that birdo/catherine is just genderfluid and likes confusing people on purpose, which as a fluid person myself i can confirm is a fun passtime. If i can make people question their preception of gender and be as complicated as possible, its a good day.
Oh you missed the games where her gender is listed only as "?" But we either need a Birdo game or a Birdo movie written by John Waters starring the voice of DIVINE as Birdo.
@@squashedshibber2684 Oh damn, man, we lost Divine? Okay, let's all have a moment of silence.... Alright couple seconds of that will do, so who can replace her as the voice of Birdo? Actually, just to be honest for a moment, I do like the voices the Birdos had in Super Mario advance, it was literally just a woman with a lovely voice saying "This is as FAR as you go!" and it was cute. But movie Birdo still needs a sagging fat thong bulge and every time she applies for a job she fills in the 'Sex' field with *"Yes please."* As long as heterosexual people are made uncomfortable by her that is a win for the rest of us and humanity.
While some people nowadays can go back and say "Birdo is trans", I think it's important to not sweep under the rug the uglier truth that what was actually said was that Birdo "*thought* he was a girl". We should accept that what was said back then wasn't as accepting of what we now see transgender people as.
If you want more Nintendo Trans Girl Localization Confusion Goodness, I highly recommend Vivian from Paper Mario: Thousand Tear Door, whose original Japanese text has her sisters berating her and calling her a man (the English translation changes it to her sisters calling her ugly and makes no mention of her gender). She's also highkey one of the best characters in the whole game
as someone who has questioned gender and eventually landed on nonbinary, I can confirm that this is a surprisingly accurate representation of someone trying to figure out their gender. You did a good job with this video. It seems that Birdo is a trans woman with a supportive boyfriend, and I’m here for it
Well that was an interesting ride. Not only did I learn about an official Nintendo game I never heard of but a lot more detail about Birdo than I had ever imagined. Being an older gamer who played the original Super Mario Bros. 2 when it came out I never questioned if Birdo was a he or she, it was clearly a she to my child mind. As time went on and more info about Birdo came out it surely seemed "different" but always felt unique and I never considered the representation or blowback to any community. Regardless I thought the video was well put together and I enjoyed it. Side note, I always recalled the wrong name of Ostro and Birdo to be from the ending credits in the original game more-so than the instruction manual. As a kid in the 80's when you got to play a game you didn't always have access to the manual with the game, so being from that moment I guess I never even knew that also came from the manual. The more you know. :)
And personally my favorite character to play in Mario 2. Toad very quick at pulling those vegetables. And very easy to control. Doesn't jump as good as Mario. But less floaty than peach or Luigi.
im here because i played mario golf super rush and the half-ass storymode they have i played and birdo houses you for tournaments and cooks you food and refers to herself as mama and i honestly just wanted to know some lore as ive only seen her in memes of her old sound effects but damn what a journey LOL great vid
Hi! I’m a trans guy on the enby spectrum and I always love seeing videos like these! I always thought Birdo was a guy to be honest, I’m pretty sure I heard it somewhere when I was really young and stuck with it. This video made me think about that and it’s really cool to see the changes in norms overtime displayed by a video game franchise. This character is so cool and has so much potential that I don’t think is shown as much as it should be. This video is amazing at showing what Birdo can do and it’s unfortunate that (for now) we don’t have a game that really puts her in the spotlight. I have a new respect for Birdo after watching this and I think your videos are great! Good job :D
Here before Birdo gets her own game, then later her own franchise, eventually overtaking Mario in popularity and then surpassing all competition to become the most beloved Nintendo character of all time.
This rabbithole got a bit deeper than I was expecting. Seriously, that Captain Rainbow stuff caught me off guard. Nonetheless, I feel like one of the only people on the planet who actually loves this character, and I never mind her presence at all. Birdo might even be one of my personal favorite characters in the franchise tbh. I understand she's probably not one of the best characters ever but...idk. Something about her always manages to put a smile on my face. Whether it's her being straight up adorable or genuinely humorous. It might also have something to do with me being gay myself, and maybe I view her as a role model of sorts. Whatever the case, I think she deserves a place among the Mario mainstays, and I always enjoy seeing her on screen.
The story of Birdo is similar to another video game character's, that being Poison from Final Fight/Street Fighter. There's a video about it floating around that I really liked, but I think this video handles the subject with taste and proper tact.
6:54 I know I'm late to this video but this is from Super Mario Advance on the GBA, which was a rerelease of Super Mario USA, which was released in 2001.
5:25 Same... IMO, Birdo is a trans-feminine entity. Big whoopty fucking doo! The OG description of Birdetta honestly sounds like a blunt/callous interpretation of being MtF. I still want her to be trans; for representation sake. Don't make her cis. If Yoshi can be an individual AND a species. Give some props to the OG Birdo, who was MtF trans.
Great video on the topic! Personally, I think there have been so many references over the years (also Popple pausing before saying "dame" in MLSS and "depending on one's viewpoint, she is a young lady" in a Capt. Rainbow trailer) that I think her status as a born-male character who identifies as female is quite clear. Some games identify her as such, while other games, many from less progressive times, refer to her born gender, though often still mentioning things like her cross-dressing, being an okama, or wanting to be female, to still depict some divergence from traditional gender conformity. Ironically some of these questionable depictions are actually what make it more apparent her character is intended to be trans for better or worse rather than a cis female. Her different depictions can often be seen as different viewpoints on such a controversial topic, yet her identity still comes through for those looking into her character. Birdo's probably my favorite Mario character, and I hope she's in many more games to come!
Hey, this content is really excellent!! I’m super happy to have found your channel (and am probably locked-in on bingeing your content now). Finding more people who make this kind of content about games is really exciting haha. I’ve been trying to branch out and find more people doing this kind of thing, so again, great work and I’m looking forward to seeing more!!
aside from that one character profile, has it ever rly been established that Birdo and Yoshi are love interests? Birdo definitely got pushed into sorta being the girl and/or villain equivalent of Yoshi, but even that has always been p weak.
