| Jaicee said: Alright, I feel that I have been more than patient with this phenomenon, but this morning I have finally had enough: Do you really and seriously feel that women are over-represented in this medium? Because practically every time I visit, there's some shithole thread whining and BSing about precisely that still active on the main page. Today the too-many-women shit is about Battlefield 5 (a game I don't really care about). Shortly before that it was about The Last of Us Part II (a game I definitely care about) and Gears of War 5 (don't care). Before that it was about Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (did care), and others before that. And it's easy to see from recent comments on these threads and elsewhere (like on the main page) what the next such thread will probably be about: the upcoming Tomb Raider game (because new Lara is not as sexy as old Lara or something like that). And it will be by the same people who just got through wielding the iconic Tomb Raider franchise as their defense against charges of sexism in the BF5 thread. Anyway, it seems that this is the way most of our members think. I'm just gonna do a poll and see if I'm right in that suspicion -- that this is the majority opinion -- and figure out what my response should be from there. To elaborate a bit more, if it's not the female avatars in games that are at issue, then it's the role of actual women behind the scenes of game development or some random article in Polygon that supposedly denigrates men or a major film with a female lead or the role of female producer or director in the making thereof (The Last Jedi, Wonder Woman, etc.) that is the cause of all the world's problems; certainly of seemingly 90% of all controversies that get discussed on this message board. Women, and a few men who sometimes sympathize with them, seem to be at fault for just about all of the world's problems if the pattern of contributions to this message board is to be believed. I mean there are occasional threads that are conversely about complimenting women in a way. But they all have titles like "Staring at "BOOBS" let's men live longer", "Real Life Maid Girls you're attracted?", and "what's your favorite game character as "COSPLAY"? " They're all beauty pageants of sorts and other exercises in sexual objectification, in other words. I don't mean to be mean, but the overall picture that I'm pointing to has some passive-aggressive vibes to it. I just don't see people creating threads that go in the reverse direction, complaining about the over-representation of men in games or movies or the making thereof or what have you (which frankly would be far more justified objectively) or about the far more common phenomenon of all-male casts of lead characters (as compared with the rare employment of all-female ensemble casts) or what have you. Only when it is girls or women who are presented in those roles does there seem to be a political issue. I hope that people will vote honestly and not try and sell me this bullshit that it's all about these or those unique factors in individual games/movies/whatever when one can plainly see the above pattern of pre-determined contempt for pretty literally every major work of entertainment that, to one degree or another, fails to adequately marginalize girls and/or women (as applicable) or fails to adequately sexualize them. And also minor ones as well (like Gone Home), often times. I wasn't born yesterday. There is a definite pattern here. I'm just wondering it's in fact the overall majority that hold this position. |
It's not that women are over-represented in games, it's that they are put in only to back an agenda. They can put strong female characters, lesbians and PoC in games or whatever, but doing so in such a way that feels like pandering is off-putting and i'm getting sick of it tbh. Devs and media championing games because they have a female lead or PoC is obnoxious. like I said in the BF5 thread, if it was handled the way Nintendo handles it then people wouldn't get all up in arms.
Nintendo has been slowly making their games more diverse, but no one has really talked about it all that much because Nintendo themselves have been so subtle about it. Look at Splatoon 2, mostly all females with male characters taking a backseat, Marina was introduced in Splatoon 2 and nobody batted an eyelash, their was no outcry that Nintendo was caving into SJW's or anything like that, she was just another character.
Even Breath of the Wild, a game that has an entire town gated off from males, features strong women and a narrative that kind of says "Don't underestimate women they are just as good" didn't get any flak, at least none outside of the transsexual bit and even then i'm pretty sure that was like one or two articles. This without mentioning Princess Zelda, who, on quite a few occasions tells people she's not helpless and that she's independent and doesn't need people protecting her. No one brings it up though because it wasn't pushed on people and it felt organic the way Nintendo presented it.
| I mean there are occasional threads that are conversely about complimenting women in a way. But they all have titles like "Staring at "BOOBS" let's men live longer", "Real Life Maid Girls you're attracted?", and "what's your favorite game character as "COSPLAY"? " They're all beauty pageants of sorts and other exercises in sexual objectification, in other words. I don't mean to be mean, but the overall picture that I'm pointing to has some passive-aggressive vibes to it. |
I mean people like things that are sexy and I don't think anyone has made threads about people unless it's about how sexy they are, male or female. I could be wrong though, I tend to skip quite a few threads.
