sometimes it's just. i can't help but noticing the implications of things that are put into media (in this case video games) without any thought as to what that means
like how pokemon games have anti-homeless architecture in the background. i can totally believe that whoever modelled the anti-homeless bench and put it into the world was not thinking about the politics of being homeless and how homelessness is seen by the world, they were just putting in a bench like the benches they've seen in the real world.
but it still implies some kind of initiative to stop homeless people sleeping in public. like, that legislature is implicitly in place just because of that bench, nobody designs benches like that unless they're for that specific purpose
there's something similar in the new tomodachi life. your miis have three gender options - male, female, and nonbinary - which is great! when you choose a nonbinary mii, you can choose their pronouns, and whether the game will put them in masculine-coded clothing, feminine-coded clothing, or either, in scenes where the game overrides your choices and gives them clothes
the thing is, that option isn't given at creation for male or female miis. you can go back in and change it later for any mii, but the game doesn't tell you that's an option, you have to find that. similarly, if your mii is male, they will default to he/him, and if your mii is female, they will defailt to she/her.
more egregiously, while you are always given the option to define your mii's sexuality, it's in a secondary menu after you pick gender - and if your mii is set to male, he will be set up to be attracted to women and nobody else by default, and if your mii is set to female, she will be set up to be attracted to men and nobody else.
and i don't think the developers of tomodachi life were thinking of this explicitly. but like, the implication is that the default way to exist is to be straight, the default way to be a man is masculine and dressing masculine, and the default way to be a woman is feminine and dressing feminine
and that says a lot about how our culture views gender, you know?
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