Should I be offended?

[144_v1legacy]

There's nothing wrong with feeling offended. You don't need validation from anyone here, and you don't need their permission.
Bear in mind, if something offends you, it doesn't necessarily offend everyone else.

For instance, people draw different lines on when they get offended by the N-word. Some people hate it in all forms, others depending on context, etc.

Spoiler: TallanKhan quote, not mine (during a men/women offense debate):

1. Anyone can be offended by anything - Yes they can. Offence is entirely subjective, an individual's reaction to something that offends their sensibilities. You can't dictate what people can be offended by, and who can be offended, without trying to dictate peoples fundamental values.

2. The person who causes the offence is at fault - No. Wrong on so very many levels. If you accept the first statement that anything can be offensive, then by subsequently accepting this second statement you are effectively agreeing that anyone can be at fault for anything at all. The idea that anyone can be condemned as at fault, for any action whatsoever, without an objective standard by which to measure said fault and by virtue only of somebody else's displeasure, should insulting to anyone with a sense of morality. The very concept of fault requires an objective (or at least relative) standard of right and wrong by which to pass judgment.

So what am I saying here. Yes, anyone has the right to be offended. Men included. But what I am also saying is that being offended does not automatically put someone at fault.

So when can someone legitimately claim someone is at fault for offending them? Well, you need to consider two factors:

1. Intent - Intent is straight forward. Did the person who caused offence talk (or generally communicate) to someone, or about them, in a such a way as to deliberately cause offence? - Did they mean to do it?

2. Reasonable Expectation - Reasonable Expectation is a little harder. Basically, in an instance where someone did not intend to cause offence, was it nevertheless reasonable to expect them to have considered their actions and concluded they might offend someone? In my experience, this is one that comes into play more often than not when dealing with older workers and issues of discrimination in the workplace. There are a number of older workers who still use terms that are considered derogatory by today's standards that used to be acceptable. Often these workers do not consider the connotations of using such terminology, or who they are saying these things to. There is most often no malicious intent, but on balance you have to concede that it would have been reasonable for them to foresee that their words could offend someone.

 

[Recusant]

Let's consider offensiveness for a moment. First, grab a globe. Or call up a good world map, if you don't have one. Now, as many people above me have noted, offensiveness is both subjective and involuntary. A remark is not 'offensive' or 'inoffensive'; it simply is. I (or you, or whoever) am the one who is offended, or finds said remark offensive. Regardless of how it was intended, offense is in the eye of the recipient, not the creator. Of course, intent still plays a large part. What do I mean? Take a look at the globe. Turn it to Asia. Note how freakishly large Asia is. Consider the relative tininess of the portion controlled by the people commonly identified as 'Asian'. Arabs, Israelis, Russians, Persians, Turks, Khazaks, Indians- all these people are Asians- ethnically as well as geographically. By assigning the term 'Asian' to only a small subset of the people who it can be rightfully applied to, we're engaging in behavior that many would call offensive. I certainly would- but I don't, since I realize it's just the result of cultural-linguistic conditioning; there's no bad intent behind it.

The term 'Asian' is used because 'Oriental' has been deemed offensive. 'Oriental' simply means 'eastern'; less accurate, but also less inaccurate, and fallen from favor because of its association with horrifically racist actions and attitudes of the past. Likewise, the word 'Jap' (a shortened form of Japanese) is much more offensive than 'Brit' (short for British), despite 1. both words being formed the same way and 2. 'Jap' being more technically accurate; the Anglo-Norse-Norman inhabitants of the UK today being so far removed from the Celtic British the equivalent would be calling all US citizens 'Cherokee'. Surface level? Offensive. Derived intent? Blatantly not. In the previous paragraph, I referred to countries 'controlled by' a specific racial subset of people; most of you reading this read through that and figured I meant 'occupied by a permanent or semi-permanent population consisting primarily if not exclusively of' or some such; others assumed I was implying something rather more sinister; such as that the sneaky Thai people are scheming and plotting to secretly control the world, or perhaps that the sneaky yet stupid Japanese people are somehow scheming and plotting to secretly control Japan.

For you see, many people these days, especially but not exclusively on the internet, go about looking for reasons to be offended; in part because anger at someone else keeps them from having to address their own flaws, and in part because they suffer from a lack of passion in their own lives and seek to remedy that any way they can. Recreational outrage is a tragically common thing, damaging to both the people who engage in it and the society that they live in; but no less common for that. Making this more complex is that something can be inherently discriminatory, but not inherently offensive. Gender-segregated bathrooms are technically sexist; very few people consider them offensive. Racially segregated bathrooms are a different matter, and this brings us back to your other question.

