Problematic Depictions in Gone Home

I created my Twine game as an exploration of some of the problematic elements of the game Gone Home, mostly regarding the usage of stereotypes throughout the game in how the characters are structured but also how the usage of a supernatural backdrop could be problematic. The game uses a horror aesthetic as a way of making the player believe it will have a horror twist, when in fact the twist is that Sam is a Lesbian. I felt like the mixing of horror and Lesbianism is problematic because it presents Lesbianism as something to be feared. I used a few sources from academic journals and popular news sites to make my point.

I didn’t have any issues with the creation of the Twine essay. My biggest issue was finding sources related to how stereotypes of Lesbians are presented in the media, but once I found a few articles it was easy to write the essay in a word document and convert it into the game. I found reading about historical media portrayals of witches as Lesbians or bisexuals interesting. In the early 20th century it was done as a way to strike fear toward Lesbians, but as the century progressed it appeared to be more of a positive identification among Lesbian fans and characters in shows coded as Lesbian, which I thought was very interesting and I didn’t know before but had trouble incorporating in the essay. I am going to try to work it into the final video essay. Overall it was a fascinating research assignment and I had no problems with Twine as a medium.