I think the more simpler explanation would be that Birdo’s gender was the result of a lack of consistency on the writers’ end but it is still interesting to have a potentially (albeit probably unintentional) LGBT Nintendo character
It seems as though we have been deadnaming Birdo this whole time. The first manual said she likes to be referred to as Birdetta and that’s what we should call her!
True, but that starts getting into the issue of English/Japanese canon divide. The original Japanese said her name was Katherine, but she likes to be called Kathy, which signifies a female name being shortened to a female name for familiarity or friendliness. The English, though, goes from a traditionally(?) male name of Birdo to a female name of Birdetta, which is a completely different kind of nickname change vs Katherine/Kathy. Honestly as long as people treat the ideas with respect, I think any name is fine!
“Birdetta” was one of the translators making a joke referencing Monty Python’s Life of Brian. There’s a scene where a character named Stan says “I want to be a woman” and “I want you to all start calling me Loretta.” It was the ‘70s, so the scene’s a little cringey today as Loretta coming out is played for laughs, but it’s not as bad as it could have been giving the time.
I love that no matter what Birdo's gender is throughout the series, they are almost always dating Yoshi.
We love a supportive partner, icons, both of them
Yoshi, a male-identified dinosaur who lays eggs, making them a trans power couple.
@@fluffycritter Wait Yoshi is trans too? 👀👀👀
@@RandomPerson0498 Not officially but c'mon. He's male and he lays eggs, and he totally also has aggressive short guy energy. I don't know how it can be any more clear.
@@fluffycritter Well I never thought of it that way, but a trans dynamic in Mario is soo cool
Broke: Birdo is a crossdressing man
Woke: Birdo is a trans woman
Bespoke: Birdo exists beyond the human conception of gender and cannot be defined. Also she's dating Yoshi.
"cannot be defined", "she"
Coke: Birdo's hermaphrodite
hold up... if Yoshi is a guy but he can lay eggs, does that make him trans as well?
@@tyjuarez no
@@edgardeivis yes
Whether or not Birdo is canon trans now, Birdo really fits the trans vibe with having half the populace finding your gender a complete confusion, no matter how much it's stated.
Bruh tf is the trans vibe? Dont be putting people im bubbles lmao
@@pogars6811 I was kinda wondering what the "trans vibe" was myself, seems a strange choice of phrasing lol
@@pogars6811 "don't be putting people in bubbles" this is a video game character and it won't hurt anybody, especially the character, to think of them as transgender. also the comment is pretty straightforward imo, it fits the trans experience of having your gender constantly debated back and forth
@@pogars6811 i think it was extremely clear what the "trans vibe" means here, i think you're being very silly
Dont mind the other comments i totally get it.
I think the reason it was so confusing for a while, is because it was SUPPOSED to be confusing. I think it was considered funny to a Japanese audience at the time to have a character who's gender was questioned so heavily, that even in lore there is a mix of answers. The western releases had less references to Birdo's gender because, unlike Japan, it would've been more controversial in the states at the time (in a similar way that Bugs Bunny stopped cross-dressing for a while). Eventually, however, being trans was looked at very differently, in both Japan, and the US, and Birdo's gender isn't played for laughs anymore, and it simply left Birdo as being a "she", instead of "he" or "confused". But maybe I'm misreading the whole situation.
This is pretty spot on. It’s tricky because just like in the US, there are a variety of opinions here in Japan about the character.
Generally I think it’s safe to say Nintendo’s coming around.
@@PaperWill I hope you're right, and it's heartening to hear Japan is coming around. I'd really like to visit there some day, and there are, unfortunately, a lot of places I have to rule out because of who I am.
@@yangwen-li5881 you have my DNA laid out in front of you?
@@yangwen-li5881 weird thing to do, but since you're in there, could you please take a look for the gene that determines whether I give a shit about your opinion?
@@OneTrueCat what was all that about?
"a pink creature of indeterminate gender"
same
I feel like that description can also be applied to Kirby, at least in the original Japanese version of the series.
me too
mood
big mood
Same
Your explanation of why Super Mario 2 wasn’t in Europe or America is the best I’ve ever heard. Like I’ve been watching videos on Nintendo content for years and the impression I’ve always gotten was “oh we don’t think the westerners can the skill to do a harder game” not “western people are favoring more casual games and we don’t want to tank our brand with a poorly received sequel” which makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE.
While the notion that western gamers were worse is probably wrong, it's really funny
as a trans women I think the constant changes in what she's labeled as just shows how trans people get misgendered and shit. I'd like to believe that she is trans because I've always loved her without knowing she might be trans and before I even knew I was trans or what trans even meant. I've always loved her feminity and knowing it's a possibility that she's a trans woman makes it all so much better.
Just like you pointed out, the changes in Birdo's gender status and Nintendo's non-malicious, but non-committal stance really reflects the journey a lot of transgender individuals seem to take. I agree 100%.
If I ever remade this video, I'd want to emphasize that Nintendo was never intentionally misgendering Birdo, they just struggle with how to present her. Hopefully they come around to embracing the trans stuff sooner.
@@PaperWill I hope so too. I know many anime and mangas from Japan that don't do trans people any justice and do a bad job presenting them. although most that I've seen are made in the 80s and 90s so I assume that's why
👁👄👁
I don't think that's the thought process they had when making the game, but yeah xd
@@PaperWill Sadly I'm unsure if that will ever happen due to the strength and size of the Chinese market...
Having a birdo game would be awesome
Right??
@@PaperWill yes
Uhh... would it?
@@gameproadvancesp148 maybe
@@gameproadvancesp148 I think it would need to be a radically different franchise from the Mario and Yoshi's World style of platformer. Something like WarioWare or Luigi's Mansion would be great.
