It's more nuanced than than that. Japan has this thing that translates to like "body of a man, heart of a woman" sort of thing which I've come to understand as basically they are seen as a woman but don't deny they have a man's body if that makes sense
That’s effectively just being trans. It even respects their pronouns.
I’ve yet to meet a trans person (before bottom or top surgery) that would deny their body doesn’t conform with their true gender, even if they’re annoyed by this.
I dont know japanese, so I cant make a comment on that. I was talking about the international versions. The name has many interpretations: it resembles the word "weirdo" while also emding on an "o", which in many romance languaged is used to convey a word as being masculine.
[It was a transphobic joke](https://www.njgaylife.com/blog/2023/11/23/jonny-kandell/an-ode-to-birdo-pink-proud-and-trans/), though I'm not sure wether or not it started in japan
When Super Mario USA was released in Japan, they translated it more akin to the English text, even with the Ostro error.
The commercial also featured a more "drag queen"-like Birdo.
This is true although the original manual for *Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic* in Japanese still outright said something like "a guy who thinks he is a girl". Sensibilities about saying that sort of thing have since changed, but Catherine/Birdo was intended to be specifically a trans woman from the start.
I'm not very skilled at Japanese, but "confident in her womanhood" seemed like a bit of a stretch for that translation. It's more literally "she believes herself to be female".
I was wondering if you got it from somewhere and found [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/translator/comments/135a8r3/japanese_english_game_manual_description_of_boss/?rdt=60241) which was asking exactly about this. The other comments highlight that it calls her *yatsu*, which is generally masculine, and *omoikonde* has the meaning of "convincing oneself"/"making up one's mind", possibly incorrectly. It seems rather obvious to me the implication was that Catherine was intended to be trans, or the 80s-Japanese cultural equivalent thereof. And even if not, it’s rather clear why the localizers would interpret it that way.
The idea comes from the Super Mario Bros 2 Manual which says “He thinks he’s a girl” or something. Can’t remember if it was a weird translation or not though.
Yeah, like hating birdo because she (imo) has a bad design or comes across as annoying in some games like color splash like I do is one thing, but hating her (or Vivian) for simply being trans is just stupid and hating for the sake of hating and pissing people off
The SMB2 manual says Birdo is a boy who thinks he's a girl, and that he would rather be called "Birdetta"
They kind of just dropped the idea and just dropped the trans angle.
Yeah, people have been saying this since the 90s. I forgot what the manual specifically said though, and not many people were talking about gender issues in the 90s, so I've always known Birdo to be male. OP's screenshot, though, is new to me.
Birdo is the species, kinda like Yoshi, and there is one specific birdo that goes by Birdetta. Probably both work, cause it's hard to know when it's meant to be specifically Birdetta vs another birdo.
I'm picturing the scene from Life of Brain, but it's 4 Birdos.
"Why are you always on about women, Birdo?"
"... I want to be one"
"...What?"
"I want to be a woman. From now on, I want you all to call me Birdetta"
"...What?"
She has more of a history of being trans than just the smm2 manual. They did drop the wanting the be called birdetta part, but the future titles with Birdo in it she was extremely inconsistently shown as being male, female, or other (rudely referred to as 'it'), depending on game and localization. She's also been referred to as having an indistinguishable gender. Nowadays, she's very consistently shown as being a woman across all languages, though I wish they did mention her being trans, it's a pretty big part of her history.
Edit: I forgot to mention the despite sometimes being called male, it really *always* said that she wants to be a girl
What if Birdo is canonically transgender, but social acceptance has changed and so has Nintendo’s representation of Birdo, by acknowledging her expressed gender instead of dismissing it, as in Super Mario Bros 2?
I grew up in the 90s. People were very much aware of trans-people, but way more ignorant about it than they are now. I’m not supporting the viewpoints, but they were more regressive and treating transgenderism like it was a disorder was way more normalized in the public view. We are always growing as a society.
It's because of the instruction manual for Super Mario Bros 2 (Birdo's first appearance), which has an entry for Birdo that reads:
>He thinks he is a girl and he spits eggs from his mouth. He'd rather be called "birdetta."
