Christina Hoff Sommers is an old school faux-feminist who’s devoted the last several decades to trashing feminism. Lately she’s apparently decided to appeal to a younger audience — or at least a more immature one — by pandering to the #GamerGate crowd.
That’s probably worth a post or two in itself, but in the meantime you might enjoy this excellent song that deftly rebuts the, er, arguments in her recent video about sexism in video games and why she thinks that’s somehow not a real issue because, you know, dudes like to look at boobies when they play games. No, that’s really her argument — though I’m not sure it even qualifies as an argument, technically speaking.
Anyway, enjoy!
And here’s her original video, if you’re feeling masochistic and would actually enjoy sitting through six and a half very long minutes of simple-minded, patronizing, disingenuous, evidence-free pseudoarguments delivered by someone desperately pandering to terrible, terrible people.
I got two bagfuls of cukes from my husband’s uncle’s garden this summer and I chopped them all up and made them into spicy fridge pickles.
I’m sad that they are gone now. I should have been less of a cuke-fiend and saved some for when the season was over.
Something fun — teens react to NES. Man this video takes me back! Super Mario, yeah!!
Love this video. Hilarious, esp the “dance moves” 😀 I also liked the part where she says “smart, creative, tech savy Guys” while the horrible death/rape are shown in the bacgroung bacause it emphasizes how full of BS she is. Well played, David.
RE: Kav P
I mean, look at the hubbub over Assassin’s Creed: Unity, and the excuse that it would be more expensive to “animate” a female character than a male character
Urgh, I KNOW. I’ve actually found myself creeped out by the sheer amount of jiggling in games like Haunting Ground. (I’ve also found myself trapped in conversations with straight boys whining about how characters don’t jiggle ENOUGH. Wow, was that fun.) It’s like, if I wanted fucking porn, I’d watch porn! Having it in my horror games is just CREEPY. Can I at least turn the damn thing off?
RE: Viro Dianc
Aw, baby got banned. Boohoo.
RE: contrapangloss
Cucumbers are delicious. You are ruining a perfectly good vegetable. Ew. Ew. Ew.
Next time I get one, I will chomp it to death especially viciously, just for fun. Seriously, cucumbers are the shit. And the farmer’s market sells the little pickling cukes two for a dollar! Good snacks.
I like the little Lebanese cucumbers with the thin skin that doesn’t need to be peeled before you cut them into very thin slices.
(Protip to trolls: given what happens to vegetables, using one as a euphemism for your penis is not a particularly good idea.)
It would be cruel to post a picture of a mandolin, right? Click at your own risk, troll dudes.
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/mandolin-slicer/1010496373
Oooh, I’ve never seen one of those. I thought it might be like an egg slice.
http://i00.i.aliimg.com/wsphoto/v0/1376391758/FREE-SHIPPING-Thickening-multifunctional-fancy-cut-egg-viscosimet-chicken-duck-egg-egg-slice-egg-kitchen-utensils.jpg_350x350.jpg
… WP really can’t make up its mind whether to post links or pics, can it?
That’s the wimpy version too, the pro version looks like this.
http://www.kitchencontraptions.com/pictures/563627v1.jpg
Mandolins are wonderful tools.
That really does look like a torture device.
I’m not mature enough to own a mandolin yet.
Back to the OP:
I love the video so much. It’s still fantastic on the tenth time. The dude also has others, and this one just is full of warm fuzzies. Despite containing the scariest thing to walk the earth. A baby.
Thanks for pointing out my new favorite YouTube channel. Peter Hollens, you have been usurped.
http://youtu.be/7vO7YVHwEoc
Also, mandolin slicers rock. Best way to make cucumber chips and homage potato crisps!
My husband owns a lute …
Hm. It seems as though Viro Danc is still in that stage where he thinks that being mean to someone is just a way of saying that you like them. So…middle school. (Though probably only mentally.)
Also, I saw the original video and UGGGHHHH. I can’t believe that her justification for male gamers supposedly only wanting to play games with male protagonists and sexy female characters playing damsels in distress or sex objects was “boys will be boys” and “men can only relate to male characters and don’t wanna play/watch/read about a female protagonist who isn’t about her boobs because they’re male.” It’s abundantly clear to everyone who observes any media trends that girls and women can identify with male protagonists and enjoy media with male protagonists that isn’t about sexy those guys are. Observe the Harry Potter phenomenon, just to start out. And there’s supposedly a crisis because boys don’t read as much as girls do because boys don’t want to read about girls, even though the majority of children’s books’ protagonists are boys! http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/may/06/gender-imbalance-children-s-literature
And a plurality of YA protagonists are male! http://ladybusiness.dreamwidth.org/38016.html
And this is all because we believe that boys and men don’t want to consume media with female protagonists and only want male protagonists, so we only present them with media that features male protagonists and steer them away from female protagonists, who make up a minority anyway, and then we claim that boys and men just don’t to read about/watch/play games with female protagonists unless they’re being completely objectified. http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/genreville/?p=1811
But it’s okay because, hey, boys will be boys, and girls will just put up with it like they always have. *gags*
I’ve always felt a bit insulted, the idea that you can sell me fucking ANYTHING with boobs because I’m a guy. (Admittedly, I’m gay, but they don’t seem to ever take that into account and try to sell me manflesh.) It’s like, I have this thing called TASTE. You can cover shit in a bajillion boobs, and it’ll still be shit. Do you think the moment I get an erection, I lose all sense of taste and quality?
Please. Give me a break.
Also, the only new game I’ve played through in a decade is Alice: Madness Returns. Mentally ill stabby female protagonist for the win! It would’ve been way more boring as Allen: Madness Returns.
Besides that, all the serious male gamers that I knew really liked games like Portal, Mirror’s Edge, and The Last of Us, which all had female protagonists and were lacking in sex objects. So…yeah, they can appreciate well-made, interesting games that happen to have female protagonists.
(I know The Last of Us had a male protagonist too, but the point still stands, I think.)
I’m suddenly seeing the Diana of Ephesus here …
Lol, kitteh. They should make a video game starring Artemis. Only the male protagonist has to avoid seeing her naked and peeking or else he’ll get turned into a deer and have to run from hunting dogs. It’d be the first game that made you avoid spying on naked women.
Whoa, the Actaeon game would be worth seeing!
Ugh. Why did I watch the original? WHY?
Darnit, David, I know why you post the original. It’s so that you can refute the inevitable twits who will claim you make it all up. But why am I always compelled to look at those originals you link? WHYYYYY?!
OK, seriously, what is up with her? Just… WHAT?
Now, the rebuttal song? I love it!
@VD
Wasn’t that script written by a man? So, how can you claim that it accurately portrays something that women “love” to do? How does a male writer know what women “love” to do? I certainly don’t claim to understand male characters that well, and anyway, women aren’t a monolith, any more than men are.
As for the situation, perhaps, if he had stuck around long enough for her to be able to rest up and then be ABLE to wake up, they could have had a happy time. The options aren’t limited to sex RIGHT NOW with physically exhausted woman, or walk away. After a nap, things would have been different. He had no patience for a nap?
I don’t think you really understand the concept of consent.