Birdo is how I realized I was trans. As a kid, I always felt like a girl trapped in a boy's body, and I was a huge Mario fan. When I was 11, I read that Birdo was transgender, and found out what that meant, and I was like "No way, I'm the same!" That's why Birdo will always he my favorite Nintendo character.
"Representation doesn't matter."
Representation:
@@chompythebeast the people who say representation of minorities doesn't matter are usually just upset that there was any representation of the minority in the first place.
@@IgirlbossedTooCloseToTheSun people who say that aren’t minorities
How are you ugly in both drawings and real life
Mario is how I realized I was a drug addict. As a kid, I always felt like I was high after doing drugs, and I was a huge Mario fan. When I was 11, I read about how Mario ate mushrooms, and found out what that meant, and I was like "No way, I'm the same!" That's why Mario will always he my favorite Nintendo character.
It's funny that Birdo is my favorite Nintendo character, when i was a kid. I remember the whole questioning about Birdo's gender in the internet thing, and i was like "whatever gender she is, she/he is the cutest character i ever played in Mario Kart Wii" and oh boy, she still is my favorite character in the Super Mario Franchise.
Yes, i do believe as a headcanon, that Birdo is a trans-woman.
whatever she is, she slays no matter what.
Birdo is canonically a trans woman but Japan didn’t think it would go over well in the US. The same thing happened with one of the characters in Paper Mario for the GameCube (there’s a trans ghost girl in that game but she’s only trans in the Japanese version)
Edit: the paper Mario character’s name is Vivian
I don't know if this was part of the reason they chose it, maybe it's just a great coincidence, but fyi, Vivian traditionally has been given to both men and women. (I mention it because, in the US, it's now almost exclusively given to women.)
Likely they chose it simply because it's related to the Latin word for "alive."
Vivian’s a shadow (not a ghost), and it’s only in the English localization where her transness is erased. But there’s still a few hints in her character arc that indicate that she’s trans, particularly the way her sisters treat her, and when I first played the game without having read any of the fan wikis or the like I had a feeling she was trans. Or at least I found her very relatable in the gender feels.
Stfu birdo is female canonically
There is a similar thing in Pokémon! Iirc there is a trans swimmer in the Japanese version but in the us version her lines are changed
@@justadude5712 Idk abt the swimmer, but I know there's one in the Battle Mansion in X/Y. She's a Beauty trainer class and in Japanese, she says “I was a Karate King just half a year ago; the power of medical science is awesome, wouldn’t you say?!” and in English, she says “Yes, a mere half year ago I was a Black Belt! Quite the transformation, wouldn’t you say?” making it more ambiguous.
I love birdo so much! I was beginning to think Nintendo decided to forget about her over recent years (not including her in MK8 or the deluxe version, and not being in a mario party for 10 years), so I was so happy to see her as one of the characters in Mario Party Susperstars!
For a second I read MK8 as Mortal Kombat 8 and was very, very confused.
@@PaperWill Scorpio would loose in a second if he had to fight Birdo
I also felt a lot of happiness when she reappeared
birdetta is my favorite mario character, it makes me so happy to see such a interesting and respectful video about her! it feels to me like her identity has always been pretty clear, but the game devs just wanted to avoid actually adressing it in a more serious manner, which is both disappointing and ironic, considering how trans folks are treated in real life.
Your discussion of Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic misses a very important detail: "Yume Kojo" was a real world event that took place in Japan in 1987 that the game was a promotional tie-in for. The 4 playable characters were the existing mascots for the event, and because it was an event that only Japan saw, THAT is why it would have no appeal in the west without a reskin.
Birdo's transition timeline: very early trans woman (possibly even not out as a trans woman but lived as maybe a drag queen or other "crossdresser")->trans woman (who probably passes as a cis woman to the point that being trans is never mentioned)->detransitioned trans woman (only in Japan, and likely working through internalized shit while dating Yoshi)->trans woman again->nonbinary trans fem->and maybe trans woman again (but likely in a more open way about trans-ness, hence being...imprisoned...in Captain Rainbow)
honestly given many trans people's own struggles with gender, this isn't too unreasonable haha
Coming at this from a trans perspective Birdo has always resonated with me pretty strongly, growing up in an era where discussion of the subject was always just something we don't do, it was nice seeing this character who experienced those struggles alongside me and now gets to be out and proud and loved for it. Even if it sarted out as a horrible joke that kinda, feels like part of the experience. I thought I looked like a joke when I wore my first dress but years later I'm so comfortable exclusively wearing skirts and knowing the world sees a woman, just like Birdo in modern Mario Canon.
Honestly when this video showed up in my feed I was worried this was gonna be full of painful misunderstandings but I really appreciate how you went about the subject matter and it's nice to see all this history in one place, so thank you for putting this together and help celebrate a character who's important to so many people like myself.
9:38 WAIT WAIT WAIT so Nintendo has always been unwilling to clarify if Birdo is a transgender, transvestite, or cis woman, but there was also a time where they very heavily implied Yoshi was canonically gay???
Yoshi dont even has gender
I love them as a character and hope that someday Nintendo use her preferred name of Birdetta as her canonical name!
Of course you mean Katherine.
@@undercomposition In the Doki Doki Panic series (I’m not sure if it’s just that game or if it’s from a series), yeah, she’d be Katherine. But in her Mario series debut, she prefers Birdetta, so the way I see it at least, the DDP character is Katherine, and the Mario character is Birdetta. It makes sense to me at least
Also, hell yeah! I long for the day that she finally gets her preferred name used.
@@glurchdragmire7473 maybe it could be both in a Toadstool/Peach, King Koopa/Bowser type thing
@@notaninstrument7707 Ooh, yeah I can totally see it being something like that too
Birdo doesn't have a preferred name. Birdo is a make believe character that doesn't have preferences. It's not a real thing. Birdo is make believe.
Although it took them years, Nintendo finally accepts Birdo’s identity.
based on the japanese phrasing and that one mario USA commercial it seems more likely birdo was thought of as an okama/drag queen stereotype rather than transgender. In the end it depends on whether you want to lump the two together or not, but it seems to be pretty consistant throughout the years.
