The Last Of Us Doesn’t Give A Damn About Gender Specifics

TheGameJar.com - "I’m surprised I’ve seen little to no chatter regarding gender roles and sexuality within The Last Of Us. For the sake of SPOILERS please don’t read ahead, however those of you have played the game please feel free to voice your opinions and have an argument in the comments section below, as I’m sure we all have something to say regarding Naughty Dog’s latest block-buster."

[Mr_Nuts]

<Small Spoilers>

The problem I had with it was you never come across a single female hunter group. Hunters aren't limited to males, sure some hunter groups are going out into the big bad world to bring back supplies for the women and children back at their camp, mostly their own family but some like in the Ambush level were all in for themselfs like Raiders from Fallout.

Why was it we didn't come across an all female group of hunters or female enemies apart from infected or clickers. Surely somewhere out there a bunch of females got together as friends or whatever and started up the group which later expanded.

I just felt like with a game which isn't scared about it showed us, when it came to women and violence they didn't want to do it but then it brings up the question

"It's fine to have Joel shoot male enemies in the face with a shotgun or beat them with a brick to break their skull but him doing it to women is a big no no"

I mean come on we talk about equality and that's the only thing they seem to shy away from. Hell Ellie had some brutal deaths in the game especially in the end when your being chased by David and she's like 14.

[Lovable]

Hunter kills the weak. Women are classified as "weak" in that society. Not sure about the fireflies though...I've seen Marlene and the surgeon, and that's it. I don't mind slamming a woman's face on the side of the table though...

One thing is for sure, women are rare in TLOU.

[Mr_Nuts]

Yeah but your talking like the Hunters follow a guide line and are all the same. Some Hunters may kill the weak but not all of them, I even mentioned this in my comment

On one hand your have the Hunters after they Ambush you in the car when it crashes. These Hunters kill whatever they need to survive. Judging by the comments they make the majority of them don't have families to look after or anything like that.

On the other you have Davids group where the males will go out and hunt and do whatever they need to do in order to provide for their families.

Now what about the women in those groups who don't have husbands or children to look after...surely they would want to fight being the loners they are. I mean they wouldn't have anything at the base to look after so going out hunting would be their best bet.

In my opinion I feel like Hunters are just a name given to rival clans who are trying to survive.

What about if another group of survivors comes across Tommy's group while they are out looking for supplies...wouldn't they be classed as Hunters in some way and Tommy would class them as Hunters aswell.

[Lovable]

I think women are like goods. Some hunters don't see them as valuable, and others do(ie maybe like David's group). In the case of David's group, they are probably or definitely become David's pet.

[Cam977]

I executed the surgeons. That's what they get for ******* with Joel of the dead.

[izumo_lee]

Remember the part in Pittsburg when 2 hunters were talking about finding this 'crazy chick'. One of them suggested that why don't they recruit the women but the other thought that she would've killed them in their sleep. So to them women couldn't be trusted.

"It's fine to have Joel shoot male enemies in the face with a shotgun or beat them with a brick to break their skull but him doing it to women is a big no no"

Well if the women were Clickers than there isn't really a problem cause we do see female versions of these in the game. I guess if females are portrayed as a 'threat' than it is ok to brutally kill them.

I think the TLOU did a mighty fine job portraying women in the game. Tess was a bad ass, Marlene was the leader of the resistant group, & Ellie has quickly become one of the most strong female characters in gaming.

[Mr_Nuts]

*** Remember the part in Pittsburg when 2 hunters were talking about finding this 'crazy chick'. One of them suggested that why don't they recruit the women but the other thought that she would've killed them in their sleep. So to them women couldn't be trusted. ***

Yeah but as I've said it's just one hunter group, the ones who were more aggressive since they were in it for themselfs unlike Davids group who did it for their families

So to them the women couldn't be trusted, all it realy explained is why THEY (that hunter group) didn't allow women. Then theres my other point what about an all female group

Look at the Artbook from the collectors edition...they DESIGNED female hunters but didn't include them

*** Well if the women were Clickers than there isn't really a problem cause we do see female versions of these in the game. I guess if females are portrayed as a 'threat' than it is ok to brutally kill them. ***

So?

