Abstract
Representation is a complex issue that some contemporary video games attempt to actively grapple with in-game. This paper focuses on Bioware’s Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017). The non-player character (NPC) of Hainly Abrams is examined as an example of transgender representation in the broader marketplace of major studio gaming. The conceptualization of Hainly Abrams was flawed overall, yet there are some positive aspects about how she was portrayed. Most notably in how the character was created, and shown off, for a cisgender player rather than created as a character in her own right.
Introduction
Representation of groups in media is difficult to do well, as groups of people always contain far more diversity than any one character can encompass. Consumers of the media, as well, will be a more diverse group of individuals. Some people will be looking at the character from an out-group perspective, that is that they do not identify with the same group as the character in question. While other consumers will be looking at that same character from an in-group view point. Because of how varied the interpretation of any conscious or unconscious attempt at representation is subject to, it creates a kaleidoscope of possible ways that the character can be taken. On its most basic level representation is good when it humanizes the subject and bad when it dehumanizes the group (Sue D.W., 2016). Yet this is not a strict dichotomy however, but rather a spectrum that is interpreted by each individual person engaging with the work.
Before the specifics of Mass Effect: Andromeda’s representation is discussed the frame work of how one is to judge the work need to be established. Throughout this article there will be discussion of “good” and “bad” representation. Although representation, like most things, exists on a spectrum. But within that spectrum one can still meaningfully talk about generally good and generally bad representation. Even if the “good” or the “bad” has elements of the other in it. Good representation acknowledges the character as a whole, allowing the character to be more than simply a stand-in for the group in question whether it is predominately race, gender, sexual orientation, etc or an intersection of multiple factors. This requires some degree of complexity from the character, this can be difficult when dealing with characters that are representative, yet minor in the overall narrative of the media in question as the narrative has less time to have the player engage with the character. Knowledge of the group, here transgender individuals, can also become an issue if the creators are not engaging with members of the community in question. Some types of stereotypes about the group can be interpreted to be personality traits (anything from laziness to being good with math depending on the group) of these out-group members (Sue D.W., 2016). Those traits can then be given to the character with the intent to create a more interesting character but only serves to make the character more stereotypical in nature. Additionally, from a practical point of view, creating additional complexities (more detailed backgrounds, more dialogue, etc.) for a character takes some degree of resources whether it be voice actor time, writer time, or animator, etc. These can be real limitations at times depending on what exactly is trying to be done and the overall resources of the developer. Additionally, stereotypes can often be used as narrative short cuts (although ones that require cultural background knowledge) (Dyer, 1999). Thus, it can be tempting to include a character with the intent of providing representation to a group of people while at the same time only providing a minor character with whatever trait is in question, here transgender status. Even though, as a minor non-player character (NPC), they do not require much characterization by only having this status they become an issue as they fail to flesh out the NPC instead simply having a NPC that exists to be trans.
Lexicon
As with all communities, the transgender community has its own vocabulary to discuss things that are relevant to them. The transgender community is notable for having a rapidly evolving lexicon so that they may better describe their experiences (Teich, 2012). To ensure clarity, three terms are defined below.
Deadname is the name that a transgender person went by prior to transitioning. Typically, but not always, discarded once the individual has transitioned as it is very unlikely to fit the individual’s self-image.
Stealth is when a transgender person doesn’t share their transgender status with others.
Transitioning is a legal, social, and/or medical process that serves to bring congruency to a transgender person.
Passing is the ability to be seen as the cisgender member of the gender you are presenting as. A complex concept because sometimes even cisgender people will fail to pass as their assigned sex.
Mass Effect Andromeda & Hainly Abrams
Mass Effect: Andromeda (ME:A) was released on March 21st, 2017 by Bioware. The storyline revolves around a group of colonialists leaving the Milky Way galaxy and heading to the neighboring galaxy of Andromeda. After approximately 600 years in stasis, the player character, Pathfinder Ryder, awakens to try and find a new “golden worlds” to build colonies on. The first world that Ryder is to help construct a working colony on is Eos, a desert planet covered in radiation and hostiles that need to be cleared up before a viable colony can be started. Once done and having settled the city of Prodromos, they can meet the character of Hainly Abrams if the player explores the settlement.