Yo I'm happy to finally see a video about Birdo that is both 1) not transphobic and 2) has a good amount of knowledge of her character and the franchise's history. There's a few errors here and there (You label Robirdo as being from All Stars/USA instead of Mario Advance and you mistakingly say "Super Mario Bros. Melee) but on the whole I think this is quite good!
I’m glad you liked it. Truthfully it’s still surreal to me that anyone watches any my stuff.
And you’re 100% right about Robirdo…damn her.
@@PaperWill Hey, as a creator myself, I know the feeling xD This one popped up on my homepage as I was in the midst of considering a Birdo video myself, so the topic naturally caught me eye. I don't blame you too much on the Robirdo thing, the Mario Advance port is *mostly* just faithful, but they had to throw you the curveball I guess. :P
@@joniivee If you end up making that Birdo video, feel free to use anything at all from this vid!
@Natalie i think its because nintendo always tries to have "good values" so they attracted a lot of "good values" people.
that means a lot of homophobia and stuff like that.
@@yangwen-li5881 what
I remember when I was a kid, my sister would get me to play as birdo since we would both want to play as yoshi, but eventually I ended up just liking her anyway. Now that I'm older, and have come out as trans myself, it honestly makes me happy that a character that I've loved since I was a kid is trans as well.
A Mario Party game isn't complete without her (doesn't apply to the games before MP6
This is adorable as hell
If Birdo is a Trans Woman then Yoshi is a Trans Man
Hell yeah!! Transmasc icons rock!
I like to think that Birdo was just struggling with her identity for a while before being comfortable enough to settle on being female.
I interpret it as her knowing that she's female, but she grapples with transphobia and being misgendered.
Technically non-binary or genderless if you want to compare it directly with human beings definition of gender because Birdo as an entire species are hermaphrodite and reproduce asexually, same as the Yoshi species. All Birdo can produce and spit out eggs and gender as a what we understand is meaningless to the Birdo and Yoshi species.
It doesn't actually seem all that difficult from a purely biological standpoint. First, it seems like "birdo" is the name of the species and Katherine is one specific birdo, so it's possible that some of these descriptions were for another character, much like how not every toad is Toad and not every yoshi is Yoshi. And much like Yoshi, her species is most likely a dinosaur who produces eggs regardless of gender (possibly the origin of the name, just implying that her species is bird-like, which would further imply her species was documented before yoshis were known for their egg-producing proclivity). Being sentient, we can definitely see that Katherine considers herself female and we know how other characters and whomever gives voice to the instruction manuals and in-game text react to this preference, but we never see how any other birdos react to it. This could very well be normal for their species, especially since birdos and yoshis appear to be either asexual, hermaphroditic, or could even have a completely different reproductive structure than humans and other animals do. Humans sure love putting things in boxes though, so it appears denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom aren't quite as forward-thinking as you'd expect them to be and they are ascribing traditional gender norms to her.
So what gender is Birdo? That's easy - female. Gender is specifically a set of social norms, and she identifies with and adopts those norms, so she is female. What sex is Birdo? That would require a deep dive into the biological functions of the birdo species' reproduction processes as a whole and we may even end up with an answer that is only analogous to what we already know, which would still be us ascribing the aspects of our society onto her, which we already know from your video is a messy and confusing endeavor ultimately resulting in the further divide of the birdo species from the rest of humanity. So, like, just let her be a girl though.
So Katherine's the Kamek/Kammy Magikoopa of the Birdos..
This makes the most logical sense
Yeah Birdo is like Pikachu its the species
Do u think the hole mouth lookin thing on Birdo’s face is a cloaca…
@@threeicedcreams Technically yes, since that's where the eggs are produced and also presumably where she produces the typical mouth functions like respiration and ingestion! A true cloaca would be at the end point of this process, but Birdo clearly has a different physiology than birds or lizards in our world. It's possible that this is her only orifice other than the eyes and earholes, but also possible that she somehow shifts the eggs to her mouth from elsewhere in the body. Yoshis, on the other hand, definitely have their cloacas in a more traditional location, suggesting that the two species aren't very closely related.
hi, trans man here. i've always believed that birdo was transgender no matter what since there's little to no transgender representation when it comes to video games- especially mtf. sadly, i've seen this character get a lot of hate/backlash for being trans, and it's honestly pathetic that people get so pissy about a fictional character's gender. but also, i blame nintendo as well, as whenever they state her being transgender there's always a joke about misgendering her, which also allows their audience to treat her like a joke as well... ik it's just a character but it makes me genuinely sad because i too go through this struggle quite often, and ik japan's outlook on the lgbt community can be rocky but i just hope that nintendo in general can just respect her.
@@yangwen-li5881 dude what
@@yangwen-li5881 what makes you think i care about random gay men's opinions? besides, trans women were the ones to bring lgbt rights to light. even though i'm also gay i think yaoi is diagusting lol. idk why you're mad?
@@yangwen-li5881 bro you've been commenting on every trans persons comment, go touch some grass fr
@@artythepartyofficial ok so your straight but want to be considered a man
Birdo fighting for bathroom autonomy made my day 💪🏽🖤
Dude, Birdo was my favorite character ever as a kid, when I first played as her in Mario Party 8 and Sluggers for the Wii….I never knew that I needed this video until now. Finally more people are noting about the gender ups and downs with her. She’s trans in my heart!
Birdo is. . .an interesting character. No matter how you slice it, she's female. But is she transgender or AFAB? I'm starting to think that it's the former and that, from All Stars onwards, Nintendo of USA decided to just keep calling Birdo a female. Meanwhile Nintendo of Japan I guess thought her being trans was funny and decided to misgender and mock her for it. Tho thankfully after Captain Rainbow, even they stopped and accepted Birdo for who she is.
