The Sims is doing a pretty cool thing to break down gender barriers with a new update

This is brilliant.

EA Games are allowing users to customise the genders of their characters for the first time in the game's 16-year history. An update is now available which lifts previous restrictions on the clothing, hairstyles and other options which were originally segregated for male or female sims only. According to Maxis, the publisher of the game, more than 700 pieces of content previously only available to one gender will now be offered across the board for all sims across all its expansion packs. The studio it wanted to "make sure players can create characters they can identify with or relate to through powerful tools that give them influence over a Sims' gender, age, ethnicity, body type and more". Rachel Franklin, executive producer of The Sims, says the company has been working on the update for over a year with GLAAD, the LGBTQ advisory group in America. Same-sex marriages were introduced into the game in 2009, and this is another good step forward in representation for LGBTQ people in games, and popular culture as a whole. (via YouTube/TheSims)