So Anita Sarkeesian, who apparently didn’t run off with all her Kickstarter money to found a Misandist Gynarchy in the wilds of Canada, has released the first video in her Tropes vs Women in Video Games project. (I’ve embedded it below.)
Naturally, this is causing great consternation in certain corners of the Internet (*cough* Reddit *cough cough* everywhere else that misogynistic nerds congregate *cough*). In the Man Boobz forum, Katz has started a contest to see who can find “the whiniest, brattiest, most entitled response” to Sarkeesian’s video on the Internet. So far Katz and Myoo have found a couple classic comments from irate Sarkeeianaphobes:
[H]ow does one go about stating that genders and gender roles are social constructs? I mean is evolution nothing to her? Does the patriarchy make male peacocks dress provocatively?
Yes. Yes it does.
And:
I’m gradually losing respect for the opposite sex. I’ve unfollowed people on tumblr who talk about how great she is, because it actually causes bile to rise in to my throat.
Yeah, that’s a totally reasonable response to a woman making a video about video games.
So anyway, I’m thinking we should bring the contest over here.
See what you can find! Consider it a sort of scavenger hunt.
Here’s my contribution, from the Men’s Rights subreddit, complaining that Damsels in Distress are the truly privileged ones:
Amazingly, this acutally got called out on r/mr as being pretty damn stupid.
Also, I have another question, to add to the stack of other questions I’ve been asking lately: Just why do you think so many guys get so angry when girls and women invade what they consider a male sphere, like gaming? (Also, why do they consider gaming to belong to boys and men?)
Oh, and here’s the video that’s causing all this hubbub:
BWAWHAHAHAHA!
Oh my fucking Zod, this one is adorable.
“Not a single fuck is given in any of these places I evidently don’t know anything about.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism_in_India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicana_feminism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_feminism
You’re as ignorant as you are sexist and racist, Shaoboobie.
Is anyone buying that baby bao is a. Chinese and b. new to this site? Because I’m thinking “nope” on both counts.
Xaiobaobao:
Wow, is there really an argument hidden in all that logorrhea? *looks very, very hard* Nope, can’t see one, just a lot of meaningless drivel.
I’ll put it very simply. If women want to play and can buy the games they will do so. Nothing you can say or do will stop them. The companies will make a lot of money, many male players will move over for the women and the only people left out will be misogynists like you. If you want to go and play with the other misogynists then, of course, you are welcome to do so. Just don’t bother the grown ups when they’re having fun.
The rest of your comment was both irrelevant and unintelligible.
Oh will I? Okay, come put me up against the wall then.
Go ahead, pretend feminism outside the West is anything as prevalent or extreme as the kind practiced by whites. But something tells me you already know it’s not. And just so you know, only whites can be racist.
No, kitty. We’re not concerned about feminist whines. We’re concerned with crushing feminism itself. You see the distinction there?
Seranvali, now here is someone truly clueless. Do you really believe the small subset of western feminists and their white lackeys constitute enough of a demographic to alter the worldwide consumer base?
No, you might be right. I suggest you try it.
Look, I found a song for our new troll baby!
http://www.myspace.com/557851749/music/songs/little-babies-courtesy-song-xiao-bao-bao-li-mao-ge-46787697
Well at least we have an honest femmi here. Seranvali openly admits she doesn’t have the capacity to understand logic, so she presents the same flawed argument again. Is this the extent of feminist “thought”?
I’m glad to see this video today. I was watching a Modern Marvels about video games earlier today and in the first few minutes of the show they talked about how “boys” use video games to act out their fantasies and how video games are a place where “boys will be boys.” (Of course, it was all men saying this.)
So … what was I doing? My brother and I played the same exact games. I was better at some. He was better at others. But we played the same games (often together, or with one watching the other). And yet he was acting out fantasies and exhibiting manliness and I was … was … doing … what? What are girls doing when they play video games?
Do you have wheels actually attached to the goalposts? Because that’s some fast goalpost moving you just did.
