This is a bit of a rant, but please try to stick with me through the whole thing
So recently OSRS (Old School Runescape) has joined a list of games that have replaced āMale or Femaleā with āBody Type A or Body Type Bā with you selecting your pronouns secondary.
And it made me furious, but I had to sit down and ask why such a small meaningless thing that I only see during the character creator pisses me off. After all, isnāt this giving a seat at the table for Gender Non-Conforming/Non-Binary individuals?
So I tried thinking about this issue from the perspective of a Non-Binary individual. See I myself am female (Transgender MTF for what itās worth), so the only thing Iām ever going to pick is the female option unless Iām doing a challenge run where I try to roleplay Guybrush Threepywood (Mighty Pirate!) while playing Fallout 3ā¦
Thatās when I realized why I absolutely hate Body Type A/Body Type B
This is not a solution to a problem, this is highlighting the issue.
As a woman, I look at āBody Type A or Body Type Bā and think āWell, Iām a woman, not a Body Type B, and isnāt it kinda misogynistic that the secondary option is the female one? Like A+ for Men, B- for Women?ā
As someone is very much not cisgender, I look at it and go āWell, isnāt every FTM going to pick Body Type A with male pronouns while MTFs like myself go with Body Type B with female pronouns? Who outside of a Far Right Troll trying and failing to be funny is gonna pick the buff bearded dude and select the she/her pronouns?ā
It was only when I went āLetās pretend I donāt exist in a male/female binary and see how I feel about it.ā that I realized why I absolutely DESPISE Body Type A/Body Type B
Because when I look at it from that angle, I realize that if I am a non-binary individual, my options are to look like an overly buff dude but occasionally NPCs will refer to me as a They/Them, or like an overly curvy chick who again sometimes gets called They/Themā¦
Thatās when I realized why Body Type A/Body Type B doesnāt do it for me.
Games that do this arenāt being progressive or inclusive, theyāre changing the color of the cup that my drink comes in and pretending itās an entirely new beverage.
I realized that if the choices in Body Type were something like
A - Buff Dude
B - Slim Dude
C - Fat Dude
D - Skinny Androgynous Individual who doesnāt need a bra/binder
E - Fat Androgynous Individual who doesnāt need a bra/binder
F - Skinny Androgynous Individual who requires bra/binder
G - Fat Androgynous Individual who requires bra/binder
I - Curvy Chick
J - Buff Chick
K - Fat Chick
L - Slim Chick
Maybe have also an option for a big buff masculine dude who has big tits, because thatās just how he rolls, I dunno just thinking aloud hereā¦
My point is that gaming could abandon āA/Bā in favor of something more like an actual spectrum of Height, Weight, and Gender Presentation instead of just awkwardly renaming the binary? I wouldnāt get so up in arms about gender replacing body type.
I donāt know what more I have to say on this. I guess itās just a revelation I had about something in gaming that bothers meā¦
So, wider gaming community. What do you think? Am I onto something or is this all crazy talk?
@HawlSera @chloyster I mean, I absolutely know people who use she/her but present very masc, and vise-versa. They may be relatively uncommon, but so are trans people in general and weāre still worth representing. Not to mention non-binary people who have relatively binary gender presentation. Your experience is absolutely not universal.
I am a tomboy, I present very masc, and it does annoy me when as a consequence people mistake me for a guy despite the fact that I obviously have breastsā¦ But that is what it isā¦
But what Iām getting at is most Body Type A options donāt allow me to play a masc-presenting woman, but a masc-presenting man as in āSomeone who looks like Leonidas on Steroidsā. If Body Type A regularly allowed you to play as a masc-presenting woman Iād see your point.
The option to play someone like Zarya rarely if ever exists, whereas the option to play as someone who looks like Kratos is overwhelmingly what Body A refers to.
