Lita Sone on defying labels

I chose to play a video game because I thought that the main character was hot. While this fact is completely true, I do not regret it. Let me introduce you to the game Persona 5, about a high school student, known as Joker, forming a vigilante group to expose the crimes of corrupt adults. While I initially picked the game up because I found the main character to be attractive, that is only one of the reasons I continued playing. Persona 5 hit me deeper than most media could, not because I could relate to fighting the injustice in our society or performing heroics, but because I related to the struggles experienced by one of the side characters.

When I was first introduced to Ann Takamaki, I hated her. I thought she was superficial: Even though her character is meant to represent going against female sexualization, the way she is portrayed does anything but that. What I failed to realize, however, was that this portrayal was intentional and shined light onto one of the core points of Persona 5: to understand others past the persona we put up and see characters for who they truly are. Ann’s classmates see her as a promiscuous character, but as they interact more with Ann, they learn that she is actually a caring empath with strong willpower. And, just like her classmates, I misunderstood that very key trait about her.

As a fellow high school student, let me let you in on a little secret—you are not safe from rumors and gossip. That’s not to say you should lock yourself up in your room and not talk to anyone. Sometimes it’s not bad to be talked about. After all, it just comes with socializing and sharing stories: You are a part of someone’s story, and it just so happens that how they portray you will vary. It does mean, however, that sometimes people will make wrong assumptions about you. This can happen even within friend groups, and it only takes one story to snowball into a huge misunderstanding. In my case, though I initially thought I had nothing in common with a random side character in a video game, I found there was more to her I could relate to. Similarly to Ann, because of the way people interpreted my actions, I started to become ostracized from my friends. For example, I was judged for finding comfort in my male friends more than my female friends. Talking to my male friends about this problem only made it worse. At one point I would make fun of myself more than my friends did, just so it made their jabs at me seem less painful. It became a part of my persona, and a personality trait I thought didn’t suit me in the slightest. Looking back, I wish that I had some sort of self-actualization moment, when I did a full 180-degree turn and took off the mask.