Originally Posted by poopinmymouth

As an artist I cannot disagree more strongly. Using existing stereotypes as a shortcut is incredibly lazy and the reason why we have so many same-y games out. If an artist has any pride whatsoever they should constantly be on the lookout for how to stretch boundaries or communicate in new ways.

Yes and no. Bald SPESS MUHREENS *patriotic salute* may be overdone, but the core concept of a soldier is so fundamental that you can't remove it without drastically limiting the story you can tell. With her vids she's talking about core storytelling elements like "girl inspires boy" or "bad things happen to love interests". These are such basic concepts that she's more or less arguing for the destruction of entire genres, to be replaced with... I dunno, movies about a woman being a real person. Fun?

Originally Posted by dfacto

Yes and no. Bald SPESS MUHREENS *patriotic salute* may be overdone, but the core concept of a soldier is so fundamental that you can't remove it without drastically limiting the story you can tell. With her vids she's talking about core storytelling elements like "girl inspires boy" or "bad things happen to love interests". These are such basic concepts that she's more or less arguing for the destruction of entire genres, to be replaced with... I dunno, movies about a woman being a real person. Fun?

I haven't seen it, but she compliments the series "Veronica Mars" as portraying women as real people, and it seemed to have a good run with lots of fans and advertisers. Are you implying that a game couldn't be fun with numerous well rounded female characters?

Having now finished all the videos, something has appeared to me that I think is a little funny:

In the straw feminist video most of all, she rightfully bemoans the trope of feminists being aggressive and over the top; She points out that by doing so, writers are distancing reasonable female leads from feminism.

So feminists aren't abrasive, bitchy, or chauvinistic. Now let me communicate this to you in a slightly over the top rant that takes the point of each video to it's absolute extreme. (i.e. "I will puke if I hear a man cite a woman as his muse"). Let me tell you these things via the channel, 'bitch media'.

I don't want to say 'She could have toned it down' because that pretty much just pisses in the face of what these videos are about, but I do feel that she might not be recognizing the severity of a couple of her points.

Oh I also wanted to mention the bechdel Movie Test.

I don't know it word for word, but it goes something like this. Think of a film you've watched recently. Does it feature at least two female characters, who talk to each other about something OTHER than a man?

It's surprising how many films with a strong female character, actually on closer inspection have that character act as nothing more than a prop for the male lead.

If you think this test is too selective or difficult, re-examine your expectations of women in films, and then apply the test to men.

Women In Refrigerators:


Where are her statistics? Is she trying to convince people who don't see things her way to change their minds, or just using a platform to garner attention?

"Does everyone remember the 1994 issue of green lantern?" Um nope. I don't read comics, and if I did, I'd hope you could come up with a recent issue, seeing as 1994 is actually 18 years ago. Which, seeing as someone could be 18 years old and never read this issue, I consider to be a decent amount of time. Yeah. That's practically the 80s. people.

"I've never read green lantern, but thankfully, Gail Simone did. because SHE began to see a trend".

Wait., so you're making a video, touting a view about injustice in a certain type of media, citing an example that you yourself didn't actually read? Wait. WHAT? What is this, youtube? Oh wait. . . .


Ok, so maybe she's got some examples and statistics. Let's watch some more.

"Simone was sick of seeing heroines who had been either "depowered, raped, or cut up and stuck in the refridgerator".

Ok, so because she is personally sick of it, does that automatically mean that there are an overwhelming amount of these stories? No. Just that she doesn't want to hear them. But maybe there are some statistics coming up.

"Simone compiled a Startlingly long list of over 90 comics that featured female superheroes who suffered a loss of powers, brutal violation, or untimely gruesome death."

Wait, so a female "losing her super powers" is on an equal plane as "brutal violation", and "untimely gruesome death"? Am I supposed to believe then, that this shouldn't happen to women in comics, and only to men?

Ok, no real statistics yet, other than the "over 90" number. I'd like to see that stacked up with the number of times this occurred to male superheroes. If you're going to try to convince me, put some effort into it. Ripping characters out of stories and touting them as your examples without giving real comparisons to what happens on the flip side - to male characters - is simply biased.

There have been well over 160,000 comic books created based on the statistics that I can find. The amount of superheroes created is staggering. 90 really isn't a very large number, especially when it's a biased method of fact finding, that ignores anything but what someone wants to see.

She does the same thing in the vid with lost. Nowhere do I hear her compare the female deaths with the deaths of male characters. I'm pretty sure there were males that died. Pretty sure.

