Kim is a girl [en][fr][free, Non-binary, LGBT, very short, kinetic novel]

[WillandBran]

Once confronted by one's own gender, there are many ways one can react to it:

love.png (20.35 KiB) Viewed 1192 times

You can fully identify with it, feel wholly "Man" or "Woman" and be happy and content to belong in a group of people with a similar life experience. You could fall in awe at the sheer affluence of customs and accessories invented to refine what it means to be of a specific gender. It can even be soothing to fit in a neat structure that gives us guidance and direction.

loveno.png (37.42 KiB) Viewed 1192 times

But we don't always identify with that gender, we don't always like it. Sometimes, it just... leaves us indifferent... We don't get why everyone makes it such a big deal. It just feels kinda weird that our culture gives us, sometimes even impose pre-fabricated roles on us. Specific looks and identities dished out solely based on the presence of a hole or a rod between our legs.

hate.png (32.73 KiB) Viewed 1192 times

But when it starts REALLY becoming a problem is when this gender actively harms us. When it tears us down from the inside, when it corrupts and tarnishes every interaction we have with ourself and the people around us.

cis4.png (28.17 KiB) Viewed 1192 times

Amongst non-binary people, some belong in the second category. Some may chose to be openly and overtly non-binary as a political statement, to help those from the third category feel less alone and vulnerable, or, often, simply to be more honest with themselves, no matter the persecutions and the scorn that might come with it.

But for those that actively suffer from it, this new opportunity to call themselves "Non-binary" becomes an absolute necessity, pretty much the only way to fight an omnipresent dread, one which until then brought with it despair and a crushing loneliness.

cis5.png (9.84 KiB) Viewed 1192 times

This story is all about a non-binary person who's smack dab in this later category, and was originally published during the Yuri Game Jam 2020.

Considering that it focuses on the relationship between someone's who's non-binary (and doesn't fit in the feminine spectrum) and a woman, this doesn't really qualify as a yuri.

As such, I apologize in advance if this is against the rules and/or spirit of this jam.

cis6.png (23.66 KiB) Viewed 1192 times

Our hero, a non-binary person, gets lost in their dark rumination, following the revelation that their girlfriend, Kim, no longer wishes to use "They/Them" pronouns and instead decided to fully go by "She", and to fully assume herself as a woman.

https://themoe.itch.io/kimisagirl-kimestunefille

[jkiln]

Hello everyone!

I'm J. Kiln, and I'd like to say that I thought "Kim is a girl" is a pretty interesting and emotional story!

While I can't say that I'm a LGBTQ person, the story did make me feel and empathise with what a LGBTQ person might go through. (Note: I read through the English version, as I don't know French.)

I felt that the main character (a non-binary person), was somewhat of a horrible person; being unable to express their feelings from a young age regarding their gender, and over time, growing up into an angry person.

Lacking a positive outlet for their feelings, the main character might come across as being very negative, and possibly quite hateful: Specifically, they have gone so far as to be disgusted by the concept of gender, thinking of it as a painful constraint on their being.

You might even say the main character has become very flawed, unable to let go of a rather narrow-minded perspective, having felt persecuted their whole life for being non-binary.

As a result, when the story begins, the main character has become a very sad and lonely person, having recently rejected their partner for no longer being a fellow non-binary person. The rest of the story is about confronting their worldview, their past, and their darker feelings, and coming to terms with how other people can feel so incredibly different from oneself, and yet still be so alike: perhaps, we are all, in some way, a little bit flawed.

The Kinetic Novel is very short, uses a small number of art and music to tell the story, and the user interface is customised. The story itself might be hard to read through for some, as it deals with a character's darker emotions, and you might not even like the character very much at first, but as the story progresses, the consequences of being a hateful person start to become apparent, and the main character eventually has to confront their lonely existence and find their humanity beneath their prejudice.

Hypocritical and ironic as it might be that the main character is a non-binary person, who comes to resent another for being different and not conforming to their expectations, I believe it does illustrate that all our emotions, even hate, is a part of being human; it's when we fully acknowledge and understand ourselves, and overcome our worst instincts, that we can begin to accept and love another.

If my thoughts on the game interests you, then why not give "Kim is a girl" a try? It's a short but very raw human experience, and the price is up to you.