Hainly Abrams serves as the outpost’s Director of Scientific Research. Gameplay wise, she serves as a quest giver for the mission “Making an Impression,” that revolves about placing seismic hammers that awaken a large robotic ‘Architect’. Yet, the reason that she is of critical analytic interest is that she is a canonically transgender NPC. She can reveal that information to the player after the first dialogue branch (see Appendix A) of the original version of the game prior to several patches. What she says varies somewhat if her fiancé has been woken from stasis, but the major points are the same. That Hainly is trans, deadnames herself, then explains to the player character (PC) that she decided to leave the Milky Way galaxy to get away from her pre-transition life. This is part of the few interactions that you can have with her. Additionally, on a nearby data pad it has a journal entry of hers briefly talking about side effects of medications (although neither the medications nor side effects are listed). The major problem with Hainly Abrams conceptualization lays in how her transness is simply something that is shown off to the player rather then something that is innate to the character. She exists purely to be a transgender person rather than be a character who is trans.
After the game was released, there was a notable outcry about the NPC of Hainly Abrams: both that she was a terrible representation of the transgender community (Greer, 2017), pointing out that rarely does a transgender person share their deadname when you first meet them (Bailey, 2017), and also that she was forced representation (Hybrid Game Media, 2017) and that ‘social justice warriors’ where responsible for many of the design choices in the game (Savior, 2017). Bioware responded to this with an apology and a promise to improve the interactions in a future patch, starting with 1.05 (Matulef, 2017). Approximately a month after the apology, Bioware released patch 1.08 that reported “Dialogue for Hainly Abrams was adjusted to change the flow of personal information she discusses with Ryder” that reworked the dialogue pacing even further (Pierse, 2017). Temperately removing the lines of dialogue, then placing them behind a task (tasks are what ME:A calls minor quests/missions) of reviving her fiancé from stasis after which, she talks about being transgender.
Why Does Hainly Abrams Matter?
When it comes to representation of minority groups in media, one question gets thrown around a lot: “Why does this character have to be X?” or specifically in this case, “What does Hainly Abrams have to be transgender? What does it add to her story?” The response to this is twofold. First, her being transgender opens up a different narratives then a cisgender character would have done. Creating more varied NPCs in the space of ME:A increases the amount of different stories that the game can tell. Next and more importantly is the player who is engaging with the media. Representation in media is important, being able to see ourselves in the games we play, or the books we read. Better representation helps with better overall mental health in terms of future resiliency (Sue D.W., 2016). Transgender people are mildly uncommon, with a base rate that is 1 in 250[1] (Meerwijk E. L., 2017). Given just how many named NPCs exist within ME:A, having a transgender colonist is hardly unexpected from a statistical point of view. Indeed, they ought to have more by that count. What is core, however, is that the transgender population is one that is in dire need of positive representation, in more than just media that targets a transgender demographic. Though that sort of media, for and by trans people, has a place too.
The effects of representation go far beyond just the group that they are representing. Transgender people encounter many stressors and hazards in their daily lives for being transgender. Violence against transgender individuals in the United States is on the rise (Human Rights Campaign, 2017), and the legal environment has worsened in many areas, with the Justice Department ruling that Federal Civil Rights Law doesn’t protect transgender people in the workplace (Moreau, 2017). In all of this, what then becomes important is to increase awareness of transgender people as individuals and to humanize transgender people. It is one thing to demonize a group, and another different thing entirely to do that one someone you know. Oftentimes, a way to break down prejudices is to create exceptions to the person’s stereotypes of that group, by having them get to know a person from that group as an individual, then another. After a couple of exceptions the stereotype in their head is unable to prevail and falls (Fein, 1992).This leads to the importance of Hainly Abrams as even the minor NPC that she is, she allows people to get to know a transgender character without some of the baggage that a real-world interaction would involve nor can they harm or, what is more likely act out microaggressions towards her.
Therefore, Hainly Abrams serves an important role not just by opening up new storytelling choices and plotlines, but by normalizing transgender people and their lives. A Hainly Abrams that serves as a companion to the Pathfinder would only increase this visibility. This greater role would also allow the character to have a more organic coming out/conversation about being transgender without it being one of her first sets of dialogue. Even in the limited role that Hainly Abrams has in ME:A, it is an important step forward as transgender, as NPCs are still far more rare in video games than their real life base rates would suggest. In 2017, the triple A games with textual transgender characters were limited to ME:A, Horizon Zero Dawn (with Janeva, a transman), and Zelda: Breath of the Wild (with several people within the walls of the Gerudo Town – though it certainly has a mixed success in terms of representation) (Dale, 2017). Sometimes a character in a piece of media will be read as transgender by the players or viewers, having positive, textual, representation is critical and cannot be downplayed in its importance to the transgender community.
