Wii Name = Gay? I Think Not
Yesterday, I pranced off to an EB in one of the malls downtown and merrily reserved Twilight Princess and Metal Slug Anthology (both for the Wii), along with the collector’s edition of Final Fantasy XII. While I was there, there was a gentlemen who commented on my reservations after he asked what system they were for…here is a paraphrase of that conversation:
Dude: “Yo’ man, what systems those games for?”
Me: “The Wii, the Nintendo Wii!” (I said it rather excitedly.)
Dude: “You mean Twilight Princess ain’t for the PS3?”
Clerk: ”...umm no, it’s always been a Nintendo series.”
Dude: “What is that system called again?”
Me: “The Wii…”
Dude: “Man, that is so f***ing gay! Why they gotta call it that?!”
Me: “It’s gonna rock! ...and you’re going to love yourself some Wii whether you like it or not.”
Clerk: “LOL!”
Dude: “Naw, I’m just gonna keep calling it the Revolution, that’s much cooler.”
Me: “Well let me ask you something, what makes the Nintendo Wii so gay, again?”
Dude: “The name, dude!!”
Me: “Ahh…there’s nothing gay about it…unless you want it to be.”
After that, I was just disgusted. So I paid and went back to my office thinking about how ignorant this guy was. I also remember the uproar over the Revolution’s name change to Wii about how stupid or…”gay” it was. Yesterday, Fruit Brute wrote up an article regarding comments made by Nintendo’s Iwata that have been twisted around as some sort of gay statement by various gaming sites and commentators. Most gamers I know, or have encountered, are very gay friendly and open minded. It’s very sad that a vocal few can make a whole group of fellow gamers feel rejected and unwelcome. We hope to change that by bringing gay gamers to the forefront in order foster tolerance and make this group more visible.
Super Timsy
Posted to Video Games on 20 September 2006
· Comments (9)
Other stuff like this: gay gamers, intolerance, wii
Intolerant people are everywhere.
And being in high school still (to some degree) gay is just something they say when they don’t like something.
“This paper is so gay” etc… Because being gay is soo not cool these days. :D
“Most gamers I know, or have encountered, are very gay friendly and open minded.”
I’d like to come and live in your world please.
It’s not that I am in a ‘different world’, just the people I am friends with are very open minded and, in turn, they know people who are like themselves. I’ve only met two or three gamers who are truly opposed to homosexuals and a handful that use the term ‘gay’ incorrectly…other than that, I’ve never had issue with other gamers…save for the occasional 14 year old with no life screaming obscenities over Xbox Live.
This whole thing about using “gay” to express scorn or derision of something (i.e. it’s lame) is something I’ve thought a lot about.
My immediate, and still lingering, reaction was one of confused hurt. Especially since I’ve typically heard (very) young people use it.
I even heard a bunch of girls call another girl a “faggot” when they didn’t like her behavior (seemed a substitute for “bitch”). This was even more surprising (and hurtful) to me, but apparently, these terms don’t necessarily correspond to the sex of the person being referred to.
All of this seems to emerge out of a greater misogyny that homophobia is rooted in. What’s both concerning and somewhat of a relief, is that when asked about why they use these terms, what they mean to them, it’s clear that they are said without thought or the intent to hurt (gay people). It seems entirely divorced from the existence of real gay people and how this can be perceived as a very real slur against them. I should probably just talk to some queer youth and see if my analysis is more a result of my age and a certain kind of politicization than anything else.
As to gay friendly gamers, just about everything I’ve heard and seen with XBox Live has been the opposite, with punks spouting all sorts of filth: racist, homophobic, misogynist. For those who like playing FPS (I have no interest), the ones I know often just turn the sound off so they don’t need to hear this crap all the time. Hasn’t “gay” also leaked into l33t? For gaming at least, I think it’s gonna be around for a while.
I don’t like it. But I don’t see how one can mount a campaign against it, or begin to change minds on a smaller level, without coming off like some overly earnest, out of touch PC dope. I don’t play FPSs or MMORPGs where this term seems to be used most in the gaming community. But I think as gay gamers, we need to come up with an analysis of these terms, reclaim them, own them, at the very least gain a better understanding of them. People, especially young ones, shouldn’t carelessly through around words without an awareness of their oppressive history.
Roundtable! Think the denizens of GG castle are up for it? :-)
” What’s both concerning and somewhat of a relief, is that when asked about why they use these terms, what they mean to them, it’s clear that they are said without thought or the intent to hurt (gay people). It seems entirely divorced from the existence of real gay people and how this can be perceived as a very real slur against them.”
I’ve heard this excuse form the people using the slur as well but then they completely turn around and REFER TO THEMSELVES AS STRAIGHT in the same breath as an example to show why they’re the superior ones. It’s obviously a blatant slur against homosexuals no matter what the users dream up to make it seem ok to themselves.
I know people who kind of have like a defeatist feeling about it. “I don’t like it or use it myself, but it could be worse and we can do nothing to change it.”
I’m far too much of an idealist to feel that way (it helps that I work for an LGBT Center too, mans I can get away with being a font of generic advice). Maybe it’s unrealistic to get everyone to stop saying it, but why wouldn’t you try? It’s not like you can’t change the behavior of one person, and (corniness) that can make a real difference.
The language people use can effect them more than they may actually be aware. Many people grow up thinking gay=disgusting not because of some moral or religious view but because it’s what’s implied by peer conversations since elementary school. Of course it’s going to feel like it’s meaningless at times, but I couldn’t ever stop being offended by it, so I can’t really stop trying to change it as well.
IMHO it seems that American gamers often use “gay” as a derisive term for “revoltingly feminine/sissy/kiddie”, which is not so much homophobia as is some kind of strong cutephobia very common in Western teenager gamers—- they appear to believe that their games are “mature” because they have tits and blood, and everything else should be dissed. Generally this stops when they reach their twenties.
Of course I had my share of gay-bashing too.
I think calling things “gay” is a symptom of the homophobia ingrained into our culture’s way of thinking. The best thing we can do directly is to try in whatever way possible to EDUCATE people to get them to understand what that word means to people and how it can hurt them. In the long run, it will only completely go away once our culture overcomes its homophobia. That won’t happen for a long time, but we’re making pretty steady progress.
Weee!