Ben questioning if Bowser is male..

In the one of the latest Bombcast Ben questioned if Bowser was a male.

Is this a current theory being discussed in the video game industry or is he being fringe and trying to stir something up? While Bowser does have a "male" growl I don't know if there is any canon actually referring to his sex (not gender) and Ben's comment may have simply introduced me to a side of gaming lore I have not yet been exposed to.

I read what Ben said more as not knowing if he's really a "guy". Like, he might be male, but he's not really a "man".

I felt that was more joking.

Well, I sure hope the internet doesn’t have pictures to prove Bowser’s gender, but we all know it does. I’m pretty sure Kotaku recently posted a story with a Nintendo comic showing full frontal Mario nudity, so, here we go.

Every other opinion seems to be fringe nowadays it seems like. No jokes are allowed anymore.

Also who cares, its freakin Bowser so it should be obvious that in my head Bowser is propagating through mitosis only, just like Yoshi.

@htr10: I believe it was more meant to be a "final hour for humanity" sort of deal.

Bowser is a female for sure. Just look at how obsessive she is about planning her wedding.

@shagge:

You did it! Finally, someone giving milennials the what-for!

Bowser is not female. Female characters in the Super Mario universe are always depicted in three ways: they have pink elements in their costume, they have eyelashes, or they have bright lipstick or a combination of the three. Bowser has none of these traits.

He's fathered children.

@lordjezo: So, just for fun, I decided to use my limited knowledge of Japanese and mild Google skills to answer this question kinda definitively. In the Japanese Super Mario Bros 3 manual, Bowser's children, the Koopalings, are introduced, and Larry gives a line that reads:

マヌケな国王から巻き上げた杖は全部で７本。オレ達兄弟が１本ずつ持ってるって訳さ。オヤジに怒鳴られるのはイヤだから、そう簡単に渡す訳にはいかないぜ

Which Google Translate says means:

There are seven wands rolled up from the manuka king in all. It is said that our brothers have one by one. Because I do not want to be scolded by my father, I can not translate it so easily.

The operative word here is オヤジ oyaji which means means father. It's the phonetic pronunciation of the kanji 親父 of which the 父 is unambiguously male across several languages. They could have omitted it and just used the first kanji 親 (oya - parent) if they had wanted to be ambiguous. They used the phonetic spelling instead of kanji in the manual to keep it accessible to young children with smaller vocabularies. That's really common in Pokemon, too.

But yeah, I'm pretty sure Ben was just being a goof.

Bowser Jr. refers to Bowser as Papa in Sunshine, so I assume he is a he.

@darlingdixie: boy, you seem like a real fun person.

The real mystery is who the mother is.

Well...

In Jurassic Park , movie and novel, the genes of frogs were used to fill in the gaps in the dinosaur genetic code. They mutate, and the dinosaurs become sequential hermaphrodites, like the frogs, and can switch genders from female to male or female to hermaprodite so that they can fertilize their own eggs with their own sperm.

It's 2017. Bowser can be whatever Bowser wants to be.

Usually dads are men.

I haven't heard the Bombcast episode, but this is the kind of out-of-context shit I'm here for.

I think Bowser is hermaphroditic and can reproduce asexually. Life uh, finds a way!

I think it's pretty easy to see that Bowser is male, and that Ben was just being silly. Nintendo is a conservative company that has never really struck me as the type to think in non binary terms. Also there has never been a reason to think of Bowser as anything other than a man.

@omega: yes but what about birdo?

I think Bowser and all the Mario characters are fictional creations and while it might not be "canonical" they can be whatever you want. The only limitation is your own imagination!

@supervhs said:

@omega: yes but what about birdo?

I didn't really account for the Mushroom Kingdoms' trans community. Vivian is another clear example...

I really hate the phrase "the exception that proves the rule" but I'm going to shamelessly use it to defend my hypothesis.

My theory on ol' Birdo has nothing to do with sexual orientation because that is trite. I believe that Birdo eats with her butt because her mouth is clearly a cloaca. My sister thinks there are multiple birdos and they are female yoshis. I like that little theory and who cares if it is canonical or not because it is adorable.

As a former Second Life resident I can say I've seen Bowser with all kinds of genitals so biologically they're definitely
capable of presenting both female and male organs, and sometimes even both, at the same time.

@geirr: yayyy..