PC Gamer Shows Political Bias and Pro-Child Grooming Stance Over The Sims 4 Trans Controversy?

The Sims franchise has been a popular one with the gaming community. How could it not? The life simulation games allow players to manipulate little caricatures of humans to create zany situations in a sandbox that lets them do anything; even come up with creative ways to murder those Sims. But a recent update that includes top surgery scars and chest binding has PC Gamer alledgedly showing its political bias and pro-child grooming stance over The Sims 4 trans update controversy.

Is PC Gamer the only website to do this? Probably not. The majority of the video game media industry is overwhelmingly left-leaning and will pick up this baton to cry out that they are all for transgender rights and inclusivity. But, in the case of PC Gamer, the news site certainly took it personally as political pundits weighed in on the new update, for the popular title rated for Teens and PEGI 12, calling these pundits “Snowflakes” in its official tweets and lambasting them in the editorial that was published late in the evening on 02/02/2023. The editorial is short and doesn’t even try to understand the opposition or its arguments to this update from the developer. 

Instead, PC Gamer simply pointed at political pundit Dave Rubin, Libs of TikTok owner Chaya Raichik, and author Nick Adams while offering nothing of substance to counter the points made by these individuals. Instead of trying to refute those claims or make some rational points, the editorial goes on to say things such as “infantilizing, fearmongering statements” while trying to make it seem like this argument being made over this issue are the equivalent to past arguments that sought to demonize games as causing violence, school shootings, and crime or even equating these arguments to book burnings.

Arguments, I must add, that were made mostly by Democrats in the 90s, 00s, 10s, and even more recently in 2021 by Democrats. 

So I found it intriguing that my response to PC Gamer’s tweet, “Conservative snowflakes triggered by videogame” received some interesting rebuttals to what I said.

However, I want to hold off on bashing PC Gamer or the industry in general over its political leanings. For now, I’d rather try and discuss the topic in a more fair manner and you can read PC Gamer’s editorial for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

So on January 31, 2023 Electronic Arts released the patch notes for a new update for The Sims 4. Among the various bug fixes, game optimizations, and new cosmetics were Top Surgery and Chest Binding features that could be added to teen and adult Sims. The obvious issue here is that top surgery, which is a subcutaneous mastectomy, and chest binding, the constriction of the breasts to flatten, are being promoted to underaged children with this update by allowing these things to be put on an underaged Sim.

The main argument from the Right and Center is that underaged children should not be taught about this in education nor encouraged to physically harm themselves. Which is what these two things are. One is the purposeful removal of breast tissue and the other is a constriction of the same physical area that can lead to overheating, pain in the back, chest, shoulders, and breasts, cause shortness of breath, and even increased issues of acne, rashes, and lesions. 

With that frame of reference in mind, it’s no wonder that people would be up in arms that this is being put into a game. But the responses to my comment on PC Gamer’s tweet, and general comments to PC Gamer, brought up some interesting talking points.

One particular person tweeted, “i wonder how many repliers know that trans options have been in sims 4 since like…. 2016.”

It’s a fair point. The Sims introduced an event where a male Sim could become pregnant. But that event? Alien abduction. Which is absolutely hilarious, isn’t serious, and is something called humor. The game also includes gender pronouns in character customization which no one really cared about because it isn’t serious and a game in a medium where people like to pretend they are something that they aren’t. Otherwise, we would use our real names and our real bodies for our avatars rather than most guys creating and playing female avatars. 

Yeah, I’m looking at you who chooses a female avatar to watch those hips sway…pervert.

Or you, opportunist pretending to be a chick in order to get simps to give you ingame items and currency. 

Or you…tryhard gamer who chooses the female avatar because it usually has a smaller hitbox.

There is no denying that The Sims is LGBT-friendly. Nothing is wrong with that, nobody really cares because it is a game. However, it is a game promoted and sold to minors. Which has now included a feature in which you can create an underaged Sim with top surgery scars or chest binding attire. If these cosmetic options were restricted to the adult Sim model, I wouldn’t even bother writing this editorial. 

But that is not the case. 

