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Baldur's Gate 3's Nocturne is a landmark in trans representation, but for her voice actor Abigail Thorn it's just the beginning
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- Published
- Jan 29 2024
- Word count
- 2283 words
thought this fit better in ~lgbt rather than ~games mainly because of this absolute banger of a quote:
Abigail said on Xitter that she was pleasantly surprised they included it.
Had to read that first bit a couple of times over and I kind of still don't fully get it - or maybe I just disagree - because I do question the wording "violently inflicted". Maybe someone can help me understand or expand on that point?
In sociology and related fields, "violence" often refers to things other than just physical violence. It can also refer to things like ostracization and laws intended to harm one community more than others.
I understand now, thank you..!
That first sentence is a mouthful, to be sure.
In my mind, you could replace "white supremacist capitalist cisheteropatriarchy" with "American culture" - at least, for the purposes of my interpretation of that sentence. Precarity is described by Wikipedia as "a precarious existence, lacking in predictability, job security, material or psychological welfare."
Taken together, she is basically saying that American culture makes life unpredictable, extremely difficult to manage, and even dangerous for the vast majority of queer people - except for a select few that are raised up as icons, for whom the masses can look to with approval, thinking to themselves "I'm not the problem, because I love Nocturne!" (or whichever other iconic queer character/actor/etc you choose). Look to the continued popularity of RuPaul or Laverne Cox - fantastic actors and performers, fantastic people, and probably the only trans icons most of us can think of. There are countless others, but only a handful "make it" to the big time in the ways that RuPaul or Laverne have.
In terms of the "violently inflicted", I think that is self-evident. Look back to the murder of Matthew Shepard in the 90s, or the treatment of non-cishetero folks today - being excluded from sports, from health care, even from the use of bathrooms - based solely on their gender and sexuality. The precarity of life for queer folks is made by the fact that, by choosing to live your life without the "shame" that American culture insists you should feel, you also expose yourself to acts of violence, potential murder, bigotry, and being ostracized by virtue of just existing. Trans folks may pursue transitioning and/or require specific gender-affirming healthcare; states like Florida and Texas are making that not only impossible, but incredibly dangerous to pursue - both for the people pursuing the healthcare, and for the people providing it.
Taken all of the above, I feel that saying the precarity of queer existence is "violently inflicted" is quite apt.
The precarious existence for queer folks is only precarious because our culture makes it so. It doesn't have to be this way. It shouldn't be this way.
EDIT: Clarified and reorganized some of my thoughts. Also, please note that I am not saying Matthew Shepard was trans; I just remember his murder vividly from my youth, as an example of what American culture does to "queer" folks.
I agree completely, however… Abigail Thorn is British. She’s from and still resides in (afaik) the UK.
And she's specifically talking about the NHS and its anti-trans policies. My limited outsider perspective is that the UK is, generally, much worse to trans people than the US. Although it sounds like Florida is probably on par with them.
Up until recently Florida would be on par, but Florida is now actively hostile towards trans folks. They just released a memo stating that possessing any identification with a gender/sex marker which they think is incorrect is now considered fraud.
So if you are trans and move there from a sane state you need to burn your old ID?
There was some tweet recently that I loved. Something like “If your gender rules need to be enforced by the government, maybe they’re not biological”
Theoretically if you are trans and traveling with any identification that they do not agree with and travel through that state (such as with a connecting flight) they could arrest you for fraud.
While I'm making light of a truly fucked up law, I do find it amusing that you could use a sane state's procedures to amend your birth certificate to reflect your gender, and then get a federal passport with the correct gender marker and according to their state law it could be interpreted as fraud. I'm tempted to get my federal passport updated to have an X since that's legal now, in case I ever end up stopping over in Florida on my way somewhere else.
More recent examples could be the murder of Brianna Ghey in the UK, the shooting in Oslo, maybe Pulse too. Not arguing that these hate crimes don't happen - and LGBT+ people are statistically more likely to be victims of violence in general.
Even though I have been yelled at several times, I have never been a victim of actual violence. Neither has any of the dozens of queer people I know personally - it would count as harassment at most, I think. That's anecdotal of course but even with your explanation @drewbahr I still question that violence against us is all that widespread, especially in western Europe. It is still very rare.
I think what I'm getting is that Abigail Thorn makes it sound like it's a massive cultural/societal thing but is that really the case? Like, is she referring to fringe cases of nutjobs committing hate crimes? That capitalism is synonymous with violence..?
Sorry, I just still don't understand.
In both the legal and philosophical senses, the threat of violence is considered violence. Even just yelling at someone can be considered violence (legally, assault). I think it's good to classify kinds of violence and certainly violence with grievous bodily harm or death has much greater consequences. When you say violence, are you only referring to this? What if someone were to grab me, push me, or swing at me? What if someone pulls a weapon out and brandishes it, but does not use it? What if someone walks up with 4 of their friends and says you need to leave? What if they stand in public and decry that all trans people are deserving of death?
I think, importantly, Abigail's point isn't meant to classify specifically what is violence or how much violence people are receiving, but that there's an unjust amount of violence happening to trans folks. Cis white hetero folks effectively don't have to worry about anything I mentioned above happening because they are cis white and hetero. While trans folks in your area might not be subject to everything above, you mention a harassment that you experience, which is likely one that these folks aren't subject to either. The system allows and enables this kind of harassment and violence and no matter whether there are actual physical threats to trans folks, there are absolutely real and actual mental anguish, pain, and fear inflicted at a systemic level. It is massive and cultural, because we're not talking about places which exist where you aren't subject to this kind of treatment.
As @updawg pointed out here, violence comes in many forms. It isn't just being physically assaulted. It comes in physical assault, in threats of violence, in political machinations to make who you are functionally illegal, in cultural norms that make you an "other".
You can consider those as not being "violence" if you wish, but I (and I think Abigail) would disagree.
I think it is fair to say that there are clear parallels between the treatment of non-cishetero folks in the USA, and the treatment of them in the UK.
I spoke to the USA because I, myself, am American - as are, I assume (unfoundedly), most Tildes users. I spoke through the cultural lens I know best.
Full disclosure, I'm a cishetero white dude in the United States who has no familiarity with Abigail Thorn at all. So, take my framing with the fistful of salt it deserves.
She runs the YouTube channel PhilosophyTube, which is an extremely worthwhile watch. It's gotten much more high-production with the costumes and all over the years.
Interesting. I didn't even know Nocturne was a transwoman. Though I did feel like part of her and Shadowheart's story was incomplete in my first playthrough.