Developed by ARC SYSTEM WORKS, “GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE-” (GUILTY GEAR -STRIVE-) made the game popular after EVO released the new character “Bridget” this year. The second creation drawings in between have also sprung up like mushrooms after the rain, but a Japanese painter was involved in the disputes over overseas transgender issues because of his second creation drawings, which caused the author to close Twitter and pixiv.
Japanese painter れい 2 released his own paintings earlier this week“Bridget”(The original tweet has been deleted), which has attracted thousands of people’s praise and love. The author also marked the “pseudo-girl” (#男の女) tag on pixiv, but unexpectedly attracted overseas netizens to dissatisfaction and correction, saying that BridgetIn-game certified as transgender(Trans), so it cannot be addressed by “he” (he/his) or pseudonym, but “she” (she/her).
At the same time, another netizen also emphasized that the artist deliberately confuses gender pronouns in order to attract the clicks of child predators, which has also made Japan’s long-standing ACG pseudonym culture a new battlefield for transgender issues.
https://t.co/1nY2tzVV1t
Regardless of your interpretation of Bridget gender,harassing specific artist is wrong.
The more harassing specific artist whose interpretation is incompatible with your one,the more the impression of your interpretation is deteriorating.
That is for sure. pic.twitter.com/3EYQV3OkFq— (@rayforcegame) September 6, 2022
As the dispute caused the tweets shared by the work to gradually lose focus, れい 2 closed the Twitter account and pixiv account number. Although the artist is not well-known and the incident happened for a short period of time, there are still Japanese netizens who recorded the whole story, and believed that overseas netizens deliberately caused controversy in their tweets were harassing the artist.
In fact, in the records of deleted tweets, there are also messages from other overseas brothers and sisters who use “he” to refer to Bridget, and other overseas netizens reply to remind “she is a girl”.
https://t.co/xI7BeFDudG
The quoted place is the site where the illustration was located, but you can see that there is a controversy over “it’s ‘he'” and ‘it’s ‘she”.
Either way, it leaves a bad impression on the harasser.— (@rayforcegame) September 6, 2022
However, in Arc Work System According to the introduction on the official website, Bridget is the elder brother of a pair of twins, because it is said in the village that male twins will summon an unfortunate superstition, which makes his parents dress him up as a girl to raise him.
In the battle dialogue in the game, Bridget revealed that she will no longer escape from being brave and be herself, thinking that she is a girl, which is ironclad by overseas fans that Bridget is a transgender character.
its official!
bridget is transgender!
you cannot comprehend how hard i screamed its not intentionally vague its loud and clear and of all people to show her that its GOLDLEWIS pic.twitter.com/7kIAOArToH
— hatchling (apoc) (@Marcanthony737) August 8, 2022
However, there are still differences between the definitions of transgender women and Japanese pseudo-girls, and the developers themselves have not carefully defined the setting of their gender identity, giving the European and American communities ample room for imagination. At least, in the Japanese gamer community, Bridget is not a transgender woman, but a real boy.
With the wave of gender equality awareness in Europe and the United States, not only the political level, but also the discussion in the field of video games and subcultures will be affected, because some communities are more focused on the skin color, body shape, race and gender of the characters. For fictionally created video games, it is undoubtedly a shackle that stifles the imagination.