Should I be offended?

[Burnouts3s3]

Well, I might as well ask. I'm Asian. (Second Generation Thai, if you must know).

And personally, I've never been offended or felt left out when I'm watching a movie or playing a video game or watching TV, and the protagonist or cast isn't my particular race/skin/whatever. I mean people complain about how Asians are reduced to token characters or sidekicks, I've never minded. Just the fact that I do see Asians in the background is already a big plus for me.

And I understand why movie studios/tv execs/game developers and publishers choose not to have an Asian lead; they clearly want to sell more money and learned that Caucasian leads tend to earn more. Alright, whatever. If you want to have Bigby Wolf on the cover of your game, I don't mind at all. "Nothing personal, it's just business." Is it good for society? Not really. Do corporations care way more about money and profit margins and safer bets than my feelings? Sure; I don't hold it against them.

I'm more against the idea (strawman) that I can 'only' relate to other Asians, that I can only like things with an Asian protagonist. To me, that's very limiting. At that rate, I can like Kung Fu movies, martial art films or Jade Empire. (Don't get me wrong; I LOVE Jade Empire.) I've related to other fictional characters in the past. I can relate to Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Kamala Khan, Peter Parker, Virgil Hawkins, Marco Del Rossi and others. To me, a good character isn't one who looks like me, but one I can empathize with, one I can relate to.

Am I wrong for thinking this? Should I be offended? Am I speaking from a place of privilege? Should I be demanding more from mass media? Or is this just comparing apples to oranges?

 

[VanQ]

No, you shouldn't feel the need to be offended if you aren't. The people that do get offended because of the reason you listed, especially people who claim they can't identify with someone that isn't of their own race or gender are deeply disturbed. Nothing stopped me from identifying with Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, nothing stops me from playing and self inserting into the female protagonist in Pokemon or Fire Emblem. I've played black women in Elder Scrolls, I've watched dozens of Japanese TV shows with female leads, I've been a wizard AND I've been a witch.

And if nothing is stopping you, don't let sexist and racist ideologues convince you that you should be offended. I actually have a far harder time identifying as Nathan Drake or Marcus Fenix than any female lead I've ever played. We're talking about fictional media and art here. Art and media that is meant to be enjoyed, to entice you, to scare you, to deliver you into a world that isn't your own. If you can't suspend your disbelief and enjoy fantasy for what it is: fantasy, then it's your loss.

OP, you are not wrong for thinking the way you do. Yours is a healthy outlook on media. There's nothing wrong with looking at media with a critical eye or wanting more from your media, that's called having standards and everyone has them. Just don't fall into the trap of letting race and gender being deciding factors for your enjoyment of something. Because that's precisely what racism and sexism are.

 

[Fappy]

Most of us want more *insert race/gender/etc. here* because we want more variety. That's really it.

Also, the issue of representation is a lot more important in media targeting children, imo. I think it's import for kids to see fictional heroes they can easily identify with.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

I don't think you need to be offended. But ...

I'm more against the idea (strawman) that I can 'only' relate to other Asians, that I can only like things with an Asian protagonist. To me, that's very limiting. At that rate, I can like Kung Fu movies, martial art films or Jade Empire. (Don't get me wrong; I LOVE Jade Empire.) I've related to other fictional characters in the past. I can relate to Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Kamala Khan, Peter Parker, Virgil Hawkins, Marco Del Rossi and others. To me, a good character isn't one who looks like me, but one I can empathize with, one I can relate to.

You say that, and it's true to a certain extent. However, people do often tend to relate to their own gender and race, as you said earlier...

And I understand why movie studios/tv execs/game developers and publishers choose not to have an Asian lead; they clearly want to sell more money and learned that Caucasian leads tend to earn more. Alright, whatever. If you want to have Bigby Wolf on the cover of your game, I don't mind at all. "Nothing personal, it's just business." Is it good for society? Not really. Do corporations care way more about money and profit margins and safer bets than my feelings? Sure; I don't hold it against them.

And the reason for this is that they are usually aiming for a predominantly white audience, who just like every other race, tends to identify more strongly with their own demographic.

