So I was watching a little video roundup of some of the worst video games ever the other day and I came across some footage from a justifiably obscure little first-person-shooter called Operation Matriarchy.
The premise of this 2005 PC game, made in Russia, may as well have emerged from the fevered imagination of some Men’s Rights activist. Here’s how the promo blurb at MobyGames explains it, with the especially MRA-ish bits in bold:
In the mid-24th century, a virus of unknown origin wiped through the Velian civilization. It affected only the women, twisting them into brutal killing machines. They modified their bodies, enhancing them with cybernetic and bio-engineered parts. The male population was enslaved, used for genetic experiments and food. The previously democratic society became a matriarchal ant-colony; a hive-mind focused on one thing only – Domination. All-out war erupted between the Velians and their former allies, the Federation of Earth.
But fear not! For a brave Men’s Rights Activist space solider, Senior Sergeant Paul Armstrong of the Federation, stands up against these evil matriarchs and their robot friends when they attack his ship. Also, there are monsters.
So, basically, this game offers dudes an excuse to shoot scantily clad women for hours on end. Granted, some of these women are trying to shoot at the bold defenders of all things male, but others are unarmed, and are shot down long before they get close enough to do any harm, making the game ideal for anyone who fantasizes about shooting down wave after wave of women in fetishy gear.
You can see what I’m talking about in the gameplay video below.
This is all very reminiscent of the fantasies of “restorative, retaliatory” violence that seem to drive so many in the Men’s Rights movement, as I noted in my review of Michael Kimmel’s Angry White Men on the American Prospect.
And some men are very dedicated to these fantasies indeed. One odd little side-note to the history of Operation Matriarchy that seems to underscore that point. You see, the game was so incompetently made that when it first shipped it was basically broken. As Wikipedia explains:
Operation: Matriarchy, was released with what appeared to be damaged music files and incomplete sound files; all of the music files, except for the main menu track, simply play static, while several of the sound files are simply silence.
Also, it was ugly as shit.
But some enterprising fans were evidently so taken by the premise of the game that they decided to step up and fix the game themselves — so they could have the opportunity to, well, shoot down wave after wave of scantily clad women while listening to music at the same time, and without the graphics and the story being quite so completely awful.
Wikipedia again:
A pair of fan made mods that replace these files and made other enhancements to the game were released:
In August 2007, a fan-made music and sound enhancement mod was released, which added a complete in-game music score and enhanced sound effects. In addition, the story was rewritten.
In September 2009, a second fan-made mod appeared. This offered a complete (optional) translation to German and further changes to the sound effects and music. However, the largest changes were to the visuals, with enhanced lighting and improved versions of many textures and bump maps.
I don’t know if the video above is one made using the visually “enhanced” version of the game or not. All of the videos of the game I’ve seen — and there are many, many more on YouTube — look awful to me.
If you want to buy this monstrosity, you can get it on Amazon.
That article comes across as really “don’t lose weight because you might end up like THIS” to me. I really don’t like how they used the images. It’s exploitative.
Yeah. By the comments it was probably going for how it’s a lose-lose for fat women (pun definitely not intended), but that just isn’t how you do it. There’s also plenty to be said on why not to lose weight (for the sake of losing weight, if it happens as a side effect of eating healthier or exercising, cool, but those are good for you while weight loss for its own sake isn’t)
Again, not how you do it. Me, I’d go all STATISTICS!! But even the simple “X is a bad medical thing, eating healthy is good will help with X, and hey, you might lose weight” v “to lose weight, you have to eat healthy, and you have to lose weight because X”
I have a weird thing about FA, given I’m tiny. But that’s it really, I’m tiny. And my body is no more your business now than if I weighed 3x+ or anywhere in between. Ah, there it is. That’s why it feels exploitive, to me anyways — they’re using her body to make a point, and one hinge n, as you said, you don’t want to look like HER!
Kitteh — your comment about morbidly obese! You kill me!
Is good and will help
Or
Is good
Or will help
This is why I don’t edit, my two lines of thought got all smashed together.
I just don’t feel like “watch out or you might end up looking like this” is ever a feminist way to approach, well, anything. Using images of women’s bodies to make a point like that…I can’t help wondering if the woman whose pics they’re using was consulted about the article, and if she’d be OK with it as written.
