Welcome to the hottest new game on the market, “Chute just got Real!” This is not your run of the mill chutes and ladders game kids. This is a game where you get to create a BRAND NEW BODY but no you don’t get to choose what the body looks like, ya just get what ya get.

The first step of the game is to place all player game pieces in the middle of the board on square #57.

To start the game the first player rolls the dice. Then that player will move their game piece whatever number of spaces the dice landed on. However the player gets to decide on which direction (up, down, right, left, diagonal) they would like to go.

If a player lands on a chute or a ladder the player must take a chute or ladder card (whichever one they land on). For example if player 1 lands on a ladder then they must take a ladder card which will give them a somatechnic body part, the same goes for if a player lands on a chute spot. The player MUST take the card.

There is no winning in this game, but in order to end the game all the cards must be taken by the given players. Each player will continue to roll the dice and land on different spots until all the cards are taken. It does not matter who has the most cards or the least amount of cards, everyone is equal in the end. There is no winner and there is no loser.

There is also not many rules to the game either, however the rules that must be obliged are the following:

1. In the end the amount of cards collected is the amount of cards you have. You cannot do take backsy’s or trade amongst the players (Tip: you can however play the game again).
2. When landing on a chute or ladder spot a card corresponding to that spot must be taken. However all feelings associated with that somatechnic card are valid and should be expressed.
3. Play the game and have fun! (Tip: telling stories about how your body was altered and your life journey with your body at the end of the game has been proven to increase joy 3x while playing the game than if you don’t).

You know the saying “Life is just like a game” well this game sure is! So let’s get into what this game REALLY means…

Straight narratives label individuals based on what they observe outwardly. Bodies are forced into submission by doing what society has enforced as “appropriate” behavior. Preciado’s struggle with identity and research into the world of bio-possibility takes us into the reality of lived truth vs ascribed roles. Preciado’s experiment with chemicals to feel masculine speaks to the denial of lived truth making chemicals the only avenue to feel masculine.

In addition to somatechnics, this game interrogates the idea of normality and normalization in everyday life. Straight somatechnics are often seen as natural or taken for granted, while people whose lives work outside of them are more aware of how they influence bodies and society. As Carter writes in The Search For Norma, “being one of the normal people means being defined by reference to what you already are and so slides easily into the (empirically inaccurate) conviction that one’s own position is simply natural and devoid of political meaning” (22). By inviting straight people to play this game, we hope to open up a conversation about the “always already” nature of somatechnics: the roles that they can play in our lives, and the way that their status as straight or normal allows them to slip under the radar, while queer somatechnics are flashy, overt, and outside the norm.

Notably, our game, Chute Just Got Real!, does not have a specific goal oriented end of the game. This was intentional. In a board game that has a specific goal/end point in mind, the way the game is played becomes a means to an end. The end becomes a main focus of the activity. While there is not necessarily something wrong with such games, the human experience is rarely so linear. Something that we have learned (or unlearned, if you will) in class, is that there is always room for things to be done differently than the norm and there is a lot to be learned by thinking about things in a different way. This sort of thinking is a main part of what is driving our version of Chutes and Ladders. The game we created is more about the journey and creating a story than having a set goal from the beginning. We don’t always end up where we planned, and this game is no different. The way the players move around the board is not linear, and as the players compile different types of somatechnics they become a character with not just one type of bodily expression. In our culture, it’s hard not to participate in certain ways of modifying our bodies, as many somatechnics are very deeply normalized. This amalgam final character shows how varied and different the outcomes of our somatechnic practices can be. And lastly, the game is more about fun than competition for success — a queering of the way day to day life is usually expected to be.

Rainbow bookshelf from book blog A Beautiful Mess. Blogger Elsie Nelson had these shelves custom-built and collected books to fit the rainbow aesthetic. https://abeautifulmess.com/elsies-rainbow-bookshelves/

Book bloggers and instagrammers show off their carefully curated rainbow bookshelves, hold coffee and pose while reading in front of a scenic background, and curate book cover aesthetics to show off their latest purchases. None of these activities necessarily relate to the stories contained within the books that they read – instead this pleasure and obsession with books is linked to a more basic capitalistic desire, the desire to collect, curate, and luxuriate in your possessions.

Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit describes desire as a lack, something that can only be permanent when the lack is also permanent. I’m interested in how desire is expressed in bibliophilia, which Merriam Webster’s defines as “enthusiastic or extreme interest in collecting books.” Acquiring books is only one desire that drives bibliophiles – they also exhibit the desire for curation, display, and luxuriating in their collections. I hypothesize that a bibliophile’s desire achieves permanence because their desire is only an outward indicator of a deeper, inner desire for success and stability that is unachievable for most people.  Wishing to collect books on a whim feeds into the desire for a disposable income and for the stability of homeownership. The desire to have a rainbow bookshelf masks a desire for free time to spend organizing something you enjoy rather than making money or taking care of your immediate needs. These goals may seem so impossible as to be unthought of, or at least not something you can directing visualize or relate to your everyday life but manifest themselves as the desires of a bibliophile.

New Book Pages candle by ChiCandle on Etsy. It smells like paper, fresh ink, and amber glue, and it has 117 reviews and a five star average rating.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/614322097/new-books-new-book-pages-8-oz-glass-jar?source=aw&utm_source=affiliate_window&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=us_location_buyer&utm_content=258769&awc=6220_1651107733_2e81eecfb3bcc6808d8ab8200d0737c8&utm_term=0

Bibliophiles don’t limit themselves to the books themselves. There’s an entire book-related market, encompassing t-shirts, teas, candles, posters, perfumes, cosmetics, mugs, coasters, embossers, stationary, paper napkins, and egg cups. Whether it’s collecting books or book-related objects, book lovers who may consider themselves above such basic impulses are simply reenacting self-perpetuating consumerist desires.

Dear Ignorant People,  

Do you avoid new information that doesn’t mesh with your worldview? 

Do you quickly change the subject if someone comes out to you? 

Do you experience a tongue twist pronouncing names that divert from Sarah, Anna, or Jessica? 

Have your friends noticed you clutching your purse when a mysterious Black man walks by?  

Have you ever hypersexualized a woman to bond with your bisexual female friend? 

Have you ever felt compelled to say, “Good guys always finish last?” 

Do you feel anxious when you don’t know someone’s pronouns? 

Are you afraid of using someone’s correct pronouns so you just refer to them by their name? 

Do you mistake the same three black/Asian people but somehow can distinguish 20 Laurens from one another? 

Do you assume your roommate is Mexican just because they know Spanish?  

The bad news is: your ignorance is deliberate. The good news: it’s treatable! 

We’ve diagnosed you with a propensity towards disciplined knowledge. By thinking that the world is predictable and well-ordered, you’ve closed yourself off to the ideas and perspectives of people outside your worldview.  

We notice you may also have tendencies towards “seeing like a state,” which was first brought to our attention by James C. Scott (MD). You tend towards orderliness and ease rather than empathy, and you choose the path that is easiest for you and fits in your pre-established worldview. Tragically, you just don’t know as much as you think you do.  

We invite you to consider a situation from another person’s perspective, and then use your newfound empathy to alter your behavior going forward. It’s not on the marginalized person who is being disrespected to educate you, it’s time for you to treat your ignorance yourself. Repeat as necessary (once daily at minimum). 

Doctor Julien Carter has diagnosed you will subconscious heteronormative ignorance. The treatment plan is to unlearn the normative practices that dictate your everyday life in society. This treatment will include a daily dose of 25mg of learning that normality made it possible to discuss race and sexuality within the restraints of a dominant cisgender heteronormative power structure without fully engaging in the relations of power in which they were embedded. In simpler terms understand that cis-white-heterosexual people are in fact not the default. In addition, you will receive a weekly dose of 130mg of understanding that norms are a social construct that is always evolving, so therefore when cis-white-hetero norms are applied over norms that include the perspectives of those who have not had dominant power for centuries and centuries, you will feel the side effect of historical guilt. 

We remind you that another side effect of ignorance you may experience is privilege. It is important to know this because if you remain ignorant of your ignorance you might be complicit in regimes of power that harm those who are marginalized.  

We urge you to be aware of the many silences that exist in the constructs of society. What we experience is not always the truth of the situation and what is offered as truth may be a performance.  

We urge you to remain conscious of what you declare and how you enact norms through speech acts. A side effect of your ignorance may be further perpetuating norms that harm not only you but others as well. Performances are relational. The closet is a truth left unspoken and an act put on for a world that is unwelcoming. 

We prescribe a healthy dose of Eve Sedgwick’s Epistemology of the Closet. Wash that down with considering the effects of the said and the unsaid. 

Embrace the treatment plan! Stretch and bend your mind! Stop looking for the straight and narrow and find the paths that are crookedy and windy. Once you start the unlearning process, you will open yourself up to the possibilities of a queer utopia. 

Your treatment plan is ongoing. Your ignorance can be managed but never cured. It will be difficult – but we are here unlearning too. Start now.