I, for one, have never had a problem relating to people who are nothing like me. Consider the Transformers. Optimus Prime was a forty foot tall, five million year-old alien robot, thrust into a position of leading what was essentially an entire species permanently at war with another one, despite his prior life experience consisting of little more than being a dockworker. Desperate for energy sources, he leads a mission to another planet, but the ship gets attacked and ends up crashing into still another planet. Everyone on board is functionally (they're robots, remember) knocked unconscious, until the volcano erupts four million years later and reactivates the computer, which revives everyone. The planet turns out to Earth in 1985, and Prime now has to not only lead his forces continue the search for energy here, but still assume leadership of the war he thought he'd escaped and deal with the humans and the fact that he unleashed a horde of hostile, energy-demanding giant alien robots. I was an unusual four year-old, but I had never done anything like any of that, yet I had absolutely no problem relating to him. Neither did anyone else I knew who watched the show.

People are most comfortable with- and thus, most willing to spend money on- those who they think they'll be able to relate to, which often means people like them. Referring again to the Transformers, the idea of a society of artificial beings who rebelled against and overthrew their creators, existed for a long period in a state of perpetual war, then escaped to Earth, poses a lot of interesting questions- what is the art and culture of such a society like? Their philosophies? Religions? How are they going to interact with organic beings? Are the differences between a flash-in-the-pan 80 year lifespan and an I-live-as-long-as-I-want multimillion year one so great that the only way these meatsack insects can be seen to have meaning is by indoctrinating your robots with an all-consuming overriding philosophical ideology? Is Optimus Prime actually some sort of weird Christo-Buddhist zealot? I, and I suspect many of you, find these questions fascinating; part of being a gamer is immersing yourself in strange new worlds and exploring them. But many people find the idea exhausting, rather than invigorating. Sure, it might be kind of interesting, but to break so many points of contact with the familiar is draining; better to only go a bit at a time, and stick with what we're familiar with. Thus, when we got a (mostly) live-action movie in 2007, it was primarily about the humans who the interesting characters were dealing with- after all, who can relate to a robot?

To tie a post that is already rather long together: the problem with this comes especially true with black people. Within this country, and to varying extents this superculture, black people have had an abysmal time of it. Many of them have gone on to do quite well, it's true, but most of them are going to face difficulties others don't. The reasons for this are myriad, complex, and contested; suffice to say for now that one of the problems is a lack of (though I hesitate to use the term) suitable black role models in media; for a very long time, low-life was as high as it got. That has changed, though many would argue not enough. Once change started happening on that front, the other racial groups (or rather, advocates for them) moved in: some no doubt thinking 'hey, it would be cool to see a wider range of people', but all too many thinking 'this station's programming doesn't feature a single transexual lesbian Sino-Hispanic character! HOW DARE THEY?'. Look at from a distance, it all seems kind of silly.

 

[visiblenoise]

I think "being offended" is the root of all bad things. It is distinct from reacting to having something concretely bad done to you. So, one should strive to never "be offended," and even be thankful when they find themselves not being offended over something that others are.

 

[cleric of the order]

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

I've also got a bit of Asian in me, the Indian kind, as it's a part of the sub continent. 4rd generation for the British commonwealth, 2nd for Canadian specifically

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.

I suppose I can understand that.

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 hazard that in a lot of cases the chose for an actor is more to do with hiring pool. there's a large amount of white people here, so statistically there should be a disproportionate amount of good white actors.
I'm not sure the statistics but a minority is such because they do not make up majority numbers. Also it might also have something to do with the structure of white families, a lot of them are middle class, rather entrenched after generations of primary and secondary industry that they can safely have been lean towards the arts. While a lot of 1st generation Asians head into the high paying industrial and engineering jobs, which is likely why Asians are making more then white people on average but owning less.
So no, I doubt it's a societal problem, same group preference is mixed with the highering pools, it's why bollywood doesn't have a large amount of white actors nor does Chinese and Japanese cinema. Or how Russian cinema would likely have a lot of slavs, etc etc. On top of that I remember a treatise on the white straight male. the treatise in-question suggested the reason why the WSM was such a well used character was because in our culture it hold no baggage, is infinity disposable and no one would be offended by his culture being mocked, etc,etc.

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.

