The censorship codes of Nintendo and Sega limited the usage of gender inversion to exclusion of cross-dressing until 1994. Although mainly used in video games for its comedic value, gender confusion has also been used as a tool to offer social commentary about sexism or homophobia. This technique has been widely used in Hollywood movies (to circumvent the Production Code's ban on 'sexual perversion'), as well as in Vaudeville. The underlying assumption is that homosexuals are also frequently transgender and, therefore, possess mannerisms stereotypical of the opposite sex. A male character's homosexuality is often indicated by making him a sissy character with effeminate or flamboyant mannerisms, dress, and speech. Comical gender confusion Ī common method of introducing LGBT characters is to reveal their sexual orientation through gender inversion.

Facing challenges that 'serve as an in-world analogy for anti-LGBTQ bigotry', they are defined by tragedy that denies them a chance at happiness.

According to Kotaku, these characters are 'largely defined by a pain that their straight counterparts do not share'. These are similar to how other forms of popular culture, such as Hollywood films and TV shows, dealt with LGBTQ+ themes.Īs in other media, LGBT characters in games often suffer from the ' bury your gays' trope, a long-lasting narrative convention that requires that LGBT characters die or meet another unhappy ending. See also: List of LGBT characters in video gamesĪ number of recurring tropes, themes and archetypes have developed in the gaming industry in regard to LGBTQ+ identity. In 2018, Sam Greer of Gamesradar+ found only 179 games commercially released games with any LGBT representation, only 83 of which have queer characters who are playable characters, and only 8 of those games feature a main character who is pre-written as queer as opposed to them being queer as an option. While there has been a trend towards greater representation of LGBT people in video games, they are frequently identified as LGBT in secondary material, such as comics, rather than in the games themselves. In the history of video games, LGBT characters have been almost nonexistent for a long time, reflecting the overall heteronormativity of the medium. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) characters have been depicted in video games since the 1980s. ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points.

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