Birdo marks the progression of transgender acceptance, being proud and happy with her identity as a woman regardless of the mean things other say behind her back. Despite not being one of my favourite characters, as a transgender woman I can sympathize with Birdo and feel happy that she's now actually being respected by her creators.
To quote another work that came from Japan in response to a transphobic character: "What's the big deal? That's so closed minded!"
You do know that this is a fictitious pink dino-whos-a-whatsit we are talking about? Find human inspiration from HUMANS like Wendy Carlos. Waiting on make believe for validation is stupid.
@@satsubatsu347 It's just nice to have a made-up character that reflects people. Even if you want that person to find validation from humans specifically, they kind of already get that from the creator(s) of the character because those creator(s) felt the need to make that character.
Besides, when you have the world that shits on you because you are "not normal"(straight, white, good at sports, not autistic or crippled) and there is no human in real life or media that says "Hey, you matter", people will take anything they get.
id say say once again its a split of canons. in the us outside of a few cases like her original appearance and the few smash entries, birdo is pretty clearly intended to simply be afab. its just the chances that localization teams were calling birdo her to be inclusive is heavily outweighed by the chance that it was just to not stir up trouble with american audiences that would typically not be as receptive to such things even as a joke.
in japan yeah she is 100% trans but once again not really for the sake of inclusivity as highlighted in the video.
@@satsubatsu347 Well, yes and no. I do agree that having real life representation is important, and arguably more important than in fiction. However, fiction can play a key part in self-identity.
Take James Bond for example. In almost every James Bond film, he does a lot of cool action hero stuff, he’s very suave and cool, and he gets the girl, often by saving her. Yes, these are stories of that one guy doing that. However, if you can see yourself in James Bond, it is easier to see yourself in that role, doing and being those things. A lot of men who grew up with James Bond don’t just see him as a cool guy, but as the ideal guy, someone who they should strive to be like. Similar to the way that old myths and legends were created as parables and guides for how to live, we take modern stories and interpret them into our own self-mythologies. What we believe the ideal version of ourself would look like.
Without much in the way of fictional representation, it can be harder to create that ideal self. In my personal experience, when I started transition, it was a lot harder to form ideas of who I wanted to be. Not having many figures I could see myself in and say “yes, I want to be like them” led to a lot more self reflection than I ever did before that point. Having to form a new identity is difficult, without having that fictional ideal to guide you on that path.
However, I agree maybe the pink dinosaur that was originally written as an “isn’t cross-dressing funny” joke isn’t where we should be looking for representation. It’s funny that Birdo can be seen as that if you choose to read it that way, but I suppose when you’re so severely lacking that fictional, mythologised representation you’ll take it where you can get it I suppose.
And another thing you’re absolutely correct on. *Everyone* should stan Wendy Carlos, whether they’re trans or not. She’s an amazing composer (her work on The Shining is especially iconic imo) and was an absolute pioneer of early synthesiser music. I also have a love of electronic music and she’s now a personal idol of mine.
@@satsubatsu347 yeah cuz (white) cishet ppl don’t understand how important any kinda representation is, even in fiction. thats the “normal” stop it with this crap. think outside your little box.
Sounds like the good majority of confusion stems from a cultural joke in poor taste that made it to localization and Nintendo has been paying for it ever since. The pronoun mix ups keep up all the way to Tennis Aces so I’d say it’s definitely relevant in some way still
It’s a tough one and I don’t think Nintendo will ever come out and explain why this all happened, though I think it’s good that they still use her in stuff. In fact, she’s been consistently in use for her entire existence as a character!
I agree. Birdo's gender status originated as a point of humor, but as society's views on transgender issues have evolved, so has our approach to a character like this.
I've received some comments and DMs implying that I'm trying to intentionally confuse the audience because Birdo is simply trans, there's no debate. These kind of bum me out, to be honest. I didn't make Birdo's gender history confusing; NINTENDO did.
My point, which I thought I emphasized in the conclusion, was that I do believe Birdo is trans. But an objective look at Nintendo's handling of the history shows there was some nuance and confusion along the way.
@@PaperWill I'm transgender and I think you did a wonderful job of wording that. I would love to say that birdo is obviously trans but when it says she is indeterminate gender I think that her species just may not have gender. But either way I like the representation by a Mario character so...to me she is trans.
@@hollya.6727 First, thank you for saying I handled the topic well. I've actually wanted to do a lot more transgender-history videos in gaming too. But, I need to keep reading, researching, and listening to people's experiences before I get into trickier, heavier trans topics. I'm on my way though!
As for the video...When I started the project, I told myself that I'd follow the canon and not inject my own pro-LGBT bias into conclusions. But the truth is...yeah, Birdo is just **clearly** transgender. Like you said, there are lots of ways to interpret canonical inconsistencies, but at the end of the day, here's a character, born biologically male, saying "Hi, I'm a woman".
That's really the only thing that matters.
@@PaperWill if there were anyway for me to help you with this I would love to. Also I think that would be a very interesting video series. Sadly up until recently most of our representation has been someone is a serial killer or tricks men for money. So I'm guessing that like birdo many characters would have to be recreated as a respectable trans person afterwards but regardless it is interesting.
In short it was joke character based on crossdressers. At the time it was ok to make jokes about them and trans people, but as time marches on society stops finding it funny. Is like the joke about two guys kissing, 20 years ago was funny, now not that much because we are used to.
How does birdo identifies themselfs?
Nintendo: yes
“And stop following me home.”
I would honestly not chalk up Nintendo to get brownie points for writing and accepting Birdo as trans. With her complicated history, to me, it just goes to show how far Nintendo goes to avoid any representation in the LGBT community. I know from other Japanese media that having a man cross-dress/present as a woman was more accepted. The pronoun shift to try and classify her as just a girl in English translations feels like they want to write out any trans ideals. In general, I think all of this is due to ignorance, rather than trying to add diversity. I don't know, I just see it as another LGBT character misrepresented, because the initial writing of the character was so questionable and muddled.
