The gaming enthusiast known as seanmalstrom seems to be on a personal crusade to challenge the stereotype of men as the βlogical sex.β He does this mostly by 1) being a dude and 2) writing things that make no sense at all.
In a recent post on his blog Malstromβs Articles News β no, thatβs really what itβs called β Mr. Malstrom attempts to rebut a piece by John Walker of the gaming site Rock Paper Shotgun that challenged misogyny in the gaming world.
Itβs not much of a rebuttal, but Mr. Malstrom makes a couple of, er, “arguments” that grabbed my attention. At one point he suggests that if game developers stop populating their games with sexy lady characters with giant boobs and long legs, American men will have no way to exercise their God-given right to ogle sexy ladies with giant boobs and long legs.
There is a great question I have yet to hear anyone in the Game Industry answer. If women cannot be depicted fantastical (big boobs, long legs, slaughters armies single-handedly) in fantasy entertainment, where can men go to see fantasy women? Women have their fantasy men from endless soap-operas, romance novels, chick flicks, and such. Are men not allowed to have fantasies in entertainment?
True, that is a question Iβve yet to see anyone in the game industry answer, largely because most of the people in the game industry, whatever their flaws, live in the real world, and in the real world images of sexy ladies with big boobs are not exactly difficult to come by.
Mr. Malstrom goes on to argue that men in the English-speaking world have the greatest need for sexy lady video game characters, because the women they run into on a regular basis in the real world are all fatties. In the Cold War era, politicians warned about a βMissile Gapβ with the Russians. Today, apparently, we and the Russians have a Fatty Gap.
In Russia, it is stunning to see alcoholic bums of Russian men with model quality looks Russian women. In the same way, in the United States it is stunning to see wealthy, hardworking, handsome American men with an American woman who looks like a Troglodyte. Of course, this is just a generalization. The point is that the typical American male has a better worldwide value if they stop thinking the local obese women around them are βthe normalβ. They arenβt the normal worldwide.
If anyone needs fantasy depictions, it would be English speaking men who donβt have access to the worldwide standard.
Mr. Malstrom is also bothered by the suggestion that video game makers should try to make female characters more interesting. You know, with personalities and motivations of their own, and stuff like that. To Mr. Malstrom, thereβs nothing more interesting about a women than her body.
What makes a woman interesting to men?
The truth is that interesting women needs youth, big boobs, long legs, long hair, and an hourglass figure to be interesting to men. The more women go away from this, the less interesting they become to men. This is why women when inevitably age, they become more and more invisible to men. It is just Nature at work. Ironically, for men the older they get, the more interesting they can become to women as their earning potential goes up. This balances out how most young men are invisible to women when they are younger. After the age of 25, men tend to become the more interesting ones compared to a woman of equal age. This is why mothers always advised their daughters to βsnag him when he and she are both youngβ.
Indeed, Mr. Malstrom argues, men who insist that women be depicted as sex objects are doing women a giant favor.
And we should only hope that women wish to be depicted as sex objects for that is how they become love objects as well. No man wants to marry a women they arenβt attracted to. Last I checked, marriage rates were plummeting in the West. Perhaps journalists should strive for βpositive changeβ by suggesting to women to be depicted more as sex objects so they can attract a man for marriage before they get too old. That would truly help women and make men happier as well.
Mr. Malstrom concludes with a stirring call for women to stop being such fat fatties.
It IS tasteless for using women as sex objects to sell games. Why? It is because real life women should be sex objects to begin with. If that were the case, putting them on a game cover wouldnβt be selling the game. This used to be the case decades ago. Since obesity in women have skyrocketed and attractive women have diminished, putting attractive women on game covers definitely attracts men more than it should.
It IS sad that women canβt find themselves sensibly portrayed in the games they play. It is not because the women in the games are βtoo attractiveβ, it is because the women playing them tend to be βtoo fatβ. It is sad for women that they are fat. It is also sad for men. What John Walker should do is to advise women to get in shape and try to look like the depictions of women that men are attracted to. This would be βpositive changeβ we could all get behind.
I hate to burst your bubble, Mr. Malstrom, but I donβt think there was any era of history in which women looked like this.
It’s probably just as well, as Lara here doesn’t seem to have eyelids and her head isn’t properly connected to her neck.
Note: Thanks to Tatjna for pointing me to Mr. Malstrom’s post!
I’m betting there’s a similar element with the “hot Russian women” trope as with the “hot Asian women” one – that they are so desperate for money/security that they’ll fuck whatever dirtbag loser man looks at them, if they think he’s got any cash. His crap about Russian women and alcoholic men came across that way … which suggests he has a glimmer of knowledge that he himself fits right in the “dirtbag nobody would touch” demographic. Not that he’d ever admit it, of course (besides, all those handsome male models or actors aren’t really real, just like the video game women, amirite?) but it’s there, niggling away in his reptilian little brain.
Misogynist-Targeted Schadenfreude, I haz it.
Yeah, ‘the grass is always greener’, that’s a good way to put it. Kind of like some of the (American) women I know at university now refuse to date American men because ‘British/ European guys are better/ more cultured’ (OK, that’s not the same thing in terms of sexism, etc. but still related).
