Fiction Factory Games
patreon
Non-binary in the Nineties
🕑 Added 2024-03-25 13:54:25 +0000 UTCI saw an interesting article today from the new voice talent behind Morph, the shapeshifting mutant from X-Men '97. While Morph was cis male in the original nineties cartoon, the producers decided to update them to non-binary, even if it's not going to be trumpted particularly loud within the narrative itself. The predictable backlash exists but honestly the positive ... frontlash? whatever the opposite of a backlash is has been lovely.
One quote stood out to me, as it relates back to The Shadow Over Cyberspace. This is coming from the J.P. Karliak who voices Morph:
"...we’re never going to say the word ‘non-binary’ because nobody said the word ‘non-binary’ in the ’90s. It’s not that it didn’t exist; it was just in no way a mainstream term at the time."
TSOC takes place in the late nineties as well, and features gay, trans, and non-binary characters as well as a moment where the player can self-identify as queer. But having lived through that time period myself, I wanted to bring the same authenticity that Karliak is bringing to the depiction -- that queerness is present, and it's starting to be accepted more... but information is thin on the ground.
An excerpt from the game script, after you demonstrate knowledge of non-binary identities for Nyarlathotep:
Niara: ...you grew up in a sleepy suburban New England town and you're that deep into understanding gender?
Player: Believe me, it wasn't easy. But my friends and I were open to queerness -- more than anyone was really comfy with. My school loved trumpeting tolerance, but they didn't teach what we're supposed to be tolerant of. That'd mean acknowledging it. You were active in the mid-90s, you know how it was -- very vague. Gesturing towards sexuality without saying much. Closest thing to queer role models were musicians, not ordinary people. ...and even then, it was mostly 'lesbians.'
If I was a larger dev, I'd probably get some backlash for "non-binary didn't exist in the 90s" or "nobody was using these terms." But I feel it's okay to use 'em here since this is a story about marginalized people trying to seize control of the future away from a regressive, scapegoating monster with designs for the strange aeon.
Comments
Lauren McGillicuddy
It's a fine line to walk between modern awarenesses and historical accuracy. If I were writing a book placed in the 1960s, the same issue would arise between "negro" and "Black," and you'd have to be very specific as to the year. There was one understanding in 1963, and a very different one by 1968! But asking the question is also in some ways the answer to the question, because people who don't care don't ask.
