Video Games, Queer Studies, and Gay and Lesbian Literature and ...

The article starts with a brief summary of the rise of acceptance of homosexuality as a ?visible? aspect in the gaming industry. At first many developers, such as Blizzard and Bioware attempted to maintain ?invisibility? as it felt it would help reduce the amount of taunting received about sexuality. The shift in acceptance of homosexual relationships primarily mirrors the cultural shift to a favorance of ?separate-but-equal? views of same-sex marriage held in current American culture. The higher awareness of LGBT culture in games has led to awareness of LGBT culture in and of itself, leading to discussion of how the LGBT identity comes to form and how it relates to the rhetoric of such formation.

Overall, there seems to be two approaches to different sexualities. One is called ?minoritizing? which assumes that there are categories of sexuality, an idea that relies on ?complementary binary? logic and sexuality as a social construct. The other is ?universalizing? sexual identity. An example of such approach was related to The Sims, wherein every character was inherently bisexual and relationships were formed on a character-to-character basis rather than having one identify themselves as one way or another. In an example of the ?minoritizing? view they used Fallout: New Vegas? ?Confirmed Bachelor? and ?Cherchez la Femme? perks.

Finally, they address a game entitled ?Queer Power? which seems to be a sexualized version of fighting games, emphasizing a focus more on what is being done than who it?s being done by. and TransCoder offers resources that are outside of the realm of heteronormative influence.

I feel like the emphasis on sex when discussing romance only furthers the notion of sex being a primary part of life for LGBT persons. I understand the struggle with the masculine/heteronormative society, but I feel the first step is to work within the bounds given before one can transcend them. Unfortunately the culture we?ve been born into has been around for centuries and the overall acceptance is still new for some reason, so for now I believe in order for progress there should be an aim for The Sims? view of universalism. It seems to be the most successful approach to acceptance at this current time.

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A Bachelor of Fine Arts Major at the University of Texas, Senior Year. Avid fan of Animation, Comics, Illustration and Video Games. This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

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