Stardew Valley Pronoun Petition Nears 5,000 Signatures

A fan petition asking for new pronoun options to be added to Stardew Valley is nearing 5,000 signatures online.

On Change.org, user Atmos Fierce began a petition asking Eric Barone, AKA ConcernedApe, to add additional pronoun options into Stardew Valley for the 1.6 update. At the time of writing, there are only two: Male and female. These then dictate the pronouns used for the character in the game. Currently, the petition has 4,361 signatures, with hundreds signing every day.

Related: Stardew Valley’s ConcernedApe Shares Mysterious New Image From Haunted Chocolatier

On their post, Fierce writes, “For many trans and non-binary players, the gendered language in the game can feel incredibly disheartening, and invalidating, causing feelings of dysphoria when misgendered while they are playing. 2SLGBTQIA+ players deserve to see themselves represented to the fullest extent in their game. The Gender Neutrality Mod is available for players on PC and has over 40 thousand downloads, but with the game available on many platforms that don’t allow modding, a change needs to be made to the base game so that everyone can feel represented.”

The various comments on the post echo the desire of users to have Stardew Valley reflect their pronouns and how exhausting it can be to be misgendered, even in a video game.

Related: Stardew Valley’s ConcernedApe Shares Mysterious New Image From Haunted Chocolatier

Stardew Valley released in 2016 and is generally credited with reviving the farming sim genre. 1.6 is set to be the next update for the game, and likely the last in a long time as the developer shifts his focus to his next project, Haunted Chocolatier. The update is set to add new festivals, dialogue, and various other things to make the player experience even better.

Stardew Valley is available on pretty much every console. Haunted Chocolatier and the 1.6 update do not have release dates at this time.