Poll: Dead Island Statue Poll

[peruvianskys]

It exists entirely because it's a little inappropriate. That's why some people want it, because they find things that are a little inappropriate and shocking to be fun.

There's a huge difference between something being transgressive and shocking and something being just shitty. This falls into the latter category.

Because this community clearly has a tolerant and even accepting stance towards misogyny. It's not like outrages seem to be popping up every month over both legitimate and ridiculous issues. Nobody complained about Metroid's daddy issues in Other M, nobody had any problems with potential rape being used to inspire a desire to protect Lara Croft, everyone was fully supportive of the fetish nun assassins in Hitman: Absolution and nobody is having issues with a statue like this.

The fact that some people in our community (not even most, I'd say) fight against this kind of shit does not mean that somehow we're as a whole a bastion of equality and tolerance. Opposing sexism is not some virtuous act; it's the mark of being a decent human being.

And there obviously aren't any games at all that do feature good female characters. The vast majority of games clearly is totally misogynistic. People saying it's just a minority of games and gamers with those attitudes are obviously delusional.

A huge amount of video games are misogynistic, and those who refuse to admit it are delusional.

Seriously dude? What the hell kind of games are you playing?

Well, for starters, the ones that advertise themselves with intentionally sexualized depictions of violence against women.

What the hell kind of gamers are you associating with?

Well, for starters, the ones that don't seem to think it's a problem when games advertise themselves with intentionally sexualized depictions of violence against women.

Stop blowing this stuff out of proportion. There's a minority of games and gamers where misogyny features, but let's not start projecting it onto anything and everything and make it some sort of defining feature of gamer culture. That's just bullshit.

You're acting like the only ones in our community responsible for sexism and the exclusion of women are the frat boy douchebags who actively espouse hatred, fear, dislike, or contempt towards women - and while those people make up a depressingly large slice of our community, they definitely aren't the majority. The majority is, however, apparently too wrapped up in their own male privilege to care about those who trade in this kind of bullshit.

This is just a statue. That's it. Stop projecting your own delusional views of gamer culture onto it.

The very fact that a video game producer can take a woman's body, sever off literally every non-sexual part of her, drench her in blood, slap a giant set of tits on her, and then sell that product to male audiences while some people honestly claim that it's not misogynistic just shows how far we have to go as a community before we actual deal with the sexism all around us.

Anyway, we both obviously disagree, and I see no need for the back and forth. People can read our conversation and make their own conclusions about whether or not this statue expresses the fucked-up misogyny that our industry is far too willing to pander to.