Birdo - Video games first Trans Character!

Hello everyone!
In honor of Pride Month (even though its basically over!) I have created a video talking about the history of the first trans video game character, Birdo!

Birdo has a lot of history as a Nintendo character, but does she work as a trans icon in this modern age? Find out how I feel on this episode of Gonzo Media!

[LiquidPrd]

As someone who’s always been a huuuuge Mario nerd, Birdo was legitimately my first exposure to trans people. Although the SMB2 manual description definitely caused a lot of internalized transphobia now that I think about it, seeing Birdo referred to as a woman later on also showed me that transwomen are actually just women. Really wish Nintendo did a better job representing this character as I’ve always strongly identified with Birdo as a trans person myself, but we can only hope for so much. Really good video, you deserve way more views for all the work you put into this!

[Savannah_Simpson]

I was never that huge of a Birdo fan, but she’s really started to grow on me over the years. Her and Daisy both deserve their own games.

[Jackie-XKH]

Broke: Birdo is the first trans character in video games.

Woke: *Pinky from the Pac-Man series, who debuted 7 years before Birdo, was portrayed as male in earlier games and media, but was portrayed as female consistently from the late 90’s onwards, therefore making Pinky the first trans character in video games.*

[ShrimpydooGaming]

Wow, VERY interesting. Great reporting on this - it's pretty amazing Birdo is the first trans character seen in gaming. "She is glamorous and she KNOWS it." Love it!

[floralQuaFloral]

I got curious and decided to look for information about Vivian, specifically how she was trans in most releases of TTYD, and I ended up watching this video first as directed :) This is really cool! I had no idea Birdo was actually the first trans character. I like to think of myself as a big Mario series fan, but a lot of the video was news to me - super informative stuff. I also liked the way you approached the whole situation, especially with regards to explaining the flaws with how she's been portrayed in official material. A very thorough and informed analysis, especially compared to how people usually discuss subjects like this ;P
Excited to watch the Vivian video next!

[SweetBianca]

I am a Transgender girl and I love Catherine so much! And also the Mario franchise ^u^

[ios]

Very well made video, you deserve way more views!

[Pugmatt]

This is actually a really good respectful insight on this character. I think it's probably hard for some people to understand why the way Nintendo has treated the character, like in the SMB2 manual, can be deemed offensive. This video explains it very nicely. Great video! Have a sub, I think I gottya to 100. :P

[SweetBianca]

She's also playable on Fortune Street were you can see more of her cute, filtrous personality💗

[SolarpunkJackal]

Birdo is one of my favorites next to the original SMB2 Bobombs that make me happy just seeing them on screen, since I was a big mario fanatic back in my childhood, memorizing the names of very monster from SMB1 up to SMB 3 and making paper cut outs of them all. (I felt betrayed by the horrible art design of hammer brothers in Super Mario world and i stopped being a fan at that point) I think it's interesting that Birdo is the only mario character who is comfortable, not afraid, and PROUD of her sexuality, and doesn't just act dainty like a princess but goes above and beyond.


The only thing Gonzo missed in this video that is important to mention on this topic, is that gay and trans characters are part of normal accepted comedy and culture in Japan. Japan doesn't hate birdo for being trans or want to see the character treated badly, they just get light-hearted laughter out of seeing Birdo be Birdo. It's a different culture and I'm glad to say whether or not Nintendo is being bad about censoring trans stuff IRL because they consider it being super super squeaky nice clean family friendly? They absolutely do not have any hatred towards trans or gay people in their media or culture (don't get me started on the man-boy love stuff part of Japanese sub culture over there that would have excited Michael Jackson)

We have to be careful here in the west to not attribute to malice what is simply a completely different view then Americans can understand. Japan is afraid of how we will over-react to trans and gay characters in their media so they have to censor and not even release some of their own Pokemon cartoons because they're afraid the Granny's Association (Republican censors) will scream and throw a fit if they see James from Team Rocket dressed as a princess and acting girly for an entire episode.
This is a massive mis-understanding on both sides of two cultures. Please remember that.


Edit: I would SO buy a birdo game where you actually play as her!

[RBunctious]

I believe that the original description towards Birdo, while wrong nowadays, was forward-thinking for the time in 1987. The devs could have easily just made her a man, great video btw. I sincerely believe that a dev had someone in their life who was trans, but didn't understand the situation to well.

[nofiniteanswer]

i suprised you dont have more subs, your vids are on par to very big youtubers

[warmslurm]

love the video. birdo is iconic. love her

[cosmicspacething]

4:31 Adam Sandler can actually be genuinely funny. He’s a good actor, it’s just that every movie he’s the main character in has a curse of being terrible.

[DruskyPup]

The vibrator thing from captain rainbow has me dying

[TailsClock]

A 2019 video that doesn't even know that it was only in the Western localisation that she became trans? This is such a big important thing, that the Japanese manuals NEVER mention this "he thinks he is a girl" thing. The Americans switched her to trans like they did with Poison because they were worried about letting you hit women in games. In saying that it was okay to hit trans women, they unintentionally gave representation to trans people way ahead of it's time. I love that irony. Japan heard about what was going on with Western Birdo and adopted it into canon. And now, her trans identity is being hidden and ignored in the west, because the hate hasn't gone, it's just changed direction. It's really embarassing to see the West falling behind Japan on LGBT representation. We're supposed to be better with that. But at least the fans are great and we are all embracing this canon part of Birdo, even if Nintendo of America wont.

But whilst this was missing that info... Which I am pretty sure is the case, but as I can't read Japanese I just had to trust other people about it. This video did have quite a bit of new info I'd not seen before. Mostly of that SMB2 2 game. I never knew SMB2 had a sequel, or that they ever confirmed the other birdos were other characters. Makes me wonder what became of them. I'd really like a modern Mario game that instead of reliving the nostalgia of the first game over and over again, finally gives us more SMB2 style goodness. I want more chucking and throwing and Birdo! Perhaps make Cathy a playable character, and use the other two as enemy birdos. Definitely a lotta potential there. Or heck, just give Cathy a bigger role in the next Yoshi game.

Wait... Did she suck that guy into her mouth? In that RPG game? IS SHE PART KIRBY?

[madgadgetss]

nintendo is probably not gonna give us that respect she deserves in favor of being "safe" with LGBT+ antagonistic people because what's better than spreading the message of acceptance and losing hateful fans but gaining more respect with the queer community? money apparently :/

[irottaalfurinn]

japanese manual of doki doki panic says "omoikomu", meaning wrongly believes. This is the most transphobic way of saying that a character is transgender

[purplecubeman]

Its still 50/50 if Birdo really is trans as they say. But interesting video none the less

[maxinea.sakaki]

The stuff the devs say like he thinks he is a girl and all that other stuff even if is not directed to me it hurts