This isn't to say that everyone has any kind of aversion to characters unlike themselves, but overall this tends to be a clear pattern of humanity's cliquish nature.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

No, you shouldn't feel that you're obligated to be offended in this case (or any case, really).

I think a good amount of people like to identify a lot more with character traits or personalities rather than with a construct like race. Why would you automatically feel you have to identify with a person of your race or a character of your race based ONLY on their race? It's silly and feels pretty superficial to me.

Though I would say a greater variety of demographics represented in media is always quite nice.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Just the fact that I do see Asians in the background is already a big plus for me.

Huh...that's set the bar a bit low there.

But, as mentioned, it's assumed that white people will be unable to relate to anyone who isn't white (and not without reason, it might seem). Apparently, it's easy to relate to a vampire, alien, or talking squid, but not someone who isn't white.

Also, one has to ask why someone's escapist fantasies keep not having people who aren't white in it. Especially those set in something like the real world.

Though, if you personally aren't offended, that's up to you, but there are legitimate reasons why others might feel differently.

 

[nightmare_gorilla]

You know 6 months ago i would say "don't be offended" about pretty much anything. but i'm starting to think that maybe being well adjusted makes me an idiot. i'm missing out on alot of money by not blogging about what a crappy day at work i've had and holding my hand out for money. that old lady who got "bullied" by the kids she was supposed to be supervising on the bus? 70k. that waitress who doctored her receipt to make it look like her customers left her no tip and called her a queer? 120k. it seems like I'M the asshole for just waving it off when random strangers are total jack asses to me. hell a store owner once spit peach chunks at me while i was trying to help her with her phone bill that alone could have gotten me a year off or paid for my car.


On a more serious note, if you have to ask if you should be offended then you really aren't. there's absolutely nothing wrong with hating people talking for you or trying to represent you without your consent. it's why i got so tired of the scientist shirt thing so fast. what happened to him was crap but so many people created photoshops of him with a "fuck you feminists" sign or some other such sentiment it became difficult to support.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Seeing how I'm asain myself (Chinese to be exact), no I too am not offended by the lack of asian character in videogames. I don't exactly look up the game protagonist to be role models to begin with. Sure I may find that character to be cool like e.g. Travis Touchdown from No More Heroes but his race has nothing to do to why he is cool.

 

[murrow]

I'm more against the idea (strawman) that I can 'only' relate to other Asians, that I can only like things with an Asian protagonist. To me, that's very limiting. At that rate, I can like Kung Fu movies, martial art films or Jade Empire. (Don't get me wrong; I LOVE Jade Empire.) I've related to other fictional characters in the past. I can relate to Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Kamala Khan, Peter Parker, Virgil Hawkins, Marco Del Rossi and others. To me, a good character isn't one who looks like me, but one I can empathize with, one I can relate to.

This is my philosophy. Or, as I like to put it, you don't have to be a Pre-Archaic Greek man to empathize with Odysseus. I'd go even further and say that there's a formative aspect to it: being able to strip away the surface of a character and finding in him/her an underlying essence of humanity. Of course, not everyone thinks like that. I remember an early paper on representation in gaming that called playing with characters different than you an act of 'digital blackface'.

As for the line of thought you said bothered you, I don't think you should be 'offended', for the simple reason that life is too short to spent mulling over something like this. And also because it seems to have a lot to do with how minorities' rights groups inserted themselves politically in the USA, focusing on group conspicuity over social 'daltonism'. It's not like that everywhere in the world, and it's not the path I'd follow, but there's a history behind it. In short, it's nothing personal.

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

I'm actually the same way. I'm Hawaiian, so I see even less of my own race in movies than you do, let alone leading roles, but I have no problem relating to someone not my race. Although, it would be fucking awesome to see a Hawaiian/Pacific Islander lead in a mainstream movie.

Although I admit, I do get bothered when a movie takes place in Hawaii but star mostly white people.

 

[Super Cyborg]

I know that there are people offended out there about the lack of anything not heterosexual white male, but from what I can tell, it's a minority of people saying that. As others pointed out, it's more having diversity to allow for greater different number of media.

