Bye, Bye, Birdo: Heroic Androgyny and Villainous Gender-Variance in Video Games

This chapter uses textual analysis to contrast heroic androgyny in series like The Legend of Zelda and NiGHTS with the mixing of gendered signifiers to convey the otherness of particular NPCs in games like Resident Evil: Dead Aim, Fable 2, and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. This chapter aims to problematize the global game industry’s acceptance of masculine-skewed androgyny as aesthetically pleasing and acceptable while portraying gender-variance as aesthetically displeasing and unacceptable. Ultimately, this chapter asks how we can interrogate the privileging of specific types of androgyny in queer games culture and criticism in response to its depiction in mainstream games culture.