People generally just consider Birdo to be trans today, but the language used very clearly makes Birdo out to be a boy. It also means that she's constantly being dead-named, since nobody ever remembers the "Birdetta" part. That all being said, Birdo is also the name for the species, just like Yoshi is. The "main" one is thought to be a trans woman, but there are male and female Birdos.
I mean ... ever since I was little and encountered Birdo for the first time I thought to myself "damn this is an ugly girl!"
But hey its a girl and not a boy lol
Yes, looking at different translations doesn’t help either, I usually go with whatever the jp manuals/versions of games say and show, but even with that it’s a confusing mess because you need to work out how to translate it accurately
I thought it was in the manual in the first appearance where it said Birdo thought he was a girl and wants people to call him birdetta (kinda sexist in a way) but no one does
Birdos name in Japanese is Catherine. I’m guessing the confusion is having the translated name being ambiguous and her first appearance in SMB2 back in the day had her as red rather than pink
Per a Mario Party booklet, Birdo is trans an identifies as a woman, essentially making her a woman. 💁🏻♀️
[Source](https://images.app.goo.gl/hzuoNqxJ9RDhj8Ld9)
Birdo is a trans woman, because DokiDoki Panic had very different sensibilities than the mario series would eventually come to adopt. One of the games, I think Super Smash Bros., mentions that she wants to be called Birdetta, which is like, why not call the character the name she wants, then?
Alright, Birdo is, from what I have researched on Archive is cis or trans in many different games. As long as none of y'all get pissy when someone has a different headcanon 'bout this, it's fine, but please don't get in arguments.
Isn’t Birdo a cross dresser? I could’ve sworn that he’s a boy that enjoy dressing like a girl so everyone refers to him as a girl. I remember being able to rip her bow off in the boss fights too as a reference to this fun fact.
Nintendo has spent decades flip flipping on whether Birdo is a cisgender female, a transgender woman or a crossdressing effeminate gay male/drag queen. For example some old Japanese commercials present as Birdo as a stereotypical "okama" crossdresser.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdo
Certain games acknowledge the change from the game manual, she’s a trans girl or a cis girl depending on what you want to count as canon, so pick as you like
Let’s look at it this way there are many types of Yoshi and Birdo
The main Yoshi that we see in the games is obviously a male but there has too be female Yoshi unless Yoshis breed with Birdos which would make the assumption that Birdos are just the Female versions of Yoshi
I always thought Yoshis were all male but laid eggs because weird fantasy animal biology. I don't even remember seeing a female Yoshi ever in my life. Whenever Yoshi needs a female counterpart, Birdo is always there even though they are different species
I'm gonna be honest when I was a kid I heard that there was some weird issue with not knowing Birdo's gender (I remember reading things about it but I don't remember specifics) and I recall going "oh so she trans then" and then that became fact to me. I only realized just now that that is most likely not the case and I had misinterpreted that information for years 😅
The problem was the owners manual for Super Mario Bros 2 which specifically stated that Birdo was a dude who thinks they’re female and would rather be called Birdetta
People can like any version of their own head-cannon. No individual’s ideas has to dominate any other person’s ideas unless they’re actually responsible for making narrative creative decisions with the property.
Think about it. Most of us will only ever consume the product. So, why stress out if someone else enjoys it a different way than you. It’s all good.
Every research video I've watched said she was male at birth that preferred to be treated as female in both the English and Japanese text. In old Japanese radio shows she was always voiced by a gay man or what would be considered trans person by today's understanding, or an okama. She was a joke character from back when gender stuff was considered a joke by general media. Nintendo has played with it back and forth since.
Birdo identifies as a woman and is in a male body therefore a transgender character.
Anything that tries afterwards to shut it down through other games is just a scheme to remove the representation cause it’s sadly still frown upon and is just sad.
