Please don't ask whether this picture was already on my hard drive or if I had to google it.
The Gender Bender is a term used by many authors of this blog to describe the completely ridiculous portrayal of either sex in a video game. Not entirely sure what I'm talking about? Not a problem, allow me to use visuals to convey my extremely simple point.
Is this androgynous being a male or a female? I'm fairly confident it is a female, but I would not be blown away if it was a male. I know two things about this image.a) It is from Final Fantasy XIII.
b) It is giving me confused feelings.
The Final Fantasy series is very well known for making people uncomfortable about their sexuality, but you can find examples of the now infamous Gender Bender even in classic games.
Don't be fooled by this excerpt from the Super Mario Bros. 2 booklet, this character's name has been officially changed to Birdo for North American audiences. Birdo's name used to be Ostro to American audiences, but in Japan, his name is Catharine. This is why I love video games so much.If you are anything like me, you're wondering why developers are trying to alter our sexual orientations. Apparently, the developers think that a character that can be seen as either male or female is far more likable by both genders, and players will associate better with these androgynous freaks.
Obviously, the developers of Final Androgyny know that multi-faceted, deep and emotional wussy boy's sell a game better than anything starring some sort of one-dimensional manly man.
In unrelated news, Gears of War 2 (pictured above) sold 1.8 million in its first week, while Final Fantasy X-2 and Final Fantasy Crisis Core's first week sales were 1.5 and 0.9 million respectively.Sales data source VGChartz.com
If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go to Japan so I can live out my dream of being named Jeanette without being judged.
ahaha "Catharine"
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