Sexism in Video Games

[Coito ergo sum]

[SteveB]

Aww you're moving forward to another obsession. You have me to thank for that. At least she's a prettier bespectacled gender feminist.

[Coito ergo sum]

Aww you're moving forward to another obsession. You have me to thank for that. At least she's a prettier bespectacled gender feminist.

Just like you to judge her by her looks. Sexist bastard!

[SteveB]

Whoa trigger warning your judgment, dudebro!

Trigger Warning!!!1! :

How dare you judge me for judging her looks. I feel oppressed.

[Coito ergo sum]

Whoa trigger warning your judgment, dudebro!

Trigger Warning!!!1! :

How dare you judge me for judging her looks. I feel oppressed.

You are a member of the patriarchy and you are privileged. Therefore, you cannot be unfairly oppressed. Please try to keep up.

[Coito ergo sum]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpFk5F-S ... ature=fvwp[/youtube]

[Coito ergo sum]

[Jason]

No strong female characters in Video Games? Are they retarded?

[Coito ergo sum]

No strong female characters in Video Games? Are they retarded?

You heard Sarkeesian, even if there are strong female characters in video games, they are just masquerading as men, so they're not really feminist characters. I think Sarkeesian wants to rewrite Donkey Kong so that Mario approaches Kong, and offers him various compromises and negotiated settlements to obtain the release of the "damsel in distress..." Well, and it would be the damsel that is the player's character, and Mario would be hog tied and waiting to be rescued. And, Kong would ask permission before throwing any barrels, because it would be an assault and violence against women if Kong threw a barrel without consent.

[Audley Strange]

No strong female characters in Video Games? Are they retarded?

Yes.

[charlou]

It's an interesting thing to ponder, the preponderance of male characters, particularly main protagonists, in just about any area of entertainment I can think of. Though I've noticed it and been aware of it for most of my life, it doesn't bother me .. and I don't think it's wrong that I'm not bothered by it ... though some have referred to me as a female chauvenist pig for not taking a Feminist stance on it, whatever the fuck that is these days. I'm not a lightweight in the thinking department .. fully aware of even the most nuanced aspects of culture that contribute to the Why of the situation .. as it has been, as it is ...

I watched the Swedish film version of Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo the other day. Good stuff.

[Audley Strange]

I wrote some nonsense...

http://strange-communications.blogspot.co.uk

There are a few figures in games that make "Icon" Status. A stereotype of an italian plumber and his antagonist a Giant Ape. A drug addled yellow smiley face that is haunted by ghosts in an endless neon blue and black maze. There is a hedgehog with fancy shoes. There is a white haired demon hunter remade recently to consternation, some bald demi-god of insane violence, there is a cast of dumb mercenaries and special operatives fighting and working for corporations fucking around with genetic weaponry and there is Lara Croft.

Was she just a pair of tits in a tight top with a couple of guns? Probably. But wait, she was an archaeologist like Indy, not just a dumb bimbo with a degree in communications and the ego of Stalin, so she had that going for her as well. Smart and sexy. A 3rd Wave Neo-Deconstructionist Post Modern feminist's worst nightmare. "Oh yeah but it's a male fantasy figure." The same was claimed about Barbie, but I don't ever recall any boy I knew actively playing with them, only girls. Instead every boy girl, young woman and man I knew loved Tomb Raider, I recall coming home one evening to find my good lady had spent ages working on a particularly complex puzzle in I think St Francis Folly. As I sat down exhausted and watched as she completed it and got to an area we'd never been before. I wasn't thinking, "excellent, this fresh wench has made we want to keep women in iron boxes!" I marvelled at the revelation (I seem to recall Lara making some comment, but I might be wrong) and watched the game and plot unfold.

The truth is that if you analyse anything with a strongly held a priori assumption, you will find evidence of it, it is known as confirmation bias, apophenia, it conspiracy theoretics.

Lara Croft set the way for Nathan Drake (not the other way around, Nerds!) and for the likes of Ezio Auditore, neither of whom are as Iconic as she is. She is a game character who is not an obvious exaggeration of form or stereotype and is loved by men and women everywhere. Certainly there is a trashy cartoony element to it, these are games after all they are not Ken Loach remaking Ibsen's "The Dolls House" on a overflow estate in Sheffield. Taking that aside though, until lately has there ever even been any male character in games who has reached such iconic status (obviously not Batman, everyone wants to be that damaged lunatic for some reason) who isn't a joke? Duke Nukem? Hardly. All those guys from all those FPS's? Do they even have names? Hmm could I point out about sexism blindness due to confirmation bias and the hypocrisy thereof ? Most of our male game warriors may have names, barely, but are essentially an array of violent faceless bullet sponges are they not?

[Audley Strange]

I wrote some nonsense...

http://strange-communications.blogspot.co.uk

There are a few figures in games that make "Icon" Status. A stereotype of an italian plumber and his antagonist a Giant Ape. A drug addled yellow smiley face that is haunted by ghosts in an endless neon blue and black maze. There is a hedgehog with fancy shoes. There is a white haired demon hunter remade recently to consternation, some bald demi-god of insane violence, there is a cast of dumb mercenaries and special operatives fighting and working for corporations fucking around with genetic weaponry and there is Lara Croft.

Was she just a pair of tits in a tight top with a couple of guns? Probably. But wait, she was an archaeologist like Indy, not just a dumb bimbo with a degree in communications and the ego of Stalin, so she had that going for her as well. Smart and sexy. A 3rd Wave Neo-Deconstructionist Post Modern feminist's worst nightmare. "Oh yeah but it's a male fantasy figure." The same was claimed about Barbie, but I don't ever recall any boy I knew actively playing with them, only girls. Instead every boy girl, young woman and man I knew loved Tomb Raider, I recall coming home one evening to find my good lady had spent ages working on a particularly complex puzzle in I think St Francis Folly. As I sat down exhausted and watched as she completed it and got to an area we'd never been before. I wasn't thinking, "excellent, this fresh wench has made we want to keep women in iron boxes!" I marvelled at the revelation (I seem to recall Lara making some comment, but I might be wrong) and watched the game and plot unfold.

The truth is that if you analyse anything with a strongly held a priori assumption, you will find evidence of it, it is known as confirmation bias, apophenia, it conspiracy theoretics.

Lara Croft set the way for Nathan Drake (not the other way around, Nerds!) and for the likes of Ezio Auditore, neither of whom are as Iconic as she is. She is a game character who is not an obvious exaggeration of form or stereotype and is loved by men and women everywhere. Certainly there is a trashy cartoony element to it, these are games after all they are not Ken Loach remaking Ibsen's "The Dolls House" on a overflow estate in Sheffield. Taking that aside though, until lately has there ever even been any male character in games who has reached such iconic status (obviously not Batman, everyone wants to be that damaged lunatic for some reason) who isn't a joke? Duke Nukem? Hardly. All those guys from all those FPS's? Do they even have names? Hmm could I point out about sexism blindness due to confirmation bias and the hypocrisy thereof ? Most of our male game warriors may have names, barely, but are essentially an array of violent faceless bullet sponges are they not?

[charlou]

Aye.

[Coito ergo sum]