(Image via Nintendo)

Staff Writer: Brian Galindo

Email: bgalindo@umassd.edu 

The Center for Women, Gender, and Sexuality (CWGS) held an event involving femininity and transgender characters in the Super Mario series (and its subseries).

If you don’t know a lot about Super Mario, you might think this is just a silly way to connect the concept of gender to video game fans. But those who know, know that this is actually a perfect subject for the series.

PhD student Robin Cabral hosted the event, which was actually based on his honors thesis from UMass Amherst.

The thesis, titled “From Damsel in Distress to Leading Lady,” was originally just about Princess Peach, her representation and femininity within the series.

There is quite a lot to talk about in terms of Princess Peach. In the original Super Mario Bros., she served simply as a goal for Mario to reach, but as time passed, her role would change depending on the game.

Some games, such as Super Mario Bros. 3, depict her kidnapping as just a convenience for the end of the game and is not actually the main plot point.

In the Super Mario Galaxy series, Peach is kidnapped to reference the status quo, though Bowser’s larger plans barely even involve her.

In others, Princess Peach is still a playable character. In these games, such as Super Mario Bros. 3D World, she typically has a parasol and can float, and tends to be one of the best characters to play as, breaking the damsel in distress facade.

Enter Princess Peach: Showtime. Finally, a game where Peach is at the forefront and is treated as such. Hence the title of Cabral’s thesis: “From Damsel in Distress to Leading Lady.”

Moving from femininity to trans legibility, the focus shifted to the character of Birdo.

Birdo is a very interesting character in terms of gender. In her first appearance, she was described using he/him pronouns. It was said that Birdo “wants to be a girl.”

While many people consider Birdo to be the first transgender character in video games, Birdo is never explicitly defined as trans.

In fact, some translations still refer to Birdo with male pronouns. Most notably, and strangely, in the UK translations, Birdo is still referred to as “he.”

This lack of confirmation and inconsistency regarding Birdo’s gender leads to Cabral’s issue of “trans legibility.” If it is not explicit, it is not legible.

Of course, there is one more character in the greater Super Mario universe who may be worth talking about…

Vivian is a character in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. A member of the Shadow Sirens, she is bullied by her sisters and works hard to build her self-esteem.

Why is she bullied by her sisters? The answer is simple: Because she’s trans.

Well, it’s not actually that simple. 

In the original 2004 release of the game, her description varied across languages. Some said that “he” was a boy who thought “he” was a girl, and some ignored the issue of gender entirely.

The Italian localization, however, was quite explicit:

“Originariamente era un uomo, ma ora è donna ed è fiera di esserlo.”

Directly translated:

“Originally, (she) was a man, but now (she) is a woman and is proud to be one.” (Note: Italian often skips pronouns, hence why they are in parentheses.)

There it was, the trans legibility that Robin was looking for. Finally, there is an explicitly trans character in the Super Mario series.

It gets better, though, as Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door was rereleased on the Nintendo Switch in 2024 and updated to reflect that Vivian is a trans woman in all localizations.

Overall, the discussion of femininity and trans legibility in the Super Mario series was exceptionally interesting, well-researched, and incredibly engaging.

It just goes to show that there is so much to discuss in the world of video games and in the world of gender. 

Robin Cabral even noted this at the end of the presentation as people asked questions, saying that the original intent was for the thesis to delve into much more than just Mario, only to find that there was already so much there.

The Center for Women, Gender, and Sexuality will continue to host events that celebrate and discuss the history of women and queer people, and they will definitely be worth attending.