Hello! Eurogamer is once again marking Pride Month with another week of features celebrating the intersection of queer culture and gaming. Today, Eli Cugini celebrates the clumsier side of LGBTQ+ representation and the strange, raw beauty that sometimes lies within.
My favourite rhythm game, which I won't name because I pay it £10 every month and I want you to make better life decisions than I do, recently tweeted that they were featuring Muse's Plug In Baby in their Pride Month season pass. Their reasoning? "Muse has continuously made efforts in writing LGBTQIA+ positive lyrics. Their 2001 hit Plug In Baby was originally supposed to talk about transhumanism, before becoming more abstract. Play the catchy riff now via our Tour Pass: RAINBOW RHYTHMS!"
For those not versed in what 'transhumanism' means (it means technological human enhancement and does not have very much to do with transgender people), this is very stupid. Hilariously stupid. It is the funniest thing I have read all week. Come, trans humans, play my catchy riff. But there's a warmth to it: some social media rep, somewhere, is clumsily reaching for people like me. They don't really speak my language, and they don't have the most effective tools to get to me, but the result isn't harmful or flattening. It's funny. It might even be unintentionally profound.