A normalização dos gêneros nas capas de games LGBT e gay na Itch.io : tendências, identidades e protagonismos em uma plataforma de jogos digitais

Abstract

This study aims to analyze how the North American game platform Itch.io operates in the construction, maintenance and normalization of gender, based on its classification system (tags). For this, I focus specifically on two tags, LGBT and Gay, and develop a verbal-visual analysis around the 10 most and least present covers in each of these groups of tags. In the investigation, I discuss the Japanese origins of male and female protagonism, highlighting the divergences between Japanese and American representations. I interpret social gender from Teresa De Lauretis' perspective and consider that the act of classifying bodies or “things” is inherently human (BOWKER; STAR, 2000). I use studies of Carlos D’Andréa (2020), José Van Dijck, Thomas Poell and Martijn de Wall (2018) and Van Dijck (2013) as a theoretical contribution to discuss platforms. On Itch.io, I defend the existence of Itchnomia, a unique classification structure, built from the hybridization of folksonomic and taxonomic processes. From my analysis, I argue that the investigated platform uses a series of strategies, such as the bubbles of meanings, to delimit the possible understandings around each tag. A consequence of this is the fragmentation of representations and the LGBT community around specific aspects, in which sexual desire and the enhancement of the body are linked to “Gay covers”, to cuteness and to “acceptable” in presence of the CIStema to “LGBT”. Finally, I point out that just as the genre has blind spots (DE LAURETIS, 1987), there are ways to tension and subvert the orders created by the platform, even if in a partial and momentary way, especially through the appropriation of an existing tool, destined to who produces and distributes games.