It’s been awhile. I want to say “I’m making awesome video content!” but what’s really happening is I’m constantly checking my Amazon purchases and my Gamefly account to see if all necessary software and hardware will arrive soon so THEN I can start recording awesome video content. In the meantime, I should be writing up a storm on this blog, but alas – holidays always throw me for a lazy loop. But enough of this! On to the bee in my bonnet.
I was browsing Xbox Live accounts online at work today and I realized I needed to not be lame and just drop some points for some non-lame avatar threads. I started with updating my hair (since I chopped it all off a few months ago) and the thought crossed my mind “Maybe it’ll look weird since I have to choose a guy’s haircut to put on my female avatar.” Without much surprise, the hair looks fine on the avatar, so I moved on to updating my pants and shoes to something less frumpy. I opted for some standard shorts that look like what I wear most summer days, and then I realized that there weren’t any shoes that looked like shoes I wear. I then realized that I was only looking at the women’s shoes options. “Ah, makes sense. I did choose the female avatar body. But I bet I can find some shoes I like in the men’s section.” I came across some Oxfords, thought “Perfect!,” and tried to preview them on my avatar.
ENTER GENDER BINARY OPPRESSION. I got an error message telling me “Oops! These shoes are for the other gender” or something very similar to that message. The “Oops!” was definitely there.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to protest Microsoft, and I wasn’t distraught for days. If someone has run across this error message before and has subsequently protested Microsoft or was distraught for days – I feel you. Those are appropriate responses. That rejection of how you identify can be really frustrating and even traumatizing. For me, it wasn’t, but I was bummed out, and annoyed at Microsoft’s short-sightedness.
Gender-specific clothing? Really, Microsoft? I just . . . man. What a antiquated thing to code into your social service. Clothes are just clothes! People make avatars to be a cooler version of themselves. I don’t own Oxfords, but I want to, and I want my dang avatar to wear them, because I hate flip flops and clunky tennis shoes. And if I were a dapper butch lesbian, I’d want to have my tie on my avatar and my loafers, ya dig? Microsoft shouldn’t pidgeon-hole people or how they identify. Free the clothes for all, Xbox Live!
Add me if you so desire: lbizz66 (note that the shoes my avatar is currently wearing are not accurately representative of the persona I’d like to project on Xbox Live. Thank you).
Have you run into a bummer like this before? You identify as a dude that loves heels, or a chick that loves ties? Leave a comment, rant against The Machine (Microsoft), and let’s keep our eye on the avatar editor to see if Microsoft figures it out sooner rather than later.
simpleek
That’s really interesting and incredibly stupid. I never ran into this problem before, much less knew about this at all, because my personal style has been the typical girly girl. I like the ultra-feminine clothes–dresses, skirts, cute tops, etc. The fact that Microsoft would put a limitation on what clothes you are able to dress your avatar in based on gender is incredibly offensive and narrow minded. Fashion is a form of expression. Not all girls want to wear dresses just like not all guys maybe want to dress like a guy. Something so small as dressing your virtual avatar shouldn’t be so difficult and restrictive.
Laurie
WordPress needs to add Like button to comments because I don’t think I could say it better than you did! Just need to Like it as some e-applause/agreement.
twohp2few
I’m kind of amazed nothing has been done about that by now. You would think enough people would have ran into this that someone would have noticed and changed it. I guess there’s enough bugs, glitches etc in our daily gaming lives that we learn to let the things that aren’t actually hampering our playing slide.
Ashton
I wonder what the reasoning behind the gender-related restriction was. From a programming standpoint, I’d assume that a restriction might be implemented to prevent clipping with the different character models, but this doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense for shoes. Was MSoft really just trying to keep things “family friendly” by prohibiting cross-dressing with extreme paranoia?
On a related note, did anyone else feel irritated in Final Fantasy Tactics when you couldn’t equip the Ribbon (arguably the game’s best accessory) to a male character (except Cloud)? On the one hand, it made female characters that much more awesome to have in your party, but c’mon. In real life, there’s no one to stop me if I want to tie an actual ribbon in my hair (or wherever those nose-less freaks in Tactics were putting them). Whose stopping them in-game?
Laurie
Hahaha, good call about the Ribbon! I hadn’t ever thought about that but that is a good call. Those nose-less freaks . . . 😉
Ashton
Heh. Adorable nose-less freaks.