Queerphobia in Death Stranding is background favoring. Let’s break how bigoted it is to use as world building. From the biblically old homophobia to sexism and rape culture. Here’s the tweet that brought it to my attention.

The title says an “Asexual World”. Not a “Celibate World”. Not “A Population In Decline.” An asexual world. Many times casual acephobia would use those two words to mean the same. What Death Stranding does is even worse. 

Line one and two reads: “Widespread aversion towards physical contact and intimacy”. Since we are talking about queerphobia and rape culture it should be noted that aversion towards physical contact and intimacy are not issues exclusive to asexuals. Not all aces have an aversion. Furthermore, sex repulsion and touch aversion are often found in rape survivors and other victims of abuse. It is a safety feature, not the back story to a horror genre. You also see an aversion to touch in same-sex couples that do not feel safe to even hold hands. If the societal issue is a “widespread aversion towards physical contact and intimacy” the issue is not “An Asexual World”. It’s a world were people have no ability be interact safely. This is canon in the game’s lore. Invisible monsters and all.

Line four, five, six reads:  ‘”Sexless lifestyle” “among young people”. “Younger cohort were self-identifying as asexual, claiming to be incapable of feeling desire or attraction.” Once again asexuals might have sexless “lifestyles” but so may anyone. It is again not an inherent feature of asexuality.

This showcases that the writers knew the bigotry they hide in flavor text.

You can also note in this section the double usage of young and younger. This is classic queerphobia of “the youth and their new labels.” It’s been said about every letter of the queer community. Death Standing goes on to say people are “claiming”. Further removing the agency from those who gained enough to feel like they could safely label themselves in the first place. Year after year studies shows that the number of LGBTQ people goes up as awareness and safety for these groups go up. LGBTQ people don’t really vanish without labels. They hide.

Line nine, ten, elven reads: “demisexuals, who are incapable of sexual attraction without an emotional connection, and panromantics, who profess an attraction unrestricted by sex or gender–albeit one not necessarily sexual in nature.” I mentioned most acephobia is misguided definitions. These here have a flavor text of the game but are otherwise correct. This flavor text is not a misguided stray comment from Death Stranding. It’s someone who knows what the a-spec community is decided to take a shot at multiple queer communities. Attacking panromantics is an attack of any multi-spec person.

Line thirteen reads: “One theory posits that the Stranding accelerated the proliferation of these sexualities.” If you haven’t heard the recycled homophobia before this line. I hope you do here. This the classic homophobic line of ‘those social deviants are ending our society.’

Lines seventeen, eighteen, nineteen reads: “Incidences of sexual harassment and assault have also seen a sharp decrease, which seems to suggest that sex could be further from our minds, for better or for worse.” First off, if anything that reduces sexual harassment and sexual assault. It is for the better. Rape culture is not the price we have to pay for having a culture, and it isn’t directly about sex being on the minds of rapists either.

Even in a Me Too era the queerphobia Death Standing brings still does not understand that harassment and assault are abuses of power.

And while it is not directly mentioned in the screencap a few more things need to be mentioned. Two cis gay men did not produce offspring. They are not and should not be shamed for it. I point this out because  “Oh no, those queers are going to ruin the population” is a biblically historic form of homophobia. And the only reason Death Stranding isn’t direct homophobic is because those exact same believes are indirectly hiding behind willful acephobia. By taking a shot at asexuals for “not breeding” you are taking a shot at anyone who does not “be fruitful and multiply.”

Now that I’ve done a Scooby-Doo unmasking of homophobia, I’d also like to mention further implied rape culture and sexism. You’ll often find men like Hideo Kojima and his writers who concern troll over if those who can have children are fucking and having babies. You see this played out in the fight for rights for people to control their own bodies.

Horror as a genre can point out the unknown lurking out of our sight.

Unmast it, or hold it just out of clear view. The queerphobia in Death Stranding’s back story does not do this. Instead of subverting a society that already has rape culture, compulsory sexuality, heteronormatity, and sexism, Hideo Kojima theorizes that maybe the backstory to his great horror story is asexuals, the very same people who are not the monsters but the targets of those four things.

Be sure to check out our other articles media criticism to even better understand the landscape.