This is quite long and in-depth so I've included a TL;DR version at the end (though personally I would read the whole thing if you have time, to understand exactly were I am coming from).
So as the title says I am quite worried about how Bioware plans to portray its same sex romance for gay and bi men. While romances have been very varied for other sexualities, the ones for gay&bi men have been very cookie cutter and stereotypical. For example, in Dragon Age: Origins straight women have access to Alistair, a virtuous virgin knight, in Inquisition there was Cullen who was a virtuous virgin knight, Blackwall a...well, maybe too many plot spoilers to explain him and Solas. Kaidan in Mass Effect 1 who has exclusive to women at that point, his dialogue throughout the games implies he was a virgin until Shepard. Compare this to the ones we've been given for gay/bi men. There was Zevran in DA:O, a prostitute assassin. DA2 had Anders, someone who sleeps with a lot of prostitutes, DA:I had Iron Bull who sleeps with everything that moves and Dorian who sleeps around just because.
DA2 had Fenris and he was okay, but so far the only game which actually breaks this mould is Mass Effect 3 were gay/bi men could romance Kaidan or Steve, well done, finally a non-stereotypical romance for non-straight men...oh but then DA:I came out and we were back to only having stereotypes again...never mind. That's not even going over the fact that Cullen was planned to be Bi but was cut out last minute because of time constraints, which means there was a possibility of having a non-promiscuous Bi guy available to men which was dumped. Boy, dat representation.
Now this isn't a problem with Bioware specifically, since all media be it Games, TV, Films etc all have this problem of stereotyping gays as being the same and having the same motivations when it comes to 'relationships' and sex, which is always little more than 'gotta sleep with everyone'. There's a reason that "All Gays Are Promiscuous" is a trope
http://tvtropes.org/...sArePromiscuous
A further example is the Game of Thrones TV show. In the book Loras and Renly were honourable, intelligent people who were commited to eachother. And when BOOK SPOILERS Renly was killed, Loras tried to take revenge by storming Dragonstone and had his face burned. Compare this to the TV show where Renly died and within a few days (maybe a week) Loras is sleeping with a prostitute Olyvar (in the book Olyvar wasn't gay, he's Olyvar Frey and was Roberts Squire). And then Lady Olenna puts in some throwaway line about how Renly "fucked half the stable boys in kings landing".
I don't know why media has such a problem with writing gay and bi characters as varied human beings like in real-life. If you only looked at the media you'd get the impression that all gay people aren't humans like everyone else but strange things which do nothing but be promiscuous.
Now while this is a problem with all media, Bioware makes the claim that it's interested in diversity and representation, I am coming up to my 24th birthday and I haven't slept with anyone, why? Because i'm looking for a partner, i'm looking for commitment and hopefully one day a husband. So Bioware, why am I not being represented, am I unworthy? Why are you constantly reusing the same overdone, typical stereotype of non-straight men every time? Plenty of gay people I talk to feel this way too, my dad's friend's are an interracial gay couple who've been together since they were 20 (they're now mid 60s), we have customers who are a gay couple in their late 30s who've been together since they were 16. Why aren't they being represented, are they also unworthy of having their ideas and views of sex and relationships portrayed? I also know that EA has also received complaints like mine about how (Bioware games in specific) they have been portraying us and i'm also aware what EA's views on homosexuality because of an internal email a friend who worked at EA and briefly tested Andromeda received, which boiled down to "We see gay people as being promiscuous so we're only interested in portraying them that way".
We as people have come along way in recent years, trying to get the world to see homosexuals as just being human like everyone else but only in the last few years has same sex marriage been largely legalised, while many countries still refuse adoption by same sex couples and in many parts of the world you can still be murdered for being gay because of a view that we're deviants, predators and paedophiles. Yet the media STILL isn't interested in showing us to be like everyone else, they're deadest on showing us to have no real commitment skills, uninterested in love or relationships. No, according to the media (and Bioware) the only thing are sexuality is about is putting notches on out belt for every booty we can pound. It's sad that I have to go to games like Skyrim, or Fable were the 'romances' are cardboard cutouts with little to no character JUST to experience a gay relationship were they aren't promiscuous.
What's even more frustrating is that since Dragon Age 2 there's been multiple romance options for a character. In Mass effect 3 you had Kaidan, Bi with no prior sexual history or Steve, gay with a deceased husband, two very different people with different pasts and sexual histories. Then DA:I comes along and gives us two options, Iron Bull, Bi and sleeps with everything (he can even sleep with some NPCs before the romance becomes available) and Dorian, gay and has slept with a lot of people just for the sake of it. You had two people but you chose to make them the same, why are we not worthy of having people like Alistair, or Cullen? Why are all the others given to us the same, instead of being diverse like everyone else's, Why can't Bioware make one like Alistair/Cullen and the other like Bull/Dorian/Zevran so everyone has representation? Some people may think this is ranty, and maybe it is, but I am so tired of being portrayed this way in the media, i'm frustrated by the fact that the media including Bioware has pushed this stereotype and caused people to say that they 'would never guess I was gay, because I don't act like it'. Well regardless of whether Bioware or EA thinks it's important, regardless of if they continue to represent me and my sexuality in this stereotypical way and keep using the same template designed only to show that I and other gay&bi men must be slutty because we're not straight so obviously that's how we all are, I know different. Romances are an important part of these games and if Bioware isn't interested in me or representing me and other gay people as varied human beings with different views on sex, relationships and life. I cannot support those ideas with my money and couldn't in good concious buy a game which continue to promote the same tiresome and frankly offensive 'representations' of S/S men if this is going to happen again in Andromeda.
TL;DR: Bioware's representation of gay/bi men in their romances as all being promiscuous is stereotypical and offensive to me and a lot of people who've fought for years just to be regarded as equals. Hopefully Andromeda will take influence from ME3 and have a Bi option and Gay option, one who is not promiscuous with no prior sexual history and the other option who is that so everyone has representation. Until it's confirmed that there is an option for us gay men who isn't promiscuous I won't be funding Bioware by buying this game if they are only interested in portraying us as all as being promiscuous.
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