Nintendo Needs to Treat Birdo With More Respect
The Super Mario franchise is known for enjoyable games, and its wide cast of colorful characters. From main characters like Luigi, to the one-time-only guest stars that are Mario's Paper Mario partners, every character in Nintendo's most well-known series has plenty of fans. Even Rosalina, the most recent addition to the supporting Mario cast, gets a fair deal of love. Of course, this is also true of Yoshi's female counterpart, Birdo, who has a rather interesting history behind her.
Birdo, who canonically prefers the names «Birdetta» or «Birdie,» is transgender, and has openly been portrayed as such since her appearance in Super Mario Bros. 2. It was stated in the manual that was packaged in the original game, and that hasn't changed in appearances since whatsoever. However, even though Nintendo has kept Birdetta as a trans woman all these years, there's still a fair bit the company needs to do with regard to respecting her character as such.
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In Super Mario Bros. 2's manual, Birdie is described simply as «he thinks he is a girl, and he spits eggs from his mouth. He’d rather be called 'Birdetta.'» Right away, this text is disrespectful to Birdetta by using the wrong pronouns despite the text implying that she's trans. It also sets the precedent that calling her «Birdo» is not something she wants people to do to her either, but it's also worth noting that this manual dates back roughly 30 years ago.
There's plenty of evidence saying that the way the localization was handled back in 1988 is not what would happen today. Birdie would most likely be less openly trans instead, considering her Japanese name is «Cathrine,» with the name requested being a
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