As I’ve mentioned, I’ve recently become an Okami addict.  One of things I like best about the game (besides the fact that it’s gorgeous) is that it gives me a chance to play as a strong, non-sexualized female character, i.e. a wolf.  Yeah, yeah, laugh it up: The only way a women can not be sexual is to not be human.  But it’s a refreshing change of pronouns to be able to exclaim, “She just tore that guy to shreds!”

That’s not to say that Amaterasu’s gender isn’t a bit confusing.  Like Aile, she often gets talked to like a man.  Then again, other gods address her as “mother to us all”.  Of course, that in and of itself has got to raise some issues with the traditional male gamer audience.  Especially since Okami is, in a lot of ways, a Zelda game.  How do you go from identifying with the ultimate male heroic archetype to a female wolf?  It makes me giggle.

But it’s not the first time us Japan-ophiles (There must be a real word for that.  Someone help me here.) have encountered godly gender ambiguity.  Take the animals of Princess Mononoke for example.  The English dubbing features a female–if not feminine–wolf god; the Japanese a male.  And let’s not even talk about the gender of boars.

In a lot of ways, the issue is a cultural one.  If anyone out there has any insight [Thanks! Sometimes I’m a total space cadet] into how the Japanese view the gender of animals, now’s the time to speak up.  But it’s also a question of gender in general.  If sex is our biological difference, and gender is our constructed difference, than do animals ever have gender, or only what we project onto them?  I know I can’t be the only one who can’t kick the feeling that every cat is female, and every dog is male.

Mega Man has become a mega woman.  Or something like that.  Apparently for the first time ever, Mega Man ZX offers fans the chance to play as either a boy or a girl.  I reviewed the game last week for the AV Club.  And, big shock, I played through as Aile, the girl.

Funny thing is, I kept forgetting I was female.  Except for a few scenes here or there, it makes almost no difference which character you pick.  And it’s obvious that the conversation text written for Vent (your traditionally gendered Mega dude) wasn’t altered for Aile’s story.

Why should it be?  Equality to the sexes, right?  But the fact of the matter is, gender doesn’t just affect the way we speak, it affects the way we’re spoken to.  For better or worse, we talk differently to women and to men–especially in the game world.

A female protagonist, strong though she may be, will be addressed in a markedly gendered way.  She will be hit on, called “cute”, or told she’s much too weak–even if she then proceeds to show those stereotyping jerks who’s boss.  But no one will ever say to a male character, “Ooh, a man.  What are you going to do, shoot me with your gun?  I’m so scared.”

What would you call it if real-time strategy, turn-based gaming, and the wild wild west had a child? Why, Bang! Howdy of course! Check out my Gamasutra interview with Creative Director Michael Bayne for more on the aesthetic, mechanics, and future of the game.