Latest news with #queerRepresentation
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
My unexpected Pride icon: Link from the Zelda games, a non-binary hero who helped me work out who I was
Growing up steeped in the aggressive gender stereotypes of the 1990s was a real trip for most queer millennials, but I think gamers had it especially hard. Almost all video game characters were hypermasculine military men, unrealistically curvaceous fantasy women wearing barely enough armour to cover their nipples, or cartoon animals. Most of these characters catered exclusively to straight teenage boys (or, I guess, furries); overt queer representation in games was pretty much nonexistent until the mid 2010s. Before that, we had to take what we could get. And what I had was Link, from The Legend of Zelda. Link is a boy, but he didn't really look like one. He wore a green tunic and a serious expression under a mop of blond hair. He is the adventurous, mostly silent hero of the Zelda games, unassuming and often vulnerable, but also resourceful, daring and handy with a sword. In most of the early Zelda games, he is a kid of about 10, but even when he grew into a teenager in 1998's Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64, he didn't become a furious lump of muscle. He stayed androgynous, in his tunic and tights. As a kid, I would dress up like him for Halloween, carefully centre-parting my blond fringe. Link may officially be a boy, but for me he has always been a non-binary icon. As time has gone on and game graphics have evolved, Link has stayed somewhat gender-ambiguous. Gay guys and gender-fluid types alike appreciate his ageless twink energy. And given the total lack of thought that most game developers gave to players who weren't straight and male, I felt vindicated when I found out that this was intentional. In 2016, the Zelda series' producer Eiji Aonuma told Time magazine that the development team had experimented a little with Link's gender presentation over the years, but that he felt that the character's androgyny was part of who he was. '[Even] back during the Ocarina of Time days, I wanted Link to be gender neutral,' he said. 'I wanted the player to think: 'Maybe Link is a boy or a girl.' If you saw Link as a guy, he'd have more of a feminine touch. Or vice versa … I've always thought that for either female or male players, I wanted them to be able to relate to Link.' As it turns out, Link appeals perhaps most of all to those of us somewhere in between. In 2023, the tech blog io9 spoke to many transgender and non-binary people who saw something of themselves in Link: he has acquired a reputation as an egg-cracker, a fictional character who prompts a realisation about your own gender identity. Despite their outdated reputation as a pursuit for adolescent boys, video games have always been playgrounds for gender experimentation and expression. There are legions of trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people who first started exploring their identity with customisable game characters in World of Warcraft, or gender-swapping themselves in The Sims – the digital equivalent of dressing up. Video games are the closest you can come to stepping into a new body for a bit and seeing how it feels. It is no surprise to me that a lot of queer people are drawn to video games. A 2024 survey by GLAAD found that 17% of gamers identify as LGBTQ+, a huge number compared with the general population. It may be because people who play games skew younger – 40 and below – but I also think it's because gender is all about play. What fun it is to mess with the rules, subvert people's expectations and create your own character. It is as empowering as any world-saving quest.
Telegraph
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Doctor Who promotes queer tolerance, says show's trans writer
Doctor Who promotes queer tolerance, the show's first transgender writer has said. Juno Dawson, a bestselling author known for young adult novels, joined Russell T Davies earlier this year to help script the regenerated series starring Ncuti Gatwa. The 43-year-old, who is the first openly transgender writer for the popular BBC show, said that a childhood love of Doctor Who and Eurovision 'was my way of saying I was queer before I knew what it was to be queer'. Writing in this week's Radio Times, Dawson said that it was unsurprising that both the European song contest and the science fiction TV series are 'so beloved by LGBTQ+ people'. 'Both shows occasionally address queer themes – last year's Eurovision winner, Nemo, was the first non-binary performer,' Dawson said. 'But more generally, the DNA of Doctor Who and Eurovision is fairness, tolerance, peace and the triumph of joy over hatred. 'It's not hard to see why queer people feel so seen and so safe in both worlds.' Gatwa's starring role marked the first time the Doctor has been played by an openly queer actor, as well as a black actor, in the show's 61-year history. The Sex Education star, 32, came out as queer in Aug 2023 in an interview with Elle magazine when discussing the importance of representation in the media. He described his role in the hit Netflix series as Eric Effiong, who is one of the few gay students at school, as 'healing' for him. 'Shout out to [the screenwriter] Laurie Nunn for giving nuance to this gay, black character and gifting him to the world,' Gatwa said. 'He's so fierce and unashamed. It was healing for me, and great for people to see themselves represented. 'It taught me the importance of representation: it's so powerful and necessary.' He has been playing The Doctor since the 2023 Christmas special and since last month, the two lead parts have been portrayed by minority ethnic actors for the first time. Previously, Davies – the head writer for Doctor Who – has criticised 'toxic' people who claim the show is too woke. The Welsh screenwriter and television producer, 62, said he had no time for complaints about the show's 'diversity and wokeness'. In May last year, Gatwa said he felt 'sad' for critics of the show's diversity. 'For me, personally, I find it fascinating that it matters so much to these people,' he said. In recent episodes a transgender character referred to the Doctor as 'male-presenting' and a drag queen made the point of using 'them' as a personal pronoun. Dawson, who also co-hosted The Official Doctor Who Podcast and penned the series' spin-off podcast, said that Eurovision had inspired the show's content in the form of an 'Interstellar Song Contest'. The author explained: 'There might not be an obvious link between the Eurovision Song Contest and Doctor Who, but I think they're cousins – if not sisters… But more than that, fans of Doctor Who and Eurovision can sometimes feel like outsiders, and that becomes part of someone's identity. 'When I was asked to write this episode, I was determined that my Interstellar Song Contest wouldn't make fun of Eurovision by having aliens dance around in tin foil dresses,' Dawson added. 'Why would the show devolve in the far future? If anything, I thought it would continue to become even grander.' Explaining that the episode is not 'all camp and glitter', Dawson added: 'I wanted to tell a human story… because that's how you win Eurovision.' The season two finale is set to premiere simultaneously on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on May 31.