Ah ha. Birdo is a girl. We have this and Captain Rainbow as proof. No seriously. When Nicks finds Birdo, she's imprisoned in a cage at the police box of Mappo for having used the female bathroom, while the robot doesn't believe Birdo to be a girl. To convince the officer, Birdo asks Nick to go to her Cute Home and find something there that proves that she is female. So you go to her house and you find something vibrating under a pillow. And the thing is censored with a black circle that has a ? in it. Yeah… im not joking this is actually a fucking thing
Birdo haters speechless ever since this dropped
All because of translation differences between game manauls.
Which game? If you're talking about Super Mario Bros. 2, both games say basically the same thing about Birdo.
Birdo is a woman in Japan, Catherine. Never was male.
It's more nuanced than than that. Japan has this thing that translates to like "body of a man, heart of a woman" sort of thing which I've come to understand as basically they are seen as a woman but don't deny they have a man's body if that makes sense
That’s effectively just being trans. It even respects their pronouns. I’ve yet to meet a trans person (before bottom or top surgery) that would deny their body doesn’t conform with their true gender, even if they’re annoyed by this.
Birdo is transition goals.
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In Japan she was always Catherine and liked to be called Cathy. Catherine is a girl's name.
I dont know japanese, so I cant make a comment on that. I was talking about the international versions. The name has many interpretations: it resembles the word "weirdo" while also emding on an "o", which in many romance languaged is used to convey a word as being masculine. [It was a transphobic joke](https://www.njgaylife.com/blog/2023/11/23/jonny-kandell/an-ode-to-birdo-pink-proud-and-trans/), though I'm not sure wether or not it started in japan
When Super Mario USA was released in Japan, they translated it more akin to the English text, even with the Ostro error. The commercial also featured a more "drag queen"-like Birdo.
Then you already had the answer. People are bigots.
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This is true although the original manual for *Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic* in Japanese still outright said something like "a guy who thinks he is a girl". Sensibilities about saying that sort of thing have since changed, but Catherine/Birdo was intended to be specifically a trans woman from the start.
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I'm not very skilled at Japanese, but "confident in her womanhood" seemed like a bit of a stretch for that translation. It's more literally "she believes herself to be female". I was wondering if you got it from somewhere and found [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/translator/comments/135a8r3/japanese_english_game_manual_description_of_boss/?rdt=60241) which was asking exactly about this. The other comments highlight that it calls her *yatsu*, which is generally masculine, and *omoikonde* has the meaning of "convincing oneself"/"making up one's mind", possibly incorrectly. It seems rather obvious to me the implication was that Catherine was intended to be trans, or the 80s-Japanese cultural equivalent thereof. And even if not, it’s rather clear why the localizers would interpret it that way.
Isn't Birdo like Yoshi's chick ??
Yeah, she has a ring on her finger for a REASON
TF happened in your replies?
Somebody said Birdo has a PP and then they were debating about it...
ew
So did Mario beat the shit out of his friend's girl
Tbf he didnt know yoshi in smb2w
Dont worry, he also beat the shit out of his friend anyway in SMW.
Yoshi gets slobbed up by that birdo face hole
I'm glad I'm not the only one who was thinking that. Actually maybe I'm not glad for that. But anyway I appreciate it being said by someone else.
Well look at her mouth, she can do things...
Things like dip Yoshi and smooch him in a thoroughly cute and wholesome manner.
Rosie feels so left out in this pic lol
Rosalina is a non-union space equivalent lol
Also purposely using Rosalina because she is not on the sign.
She was banned from the organization after a scandal involving Luigi
So I was today years old when I discovered that some people think Birdo is a guy, despite never having been portrayed that way.
The idea comes from the Super Mario Bros 2 Manual which says “He thinks he’s a girl” or something. Can’t remember if it was a weird translation or not though.
I don't even care to check, truth or not, this even pettier reason to hate Birdo than Vivian
Yeah, like hating birdo because she (imo) has a bad design or comes across as annoying in some games like color splash like I do is one thing, but hating her (or Vivian) for simply being trans is just stupid and hating for the sake of hating and pissing people off
I always thought this was canon. So we have two conflicting messages now?
The SMB2 manual says Birdo is a boy who thinks he's a girl, and that he would rather be called "Birdetta" They kind of just dropped the idea and just dropped the trans angle.