Yes i agree, that writing of a character trumps everything, good writing believable characters and the like is great. There is however, an important caveat: same group preference is a thing. While remain to be a thing and will forever be a thing until instinct is curbed, even if it can extent to include every human being, there will be us, and the other.
Further more they hope to play of the large cultural brushes. Further more there's a certain want to aim for the lowest common denominator, to assist selling something and while i have no idea how well it works (it can at least seem to work well enough enmass as miserly multi-million dollar industries hold to this idea) there is no arguing that the lowest common denominator of a race/culture, is the race/culture itself.

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?

Thought is never wrong.
You can sure as hell be offended, if tumblr has taught me anything anyone can be offended by anything.
The real questions are what power do you have to change it, should you change it or are there more important things to be concerned about.
In truth, you have as an individual little power to change something that is the consequence of millions of years of evolution, both culturally and genetically. And any solutions you do manage to impose will do nothing produces the dramatic opposite which is just as harmful.
I suggest in my most stoic musings to leave it be, and live without it. Or if it is really something to dedicate your life follow this motto "we create the community we deserve."
Also drop the privilege thing, people like to use it a lot these days but they have committed perhaps the greatest intellectual sin. creating something that already exists. We have always known that no human has ever been born equal, man people get and have quirks, problems based on time of their birth, the cultural, economically, physically, so on and so forth. But you have to make the best of what you have. Unless you want everyone to be the same all the time, then such arbitrary academic theories such as privilege has no end result or solution. It's academic theoretical masturbation given educational value without thorough or reason. It is a good idea when untested like social justice but when you examine it you understand that it is by nature cancerous and broken.

 

[cleric of the order]

Also, this.

I'm one of those devious, hiveminded, SJW vermin furiously whining for some more diversity in protagonists.

You also have the surname of a famous soviet general from the great patriotic war.

Spoiler: damn this is large

SJWs confirmed for Marxists, brawl and illumnutee.

-sniped the rest-

I can agree with this to some extent but is the best way to get variety be through the nature of the writing and character devolpment and not by race/gender/sex/what not.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

I could be wrong but I was under the impression that it was less about people identifying with the protagonists and more about -- and I hate to paraphrase a certain woman that a lot of gamers hate -- the idea of the white hetero male being the default and everyone else being unusual or token.

I personally don't think there's any malicious intent behind it. More likely it comes down to lazy, hack writers. That's not to say all white male protagonists are badly written though, it's just an easy archetype to go with.

As for should you be offended. No. No one should ever have to choose to be offended or not offended by something. Although I think questioning why you do or don't find something offensive is a good thing (as you're doing right now).

inserting into the female protagonist

Sorry, just had to quote that out of context because I have the sense of humour of a 12 year old.

 

[Vault101]

snip?

if youre not then youre not....maybe your mind will change maybe that wont

the thing is though

its never JUST a game/movie/whatever but people try and pull that argument to try and throw off critical discussion and that's not cool

particually your point "well I'm x I'm not offended" again fine but don't dismiss certain arguments just because of that

For you see, many people these days, especially but not exclusively on the internet, go about looking for reasons to be offended.

why do people day this? do you realise how ridiculous it sounds

I don't need to seek out reasons to be offended I get it every fucking time I log on for example people who have most media catered to them smugly telling me "oh no see your problem *RELATING TO OTHER CHARACHTERS LE ELAGATARIANISM* whatever...its like...do you people even self awareness?

I mean fuck its not like women are minority

interestingly its also the same people who will throw a shit fit if you even SUGGEST more diverse offerings (because le evil SJW adgenda) funny thing

 

[Redryhno]

snip?

if youre not then youre not....maybe your mind will change maybe that wont

the thing is though

its never JUST a game/movie/whatever but people try and pull that argument to try and throw off critical discussion and that's not cool

particually your point "well I'm x I'm not offended" again fine but don't dismiss certain arguments just because of that

For you see, many people these days, especially but not exclusively on the internet, go about looking for reasons to be offended.

why do people day this? do you realise how ridiculous it sounds

I don't need to seek out reasons to be offended I get it every fucking time I log on for example people who have most media catered to them smugly telling me "oh no see your problem *RELATING TO OTHER CHARACHTERS LE ELAGATARIANISM* whatever...its like...do you people even self awareness?

I mean fuck its not like women are minority

interestingly its also the same people who will throw a shit fit if you even SUGGEST more diverse offerings (because le evil SJW adgenda) funny thing

Speaking of self-awareness. What you're doing right here? That's sorta what he was talking about. If you get offended because of this, you really need to loosen up. I could easily get offended that outside of like maybe two AmerInd actors playing AmerInd characters in the present day, they've been played by those of Middle Eastern and Jewish descent. I could go on and on about how outside of Prey, AmerInd characters have been put into "Native Savages with bows" category in games, and almost exclusively westerns.

