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Syndicate
So is the female character if you play her. A friend has been playing and has had a lesbian encounter in a brothel already. At least I think it was in a brothel, it was with a courtesan though.
Maybe I'm just too old, but do you do other things in the game? Solve puzzles? Collect Golden Keys? Slay stuff?
Or is it all just Elven booty calls?
LOL yes, tons of that but they really try to include a lot of character development and role play in it
The best of both worlds.
Yeah, not to belabour this, or to provoke a pile-on, but I was trying to put my finger on what bothered me about welder's comment as well, and it comes down to three things, some of which may overlap with Maysie's and Michelle's comments. I just mention it because it seems like others don't get the "sensitivity" here, either:
1) why the need to declare anything about your sexual orientation, especially if it has nothing to do with the topic in question (being games with lgbt content)?
2) the fact that you would state that orientation in a negative fashion, and by that I mean going so far as to say "I think I'll avoid that one..." Why would you need to avoid something if you're "indifferent" to it? Your two statements don't jibe; moreover, they confirm the tone and implied intent of your original statement, which does sound homophobic. People who are comfortable with their sexuality don't need to avoid interactive cultural content that may include the expression of a different sexual orientation. They may choose not to use that option, but they don't avoid the game entirely unless they object to it for some other reason.
3) the statement that one is "not into the dudes doin' dudes" is not helpful information in almost any context I can think of except perhaps a first-date/first-meeting situation ("By the way, are you into the dudes doing dudes?" "No way! I'm not into the dudes doing dudes! I'm 100% heterosexual!!") and therefore comes across as non-accepting and exclusionary. I'm not sure how that read for some of the Babblers here who may well be into dudes doing dudes, so I won't speak for them, but to me it felt divisive.
I won't get into the "hold still" comment: I'm sure it was meant in a self-deprecating humorous way, but too many levels of creepy there.
I was going to say that I think that it's perfectly reasonable to discuss homophobic remarks if they're made, especially in the GLBT forum - then I realized this wasn't in that forum. So I'll move it there now. :)
Seriously though - thanks, PraetorianFour and jas, for speaking up. That is exactly what I thought when I read those comments too.
BTW, if your partner is merely "holding still for you" in bed, you're not doing it right.
Avoiding countless hours of video gaming fun based on 30 seconds of possible homosexual content is homophobic. Players of the game do not have to enact the gay scene and nor does it constitute a majority of the story line...therefore giving it a pass because of some dudes doing dudes seems pretty homophobic to me. Especially when proclaiming your heterosexuality from the roof-tops as it were.
Well Michelle, I would go a step further and suggest they should be discussed where and when they arise without really paying much attention to what category the thread occupies. It is, I think, something that should be challenged on the spot, rather than waiting until it has been assigned its bureaucratic pigeon hole. I think we have all grown accustomed to the way threads both evolve and drift...
Oh, I agree with you that it should! I was just saying that it would be especially appropriate to discuss instances of homophobic speech in this forum, which is where I thought the thread was in the first place.
I wasn't moving it here because I thought it wouldn't be appropriate to challenge homophobia elsewhere. I moved it here because I felt that the subject of the thread belonged in this forum.
Please do feel free to challenge anyone on oppressive language when you see it, no matter where you see it on babble.
P-four, thanks for that post.
The thing is, being homophobic (or racist, sexist, classist and more) isn't, like, the worst thing anyone could possibly be.
Our culture is homophobic (and racist, sexist, classist and more). Of course we (all of us, yes including me) have internalized those values, even as we reject them as we grow older.
My issue in pointing it out, both here and in my paid work and in my life in general, is to make visible what is invisible to us most of the time. I need such reminders myself, of course. Only then, can we hope to push past our early programming and begin to be allies with others and change the world. Seriously.
As for the word homophobic, as a word, textually, it's always pissed me off. It's not about a phobia, like arachnophobia, and it's not a "mental state" the way phobias are understood to be. It's also not (only) about fear.
Men calling each other various forms of insults relating to being gay, as well as various derogatory names that refer to women goes fairly far back in our culture. And it's homophobic (or sexist, or both) every time it happens.
I agree, but the effect is the same. It's not the state of mind of the homophobe that's problematic, it's their words and actions. It promotes that same culture of homophobia.
edot: what maysie said.
As for the game, I can't wait to play it. I've thoroughly enjoyed everything Bioware has put out.
Final thought:
I understand where this sentiment comes from, but what happens if he takes your advice? Do we really want to be sending the uninformed off to be "educated", so to speak, at Free Dominion? This is a huge problem. People figuring out whether they are progressive or conservative or whatever find themselves alienated by progressives and told that they are in fact conservatives, so they start identifying that way. This is how people start identifying as conservative, and how one identifies and who one associates with will shape one's politics and attitudes just as much as one's attitudes and politics shape how one identifies. It's possible to tell someone certain comments won't fly here without sending them to the dark side.
Not really into the right wing kooks there,either....
Slightly off topic, but this is a video called "Sex with Ducks" that was just brought to my attention. The musicians, Garfunkel and Oates, are referring to Pat Robertson's comment that legalizing gay marriage would be the same as legalizing sex between humans and ducks.
OMFG it's sooooo funny!!
Link here
Who gets to be the mallard and who gets to be the harlequin?