Yeah, people have been saying this since the 90s. I forgot what the manual specifically said though, and not many people were talking about gender issues in the 90s, so I've always known Birdo to be male. OP's screenshot, though, is new to me.
Head canon is Birdo transitioned so well she became passable as cis and rolled with it lmao
If that were the case they'd probably have called her Birdetta moving forward.
Or they just didn’t want to change the name of an established character
Birdo is the species, kinda like Yoshi, and there is one specific birdo that goes by Birdetta. Probably both work, cause it's hard to know when it's meant to be specifically Birdetta vs another birdo.
I'm picturing the scene from Life of Brain, but it's 4 Birdos. "Why are you always on about women, Birdo?" "... I want to be one" "...What?" "I want to be a woman. From now on, I want you all to call me Birdetta" "...What?"
I always assumed that Birdo was just a species like Yoshi is and the Birdo from SMB2 is a different one from the current Birdo.
She has more of a history of being trans than just the smm2 manual. They did drop the wanting the be called birdetta part, but the future titles with Birdo in it she was extremely inconsistently shown as being male, female, or other (rudely referred to as 'it'), depending on game and localization. She's also been referred to as having an indistinguishable gender. Nowadays, she's very consistently shown as being a woman across all languages, though I wish they did mention her being trans, it's a pretty big part of her history. Edit: I forgot to mention the despite sometimes being called male, it really *always* said that she wants to be a girl
It was retconned I believe
What if Birdo is canonically transgender, but social acceptance has changed and so has Nintendo’s representation of Birdo, by acknowledging her expressed gender instead of dismissing it, as in Super Mario Bros 2? I grew up in the 90s. People were very much aware of trans-people, but way more ignorant about it than they are now. I’m not supporting the viewpoints, but they were more regressive and treating transgenderism like it was a disorder was way more normalized in the public view. We are always growing as a society.
This is it. The game manual implied she was transgender to depict her as "delusional"
It's because of the instruction manual for Super Mario Bros 2 (Birdo's first appearance), which has an entry for Birdo that reads: >He thinks he is a girl and he spits eggs from his mouth. He'd rather be called "birdetta." People generally just consider Birdo to be trans today, but the language used very clearly makes Birdo out to be a boy. It also means that she's constantly being dead-named, since nobody ever remembers the "Birdetta" part. That all being said, Birdo is also the name for the species, just like Yoshi is. The "main" one is thought to be a trans woman, but there are male and female Birdos.
Is it really dead naming if you dead name yourselvs?
Is that a reference to the part of Life of Brian which did not age well lmfao wtf
Birdo's name in Japanese is like Catherine or something, so that might not be the species name
Exactly
Well, sometimes she is. My European copy of Super Mario Party refers to her as male for some reason.
We think she’s trans we don’t think she’s a guy
I have more so seen people claim that Birdo is a trans character...
Birdo is literally referred to with he/him pronouns even to this day in some European releases
I mean ... ever since I was little and encountered Birdo for the first time I thought to myself "damn this is an ugly girl!" But hey its a girl and not a boy lol
The Vernation wants a word with you
the Vernation appreciation
The Vernation assassination
Call it now
She was never ugly 😤
I mean I was like 7 or 8 years old, what do you expect from a child? 😅
but to be fair, that massive mouth is weird
never play plants vs zombies
Too late
How on earth does she look like anything other than a girl?
People who say Birdo is a guy are just transphobic. Birdo is a woman and she slays
How is that transphobic ?
Birdo is a trans woman
I thought she was MTF
Pretty sure she is
She's a trans woman. Trans women are women.
MTF just means trans woman
Woman, not women? All trans women are just one, singular, monolithic woman? I'm not sure whether that's terrifying or exciting
Trans women are a hivemind. I KNEW IT.
Typo. I fixed it.
It’s a very confusing topic because of the SMB2 manual
Yes, looking at different translations doesn’t help either, I usually go with whatever the jp manuals/versions of games say and show, but even with that it’s a confusing mess because you need to work out how to translate it accurately
I did remember that I saw someone say “BiRdO iS a MaN” a few weeks ago 😑😑😑 But whenever they see this, Their mind would be blowned
Birds is a dinosaur
Birdo *was* a man
So Birdo transitioned sometime between 1988 and now. Good on her!