The major problem is that characters a lot of times these days in many media are just awful, mainly from a Videogame, TV, and Movie standpoint. A number of them, at least when it comes to the big, well known stuff, are characters with a few archetypes that don't go beyond that. We need more from characters then just I act with one emotion because of X reason. If we can delve into more of their pasts, and see how they handle various situations could improve on that, as well as allowing for a range of emotions. If we started getting an influx of these characters, I see it being very bad, and none of them being characters really, but just protagonist #485989402 with a different sex, skin color, and/or sexuality. We don't need that, but an actual character. Give me more Yukiko's, Kanji's, Naoto's, Shinji's, etc (Yes, I've been playing a lot of Persona Q lately). A bunch of characters that have their various quirks, experiences, troubles, and dreams that make them an actual person.

 

[Zhukov]

Not if you don't want to be.

Offended is generally an involuntary state, at least as I understand it. If it hasn't happened yet then it probably isn't going to.

Note that there is a distinction to be made between "I would like to see more of X" and "I am mortally offended by the relative lack of X". X in this case being Asian protagonists in media.

I understand being offended (or "offended") at the assumption that you cannot sympathize with a non-Asian character. After all, as one of those all important straight white dudes, it's apparently widely assumed that I will flip my shit at the merest hint of anything else. So hey, welcome aboard I guess.

 

[Zhukov]

Most of us want more *insert race/gender/etc. here* because we want more variety. That's really it.

Also, this.

I'm one of those devious, hiveminded, SJW vermin furiously whining for some more diversity in protagonists. But I don't do it because I'm worried about the feelings of the under represented. It's simply because I'd like to see some variety.

That's not to say others can't feel offended or excluded at being unrepresented. They very well might. But if that's the case then it's up to them to say so. It's not my place to speak for them.

After all, I'd look pretty silly if I were up on my soapbox championing the representational rights of whoever and someone like the OP came along and said, "Actually, I don't really give a flying fuck about that."

 

[Just Ebola]

No, I don't think you need to force it if you're feeling offended. I understand what you mean, ethnicity is kind of secondary when it comes to relating to somebody.

If I'm watching a movie and a pale form shuffles across the screen, I don't immediately identify with it. I would enjoy a bit more variety though.

 

[Hoplon]

Well, I might as well ask. I'm Asian. (Second Generation Thai, if you must know).

And personally, I've never been offended or felt left out when I'm watching a movie or playing a video game or watching TV, and the protagonist or cast isn't my particular race/skin/whatever. I mean people complain about how Asians are reduced to token characters or sidekicks, I've never minded. Just the fact that I do see Asians in the background is already a big plus for me.

And I understand why movie studios/tv execs/game developers and publishers choose not to have an Asian lead; they clearly want to sell more money and learned that Caucasian leads tend to earn more. Alright, whatever. If you want to have Bigby Wolf on the cover of your game, I don't mind at all. "Nothing personal, it's just business." Is it good for society? Not really. Do corporations care way more about money and profit margins and safer bets than my feelings? Sure; I don't hold it against them.

I'm more against the idea (strawman) that I can 'only' relate to other Asians, that I can only like things with an Asian protagonist. To me, that's very limiting. At that rate, I can like Kung Fu movies, martial art films or Jade Empire. (Don't get me wrong; I LOVE Jade Empire.) I've related to other fictional characters in the past. I can relate to Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Kamala Khan, Peter Parker, Virgil Hawkins, Marco Del Rossi and others. To me, a good character isn't one who looks like me, but one I can empathize with, one I can relate to.

Am I wrong for thinking this? Should I be offended? Am I speaking from a place of privilege? Should I be demanding more from mass media? Or is this just comparing apples to oranges?

For me, being some one that can pass for the current default protagonist, it more wanting to shake them out of the rut of limited thinking, it's letting them get away with being lazy and boring, which spoils games and films and TV. I mean watch_dogs was partly ruined by having a bland, default, no mark of a main protagonist.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Nobody "should" feel offended. Either you're offended or you're not.

 

[Queen Michael]

My answer's short. No. If you need to ask then the answer is no.