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Tokenism and Developer Narcissism in League

FederationFurry·8/15/2019, 10:48:35 AM·4 votes·1,242 views

Does anyone else feel that League should not be on the "Progressive" freight train that most of Hollywood is on at the moment? As a gay man myself, I have to stay that I absolutely hate tokenism by movie and game developers, taking a character and making them gay for no real reason other then to show "how progressive we are". It's blatant tokenism and I find it offensive.

I have never once played Varus and gone "Gee... I wonder what sexuality this guy is?" because sex has nothing to do with this game. It just seems like the developers want to "virtue signal" like the rest of Hollywood wants to at the moment but it tends to be a shallow, narcissistic farce that is more about the developers wanting to feel good about themselves rather then actually trying to create a diverse environment.

Yes, Varus may have been gay (for no real reason), like Tracer being a lesbian in Overwatch. But what about the homosexual stereotypes of (80's perception of a homosexual) or (Closeted Homosexual) or (Public perception of a "Twink) or (Angry Lesbian Stereotype). You cannot do tokenism and then have these negative "Straight-perceived" versions of homosexuality in the game.

That being said, I have no problem with stereotypes. They exist for a reason and it can be fun to play them. The point of this post is not to "call out" Riot or start an argument. It is simply to point out that virtue signalling "tokenism" really should not exist in the modern world, especially from majority straight developers. It just feels so forced and I hope Riot will shy away from this in the future.

Your character designs Riot are some of the best I've seen in any game. Please do not ruin it by continuing to pander to a liberal leftist elite.

Or and - Total Dad Bod... I love it!

[slayer-jinx-wink]

10 Comments

DeathBurst8/15/2019, 2:14:49 PM3 votes

This post is all over the place...

OK, let's try this: Yes, tokenism is bad. No, that doesn't mean Riot should avoid the "Progressive freight train" (whatever that means, geez...).

Tokenism is bad because it's hypocritical. Not because being "progressive" or "leftist" is bad in itself. The solution to tokenism is being MORE (and actually) progressive, not less.

(And as a totally unrelated side-note: Ezreal is more of a bishonen japanese stereotype, which is not homosexually coded. As for Rakan, I can't see for the life of me what's closeted or gay about him. To the contrary, I think he is a great example of non-toxic masculine character, who's in love with his girl and owns it, and he's not shy or ashamed about it.)

Jhins Girlfriend8/15/2019, 3:58:09 PM3 votes

There's literally only one confirmed playable gay character. Neeko See, the problem is it's basically impossible to add an lgbt character without accusations of it being forced. Introduce a character and reveal they're gay later, like Tracer? You're just shoehorning it in and doing it for attention. Introduce a character and make it known they're gay from the start? Oh, you're just adding a gay character to have a gay character. There's no way to win. People can't accept that someone genuinely wanted to make a gay character, it HAS to be some virtue signalling leftist pandering no matter what.

If you're mad about the Varus retcon, hope you're also mad that Taliyah , through her entire development phase, was intended to be trans, but they retconned it before release.

SEKAI8/15/2019, 11:28:23 AM3 votes

Varus himself is not gay, though; or at the very least we have no idea which side he swings or whether there's any at all since most Darkins appear asexual. The body is made out of 2 merging a gay couple that's it.

The only thing gay about Tracer is that she kissed her girl friend in a single panel in a Christmas event comic. That's it. If anything, Blizzard is playing way too safe, but it doesn't matter since everyone and their mother still have a whinge about it being tokenism and "too much" or whatever anyway.

80-90s perception of a gay person is someone who is extremely flamboyant and obnoxiously loud, with the very first line you'd expect flapping out of their lips when you meet them to be "I'M GAYYYYYYY!!" laugh track plays. Taric doesn't feel the bill. I don't think there was any indication about Taric's sexual preference tbh; people just say he's gay because he's fabulous. So the stereotype is more to do with players.

Rakan and Ezreal are not gay. I don't think what you read to make you think that way but they are not. At the VERY MOST, they are bi, but both of them are currently interested in another female character in the game.

Vi isn't angry, it's more like she was or something. Vi is just a punkish lady who likes punching people (and apparently between her and Caitylnn, she's actually the "good cop" since she's the one with compassion and empathy in the duo) who may or may not be gay.

..........

If any appearance of gay or any of the LGBT+ character is automatically a tokenism, yeah I can see why one can believe tokenism is everywhere.

