straightwash

Verb

straightwash (third-person singular simple present straightwashes, present participle straightwashing, simple past and past participle straightwashed)

1. To interpret or present a queer figure, relationship, or situation as exclusively heterosexual.
   • Rather than focus on ostensibly queer games, I want to show how doing a queer analysis of mainstream games provides critical ways to demonstrate how most video games strategically deploy and ultimately recuperate and straightwash queer possibilities.2015, Edmond Y. Chang, “Love Is in the Air: Queer (Im)Possibility and Straightwashing in FrontierVille and World of Warcraft”, in QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, volume 2, number 2, →DOI, pages...
   • While Undertales queer representational aspects have been straightwashed' by significant sectors of the game's reception, its LGBTQ characters and storylines have proven immensely meaningful for many of the game's queer players.2018, Bonnie Ruberg, “Straightwashing Undertale: Video games and the limits of LGBTQ representation”, in Transformative Works and Cultures, volume 28, 4.3, →DOI