pktechgirlbackup (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pktechgirlbackup) wrote2012-01-12 09:53 am
pktechgirlbackup) wrote2012-01-12 09:53 am
Entry tags:
sexism in games
I've told this story before, but it bears repeating. A few years ago I was reading Ocean, by Warren Ellis, and there was a character I couldn't figure out. All signs said fat butch, but then something wouldn't fit in with it. This bothered me for half the book until I realized the problem: she had short hair and was drawn with the proportions of an actual human being. Then I went and looked at the book I'd just finished, which was one of the Fables. Fables was an excellent series with many interesting, unique, believably flawed female characters, all of which were either withered crones or had stomachs like trampolines and C-cups, at a minimum (for example, Snow White is their mayor. And while looking for that picture, I discovered they're launching Fairest, devoted solely to the pretty members of the cast). Ever since then, I've been a lot more sympathetic to the argument that impossibly pretty characters in art are subtly influencing our expectations even if we rationally know that not every mayor looks like a lingerie model. At the same time, I'm not going to claim that the size of Leon's arms in Resident Evil 4 didn't make the game slightly more enjoyable. And I can't claim it was anything other than physical appearance because wow, in the real world that guy would be too stupid for me to feel comfortable with him holding a firearm.
One of the arguments is that hot male characters aren't as problematic as hot female is that the men are drawn as muscular and powerful, which isn't the same thing as objectification. Which is true as far as it goes, but is really an extension of the fact that the standards for hotness differ by gender- witness the fact that Tony Soprano, who has the physical constitution of a slug, is a minor sex symbol, but they made his female Italian counterpart a traditional bombshell. So the real problem is that hotness works synergisticly with other good traits (intelligence, strength, power, money) in men , but antagonistically with those same traits in women.* Arguably hotness and sexiness are antagonistic even with another set of stereotypically female traits (nurturing, caring, emotional intelligence). This problem extends far beyond video games, or nerd culture in general, and I don't have an immediate solution to it.
Also, I'd like to propose a guideline that you can't bring use bad things from the past in your art unless your art is about those bad things. So Song of Ice and Fire's rape and violence against women is okay because it's part of the point,** but The Witcher giving you trading cards representing the women you've fucked is not. Mad Men's omission of black people in the 60s is okay because it's a very subtle comment on how upper middle class white people interacted with black people at the time, Star Wars: The Old Republic giving you a slave girl to torture is not***. In fact, in general you shouldn't put that sort of sensitive, subtle subject in your MMO because people are dickheads.
*Which doesn't meant that there are no men who find intelligence or physical strength attractive. But Michel Phelps is getting way more offers than Amanda Beard.
**Although I'm unthrilled with how the options for girls are being awesome tomboys or girly girls who are into marriage to the exclusion of everything else because they're pants-on-head-retarded and not because that really is their only option.
***no, seriously. I am not kidding about this.
One of the arguments is that hot male characters aren't as problematic as hot female is that the men are drawn as muscular and powerful, which isn't the same thing as objectification. Which is true as far as it goes, but is really an extension of the fact that the standards for hotness differ by gender- witness the fact that Tony Soprano, who has the physical constitution of a slug, is a minor sex symbol, but they made his female Italian counterpart a traditional bombshell. So the real problem is that hotness works synergisticly with other good traits (intelligence, strength, power, money) in men , but antagonistically with those same traits in women.* Arguably hotness and sexiness are antagonistic even with another set of stereotypically female traits (nurturing, caring, emotional intelligence). This problem extends far beyond video games, or nerd culture in general, and I don't have an immediate solution to it.
Also, I'd like to propose a guideline that you can't bring use bad things from the past in your art unless your art is about those bad things. So Song of Ice and Fire's rape and violence against women is okay because it's part of the point,** but The Witcher giving you trading cards representing the women you've fucked is not. Mad Men's omission of black people in the 60s is okay because it's a very subtle comment on how upper middle class white people interacted with black people at the time, Star Wars: The Old Republic giving you a slave girl to torture is not***. In fact, in general you shouldn't put that sort of sensitive, subtle subject in your MMO because people are dickheads.
*Which doesn't meant that there are no men who find intelligence or physical strength attractive. But Michel Phelps is getting way more offers than Amanda Beard.
**Although I'm unthrilled with how the options for girls are being awesome tomboys or girly girls who are into marriage to the exclusion of everything else because they're pants-on-head-retarded and not because that really is their only option.
***no, seriously. I am not kidding about this.