The developer decided that a minor can create an underaged Sim with top surgery scars or chest binding attire. Which is at the crux of this whole trans-debate. Broadly put, right now, there is a concerted effort to push transgender ideologies in education, politics, mainstream media, Hollywood, and some sectors of the medical industry. From making claims that “A Message From The Gay Community” to pushing explicitly sexual books such as “Gender Queer” there is an overwhelming bombardment on impressionable minds at as young an age as possible. 

One interesting argument made about my comment was that it is a repackaging of an old argument,

“This is just a repackaged “COD is a school shooter simulator” talking point. Brain dead take.” 

To which I have to say, it isn’t. When it comes to violence, it isn’t promoted, encouraged, or indoctrinated into people. We enjoy watching it, we enjoy playing violent games, but we don’t go out and commit random acts of violence. Action movie heroes don’t go around being violent to random people. That would be called murder. Instead, they usually have a reason for that violence whether defending themselves, defending friends, family, innocents, or even getting revenge. Usually against bad people. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be heroes. 

Suffice to say, there is no culture that promotes or encourages violence for the sake of violence.

Whereas, that is not the case when it comes to transgenderism. Top surgery, chest binding, and chemical castration is encouraged, promoted, and indoctrinated in children as being normal, safe, healthy, life-fulfilling, and you will be happy and satisfied (despite the issue that there is a high suicide and suicide attempt rate among transgender people). That there is a concerted effort to push gender-affirming care of minors without parental consent or even informing the parents of what their child is going through. That there are a disturbing amount of doctors willing to chemically castrate and perform top surgery on minors. 

The argument then is that by including an option to put top surgery scars or chest binding attire on an underaged Sim in the game, it is encouraging and promoting to children that gender affirming practices are okay and normal in an environment that is telling them this exact thing behind the backs of their parents and family. 

Now, it could be argued that a child who, somehow, has gone through life not hearing about transgenderism can look at the character creation, wonder why the funny kid has scars on their chest and just assume that it is some kind of undead zombie cosplay. The other side of that argument? Maybe a child who is constantly being talked to about gender, gender fluidity, transgenderism, etc, who is now confused, will see that same underaged Sim and think that it is okay to get this surgery. Because it’s in the game. It’s cool. Maybe a tomboy, who is told that she isn’t a girl who likes to do boyish activities, but is told she is actually a boy in a girl’s body, and that she will feel better about herself if she gets puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and to bind her chest until she can get top surgery sees that it is in the game and comes to the conclusion that maybe those people are right and it won’t be bad to go through with it.

What’s interesting is that PC Gamer posted an editorial talking about how playing The Sims influenced or reinforced different people’s queer proclivities (check it out, it’s an interesting read).

However, an obvious argument to include, which was made, was what about trans youth who would like to see themselves represented? To this, my reply is, why wouldn’t they get that by seeing the scars on an adult Sim? It might even encourage them to wait until they are older to get that top surgery or to bind their chests. 

Which I would be somewhat fine with since it means they waited until they were older to make such a life-altering decision.

Then one Twitter user commented, “Also I’m curious so I’ll ask, how is having optional top surgery scars *promoting* body mutiliation[sic] and does the same go for any facial and other body scars in game”

The answer was simple for this. Scars are not intentional. They tend to be the result of some type of injury. Whether from an accident, life-saving surgery, horrific event, or a botched job. In the case of top surgery, it is a voluntary subcutaneous mastectomy that the patient wants to have. One scar is accidental, the other is purposeful. That is the major difference between the two. No sane person gives themselves a facial scar because they thought it looked cool in a game.

Why?

Because society would look at them like they were crazy (unless you are Shia LaBeouf in the film Fury which actors will praise him for while we regular people all know that the guy is a few cards short of a full deck).  People don’t pluck out an eye to wear an eye patch in order to be a pirate. They just throw on an eye patch and pretend. Whereas people are now being told that top surgery scars will be brave, strong, embracing your true self, and a true expression of who you really are. That there are no consequences, no bad side effects, and that it won’t inhibit you in your ability to have a spouse and biological children by taking puberty blockers and hormone treatments. That there are no downsides to being trans.

Maybe if there was some honesty to the topic of transgenderism, the blowback from conservatives and regular people wouldn’t be so harsh. Maybe, if it wasn’t focused on impressionable children, they wouldn’t care unless it encroaches on their right to speech. But that is not the case and it is exactly what is being done, especially in schools.

