Posts in Splatoon 2‘s lobby go through trends just like the fashion world. Weeks ago it was Knack 2 jokes, and more recently it was drawings of furries. Right now, the Splatoon 2 lobbies are full of LGBT pride, and a few players that wish this trend was over.
Splatoon 2‘s lobby is adorned with posts from players. These are drawings from your fellow players that either hover above their heads or are graffitied on the walls and stages. Sometimes you’ll wander into the lobby and wonder how or why some new trend emerged. Why is everyone arguing about furries? Why are people saying, “I wish teamwork was real?” The latest of these trends is showing support for LGBT players, especially trans players.
Splatoon lobby trends go through cycles of excitement and then backlash. It goes like this: Someone will make a post about how they wished Inklings were real; that gets memeified into “I wish helpful team members were real”; and then as people get sick of it, the backlash begins and people will post, “I wish original joke structures were real.” This isn’t limited to Splatoon — this is how jokes get run into the ground all over the world. But being LGBT isn’t a joke or a trend, it’s a person’s identity.
Source: Supersillyshyguy
Source: Fallska
Source: Fallska
Source: Fallska
Apparently the hot Splatoon meme of the week is loving and supporting trans people? #HereForIt
#Splatoon2 #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/FheMiyPs2g— monster (@frostykat_ray) August 18, 2017
I logged onto Splatoon 2 for the first time in a week and its turned into a twitter argument pic.twitter.com/4tX22nNeIB
— 9 V O L T (@9_volt88) August 20, 2017
The Splatoon 2 lobby is in the backlash part of this trend, kinda. Because this is about pride, seeing players criticise their identities has only made LGBT players even more prideful. The posts they make are pretty innocent. Mostly, they just say, “Nonbinary Pride,” or, “I love queer squids.” But they have become ubiquitous. It’s like Inkopolis is having its own mini-pride weekend. I never saw more than one or two posts that admonished people for talking about their sexuality or gender identity, but it looks like the community’s response to those one or two voices was to just be more gay and trans.
The way that these trends propagate is an utter mystery — players have very little control over what they see in lobbies, and the only way to get posts you don’t like out of your sight is to report them. We do know that Splatoon players have a history with using the lobby to display LGBT+ pride, as very similar posts exploded in the first game two years ago. Technically, posts about LGBT+ pride have been floating around Splatoon 2 for weeks now, but in smaller numbers. Over the course of the weekend the posts about trans pride significantly outnumbered the people who were angry at the presence of trans people in my lobby, but there’s no way of telling whether that’s an algorithm or if there were more trans players. In any case, wall to wall LGBT pride posts will eventually pass. By next weekend, Inkopolis will have something new to cheer for.
Comments
14 responses to “Splatoon 2’s Lobby Fills With LGBT Pride In Response To A Few Jerks”
This is probably going to kick a bees nest, but here go.
I think trans people need help to make the jump to their prefered gender, but gender fluidity is a poor attempt at pulling attention and so is the myriad of genders.
I agree with you. There’s only 2 genders and the others are usually used to gain attention. I also believe that transgender isn’t actually a gender, but a label to describe people that have changed genders through surgery. Contrary to popular belief, you can’t actually be whatever you want to be. You can’t be a cat, you can’t be a dog, you can’t be a dragon, you can’t be a gender that you’ve made up.
Now, knowing my luck, I’ll be mass down-voted for holding the wrong opinion and be put on a moderation list for a month or two.
You know what? I give you an upvote, purely because I was going to post something along those lines but held back…
I’ll offer a dissenting opinion here. Why can’t people ‘be whatever they want to be’? It’s just an individual identity. If someone says they don’t identify as male or female, does it really impact me and my life? Does it change the way *I* identify? No, it really doesn’t.
So I guess I just don’t see a need to tell people that they’re wrong for feeling a certain way, and accusing them of seeking attention. Maybe they are seeking attention, or maybe they really are having an identity crisis. But the point still stands: why should I care?
