Mass Effect 3 and Sexuality

In one of their “Objection!” pieces, Kotaku’s Mark Serrels and blog writer Adam Ruch discuss the recent announcement made by Casey Hudson on his Twitter account that Mass Effect 3 would feature gay romances for male Shepard and the subsequent fans’ reactions. Here’s a sampling:

MARK: There was a bit of a kerfuffle amongst Mass Effect fans, in the wake of producer Casey Hudson’s assertion that same sex romances would be given more attention in Mass Effect 3. Strangely enough, it seemed that, despite the fact that homophobia is surely at the base of some of the concerns, plenty were more precious about the ‘˜canon’ of Mass Effect, and remaining consistent with what had gone on in previous games.

What’s your take?

ADAM: This is a great one, and I’ve been fascinated by the case of Mass Effect for quite a while now. I think this issue bears discussion in two major areas: the first is probably the more obvious social angle, the appropriateness and under-representation of anything other than straight-white-male archetype characters and situations, but also on a theoretical side. If people really want to talk about the canon, let’s talk about canon!

So, canon, in this sense, is the stuff that has happened as in history, or the stuff that can happen, magical rules, speculative physics etc, in a fictional universe. Most importantly, it includes characterisation, and the relative stability of each character’s personality over time. A little bit different to the Canon of English Literature.

Anyway. The question I have for Mass Effect fans is this: in the canon of Mass Effect, is Shepard male or female? We all know that you can play as either a male or a female Shepard, but how does canon handle that kind of option? I think we have to really learn how to understand this kind of contingency in videogames in general before we can talk about any specific canon. At the end of the two games we’ve played so far, the (what’s gone on) is really quite different for different people. In some, Liara will present as attracted to a human male. In others, she’ll present as attracted to females. Does that make her actually bisexual? If she is bisexual as a character, then does that mean Shepard is actually a simultaneous hermaphrodite?