Feminism Thread

**Xajii** · 2014-10-20 12:08

Originally Posted by NynJa

Im part of that because i think anita is an attention starved whore who has been proven to fabricate bullshit to keep the pity party spotlight on her?

y....yes?

**archibaldcrane** · 2014-10-20 13:21

So have we all agreed now that gamergate is not solely about journalistic "ethics" and that it is also about journalist criticism of games in regards to feminist / LGBT issues?

**Penthesilea** · 2014-10-20 13:38

Disclaimer: I play 1 video game these days (League of Legends) and don't read magazines or keep up with video game news.

When looking at sexism in video games,is it really something that is so prevalent and so pervasive that it warrants bad youtube videos/academic research?

If her videos were about how women in the industry are treated rather than something as trivial as poor writing/content, I'd be more inclined to listen to her. Just watching Women as Background Decoration 2, she uses her "drop dead gorgeous" trope to suggest that men are deriving pleasure from viewing a dead body. I'm sure these games' advertisements are fueling all of the worlds necrophiliacs and converting "straight males" as well... I feel like her approach is really insulting and suggesting that no male can separate bad writing, fact from fiction, or just realize that video games are not reality. I feel like her approach borders the whole violence in video games causes school shootings and suggests that sexualized characters, male or female, leads to rape and mistreatment of women.

**Correction** · 2014-10-20 13:53

It is a bit of a leap to go from 'there are tropes presenting women's corpses as sexy objects' to a direct conclusion on how media is socialized and normalizes perceptions on gender. It's valid to say that Sarkeesian makes this leap without a lot of corroborating background on human psychology and mass media culture. But that doesn't really make the trope any less a cause for concern.

**archibaldcrane** · 2014-10-20 14:11

Sexism in videogames is plenty prevalent, but Anita isn't the person feminists like myself want to be the go to voice on the issue. Her arguments and examples simply leave too many holes for experienced gamers to pick apart.

**Kuya** · 2014-10-20 14:16

Unfortunately, while even those who support feminism disagree with Anita's analysis, the anti-feminist screeching has catapulted her into the limelight. To the chagrin of many. Despite all that, I agree with the general intent of Anita's work: there should be more inclusivity in games. Whether it be more well written LGBT characters, or more varied female characters.

**Charismatic** · 2014-10-20 14:19

Originally Posted by Kuya

Unfortunately, while even those who support feminism disagree with Anita's analysis, the anti-feminist screeching has catapulted her into the limelight. To the chagrin of many. Despite all that, I agree with the general intent of Anita's work: there should be more inclusivity in games. Whether it be more well written LGBT characters, or more varied female characters.

Tell more women to buy actual games then son.
Get them off Farmville and on Dragon's Dogma, yo.

**Xajii** · 2014-10-20 14:20

I'd definitely like to see someone take a more careful and better researched approach to the topic, because as it stands, her myriad misrepresentations, willful ignroance, and faux psychological stretching do as much discredit tot he cause as the existence of the videos do it credit.

**Mazmaz** · 2014-10-20 14:23

Can you cite a specific example or two? I'm wondering why I haven't noticed these things about her videos.

**Kuya** · 2014-10-20 14:24

Originally Posted by Charismatic

Tell more women to buy actual games then son.
Get them off Farmville and on Dragon's Dogma, yo.

It's already happening though. Bayonetta and Tom Raider (new one), to me, are good examples of female representation in video games. Meanwhile, increasingly, more videogames are allowing you to see and choose LGBT characters, like Mass Effect for example. So we are progressing. Developers just need to be encouraged to follow these examples.

**Charismatic** · 2014-10-20 14:33

Originally Posted by Kuya

Bayonetta

Bless Japan. I love that they tend to create stronger female characters while simultaneously not giving a shit about feminism.
Glorious Nippon.

**Xajii** · 2014-10-20 14:35

Originally Posted by Mazmaz

Can you cite a specific example or two? I'm wondering why I haven't noticed these things about her videos.

Hitman is a game about killing people, which she used to say that the game rewards you for killing women. That is a conscious misrepresentation of facts to send a hamfisted message.

She willfully ignored the 12+ games in which Peach is a playable character to assert that Peach is an object in the gaming world, and when called out on it, said they don't have as much importance and are basically irrelevant, despite the fact that they sell better than the actual Mario games. (SPP, SSB, MK, Mario Tennis, Mario Party, Mario Golf, etc.)

She also grossly misrepresented the core of Zelda as a character in the damsel in distress episode, where she reduced the Goddess of Wisdom and leader of Hyrule to an object and a "goal in the male main character's plot", which is ridiculous.

These are just a few very basic examples. Anita defines the problem first then looks to morph popular games and their characters to fit her narrative instead of finding the actual issues and relating them back afterward, which is silly, because there ARE plenty of issues.

**Kuya** · 2014-10-20 14:39

Originally Posted by Charismatic

Bless Japan. I love that they tend to create stronger female characters while simultaneously not giving a shit about feminism.
Glorious Nippon.

You certainly don't need to be a feminist to make games that feminists might like.

**Charismatic** · 2014-10-20 14:48

Yep. I just said that.

**Kuya** · 2014-10-20 14:51

I was agreeing with you.

**Charismatic** · 2014-10-20 14:51

Sorry, not used to that.

**Penthesilea** · 2014-10-20 15:11

In critiquing Watchdogs she describes how there's no way to call EMT, police, check in on the characters after an assault. Does she really think people want to do real life bullshit in video games? Let's just sit here and talk with a cop and fill out police reports instead of going vigilante and exacting retribution.

I get a lot of her examples, but a lot of times she'll follow one up with face palm worthy statements.

**Meresgi** · 2014-10-20 15:45

Originally Posted by Mazmaz

Can you cite a specific example or two? I'm wondering why I haven't noticed these things about her videos.

http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...38/003/150.jpg

**archibaldcrane** · 2014-10-20 15:50

Originally Posted by Mazmaz

Can you cite a specific example or two? I'm wondering why I haven't noticed these things about her videos.

Shit like Princess Peach always needing rescue and not being playable and empowered made me immediately think that not only is she playable in that obscure title "Super Mario Bros 2" but she's the best of the 4 characters.

edit: very beaten

**Salodin** · 2014-10-20 17:02

Mazmaz safefacing in 3, 2, 1...

Thread: Feminism Thread

Thread Tools

Latest Threads

Up & Coming Threads

Hottest Threads