Sexuality and League
So for one of my classes discussing media and the presentation of sexuality/LGBTQ community (Lesbian gay bisexual etc), I did a small portion on it in reference to LoL and about the results I got from a small community survey! Please be courteous even if you disagree, as this is personal findings and speculation on my own behalf!
But what about when sexuality isn’t presented? What about when it’s up to the game community to come up with their own interpretations? I went a little beyond the basic assignment and decided to do my own project when it comes to a game I play a lot of: League of Legends. For this project, I went around the community and asked two specific questions:
1.) Do you think there are LGBTQ representations in this game?
2.) If so, name one or two examples of this.
After a few questionings and community response, I found results I expected: While there is little-to-no direct sexuality referenced in the lore of characters outside of marriages or romantic partners, three characters almost always came up when people thought of LGBTQ representations: Taric, The Gem Knight, Ezreal, The Prodigal Explorer and Vi, The Piltover Enforcer. So why did these three come up more than any other response when only a paragraph or so of story exist for them and a handful of voice quotes?
When it comes to Taric, most of the perception seems to come from how he is presented. Taric is soft spoken, has well-groomed hair, uses “Gem magic” to fight (Something more referenced with females than males) and is normally played in a role with a primarily female cast. What’s even more interesting is that most people pair him in a homosexual relationship with Ezreal, as Ezreal is often seen in the community as a “twink” who serves as the other half to Taric. Even when the creators of this game insinuated that Ezreal was possibly in a relationship with Lux (Far more reference and hinting than ever given to the relationship with Taric), the community still preferred to pair him with Taric than a female.
Vi has to be one of the most interesting cases due to the majority of her lesbian image being associated with having a female partner (and fellow playable character) Caitlyn. Vi refers to her as “Cupcake” due to Caitlyn using cupcakes in her traps. Vi and Caitlyn are partners on a police force, a role usually portrayed by two men. Vi is loud, bombastic and primarily fights as a boxer or brawler. All these attributes push Vi to seem more like a stereotypical “lesbian” who is in a homosexual relationship with her partner. Yet no proof of this exists. So why do people consider Vi a lesbian when she could simply be teasing her partner? Why is Vi considered a lesbian as opposed to polyamorous, bisexual or even just uninterested in sex?
This experiment, to me, served as a microcosm of how people still deal with LGBTQ in the media. It’s easier to assign black-and-white, gay-or-straight sexualities to characters as opposed to dig deeper and question just how much these rules apply. It’s easier and more comfortable to put these characters in very stereotypical lights because it helps the players identify with them. We use these stereotypes because they’re familiar to us and easier to relate to than thinking that maybe sexuality isn’t as black and white as we all assume it to be. Perhaps I’m overthinking a simple community speculation or perhaps I’m just the one out of ten that think there’s more to these ideas than simple, one-note sexuality jokes.
Just wanted to share this to see if anyone might want to provide their own thoughts or opinions. Please remember to be courteous and kind about others' thoughts and views on the subject.
