By David Futrelle
Fans of the well-loved postapocalyptic video game The Last of Us are reeling over a massive leak of information about the game’s upcoming sequel that suggests the story will be taking an exceedingly dark turn that highlights the futility of a cycle of revenge and retribution.
You’ll have to look up the spoilers yourself; I don’t want to give any more plot details.
While many fans are upset with the new direction, an angry minority has decided to blame the game’s apparently much darker plot — and everything else they think is wrong with the still-unreleased sequel — on evil SJWs for “shoving as much diversity and woke agenda at the player as possible,” as the One Angry Gamer site awkwardly put it.
In particular, they’re targeting unnamed and possibly imaginary trans activists at Naughty Dog, the developer of the game, for making it (allegedly) too trans-friendly for the true fans.
Much of the ire centers around a new character named Abby, whom 4channers and others have decided is trans — or at least “trans-gendered-looking,” as One Angry Gamer has described her — because she’s small-breasted and a bit butch.
A writer at the right-wing culture war site Sausage Roll takes this argument further, arguing that the allegedly less-feminine character design in The Last of Us 2 is part of a devious plan to make the game “trans-friendly.”
“It seems … that the inclusion of gay and lesbian characters in the last three Naughty Dog games was not enough to appease the activists who are reportedly working at Naughty Dog,” wrote Sausage Roll’s Dianne Anders.
The Last of Us Part II gameplay footage leak confirms that the plot has some extreme trans rights ideologies, too. ….
Abby is the leader of [a] little gang; and, according to 4chan leaks, she is also a trans woman.
Has there ever been a less-credible source than “4chan leaks?”
The characters in The Last of Us Part II are designed in such a way to not make trans people feel uncomfortable. Every single new character introduced in the sequel does not have definitive feminine or masculine qualities.
Ellie and Dina, specifically, have been remodelled to look less feminine … .
According to an unnamed video game artist interviewed by Anders, it’s all the fault of trans women that the game’s characters don’t have massive, male-pleasing boobs. (Because what’s an apocalypse without boobs?)
“A trans woman can’t naturally grow large breasts, and not all trans people can afford implants,” the anonymous artist told Anders.
If you see a game where the women are a little less curvy, it’s not … because the game designers are worried about receiving backlash for sexualising women, it’s because they are worried about offending the trans community. …
That’s why you will see a lot of designers ‘nerfing the female form’ so to speak so that the difference between trans women and cis women is a little less noticeable.
Anders herself continues:
That might explain exactly what happened to the cis female characters in TheLast of Us Part II.
We can practically hear the gutteral cries from offended gamer dudes from around the world: TRANS WOMEN TOOK MUH BOOBIES!
This would ring true especially if one of the new protagonists is a trans woman because it would blur the line between cis and trans so people would perceive Abby simply as a female hero.
Given that she’s already seen as trans despite no evidence that she is actually trans, that seems a tad unlikely.
It’s striking how easy it is for people like Anders — and her 4chan “sources” — to conjure up a trans demon out of nothing. Because transphobia runs deep.
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@PoM
You’re right, maybe I am reading too much into this. My perception of things written by TERFs is a bit colored by the trans*-exclusionary part, so I may not be giving the most charitable interpretation.
@Naglfar
I wouldn’t necessarily advocate being charitable toward TERFs, but they are like stopped clocks in a way, and occasionally have good points when they aren’t being trans-exclusionary.
There’s nothing intrinsically TE about radical feminism. The TERFs are very loud, but trans-inclusive radical feminists are a thing, and except on trans matters they speak similar language to the TERFs. The people in r/GenderCritical are definitely TERFs, so don’t think I’m defending the subreddit. I wish I could point to a good gathering place for TIRFs, but I haven’t found one yet.
@PoM
I know, and I recognize the issue. The only subreddit that seems to bill itself as trans inclusive radical feminist is r/GenderDifficult, which is still pretty problematic (only allows women to comment, does include trans* women but only those that meet a stringent set of transmedicalist requirements).
I think a lot of radical feminists also avoid calling themselves as such because of the association with TERFs and I can’t really blame them for trying to avoid that association.
@Naglfar
I guess I went in thinking that this is probably horrible, then saw nothing wrong with the OP and waded into the comments, and since the criticism seemed valid I didn’t really think about how narrowly body positivity was being represented.
That being said, I’m not well versed in the issue and the last I heard about it was some sort of an essay saying that the movement has been monetized by the beauty industry and whatnot, so I suppose my expectations were different.
@Naglfar
It’s also not very active, so not exactly what I would consider a great example of a gathering place.
So like… full disclosure I loved the first TLoU when it came out, but I’m prolly not gonna play 2 for reasons unrelated to boobs (namely, a growing aversion to violence and a long-standing disdain of bad management practices, and what little I’ve seen and heard of it is too gruesome for my tastes right now – including how ND treats it’s employees).
That said, I ask, when have boobs ever been relevant to the series ? Sex isn’t exactly a selling point of the zombieshroom apocalypse. Oh and by the way, the one time any matter of sexuality has had relevance was when people realized that Ellie likes girls. Which was it’s own fucking controversy.
