mystrich:

willgrayhound:

things which irk me just a little bit: gender and the animal crossing fandom

everyone’s always harping on about how the game is incredible for challenging gender roles. i’m not going to lie, i think it’s great that a lot of the barriers are broken down. men can wear skirts, there’s total equality between the two sexes being capable of whatever (mayoral dialogue is no different if you’re a guy or a girl), and you know, stuff like that

but everyone treats it like it’s perfect; i really don’t think it is. i don’t think the game intended to do this at all, but there is something in the dialogue which feels a little bit off to me, and it’s one step from perfect.

perfection, in my opinion, would be total apathy towards the gender. not disregard of gender, just apathy. if we could please skip the “oh, are you buying a present for someone?” when a guy selects a skirt, and dialogue shown in the above screencap when you try said skirt on. it just feels so unnecessaryand makes me feel hella awkward. the game is judging me, then apologising and trying to assure that it’s fine, when it could have just not said anything to begin with. 

idek why i’m making a post like this, but every time i’m confronted with this in-game, i instantling feel uncomfortable, and get an overwhelming desire to say something

Different villagers have different personalities. It’s meant to be a simulation game after all. It lets you just like in real life it lets you. All the villagers accept you. Some think you’re a bit eccentric. Other villagers say lines like “It’s 2013! Of course guys can wear skirts!”

No, not every villager is peachy with it, but that would be just as unreal as the game forbidding you from doing so because it’s wrong. The fact it lets you do it at all is a great step forward for a lot of people because even baby steps towards acceptance are still steps towards acceptance. Especially when it comes to censorship in the long run.

Moreover, the game is aimed at a Japanese audience, NOT an English one. A culture that has vastly different views on gender and sexuality. While I won’t get into that all here because there’s a lot to say on the topic and I’m not exactly the best source of information, they DO treat it differently.