In a move that should please social justice warriors, the hugely popular life-simulation video game the Sims has removed all “gender boundaries” in its fourth version.
Now, when faced with creating your army of virtual friends and neighbors, you won’t have to be bound by cis-gender norms on things like hairstyle, clothing choice, physique, tone of voice or even walk style. And if your Sim suddenly decides that it identifies with another gender, the option is available to switch during game play.
The Sims creators have also removed any indication of gender from the selection process, stripping gender-based symbols from in-game content. The decision to make the Sims gender fluid comes after months of consultation with various gender advocacy organizations, all of whom felt that the Sims should reflect reality—or, reflect reality as much as possible considering they’re three dimensional avatars that frequently get stuck in virtual closets and starve to death. The fourth version of the game is currently available by upgrade.
Lest the Sims creators think that was enough to satisfy social justice warriors who may or may not even play the game, commenters on prominent sites like The Mary Sue were immediately concerned that the Sims had retained gender-based descriptors like “masculine” and “feminine.” (The creators said “masculine” and “feminine” aren’t necessarily gender descriptors because they don’t specifically reference a gender.) Some had to be consoled with the theory that the Sims were taking “baby steps” towards a more inclusive environment.