I could complain about this stuff, but I don't. You wanna know why? Because I don't care how pale, dark, jiggly, or interested in their own category of genitals they are, so long as they're decent characters that fulfill their role in the story. And if the default model is a white guy, I'll take it, because the experience deserves more respect than to focus on how much a mid-30's guy glows in the dark.

Then of course, there's the extra flack devs have to go through while doing anything but the aforementioned white guy. From people complaining that the woman was obviously designed by a horny teenager, to them not being "black" enough(or "too black" in some cases), to stupid bs about where some of the devs are from and obviously the character was made to evoke thoughts of pedophilia. For alot of devs and publishers, it's just easier and has got to be a much more predictable headache when they go mid-30's grizzled straight white guy.

Do I think there needs to be more variety? Hell yes. However, I also think that not complaining non-stop about it when it is presented is probably a better way of getting more of it than it is to talk only about the negatives. Or at the very least, talk about what could've made it better without demanding it change.

OT: I don't see any reason you should be offended anymore than maybe a "ehh, could've been nicer if...". Uunless a character or game is played so intellectually offensive and taking itself seriously to warrant anything more, I don't really care myself.

You seem to have a healthy outlook on how to view media and diversity in said media. Nothing wrong there, especially if you identify with characters no matter their backgrounds.

 

[Vault101]

If you get offended because of this, you really need to loosen up.

actually no....no I don't, I don't have do anything I'm not responsible for other peoples transgressions

"oh but its just a joke/not/important/whatever/" is one of the many derailing non arguments I encounter over and over again

we don't need people telling me we're being too mean


[quote/] Because I don't care how pale, dark, jiggly, or interested in their own category of genitals they are, so long as they're decent characters that fulfill their role in the story.[/quote]
oh how [I/]egalitarian[/I]

if only those silly people would stop working themselves into a huff over it all....tell ya what Ima gonna go tell other people their grievances don't matter cause I would know how they feel wouldn't I? /s

so predictable... why don't you tell me to create my own stories yet? did you say anything about marketing? what about quotas and checklists? tell me how male characters are just as objectified too? no actually scratch that objectification isn't actually a thing...

 

[Redryhno]

If you get offended because of this, you really need to loosen up.

actually no....no I don't, I don't have do anything I'm not responsible for other peoples transgressions

"oh but its just a joke/not/important/whatever/" is one of the many derailing non arguments I encounter over and over again

we don't need people telling me we're being too mean


[quote/] Because I don't care how pale, dark, jiggly, or interested in their own category of genitals they are, so long as they're decent characters that fulfill their role in the story.

oh how [I/]egalitarian[/I]

if only those silly people would stop working themselves into a huff over it all....tell ya what Ima gonna go tell other people their grievances don't matter cause I would know how they feel wouldn't I? /s

so predictable... why don't you tell me to create my own stories yet? did you say anything about marketing? what about quotas and checklists? tell me how male characters are just as objectified too? no actually scratch that objectification isn't actually a thing...[/quote]

Who is this "we" you're talking about? I'm genuinely confused about who you're talking about...

As for the rest of that part, you're right, you are not responsible for others transgressions. However, you are responsible for your response to them(and judging by your response here, I'd say you have a bit to work on, particularly your condescension meter, I think it be broked, prob'ly wanna check it). And the question is, are they actually transgressions? Or are they personal wrongs?

And I suppose I'll take the egalitarian label, I mean, you put so much effort into textually enunciating it, it'd be a waste otherwise.

When did I say your grievances didn't matter? I remember in my post I said I had nothing wrong with grievances, provided they were actually founded on something other than preconceived notions of what a character SHOULD be. Seriously, do you even read anything before you snip, clip, and type?

As for that last paragraph, I just don't know how to respond to it without tearing my hair out for how silly it is. Well, other than the generic, "You wanna see something that represents you? Go f'ing buy it yourself and let the market decide if it's worth making more". You're not going to get what you want through demanding it happen, unless you're in some kind of power position, which I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you aren't.