Add the comments where people are openly expressing their negative feelings about how she looks now and the whole thing just feels…shouldn’t we as women try not to do this to each other? I keep going back to, what if the woman whose images they’re using read that article and those comments? How would that make her feel?
Like an object?
Ergo feminism fail?
Like her body is being used to make someone else’s point, which is dehumanizing, and that’s before you add in how bad it’s going to make anyone feel to have people pointing at their body and going “well God forbid I end up like that”.
Plus, maybe this is just me, but I’d take something like that far more personally if it was coming from people who in theory should have your back.
Sorry, that argument only works if it affected both men AND women. The description itself states that this virus ONLY affected women, and features a male protagonists killing all of the women, even if they’re unarmed.
Again, the conceit being that they are mutated from an “XX virus”.
DING DING DING we have a winner.
(Argenti’s comments too, win win win.)
I was appalled at that story but couldn’t even put it into words, but what is wonderful is that I can count on you.
I should be trying to sleep but I’m still too wired.
Oh fuck off, ToeJam, we’re having an interesting conversation here and you’re not contributing.
Are we keeping you awake? If so I can shut up.
Also the whole way that article was laid out reminded me of those “plastic surgery disaster” type sites, which have always seemed really cruel to me. There’s an undertone of “you did this because you were vain and wanted to be prettier and hah! look how that turned out!” which really sets my teeth on edge.
I’m definitely pro fat acceptance, but that isn’t the way to do it. I wish Shapely Prose was still around, they’d have ripped that article to shreds.
Yeah, it’s still body policing, even intended as the hidden side of another form of body policing. Maybe mention it while discussing how those ads lie, as a side point, but her body should not be the main point of anything she didn’t agree to.
Like, over there it probably would fly, but how feminist would it be to write an article on what pregnancy does to your body and focus on stretch marks? (I pick pregnancy here because it does have various physical effects, some cosmetic, many not, and because it, like weight loss, is touted as a thing women Must Do)
Or make the post clearly about body policing and how women get shit if fat, and then get shit for the results of being fat (this would, of course, require evidence of the latter that hopefully didn’t come from your own comments section!)
And it’s a guest post, so it needed approval, not like one author went and posted something about something/someone controversial *cough*Hugo.Fucking.Schwyzer*cough* without anyone reviewing it.
My sleeping pill is kicking in btw, I doubt I’ll be up much longer.
It does feel like it’s missing the point. It’s like if someone set out to write an article on eating disorders and focused on the damage that bulimia can do to your teeth, complete with images of “unpretty” smiles.
And yes, DING DING DING, on it coming frm people who should have your back (not be using the amount of skin on it to make a point about how see, you’re still screwed!)
It’s not even just using her to make a point, which would be bad enough, but using her to show how you’re she’s still screwed.
Def(initely no fun) — go away.
Or, maybe more aptly, if they illustrated an eating disorders article with pics of a someone who developed the disorder and ended up looking “ugly”, complete with naked pictures and the names of the people in the pictures, because who cares whether or not they’re OK with their bodies being used as a cautionary tale?
Feminists should be better than this.
Example #1395029763 of how we police ourselves better than MRAs do.
Okay, I am going to sleep.
And Cassandra wins “pin the tail on the ass” (that doesn’t work does it? Oh well)
Time for me to lie down before I fall asleep sitting up, g’night!
Oh fuck off, ToeJam, we’re having an interesting conversation here and you’re not contributing.
Considering feminists are known to body-shame men as a form of puerile “revenge”, your objections to the article are hypocritical.
Now, contrast that to MRAs, who- at least those who really understand what we’re all about- avoid judging others based on appearance. I wish feminists had that integrity. Matt Forney, for example, was the recipient of so much mockery from feminists about his appearance that he took down his Youtube videos.
“Now, contrast that to MRAs, who- at least those who really understand what we’re all about- avoid judging others based on appearance.”
LOL wut
New theory! Meta trolling. They’ve figured out that posting comments that are too inane to engage with will result in, well, people not engaging, which halts the conversation.
“Now, contrast that to MRAs, who- at least those who really understand what we’re all about- avoid judging others based on appearance.”
LOL wut²
Shorter: “You’re all fat, ugly, castrating bitches, now shut UP.”
And thank god those MRAs never body-shame.
Not a word about fat.
Not a word about paper bags.
They are pure like the driven snow.
And they’ve never driven feminists off YouTube.
…
It’s like self-parody, but unaware?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Someone hand me my eyeballs.