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A British Board of Film Classification description page reveals some potential sexual prejudice in Mass Effect, although it's not the type you might expect. According to the description, players using a female character can initiate a sex scene "between her and male human or a female humanoid alien." Male characters, on the other hand, can only initiate sex "between him and a human woman or a humanoid female alien." If we're reading that right, it means the game allows for alien lesbian sex, but not any type of male-on-male sex. Furthermore, all non-alien sex has to be heterosexual.

The same-sex love issue is by now well-tread territory for BioWare -- most fans know by now that Juhani from Knights of the Old Republic is a lesbian and Jade Empire allowed same-sex romance for both genders. So why should it be different in Mass Effect? Does BioWare think that their audience will clamor for girl-on-alien-girl action while recoiling from man-on-man love? And why is lesbian sex only OK if it involves another species? Is this some sort of compromise to avoid a Bully-style controversy?

We'll have to wait until the final version of Mass Effect to see if the BBFC description is accurate, but as it stands now this odd double standard makes us wonder if the game will be a step forward or back for sexual politics.

[Via ProG, GayGamer]

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]]>gendermasseffect, sexMasseffect,SexsexualityAlexander Sliwinski2007-09-18T17:53:00+00:00