catabuca wrote...
Being aware of what stereotypes are out there in order to avoid reiterating them is just good practice. Of course, a gay person can be promiscuous, just as a straight person can, but when you're creating a cultural product you need to be aware of the impact such characterisations have.
This isn't about making every character thoroughly anodyne for fear of offending - this is about sensitivity.
And this, to me, is political correctness. It's completely unreal because you're avoiding something that exists.
Perhaps it's just unfortunate that it was Zevran that ended up as the promiscuous one (albeit with a good backstory if you bothered to follow it),
I don't think Zevran was the only promiscuous one. Leliana, Morrigan and Oghren strike me as quite promiscuous characters. Oghren isn't more promiscuous because he can't, not because he doesn't want. In general, people in Thedas seem to be more carefree about sex than most cultures on Earth, we should take that into account too.
but the fact is that there are certain stereotypes and devices that are used in media when dealing with gay characters that have become predictable. For example, the women in TV series' who suddenly become bi during sweeps, only to either be killed off, leave the show, or be 'cured' later on.
I think I don't follow those TV series because I don't know what you're talking about:P.
This isn't about the writers going out of their way to produce offensive portrayals or situations, but about the way certain 'lazy' stereotypes are used when they needn't be ('lazy' because they are like placeholders: it's easy to portray a character using traits people recognise because they've been used time and time again rather than innovate and potentially 'confuse' people with a characterisation that falls outside of that standard model). You mention the character of Sky - I haven't played that game so I can't comment on how that worked, but it appears that is a good example of not relying on these lazy characterisations. I'm not bashing BW, because anyone can fall into the trap no matter how 'liberal' or 'progressive' they believe themselves to be simply because we think of people as 'types', it's how we classify. All I'm saying is that rather than Gaider saying 'I don't know why we bothered' it would be better to try to understand whatever criticisms, why they might be criticised, and think of ways to do better in the future.
I agree with your last comment about Gaider, but I can't agree on the rest. I mean, I know that many writers become lazy and just follow stereotypes but, when they do that, characters become flat (and can enforce an unjust stereotype in the process) . I just don't think the solution is the opposite, just write deep, believable, characters, that's everything we should ask for.
If anything, Oghren was your stereotype dwarf, but by virtue of being that he is an outcast in his dwarven society, which is a nice spin too.
If their next gay characters are the same then you'd have a point, but we need more sample data.
Ce sujet est fermé
Retour en haut
)
