Speaking the unspoken truth about gender inequality in videogames

"Games are being increasingly developed by men and women with children, approximately half of whom are girls, and it shows. What happened to a time when games were the exclusive domain of lonely nerds who only knew about women through comic books and fantasy novel covers drawn by Boris Vallejo? When did Julie Strain stop being the ideal model of femininity? When did so many people not even know who Julie Strain is? I think about this every day as I play Tomb Raider and Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite and Gone Home and other critically acclaimed games that continue to marginalize men by portraying us as if we were only one part of the human condition, and maybe not even the main part, and often the less interesting part."

[Infamous298]

Misandry is a real issue, just open your eyes and see.

[Neckbear]

Your eyes are open.

[-Gespenst-]

Oh ffs give me a break. The moment women actually start to get some real results after centuries of patriarchal oppression and deeply ingrained sexist assumptions, some whiner comes along and acts like men are the victims. I'm not denying that men are abused by women, but such a thing is greatly outweighed by the opposite, and not just nowadays, but throughout the history of western civilization. This is just a gamer playing up his unwarranted sense of victimization.

He talks about MODERN games exclusively, not about the history of the representation of women in games, not to mention all forms of fiction and beyond. Does he really think there's some sort of really ubiquitous anti-male sentiment in culture? Two to three games that give women the spotlight does not an anti-male culture make. I mean ffs. The very moment women start to get treated with dignity and respect in videogames some guy calls it out as if it's been happening for years. He literally talks about games from like last year and this year. Argument is invalid.

The thing any of these works of fiction are trying to communicate is that women are just as competent as men, and that any one who says other wise is talking out their ass. Maybe these games with strong females in them subordinate men somewhat, but only to show how perfectly conceivable it is that shoe could be on the other foot. If anything, this should make men realize what so many women have had to endure and have been "broken in" by. You might argue that man-centric ficton communicates the virtues of men, and that would be fine if only male-centric fiction hadn't been maximally dominant for like the last few centuries. That clearly indicates an ideological bias, not any sentiments of equality or any wishes to achieve any kind of balance.

Not to mention he talks about the male experience as if it's an entirely victimized and innocent thing, which is the height of naivete and an ignorance of history.

Don't forget that most of the industry is populated BY males. So it's males who are making these stereotypical and dull characters. I shouldn't have to say this, but it's clear to anyone with a brain that such things are male standards imposed by patriarchy, so in a way, this guy isn't really critiquing what he thinks he's critiquing, which is women. Shame that once again the blame has been deflected from patriarcal institutions and back onto women.

I also don't doubt that this guy was one of those clowns who wanted his games separate from politics. Pure hypocrisy. Now suddenly politics are okay, just because he mistakenly percieves men being marginalized. I swear, just when I thought we were finally getting somewhere the ignorance flares up again. Why don't these people just really make an effort to understand this stuff. It's reactionary behaviour through and through.

[-Gespenst-]

And another thing. These guys always have so little scope to their arguments. Most feminists are what we call "intersectional," in that they are part of a general representation movement that seeks to counter all the negative discourses that hav accrued to all marginalized demographics. However, with guys like this, they still can't seem to look beyond the binary of male-female, and that's counter-productive. The very fact that they do this perpetuates this debate as some kind of power struggle, which is exactly what it is not. In fact it is about eliminating power, and allowing for total self-determination and mutual respect. In such a scenario, there are no racists, no sexists, no rapists, no bigots etc. because power is eliminated and people become more other-directed; that is to say, more open to the experiences of other individuals. It's pretty telling that blokes like this continually drag the debate back to gender binaries - in doing so they frame it as a power relation, which is what men have been doing, consciously or unconsciously, for years. To do so is to totall miss the point and reveal your complicity.

EDIT: And oh my god the point about the original Lara Croft. He literally admits to just objectifying women, and wanting to go back to a time when that was "normal;" completely unironically and without any self-awareness. "Why are women being represented as smart now? It was better when they were just t&a. It was simpler. It serviced MY needs better." gtfo dude.

[DragonKnight]

Would you kindly stop your books on pro-feminism. I only need one example to destroy everything you've said, and I didn't even read all of it.

Feminism is so pernicious and pervasive that Sweden has instituted the Bechdel Test to rate movies. If you are a movie maker, and your movie doesn't have at least 2 named characters in the movie that talk to each other about anything other than men, your movie's rating will suffer in Sweden. There isn't an argument you could make in the whole world that could ever disregard that wanton abuse of feminist power and proof that Western women, even in the Eastern half of the world, are the most privileged and protected gender in the entire world.

The ONLY women who have any kind of right to complain about Patriarchy and Oppression live in Third World countries ruled by psychotic dictators.

The biggest farce that is feminism, and feminists, and their white knights is that they are constantly moving the goal posts whenever their B.S. rhetoric is challenged and defeated.

There is an apt quote I would love to share with you, so here it is.

"Feminists are the only people who think femininity is degrading and are actively fighting against it. The truth is, no one is more misogynistic then feminists themselves."

[hazelamy]

Gespenst, chill this was a joke piece.

there are issues with inequality in gaming, most male gamers refuse to admit that but it doesn't stop it being true.
but this isn't an example of it, this was comedy.

the writer was exaggerating for comic effect.

and dragonknight, what a bunch of shit.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/e...

expecting equal pay is moving the goalposts now?

and who's that quote from?
rush limbaugh?
the moron that coined the phrase feminazi, a fatheaded, fatbodied idiot who's probably ignorant about why that word is so totally wrong.

[DragonKnight]

The pay gap is a myth and has been for decades. Every study done researching the pay differences between men and women are never equal and the pay gap has been debunked by countless people of greater intelligence than either you or I.

The word is an exaggeration, but isn't wrong. You clearly haven't been exposed to them, or if you have you'll just say their attitude is necessary thanks to the Patriarchy, the idea that white men are the source of all problems in the world, especially for women. Such a laughable concept.

[-Gespenst-]

Oh... eh, are you sure? I didn't realize that. The guy who wrote it made a pretty serious comment below it. Pretty sure it's not a joke at all.

I agree with his general sentiment of equality, but he doesn't seem to realize that it's necessary for women to muscle in to a degree, or else real equality won't be achieved. The games he describes are all from like the last two years and he feels marginalized. Yet, women have been marginalized for centuries. How self-important do you need to be to ignore that? I'm not saying that now we need to marginalize men for a few centuries, but I am saying that this guy is missing the point by whinging like he is - as if two years is somehow comparable to centuries and as if men are the real victims here.

[jebabcock]

All I can do is shake my head... The post and the comments...

[Hekticboss44]

Chin up ladies and gents we are all the same !! Now deal with that !!

[hazelamy]

did anybody read the whole article?

sense of humour failure in the comments.

to the author i say, well done, you made me laugh.
sadly so many others seem to have missed the point.

[beebap]

When women get equal pay then there will be equality. But didnt read the article just comments so it not supposed to be serious.