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Some of those video game princesses ain’t so Peachy

Why can't they all be like Princess Peach?

It’s almost impossible to catalogue all the ways men are oppressed by women in contemporary gynocratic society. There are so many! For example, did you know that men are oppressed by female characters in video games? I know, right? The last bastion of red-blooded manliness, invaded by imaginary ladies!

Luckily, the fellows at MGTOWforums.com are on the case, exposing this foul virtual misandry. I Am started off a recent discussion on the subject by asking

WTF is with empowered women in video games now? …

I see a new trend in the video/computer game world and that is the increase in strong playable female characters.

Now, I am no hardcore gamer but I do play computer games often and the recent one I have been playing recently is Shogun 2 total war. Now for those who don’t know what this game is, it is a strategy game based on the military of feudal Japan. I recently bought an upgrade for the game the other day and guess what one of the strongest military units was? Nuns. I shit you not. The nuns had an attack 20% -40% higher than most units in the game. Somehow I doubt that in real life a nun would have swung a sword or used a spear faster and harder than a feudal warlord, and this game was based on history.

Clearly nuns are incapable of manlike swordplay, though it is true that they are capable reenacting famous internet panda sneeze videos. (I have seen video proof of this.) But Shogun 2 does not depict them sneezing like pandas. It depicts them fighting.

This is an outrage because video games are meant to be a perfectly accurate reflection of reality.  Obviously there is nothing even slightly unrealistic about any of this:

Most of us dudes are in fact capable of karate-chopping heads in two. We just don’t like to show off all the time.

I think I have the right to ask steam and other gaming companes: WTF with the subliminal brainwashing? What now when I buy or play a game women will be doing all the ass kicking? …

I call bullshit on this subject. Video games are the last place for guys to hang out and now women are taking over. Why not just save us the trouble and instead of eliminating our fantasy world just throw us in work camp to provide for thier bastard children (literally speaking) while they shit all over us…wait they already do that.

I Am is not the only dude who’s noticed this alarming femtrend. Goldenfetus added his observations:

I’ve noticed this too, and it drives me insane. Was co-oping Gears 3 last month and there’s a point where 2nd player has to take over a female character. Almost ruined the game for me. It may seem minor, but once you’re aware of this type of brainwashing it’s impossible to ignore. There’s no way a slim female could keep up with the massive battle-hardened male Gears in that kind of environment. They would be a liability as they are in real life combat.

Exactly! By contrast, the male characters in Gears of War 3 are all completely accurate representations of real-world men.

This is what dudes look like, for real.

Goldenfetus continued:

You’ll see the same thing in most stat-based role-playing games as well, where you have the option of a female player character – like Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, D&D, etc. The women never have any strength or intelligence penalties compared to the males. … They want to give the impression that people of any race, gender, and sexual-orientation are interchangeable – that there are no differences in ability between them, and that only a bigot could think otherwise. I’m sick of it too.

At the very least, female characters should be depicted as carriers of cooties.

Despite the very serious subject matter – video game misandry is never funny! – Xtc tried to lighten the mood with a little humor:

It would be hilarious to portray the female characters realistically. If you chose the female character in your FPS [First Person Shooter] she would have to move very slowly, dragging the gun around. You could build in some extra shake to the crosshairs to represent hopeless accuracy. Every time you needed to reload your gun, instead of just pressing a button, you’d have to find a male character and go through some flirting dialogue options to persuade him to do it for you. One out of every four missions the game would tell you that you were sitting out this one due to ‘women’s issues’.

Calloway, for his part, offered some historical perspective:

This is nothing new. I got heavy into gaming back in the late 90’s and even back then they had Tomb Raider, S.I.N., etc. Even in the original Unreal, you played as a big-breasted female.

I saw a documentary on the making of the original Tomb Raider once. The lead character, Lara Croft, was originally going to be a man. They saw him as an Indiana Jones-type character. Then, one of the designers suggested it be a woman because “if you’re going to be playing a game for hours, you might as well have something good to look at”. …

When you first take the red pill, it’s amazing the things you see. It’s as if you had blinders on before, and all of sudden they’ve been removed, allowing you to actually understand what you’ve been seeing.

Yep. And what you’ve been seeing is Lara Croft’s ass. Lara Croft’s ass oppresses men! The red pill tells me so!

Also, those tiny misandrist shorts just make the gynpression worse.

Now we come to the clincher.

