Xprimentyl said:
From what I understood watching that, nothing ?racist? was indicative of the game as a whole and the trans ad made sense within the context of the fictional world they?ve created.
So, Dan Olson once called this the Thermian argument (in reference to the species of aliens from Galaxy Quest who were incapable of understanding the concept of fiction) and I think that's a fitting term so I'm going to use it too.
The fact that something "makes sense within a fictional world" doesn't actually matter because the fictional world is, as its name suggests, fictional. The fictional world is entirely within the control of its authors, who are creating it for a specific purpose which has nothing to do with the fiction itself. The purpose of the fictional world is to bring enjoyment to real people, people who actually exist.
The trans ad is not the product of a fictional world, it's the product of our real world in which it serves a real purpose, and look.. that purpose may not always be obvious. Sometimes the impact of a piece of media can be unintentional. This isn't one of those cases, the purpose is intentionally and explicitly one of mockery for the purposes of humour. The only room for interpretation here is the nebulous thread of questionable irony which allows cis people to pretend they aren't
really laughing at the expense of actual people who exist.
This isn't neutrally representing an actual plausible future in which trans bodies are commodified. If anyone making that arugment was remotely sincere, they'd have long since realised they already live in a culture where "trans" bodies[footnote]i.e. how cis people imagine or think about trans bodies, which is basically incapable of getting beyond "oh no, a smexy woman might has a willy! My precious heterosexuality!"[/footnote] are commodified both as sources of humour for cis people to laugh at and, if you care to reach for the top shelf of the magazine aisle, in plenty of other ways.
So what what CDPR has said in official statements, and what I imagine most defenders will say once pressed beyond Thermian nonsense, essentially boils down to "oh, it's a
commentary on exploitation. It's not actually exploitation, trust us!" And some people will be taken in by that, good for them. Most of them, I suspect, will be young and probably haven't lived through the past few decades of this culture's idea of "trans-representation" enough to realise that this "commentary" looks exactly like the real thing.
Frankly I don't think the vast majority of cis people, well meaning or otherwise, are culturally capable of representing trans or GNC people without commodification, that's why overt mockery doesn't always look like overt mockery, because if you've always been given permission to laugh at other people's bodies, it doesn't feel like a conditional permission any more, it just feels like what's supposed to happen. This is not to downplay the value of trying. A lot of "positive" trans representation is still commodified, but that's okay. Intent counts for a lot and commodities can spark joy. This does not spark joy.
Also, to top it all off, it doesn't make sense within the context of the fictional world they've created. The fictional world they've created is apparently one in which gender non-conformity is normalized (just not in a way that requires any actual representation) and yet the ad is based on shock value and incongruity.. very much, of course, like the way our own culture (in which gender non-conformity is not normalized) overwhelmingly depicts GNC people. Hmm.. solve that one Sherlock.
And yeah, I've kind of gone off on something which isn't even the focus of this thread, but goddamn cishets. Do we really have to live our entire lives around your fucking neuroses?