Unintentional Othering and Good Intentions
The transgender life narrative is both complex and varied, yet the aspects that make it a transgender narrative remove it from most individual’s experiences and world view. Transgender people represent a much smaller population of individuals then sexual orientation minorities with whom they are often included[2], with only around 1 in 250 being transgender (Meerwijk E. L., 2017). Although this number can be hard to calculate and will vary with methodology, and Meerwijk notes that this number is likely to rise as acceptance grows and more people are willing to come out.. Because of how relatively uncommon being transgender is, it appears to be novel to many cisgender people who rarely question their gender identity. Without a personal connection with this narrative, stereotypes are easy to slip into (Myers, 2009). This does not imply ill-intent merely that the person in question is uninformed about such topics. Unfortunately it is possible to do harm without intention.
The space that transgender people exist in, with most people being aware of them yet unaware of the complexities of their life narratives, is prime to allow them to be seen as an other from the point of view of the majority. Transgender people then, as this other, are defined merely from how they differ from cisgender individual. This leads to a group being thought of as an unnatural or abnormal phenomenon (de Beauvior, 1949) even though the American Psychologist Association reports it as a normal variation of gender (APA Council Policy Committee, 2010) the focus of the discussion then tends to shift to that of transitioning. While not all transgender people transition, a completely valid choice, many do or wish to do so (Teich, 2012). This part of their lives, transitioning, has in many forms of media where they are presented become all that they are. Rarely in such media does the transgender individual pass, which only serves to increase the character’s otherness from the cisgender characters. One of the key things that representation provides a group is the sense that they too, are ordinary, they are not noteworthy because of their transness (Cavalcante, 2018) Transgender people have had a long history of being misrepresented in media, with cruel stereotypes of perverts, or ‘fakers’ abound (Striker, 2017).
In the context of ME:A Hainly Abrams, passes for a cisgender female. Though, in real life, passing, or not passing, is rarely an absolute, one may pass to most people, or pass in most environments. Though, there are some who always, or close enough to always, pass to go stealth if they so choose. Here, however, Hainly passes. Her character uses the female character model, and has a passable voice[3], other than her dialogue there is nothing that would out her as transgender. In the context of popular media having a passing transgender character can be quite good, as was previously discussed the physical appearance of transgender individuals is often used to other them. Although, there is a needed space for non-passing transgender characters in media, at this time there is little trust that a mass media game could create a non-passing character in an inclusive manner, though there is independent media that deals with being a non-passing transperson in a respectful manner. For example the character of Rosetta from Valkyria Chronicles 4[4]. In that game Rosetta is a trans-coded character, according to her profile in game off duty (as the game only has the characters in uniform) she presents in female clothes and takes a feminine name that she uses even on duty. However she is non-passing, as the game uses the male body frame for her character model, and plays in to some negative stereotypes about trans women. This non-passing media, games such as Secret Little Haven[5][6], or Acceptance[7] when done well is almost always both for, and by, transgender individuals and thus likely has a limited cisgender audience, as a whole. Thus, it is quite satisfying to see a transgender character that passes. Removing what might have otherwise been a very othering factor causing them to stick out even further from the sea of minor NPCs that inhabit the space of ME:A. Yet, for some transgender individuals, this might cause a disconnect with Hainly Abrams as they can no longer see their own experiences and life narrative in the NPC as clearly. Because of the plethora of transgender experiences no one NPC could represent them all. Nor should that even be a goal, as that artificially limits the possibilities of the transgender narrative. However, as a whole, Hainly Abrams passing is more of a good thing than bad, in terms of transgender representation, as it reinforces that transwomen, like ciswomen, in fact are women, which is one of the ideal points of transgender representation during the late 2010’s.
