Read on Twitter
My character choices are not personally affected by my orientation that I know of but there's a lot I could say about this. Thread: https://twitter.com/CorazonPeachy/status/1334545759111442433
First there's a few things to clear away:
1. Gay people playing "gay" characters is a trend pretty much everyone has noticed, and I dont think its just a stereotype
2. Its a smaller sample size of queer players than cishet players so that should be taken into account
1. Gay people playing "gay" characters is a trend pretty much everyone has noticed, and I dont think its just a stereotype
2. Its a smaller sample size of queer players than cishet players so that should be taken into account
That being said, I'm not sure if I would say there's more queer people playing "gay" characters so much as theres fewer cishet people playing those characters. And while we're at it, I might as well say cishet men because they dominate the smash/fgc scene...
AS WELL AS the dev teams making these games. What I mean by this:
Gender and sexuality (as well as masculinity and femininity), given that they are in no ways biologically visible, are rooted in that which is presented and that which is perceived. To be a straight cisgendered man means to follow these performances that ""society"" has in place
Queerness in every sense of the word disagrees with these pressures. If I dont have to act masculine to attract straight girls, why would I want to act masculine at all? Especially if the ""society"" that puts out these pressures doesnt accept my queerness anyway
Queer people tend to attract one another without realizing it, almost all of my close friends from middle school, hs and college ended up being queer with or without me knowing it at first. Without me know *I* was queer at first.
And I think that comes from a natural resistance to heteronormativity that we pick up from really early ages.
Back to the characters:
Like I said I dont think gay people flock to "gay" characters so much as straight men move away from them. But why are some characters conceived as gay?
Well like I said, cishet men dominate game development...
Like I said I dont think gay people flock to "gay" characters so much as straight men move away from them. But why are some characters conceived as gay?
Well like I said, cishet men dominate game development...
so their cisgenderedness and straightness seeps into their characters. Its natural and not necessarily bad, but lets look at the "gay" characters and the function they perform in their respective games:
Peach: the damsel saved by Mario
Palu: the goddess leading Pit
Bayo: the main, playable character (which is rare)
Rosa: astral princess(?) guiding mario
WFT: Yoga instructor (lol) leading the player through exercises
Lucina(?): daughter of main character chrom
Palu: the goddess leading Pit
Bayo: the main, playable character (which is rare)
Rosa: astral princess(?) guiding mario
WFT: Yoga instructor (lol) leading the player through exercises
Lucina(?): daughter of main character chrom
Zelda (how could i forget): Damsel to be saved in most games by link, only playable in like hyrule warriors lol
Isabelle(?): npc who helps the player build their town
Zss(?): main playable character idk what happens in metroid ive never played but she seems badass
Isabelle(?): npc who helps the player build their town
Zss(?): main playable character idk what happens in metroid ive never played but she seems badass
Lucas(?): Main playable character, very emotional (which people say is non-masculine). much more emotional and "weak" than his twin brother
I probably missed some and some you might not agree with, but these are the characters I've perceived as being more popular with gay people. The trend is pretty obvious, they tend to be not the main, playable characters but in close proximity to them, close enough to be in smash
There are exceptions like bayo, lucina kinda, zss (BUT there IS a reason why so many people grew up thinking samus was a boy, there may be more to unpack there) and Lucas, but here is basically the tl;dr of all this mess:
Cishet game designers make their main, playable characters like themselves. Thats natural and ok. Their side characters, however, wont be as grounded to the cishetness as the main characters will be. Cishet men are less likely to stray away from masculine, straight-presenting...
... characters than queer people, hence why it may seem like more queer people pick up gay characters. Theres also something to be said about gay people naturally finding their own community, which I think could contribute to why they appear to group around the same characters
... sorry for length
