Polygon: CDPR responds to sexualized trans advertisement in CyberPunk 2077 (Read Staff Post Before Posting)
Original thread on controversy with Staff Post that applies here as well: https://www.resetera.com/threads/this-fetishized-in-game-ad-from-cyberpunk-2077-raises-some-questions-about-how-the-game-may-depict-lgbt-nsfw-see-staff-post-before-posting.122649/ EDIT: please don’t say something like...
www.resetera.com
Messofanego:
"When you got extreme right transphobes being happy with the advertising and playing into the cis gaze of trans porn fantasy where the penis works just like a cis man, gender binary character customisation, no positive trans or genderqueer character shown yet, a faction called "Animals" being predominantly black people and black accents being made fun of, it's hard to give CD Projekt Red the benefit of the doubt on social commentary. It doesn't seem the developer had trans consultants. I don't see the punk.
Even if the ad is supposed to depict a trans woman or a trans femme in good faith, it’s terribly inaccurate in a way that furthers harmful stereotypes already existing in our society. Many trans women cannot maintain erections thanks to hormone replacement therapy, while others can only become somewhat stiff for a short period of time without erectile dysfunction medication. Yet cis people generally assume trans women’s penises operate like cis men’s until proven otherwise. That stigma is only further reinforced by cis male-centric porn, which expects trans models to use their penises in a way that operates exactly like cis men’s dicks.
In other words, the ad reflects cisgender peoples’ current conceptions of trans bodies, so for most cis players, the satire doesn’t land. And it calls into question whether CD Projekt Red ever intended the ad to be satirical in the first place. Right-wing gamers clearly didn’t think so. Over on 4chan’s /pol/, one user posted the ad and proudly declared Cyberpunk 2077 “/ourgame/,”implying the title’s politics align with the site’s far-right beliefs. And on Gamergate subreddit r/KotakuInAction, users praised the joke and belittled its critics"
It must be a strange position to hold.
In a sense the existence of a "trans porn fantasy" within society hints at an underlying willingness to drop transphobia altogether. People who are looking at trans porn and thinking "this is fucking hot" are probably keeping that to themselves due to societal pressures.
I mean, there are plenty of ugly ass, out of shape, bad attitude, women around and a lot of trans-women who put a ton of time and effort and money into their appearance. So wouldn't it be cool if people were more willing to publicly appreciate those trans ladies?
Sure, it might be shallow as fuck but it would seem like an absolutely massive step towards acceptance.
No. Because that would be Cis people getting something.
Thing is though, if you want to have acceptance of Trans people in society and you want to gain allies then you have to actually get Cis people on board somehow.
It would seem that something as basic as people being able to say "OK I am actually attracted to some trans-women" would be an overall win for the trans community.
Rather than some fat-ass in a pink t-shirt in a wig roaring at you about "cis privilege" and then demanding you be an ally, wouldn't it actually be better to see a sexualized trans character in a game and think "holy crap that's hot"?
Maybe it is a harmful stereotype though. Just on the face of it the message "trans women can be as sexually attractive as cis women and in many cases can be more attractive than the average cis woman" seems like it would do more good than harm. At least for getting over the initial hurdle of acceptance.
It's like they can't win.
We accept that, for the most part, cis models tend to be what we would consider traditionally attractive.
Instagram, Snapchat etc it tends to be those stereotypically attractive women that make it big.
So a developer decides "let's use a trans person in our fictional advertisement".
And they think well it needs to be something that looks good and interesting and, just like regular advertising, sexy.
No no no. Says this dipshit, Messofanego on ResetEra.
Trans people CAN'T be represented by models like Cis people are.
It has to be realistic.
What does that even really mean?
Edit: I decided that using the photo I used was maybe a bit mean, actually.
My point would just be that if we did have a future where Trans-people were accepted as models in adverts etc then I would ABSOLUTELY be the best looking and most attractive people that would be selected, just as it is now with Cis people.
If a part of our future culture was to have prominent Trans models with an actual focus on their "assets" then for sure you would get edgy advertising that would focus on whatever they've got going on down there.
No way the Monster Energy Drinks of 2077 are going to have Plain Jane #92345 as the face of their product. Regardless of whether she is trans or not.
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