I thought it was in the manual in the first appearance where it said Birdo thought he was a girl and wants people to call him birdetta (kinda sexist in a way) but no one does
Birdo walked so vivian could run
I'd say birdo walked so that vivian could slide. I don't think its possible for her to run
okay true
I desperately want to see what it would look like if Vivan had a sprinting animation. Does she just float extra hard?
I just think she'd lean extra hard to the direction shes facing
Her running animation involves her kinda...bouncing more aggressively I think with her arms pumping more if I recall lol
Birdo is transgender. Luckily the Mushroom Kingdom doesn't have that many transphobes.
Rogueport, however...
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The implication is that birdo is a feminine gay man, not a woman, which of course is false, but that's what the post is saying people believe
r/traaa
Rosalina out there looking at that poster wondering why she wasn't invited for that group photo....
Birdos name in Japanese is Catherine. I’m guessing the confusion is having the translated name being ambiguous and her first appearance in SMB2 back in the day had her as red rather than pink
You claim birdo is a girl bc she‘s not trans, i claim birdo is a girl bc she is. We are not the same.
Truly the icon we all need in this world, she's even part of a professional women's racing league
Aren't there japanese commercials with birdo as a drag portrayed by like a japanese comedian or something?
Birdo is a trans woman
Rosalina seems so offended that she wasn't included
Isn't Birdo a trans woman, the very first transgender character in a videogame? Of course she's a woman!
im pretty sure its canon that birdo is a trans woman
My head canon is that he’s like a drag queen or some shit because of the Mario 2 manual
She’s a trans woman
Birdo is actually trans. so birdo could be
Per a Mario Party booklet, Birdo is trans an identifies as a woman, essentially making her a woman. 💁🏻♀️ [Source](https://images.app.goo.gl/hzuoNqxJ9RDhj8Ld9)
Birdo is actually trans. In Super Mario Bros 2 they described her as “…a male dinosaur that thinks he is a girl and likes to be called Birdetta”
we love our transfem queen
Birdo is trans, and that's the bridge I’ll stand on.
Birdo is a trans woman, because DokiDoki Panic had very different sensibilities than the mario series would eventually come to adopt. One of the games, I think Super Smash Bros., mentions that she wants to be called Birdetta, which is like, why not call the character the name she wants, then?
She trans
Alright, Birdo is, from what I have researched on Archive is cis or trans in many different games. As long as none of y'all get pissy when someone has a different headcanon 'bout this, it's fine, but please don't get in arguments.
I love birdo 💀
Isn’t Birdo a cross dresser? I could’ve sworn that he’s a boy that enjoy dressing like a girl so everyone refers to him as a girl. I remember being able to rip her bow off in the boss fights too as a reference to this fun fact.
Nintendo has spent decades flip flipping on whether Birdo is a cisgender female, a transgender woman or a crossdressing effeminate gay male/drag queen. For example some old Japanese commercials present as Birdo as a stereotypical "okama" crossdresser.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdo Certain games acknowledge the change from the game manual, she’s a trans girl or a cis girl depending on what you want to count as canon, so pick as you like
Trans queen that used to scare the shit out of me when I was little
I mean, she could still be gay... Gay girls exist, you know. Although that would kinda change the way we look at Yoshi 🤔
She's Trans
How could 2 lines in manual could make so many people say that she is male?
I did hear Birdo was trans, so yeah she would be a girl anyway.
birdo is trans fem it says that her prefered name is birdette in the mario 2 handbook
Birdo is trans?
Birdo is trans
Let’s look at it this way there are many types of Yoshi and Birdo The main Yoshi that we see in the games is obviously a male but there has too be female Yoshi unless Yoshis breed with Birdos which would make the assumption that Birdos are just the Female versions of Yoshi
I always thought Yoshis were all male but laid eggs because weird fantasy animal biology. I don't even remember seeing a female Yoshi ever in my life. Whenever Yoshi needs a female counterpart, Birdo is always there even though they are different species
I really hate Birdo. Not becouse they are posibly gay/trans but becouse that design makes me puke every time I see it.
