Is Link from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom turning your kids gay and trans? Maybe not, but Fox News is certainly upset that trans people identify with Hyrule’s androgynous baddie.
Earlier this week, Fox Business published an article called “Male protagonist in ‘Legend of Zelda’ hailed as non-binary, trans icon by media, gamers.” In the story, Fox cites a Gizmodo piece by Linda Codega on trans peoples’ love for Link, and how his ambiguous gender presentation allows trans people across gender identities to explore their own relationship with gender through the iconic hero.
The trans community’s love for Link makes so much sense when you consider that Link was designed “to encompass more of a gender-neutral figure,” even if he is “definitely a male [character],” according to the series’ long-time producer Eiji Aonuma.
“If you saw Link as a guy, he’d have more of a feminine touch. Or vice versa, if you related to Link as a girl, it was with more of a masculine aspect,” Aonuma said in 2016. “So I’ve always thought that for either female or male players, I wanted them to be able to relate to Link.”
Nonetheless, Fox has used Gizmodo’s celebration of trans joy to try to kick up yet another moral panic, mostly by painting trans readings of Link as a niche phenomenon disliked by the wider gaming community.
An ‘infusion of identity politics’? Yawn
In one paragraph, Fox chides PBS for exploring Link’s androgynous gender expression and appearance, stating Instagram posters “pushed back against any attempt to make a children’s video game about gender identity.” One user called the segment an “infusion of identity politics” that is “out of touch” and “a stain on the PBS name.”
In another instance, the article hones in on Link’s ability to serve as an “egg-cracker,” or, as Codega describes it, “someone (or something) who makes people realize they’re transgender.” It’s pretty obvious why Fox brings up the term: To imply as subtly as possible that trans people are somehow grooming other trans people through egg-cracking. This may just be the first time that the iconic trans community slang term “egg” has reached Fox News, and I’m expecting it to come back up in the near-future as the moral panic around trans people grows.
Fox is quick to note that some gamers “[claim] that associating the fictional hero with transgederism is a stretch,” but it’s easy to see why Link is such a trans-coded character. Link, by design, was created to defy gender norms. And there are many ways to read Link. I personally always saw him as a bit of a femboy: A boy who actively rejects gender expectations and lives his life on his own terms, adhering to no gender roles placed on him. Link is certainly nonconforming by the nature of his eternal hero status, so I’d think the narrative supports this approach.
Either way, trans people have a right to engage with media on their own terms and in their own ways, celebrating characters who remind them of themselves. And they deserve to do so without Fox News hemming and hawing about eggs, “transgenderism,” and “identity politics” ruining the franchise.
(Feature image: Nintendo, Fox News. Remix by Ana Valens)
Published: Jun 1, 2023 01:43 pm