Transparent fool is transparent.
Psychologically castrating men by invading their space and not appreciating how sacred the pixellated boobies are. Shame on you.
@ Tulgey
Listen to the baby song as you read his rants, it’s pretty funny.
I’ve been arguing with people left and right over this on a gaming site and I’ve gotten every response imaginable. Male disposability, “the damsel in distress trope is actually misandrist”, sexism isn’t real because I said so, I had one guy claim he’s played thousands of games and never found anything sexist in any of them, ever.
I completely lost it when some dude linked me to a poorly written blog post claiming EA had hired Anita Sarkeesian to make the controls in Mirror’s Edge 2 easier, since women couldn’t play the first one properly. He then preceded to spend several paragraphs slandering her on the basis of this despite openly acknowledging that there was no evidence to support it. Within minutes I was able to track the claim back to a tweet from the Battlefield twitter account- Sarkeesian had indeed given some sort of seminar to developers Dice, but the content of the talk was never elaborated upon. Shitlords just filled in the blanks to make her look bad and this idiot swallowed it uncritically.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_Trouble
Did you even look at it?
It even has it in the title, you clueless ninny.
Sexualization isn’t sex. Culture isn’t set in stone. Feminists are going to criticize sexism in the culture until it’s gone. Deal with it.
@xiaobaobao
So is the male sex drive universal or isn’t it? Is it impossible to fight or isn’t it? The existence of what you call “simpering, pampered white “men”” seems to be at odds with your contention that change is impossible.
It’s almost as if something happens over time to make certain ways of expressing yourself goes out of style or becomes unacceptable. As if there’s some kind of constantly ongoing conversation about culture and society over the direction that we will move.
So I see.
Yeah? Who’s this “we”? You and what army?
Good luck with “crushing” an abstract concept. I hear that always goes well and never has unintended consequences.
Mr Civilisation Is So Great also thinks he’s scoring points by saying he (and his imaginary army) want to kill cats and eat them soaked in feminist tears – somehow I don’t think random internet fantasies of violence actually make the grade for being civilised. A complete loser, and yeah, probably a sock, but civilised? No, just another laughable little wanker who’s never recovered from having sand kicked in his face at kinder.
The bit about eating our cats was trying way too hard. Are you shocked, ladies? Offended? Whyyyyy nooottt?
Marilyn Manson wants his schtick back, dude.
@Says: Marilyn Manson wants his schtick back, dude.
You have to admit that at least this new troll is honest, since he tipped us off as to how seriously to take his complaints by the nym he chose.
Hey, Abnoy. Wether it’s private or public sector, sexist stupidity is stupid. And there’s nothing wrong with sex. There’s a LOT wrong, however, with how it’s usually handled. This goes for most artistic avenues, not just games.
Yesss, the world will be made a better place by destroying one if the last few joys left in the life of the average straight male who isn’t lucky enough to be born as an alpha with the capability to have his own personal harem. Yeah right…not! It’s not enough that you have your own toys, oh no, you have to deprive us of ours. Western Feminists want to be able to get sexual satisfaction free of actual human males if they so choose but are threatened by the thought of straight men doing the same, why else are they so obsessed with banning straight male porn, including and especially the “2D” variety best represented by Japanese hentai/eroge (ex. the infamous Rapelay, which was actually rather quite vanilla to anyone intimately familiar with Otaku subculture and which was
specifically marketed to the hardcore shut-in agoraphobes who never even leave their homes, much less interact with actual human females aside from their own moms). Indeed, Western Feminism is not about genuine equality (except maybe misery-loves-company compromise where nobody is happy and everybody is sexually frustrated) matriarchy, a reverse of the Taliban/Wahhabi system if you will, where the male libido is enslaved bdsm-style with the proverbial phallus of heterosexual mankind imprisoned in the cock-cage of feminazi sadism. Thankfully though,
aside from your own castrated mangina lapdoggies, nobody else is really buying it.
