Of "Tropes vs. Women in Video Games" - and the internet - by Firefreak
heywood on 25/6/2012 at 13:24
How many have heard of E.L. James' Fifty Shades trilogy, which is erotic BDSM-themed fiction about a younger virgin who becomes a submissive to a older, wealthy, manipulative mysoginist? It's the fastest selling paperback of all time (faster than Harry Potter even) and it sells predominantly to women. When stuff like that is breaking sales records, I don't feel too bad about Duke Nukem.
I do feel bad about some of the vitriol directed at Anita Sarkeesian by a bunch of illiterate imbeciles. They must have been in full geek rage after being distracted from wanking to 4chan or something. :erm: But given the way it turned out, I don't feel so bad for her personally. She ended up getting exactly what she wanted: mainstream coverage of her work, a major career break, and $153K more than she asked for. The end doesn't justify what happened, but she did play it well and good for her. I mostly feel bad about the de-evolution of discourse on the internet.
But to the root issue, every entertainment medium has multiple genres in which some are oriented specifically for male or female audiences. If you're not going to complain about Taylor Lautner and Matthew Matthew McConaughey whipping their shirts off in every chick flick they star in, then it seems hypocritical to complain about Lara Croft's boobs. Sexism is not a one-way street. Besides, female attendance at Comic-con keeps going up and up (it's about 50/50 now) despite the booth babes and sexy costumes. Also, isn't the cosplay scene dominated by women? I think maybe the sex appeal of female characters is important to attracting women as well.
faetal on 25/6/2012 at 17:49
Regardless of the ins and outs of the kickstarter and her entitlement to the proceeds, what she has done is got a lot of people talking about gender sensitivity in video games, which can only be a good thing.
Papy on 25/6/2012 at 23:08
Quote Posted by faetal
a lot of people talking about gender sensitivity in video games, which can only be a good thing.
Don't you think there is a possibility that the result of all those talks could end up serving as ads for games which do use a derogatory image of women and boost their sales?
What makes you so sure that it's your point of view which will prevail?
faetal on 25/6/2012 at 23:16
Not really, it is all over the place and too diffuse to be effective marketing for anyone.
Besides, you can apply that reasoning to racism, homophobia - any perceived prejudice generating discussion.
I'm not sure my point of view will prevail and I'm not sure I have the right to think it should, but when people on the whole discuss things en masse, altered consensus in response to changed attitudes can end up generating a new status quo. Whether that is MORE sexism or less is down to people and the consensus reached. It is what happened with racism and homophobia - controversy leads to alteration of group consensus on what is and isn't ok. It doesn't always work, or work out for the best, but destabilising events which challenge the status quo are necessary events in cultural drift.
Muzman on 25/6/2012 at 23:46
Incidentally, when it comes to fundraising hooks, harassing feminists has nothing, nothing, on being called fat by kids on the bus.
Done time for rape? Been threatened with rape? Forget it!
CCCToad on 26/6/2012 at 01:06
I'm with Yakoob on one. Its a good thing that somebody is finally succeeding in calling out how the industry seems to be run by 15 year old boys, but I really wish somebody more intelligent than Anita was making the point.
Al_B on 26/6/2012 at 22:30
I think the original context of this thread has just about run its course - but if there are
relevant discussions pertaining to the original subject (i.e. video games) then keep them here.
However, as this has sparked a wider discussion which doesn't really fit within the context of Gen Gaming the more general sexism debate has been (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=139625) moved here.
Ulukai on 15/7/2012 at 15:28
Re: that^, I'd be interested to hear some Korean views and attitudes on the subject. Further judgement from you guys, not so much.
Koki on 15/7/2012 at 16:02
Well it would probably be something like "shit sells dawg"