Being transgender is something that only that individual has the right to disclose or not to disclose. Outside of the game in real life there are many issues that transgender people face from violence to job and housing discrimination to legal hurdles that influence that choice. Yet, even if these troubles for openly transgender people disappear in the future of Mass Effect; as it appears LGB troubles have, as evidenced by the NPC followers’ lack of remarks to a gay or bisexual Commander Shepard (from the original Mass Effect series) or Pathfinder Ryder; some transgender people would still opt for stealth. With Hainly Abrams being the only openly transgendered character in the franchise, there is little evidence to go on. That being said, the assumption moving forward will be that the ME:A space seems perfectly accepting of transgender individuals. This is for a couple of reasons, first based off the intent that Bioware had going in, from their own writings they desired inclusiveness in their game (Pierse, 2017). Additionally, from how the Mass Effect franchise treats LGB matters in the game as a social non-issue. Last, to assume otherwise would appear to create ill intent on the designers’ part where none appears evident.
Yet, even in a space that is perfectly accepting of transgender individuals, there would still be some incentive to be stealth as a transgender person. But what of the great world Mass Effect then? If being trans is fully accepted and transphobia is gone why have a transgender character? Here luckily the answer is straightforward. Being transgender is not something defined by transphobia. A person can still be trans and have a plot about wanting to help others through the transition process even if there is no opposition to it. Transition is change and change often times is hard enough by itself. Appearing as cisgender can help the individual avoid many of the possible stressors and dangers of being transgender, though it does not remove them. At the same time, that stress is still based on societal pressures, so why then would some transgender individuals wish to be stealth in a post-pride environment? Simply put, being stealth their transgender status can be overlooked by others, and they themselves do not have to reflect on being transgender as often. This being something that can cause dysphoria, which by its very nature is unpleasant in some and can rang to debilitating in others. Thus, to avoid dysphonia, they avoid references to their own or even others transgender status. The percentage of transgender individuals who are stealth (of those who can be stealth), would most likely be lower since there is less of a negative societal pressure on the individual to conform to a cis-centric society. As adhering to societal norms is a powerful motivator (Myers, 2009). While a person’s choice is valid regardless of what the individual ends up choosing, Hainly Abrams based off her dialogue, appears to have left the galaxy traveled for six hundred years to get to the Andromeda galaxy in an apparent attempt to leave behind her pre-transition past.
Hainly Abrams is not stealth: if the player picks that dialogue choice first, Hainly will tell you her past and her deadname within 27 seconds[9] of first talking to her. This dissonance is understandable if the discussion of Hainly Abrams steps outside of the game space and into the world. The trope of the transgender character fleeing, or hiding from their past is not an uncommon one when dealing with transgender characters, perhaps even, as was previously discussed, a reasonable one for some characters and people. A better choice would have been for Hainly to run towards something in Andromeda, perhaps starting a queer youth group for the kids that will be born in this new galaxy. Yet, if the designers want to include a canon transgender character in their game, they need to have some signifiers in the game to point to this. And many more subtle clues may be lost on people, for example if she had estradiol and spironolactone out while she was unpacking at the colony. Therefore showing the need for Hainly to try and be stealthy while at the same time having some way to inform the player about her transgender status. So the problem here isn’t that Hainly necessary tells her deadname, rather it is the manner she does it in.
Most cisgender people will rarely have a desire or need to change their first name, although some will change their last name with marriage. Transgender name changing is something that some, even well meaning, cisgender people view voyeuristically. It is something novel to their life narrative, a discreet element to the whole transition, and their deadname is often seen as a telling secret about the person. But, it also should be noted that a person’s name is a deeply personal thing about themselves and how they view themself. Calling a transgender person by their chosen name is strongly linked to increased wellbeing (Close, 2011). To a transgender person playing ME:A, Hainly dropping her deadname so causally is disconcerting, and makes it feel clear that this was not a NPC meant for them. Many transgender players remarked on just how unlikely it would be to tell someone their deadname that soon after meeting them (Greer, 2017). Not all transgender people change their name socially[10], though most do and are hesitant to bring up their deadname. Thus, Hainly does not connect with many transgender players.
This act, by having the character simply tell the player that they are transgender, although they did not use that word in dialogue, harms the character. The vast majority of colonist NPCs that the player can interact with have the dialogue opinion to ask why that NPC decided to travel to Andromeda. Hainly can have this opinion too, and even be open about being transgender, merely not as the same dialogue choice (more on that later). However, the key here is how it was presented to the player. Rather than something that Hainly has a reason to reveal, it comes across as something that the designers wanted to show off. Therein lies the difference. Hainly acts as an other because she appears to be designed only from the view point of a cisgender player rather than any interests that are internal to her. She is reduced to being a representation of transgender individuals rather than an individual herself. This is not the same claim, however, as that consciously including representation in media is in any way bad. Rather, that when trying to do representation of a group of people in a work, care has to be taken that they are fully fleshed out and are more than whatever group they belong to.