There not human anymore they don't have their humanity. It's like the baby necromorphs in Dead Space 2. No one batted an eye lid because they weren't human anymore.

It's worse because it showed you they didn't mind showing you female violence but it had to be dumbed down...they had to be infected. I don't understand this though myself since Ellie had some brutal deaths in the game although that could be looked over because your the main character and it's your fault that you've been killed instead of doing the killing yourself

*** I think the TLOU did a mighty fine job portraying women in the game. Tess was a bad ass, Marlene was the leader of the resistant group, & Ellie has quickly become one of the most strong female characters in gaming. ***

I'm not saying they wern't potrayed in the right way, they were with Tess and Ellie for example and even Marlene leading the resistance but the fact is they shyed away from Joel killing a female HUMAN enemy despite not shying away from other things. I just find that at the end of the day females go on about equality but if something like this happened there would be a s*** storm, probably why they didn't include them but still they should of because killing is killing it shouldn't matter what gender you are.

[izumo_lee]

Sorry i wasn't trying to disagree with you, i misread your post a bit.

I can understand the situation Naughty Dog is in ever since that whole God of War fiasco so they may be weary of some backlash if they did include female hunters in the game that Joel or Ellie had to kill.

We do see Hunters kill female npc (girl shot in head after being gunned down by Humvee) & hear about them talk about killing them. So i guess it is ok to have npc kill females but as a playable character it may become a touchy subject.

Maybe seeing Sarah being killed in the beginning was as far as Naughty Dog will go cause seeing a 'child' basically be gunned down was pretty dramatic & traumatizing for some.

I do get your point & in the world we live in where everything can & will be scrutinized maybe Naughty Dog took the easy route out of this.

[plaZeHD]

Female hunters don't fit in the hunter society. Have you ever seen a good female hunter in movies? Even in the multiplayer, playing as a female hunter feels weird. They just don't fit.

[Sharius]

well, do you know when GoW:A come out internet just go crazy about just a trophy name "bro before hoe", image IF naughty dog put female hunter into this game how these stupids will react? female infect doesnt count because it's not human

[QuickdrawMcgraw]

Maybe it's because mankind has fallen all the way back.To the time of caveman.Man are the hunters,women the gathers.

[phantomexe]

You didn't kill one female who was uninfected....just saying. i loved the game but it's funny how it's ok for joel too sneak up behind a man and stangle him but if its a female. Think about it.

[IcicleTrepan]

No but there is a part in the game where a guy beats the crap out of ellie and tries to strangle her to death.

[g4me_he4d]

Sorry wrong post.

[A_Gamer]

The game is what the developers set out to make, it's art from their perspective. I enjoyed it and I wouldn't want to change a thing about it.

[Stormnords]

In a simple commented feeling personally I wouldn't feel that good killing females in the ways you do in this amazing game I wouldn't say its a gender specific situation as in the multiplayer its female and male and holds no real appeal but in the story the emotion carries a lot of depth and to add beating females to a pulp would honestly add an emotionally horrible extra to an already heavy situation Naughty dog did great in this title and a lot of the infected ARE females so I don't see a serious gender bias involved!

[OmniSlashPT]

The problem is that if ND made that you'd kill women, it would be a problem because you would murder women, but since there are no women to kill, the problem is that there are no women to kill.

Srls, feminists need to stfu and people discussing gender roles in video games need to stfu as well.

The strongest characters in the game were female, i cant see how TLOU had any problem portraying the different genders.

