Binary Representation In Video Games

The representation of transgender and/or non-binary individuals within video games has dramatically changed over the course of the past three decades alongside with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights movement. In saying that, due to the fact that I have already discussed the topic of the representation of the sexual orientation of individuals within the media who are not heterosexual, this chapter will have a focus on the impacts of transgender and/or non-binary representation. Through this chapter, the themes of how transgender and/or non-binary individuals that are represented in the video game industry will be explored and how this impacts all levels of society.
Though homosexuality has been hidden within the history
Many members of this community question the gender of characters within the video games they play, however, such a theme is needless to the individual's actual gaming experience. This demonstrates how society has the necessity to label individuals of their gender dependant on their physical characteristics and/or personality attributes. Aaron. H. Devon defines gender as “a social status usually based on the convincing performance of femininity or masculinity”. A prime example of this is with the relationship between Capcom’s Final Fight character, Poison and the gaming community. Throughout instalments of the Final Fight video game franchise, original antagonist, Poison was removed from the video game series due to the fact that the gaming community was confused about her gender. Mollie Patterson states that “For the transgender community, there are very few characters in video games that they can look up to. If such characters do appear in games, often times they’re used only as comedy relief, or only exist to play jokes off of.” Such a quote emphasises the true representation of transgender individuals within video games and how more often than not it is done in a comical sense. This of course links to the inaccurate preconceptions that society has of transgender individuals and as a questionnaire respondent stated, “To have the ability to enjoy the video games you’re playing,
During the game, both characters, alongside with other characters on their journey are referred to with gender neutral pronouns such as “they” and “them”. This game exemplifies how gender is not a necessity in gaming and ambiguity in video games leads to the possibility that all individuals, especially those who are non-binary, can relate to the characters they are playing as. In saying that, within the gaming community there has been a stir into Frisk and Chara’s genders as society tends to have the need to label individuals as either male or female. This suggests how society believes that there are only two genders that are generally assumed to be direct indicators of an individual’s sex. Furthermore, when asked about the game’s link to androgyny in the real world, the game developer, Toby Fox, had no comment which shows that he did not want to label the characters with genders and to leave it up to the individual. The response that Toby Fox had represents the desired attitude of individuals within society, as 100% of non-binary respondents to a questionnaire I conducted stated that they are not pleased with the way their gender is represented in video games. Through recognising these examples, we can understand how the