“Having the sexism-in-video-games discussion goes like this, every time: No, there isn’t any sexism in gaming. -> That’s not sexism. -> So what? There are things that aren’t sexist. -> But I like things this way. -> Prove to me that sexism is even a bad thing.
When I have to stop and explain “sexism is bad, mmkay” … There’s a problem.”
Uggh. Fuck yes. I’ve had this discussion with other guys before. You missed the step where they cleverly try to turn the tables by saying that men are ALSO overly sexualised in games. What they don’t quite seem to grasp, (apart from the fact that men aren’t nowhere near as objectified. Or at least not as crudely diminshing,) is that it mostly all just plays into a male power fantasy. In other words, you get to both be the musclebound hero AND rescue the sexy damsel. Not only is it a dumb power fantasy it’s a fucking boring teen one at that.
“Oh and, sex sells. Deal with it.”
Pretty sure that IS what we’re doing. And you seem to have a problem with it.. hmmm…
Feminism outside of a generalized “Western” world view? I don’t know. I’m not an expert. But according to a Google search, ongoing discussion is leading to harsher laws against rape in India.
So what would prove feminism isn’t powerful and is just a liberal delusion of white people? Uh… prison times. No. No wait. Legal fines. No. I’ve got it. Death penalty.
( http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/world/asia/india-approves-tougher-rape-laws.html?_r=0 )
Yeah. Yeah the death penalty for some cases of rape seems to prove that women are nothing more than chattel to men, worldwide, enslaved by the universal male sex drive. Or… does it?
(Finding that took all of three seconds)
—
Xiao, you cannot “crush” feminism. It’s impossible. Sorry. The only way you can crush the movement is to salt the earth, extinguish every mention of the idea and enact complete enslavement of every female and female identified person on the planet Earth. Note this carefully:
The moment anyone, anywhere, thinks “Huh, maybe I should consider the desires of 50 % of the population”, it’s a tiny step in the right direction.
The “unfortunate” truth here is that the cat is out of the bag, and there’s no going back. Usual joke here, we control the broadcast, so on, so on. The world’s globalized now, mon ami. Terrifying thought, huh?
Are we doing the Market Talk? I love the market talk!
If they’re pragmatic, they would also be politically correct. No pragmatic person insults someone else on a whim when another choice exist, because creating more enemies and bad responses are not pragmatic. Dogmatic, blinkered boobs on other hand use “Political correct” as some sort of insult and think “pragmatic” mean “free pass to be an ass” and not “practical”.
Now you tell me here what’s more practical, more logical, more man-thought!(tm)?…
But more importantly – no “Pragmatic” person denies expanding job sector, growth and a higher consumer base. No pragmatic, rational, Adam-Smith libertarian wetdream joyspace capitalist work would deny the slightest chance for extra revenue.
Sorry, your blinkered backwards ideology of supremacy will be crushed by the hordes of reasonable people who just want to have fun, play games and hang out being cool. Newsflash. Hate loses out. Hate always loses out in the end. It just takes a while.
—
But that’s all irrelevant. You don’t care. This isn’t even about the representation of gender in games – this is about crushing an ideology you don’t believe in because you like to destroy things you can’t handle thinking about. So everything I’ve said above is wasted. And that’s why we get to mock you. Because you don’t care about sexism or the over reliance on tropes in storytelling or even how many manhours Ninja Theory spent on jiggle physics.
I just want to ask a question, though.
Why don’t you care? Why is the internet making it easier to sexualize women and men a good thing? If you understand our trivial concerns, why don’t you take action to change your behavior to minimize those concerns? Why is it important to you to oppose “western feminism” and not, say, be in the vanguard for your own positive change?
You’d rather break things down and scream and flail at the world than change it the way you want? Why?
Why bother with all the rallying forth against whitepeopedemocracywestern?
What are you fighting *for*?
Do you want more misery in the world? That seems sad. And I hope you have a great day some day soon to blow off some of that hate.
—-
Long post is long!
