My viewpoint of "A Game of You" is shaped by Gaiman's unpleasant portrayal of Hazel in that story, with the shocking -- and frankly, entirely implausible -- naivety of her pregnancy. It seems to me like Gaiman was trying to create a dichotomy between Hazel and Wanda in this story: the irony that Wanda, whom George reminds is not a 'real' woman, understands more and is less naive about being a woman than Hazel, for whom the realities of biological womanhood are unknown territory.
In the context of their time, Gaiman's presentation of queer and trans characters had more impact than it does now, simply because he includes such characters without making their queerness/transness central to the plot, and doesn't openly vilify them. On the other hand, there's a subtler tendency to make those characters both peripheral (Wanda's death is almost incidental to "A Game of You" -- it's indirectly Thessaly's fault, but its direct impact on the central plot is limited) and somewhat pathetic or pitiable.
I would make the comparison to Eddie "Rochester" Anderson on the Jack Benny show (from around 1937 until the early 1960s). Rochester was a groundbreaking black character in some ways (he got a lot of good lines, and he frequently was given some withering zingers at Benny's expense), but he was still in a fundamentally servile role -- Benny's butler/valet/chauffeur -- and in an expressly inferior position to the other characters (whom he always addressed as "Mister" or "Miss"). The show occasionally (especially before the war) had some fun with period racial stereotypes, but never really challenged them. It was edgy enough in its time to earn a certain amount of controversy, but to modern eyes/ears, much of it still seems reactionary.
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In the context of their time, Gaiman's presentation of queer and trans characters had more impact than it does now, simply because he includes such characters without making their queerness/transness central to the plot, and doesn't openly vilify them. On the other hand, there's a subtler tendency to make those characters both peripheral (Wanda's death is almost incidental to "A Game of You" -- it's indirectly Thessaly's fault, but its direct impact on the central plot is limited) and somewhat pathetic or pitiable.
I would make the comparison to Eddie "Rochester" Anderson on the Jack Benny show (from around 1937 until the early 1960s). Rochester was a groundbreaking black character in some ways (he got a lot of good lines, and he frequently was given some withering zingers at Benny's expense), but he was still in a fundamentally servile role -- Benny's butler/valet/chauffeur -- and in an expressly inferior position to the other characters (whom he always addressed as "Mister" or "Miss"). The show occasionally (especially before the war) had some fun with period racial stereotypes, but never really challenged them. It was edgy enough in its time to earn a certain amount of controversy, but to modern eyes/ears, much of it still seems reactionary.