BE A BOY:



BE A GIRL:

BE A BOY: The girl next door is basically in love with you and you get to start your journey with a jaunty skip in your step.

BE A GIRL: The boy next door thinks you’re incompetent and you get to start your journey proving he’s wrong.

I started off playing the boy because I didn’t like the overly feminine way the girl walked. When I met May she gushed all over me and it made me uncomfortable, as I am attracted to boys. When I originally played Sapphire I played as the girl and so was used to having Brendan as a rival. So I decided to change to the girl just so I could see Brendan gush over me the way May had. But he didn’t gush over me at all, instead he disrespects my gender and my ability as a pokemon trainer.

I was pretty shocked at how blatantly sexist that was. I went back to check the original game and yes… it is that way too.. I guess I never noticed because I played as the girl and was used to rivals treating me that way from the previous games, and I didn’t realise May treated the boy character so different.

There are actually some subtle differences from the original game to the remake that I will point out because I think they make a world of difference in tone.

The pause in the remake for Brendan to say “Huh…. I didn’t know you’d be a girl.” where in the original he just states “I didn’t know you’d be a girl.” really changes the tone. The ‘Huh…’ at the start gives the impression that he’s disappointed she’s a girl, where in the original he’s just stating that he didn’t know.

It’s arguable that ‘assuming’ she’d be a boy comes off worse than ‘hoping’ she’d be a boy, but to me the original comes off as forgiveable ignorance where the remake makes it seem like Brendan actively dislikes the fact that the main character is a girl.

The last panel is the biggest change, and I don’t think it’s hard to see why. In the original after his intial shock that she’s a girl, he quickly moves on to introducing himself in a very friendly and pleasant way. But in the remake, it’s like he’s reluctant to get to know her or be her friend (because she is a girl). It comes off that he’s only doing so out of some moral obligation or convenience that she lives so close by. This is totally absent from the original and I’m not sure why the changes were made.

Anyways, I still very much love the remake and am excited to play, but this is what sexism looks like. If May had disrespected the boy character the same way, it wouldn’t have been sexist (both genders treated equally). If Brendan had gushed over the female character the way May does, it wouldn’t have been sexist (both genders treated equally.) If you got to chose who your rival was (pick May if you wanted to be treated nice, pick Brendan if you wanted a classic jerk rival) Than it wouldn’t have been sexist because then it’s just the characters’ personalities instead of sterotypical boy-girl dynamics. But the way it is:

If you pick to be a BOY there is a GIRL who will treat you a certain and very sterotypical way that is different from the way the boy treats the girl if you pick to be a GIRL there is a BOY who will treat you in a very sterotypical way that is different from the way the girl treats the boy.

And that is VERY sexist.