For many decades, and this is not just something from Japan because everyone did even the USA, it was normal to make fun of transgenders and crossdressers since there break rigid gender roles at the time and was sexually opresive.
But as societies changed and got better with human rights and liberty of expression there started to question this kind of representation in media. I still remember even back in early 2000s shows where there still made fun of crossdressers but nowadays there stop being funny because we realise it was wrong.
Birdo and other similar characters would always have this baggage from coming out in a time period where this kind of insensitivity was normalised, but at least there are trying to give a new light to this characters to remedy that.
At the end of the day, the intent behind correctly gendering her doesn't matter. Birdo is a woman, and I'm glad they're leaving it at that.
Honestly, a co op Yoshi/Birdo game would be really fun. They could have virtually the same moveset, but have Yoshi throw eggs in an arch, while Birdo shoots them straight ahead. Could be a really fun puzzle platformer.
I've always loved Birdo and honestly am proud to have her as a trans-rep. I was always confused on her gender as I've heard she was a male, but honestly love the way her representation has evolved.
What I like about Birdo is that no matter how she is being described or referred to by other people, she's always just happy being herself.
She doesn't give a crap what others think of her, she just wants do do her own thing. That's admirable.
In my head cannon Birdo/Catherine is and has always been a trans woman. She’s not confused, everyone around her is.
the moment you said captain rainbow i was hoping for you to mention birdo's unmentionable item. i assure you i am very disappointed by your lack of immaturity in this regard
in all seriousness though, thankyou for not using this as an excuse to abuse trans people like so many others do. it is refreshing to see a video that covers her while also allowing her some dignity
wait what’s the unmentionable item? i didn’t play the game
@@jkaptustudios it is never specified what it is in the game but the way it is treated it is likely a 'back massager' if you know what i mean.
Nintendo probably values Birdo about as much as they do Waluigi. They’re both relegated exclusively to being playable in sports and party games, and I’d very surprised if either got their own full game
In Japan, "crossdressing" characters was and still are played for comedic effect. I use that language to distinguish how they view them. Given that the concept of transgenderism didn't really exist there until really recently, and that they don't use third-person pronouns at all, it's hard to come to the same definitive consensus as one would in English. And the general way characters that have some degree of dysphoria are depicted as, is as people that know that how they act doesn't reflect their sex, accepts that yet continues to act contradictory to it and consider themselves to be of their sex. That's how it is there.
Also, Super Mario USA was released in 1992 on the Famicom. It was not not released as part of All-Stars first. The robotic Birdo was an extra boss in Super Mario Advance, a remake released on the GBA.
@@yangwen-li5881 🤨
You should look into Trans history. It isn't that recent
@@Nakia11798 Is recent in the sense we starting to talk more openly and acepting about transgenders and other non conformity genders such as non binary. Before that it was seeing from exotic, weird or even ostracised by many societies at the time.
@@nidohime6233 Just like any parts of the LGBT, except for lesbians because heterosexual men be doing stuff to them.
I believe in Japan you weren’t really considered transgender until you get surgery or medical treatment. It’s kind of weird and complicated. Because if you try to socially transition you’ll just be considered a cross dresser
‘He’d rather be called Birdetta’ omg we’ve been deadnaming her this whole time 😔
edit: omg nintendo is just my dad
I personally entertain two Ideas about Birdo. First is the idea of Birdo as a drag queen. It some of the “thinks he’s a girl” stuff feel less downright offensive.
There’s also Birdo as a sexless species where femininity is the norm, compared to toads and yoshi where being female is an entire character trait, which would understandably find that weird. Cultural Clash happens all the time in our world so it isn’t unreasonable to expect this from Mario’s too.
I do feel the Transgender connections are a really key part of what Birdo is nowadays though, even if that aspect is mostly erased outside of parody. I feel with the latter idea a trans woman having a significant role in Birdo culture would be a really interesting concept to run with. Maybe they could have something to do with why they’re named after birds?
Also as a bonus note: Birdo’s role in Captain Rainbow is intended as a parody of the confusion regarding her gender in the games. It isn’t exactly an official stance.
I should also mention that the conceptualization of gender is somewhat different in Japan. In earlier eras there were actually a group of *arguably* transgender folks who were allowed to express their gender differently. To this day there seems to be an abundance (at least compared to North America) of crossdressing and transgender characters. They made Ranma 1/2 for goodness sakes!
Indeed, but how open really where back then is still debatable since most trans people used to work in entertaiment, sex services or in some places as gurus, sight seers or any special class of the clergy system from a couple of religions out there Still way more open than the West thou.
Idk if you’ll ever see this comment but, having gone through your back catalogue after getting into your vids through your Yandere Simulator video, I *really* appreciate how you handle trans issues, especially stuff that isn’t clear-cut like Birdo and fan theories about The Path. As a trans viewer, it seriously means a lot to have somebody not fall into either dismissing the possibility of transness out of hand or shying away from actually diving into the topic out of discomfort; it’s really cool and rare and I’m so glad you’re doing it! :)
This is truly a great video. A deep dive into the mysterious representation of trans people....it's really like..wtf is even going on in the heads of the creators? How do they see trans people? Is it all some joke? That point about how it must represent the minds of trans individuals (always being misgendered) was a really solid point to end on.
@@yangwen-li5881 Oof. You must be hot and bothered. Look at all those comments you left 🤭
@@nickycocaine what comments?
Dude, your content and commentary is amazing. I would love to see more running commentary on Nintendo/gaming content! Subscribed!!
Appreciate it Sean!
I was born in 79, :p I remember there was some outrage at how the manual described birdo. But to me it was so blessed. LGBTQ representation was pretty light and scarce, I still remember staying up watching a bad skinemax movie about lesbian vampires not cuz of the boobs (not just for the boobs) but mainly to see a story about how 2 women could be romantically involved. During the 90s I identified as gender bent or gender fucked and it was not exactly a good wholesome scene it was dismissed as performative and everyone misgendered everyone else back then but it was as much a community as we had back then. Birdo is basically a fossil of the old LGBTQ scene how stuff didn't exactly fit but we took what we could get piece stuff about ourselves. I'm glad things have progressed as much as they have, I'm glad to identify as agender. I'm glad I came to terms with my sexuality too. But especially grateful that we understand things better now and ill be thankful if no one else has to go through the crap we put up with before.
