Those who play World of Warcraft are all too familiar with the ludicrous amount of hate that gets flung around the playerbase. Misogyny, fatphobia and homophobia especially run rampant (as a woman of size, I am particularly bothered by the horrible things that are suggested to be done to “fatties,” on top of suggestions that I don’t exist because I’m female). We hear about abusing gnomes, how much doods would LOVE to tap some Draenei female ass… oh yeah, and that male Blood Elves? Totally gay.

…back up there.

There’s a certain something about that statement. For one thing, I never thought male Blood Elves were all that effeminate to begin with, but I’ll address that later. How many of these trolls know who does the voiceovers for player-controlled Blood Elf men? For the record, and last I checked, that would be one Cam Clarke, and in addition to also voicing Malygos and Medivh in other parts of the Warcraft universe, he’s the dood behind animated acts of badassery like… oh, Liquid Snake, Kratos Aurion and, yes, Leonardo. Yes, doods, that Blood Elf was once a freaking Ninja Turtle! Name-drop him and you’d have fanboys crawling out of the woodwork to gush about how awesome he is, and such…

…did I mention he’s also openly gay? I’d like to see those same trolls fling around homophobic rhetoric afterwards. They probably can’t, not without having to chew on their own feet when they realize the absurdity of the hate.

On a semi-related front… really? What is it about Blood Elf men that has people convinced they’re gay? I’m not seeing it at all. Is it the twirling when they jump? Can’t be, the women do it too. Blood Elf twirliness is a little odd, but I always chalked that up to their anomalous existence (you know, the whole “hurr durr we are addicted to fel/arcane magic, we even have parties out in the open to get high off the stuff” thing). Some of the NPCs (if my ears aren’t BSing me, are voiced by Quinton Flynn— hai, Raiden!) sound very… gentle, but I wouldn’t call it effeminate— they’d be more like some of the polite-sounding human male NPCs. Body structure, mayhaps? Well, you’d have to slap the “homo” label on Draenei men, too, since both are a little top-heavy and by troll logic, that must TOTALLY make you gay. Hair’s out, too… since other races have long hair (Draenei, Night Elves, Humans).

Nope. I can’t really observe anything about Blood Elf dudes that make them any more potentially-gay than the other races. If anything, Blood Elves seem more reminiscent of the ridiculously-idealized artistic depiction of the Greeks and Romans. (This is totally the part of me that paid minimal attention during Art History while playing Metroid Fusion in the back of the classroom.) This is ESPECIALLY true of the women, who have just outright-unrealistic proportions among the “plausibly humanoid” races (humans, night elves, blood elves, trolls and orcs). Recall in the pre-Cataclysm loading screen artwork for Eastern Kingdoms— yeah, that blond Blood Elf with the teeny waist and the huge boobs that could easily fall out of… whatever that thing was that passed for a top.

Why do people feel the need to hate on Blood Elf men anyway? Have you seen them decked out in raid gear? They look pretty freaking badass, especially Paladins and Hunters. If I wasn’t so attached to my awesome guild, I’d turn Horde in an instant (to say nothing of my existing love of Taurens and Goblins). But, haters are going to hate, I guess. I’m still nipping my brother and other guildies for flinging around “ghey” as a perjorative… maybe someday they’ll learn. :P

For now, I continue to crank up guild rep. We’re super-close to getting A Class Act and Working as a Team. Bro just needs to get his Death Knight to 85, and a few of us need to get some of our other 85s to Honored so the guild gets credit for maxed professions. Wee~