I didn't want to make a blog about this. I really didn't. But I have no choice. I'm just sick and tired of seeing this subject come up over and over and OVER again. It is tiresome, old, and I'm here to tear it down.
Feminism. What is it? Well the easiest definition of feminism is that it is a movement that advocates that all women should have the same social, politcal, and in fact all the same rights as men. So basically rights such as equal pay for equal work, no gender descrimination, that kind of thing. Basically it's that women want to be treated the same as men (except when it comes to prison sentences, then you'll see the difference). A feminist then is an advocate of this movement. Someone who believes in it and follows it and actively supports it.
Here's the thing though, feminism isn't being used the way it was intended to these days. Feminism is now being used as a platform for politically correct morons and other whiners to find a reason to complain about something. It combines "White Knight Syndrome", Political Correctness, and various separate agendas and uses them under the banner of feminism. It's so annoying too.
It isn't feminism to complain about how a woman looks in a video game. A video game isn't real, no one thinks of it as real, no one acts in real life as though it is real unless they have pre-existing mental issues. To make any complaint about a woman's appearance in a video game as being offensive and portraying unrealistic female appearances is to say that you are upset over something that isn't real. What? It's ok to go around murdering thousands in a game, but it's not ok for a girl to have a large chest and dress in a bikini? Why is that? Well the answer is self-image. You see there are different types of people who are not comfortable with their own image and, rather than do something about it, they would rather complain about anything perceived to be better looking than they are. Women aren't allowed to be damsel's in distress because that is a portrayal of weakness. Women aren't allowed to have large breasts, skinny waist lines, and dress in revealing clothing because the average woman allegedly doesn't look like that.
Well, I'm sorry to burst your bubble ladies but A) Damsels in distress is not a gender weakness, it's a story device that no one takes seriously and which has actually been used BY WOMEN THEMSELVES IN VARIOUS ART FORMS and B) There is no such thing as an average woman, and there are women who have large chests, skinny waist lines, and who like to go to the beach in revealing clothes.
Do any of you feminists even bother to look at how men are portrayed in games? If we men were like you, you'd see incessant whining about how all men are made to appear to be either steroidal morons suffering from roid rage and possessing below average intelligence. Or, if you're the Japanese version of the "perfect male" you have a borderline effeminate pretty boy look, wearing more product in your hair than the entire cast of Jersey Shore, with the build of a petite swimmer yet possessing the strength of Hercules. Here's the thing though, WE DON'T CARE! We're too busy playing the games to give a damn about how our gender is being portrayed, and in our real life we're not being treated as though we should be steroidal morons or thin girly men. I guess it's a result of gaming being a predominately male hobby for so long, but the core truth remains the same. Pick your battles. A woman getting paid less for doing the same or more work than a man is something to b*tch about. A woman dressed in g-strings and having her breasts bounce while fighting a giant cat or something in a fictional world is NOT something to b*tch about. IT ISN'T REAL!
If anyone you know has treated a woman differently because of a game, then it's not the game's fault. It's not society's fault. IT'S THE IDIOT WITH A MENTAL PROBLEM'S FAULT!
I am really sick and tired of pseudo-journalists pretending to be the White Knight coming to the rescue of women everywhere and making article after article about how there is too much sexism in games, or booth babes are immoral, or other such nonsense. Have any of you ever heard of characters like Chun Li, Sonya Blade, Lara Croft, Meryl Silverburgh, Nariko and countless other female characters who are attractive and strong enough to kick your a** before breakfast? These days, there are so many strong female characters for girls to look up to, yet they are not being focused on by the feminist groups or the pseudo white knight journalists who are constantly whining about how women are allegedly being treated as nothing more than objects or weak individuals. Why is that? Real feminists LEAD by example. They live the best lives they can live. They teach by that example that women are strong by what they do, how they perceive themselves. Not by complaining all the time, not by caring what others think, especially when it involves fictional characters.
Sexism, like racism and prejudice and other forms of "hate" continues because you let it continue. Morgan Freeman has a video in which he is talking about how he doesn't like Black History month and wishes it didn't exist because no other ethnicity has their own special month and none deserve to have one. When asked what he's talking about, he says that racial divides will always exist so long as we keep talking about them like they still exist. We actively create these problems. How can sexism end if there is always going to be that one person looking for the smallest reason to complain? How can gaming move towards being a pure form of expression, if there will always be shackles created by insecure people keeping things down?
