Birdo Pride

The very first picture I ever posted to DA, nearly 11 years ago, was a picture of Yoshi and Birdo. That picture got a lot of love and also a lot of hate. Apparently people took offense that I had paired Yoshi with the, let's say, "sexually ambiguous" Birdo. I just have a few things to say about that.

1.) It wasn't just me, guys. Nintendo started pairing them up in the first Mario Tennis, and they were looking a bit flirty in that promo art...
2.) Yes, I am and have always been well aware that Birdo was originally presented as a dude who wanted to be a lady. I still have my childhood copy of SMB2 as well as the instruction manual.
3.) Birdo has since been "officially" described with both male and female pronouns, and sometimes ambiguous ones. Is it biologically male? Is it biologically female? Is it a male who is just more in touch with his feminine side? Did it used to be male and is now female thanks to the wonders of modern medicine? Does it really even matter?
4.) I think most people are upset because they think the picture implies that Yoshi is "gay." I think that's all up to interpretation, and the picture was never meant to imply anything either way. But if he's gay, that's cool, too.
5.) Yoshi (the "main" Yoshi, anyway) is generally considered to be male, however, he has the ability to produce eggs. Birdo is also often considered male and can also produce eggs. Wow, they have something in common!
6.) There are lots of Yoshis and lots of Birdos. Either one of them could be male or female. It could be a male and female, two males, or two females. It could be either one with any gender identity under the sun. It's all good!
7.) The picture was just supposed to be cute and wasn't intended to imply that the characters were in some kind of sexual relationship or anything.

I guess what I'm saying is, people need to stop getting bent out of shape about the potential gender identity of a video game character. I think it's awesome that Birdo is often considered to be transgender. We need more transgender characters out there!

But whatever the case, I think we all just need a little more love. No need to be judgmental. Let's just let Birdo be his/her/itself.

<3