On topic:
… Meh. Reiterating Tv-Tropes isn’t impressive to me. Zelda (the princess of Link fame) did have own game. They’re not very good [They’re terrible], but the cool thing is she spends both games (2!) rescuing Link, in various convoluted ways. She’s the hero! He’s the damsel in distress!
The point isn’t the games themselves, any games, nor should the point be that the idea / cliche / trope exists – because storytelling is like, old, man!, the point should be that we haven’t moved past it quite yet and that they’re go to thought ending devices. To me it’s like arguing against women representation in books. That’s pointless. Books are written by thousands of different people. The medium doesn’t matter, what matters is the notion they instill and share and talk about. Get at the actual tropes and point out why they’re harmful and strange and where the ideas come from. Then do them differently. Don’t just… give us a list.
But I guess ultimately that doesn’t mean anything? And so long as people talk about sexism in *anything* there’s a chance it’ll get better bit by bit, so we win out in the end. … So go Anita? Prop up the bar!
(Although, really, the arch-typical notion of damsel in distress should be Sleeping Beauty – not Princess Peach)
I also love it when any discussion of sexism inevitably turns into Oppression Olympics.
They also seem to not realize what privilege even means.
“Men are sexualized” is also sort of, well, not true. You do see that, but to the same extent. (And often examples given to me don’t hold water to begin with.) Not to mention idolized into something one wants to be and to something that one wants to fuck has quite the big difference to it.
Presentation is also a big problem. Having damsels in distress would not be noticeable if there were many different types and examples of other kind of characters in relation to DIDs. It’s just something that a lot of non-sexist dudes don’t usually even think about – their presentation has so much more variation that they don’t truly understand what it’s like to have most characters of your gender/orientation/race etc. have an overabundance of a specific type. And criticizing something one holds dear often feels like a personal attack and leads into this defense mechanism type reaction where they defend the status quo no matter what, whether or not they feel it’s warranted.
The sad fact is, like it or not, that stereotypes and presentation do affect the way we view the world. Nobody is immune, even though we’d all like to think we are. (I certainly did, and oftentimes still do, until I have to face the reality again whenever I realize how the effects have / still do manifest in my thinking and actions.)
I enjoy video games more than any other form of entertainment. I have a lot of problems with it, and often complain about problematic things within them. I certainly do not feel bad for liking things that have something even obviously messed up in it. Everytime I’ve seen people discuss these things, there’s several – often even most – taking part in it who just don’t get why fictionland’s problems are something so many take seriously. Too often I see the realism card played as well. Especially those who personally benefit somehow from them are very unlikely to admit seeing any of the problems. (My brother, all though generally intelligent and willing to listen, has a lot of issues with admitting how certain tropes or portrayals of women are problematic, because he doesn’t personally feel affected OR because “he just likes it”.)
A lot of defenses I have seen are based on an idea that they _should_ feel bad for liking problematic material (and thus they deny it has anything wrong with it) and bitch about that, or, alternatively, that they feel like they’re being told that they should not like it at all. Even though liking iffy things has nothing wrong with it, it just doesn’t excuse one to ignore that they have anything to protest about.
“Well, men have it bad too!” just sounds incredibly lame, apologetic and lazy to me. People who use this argument either want to excuse or derail the whole topic, and preserve the status quo because they don’t understand the problems – or if they do, they don’t care.
Also, anyone who pulls the “evopsych” card when talking about gender roles can kindly go and shove their “theories” into their nostrils and sit in the corner silently for the rest of the discussion.
Xiaobaobao:
Awwww…he’s trying to put me on the defensive. How cute!
You still can’t get around it, your arguement is unintelligible. You were merely ranting in order to hide the fact that you’ve got nothing relevant or coherent to say.
Tulgey Logger has already posted links to articles about feminist movements in various places and I suggest you read them. You might also find this site educational: http://www.cddc.vt.edu/feminism/asia.html and there are lots of links that you can study the effects of Asian feminism. In fact there seems to be quite a feminist presence in many Asian countries.