Pride Month Picks: How Fire Emblem's Edelgard Taught Me To Reject Compulsive Heterosexuality

thegamer.com:

This article is part of Pride Month Picks, a collection of pieces that aim to highlight queer representation across games, television, film, books, and more throughout June.

The term “compulsive heterosexuality” was a term coined by Adrienne Rich in 1980, but was given a more modern interpretation in the famous ‘Am I A Lesbian’ master doc. Its concept posits that many lesbians are unable to tell that they are not attracted to men, because women are taught growing up that we must like, and want to spend time with, men. In my own life, this concept was heavily felt. I was born the fraternal triplet sister to a pair of male identical twins, and so I grew up my whole life defined as ‘the girl’. Even when my little sister was born the expectation never faded. It was Fire Emblem that helped me see the light.

As a child I was to spend time with men, like my brothers, and be the ideal oldest daughter. I wasn’t necessarily the best at it, I was brash and rude and socially inept. My female friends rarely stuck around, and in the second grade I realized that other girls would be more sympathetic to me if I had a crush on a boy. Even when I later realized I did like girls, I still deluded myself into believing I must still like men as well. That was what I was supposed to do. That same frame of mind followed me into fictional worlds, and prevailed even as I played Fire Emblem Heroes for the first time.

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I came out as a lesbian in 2019. At this point, I had been aware I was sapphic for several years, but had trouble realizing I wasn’t attracted to men. Before that, I was introduced to the Fire Emblem series through Fire Emblem Heroes when I was 16. Even