Somebody with a chip on their shoulder or an agenda to perpetuate the narrative that "media is always sexist" can find sexism literally anywhere. "Look, and ye shall surely find", or whatever the old adage is.
----------------- Females in Games, According to the Whiners ---------------------------------
Representation
No women in a game: What a complete sausage fest, thanks for ignoring 50% of the world's population.[footnote]Call of Duty, FIFA[/footnote]
A few women: Patronising tokenism.[footnote]Streetfighter II, Golden Axe, just about every game ever made[/footnote]
"Too many" women: Ugh, clearly a male fantasy. These women are just interchangeable eye-candy, like some virtual harem![footnote]Dead or Alive[/footnote]
Exclusively women: PORN! PORN! Obviously porn![footnote]DOA Beach Volleyball, Skullgirls, at least prior to the "devs are wimminz" revelation which made most people do a 180 on their opinion[/footnote] (or alternatively) Patronising "Games for Girls" shit. This is the gaming equivalent of being made to sit at the back of the bus.[footnote]Cooking Mama, Nintendo DS Fairy Princess Horse Simulator 4, you know the kind of thing[/footnote]
Appearance
Attractive females: This is just male wank fantasy. Thanks for defining a woman's worth as a person by her appearance, jerks.[footnote]Dead or Alive, Soul Calibur, WoW[/footnote]
Average females: That's not very empowering. You think women should be the drab pea-hens to the strutting male peacocks, eh? Conservatively image-policing us in games now, eh? When will the oppression stop!
Unattractive females: Your cruel depiction of this one ugly/old/fat woman is clearly a slur on ALL women! Boo! Hiss![footnote]Fat Princess[/footnote]
Abilities
Equal to men: This doesn't reflect femininity or womanliness in any way. Stop trying to ignore female attributes and portraying maleness as the norm![footnote]WoW, Ms Pac Man, anything where the female is a re-skinned male default avatar[/footnote]
Different to men: Clear sexism! Difference is by definition disparity! You're valuing maleness over femaleness![footnote]Skyrim[/footnote]
Role in the game
Love interest: Great, so we're still relegated to being a "prize" or "reward" for the heroic male to inevitably "claim". Pass me the bucket, I'm about to vomit.
Has been kidnapped: Damsel in distress, eh? This implies all women are helpless and define themselves by their need for male help. Sexist.[footnote]Mario[/footnote]
Sidekick: Yet another reminder that males are superior and women are glorified mother/girlfriend surrogates.[footnote]Resident Evil 5, Halo[/footnote]
Optional lead role: The box art still has a man on it, so it's still demeaning and sidelining![footnote]Mass Effect[/footnote]
Lead role: Hmm, now we're getting somewhere. But if this lead is presented in an overly sexy way[footnote]Bayonetta[/footnote], conforms to any stereotypes (even for the sake of playing on and sending up those stereotypes)[footnote]Chainsaw Lolipop[/footnote] or includes anything I consider distasteful[footnote]Tomb Raider[/footnote] then I'll still call it out as sexist.
OK, this is going to be an unorthodox way of making my point, but bear with me. This here is one of the best displays of sex equality I've ever seen:
Basically, it's a girl-vs-boy rap battle, complete with all the lowbrow smack-talk and insults that entails.[footnote]The same guy later gets ruined in a rap battle with his English teacher - http://youtu.be/tp4wEewrQdU[/footnote] The whole schtick here is that she constantly belittles his masculinity while he belittles her femininity. No pretence of political correctness, no pretending that "we're all the same, sex is just a physical variation", this is straight-up "different but equal" set within an acknowledgement, not a denial, of established gender roles and societal norms.
Basically, no man wants to be called "a woman" but very few women would take genuine pride in being called "manly" either. There is difference between the sexes and I think that should be recognised and even celebrated, and the conclusion needn't necessarily be that X is better than Y or vice-versa.
----------------- Females in Games, According to the Whiners ---------------------------------
Representation
No women in a game: What a complete sausage fest, thanks for ignoring 50% of the world's population.[footnote]Call of Duty, FIFA[/footnote]
A few women: Patronising tokenism.[footnote]Streetfighter II, Golden Axe, just about every game ever made[/footnote]
"Too many" women: Ugh, clearly a male fantasy. These women are just interchangeable eye-candy, like some virtual harem![footnote]Dead or Alive[/footnote]
Exclusively women: PORN! PORN! Obviously porn![footnote]DOA Beach Volleyball, Skullgirls, at least prior to the "devs are wimminz" revelation which made most people do a 180 on their opinion[/footnote] (or alternatively) Patronising "Games for Girls" shit. This is the gaming equivalent of being made to sit at the back of the bus.[footnote]Cooking Mama, Nintendo DS Fairy Princess Horse Simulator 4, you know the kind of thing[/footnote]
Appearance
Attractive females: This is just male wank fantasy. Thanks for defining a woman's worth as a person by her appearance, jerks.[footnote]Dead or Alive, Soul Calibur, WoW[/footnote]
Average females: That's not very empowering. You think women should be the drab pea-hens to the strutting male peacocks, eh? Conservatively image-policing us in games now, eh? When will the oppression stop!
Unattractive females: Your cruel depiction of this one ugly/old/fat woman is clearly a slur on ALL women! Boo! Hiss![footnote]Fat Princess[/footnote]
Abilities
Equal to men: This doesn't reflect femininity or womanliness in any way. Stop trying to ignore female attributes and portraying maleness as the norm![footnote]WoW, Ms Pac Man, anything where the female is a re-skinned male default avatar[/footnote]
Different to men: Clear sexism! Difference is by definition disparity! You're valuing maleness over femaleness![footnote]Skyrim[/footnote]
Role in the game
Love interest: Great, so we're still relegated to being a "prize" or "reward" for the heroic male to inevitably "claim". Pass me the bucket, I'm about to vomit.
Has been kidnapped: Damsel in distress, eh? This implies all women are helpless and define themselves by their need for male help. Sexist.[footnote]Mario[/footnote]
Sidekick: Yet another reminder that males are superior and women are glorified mother/girlfriend surrogates.[footnote]Resident Evil 5, Halo[/footnote]
Optional lead role: The box art still has a man on it, so it's still demeaning and sidelining![footnote]Mass Effect[/footnote]
Lead role: Hmm, now we're getting somewhere. But if this lead is presented in an overly sexy way[footnote]Bayonetta[/footnote], conforms to any stereotypes (even for the sake of playing on and sending up those stereotypes)[footnote]Chainsaw Lolipop[/footnote] or includes anything I consider distasteful[footnote]Tomb Raider[/footnote] then I'll still call it out as sexist.
I'm not sure that's true, or at least not true all (or even most) of the time. Sex is a binary and we tend to define one gender by its dissimilarity to the other.GunsmithKitten said:
OK, this is going to be an unorthodox way of making my point, but bear with me. This here is one of the best displays of sex equality I've ever seen:
Basically, it's a girl-vs-boy rap battle, complete with all the lowbrow smack-talk and insults that entails.[footnote]The same guy later gets ruined in a rap battle with his English teacher - http://youtu.be/tp4wEewrQdU[/footnote] The whole schtick here is that she constantly belittles his masculinity while he belittles her femininity. No pretence of political correctness, no pretending that "we're all the same, sex is just a physical variation", this is straight-up "different but equal" set within an acknowledgement, not a denial, of established gender roles and societal norms.
Basically, no man wants to be called "a woman" but very few women would take genuine pride in being called "manly" either. There is difference between the sexes and I think that should be recognised and even celebrated, and the conclusion needn't necessarily be that X is better than Y or vice-versa.
