Game Gender

People have always loved to play games, so it’s no wonder that thought the progression of humanity, that games have also progressed through the ages. Video games came about as a progression of our wanting to “play”. There is a subgenera of games called RPGs, or role playing games: some examples would be The Elder Scrolls series, The Dark Souls series, and the Fallout series. Essentially an RPG is game in which players play the roles of characters and act out fantasy adventures, the outcomes of which are partially determined by chance, usually by dice. Now, when playing RPGs or even MMORPGs — Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game — some people will decide to play a different gender than their own. So for instance, a guy playing one of these games might decide to play as a female character instead of a male character. Now, there are a bunch of possible reasons for this, I would like to talk about a few of them. 

Firstly there is the obvious one, they could be either transgender or gay. So with transgender people, playing as their true gender offers them a form of freedom, especially those that can’t perform their gender as they wish in their everyday lives and use the game as almost a form of escapism. As for gay people playing as the opposite gender, they could be playing for the reason of wanting to be close with the gender they prefer by playing the gender that their goal romantic partner likes. Secondly, some people just like role playing female characters because they want to for the hell of it and they do it because it would just work best for the character they created. Thirdly, sometimes a game is just better when you play as the female character: for instance the endings in a game you want may require you to play as a female character because perhaps the only way you get that ending is by hooking up with a specific character that only female characters have the option to romance. And finally, some people like to do it for the “aesthetics”. Some people just don’t like looking at a male model the entire time they play a game, so they will choose a female character because it “gives them something to look at” and as I know as well, some people actually prefer games that have customization and like to customize characters, male or female.

Categorizing Silence

         During our discussion of Silence, I came across a major issue when we were discussing the characteristics of Silence. The question of Silence’s gender identity came up, and people went back and forth debating whether or not Silence was transgender, agender, or gender fluid. I joined in on this argument, because at first, I found it to be interesting. However, the more I thought about it, the more it really bothered me. I think that when we are discussing Silence, or any character from the middle ages, it is important that we do not try and force our 21^st century nomenclature and thought processes on the character. Silence was not thinking that perhaps she was transgender, instead she was concerned that despite being female, she had played the role of a male for so long that she was beginning to become more comfortable in this role. I understand the desire that we, as 21^st century students, have to try and bring everything into this century, but it simply isn’t realistic, and we lose sight of the actual issue being told in the story.

            A more appropriate comparison to make would be to Julia Serano’s essay in Gender Outlaws, where she argues that gender is an act that helps us categorize in society. Despite being female, Silence was forced into the role of a male, due to inheritance laws. After lots of internal struggle, she finally comes to the decision that this is not the role that she fits into, and begins to play her “natural” role, which is that of a female.

            My statement is not meant to say that there are not people from the middle ages, who if we brought into today’s society, would be regarded as transgender, it just isn’t applicable to Silence.

            To compare it to something more modern, within the community of Drag Queens, there are queens who become lost in the role that they play when they paint their face. Their true selves become lost inside the outgoing personality that is their stage persona. It leads to the same type of internal struggle we see with Silence, where they attempt to sort between this fake personality that has taken over their lives, and their true selves. Eventually, they tend to find their way, just like Silence, back into their natural roles. They are not transgender, simply lost in the roles that they are forced to put on.

Let's Play Dress-Up

In this course we read Silence, a tale of a child born female, at least according to its genitals, but who was raised as a male so that the child could inherit land. This book does not delve much into the interiority of how Silence identifies personally, but we do know that Nature and Nurture argue about whether or not it was a good idea for him to ever live his life as a female as his genitals dictate he should be living. Honestly, I don’t think Silence even knew which was better for him. In the end he ends up living as a female, even getting married, but unfortunately, as readers we have very little insight into how Silence felt about that.

                So what happens when the opposite happens? What happens when someone has been assigned male as their gender due to what’s in their pants and raised as such, but as they go through life they start to realize they identify with the opposite gender? The one society doesn’t think they belong as? Well in the C/I course I am a CL for, we read a play that explores this concept. The play is titled La Llamada de Lauren… or translated, Lauren’s Call, by Paloma Pedrero.

Carnvial - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

                The play takes place on the wedding anniversary of the two characters, Pedro and Rosa. It also happens to be Carnival. Carnival is a celebration that marks the beginning of Lent. During Carnival it is not at all unusual for men to cross-dress as women and the character Pedro in this play, takes advantage of that. Rosa comes home to Pedro completely dressed as a woman, saying that they should fully participate in this year’s Carnival as he has even purchased a costume for her. He wants them to be Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, actors who were co-stars in movies, but fell in love in real life. Pedro insists they fully commit to their roles, acting their respective parts and even going as far as to bind down Rosa’s breasts and gifting her a dildo. That he wants her to use.

Bogart & Bacall

                Well, Rosa becomes confused and angry, feeling that Pedro is going too far. But finally it comes out that Pedro actually feels more like himself when he can dress and act as a female. However, he feels he has to overcompensate now to act as a stereotypical man due to the reaction his father had to him dressing as a female with his sister when he was young, calling him a “damned queer”. Unlike Silence, we get a clear glimpse into the interiority of gender that Pedro experiences. We see the internal struggle Pedro experiences with feeling the need to satisfy societal expectations for a man, like getting married or being dominant. He says, “It’s as though what’s expected of me contradicts what… I am. I mean, sometimes it seems to go against… my internal desire or logic.” This is very different from Silence who never seems to explain to the audience that he identifies with either gender. It is as if Silence was raised as a male and does not know any differently, but with Pedro, he was raised as a male and he does know differently, he knows that acting as a male does not feel natural to him. So who's out-performing who - Silence or Pedro?

                And what does this say about our society? The fact that Silence was written in medieval times and Lauren’s Call is set in a different culture from our own but are still relatable in 21^st century American culture, to me, goes to prove that this is a persisting problem, of imposing expectations attached to an assigned gender and not understanding when someone does not fit nicely into the tidy boxes we create. So my question is – how do we address this? How do we create a society that is more open to people who do not conform to our expectations? Will we ever be able to be supportive as a society of people like this, or at the very least, neutral?