EA has over the course of its existence tried to, particularly with its role-playing games, try to create a wide and diverse cast of NPCs within the space of their games. Thus, while Hainly Abrams is not the best example of representation possible, she does appear to have been created in good intent. She has little personality to offer, other than she is transgender. Sadly, this is a step forward for a gamer culture that is quite happy to use derogatory language and threats of violence aimed at transgender people in an effort to silence them. Hainly Abrams exists in a weird liminal space, both harming due to her simplistic and othering narrative, and helping due to how Pathfinder Ryder interacts with her. As Ryder has no negative dialogue choices available to them after Hainly outs herself. Her transgender nature is for the player’s voyeuristic knowledge rather then informing the play more about a character’s experiences. Compare with The Missing: JJ Macfield and the Island of Memories[11] where JJ is trans, and her story involves her transness but it is on the character’s terms rather than the players. There must be a push for better representation even as we are grateful that progress has been made.
What Might a Good Hainly Look Like?
Though flawed, it is possible to conceive of a version of Hainly Abrams that provides the transgender community with the representation that they deserve. The easiest way to start is with delaying the information that she is transgender and removing her deadname from the conversation. The first part of this was how EA addressed it in their patches by not letting the player ask about why Hainly came to the Andromeda galaxy until they had talked to Hainly for a bit. The fact that she includes her deadname at all is alienating to many transgender individuals. Removing her deadname allows many more people to see themselves as her. While the player, as the consumer of the piece of media, is not really expected to be able to idealize any one minor NPC from the hordes that populate any given game space, it is critical for people to be able to see people like them in works of media – to see spaces where they as a person and as a group belong. Removing the deadname and changing the flow of the conversation are good places to start the redesign.
This leaves open the issue of scale. Hainly Abrams lacks any real personality outside of her transgender status. To improve upon her ability to represent transgender people, Hainly requires more non-transgender traits on her character. This would require more development resources (voice actor lines, and simple design space) to be given over to Hainly. To insure that these rescores are well spent, Hainly would require a larger role, either by creating more content on the planet Eos for Hainly to oversee, tying existing content in to her, or by giving another character’s narrative space over to Hainly to occupy. These changes would allow Hainly to be a more fleshed out NPC and in some ways reduce how she was othered, as she becomes more than just the transgender NPC. Being transgender can be a major part of a person’s life, but even if they are not only transgender but an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, there is more to them as a person. It does a disservice to limit Hainly Abrams’ personality to just that. Giving her more quests that have something to do with her would help. Rather than her current one guest that she’s only really the point of contact for. Truthfully, to have a fully fleshed out person, what they could have done was have one of the player’s six companions be transgender and be justified in expending the resources to make a well-rounded character that the designers could not justify on a minor NPC. As Bioware takes great, and well deserved, pride in crafting lifelike characters in their games, creating complex and detailed companions is standard for them so by allowing one of the player’s companions to be transgender no addition effect on that front would be expended. It would not go amiss to talk with a panel of transgender people about their own experiences prior to writing a transgender character as that experience is different than the cisgender life experience. This would allow the designers to create a more authentic character.
Transgender sexuality is an often misunderstood area of discourse. Multiple conflicting stereotypes about it exist: that transgender people are transitioning to have an easier time being ‘gay,’ and that transfolk are all straight. The reality of the situation, is simply that gender identity and sexual orientation are not the same variable (Teich, 2012). When the discussion reaches down to the micro level and is dealing with one individual, or in this case one character, the individual transgender person’s orientation is not a given, nor should be inferred to be representative of all transgender people’s orientations. Here the trouble lies, Hainly Abrams is meant to be a representation of a larger group. Hainly Abrams is seen in a relationship with a man (Evens Kendricks), though in the text, it is not brought up how she identifies – if straight, bi, pan, ace or something else. If the design choice was shifted to make Hainly Abrams one of the companions of the Pathfinder, more flexibility could be given. As this would require far more lines of dialogue than minor NPCs tend to have in voice acted games. Many of the companions already are set up so that regardless of Ryder’s sex they will find them as a potential love interest. The issues of sexuality could mostly be sidestepped by having a companion Hainly be attracted to Ryder regardless of Ryder’s sex because this is keeping in line with the other cisgender companion’s sexual orientation conventions.