"The writers chose to kill of an important female character. . . " Wait, so is it a trope because it killed off an important female character, or simply because it killed off an important character. Because it's blatantly sexist to imply that because the character is female, you shouldn't kill her off to give a male character a more complex story. If you think it's a trope that is bad simply because it's a trope, regardless of what sex or orientation the character is, then why make all the fuss about her being female?

". . . she was conveniently killed in her kitchen without a sign of a struggle." Are you saying that because she's a woman, the writers should automatically make a sign of a struggle? Is it not possible for a woman to be surprised and killed without a struggle? I don't see how it's implausible for either a man or a woman with great power to be surprised and killed without struggle. Once again, an example that tells me nothing. No statistics showing that this has doesn't happened to males in comics.

"Big Barda is just one of many female characters whos random and meaningless death was constructed in order to create a more intricate storyline for a male hero."

Ok. While I certainly believe that is a possibility, it sounds yet again, as though she believes the trope exists simply because of the fact that the character was female. If all characters that were killed off in "meaningless deaths" male, would she be ok with it? Or is it simply a trope all across the board?

Also, how can a meaningless death actually be meaningless? I mean, do people die meaningless deaths in real life? If so, why can't we write about them? And how is a death really meaningless if it affects someone in an extremely powerful way? Is that sexist? "Barda meant so much to me that I was torn apart by her death. It destroyed me." Wow. I think I'm going to puke. That's sooo sexist.

"comic books can be hard to follow. . ." Yes. especially if you don't read them.

"So this doesn't hold true across the board, but it certainly happens a lot". Wait. "A lot". Is this a statistic? How much is "A lot"? Is "a lot" more than what happens to male characters? WAIT!!! I'd like some help believing what you're saying. Statistics please? "It certainly happens a lot." -_- Again with the "a lot"?Seriously? Ok. Maybe you have done some research yourself SOMEWHERE in this video. Let's keep watching.

"When Simone released her list in 1999 there was an instant backlash from some comic book fans who thought it was unfair that they were singling out female characters. This criticism happens whenever we point out tropes, specifically about women.".

Wait, how does receiving criticism suddenly equal anything positive for your argument? Does being criticized automatically make you right? Does it somehow make everyone who criticized you sexist? Everyone who is vocal about ANYTHING gets criticism. What makes yours special? Is anyone who gives you criticism sexist?

“First, there’s [always been] a larger selection of male characters, so a handful killed made barely a ripple.

Wait, so because there's a lot of guys in comics, it automatically means that doing the very thing to men that you're complaining about being done to women is somehow OK? This isn't sexist?


"Whereas in many cases the superLADIES were simply found on the kitchen table already carved up."
How many cases? Do you know? I'd really like to know!

"Handful killed". "Seem to be killed". "Seems to be fairing much worse for the women". Maybe someone should do some actually research and compare some numbers if one wants to seem credible. Just because you "feel" like women are getting the short end of the stick, doesn't make it so. If you want to see if that's a fact, you first should crunch some numbers and make some comparisons before crying "SEXIST". And you CERTAINLY should provide some real evidence if you're going to go on a mission to convert people to your point of view.

"And there are plenty, plenty more examples". -_- Um. . yeah. That's a line I used to hear growing up when some kid claimed something was so, without actually knowing what they were talking about. It pretty much tells me that you haven't gone through the trouble of making sure you've got fact to back up what you say. How about showing those examples? Taking some effort to compile evidence to convert those who doubt you? No?

"Writers are using the Women in Refrigeratorstrope to literally trade the female characters life for the benefit of a male hero’s story arc. They are making clear that women, even powerful female superheroes are basically disposable."

So anyone who uses a "trope" that involves a female dying to further the story of a male character automatically believes that women = Disposable. Okay. Seems a bit harsh. And this conclusion is based on your massive statistics and research that you inundated me with in your vid, I suppose.

"stop using violence against women as a way to further the storyline of your male hero, and start writing us as full and complete human beings…. okay? Okay!"

Oh! So we CAN'T use violence+women in a genre of superheroes where violence is pretty much the main staple. Wait. Really? We can use it with guys though? Isn't that sexist?

(She writes this at the end of her page, but it's not in the vid.) -
"I’m not saying women can’t ever die in comic books but it matters how and why they die." But it only matters how women die? Only women? What about kids? Or Minorities? Or, hey, how about white males too?

If you make a GENUINE EFFORT to understand womens issues, it become possible to disagree with feminism without looking like an asshole. Try it out!

On that note, my opinion:

I don't think specific gender roles in stories are necessarily degrading. Women have certain unique and powerful symbology to both women AND men -- they give life, and that inherently places them in a certain 'objectified' role as something for both men AND other women to be concerned for and protective of in unique ways. A pregnant woman is inherently a damsel in distress that demands care, and there is no real working around that. The implication runs pretty deep and is inescapable. There is a price to the injury or death of a woman that simply does not exist with a man.