I'm agender too!
@@Schnort sweet!!! Agender siblings!!!!!
@@artemismeow gay?
@@kevinwong_2016 yes. we’ll bisexual
Here from the Mac n Cheese clips you did for the mac mains subreddit eons ago, all I have to say is we need more paper will
Hey Leyton! Thanks.
I actually feel bad, it's been too long since my last Mac video. After my next video drops I'm definitely doing another Mac compilation!
Personally I like the vagueness of Birdo’s and even Yoshi’s gender. It doesn’t just allow interpretation but also projection.
Technically non-binary or genderless if you want to compare it directly with human beings definition of gender because Birdo as an entire species are hermaphrodite and reproduce asexually, same as the Yoshi species. All Birdo can produce and spit out eggs and gender as a what we understand is meaningless to the Birdo and Yoshi species.
Nintendo has done this before with other characters too. Such as Gracie Grace in the animal crossing series, where these days she's referred female but in earlier games was male but feminine looking.
9:37 we stan bisexual yoshi
ayy i saw and liked this vid a year ago and forgot about it. today i rediscovered your channel with your video on children's entertainment in my recommended and i watched your vid on cult entertainment too. I love your channel bro :)
I love birdo. I've personally recognized her as trans woman for a while but whether or not thats canon doesn't bother me. I feel there's enough in the characters history to justify the interpretation and hey more representation. Getting to play as her always made me smile.
Only thing I knew about Captain Rainbow prior to this video is it has a very overweight Little Mac
Which seems very cursed to me.
It took a lot of willpower not to include a long segment about Big Mac. Maybe in a future video!
Great vid!
2 things.
Robo Birdo appears in the Gameboy Advance version. I dont think that boss is in the japanese nes version.
Also the Ostro and Birdo names being swapped is not only in the instructions but the cast credits at the end of the game.
Thanks!! Will add addendums on that.
ive just sat down and binged your content and i love it. Your work really resonates with me. thank you for making something i enjoy
The easiest answer is that birdo/catherine is just genderfluid and likes confusing people on purpose, which as a fluid person myself i can confirm is a fun passtime. If i can make people question their preception of gender and be as complicated as possible, its a good day.
Catherine is for some reason a stereotypical transgender woman’s name in Japan, btw
Oh you missed the games where her gender is listed only as "?"
But we either need a Birdo game or a Birdo movie written by John Waters starring the voice of DIVINE as Birdo.
I would also accept Shangela
Symone as Birdo though….
divine would fully approve her corpse being resurrected through necromancy
@@squashedshibber2684 Oh damn, man, we lost Divine?
Okay, let's all have a moment of silence....
Alright couple seconds of that will do, so who can replace her as the voice of Birdo?
Actually, just to be honest for a moment, I do like the voices the Birdos had in Super Mario advance, it was literally just a woman with a lovely voice saying "This is as FAR as you go!" and it was cute. But movie Birdo still needs a sagging fat thong bulge and every time she applies for a job she fills in the 'Sex' field with *"Yes please."* As long as heterosexual people are made uncomfortable by her that is a win for the rest of us and humanity.
While some people nowadays can go back and say "Birdo is trans", I think it's important to not sweep under the rug the uglier truth that what was actually said was that Birdo "*thought* he was a girl". We should accept that what was said back then wasn't as accepting of what we now see transgender people as.
If you want more Nintendo Trans Girl Localization Confusion Goodness, I highly recommend Vivian from Paper Mario: Thousand Tear Door, whose original Japanese text has her sisters berating her and calling her a man (the English translation changes it to her sisters calling her ugly and makes no mention of her gender). She's also highkey one of the best characters in the whole game
I love learning about these thinly veiled and not so subtle character evolutions.
Me too.
i took birdo's gender. it's mine now
You make the best videos dude, I LOVE watching them I haven't actually felt this invested in stuff before
as someone who has questioned gender and eventually landed on nonbinary, I can confirm that this is a surprisingly accurate representation of someone trying to figure out their gender. You did a good job with this video. It seems that Birdo is a trans woman with a supportive boyfriend, and I’m here for it
Well that was an interesting ride. Not only did I learn about an official Nintendo game I never heard of but a lot more detail about Birdo than I had ever imagined. Being an older gamer who played the original Super Mario Bros. 2 when it came out I never questioned if Birdo was a he or she, it was clearly a she to my child mind. As time went on and more info about Birdo came out it surely seemed "different" but always felt unique and I never considered the representation or blowback to any community. Regardless I thought the video was well put together and I enjoyed it.
Side note, I always recalled the wrong name of Ostro and Birdo to be from the ending credits in the original game more-so than the instruction manual. As a kid in the 80's when you got to play a game you didn't always have access to the manual with the game, so being from that moment I guess I never even knew that also came from the manual. The more you know. :)
“Birdo is a boy who thinks he is a girl.”
*Mario 64 damage sound plays*
i like this video!!! the concept, the scrip, the editing!! 💖 good job, Paper Will.
I see people talk more about birdo's gender more than how mario commited at least 5 war crimes.
And personally my favorite character to play in Mario 2.
Toad very quick at pulling those vegetables. And very easy to control. Doesn't jump as good as Mario.
But less floaty than peach or Luigi.
10:08
"I expected you to return with answers. But here you are, presenting nothing but questions!"
I just binged 2/3rds of your videos, and loved them all!
im here because i played mario golf super rush and the half-ass storymode they have i played and birdo houses you for tournaments and cooks you food and refers to herself as mama and i honestly just wanted to know some lore as ive only seen her in memes of her old sound effects but damn what a journey LOL great vid
Hi! I’m a trans guy on the enby spectrum and I always love seeing videos like these!