Another possibility of course is to have multiple transgender characters as minor NPCs. The most notable advantages of proceeding in this direction is that the diversity within the transgender community can be seen, as transgender people can come from any background. Another point that this would allow for is the inclusion of trans men, trans women, and non-binary individuals. The drawback to this approach is that the complexity of any one non-companion NPC is limited comparatively to a companion. The only real NPCs to get equal characterization is the antagonist(s) and having the antagonist be the representation comes with its own problems.
Hainly Abrams, by all appearances, was designed with good intentions in mind. Textually, Ryder is supportive of her; no one in ME:A uses slurs or misgenders her. She is also a scientist, a professional career that media as a whole still struggles to include even cisgender women in. Yet, at the same time her representation is not what should be expected of a triple A game. She exists as an outsider defined by her transgender nature rather than a strong personality. She is there to show that they did not forget about transgender people when they were trying to represent all these different groups. While that is a step forward, the journey is far from over. Transgender characters existing in game spaces as people who are transgender is vital, even if the difference may seem small from the outside looking in.
Conclusion
Bioware with Hainly Abrams, by all appearances attempted to represent the transgender community in a positive light. The importance of a textual transgender character that is meet with support from the protagonist, even if Hainly Abrams is not that authentic of a transgender character. In the final version, they fell short not out of malice it would appear, just ignorance of the transgender life experiences. This is not to invalidate anyone who looks up to Hainly Abrams, as there are good aspects to her character. She is the lead scientist and, though, we learn little about that. she does exist as a transwoman professional within the game which is an important aspect. Too often transwomen are portrayed in media as being unhirable. Hainly Abrams, though a trivial part of the overall narrative of ME:A, is still important to the community that she represents, for good and for bad.
Appendix A: Hainly Abrams’ Dialogue from Mass Effect: Andromeda
Hainly Abrams: Ah, Pathfinder. I heard you’re to thank for our physics-defying atmosphere processor.
Pathfinder Ryder: That’s me. I’m Ryder.
Hainly Abrams: Hainly Abrams, dircerctor of scientifitc research on Eos. And writer of papers that start “What the hell, weather?”
Hainly Abrams: But- new alaxy, new world, and a new start. Got to keep up. How can I help you?
Main Dialogue Choice Hub
Pathfinder Ryder: What brought you out here to Andromeda?
Hainly Abrams: Back home I was filling test tubes in some dead-end lab. People knew me as Stephan. But that was never who I was.
Hainly Abrams: I knew what I could do. And I knew who I wanted to do it as.
Hainly Abrams: “Hainly Abrams, Andromeda Explorer.” That’s me. Feels good. Feels right.
Dialogue Choice
Pathfinder Ryder: Congratulations. Talk about a whole new life.
Hainly Abrams: Thanks once my fiancé is out of stasis, it’ll be complete.
Hainly Abrams: When it’s time. I’m… hoping that Bradley will perform our wedding ceremony.
{If Evens Kendricks is unfrozen}
Pathfinder Ryder: Congratulations. Talk about a whole new life.
Hainly Abrams: And now Evan’s here to make it complete, thanks to you.
Hainly Abrams: When it’s time. I’m… hoping that Bradley will perform our wedding ceremony.
–OR–
Pathfinder Ryder: What made you choose the name “Hainly”?
Hainly Abrams: It’s the intials of all my favorite places back home. My fiancé helped me pick it before we left.
Hainly Abrams: When it’s time. I’m… hoping that Bradley will perform our wedding ceremony.
{If Evens Kendricks is unfrozen}
Pathfinder Ryder: What made you choose the name “Hainly”?
Hainly Abrams: It’s the intials of all my favorite places back home. My fiancé helped me pick it before we left.
Hainly Abrams: And now Evan’s here to make it complete, thanks to you.
Hainly Abrams: When it’s time. I’m… hoping that Bradley will perform our wedding ceremony.