When you try to get romantic with the imaginary ladies in video games, they don’t act like Roissy and those dudes say ladies act. I mean, you can’t even neg them! As Dave sadly pointed out:

I remember about 12 years ago playing the Baldur’s Gate rpg series and there were some romance dialog paths between your character and some of the women who could join your group but you had to treat them very nice. You couldn’t give them any attitude or make fun of them otherwise it would be over.

Basically you have to be a total mangina towards women in most games if you want to bed them.

Even imaginary ladies are stuck up bitches!

The horror!

 

I had a

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Noadi
12 years ago

I do think there is some underlying misandry

Umm… what? Do you know anything about Twilight other than that teen girls like it? Here’s a basic summary: Teen girl falls in love with 200 year old vampire (huge difference in age/experience), said vampire emotionally abuses her, refuses to let her leave him (by blowing out her tires), the girl has no real personality or interests outside of pleasing men, it’s made clear that she’s expected to stay a virgin until marriage (which she does, also she gets married right out of highschool), vampire husband gets her knocked up with a half vampire baby who nearly kills her (because abortion is wrong in the Twilight universe even when the mother could die), oh yeah and then the baby imprints on an adult werewolf with the clear subtext that he will groom her to be his mate.

Exactly how is this a misandrist series? It’s just dripping with patriarchy and making abusive, creepy relationships out to be healthy. The author is a devout mormon who has basically admitted it’s all a teenage abstinence allegory.

Noadi
12 years ago

Pecunium: Are you sure you aren’t like my long-lost male twin? I share about 90% of those interests with you, including fencing.

Dracula
Dracula
12 years ago

Well, in fairness I do think Twilight perpetuates the myth of men being uncontrollable rape monsters, which is hardly a flattering notion of male sexuality.

Men's Rights Activist Lieutenant
Men's Rights Activist Lieutenant
12 years ago

Shaenon, I’d like to go to Arisia, but I don’t have anyone else who is interested, so I’d be showing up alone. I feel like this would just be weird, or am I wrong?

darksidecat
12 years ago

I graciously accept pecunium and cynickal’s correction about sword weights.

Of course Meller thinks not being a man is the worst insult of all, given his burning hatred for women and all other non-men.

KathleenB
KathleenB
12 years ago

One person wrote in to Dragon Magazine round about 2001 and was magnanimously offering to allow women characters to bear children in exchange for a -2 to Strength, while men characters got +2 Strength and the ability to father children.

I remember that! I also remember trying to compose a letter to the editor, but I couldn’t come up with anything but, as Liss from Shakesville says, a 2,000 word screed riddled with profanity.

zhinxy
12 years ago

Also, it’s not just dolls and figurines, I seriously like porcelain in general… Is this why I’m too feminist?

Seriously, I’ll make a deal with you, and I won’t mention your hilarious SCROLL UP AND SEE WHY WOMEN SUCK!!! “response” to what I said about negative rights theory, Rothbards critique of egalitarianism, Lockean Equality, etc again for a while, if you just tell me how dolls will make women better women!

Also, I note that you speak as if doll collecting IS “your turf” and you only allow women on it because we might be feminized. So please, PLEASE explain what you think doll collecting is like for the rest of the world, and what it can do for women?

Kyrie
Kyrie
12 years ago

“it’s made clear that she’s expected to stay a virgin”
To be fair, if my memory is good Sparkly is a virgin too.
And the girl is pretty dumb and plain, but the idea is that every insecure high school girl can identify to her and fall in love with the overly described (I’ve only seen the so-bad-it’s-good movies but I’ve be shown some bits) perfect boy.
So I do think there is some misandry, but overall it’s sexism and sexism again, in both way, because it’s the fucked up fantasy world of a Mormon woman who, emotionally, is still 14.

I can’t wait to see the last one, I’ve heard there is a vampire-baby/werewolf love story.

zhinxy
12 years ago

“One person wrote in to Dragon Magazine round about 2001 and was magnanimously offering to allow women characters to bear children in exchange for a -2 to Strength, while men characters got +2 Strength and the ability to father children.”

OMG OMG I HAVE THAT ONE STILL I THINK!

zhinxy
12 years ago

Yes, zhinxy does have an extensive collection of Dragon and Dungeon back issues.

I know this is shocking.

Shadow
Shadow
12 years ago

@zhinxy

So please, PLEASE explain what you think doll collecting is like for the rest of the world, and what it can do for women?