I'm really tired of these themes constantly being shoved in our faces when, as gamers, all we should be caring about is what kind of game will come out next? Will it have gorgeous graphics, unique gameplay, an amazing story? I feel sorry for people who don't even think of that and instead rage over what a girl is wearing or if a guy is rescuing her or if she isn't a chubby girl with acne and glasses.
Grow up people. They are just games. Stop taking them so seriously, and maybe the media won't be able to blame them for causing increases in violence as well.
Most of the people in my life are women, my own sisters are core gamers, and they don't give a damn about what a girl looks like in a game. They're too busy trying either to overcome me, or to outperform themselves in the games they play. They are true feminists even though they hate modern day feminism.
Be happy. You're supposed to be having fun in these games.
KnowTechie writes: "The GameScent is a unique way to add immersion to your games. Thanks to its HDMI and 3.5mm jack, the device is versatile, so you can use it across your consoles and PC. However, it would be great to see a new range of scents since there are only six, and many smell similar to each other."
General Brasch is a mythical figure in Helldivers 2 and your guide through the tutorial mission. Here are some of the legends surrounding him
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That's a damn good blog there my friend, well said.
On the subject of it, one thing I don't get is why people complain about what is perceived to be sexism in video-games when sexism is still an issue in many sectors of modern society and is prevalent in other art / media forms such as music. They say things like "video-games are immature and can never be seen as an art form" yet at the same time they seem to expect them to lead the line in the fight for equality in the world, what sort of logic is behind that?
Games cannot be art; not because games are immature but because gamers are immature. The reaction to the FeministFrequency kickstarter was one thing, but it has indirectly proven her point about sexism in video games, but not because of her flawed argument about the way females are objectified in video gaming. It has proven that the majority of gamers are incredibly fragile when it comes to any criticism to their hobby whatsoever; especially by a woman who happens to be a feminist.
Oh and inb4 WhiteKnight hur hur hur. ¬_¬
"Do any of you feminists even bother to look at how men are portrayed in games? If we men were like you, you'd see incessant whining about how all men are made to appear to be either steroidal morons suffering from roid rage and possessing below average intelligence"
Love this.
As for my opinion, I think the world really needs to get over itself and stop overdoing political correctness. a game is a game and a joke is a joke, nothing more. It's gonna get to the point where you can't say anything without being paranoid about people being up in arms about assumptions you might have made without realising it and who might get annoyed because of how a developer has portrayed their gender, ethnic group or other through one of their characters.
If you give these people what they want, it will get to the point where every single video game character has to be completely average and neutral in every way so as not to offend anyone. Where would be the fun in that?
No one is playing these games and judging an entire gender by one fictional character and their appearance/personality do not mean anything in the real world. That's all I have to say on the subject. Let the games be games.
There may have been unjustified criticism from various media outlets on the effects of video games corrupting young people but one must be careful to not be prey to irrational emotions. What I mean by that is that the majority of gamers who cannot simply abide an opinion that is contrary to their own, react in a completely undignified manner to make us all look like fools. The reason why media outlets see gaming in such a way is because it is a threat to them and it's easy to see why. The game industry took in more than double of the music industry, it's a quarter bigger than the publishing industry and it's catching up to the Hollywood machine. Can you blame them for attempting to drag gaming through the muckraker, especially while the gaming industry seems like it is booming while their own business are stagnating and suffering from falling ratings?
To address the concern of the FeministFrequency debacle; while I do not care either way about it, it is incredibly galling how defensive people can get when someone deigns to examine the negative aspects of female characters in video gaming. The common argument goes that it's the same for males is slightly disingenuous because there is certainly a lot more variety for males (well, there is that trend with 30 year old white males with brown/black hair in most games) when it comes to video game protagonists. For instance, you can get your macho men like Marcus Fenix, your Hollywood stud muffins like Nathan Drake, your slightly feminine/sensitive(?) blokes like Vann from FF 12 and the most popular video game mascot is a short, chubby plumber with a mustache. Can you say that the same amount of variety exists with female protagonists? For some, this may not be a legitimate concern, but for others it is something that has to be addressed.
Sir you are a scholar and a true gentleman, this blog deserve a medal.