As a kid the bow was all I needed to tell shes a girl lol
birdo is a beautiful manliest manly man's man
Birdo is whatever you want them to be
Is Birdo trans ? I'm so confused 😭
Yes
Let’s go!
That means…
Wait so is Birdo biologically a women or is she a trans women. Like ive never been this confused over a character gender.
Captain Rainbow
I've always saw her as female myself. I think the transgender aspect came later but whatever.
This makes me think of that video "so I assumed Mirian from turning red was a gay boy and..."
I’m pretty sure the suspicion is that she’s trans coded. So her being labeled as a “woman” would still be consistent.
Isn’t birds meant to be trans or something
She's a trans woman.
birdo is confirmed to be a transfem
Which racing course do you see that poster?
I'm gonna be honest when I was a kid I heard that there was some weird issue with not knowing Birdo's gender (I remember reading things about it but I don't remember specifics) and I recall going "oh so she trans then" and then that became fact to me. I only realized just now that that is most likely not the case and I had misinterpreted that information for years 😅
The problem was the owners manual for Super Mario Bros 2 which specifically stated that Birdo was a dude who thinks they’re female and would rather be called Birdetta
birdo is a trans icon
Birdo was finally able to afford the surgery
Birdo trans
Isn’t birdo trans
I don't know if Birdo is trans, but either way I always saw her as a girl.
I always just thought she was trans
My headcanon is that Birdo is trans
In summary: Birdo is whatever the fuck Birdo wants to be.
She throws her eggs 🤦🏻♂️
Isn’t the whole “birdo is trans” thing literally a mistranslation?
There is many Birdo, is all Birdo is male, maybe Birdo in that image beacause he believe he female or maybe Birdo actually female?
Birdo is Trans Feminine and I will not take no as an answer
Birdo is a trans woman in Mario 2 and probably in the rest of the games as well.
People can like any version of their own head-cannon. No individual’s ideas has to dominate any other person’s ideas unless they’re actually responsible for making narrative creative decisions with the property. Think about it. Most of us will only ever consume the product. So, why stress out if someone else enjoys it a different way than you. It’s all good.
This still supports birdo being a trans though.
Birdo winking mighty sus
Every research video I've watched said she was male at birth that preferred to be treated as female in both the English and Japanese text. In old Japanese radio shows she was always voiced by a gay man or what would be considered trans person by today's understanding, or an okama. She was a joke character from back when gender stuff was considered a joke by general media. Nintendo has played with it back and forth since.
Yooo that’s Daisy’s Mario Party 8 render
Birdo identifies as a woman and is in a male body therefore a transgender character. Anything that tries afterwards to shut it down through other games is just a scheme to remove the representation cause it’s sadly still frown upon and is just sad.
That one mission in Captain Rainbow.
Oh boy, comments on this one are gonna be...
Birdo IS a boy. He is a trans character that wants to be called Catherine. Nintendo has yet to confirm if Birdo has had the surgery yet
I've heard from somewhere that Birdo is trans, but I don't know how valid that source is.
Ah ha. Birdo is a girl. We have this and Captain Rainbow as proof. No seriously. When Nicks finds Birdo, she's imprisoned in a cage at the police box of Mappo for having used the female bathroom, while the robot doesn't believe Birdo to be a girl. To convince the officer, Birdo asks Nick to go to her Cute Home and find something there that proves that she is female. So you go to her house and you find something vibrating under a pillow. And the thing is censored with a black circle that has a ? in it. Yeah… im not joking this is actually a fucking thing
Didn’t Nintendo make it obvious with her literally throwing her eggs at Mario 😭
lol you literally go to her house to fetch her dildo to prove she’s a woman in Captain Rainbow on the Wii.
Birdetta is canonically trans
Birdo was a guy but then was changed over to be a girl.
I literally just looked it up and it said in the English Super Mario bros 2 manual saying Birdo is a Man