Teach em to shut up and look pretty of course!!!! Apparently this is not a sentiment that he hears expressed enough in that rock he lives under.

mannequinhill
mannequinhill
12 years ago

MRAL, no, no it wouldn’t. People do things alone all the time. Even if you went to a con with friends odds are that you’d want to see different things and the group would split up at some time. And you don’t have to take my word for it as a lurker, but I’ve yet to see anyone be taken aside by the social police and told that they can only re-enter the threatre/con/event when they come back with a buddy.

Morgan
Morgan
12 years ago

Okay, this one made me giggle, as a long time casual gamer. First off, I’d love to sit down these guys and give them a lecture on the fact that historically, video games have always been, up to this day, primarily marketed towards guys (Exhibit A: The venerable Nintendo GameBOY — oh how I miss that system, even though then, and now, I wondered secretly why there was never a GameGirl haha). Most of the time, any game with a female character was designed as another way horny young boys could get a little T&A without the guilt associated with porn (Exhibit B: Lara Croft).

Now, though, there are more and more girl gamers and more and more games are beginning to have strong female playable characters. RPGs tend to lead in this field, although if my BFF’s son is correct, the latest Saint’s Row have good female characters. Nevertheless, take a look at your average new release game, and take a look at the role the female characters play — even with the upsurge in numbers of female video gamers, 9 out of ten times, the female character is still only the sidekick to the much stronger male lead/playable character.

Bottom line is, though, strong women characters will continue to emerge in the video game world, and we shall be able to fully celebrate being geek girls.

Incidentally, geek girls ROCK! =D

Sorry, gents.

Morgan
Morgan
12 years ago

P.S. Does anyone know if trans women are welcomed at GeekGirl Con? I’ve read about it in the context of “Katie, the Star Wars girl” and am rather inspired by it, and would consider going if it’s a respectful org.

Kyrie
Kyrie
12 years ago

I had dolls as a child. There was three categories:
– babies. You might hope it develops a child’s desire to be a mother, but nothing about being feminine myself.
– barbies. They’re actually adult, but even as a young person I always knew they were a terrible model to follow. And not fluffy at all. (In my mind, they were gymnastic superstars, including Pocahontas and Scheherazade. In retrospective, it makes sense)
– clowns. Not very fluffy.

So I could go in my parent’s attic and dug some of them up, but I don’t think any of them will bring me any DKM-pleasing femininity.

Xanthe
Xanthe
12 years ago

Shaenon, I’d like to go to Arisia, but I don’t have anyone else who is interested, so I’d be showing up alone. I feel like this would just be weird, or am I wrong?

MRAL, I agree with Shaenon, even if have no one to go with you should make an effort to go, and as the situation arises, talk with a variety of people as people – forget about gender and just try to engage with people you meet on topics of mutual interest that have brought you to the convention. As a shy person myself, I can guarantee it will be good for you, even if some conversations will feel occasionally a bit awkward and stilted, to get a bit outside of yourself and your comfort zone.

Pecunium, there is no fair comparison of manliness between you and DKM – he is an odious, pathetic individual who grossly overestimates his qualities, Dunning-Kruger effect writ large.

zhinxy
12 years ago

Trudy | January 11, 2012 at 3:15 pm

“Can’t tell if Meller is a troll, being sarcastic, or really believes what he’s espousing.”

He’s a troll, but he is ABSOLUTELY sincere. What he says is what he thinks, I believe that with every fiber of my being.

Really, he’s a national treasure, of sorts… Or something.

Shadow
Shadow
12 years ago

@David

I can see why DKM enjoys chess so much. After all, no matter what the queen does, the game is won or lost on the survival of the king. DKM’s whole shtick seems to be that men should be able to do whatever we want by flashing our penes like an FBI badge.

chibigodzilla
chibigodzilla
12 years ago

I had dolls as a child, they were anthropomorphized turtles that wore different colored lone ranger masks and had “attitude”

zhinxy
12 years ago

This sucks. I need life to arrange itself so that I may attend cons now. phooey!

Shadow
Shadow
12 years ago

@chibigodzilla

Did they happen to be heroes in a half shell?

Pecunium
12 years ago

MRAL: Arisia is a convention. There will be lots of things to do, people to talk with, things to see. It’s not a thing one needs people to enjoy. I’ve gone to a lot of cons, “cold”. I admit, over the decades I’ve built a network of friends, so it’s rare that I’ll go an entire weekend without knowing someone (and the net has made it easier) but that doesn’t mean I’ll see them. It’s a busy sort of place.

You might also run into someone you know (last time I went to a con I saw my brother, whom I’d not seen in about three years; who was living in Phoenix the last time I’d seen him; and was in SF for the convention).

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