Poll: Do Gamers Need Anita Sarkeesian's Feminism?

[McMarbles]

I've said it a million times, but growing up as a female with video games through the 80's and 90's and now, I've never been offended by a woman's portrayal in a video game.

I never cared about gender as a child. I was raised with the idea that gender/race/whatever never mattered, that a person's choices made them who they were. My parents let me come to my own conclusions and immersed me in everything.

All I cared about what the character's choices, be them male, female, alien, monster, whatever. It was never an issue for me, my parents never made it an issue.



Our issue shouldn't be with games. It should be with people's attitudes - people on both sides of this argument as well as those who refuse to get involved.

Once we stop making things an issue, they won't be an issue. Kids playing these games don't think of gender roles until they're taught to. And that's on the parents and society.

Yep. You heard it here. Problems go away if we just close our eyes, cover our ears, and pretend they're not problems. Historically, that has always solved everything.

 

[Atmos Duality]

she makes bank on it via ad-hits.

What ad-hits? She doesn't display ads on her webpage nor on her youtube account.

*checks*
Well, serves me right for not checking the official sites.
She still made bank on her kickstarter, with little of value to show for it.

I will amend my statement to reflect that detail.

 

[Depulcator]

Yeah, the gaming industry needs more accusatory, whiny people who offer no solutions to problems they point out, full on those thanks.

 

[LaoJim]

I think that in the last decade or so the ability to tell a story through a video game has increased rapidly and, while great strides have been made, we are still working out how to best fit a narrative into a game. I think looking at ways to improve how characters are perceived in games in important and female characters in particular have not traditional been written well in most video games. So I think the on-going discussion about feminism is worthwhile (when it's not descending into Ad Hominen attacks on Ms Sarkeesian). I believe that she raises some interesting points about the portrail of women in games.

Specifically that the Damsel in Distress trope is particularly lazy and the Euthanized Damsel is particularly troublesome which is not something I had really thought about before. That said I think that she is often wrong about video games (the Damsel in Distress trope is far less common as the main driving narrative in games than it once was) and she focuses excessively on the negative side, rather than trying to achieve any kind of balance.

The problems with her is that she is a very polarizing figure and at the moment it is difficult to have any kind of discussion about her arguments and style without encountering a lot of attacks on her personally.

 

[BlackJimmy]

I can't watch that video cause I'm at work, but what's the difference between her feminism and regular feminism?
Regular Feminism = Beliving women are equal to men, not angry man haters like TV likes to portray them?

 

[Schadrach]

Hm... That's an interesting point. I can't say I disagree with the distinction. It's certainly a subtle point. I suppose you could say there are "film lovers" and "book lovers" but that's not exactly the same thing. Especially since no one would ever accuse a movie lover of not loving movies because they like a different kind of movie or have different criteria for what makes a good movie. I wonder if the rise of "gamers" as a group has to do with the relative youth of the medium, the origins of the medium as "toy", or if it's just a quark of the medium. I also wonder if films and books went through this stage (or would have were they born in a more interconnected age)

Good point sir or madam! Lots of food for thought.

...and you'd best not question someone's self-identification as a "movie buff" just because they've only ever seen the Die Hard movies, or only ever watch slasher flicks. Let alone if they don't know who Lucas or Spielberg are.

See how silly that sounds?

"You've only seen slasher flicks! You're not a Real movie lover; you're a FAKE Movie lover!"

See how silly that sounds?

In my experience, I's say it's much more likely that if someone said "I've only watched slasher flicks" the other side would quickly start making recommendations of movies they love to broaden the others horizons rather then specifically exclude some people.

After all, at one point or another, we've all only played one or two games. The difference is in the reaction, not the substance.

...except in this case you have a multitude of people saying things like "I've seen *both* Die Hard movies, I'm *such* a film buff!" (they're of course referring to the fourth and fifth Die Hard movies) or "I'm such a slasher movie buff, I know everything about them! Who's Wes Craven?" I'd be willing to call anyone who uttered either of those to be a "fake film buff" in that there's a wild difference in what they're saying about themselves and the truth.

Yes, at some point we'd all only played a couple of games. At the same time, there's a difference between someone genuinely interested and trying to engage with the community and someone who is only interested to the minimum degree necessary to look the part because it's currently trendy. One of those things is not like the other.