Why Celeste means more than ever to the transgender community in an increasingly hostile world.
Being a fantastic game is a great start.
Celeste led to me discovering I was trans before it was canonically confirmed a trans game so yea it’s a pretty great trans game
Seems like you followed the path of the actual dev, haha
I was actually reflecting on this with another trans friend who had their egg cracking moment around the same time as me. I played Celeste in January 2018 and by the end of the year I was pretty sure I was trans. It still took me awhile to accept. I only started medical transition last year. But looking back, the people and communities I was introduced to because I loved that game are what helped me finnally see it, and then give me the strength to start my “climb” eventually. When I was ready. It makes me really happy to reflect on.
“Hold on so the ascent to Mount Celeste and the existence of Badeline are analogies for the struggles with gender dysphoria?”
“Always had been”
An “increasingly hostile world”? Just one generation ago, trans people were labeled as mentally ill and forced to undergo shock therapy with no anaesthesia, among other horrific “treatments”. Queer people in general were frequently lynched on the streets and being anything other than cis/straight was a crime in most countries. It still is in several and the world is still very much hostile to trans people, but thankfully the hostility is DEcreasing by leaps and bounds. If that weren’t the case, a game like Celeste would have never even been allowed to circulate in the first place, much less be publicly recognized and celebrated for what it is. Let’s not lose perspective of the ground that’s being gained here.
Maybe compared to a generation ago things are better, but over the past few years there has definitely been a ramp up in anti-trans rhetoric, both from the media and right wing politicians.
Bathroom bills, legislation against gender affirming care, even media and literature bans in the US. And in the UK the Tories are increasingly trying to single out trans people, (unsuccessfully) excluding them from bans on conversion therapy. Even the PM was recently recorded making anti-trans jokes.
Last year Yougov published data showing an overall decrease in support for trans people compared to 2018.
It is better than it was a long time ago, yes, but it’s not better than it was more recently.
Public opinion fluctuates short-term and I’m not arguing that it doesn’t suck, but the overall trend is definitely positive. Don’t lose your optimism! This recent trend is a backlash against greater trans visibility in the mainstream - it’s a very bad symptom of a very good thing and if we stay on top of it, it will subside.
I think we are on the same page. I’m not trans myself, but I’ve definitely noticed increasing anti-trans sentiment amongst people I talk to. I agree that a lot of that is in reaction to increased media presence, but I also think that a lot of this is the typical pushing of the “us vs them” mentality that people in power find useful, it’s just the people defined as “them” has shifted.
I’m still optimistic, but we need to be aware of these things, and push back against them when they crop up, otherwise that optimism will be in vain.
I’m a middle aged man with a family, two cats and a mortgage. I don’t want to be having to fight for common decency to fellow humans, but increasingly feel like I’m being pushed to it. I’m tired, and I just want to potter about in my garden with a cup of tea.
Ngl, I just started playing celeste and I didn’t even know about this. Time to finish it.
A hidden gem, no doubt. I feel like buying half a dozen.