I always thought Birdo was a guy to be honest, I’m pretty sure I heard it somewhere when I was really young and stuck with it. This video made me think about that and it’s really cool to see the changes in norms overtime displayed by a video game franchise.
This character is so cool and has so much potential that I don’t think is shown as much as it should be. This video is amazing at showing what Birdo can do and it’s unfortunate that (for now) we don’t have a game that really puts her in the spotlight. I have a new respect for Birdo after watching this and I think your videos are great! Good job :D
Here before Birdo gets her own game, then later her own franchise, eventually overtaking Mario in popularity and then surpassing all competition to become the most beloved Nintendo character of all time.
great dude, good jazz music behind this video, good entrance for a documentary about Birdo, i love it !
This rabbithole got a bit deeper than I was expecting. Seriously, that Captain Rainbow stuff caught me off guard.
Nonetheless, I feel like one of the only people on the planet who actually loves this character, and I never mind her presence at all. Birdo might even be one of my personal favorite characters in the franchise tbh. I understand she's probably not one of the best characters ever but...idk. Something about her always manages to put a smile on my face. Whether it's her being straight up adorable or genuinely humorous. It might also have something to do with me being gay myself, and maybe I view her as a role model of sorts.
Whatever the case, I think she deserves a place among the Mario mainstays, and I always enjoy seeing her on screen.
The story of Birdo is similar to another video game character's, that being Poison from Final Fight/Street Fighter.
There's a video about it floating around that I really liked, but I think this video handles the subject with taste and proper tact.
6:54 I know I'm late to this video but this is from Super Mario Advance on the GBA, which was a rerelease of Super Mario USA, which was released in 2001.
Wow! Great video. Definitely a lot of time and effort went into this, you can see that from miles away. Keep up the great work my friend!
Thanks!!
5:25
Same...
IMO, Birdo is a trans-feminine entity. Big whoopty fucking doo!
The OG description of Birdetta honestly sounds like a blunt/callous interpretation of being MtF.
I still want her to be trans; for representation sake. Don't make her cis.
If Yoshi can be an individual AND a species.
Give some props to the OG Birdo, who was MtF trans.
There is a canon MtF Birdo; don't hide it Nintendo!
What does MTF mean
Good on Yoshi for being open-minded enough to date a transgender woman
This was the second vid of yours I got recommended. Thanks for being chill and cool about trans stuff! Instant sub.
Love your videos. Please keep making them and I hope this channel gets a lot more attention in the future
Thanks! I suspect the stuff I'm making will always be a little niche, but it'd be nice to get some growth this year : D
@@PaperWill I found you via your 2020 smash video being posted on reddit if that's useful information
Great video on the topic! Personally, I think there have been so many references over the years (also Popple pausing before saying "dame" in MLSS and "depending on one's viewpoint, she is a young lady" in a Capt. Rainbow trailer) that I think her status as a born-male character who identifies as female is quite clear. Some games identify her as such, while other games, many from less progressive times, refer to her born gender, though often still mentioning things like her cross-dressing, being an okama, or wanting to be female, to still depict some divergence from traditional gender conformity. Ironically some of these questionable depictions are actually what make it more apparent her character is intended to be trans for better or worse rather than a cis female. Her different depictions can often be seen as different viewpoints on such a controversial topic, yet her identity still comes through for those looking into her character. Birdo's probably my favorite Mario character, and I hope she's in many more games to come!
Birdo rights
Damn straight!
EDIT: That legitimately wasn't meant to be a pun.
here to boost interaction for the algo, amazing video everyone should watch it! actually a fan too, you just deserve the growth
Honestly your channel gives me Noodle vibes. I've almost finished all of your videos. Keep it up man you gained a new fan.
Honestly explaining *what* birdo is will probably be even harder
dinosaur with a big mouth
birdo is birdo
I only wanted to play Birdo in the Wii version of Mario cart. I'm trans now.
Hey, this content is really excellent!! I’m super happy to have found your channel (and am probably locked-in on bingeing your content now). Finding more people who make this kind of content about games is really exciting haha. I’ve been trying to branch out and find more people doing this kind of thing, so again, great work and I’m looking forward to seeing more!!
Thanks!
aside from that one character profile, has it ever rly been established that Birdo and Yoshi are love interests?
Birdo definitely got pushed into sorta being the girl and/or villain equivalent of Yoshi, but even that has always been p weak.
I think the more simpler explanation would be that Birdo’s gender was the result of a lack of consistency on the writers’ end but it is still interesting to have a potentially (albeit probably unintentional) LGBT Nintendo character
Birdo: The Mangle of Mario.
with birdso being apart of my entire brand i knew all of this but this is extremely well made
I would be down for a full Birdo game, for sure.
It seems as though we have been deadnaming Birdo this whole time. The first manual said she likes to be referred to as Birdetta and that’s what we should call her!
True, but that starts getting into the issue of English/Japanese canon divide. The original Japanese said her name was Katherine, but she likes to be called Kathy, which signifies a female name being shortened to a female name for familiarity or friendliness. The English, though, goes from a traditionally(?) male name of Birdo to a female name of Birdetta, which is a completely different kind of nickname change vs Katherine/Kathy.
Honestly as long as people treat the ideas with respect, I think any name is fine!
Birdo is never called either of those names in any game as far as I know so eh?
“Birdetta” was one of the translators making a joke referencing Monty Python’s Life of Brian. There’s a scene where a character named Stan says “I want to be a woman” and “I want you to all start calling me Loretta.” It was the ‘70s, so the scene’s a little cringey today as Loretta coming out is played for laughs, but it’s not as bad as it could have been giving the time.
14:29 Birdo's quest for a gender neutral bathroom
Reminding me once again I want Captain Rainbow to be remade.
Really appreciated the existence of this video. :)