I am 100% certain the people complaining about boobs now are the same ones who were complaining about lesbians in 2013.
The fact that any of this is being talked about tells you this game isn’t for me. Don’t need to be lectured about the fact that I like big breasts in my fantasy time. Thanks for the unwelcome judgment though!
Female gamer here and I’m complaining about lack of breasts on female characters as well. I’m personally sick and tired of women being uglified, and made more masculine, in games to appease ugly SJW’s and whoever else. You deranged regressives are ruining everything
Gotta love people who show up late to the party to say that actually, one woman in one game (or even -gasp!- some women in some games) not having huge knockers will stop them from enjoying their favourite pastime, and anyone who likes to see different kinds of people represented in the media they consume are just being great big meanies and should have the decency to stop.
Because these things should obviously be decided according to what the consumers think, and only the consumers who like all the women to have big titties are real consumers.
*doubt*
Sure thing there “penny” i’m so sure about that.
If you need big boobs that don’t obey the laws of physics in your games, you can always play one of the other billion games that feature such boobs. I mean, I don’t claim that a romcom isn’t a horror movie because horror is my favorite movie genre. I just, you know, find a horror movie to watch.
At least we got a bit of honesty from Joel.
Yes, Penny, I definitely believe that you are a real woman, and thus prove that everyone here is lying. Just like Vivian James.
@Allandrel
It’s been a while since I thought about Vivian James. Seems she’s mostly been superseded by an endless barrage of anime characters used as avatar images.
Maybe the Voice for Pierre commandos succeeded in freeing her of servitude to the GG idiots?
http://pierre.thecomicseries.com/comics/35/
And I’ll take my current favorite mobile game where only some of the PC women characters have jiggly boobs (where it makes sense to have them) and clearly different designs over yet another game where jiggly boobs is all they have on offer for their female characters, and no effort made to make them clearly different from each other.
TERFs/Femcels are like that evil jealous character in a disney story that are angry at another character for finding a ‘handsome’ character and having a happy, fulfilling relationship with him and tries to gain allies to plot against her.
Whichever one fits best, was it maybe Cinderella or Snow White? Can’t remember.
WWTH:
A commercial I saw once while in a theatre waiting for the movie to start:
Guy is sitting in an airplane waiting for it to take off. Girlfriend shows up and does the romance cliche of taking over the plane’s intercom and declaring her undying love to him while the crew and other passengers applaud and cry tears of joy as the lovers are reunited and leave the plane.
Later, the couple are driving down a scenic mountain road when the man starts questioning his lover about how exactly she managed to get on the plane and everything because well, there’s rules and laws and physical barriers to prevent people from performing that stunt. Her replies are essentially a ditzy ‘they…just did?’ Until she gets fed up with the constant questions, turns into a vampire-ish monster and angrily chases her scared lover out of the car and into the forest.
The commercial was for an audio book service showing what kind of stories they sell. Forgot which one, though. 🙁
Why are people questioning Penny’s declared gender? It seems a bit hypocritical considering this blog is supposed to be opposed to any misogyny in its comments.
I play video games for enjoyment. my criteria are good storytelling, good gameplay and good graphics. I have never played a game for politics. As the recently retired Editor in Chief of a mainstream news website, the last thing I want in my recreational activities is more politics and stress.
@Tim Lister
I can’t say why people questioned it, but I found it strange that she led with that info, or actually brought it up at all, since it didn’t seem relevant. Though in my eyes it looks suspect mostly because it is posted right under Joel’s comment and I can’t shake the feeling that those were maybe posted by the same person.
@Wolff
How are we supposed to deduce your stance on the issue of titties from that information?
Let’s say I’m playing the odds. Someone rails about “ugly SJWs” – is this person someone who identifies as female? or is it someone who identifies as male but who is taking a page from 4chan? Hmmm …
Yes, because it’s misogyny to identify false flags. Feminism is notoriously all about being a naive lamb.
I don’t really see how you can separate good storytelling from politics. It’s pretty hard, if not impossible to tell a story that has nothing political in what it tells, what it shows, and what it omits.
It’s too bad that all the gamer bros who are supposedly so dead set against politics in games are so against the casual games. When I want to escape politics, I play a match 3 or do online jigsaws. AKA not real, very bad games.
@Wolff R Bachner : you very probably played most of your games for politics. Hecks, the best videogames are all ultra-politized. FF from 4 onward, Baldur Gate, Planescape Torment, Civilization, all the Call of duty and their clones, among other are highly politicized games. (it’s actually extremely hard to find a game who is non politic. Generally, when asked, people point some of the most hilariously political game like the aforementioned Call of Duty)
Generally speaking, “I don’t want politic in my games” just mean “I don’t want politic that I disagree with in my games”.
Is anyone else getting GamerGate “NotYourShield” vibes from all the drop by commenters in this thread?
@Ohlmann
It goes beyond games as well, a lot of conservatives immediately brand anything that they disagree with as overly political while not caring when things they like are political.
@Trolls
You know what’s misogynistic? Making misogynistic arguments in bad faith, no matter what your gender.