Oh, this is going to be a strange post. Back in 2012, I wrote a post on my old Typepad blog stating I really didn't like dark-skinned people and wished I could talk bad about them without being potentially banned from websites,
which you can read here. Things have changed since then, as I'm now okay with them, and in some cases actually wish there were more of them (especially in
anime)... I even added a dark-skinned girl to my game, Princess Peppermint! (Before then, the only dark-skinned person I made was Michael North from Shushybye, so this was my first OC "of color"!)
Now, however, with things changing in the world about sexual orientation and gender, new fears have come to mind, and no, they aren't about men trying to fall in love with me. That was an old fear. Read on, if you can, but please respect my opinions on this stuff. I know how touchy people are on the internet now, not being willing to acknowledge that other people have different opinions than them.
These flags... They've been around for many years,but I've recently thought about how people on the internet behave, and how they have a weird tendency to come up with beliefs about characters' orientations and/or genders, or how they can associate characters with said things just by seeing them wear those flag color schemes.
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| Sylveon proves boys can be cuties too... |
I think I first saw this with Sylveon in Pokemon X & Y. This really cute Eeveelution looks very girly, but technically is male most of the time. It also has a pink and blue color scheme, like a certain flag. These two things lead to it being linked to transgender, though in this case, I can't blame them for thinking this. I suspicion whether Game Freak did that on purpose. The other case that comes to mind is one of Speeps Highway's pictures, showing Amy Rose wearing the trans flag colors. That isn't as big as the Sylveon example, though.
Now, why am I worried about this? Well, my mind tends to come up with "what if" scenarios, making me worry about the possibility of anything happening in the future, like these:
- "What if Mary accidentally wears that color scheme, leading to people thinking she supports trans rights?"
- "What if people see that color scheme in a building and think I did that on purpose, supporting it as a creator?" (I'm in the middle about that, to clarify.)
- "What if people notice the logo uses purple and yellow just like the non-binary flag and start assuming my game has anything to do with not being male or female?"
- (And the most random,) "What if people see adult characters in my game's world and start making their own LGBT head-canon about them, leading to the community accepting that non-canon claim?"
Those seem like random, nonsensical worries, but I've seen how people who are fans of a series can be like. They could come up with their own theories and the like, but I wouldn't be able to tell them the truth. When someone isn't in full support of something, like LGBTQ, non-binary, or even common moral stuff (especially relating to children for some reason), they will dislike you at best, and go out of their way to hate you at every chance they get at worst, even when, no matter how bad it is, it's their beliefs, and
they should still be respected, no matter how disgusting it may be thought of.
With that said, I bet if I got into one of these situations, I would be basically in trouble. I'm from the mid-90's, back when things like this weren't on the front lines. They still existed, as I knew someone that swapped genders. However, due to it not being that big back then, I'm just used to straightness, loving the opposite gender, staying yourself, being 100% male/female, etc. However, now people are bending lines, breaking boundaries.
Due to how I've been all my life, I prefer to stay that way, so my game is made with straightness only. If I ever told someone in my game's fan-base that none of the game's meant to be LGBTQ, and that I'm not in full support, just neutral, they could go against me and cause unnecessary drama, at worst causing everyone to go against my game, refuse to support me financially, stop giving money monthly (if I ever open that Patreon), and cause me to hit rock bottom with nowhere to go.
It's a scary thought, but it shows how much power consumers have. I hope you didn't get offended by this blog post, but I felt all of this had to be said, in case any of it would happen in the future. Remember, I'm not against it, but I'm not with any of it, either. I might not understand it all, and I'm not putting it into my game's canonical world, either, but again, I'm not going to say I'm
against it...
This answer on
jelloapocalypse's Tumblr blog sums part of this post up, just not the parts about color association:
That’s not to say that headcanons are never a good call, but when it comes to character sexuality and gender, I always think
it’s weird to mentally assign someone a sexuality or gender that they
canonically aren’t. It feels weird and regressive to me. You don’t get
to decide what you want a character’s gender or sexuality. The
character does. I’ve gotten flak for this stance before, but I
think “headcanoning” any character as any sexuality they
aren’t is equally weird, no matter which way you do it. It’s weird to
think of a straight character as bi, a bi character as gay, a gay
character as ace, an ace character as straight, etc. All bad.
With this "rant" out of the way, all I can say is, regardless of your orientations and stuff, look forward to Mary's Magical Adventure!
