There are few video game dinosaurs more glamorous than Birdo –– or Birdetta, as she prefers to be known –– the canonically trans icon of Nintendo’s Super Mario franchise.
Birdetta made her official debut in the 1988 release Super Mario Bros 2, appearing as the egg-spitting enemy of everyone’s favorite cartoon plumber. In the decades since, she’s had a noteworthy glow-up. In an archived commercial, she oozes old-school Hollywood glamour, her hot pink body perched seductively on a chaise longue and covered only by a white fur stole. Everything about her is serving high-femme realness. Her eyelids are covered liberally in lilac eyeshadow; she wears an oversized red bow perched atop her head; on her left hand she wears a huge diamond ring set in gold, thought to be an engagement ring gifted by her lover, Yoshi. Put simply: Birdetta slays.
