Gender Fluidity hot & Melted

The majority of games with humanoid characters will use the standard recognised male and female as the two sexes/genders, primarily because that is the understood norm in all forms of media and is easy for the viewer to quickly accept the gender factor and focus on its other features and personality; this also includes sexuality in game.

There are some games that like to have one or more characters that warp the gender binary to either create unique characters or to add awareness on people who do not fit the gender/sex binary.

The book Beyond Barbie & Mortal Kombat (Kafai et al. 2008) has a section that talks about Gender Definitions as Diverse and Fluid with people today, it talks about how girls and boys today would dress and style differently which goes against the “traditional” gender dress code of boys and girls. It’s all about experimenting during their teenage years to develop their own identity that fits them best, some carry it on into their later years and some discontinue and revert to the “traditional” gender binaries after their young adult years.

Some examples gender fluid people would be men may remove hair from their body, wear tighter clothing or even wear skirt/skirt like garments to express a feminine side. The vice versa can partially apply to women who express a more masculine side, however many women openly wear “masculine” clothing which can be viewed as being slightly tomboyish and is generally far more accepted to most of society in comparison to feminine males.

Transgender and Transsexual people would also be included in the gender fluidity spectrum but also stay inside the gender binary because only their birth bodies do not conform to their true internal gender. Those who identify as Gender-Queer, Third Gender, Androgyny or some of the other various genders who also express themselves to best fit to that gender would be considered outside the gender binary.

One of the oldest characters from games that would reflect gender fluidity would be Birdo (was mistakenly switched with the name Ostro but later corrected) from Super Mario Bros 2 on the Nintendo Entertainment System, according to the manual Birdo “thinks he is a girl, He’d rather be called Birdetta”, the terminology used here suggests that “he” is transgender without correctly describing it.

With Super Smash Bros. Brawl has used a different approached to describe Birdo’s identity by saying “it” has an “indeterminate gender” and “would rather be called Birdetta”, the big difference here from the Super Mario Bros 2 is it uses a gender neutral description rather than a badly written transgender description which creates a different perspective on Birdetta’s gender.

Another example of a character that exists outside the traditional gender binary is Makoto from Ubisoft’s Enchanted Arms, he has been described as a flamboyant transvestite which becomes very suggestive during the gameplay as his clothes are made up from bright primary colours, wearing a skirt over his trousers and uses makeup. Makoto’s personality can also be considered to be effeminate with the way he projects his voice, his poses and his flirty nature with his crush Toya.

Later in the game Makoto also shows an example of gender stereotype entrapment by dressing as a macho man. The reason for this he has to find and save Toya and does not want to let his feminine identity become judged by his dangerous actions. This is a common negative stereotype associated with a lot of women that they cannot get involved any dangerous activities and that men are to take responsibilities for such matters, so in this case Makoto sees that he cannot be himself while he goes on the dangerous mission to help save Toya.

Reading from the book Camp by Editor Fabio Cleto it talks about a song sang by the Kinks from 1970 describing a relationship being a ci man and a transvestite called Lilo, it talks about a man who goes on a date with a man that looks like a woman but acts like a man. An example of early music that depicts about people who live outside the gender binary.

There are some games which has placed some characters in obligated positions than involves faking the other sex in order to proceed through certain objectives, this is like a temporary gender bender situation for these characters as it shows just for a little while in a form of opposite sex until the mission is completed.

A fine example of this is Cloud Strife in Final Fantasy VII where he temporary cross dresses as female to get inside a brothel in order to save his girlfriend Tifa, Aerith comes up with the idea and takes Cloud to various places to get him different accessories to help with his female appearance such as a dress, a wig, make up and a tiara, when inside the brothel the character chosen by the Don for “company” is decided on the materials worn by Cloud, normally his decision is Tifa.

Another example I have found which involves disguising one self’s gender into sneaking into an establishment is Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender released in 1992, the game involves a planet entirely inhabited by women after man and woman had a war there and a valuable vase is said to be and the Protagonist Rex is sent there to find and take it back. Because the population is completely female Rex is given the option to temporarily switch his sex to female so he can go to the planet undetected by its inhabitants by the Cosmic Gender Bender. The machine is mainly used to allow the female inhabitants to temporary switch to male in order to allow them to continue breeding.

For me personally I like some of the gender twist scenarios implemented into games as it gives them a little more edge on some of the character by giving them an additional persona for a short amount of time in the game making the characters that extra bit unique.