Devs and companies that make good characters that you can relate to, buy them, send them thanks and tell them exactly why. I got an email back from Human Head and Bethesda(I sent an email saying thanks because for some reason I was really into my ancestry and general heritage at that point as a kid) for Prey, very generic honestly, but a response none the less. Silly now looking back on it, since I'm Comanche, but it didn't make any difference to me at the time, I was just excited that AmerInd's were front and center in a game without being horse and bow "savages".

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

Well if ya gotta ask, no.
Cheers to being a sane person and not reading too seriously/far into everything. *drinks*

 

[TheEarthSheep]

Hi! I've been putting some thought into a comparable, if slightly different topic lately, but I hope it's close enough that I can contribute something meaningful to this discussion.

I'm one of those white males - *dodges thrown wads of paper amid booing* - who likes anime - *ducks and weaves* but I've also spent some time on tumblr - *literally buried under mountain of paper*.

Ahem. There's a recent anime that finished airing last December called Inou Battle wa Nichijou-kei wa weeaboo whatever, made by the same studio that made Kill la Kill (another anime worth mentioning in this kind of discussion, but that's for another time). It's what we in the business refer to as a "harem anime", which is a genre predicated on the idea of having several lovely young ladies instantly fall in love with our identifiably male protagonist. A lot of people look down on the genre - myself included - for being essentially a vehicle for male self-insert fantasy. So I sit down to watch the show, pretty much just because I really liked Kill la Kill and thought the animation at least would be good - who knows, maybe it might even provide fodder for me and my SJW friends to make jokes about in our tumblr-dens, cackling through pointed teeth, our lamp-like eyes reflecting a sheen from the blazing patriarchy-fires!

And then I realized: how screwed up is that? I went into the anime already prepared to find it misogynistic or otherwise offensive. It was like I was going down a checklist, looking for things to get upset about. If I went through with it, there would be no chance that I could actually learn from or even enjoy the show, and I was going to spend some precious time from my life on that? So, I watched it with a much more open mind. And yes, there was gratuitous fanservice. There was at least one overtly skeezy episode. If I had watched it looking for ways to be offended, I would've found them, and my life would've been suitably worsened. Instead I honestly had a pretty good time with it! It wasn't perfect, but the characters were very likable and the themes were surprisingly deep.

The moral of the story is that "offended" is by definition a negative state of being, and I think it's really important that we try to minimize it. On a personal level, I think every person should make a conscious effort to try not to be offended by something, or at least not to try to be offended. As a subculture, I think we SJWs have fetishized offense as if it's some virtue, and I think that goes doubly true for "allies". Speaking from experience, there's no small amount of pressure on people like me to dislike the right set of things, and that's actually kind of silly I think!

But I want to be a little careful with this: I by no means want to imply that if someone actually is offended, one should simply tell them to stop. I think this only works on a personal level: I want to make a conscious effort to not be offended, I don't want to tell other people that they shouldn't be offended. And I do still believe that as an ally I do have some responsibility to back people up if they think something is problematic. I think that offense, while not being ideal, is sometimes healthy. Someone probably should be offended if they watch something like Birth of a Nation. And if someone thinks a given work is problematic, by all means, speak up! But media should be treated as innocent until proven guilty, not the opposite. We shouldn't cut swathes of art out of our culture.

I'm sorry if this is as rambling as I think it might be. I hope I got my point across, and I hope it has some relevance to the discussion at hand.

 

[Vault101]

Who is this "we" you're talking about? I'm genuinely confused about who you're talking about...

SJW's Femenists, whiney people..skeletons whatever term you like

[quote/]As for the rest of that part, you're right, you are not responsible for others transgressions. However, you are responsible for your response to them.[/quote]
Ubisoft: "animating women is harrrd"
Ubisoft: "youre full of shit ubisoft!"

uhh...done?


[quote/]And the question is, are they actually transgressions? Or are they personal wrongs?[/quote]
do I find there to be a serious lack of representation in Games [i/]worse[/i] than other media and do I find half hearted attempts (like Ubisofts and god forbid the internets) to defend it both pathetic and disingenuous?

why yes...yes I do

and I shan't be saying otherwise to appeal to peoples feelings



[quote/]
When did I say your grievances didn't matter?[/quote]
"need to loosen up" "just a joke" "not a big deal" ect ect that rhetoric is pretty much just that and often employed as a handwave

[quote/]provided they were actually founded on something other than preconceived notions of what a character SHOULD be.[/quote]
I know what my grievances are founded on....in fact one can observe that all these horribly predictable [footnote/]they have bingo cards for this kind of thing[/footnote] internet arguments stem from that ONE point, the base assumption

but anyway

[quote/]"You wanna see something that represents you? Go f'ing buy it yourself and let the market decide if it's worth making more"[footnote/]DING DING! case point![/footnote][/quote]

Spoiler: so while complaining about the shitty issues in games it never occurred to me to actually go and buy games I like?

