I noticed a lot of female versions of historically male characters at gaming conventions this year. I don’t mind this, but I am intrigued by the way this doesn’t generally work the other way. It’s an interesting point about our society that there’s nothing wrong with women wearing men’s clothes, but it’s considered “unusual” for men to wear the costume of a woman EVEN IF said costume was altered to make it more “manly.”
Perhaps we could see Batgirl alongside “Poison Oak?” I’d be fascinated to see what masculine variations of Wonder Woman, Jubilee, or Fairchild might look like. Though, in reality, Fairchild’s equivalent might already exist in the form of the Hulk. If you get that reference, you’ve probably read a few comic books in your lifetime.
Anyway, one place where I haven’t seen the role-reversal completely embraced is the “rescuing the princess” theme. We see female heroes, but we don’t see them pursuing the objective of rescuing a male character. Perhaps that is the next big game: a female twin-plumber-hedgehog-superspy charged with rescuing her prince that was kidnapped by a giant lizard-robot-war criminal.