Dead Island Torso Statue: Misogynistic? Stupid? Both? Neither?

[00slash00]

misogynistic? not really. sexist, i would say so. i dont think its promoting violence against women but it is dehumanizing the female body into a sexual object, much like what many ads in fashion magazines do

 

[Doom972]

Just seems stupid to me. If people are looking to get offended by it, might as well get offended by this poor excuse to buy this awful game.

 

[Vigormortis]

I agree it looks like it has breast implants. It looks too unnatural

I know the irony complaining about silicone in a torso statue.

That was actually my first thought, sadly. Couldn't help but think, "Dear God those things look like someone modeled them after the fakest breasts I've ever seen."

Scares me a little that that popped into my head first.

That is just downright disgraceful.

That is the most disturbing thing i've ever seen.

I mean, what woman in her right mind would wear a Union Jack bikini?

I know us English folk usually feel like tits but come on.

And it scares me a little more that this was essentially my very next thought.

Da hell's wrong with me?

 

[Ryan Minns]

I started up Fallout 3 the other day and in it I blew the head off the first raider I found. I than walked upto her corpse shooting both legs off leaving just her bloodied and somewhat revealed torso... here I thought I was bored and wanted to do something random but now I know I'm a misogynistic asshole

 

[Rawne1980]

Da hell's wrong with me?

I'm afraid you have a very serious case of a sense of humour.

It is a very dire illness not tolerated on these boards by the more serious types who take offense whenever you have an attack of the funny.

There is no cure.

The only thing you can do is join the rest if of us poorly folk and giggle at the pointless things people fly into a rage over.

 

[Vigormortis]

Da hell's wrong with me?

I'm afraid you have a very serious case of a sense of humour.

It is a very dire illness not tolerated on these boards by the more serious types who take offense whenever you have an attack of the funny.

There is no cure.

The only thing you can do is join the rest if of us poorly folk and giggle at the pointless things people fly into a rage over.

No cure? Dear lord, tell me there's at least a treatment? Some pill regimen I can start on. Perhaps a medicated patch or weekly injection? Something. Anything!

I'd hate to be labeled as a "leper" around here.

[sub]though, with some of the opinions I hold, it may be too late already.[/sub]

 

[wulf3n]

A bit off topic but...

A statuette of a woman?s bikinied torso, with her head, arms and legs crudely severed.

uhhh, how do they know the legs are severed? they're below the bottom of the statue!

 

[Rawne1980]

No cure? Dear lord, tell me there's at least a treatment? Some pill regimen I can start on. Perhaps a medicated patch or weekly injection? Something. Anything!

I'd hate to be labeled as a "leper" around here.

[sub]though, with some of the opinions I hold, it may be too late already.[/sub]

I suppose a daily dose of The Only Way is Essex or Jersey Shore will be enough to block any oncoming attacks of humour you may feel building up.

The only other way is to surrender to it, give in to the funny side.

Find an incredibly serious thread, preferably one on sexism, gun control or any random gender wars thread that pops up and stick humorous comments in them.

People won't get that it's supposed to be a funny and take it seriously. Usually this results in even more hilarity and should keep you going for at least a few hours.

 

[Vigormortis]

I suppose a daily dose of The Only Way is Essex or Jersey Shore will be enough to block any oncoming attacks of humour you may feel building up.

The only other way is to surrender to it, give in to the funny side.

Find an incredibly serious thread, preferably one on sexism, gun control or any random gender wars thread that pops up and stick humorous comments in them.

People won't get that it's supposed to be a funny and take it seriously. Usually this results in even more hilarity and should keep you going for at least a few hours.

Oh hell....the only treatment involves watching brain-numbing drivel like Jersey Shore?

Fuck that. I'll have none of it.

So here's me embracing my illness. Better crack out the haz-mat suits my fellow Escapists, lest you catch "The Silly".

 

[BloatedGuppy]

...attack of the funny...

...giggle...

...oncoming attacks of humour...

...give in to the funny side...

... even more hilarity...

Dude...calm down. You are trying WAY too hard with this jocularity routine. It's starting to freak me out a little bit. It's like watching the Big Ear Family sketch on the Simpsons. It's cool that you want to be funny, and you got off to a good start with your Union Jack crack, but you need to end it there. You drop a good deadpan joke, and then you leave. You don't hang around for 10 hours prodding the audience and going on and on and on about how hilarious you are. It's more cringe inducing than the statue.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

That's a major cop out. "No, because I say so."

What did I say would happen? I said you'd sneer at anything I had to say. Your response is to sneer at an EXTREME point form response. No "elaborate on that", no "I disagree because X, Y and Z", just straight up "You're wrong!", with the ever popular "cop out" rebuttal. Dude, I could present you with a 50 page THESIS signed by leading scientific minds, and you would call me wrong. This was the whole point of my "we're not going to agree on this issue, why bother discussing it" entreaty. Which I am now repeating for a 2nd time.

You think I am wrong, and silly. I think you are wrong, and silly. I don't see us reaching common cause through discussion. We have discussed similar issues before at length, and barely avoided getting infractions by the end of it. Let's learn from history, shall we?

 

[Jenvas1306]

Its a twist on imaginery from classic slasher movies and beach/island stuff. it jst comes down to something that has oversexualized aspects to it, combined with gore. I think it just fits quite well and a male torso couldnt hit the spot like that, also as there is no swimwear for the upperbody of males. taking away the bikini-top would ruin it the same way.
thats my opinion and I really like to rant about unfitting oversexualisation.
Its just another case of aiming for straight guys as target group, girls in bikinis are probably something a beach/island paradise brings to mind. here they twist that connection, just as its a twisted paradise.