[img/]http://mrwgifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Bill-Murray-Is-Uncomfortable.gif[/img]
....uh huuuh...

why do people conveniently start worshipping the free market and capitalism when it suits them yet when somone bitches about EA or Ubisoft its a grand crusade? why is it whenever someone complains about RPG's not having enough numbers or DLC they're met with sympathetic nods and bolstering agreements yet bring up something "else" and all of a sudden "ur concerns no real"?



[quote/]You're not going to get what you want through demanding it happen[/quote]
actually thats EXACTLY how you get what you want most of the time

the problem with this is that people in general can't see the forest for the trees

they think this is some simple self contained grievance with a simple contained solution (usually under the base assumption that our media is NOT heavyly skewed a certain way and/or a refusal to acknowledge as such) that's why they think they can just say "well make your own games/vote with your wallet" see problem solved! and we'll all go away... but no

this problem goes "beyond" games, this is our media and how its a reflection of our society and (in my case and the case of many others) on the base assumption that representation is an actual important thing why it falls flat and why games are the worst at it...the only real power we have is to make our voices heard, and yet people seem to want to silence "us" (remember that lady that tried to make videos) and no I and many other people don't do anything beyond "*****"[footnote/]and before you jump on me for that thats true of pretty much 99% of everyone on here about anything[/footnote] on the internet but even interent dicussion is still discussion and discussion spreads ideas and the best thing we can do is to think about what we consume in the context of society and all that the worst thing you can do is act like it doesn't matter

or to put it another way...its like saying the bechdel test is stupid because you applies it to ShawShank Redemption, but the point isn't to individually judge any movie but to be used on a lot of movies and see what you some up with...to think about things in a way you haven't before....because its all good and well to have the plucky troken girl but what does it say when she's the only woman in your story for no diceranable reason?

I'd rather be offended than turn my brain off...because I'm using it thankyouverymuch

The moral of the story is that "offended" is by definition a negative state of being, and I think it's really important that we try to minimize it. On a personal level, I think every person should make a conscious effort to try not to be offended by something, or at least not to try to be offended.

just because there is something sexist/whatever in a work does not mean you can't enjoy a work...I like Mass Effect but I'm not going to repeat several wiki entrys of lore to explain away the Asari

theyre hot Alien babes...thats all they are, you ain't fooling anyone with your "genderless" BS Bioware

same thing with the Fan Service in saaay Ghost in the Shell

its is still tits even if you can "splain" it away


\and on the flipside there IS a line for some people and that is based on many things.As good as the Witcher 2 apparently is I'm probably not going to play it....because I have to play as Geraldt, and DA:I fills that need for me just fine, thats a perfectly valid reason on my part not to play it

people have this rediculous effing [footnote/]dare I say straw..woman?[/footnote] of the evil SJW literally frothing at the mouth in incomprehensible rage purposefully being angry at everything that she can't and doesn't enjoy anything...and pity her because she does it to herself (hurr hurrr) and thats not how this works or what its about "offended" doesn't incapacitate somone in their ability to enjoy things most of the time

 

[CrystalShadow]

No reason to be offended if you're not.

Just some of us like being able to actually find the occasional thing that we identify with more closely. (I'm not asian, and I'm not talking racial stuff here.)

Personally I don't care in films. You're inherently watching others do stuff.

Kind of more annoying in games though.

Under-representation of minorities is a problem, but hardly a surprise considering women seem to be under-represented... (And women are not a minority group. It really sucks that it all gets lumped in together like that in some ways...)

 

[Someone Depressing]

I dislike the "white guy with short brown hair and a hot female lead" point because it's boring and overdone. I'd like to see more LGBT and strong female characters in stories, but only because I can relate to them. I'm not part of LGBT culture and not a woman, but even I can relate to them more than the above.

If you're not offended, then why should you feel offended? That doesn't really make sense.

 

[zumbledum]

Should I be offended?

If you dont even know if you are offended, your not, so dont be. i may be white, English, male ,straight and middle class but ive never felt i can relate to any character on screen anyway, and i dont understand this need to be validated by representation. justify your own damn self.
no offense but are you really so weak willed and unsure of yourself that you actually think you should be limited by some aspect of race? then the limits are coming from you not from some irrelevant depiction in some strangers fantasy.