[Quina Quen is a playable character in Final Fantasy IX. S/he* is apparently a genderless Qu]

The script makes it clear that Quina’s gender is unknown. Quina’s an “s/he” all throughout the game, even when other Qus (such as Quale and Quan) have gender. They’re male, hence Quan as Vivi’s adoptive grandfather. This might actually lead one to think all Qus are male. I haven’t seen a specific female Qus. And if Quina is female, we can’t tell. Perhaps it was a compromise to harken back to earlier Final Fantasy, keeping only three females in the party.

Zidane has a Protect Girls ability, which “protects girls” from physical damage. When an enemy attempts to hit Quina, Zidane will shield him/her. Then again, he isn’t exactly sure whether Quina is female or not. Better to assume and help than feel guilty he went back on his ideals.

No one does.

Freya: “Quina does whatever s/he feels like doing. I must learn from his ways.”

…

Zidane: “Geez… All s/he ever thinks about is food.”

…

Zidane: “Ha ha ha… You sound just like Quina. Hey, did s/he really go chasing after that moogle?”

Eiko: “Oh no… S/he’s gonna eat Mog!”

…

Eiko: “What’s his name? Quina? S/he helped me.”

Zidane: “S/he helped you without eating all the food? Amazing.”

…

Freya: “Hold it! Where is Quina!?”

Eiko: “Aaargh! Is s/he late again!?”

…

Quale: “Quina… S/he still needs much learning. Please help him.”

…

Flower Maiden Sharon: “Are you a friend of that strange, apron-clad individual?”

Water Maiden Shannon: “I wonder where s/he learned to speak so strangely…”

…

Black Mage No. 111: “Is s/he with you? Can you take him somewhere else?”

Quina: “Zidane! You want eat, too? Chocobo egg very delicious!”

Black Mage No. 33: “We’re never gonna give it to you!

…

Quina: “Zidane, this place only rocks and sand. I eat star sand once, but sand here not food. Water look clean.”

Moco: “Squee…!!!”

Zidane: “Hey, don’t take it so hard. S/he is a special case.”

…

Chimomo: “Quina was fishing here. But all of a sudden, s/he said,’They no here!’ And then, ‘They leave me!’ S/he said ‘I swim home!’ and jumped in the ocean, kupo.”

Who knows?

I believe the developers are associating “sex” with “gender” in Final Fantasy IX. The difference between “sex” and “gender” is one of biological and social. “Sex” refers to biological differences; chromosomes, hormonal profiles, internal and external sex organs. “Gender” describes the characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine.

Quina could be female due to him/her clothing.

S/he wears a salmon-pink overcoat with a baby-pink apron over it, has a napkin tied around his/her neck, and wears white gloves and blue shoes with white ribbons.

But if so, that’s just sexist societal bias. Color doesn’t have a gender. We don’t know what Qu society values in terms of gender. It seems like they don’t care about anything but food.

The game doesn’t care about the difference. Quina doesn’t act specifically masculine or feminine. And it doesn’t seem as if anyone’s meant to tell the difference. So unless you want to look, you won’t know Quina’s sex.

S/he’s not the only character in the game like this. The Black Mages are also genderless, but many of them are male. Part of the humor from the marriage scene is that Vivi and Quina have no defined gender. One man and one woman marriage might work there.

So instead of being “genderless”, is Quina transgender? That’s not right either, as “transgender people have a gender identity or gender expression that differs from their assigned sex. Quina doesn’t even hint that s/he has a preferred gender, let alone a preferred pronoun.

The most we can say is that Quina is “an agender person (‘a−’ meaning “without”), also called genderless, genderfree, non-gendered, or ungendered” and “identifies as having no gender or being without a gender identity.”

Which is pretty ironic. All of the characters redefine themselves, and this was the source of their anxiety. Quina, the most carefree character in Final Fantasy IX, escapes this anxiety through foregoing labels. S/he doesn’t worry about what gender s/he is. Perhaps neither should we?