[Bathyj]

put female hunters in the game, and feminist will whine that the game is misogynistic. god, look at all the crap Hitman got just for a trailer of killing women. now imagine the backlash from strangling a woman the way Joel does, it would be an uproar

[Blacklash93]

Someone's always gotta say this... -_-

What about how Fallout 3, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect have you brutally kill quite large numbers of female enemies and characters? What about how Lara Croft in the newest TR is consistently beaten up and smacked around? I don't recall anyone batting an eye against that for being mysoginistic. TLoU itself has several disturbing death sequences for Ellie (in addition to being seduced and threatened by a pedophile at one point), and she is a child.

Regardless, that's no reason to avoid it. Hitman got the controversy not just because they were women, but the Saints were also fetish nuns. It got criticized from many angles, including some religious circles. And you know what? They were still in the game exactly as they were supposed to be after all that.

[Blacklash93]

About female bandits...

It also has to do with the animation skeletons needing to be different. They're one of the hardest things to create in game development and the very reason enemies in many games are homogenized into a specific body type (and thusly gender by extention); for the express purpose of keeping the work-load behind the animations and the AI scripting of them to a minimum.

As for the larger topic at hand, we may as well not bring up gender roles and sexuality. The gaming community has proven countless times it's unable to discuss them maturely.

And really, what is there to discuss here? I honestly didn't take away anything about this subject from TLoU other than that the world the game takes place in is tough to live in and thus it's filled with tough people. That's it.

[DragonKnight]

"It also has to do with the animation skeletons needing to be different. They're one of the hardest things to create in game development and the very reason enemies in many games are homogenized into a specific body type (and thusly gender by extention); for the express purpose of keeping the work-load behind the animations and the AI scripting of them to a minimum."

This is an excellent point that more people should know.

"As for the larger topic at hand, we may as well not bring up gender roles and sexuality. The gaming community has proven countless times it's unable to discuss them maturely."

This is complete fiction. You try discussing these issues when literally every facet of gaming is being attacked as sexist or misogynistic. There comes a point when you're tired of hearing that Princess Peach is a bad role model for women because she's disempowered even when that's literally the furthest thing from anyone's, including little girls who play Mario, mind. The problem is that discussing these issues involves a group of people looking for problems in everything. Case in point, Anita Sarkeesian. She had a problem with the Xbox One conference because it didn't show a game with a female protagonist. You think she's capable of mature discussion when, at every avenue, she blocks ALL discussion?

[Blacklash93]

That's part of what I'm talking about, I never said people like her were exempt from contributing to this state. It is very annoying to see all of gaming interpreted as mysoginistic by some people. Obviously there's stuff like DoA's boob physics which are really stupid, but some people make handling female characters seem so delicate it would be nigh-impossible to create one that pleases them.

But I'd be lying if the other extreme is any better. There are literally people wishing death on Anita even here on N4G, and as much as I don't like her, that's going way too far. And about the blocking discussion, to a certain extent I don't blame her when that discussion has in the past involved many personal insults, death and rape threats toward her. And these articles always have comments like "Stupid feminists and white knights" out of nowhere with absolutely no relevance other than the simple subject of gender roles being brought up, almost like it's some kind of public address, completely warping the discussion off being interesting and civil. There have been tasteful articles from both sides, making respectful criticisms and points in the past, yet all discussion surrounding them devolves into the usual fare anyway.

Like I said, the gaming community (and I'd even say nigh the entire Internet) just can't handle these topics. In the end, all this BS amounts to squat. The industry will do what it's gonna do and I'm relatively content with how they handle female characters as it is.

And for the record, I consider myself a feminist in that I believe in fair and equal treatment free of prejudice and I oppose oversaturated character archetypes in media. This is for both genders. And I also realize that game creators have the right to do what they want, regardless if I find it a little distasteful, and nothing is going to get in my way of enjoying their games if they're good.

[InTheLab]

"Add the mix of standard third-person shooting, ‘zombies’, crafting, levelling-up and on paper you have the most bog standard game ever created."

What game did he play? There are no games like that anymore...