Also, I don’t think this article is pointing out people ‘making up genders’, it’s just highlighting people who consider themselves ‘non-binary’. These are just people saying they don’t really feel male or female, not that they feel like a dragon or a cat.
And for the record, I absolutely consider myself male and have never had any feelings to the contrary. I just really don’t see a need to belittle or invalidate others because they *don’t* feel like I do.
People can identify as whatever they want. They can even introduce themselves as anything from male, female, non-binary, binary number manifested on the physical plane to dragon, otherkin, furry, attack helicopter, etc. The issue is with what they cannot do, which is force people to accept, and even less so, address them as whatever they want. The further away one’s perception of oneself gets from male and female, and into the region of newer overly specific pronouns for “genders” that are not scientifically defined during the average person’s education, the less likely the average person is going to bother trying to appease them. Simply and honestly, expecting people to go so far out of their way (or trying to change and complicate the etiquette of conversation, for that matter) to spare the feelings of an ultra vast minority of society is seen as attention-seeking and unnecessary labeling.
I’m really not sure where any of that came up in this article? I never said, nor did the article speak of, people making others address them in a particular way re pronouns.
This article is entirely focused on ‘I don’t identify as one of the binary genders and I’m proud of that.’
So who, or what, exactly are you responding to?
Also, speaking of science, we’re talking about gender, which is a societal construct, as opposed to sex, which is a biological term. Literally copying this definition from Google: Gender: the state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones).
And talking of going out of the way, it really seems like it’s *more* effort to fight against this than to just say “they” or “them” instead of “he” and “she”. God forbid that, what was it, “ultra vast minority” want to just feel comfortable and accepted in life.
Sorry. I was addressing your point in particular, not as much the article. You asked why can’t people identify as whatever they want and I was saying that they can but they cannot expect everyone else to address them as their perceived identity. I suspect that “he”, “she”, “them”, and “they” aren’t the issue, as those are societal norms, but when people are expected to know and use “ze”/”zey”/whatever, they things are getting over complicated and too PC. As for wanting to feel comfy and accepted in life, if you’re an adult and you get offended because someone didn’t address you by your preferred pronoun but instead as a male or female because that’s what your physical appearance conveys, then, well, perhaps it’s time to either accept that that’s how others perceive you move on, or start wearing a shirt or sign that clearly states, “I am not male or female. I am _______. Please address me as ____, ____, or ____.” I mean, I identify as the aforementioned attack helicopter and prefer other to address me as “swah-!” for the sound a helicopter blade makes as it cuts through the air, but I don’t mind being addressed as “he”, “him”, or “they”.
I am, however, slightly offended that in no game’s character creation process can I put a five-blade or even just a four-blade propeller assembly on my character’s back.
This I can get behind!
That said, I found the final boss battle in Gears of War 4 both horrifying and inspiring, the way you ripper off that dying helicopter’s props and use them to defeat the boss, letting the chopper not perish in vain but share in the glory of victory.
Thanks for elaborating.
I agree on making up your own pronouns, and getting upset if people don’t use said pronouns. That’s altering language and expecting others to adapt, which is pretty unreasonable in my opinion.
I’d never be put off by someone asking me to use neutral terms though, or just their name, instead of gender specific pronouns. I think it’s okay if people feel uncomfortable with others refusing to do so, and insisting on saying he or she. I think everyone can be polite about it too. If I refer to someone as ‘he’, and they correct me, I’ll do my best to do the right thing by their wishes. If I don’t, then I’m in the wrong. But if I say ‘he’, and the person then gets immediately offended/upset with me and gives me no opportunity to correct the way I’m referring to them, then that’s on them, not me.
But yes, I agree that getting upset with someone for not using made up words is too far.
Well put. You’re right and I agree wholeheartedly with this.
I’ll be joining you on that list. I hope you have t-shirts. T-shirts that say, “I exercised free speech and all I got were these down-votes.”
Or:
“I disapprove of what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”
I’m just so used to it. I get put on a moderation list after nearly every comment I make.
This couldn’t be more true