What is the Catholic saying, “Give me a child of seven, and I will show you the man?” In other words, give me the child and I will make him a Catholic for life. Child psychologists say that children are the most impressionable and the LGBT community knows it as well. Otherwise they wouldn’t be pushing such literature to underaged children as early as possible rather than when they are in college. They wouldn’t produce a song titled “A Message From the Gay Community” which talks about them coming for everyone’s children. 

Another point I want to make, in regards to the argument about trans youth wishing to see themselves represented in the game due to the inclusion of top surgery scars, is what about breast cancer survivors? Women who had to undergo a mastectomy or double mastectomy? How do you think seeing top surgery scars in the game would affect them? After all, studies show that women who undergo mastectomies experience a negative impact on their body image and their self image. It’s why some will buy imitation breasts or wear clothing to make it appear that they have breasts. It’s a traumatic and frightening experience for anyone.

Do you think they would feel inclusive by seeing those top surgery scars? Would they feel like they are being mocked? I couldn’t answer that. I’m just postulating this thought which came to my mind as I spent quite a bit of time on Twitter trying to have conversations with people.

Though, before moving on, I would like to include a quote from actress Christina Applegate who was talking about her double mastectomy, 

“It doesn’t feel the same, and it’s hard to carry your purse. I cry at least once a day about it because it’s hard to overlook it when you’re standing there in the mirror. When you look down, it’s the first thing you see. … So you’re reminded constantly of this thing—this cancer thing that you had.”

Look, at the end of the day, it’s up to the parents to decide what is best for their children. Not education, educators, politicians, mainstream media, or Hollywood – the parents. We can’t sit here and say that gender affirming surgery and hormone therapy is good for minors. Do what you want as an adult, no one is going to care. But let children be children and develop physically and mentally enough to make a fully-informed decision about what they want to do with their own life.

If you think children in elementary and middle school should be exposed to hypersexualized curriculums, then you are pro-child grooming. I don’t think it was wise for Electronic Arts to include top surgery scars or chest binding attire for underaged Sims. For the adult Sims, that is fine. Otherwise, if they keep the scars for minors in, then the game’s age rating should be increased from PEGI 12 to Mature. 

Now, I am going to come back to PC Gamer which, rather than put out an article trying to cover both sides of the argument, demonized and mocked one side and praised the other under the guise of being woke. They tried to say that video games wielded as cudgels by politicians are mainly from the Right and Conservatives. Whereas, in actuality, it is the Democrats, more often than not, who claim that video games cause mass shootings, violence, and crime. From Jack Thompson a Democrat and disbarred lawyer filing lawsuit after lawsuit, to Democrat Hillary Clinton promoting bills to stop sale of violent video games, former president Barack Obama funding research into the effects of video game and violence, to a Democrat claiming that GTA is responsible for crime in Chicago in 2021, and even former president Donald J. Trump parroting Democrats saying that video games contribute to mass shootings.

PC Gamer could at least be honest on this score. But, because they are politically biased, they aren’t going to explain their position on why it is okay to promote child grooming, which is what I think this is by including these cosmetics for underaged Sim models. Rather than approach the topic in a more respectful and rational manner, they raised a false equivalence between the argument of violence and the argument of transgenderism. One which is violence against others and the other violence against one’s own body. One that is discouraged and the other encouraged and indoctrinated by a small minority and its allies.

Should The Sims 4 be boycotted? By adults, no. 

By adults with young children? Yes. More specifically, adults who believe that this is child grooming and are diligent in what their children are exposed to. There also needs to be a discussion about how this content should be considered Mature content and The Sims 4 be rated M for Mature. 

Otherwise, do what you want. It’s your life and your kids’ if you have them. 

As for me? I haven’t played a Sim game since I boycotted SimCity a while back, even had a crappy “rap battle” about it. But this move doesn’t make me want to play The Sims 4 at all. Rather, let’s get an alternative game like we did to SimCity with Cities: Skylines.

Author’s Note:

This is not what I expected to spend my day writing while engaging with so many people on Twitter about this topic. Suffice to say, I won’t get any writing done on my current work-in-progress. But thank you for taking the time to read this editorial!

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