danasider said:
I don't agree with the premise that "Sexuality is not a character trait." It doesn't have to be, but it can be a strong part of a fictional character depending on the type of story they're involved in. Yeah, nobody singles out characters for being straight, but they don't need to. It's evident in the relationships they have throughout their stories. Spiderman has Gwen and Mary Jane, Supes has Lana Lang and Lois Lane, Nathan Drake has Elena and Chloe, Mario has Princess Peach and Pauline (okay, so there's no sex, but he's gotten kissed). However, when an LGBT character has a storyline that involves their romantic relationships, people get bent out of shape. Look at the claims that Ellie has become part of the SJW agenda simply because we see her making out with another girl. Same thing can be said about Wonder Woman being hinted as being bi-sexual (which would kinda make sense considering she's in an a community populated only by women). The people that sprang to action to say "keep sexuality out of our comics" never made a stink about her Justice League teammates having their own romances...because straight is the norm so it's accepted and doesn't have to be singled out. But let's not pretend it isn't represented in games, comics, TV, etc. In terms of gaming, more and more action games are taking a cinematic approach. Like Uncharted and TLOU, the stories surrounding the characters are just as important as the gameplay to fans of those games. This has been around for a long time in JRPGs and other more story based games. And we've eaten up the romances involved in those genres. Adding sexuality as part of a character's defining trait, whether it be straight or LGBTQABCWhatever is adding a whole other layer of storytelling that people have been interested in since storytelling has existed in games or any other medium. But somehow when non-hetero representations of that are shown, people want to act like it should not be important and should be hidden. There's no reason for this aside from people being uncomfortable with the unknown and unfamiliar. Otherwise, we wouldn't have any characters in games that have romantic relationships or show romantic displays of affection. |
The thing is if say 5% of the population is in a same sex relation ship, do you think 5% representation amoung games would be enough?
And what % do you think its at right now?
"Mario has Princess Peach" common that barely counts as a relationship, cant see how thats +1 for the straight's out there.
Also be honest, if you where designing a super hero, for a comic (book or tv) would you make one thats appealing for 95% of the market,
or one for the 5%?
Like I feel LGBT wants more representation that it probably deserves.
These corporations are just out to make money, not to step on anyones toes.