Dys4ia: a Flash game about gender dysphoria

[Heathcliff]

I've just seen something that I felt like spontaneously posting about...

When I was a kid I loved video games, and one of the things I enjoy about Youtube is people who review old video games of the SNES/Genesis era.

Recently I discovered a new Youtube video game reviewer called Kimble Justice. I just watched his video on a Newgrounds Flash game called Dys4ia- it's short, and it isn't much of a game (minimal interaction, and you cannot 'lose') but it is the content that is so striking.

The game's author is a transgender woman, who describes it: "dys4ia is an autobiographical game about the period in my life when i started hormone replacement therapy." The link for the game is:

http://www.newground...tal/view/591565

The reviewer Kimble Justice seems to have a personal experience with the issue of gender dysphoria; you can see the review here:

This really made an impression on me. I feel like I'm a tolerant person, but transgender issues are something that I find hard to understand. Please be clear: I'm not suggesting they do not exist, I'm saying that I personally find them hard to understand. Maybe because I only really learned about them relatively recently.

I've been a bit dismissive of trans issues, thinking "I accept them, but you can't expect me to worry about these issues, which are so rare and hard to understand!" But some things forum members have said have made me think that I need to be far more aware about this (and Dys4ia has helped).

I think some younger forum members are far, far more knowledgeable about this topic than I am, and this is a sign of progress that I will have to follow.

Edited February 24, 2014 by Heathcliff

[Sawyer]

This is really really cool. Transgender issues are very important to me, and I'm really happy to see someone like you, who claims he doesn't have much of an understanding on the problem, making the effort to post about it and share the game with us. Thank you!

[tma]

Thanks for sharing those I'm relatively new to learning about these issues, and I felt like even wrapping my head around things in the beginning made me a bit dizzy. I am very thankful for friends with lots of patience for clueless but wanting to learn (and hopefully non-pushy/ non judgmental) people like me.

There are still lots of things to learn about, especially topics that are hidden due to bias and discrimination.

Anyway.. thanks again.

[Anonymouse]

Thank you for sharing, I enjoyed playing it. It was interesting to step into the life of an individual for that period in her life. I liked how it was set up, like an interactive story book.

[Ouro]

It's funny, I try to be tolerant of people not understanding trans issues, but I have trouble understanding what's so hard to understand!

That "game" is very neat. I like that it's somewhat interactive as opposed to being a straight autobiographical written piece. I think something like that has more of an impact on viewers because even though it's fairly minor interaction, the player/viewer does have to actively take part in the narrative and that's going to make them think more deeply and personally about it than if they were just reading it as an essay.

BTW, being trans is probably not nearly as rare as you think it is.

[Heathcliff]

It's funny, I try to be tolerant of people not understanding trans issues, but I have trouble understanding what's so hard to understand!

I think I originally thought "this person is just very confused". I understand a bit better now: for example, the author of this game is not at all confused about her gender identity, it's just that it doesn't match the one which was assigned to her body.

I guess what I find difficult is, as a cisgender person, I have trouble separating the gender identity I feel from the gender assigned to my physical appearance- because they have always matched up. To me, the feeling of being male has always been tied to having a body with a penis. I simply cannot comprehend what it would be like to be male, but in a different body. (However I realise this is something I cannot truly know, and must accept.)

It raises an interesting question of how you define 'man' and 'woman' if you cannot do it by physical appearance (or by Y chromosome, or whatever). I'm sure this is something that has been extensively studied.

BTW, being trans is probably not nearly as rare as you think it is.

Sure. I mean, I have changed my assumption on that since I first learned what being trans was- but I am probably still underestimating the amount of trans people in the world.