However tokenism while a thing that definitely exist, it's not so bad with LGBT+ portrayals these days since people actually try to get around distancing away from the older tokenist portrayals at least attempt to. And no matter what anyone does, any efforts would be nefariously attacked and branded as """""SJW""""" anyway; it's a complete lost cause with the audience who simultaneously demand change and then prosecute you when you do.

If you want to see some real tokenism, try Asian characters in western movies. Much like that hilarious ramble in Suicide Squad that began with some dude introducing an Asian lady to the crew (and I specify that because she almost never spoke in the entire movie, an overused and frankly harmful trope of Asian women in western films for the keen-eyed viewers) with "THIS IS KATANA!! She's got my back. She'd cut all of you in half with 1 sword stroke, just like mowing the lawn! I would advise not getting killed by her. Her sword traps the souls of its victims!" Lmao! No one gives a shit about Asian people.

Dorans Pants8/15/2019, 4:28:21 PM1 votes

I don´t think anyone should take Hollywood as an example for anything.

Regarding the topic, I don´t think the movement in itself would have been such a problem if it hadn´t been handled so incompetently. But the shot-caller felt like they had the moral high ground and justified to just brute-forced their ideas in with no regards to anything else. The quality had to suffer and the disregarded majority of the audience was expected to endure it.

I guess the urge to have imminent change forced them to make an authoritative message that was "loud and clear", so everything had to be very heavy-handed and on the nose with no room for nuance and subtitle which in turn made for bad entertainment.

But they happily take it, they are burning bridges all around them while padding themselves on the back for the good work. I mean how do you want to engage in any form of dialogue if you brand your opposition as the devil from the get-go? Anyone who had a heated discussion in his or her life should have learned that simply being right about something won´t get you anywhere, how you act and sell your idea counts far more.

Unless you see yourself in a position powerful enough to enforce your ideas ofc, so maybe it´s not incompetence but plain hubris.

I don´t envy anyone who works hard to produce something good that is also inclusive, because it will inevitably carry the stigma of the terrible works that came before it.

Hammermancer8/15/2019, 3:33:23 PM1 votes

taric isn't gay

Overlord Forneus8/15/2019, 3:25:23 PM1 votes

I think you might be reading way to far into this my dude.

And... no.... Taric is nowhere near gay, flamboyant? maybe, gay? no.

Rakan... the dude and Xayah are an official couple... And what lore I've read regarding the dude wouldn't point to a "Closeted" homo.

Ezreal... dude is just a young hot head who thinks he's got nothing to prove...

Vi?... okay I'll give ya that one... but she's more than the stereotype, she's tough as hell and has something to prove.

Anyway... as I said, I think you're lookin way to far into stuff, sometimes things are as they presented, no subtext or things between the lines.

Hammermancer8/15/2019, 3:44:29 PM1 votes

Tokenism is definitely a thing, and I do agree that the varus story was likely a market board decision to try to sell on the grounds of presenting as 'inclusive' and I say that as someone who works in video production and marketing so I have seen these conversations occur and I've made it known I don't want any part in the forced diversity shoots.. though that's a very complex issue that also has a lot of politics so I WILL NOT go any further than that and stating that my opposition is based solely on my belief that tokenism is immoral and condescending on many levels to everyone involved.

Neeko being a lesbian isn't tokenism, she was crafted with it in mind. certain champs turning out to be lgbt wouldn't be an issue assuming they haven't showed anything to the contrary.

For example, Garen is widely accepted to be a heterosexual who wants to be with Katarina (Though I think this was slowly phased out), katrina was shown to share the feelings for garen but the war keeps them apart (AND WE JUST GET LUX LORE LIKE SERIOUSLY THIS COULD BE SUCH A DECENT ARC) so if garen abruptly married Jarvin IV it would be pretty weird because we have an established character.

Now if Singed, or Xerath, or Shen turned out to be homosexuals we wouldn't have any difference to the characters, actually a romance subplot between Azir and Xerath wouldn't even be that hard to adapt to, I'm not suggesting it but I'm putting it up as an example as it's easy to excuse "Name as brother" as "Royalty having a secret gay mistress"

there's a difference there though.

But taric is straight, the only thing that could turn taric gay would be braum... but taric is so sexy that braum would fall in love with him and.... Also they're the best duo bot lane so they need sweatheart skins so they can be pink and also match and plz riot just give me sweatheart taricxbraum plz they're not gay they're just both so perfect and sexy and manly that they are destined to be together (Forever like zip zap a dooby buh)