Speaking of harassment, one time when I was in a bank, I was sitting in the lounge area next to this man reading the newspaper. Right next to us was this female employee sitting at a desk. The man then said something like “She’s looking good – I wonder how old she is?” right in front of her. Seriously. She didn’t hear him, but I was still pissed off.
She could’ve heard him and ignored him.
I wonder how many people who say stuff like that ever actually traveled to the places they’re talking about. I somehow doubt it.
I’m even reluctant to say ‘American’ when talking about country specific traits, it’s a very big and diverse place.
Around my city there are a lot of little towns, and each one seems to have their own dialect. I drive two hours in one direction and the school syllabus there differs vastly and payment is much lower.
How could I assume a whole country or continent would somehow share specific traits? That’s more than just a generalization.
What is weird about this I was offended by my own comment. Until I saw it was in response to Aaliqay’s comment
@Kittehs’ Unpaid Help (you’re not even their domestic worker?)
I thought the “hot Asian woman” hypersexualization was rooted more in imperialism-tinged racism. Or you … probably knew it, yeah.
@Aaliyah that sucks. Some people just have no sense of discretion.
CassandraSays – yes, being a DD or more (given how bra sizing is dumb) at age 14 while weighing barely 100 lbs really was viewed as an excuse to molest/stalk/sexualize/etc. And it’s so normalized that I didn’t really understand that it wasn’t my fault. In my personal experience, this kind of shit leads to real predation. I happened to experience living in the body of their ideal prey for awhile. It’s fucking gross. GROSS.
I only hope this guy lives so far out in space that teenagers don’t have a chance of bumping into him. This stuff inspires me to move my career towards empowering teen girls.
whoa….the media has never before suggested i make myself more of a sex object. or that i should do so for marriage. this guy just opened hella metaphorical doors for me.
WOW, there is a mega thunderstorm going on in my major city right now. that was intense.
katz: Itβs actually a pretty common role for female characters, because it allows them to be in combat without really being βinβ combat and it plays to womensβ perceived strengths (as being more agile and dextrous than strong).
Thus showing the authors don’t know how strong one has to be to use a bow which draws at 50 lbs (or more).
@Eli —
I am so sorry. It never stops being scary and/or offensive and/or triggering and/or enraging.
“@Kittehsβ Unpaid Help (youβre not even their domestic worker?)”
BWAHAHAHAHA domesticated, perhaps! mildlymagnificent called me Kittehserf once. I’m seriously thinking I should change to that. It’s shorter, for one thing. (You can call me Kittehs if you want.)
Yeah, the imperialistic thing is there too, and you’re right, I knew it but wasn’t really thinking about it so much as the idea of Asian and Russian women both coming from countries with shitty economies and so on. The colonialism bit is a whole extra level of history and squick to add. π Both tropes are racist, but coming from opposite directions, as it were.
@eli – my comment maybe didn’t go through. or will twice. i’m still confused by technology, as i use no other message boards. (you guys are that awesome.) i’m so sorry – it never stops being an awful thing to have happen.
Derailing … this thread is probably dead and I’ll probably bring it u pagain on another game-related thread, but it scares me that my much younger teenage brother, who loves video games, is getting these messages. he is a great kid, but he’s a teenager who doesn’t want to hear his old ass sister telling him about how women are people. there’s no indication he doesn’t, but…ick.
This thread’s far from dead, fear not! π
That’s ick about your brother, all right, even if it’s more something that might happen than something that has.
how do most people here follow the threads — just a lot of reloading?
Indeed. Doad thought he was doing pretty well when he could draw our friend’s 37-lb bow; I never really hoped to get higher than 30 lbs. But then I got tendonitis instead.
@bahumbugi
Good luck with your brother. Hopefully he’ll be fine, mine was (less of a sexualized women in game thing and more of an annoying rape jokes by players thing, which I at the time only thought of as somewhat annoying. wtf former me?). Idk, just rambling.
@bahumbugi
I just refresh occasionally, and when I’m not on, I bookmark my place in threads by clicking on the comment, only way I can keep up. I actually have a whole bookmark folder for the manboobz threads I’m either reading or want to read π
bahumbugi-
your experience sounds much more like you are down in the trenches day in and day out. I hope I made it clear in my comment that I assumed these things were past me based on age.
It sounds like you are dealing with some tough stuff. I wish I had had the folks around here when I was your age.
Bahubagi,
I read the comment threads in an RSS feed.
I’ve set things up so that the snark center of my brain gets a very mild electrical shock any time something interesting is happening here.
Ha ha, if only. π Mostly just trying madly to keep up, and remembering to refresh before commenting because I’ve been ninja’d so often in the past.
I refresh all the time. Manboobz is one of my home page tabs.
Also, bahumbugi, don’t underestimate your power to influence your younger brother even if it doesn’t seem like it’s getting through to him at the time. The feminist hivemind is very good at subliminal messaging, which is how we control the UN and most national governments without having to even elect women/feminist leaders.
Damn, I should NOT have said that on a public thread. π π π π
eli: I’m so sorry. I hope the idea you photographed/filmed them makes them nervous for awhile.
You’ll have Owly back saying “See? I told you so!”