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Home Page > Mariorpg > Paper Mario2 : Vivian's Gender - The Red Blimp
Vivian's gender
One of the most constant debates among Paper Mario fans is whether or not Vivian is female or male. Normally, nobody would really care and it would be a thing left for otakus to argue about. However, even the most casual fans of the series know about this, and some non-fans are aware of the 'issue' as well.
This all stems from the Japanese version of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. According to those who own the game and can read Japanese, Beldam and the game itself confirm that Vivian is indeed a male. The incriminating comment in question occurs when Vivian butchers the name of the Three Shadow Sirens in Boggly Woods as 'The Three Shadow Sisters'. Beldam responds with the following scathing comment: "I see three sisters, but then there's you, and you're a man!", a line which was changed in the English version to "I see three beauties, but then there's you, and you're plug-ugly!" In addition, when Vivian joins your party and when you tattle them in the log, their description reads: "The youngest sister... uh, brother". This was omitted in the English version, where Vivian is just "the youngest sister".
Now, what evidence is there for the 'Vivian is a man' side of the argument?
- The Japanese version of the game has Beldam calling Vivian a man. Beldam explicitly says, "You're a man!" It's pretty irrefutable. In addition, the in-game descriptions of Vivian say they are youngest brother.
It is quite common for feminine men to be in games in Japan.
For example, Birdo is known as "Cathy" in Japan, and is a man with feminine tastes. There is no controversy about this there, so Nintendo would not be risking anything by having a feminine man in a game.Many of the European translations also have Beldam calling Vivian a man.
Although not all of the translations keep the original intact, the Spanish version, at least, translates that text directly from Japanese and does not alter it.This was changed in the US version because NoA simply wouldn't allow cross-dressing men in a Mario game.
Although feminine men would be okay in a Japanese video game, they are not widely accepted in American society and the inclusion of such a character would severely affect sales, as well as attract bad publicity for Nintendo. This ties back into the European translations - there are many European countries where feminine men are not stigmatized, and thus there would be no need to alter the text.
As for the 'Vivian is a girl' supporters...
The US version of the game makes no mention of this insult and Vivian is referred to as a 'she'.
The English version unambiguously refers to Vivian as female throughout the game. This could have been done to prevent confusion with the following point...- Traditionally and even today,
calling a woman a man is an insult, and Beldam was trying to insult Vivian
. Beldam was clearly trying to insult Vivian there, and implying that she was unfeminine would have been a shocking insult for Vivian (at least, it would be in Japan). Going back to the first point, it can be argued that the insult was removed because the possibility of it being taken the wrong way was too great. The description and tattle logs are biased in nature.
After all, Vivian was only called a 'brother' after Mario and co. heard that comment. Remember that Paper Mario is a humo(u)rous series, and humor poking fun at Vivian's perceived lack of femininity would have been okay in Japan (but once again, open to misinterpretation in the United States). Calling Vivian the youngest "brother" could be the game's way of mocking Vivian if they were a women.There are no other references to Vivian being male in the Japanese game
. Nobody else in the game refers to Vivian as male. Vivian identifies as female, being "the youngest sister" and all. Even if she were biologically male, Vivian identifying as a woman is reason enough to support their being female.The collective name for the Shadow Sirens in Japan roughly translates to female sorcerers.
Mixed-group names typically tend to be more masculine; for example, in Spanish, once a group has a single male in it, it must be referred to in the masculine plural "ellos" and can only be called in the feminine plural "ellas" if it is made only of woman. A similar situation occurs in Mandarin, where a mixed-gender group is referred to using the masculine plural 他们 (ta1men) and can only be referred to in the feminine plural 她们 (ta1men) if it is made only of women . Japanese being such a gender-oriented language, it would be odd for a group with one male member to be referred to by the name "The Sorceresses", especially if Beldam was intent on "calling Vivian out" on their being male.
Which side is correct? There is no consensus as to whether Vivian is male or female. Personally, I feel there is no hard-hitting truth. There are those oddball people who say Vivian is a hermaphrodite, genderless, or intersexual, but there are few arguments to support those views. I personally consider Vivian to be female due to having first played the American version of the game, but I could accept a male Vivian as well. In any case, there is no need for ridiculous flame wars over this subject (as have existed).
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