Hi Fab,
I am writing feedback on this episode mostly to talk about myself. I think I agree with most of the points you made but I have a few pieces of nuance to add. However, first about me.
I very recently identify as non-binary; this is something I have wanted to share with this community but it did not come up in general conversation and did not feel the need to drop in in to conversation out of context (AKA Star Trek Discovery)(However, I think I actually like ST:D but more on that later). Technically I identify as a bearded autistic man that wears a dress however I use the gender identifier gender queer which pretty much sums up my outward gendered appearance as weird (which I am OK with).
The reason for including autistic here is that while inwardly I kind of identify as male but not a typical male.
OK, enough about me. Firstly lets talk about content creators that publicly espouse transphobic, or other poor behaviours. There are 2 examples of this in my life. Harry Potter and JKR who is a known TERF and transphobe, and Joss Whedon for his alleged behaviour with actors. Harry Potter is not a deep fandom of mine but I enjoy the films, however Joss’s entire cannon are formative works from my childhood.
Both of these works I have no problem continuing to enjoy and separating the people from their work (and enjoying the work of other good humans). Sometimes I wish there was a way to continue to support these works while not contributing to the coffers of JKR or Joss but that might not be possible.
While there is a (all be it tiny) direct link to transphobia in the case of this video game I do not agree with Valve’s sensor ship (other than to remove all references of this language if possible or appropriate (I have not actually gone and read what was written)).
When it comes to this level of censorship do not agree. I believe that in some cases it may be appropriate to self sensor (not necessarily in the cancel culture way) but there can be situations where as a personal choice you may not buy a game you might otherwise enjoy if you did not want to support the individual person. But that is up to me as an individual not a company to make that choice for me.
Last point: there was something that came up for me when you talked about subtle vs overt representation. I think I agree with your overall sentiment but I wanted to add one point. As a non-binary, bisexual, autistic man I have recently come to realise that many tv shows and movies have not represented me up to very recently. There are a number of shows I have watched recently that have done an excellent job of representing autistic, trans, nonbinary, and other sexuality, etc. In an excellent way. There are also others who have done it in a tokenistic terrible way. When this is done well it has a profound affect on me. To actually be seen on screen is so moving. I am able to watch the types of TV shows
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