I can see how I can be offending though and a different choice would have gone around this, cause, undenyable, it is only a female torso, only tits and waist...
A head could have changed that, a bit...

 

[maninahat]

The game designers didn't factor female gamers into consideration when designing either game, and were only interested in serving the majority at the expense of everyone else.

Welcome to Business Marketing 401.

I'm well aware of the financial reasons to do it, but that doesn't make it okay. The industry has been gradually trying to distance itself from sexual advertising, and attempting to show a greater awareness of the increasing number of female gamers. "Sex sells" is still a predominant marketing trick, but there is a trend to see overt, gratuitous sex as tacky and dated. The Lynx/Axe deodorant adverts, for instance, feel very 90s.

It does make it okay because they're a business. They're not here to make everyone happy. It's in their best interest to stand out and appeal to their majority audience because that's how the system works. Dead Island had a small fanbase and was mediocre at best, but popular enough to warrant a sequel, so they had to do something to garner attention, and you're more than doing their job for them. Even if they don't ship it with the torso, they've all the free press from the internet they need.

I'm all for the decline of sexism and the greater appeal to female gamers. I like how female characters are being de-sexualized and the industry is generally becoming less sexist.

But I don't see how this figurine is sexist, I really truly don't. It's not sexually appealing in any logical manner and I think people are over-blowing the whole 'violence against women' thing, because the game's content features all kinds of folks getting fucking butchered.

It's what violence is.

Well it's about time everyone made an "any publicity is good publicity" argument. It ain't true, otherwise Jim'll Fix It DVD sales would be going through the roof right now. I don't know if they foresaw a controversy and aimed to create one for publicity sake, but it's only going to backfire now that members of the public are going to be discouraged from buying it by their disgusted, complaining peers. If they weren't aiming for controversy, it demonstrates an advertising department that's out of touch with shifting video game sexual politics.

 

[Sansha]

The game designers didn't factor female gamers into consideration when designing either game, and were only interested in serving the majority at the expense of everyone else.

Welcome to Business Marketing 401.

I'm well aware of the financial reasons to do it, but that doesn't make it okay. The industry has been gradually trying to distance itself from sexual advertising, and attempting to show a greater awareness of the increasing number of female gamers. "Sex sells" is still a predominant marketing trick, but there is a trend to see overt, gratuitous sex as tacky and dated. The Lynx/Axe deodorant adverts, for instance, feel very 90s.

It does make it okay because they're a business. They're not here to make everyone happy. It's in their best interest to stand out and appeal to their majority audience because that's how the system works. Dead Island had a small fanbase and was mediocre at best, but popular enough to warrant a sequel, so they had to do something to garner attention, and you're more than doing their job for them. Even if they don't ship it with the torso, they've all the free press from the internet they need.

I'm all for the decline of sexism and the greater appeal to female gamers. I like how female characters are being de-sexualized and the industry is generally becoming less sexist.

But I don't see how this figurine is sexist, I really truly don't. It's not sexually appealing in any logical manner and I think people are over-blowing the whole 'violence against women' thing, because the game's content features all kinds of folks getting fucking butchered.

It's what violence is.

Well it's about time everyone made an "any publicity is good publicity" argument. It ain't true, otherwise Jim'll Fix It DVD sales would be going through the roof right now. I don't know if they foresaw a controversy and aimed to create one for publicity sake, but it's only going to backfire now that members of the public are going to be discouraged from buying it by their disgusted, complaining peers. If they weren't aiming for controversy, it demonstrates an advertising department that's out of touch with shifting video game sexual politics.

I've never, in my entire life, been discouraged from handing somebody some money because my 'peers' are disgusted and/or complaining. If such a thing were true, pornography wouldn't be a billion-dollar market. I don't let other people's opinions sway my own or my decisions, because what other people think shouldn't factor in to what you do with your time and money.
I think they were deliberately aiming for controversy. I'd not have even known there was a Dead Island sequel, so +1 for marketing. I won't buy it because I think the game is crap, but if I were a Dead Island fan I'd be getting an import of this for absolutely sure.

And I still haven't a clue how this could possibly be construed as sexual. Because tits? Come the fuck on. Like I said I'm all for the decline of sexism in games but that doesn't mean you have a point every time you jump around like a chimp when there's a pair of delicious titties bouncing around.

Unless there's something about the way you look at it that you'd like to admit. We're all friends here.

 

[Kargathia]

Honestly, this whole thing is stupid beyond belief, tacky as hell, and calls into doubt any semblance of good taste and/or sensibility on the part of whomever created it.

... I want one.

 

[Comocat]

For me it suggests that Deep Silver is more interested in producing high quality gimmicks than they are high quality games. For example, they produced a trailer of exceptional quality for the first game that had almost no relation to the actual game. Now for the 2nd installment they release a statue that seemingly only has merit in being controversial, or is helpful in telling someone to not go into the owner's basement alone. I think that statue is stupid but it also says to me that this company would rather trick customers into knowing about their product, than spending money on producing a high quality product. Basically this whole debacle tells me to pass on dead island on release, and let the early adopters get the word out.

 

[anthony87]

Da hell's wrong with me?

I'm afraid you have a very serious case of a sense of humour.

It is a very dire illness not tolerated on these boards by the more serious types who take offense whenever you have an attack of the funny.

There is no cure.

The only thing you can do is join the rest if of us poorly folk and giggle at the pointless things people fly into a rage over.

Oh! OH!

Can I join in? I'm afraid I don't have the personality type to fly into an offended rage over every stupid little thing.

 

[fwiffo]

This is just horror collectable crap, as others have said.

We all want other mediums to "take us seriously", but if we have to tiptoe around everything, it'll do more harm than good.