Anna Burns is a graduate student in psychology at Alabama A&M. She received her undergraduate in history, and psychology from the University of Montevallo. Her research interests are transgender issues, which she has been published on both in the fields of psychology and history. Anna can be reached at annaburnspsychology@gmail.com
References
APA Council Policy Committee. (2010). Resolution on Appropriate Affirmative Responses to Sexual Orientation Distress and Change Efforts. America Psychological Association.
Bailey, K. (2017, March 21). Mass Effect: Andromeda’s Transgender Character Backfires on Social Media. Retrieved from US Gamer: https://www.usgamer.net/articles/mass-effect-andromedas-transgender-character-backfires-on-social-media
Cavalcante, A. (2018). Struggling for Ordinary: Media and Transgender Beloning in Everyday Life. New York, New York: NYU Press.
Close, C. (2011). Affirming gender, affirming lives: A report of the 2011 transition survey. Santa Rose: Gender Advocacy Training & Education.
Dale, L. (2017, 3 21). Zelda, Mass Effect and Horizon all struggle with introducing their trans characters. Retrieved from Polygon: www.polygon.com/2017/3/21/15004956/zelda-mass-effect-and-horizon-dawn-trans-characters
de Beauvior, S. (1949). The Second Sex. New York; NY: Vintage Books.
Dyer, R. (1999). The Role of Stereotypes. In P. Marris, & S. Thornham, Media Studies: A Reader. Edinburgh, England: Edinburgh University Press.
Fein, S. &. (1992). Attitudes towards groups and behavioral intentions toward individual group members: The impact of nondiagnostic information. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 28(2), 101-124.
Greer, S. (2017, March 28). Mass Effect Andromeda is another failure for trans representation . Retrieved from Euro Gamer: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-03-28-mass-effect-andromeda-is-another-failure-for-trans-representation
Human Rights Campiagn. (2017). Violence against the transgender community in 2017. Alantla, GA: Human Rights Campiagn.
Hybrid Game Media. (2017, June 25). Diversity Pandering In Video Games: Mass Effect Andromeda. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8EXBY9JXVQ
Matulef, J. (2017, May 5). BioWare apologises for Mass Effect: Andromeda’s poor transgender representation. Retrieved from Euro Gamer: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-04-05-bioware-apologises-for-poor-transgender-representation
Meerwijk E. L., &. S. (2017). Transgender Population Size in the United States: a Meta-Regression of Population-Based Probability Samples. American Journal of Public Health, 107(2), e1-e8.
Moreau, J. (2017, 10 7). Federal Civil Rights Law Doesn’t Protect Transgender Workers, Justice Department Says. Retrieved from NBC News: www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/federal-civil-rights-law-doesn-t-protect-transgender-workers-justice-n808126
Myers, D. (2009). Social Psychology (10th ed.). New York City, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Pierse, C. (2017, June 6). Bioware Blog. Retrieved from Bioware: A Division of EA: http://blog.bioware.com/2017/06/06/mass-effect-andromeda-patch-1-08-notes/
Savior, J. (2017, April 10). Mass Effect: Andromeda and its Fake Gamer Agenda. Retrieved from Medium: https://medium.com/theplayercharacter/fuck-you-to-the-internet-andromeda-edition-2f0f4171742e
Striker, S. (2017). Transgender history: The roots of today’s revolution (2nd ed.). Berkeley, CA: Seal Press.
Sue D.W., &. S. (2016). Counseling the Culturally Diverse. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc,.
Teich, N. M. (2012). Transgender 101. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Endnotes
[1] Although it should be noted that there is greater than normal difficultly in estimating the population size for this group as it comes with social consequences and some members are intentionally stealth.
[2] Although it ought to be pointed out that gender exists independently of sexual orientation.
[3] The author of this paper reached out to Bioware to find out who did the voice work for Hainly Abrams, as she was included in the other voices list rather than a full credit. As of the submission date no reply has be received.
[4] Initial release date of March 21, 2018, by Sega and Media Vision.
[5] Released on February 27 2018, by Hummingwarp Interactive
[6] Which while we do not see the protagionist, as it is from her point of view, given that it’s their coming out story and they are not presenting yet it is included
[7] Released on Febuary 8. 2018, created by Laura Kate Dale
[9] Pre-patches, if the player selects “Coming to Andromeda” dialogue wheel choice.
[10] As some names are unisex or merely need to change spelling – or perhaps their name simply does not cause them discomfort. All valid choices.
[11] Released on October 11, 2018 by White Owl Studios
