Culture

Trans non-binary Sims 4 streamer petitions for inclusive pronouns to be added to the hit life sim

Sims 4

@Momomisfortune streams The Sims 4 on Twitch and focuses on LGBT+ gameplay (MomoMisfortune/EA)

A petition has been launched for EA to add pronoun options to The Sims.

Twitch streamer Momo Misfortune has been tweeting the publisher for 51 days requesting the addition.

Now an official petition has been launched on Change.org that has rapidly gained thousands of signatures within a month.

“If we could have the option to choose pronouns for our sim or for the team to switch older game texts to be gender neutral like current pack dialoged [sic] it would be impactful for those of us who are still unable to truly feel represented in the game by having our sims selves misgendered,” it reads.

The Sims is hugely popular with the LGBT+ community and the series has improved its LGBT+ representation since the original game.

Same-sex relationships were included in The Sims somewhat by accident, but since then the games have developed gender customisation options. 

However, these options still rely on the gender binary. This new petition hopes to change that.

Recent additional packs to the game have added gender-neutral language, but gendered language remains.

“They did include the non-binary flag in an update that came out in 2019 in partnership with It Gets Better along with other pride flags,” said Momo Misfortune to Newsweek. 

“The irony is even though the non-binary flag was included, our non-binary Sims don’t get proper representation and still get misgendered in game dialogue.”

Their goal for the campaign is to show how meaningful this change could be. 

“The Sims markets itself on ‘playing with life,’ yet is lacking in such an important part in representation. Adding things like pronoun options, disability representation, mobility devices, etc. would be so impactful to folx who are constantly put down in their personal lives,” they said.

So far EA is yet to respond to Momo Misfortune’s tweets or the campaign.

Sign the petition here.

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