Friends on Friday

Mondays are for serious (or not so serious) business. Fridays, however, are for friends within the community, and showcasing their contributions and thoughts.

Do you want to participate? If you want to answer the questions below, just send us an email at killthehealernow@gmail.com, with the name you want shared and, if your comfortable with it, a picture of yourself. Or a avatar. We’re not picky!

Tell us about yourself!

I’m an asexual/demisexual female who has been into various forms of gaming for almost 20 years.

What are some of your favorite geekeries?

I started with tabletop games and moved on to LARP, console and PC gaming. I still do every single one but the LARP.

What media (games, books, movies, etc) do you think are doing representation right?

I’m also into sci-fi and fantasy shows, which I think are at the forefront of doing representation correctly. Followed pretty shortly by the larger MMO’s such as WoW, who just recently gave us a very badass black woman in a leadership position with amazing actual armor. Meanwhile, games with more toxic communities such as Fortnight or For Honor have kind of left representation in the dust. I also give props to Blizzard for having LGBTQ+ pins available all year round with donations to charity instead of just one month. Books tend to do some representation but I’d put them fairly far back up until recently as far as doing it right. Most characters in books that try to represent marginalized groups do it only as a one sentence kind of “look what I did here, praise me” or as a severe and often offensive stereotype. IE: gay men being all effeminate and about fashion. Women wearing short skirts and gossiping. Pagans being dark and goth dressed with rituals involving blood or going the other way and being “I’m a tree hugger, crystals alone heal everything” nonsense.

What do you wish creators knew about representation?

I think the big thing about representation that people need to know is that marginalized groups are still individual people. Their only trait is not whatever marginalizes them.

Friends on Friday

Mondays are for serious (or not so serious) business. Fridays, however, are for friends within the community, and showcasing their contributions and thoughts. If you want to answer the questions below, just send us an email at killthehealernow@gmail.com, with the name you want shared and, if your comfortable with it, a picture of yourself

Our Take: Morgan is outspoken, life-long gamer with a strong belief that feminism is for everyone. She’s keenly aware of many issues that plague the gaming community, and she’s not afraid to speak up when they rear their ugly heads. All that fire not only enriches any game she’s a part of, but it makes her an incredible person to game with as well.

Their Take:

What are some of your favorite geekeries?

LARP, Video games, Board games, Card games, graphic novels, fantasy novels, mobile games

What media (games, books, movies, etc) do you think are doing representation right?

Supergirl for promoting more LGBTQIA positive representation, Everything Sucks! (TV show also) with sex-positive youth and race-positive, LGBTQIA positive as well. Rat Queens (comic book) for femme positivity, LGBTQIA positivity. Luke Cage (TV Show) for race positivity, Filthy Rich Asians (movie) for race positivity. Brooklyn 9-9 (TV Show) for a lot of positive representations (Jake could easily be the worst misogynist/social backwards dude, but he always surprises the audience; Captain Holt as a gay black leader; Roza discovering she’s Bi).

What do you wish creators knew about representation?

It matters a lot to see and expose different audiences to more than just themselves. Having underrepresented groups shown just to their own audience is nice, but it’s more impactful for it to reach a wider audience and normalize them in the larger culture.

Instead of using representation as a token, make sure “representation” is dynamic and sometimes not even the full focus of the character. For example, in the TV Show Letterkenny, Wayne’s sister is, in the first episode, dating two men at the same time. It’s never even addressed like, “Oh yes my sister, who is poly.” It’s just accepted as normal and no one ever says anything shitty about it. It’s just a common facet of her life and the show. When things are “normalized” you don’t always need to call them out.

Friends on Friday

Our Take: Heather, in my opinion, is the kind of Game Master every one wants to be. Organized, well-versed, and passionate about role-playing games, they always represent the community in a positive light. If you ever get to sit at their table, count yourself lucky.

Their Take:

What are some of your favorite geekeries?

Tabletop Roleplaying Games have been a passion of mine for two decades now, and it’ll always be in my top 3. I also really enjoy some of the single player video game RPGs (Dragon Age, Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire) for when I want a good story and some time to myself. I’m a crafty person, so I really love sewing and crochet work too. It gives me a creative outlet that doesn’t always depend on other people, and that’s always good to have.

What media (games, books, movies, etc) do you think are doing representation right?

Some movies have been really hit or miss on this lately, but I think they’re trying. Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel stand out in that category, as well as some of the new Star Wars films. I feel like Paizo and Wizards of the Coast have also been making great strides to be more inclusive as a whole in their gaming systems and the communities that surround them. There have been a few stumbling points here and there, but I honestly believe they’re working to improve. They have iconic characters that represent a larger number of orientations, races, and gender as a spectrum rather than two unchanging categories. I’ve also seen some of our local gaming shops stepping up and demanding people leave their racism/sexism/etc. at the door, and that’s been amazing to see.

What do you wish creators knew about representation?

This is a hard question, and an easy one at the same time, I think. Be sincere about it. Please don’t just give us a token (whatever) character, idea or concept. Put just as much passion into creating these projects as you would for cishet white guys, and maybe ask questions of the folks you’re trying to include so you can understand where they’re coming from and why that representation matters so much.