Please make an effort to understand this and not latch on to the language as being sexist: Women DO inspire specific care that men do not inspire -- the only issue is that a gigantic majority of stories clearly portrays men, and exclusively men, as the caregivers and protectors of women. Typical women -- women who have children at some point in their lives -- must be cared for in certain unique ways, and that fundamentally colors the identity of women as symbols in fiction. But while in reality the primary caregiver is most typically the woman herself, assisted equally by other men and other women -- in fiction the caregiver is always a powerful, self actualized man, no matter what the details of the plot would like to have the viewer believe.

Obviously a modern story should be empowering of women as equals, and clearly FAR FAR too many stories are not, but to act like placing women in a gender specific or vulnerable role is inherently sexist is ludicrous. Women and men are NOT fundamentally the same as concepts, even if they can do all the same jobs and achieve all the same goals.

Holy crap, what is it with people these days?

I'm more for women's rights and equality (across the board) than a lot of folks, I think. I don't even use the word "bitch" because it gives me a bad feeling, I like my insults to be gender neutral, people are people.

...but stuff like this really throws me for a loop. It's not even that I don't agree with the points themselves. In most (but not all) instances, I do. I just think labeling a video with "bitch media" and then complaining about women getting more respect in media does more to hurt than to help. I mean honestly, I'm sitting here chilling with my wife we're just doing our own thing and then all of a sudden I've got like 30 seconds of the word "PENIS!" being shouted at me. People need to quit focusing so much on the fact that different folk have different "private parts" and focus more on making cool, creative stuff.

If that means Hazardous posting up a new girl every week, well by all means! Because right underneath it you might have Jessica Dinh with some sweet hand painted goodness. I need to go shake Morgan Freeman's hand.

(And as a last note, my wife is my inspiration - my reason for waking up every morning. I am certain she would say the same thing about me in return, we've been best friends for many years. And I don't think she's there just to be my inspiration, in fact, it's seeing her make all of her own choices and pursue her own goals that pushes me to work harder all the time. And if she wanted to get a sex change tomorrow for whatever reason, it wouldn't change a thing.)

I think you're missing the forest for the trees, two listen.

Part of making cool stuff is being informed about what you're making. Literary criticism is VITAL to a creative existence -- if you can't dig at the implications of what's in front of you, how can you possibly author something meaningful?

Big Barda is one of her main selling points on this "Women in refrigerators" trope. I took the time to research it myself.

Big Barda is only ONE of many individuals killed in a miniseries called "Death of the New Gods. Most of which are men. They All Die in the same "meaningless" quick manner.

I'd like to show you the first 3 deaths, the first two of which, are male. These all occur in the first few pages of the first comic.

Another thing that was left out of her vid, was the fact that her husband was actually in the house when she was killed. In the next room. The comic goes on to show that even if her Husband had been in the room, it's likely that he himself would have been killed, as the killer is so swift and deadly, that he is able to assassinate entire groups without resistance.

So the first death is a man who's lying in a hospital bed. Pretty sad death. Ok, so you might say that this is sexist, because he's obviously injured. The next one is a completely healthy superhero, (Male) who is also killed without any sign of a struggle. How can you reach the conclusion that this woman does, about this specific female characters death, in light of all the surrounding male deaths that occur in exactly the same manner?



What implications does this have? I believe that videos and stances like these are the reason people move away from the "term" feminist, and nothing more. It reeks of what I'd call "Mass effect" journalism.

Now, while exposing the fact that at least one of the references she's citing are pretty much bogus doesn't prove that there are no tropes that affect women in a negative way, it does show how people running around toting "feminism" can be just as misguided as anyone else - and misinformed about what they speak of. And In my experience, it's quite often.


*edit* Also, to anyone who reads my long post, and regards it to be sounding rude or arrogant, I'd like to point you back to the eye-rolling, "yeah." quipping attitude of the woman in the video. She hardly comes across as anything but disgusted at the writers, and bemused by people "foolish" enough not to see her "facts".

Hi there Ben
Only watched the first video so far, and I just have to react to this !

This kind of position on gender issue really rubs me the wrong way.

To start with, she he's not very good at making her point clear. If I understand correctly, she's trying to say that many female characters in movies follow a cliché. Sure! I agree with that, and it can be painful at times, just like any cliché. But then ... she simply repeats that over and over again, showing examples and getting progressively angry. What's the point ? I get it, and I agree! So instead of hammering the point home, why isn't she focusing her attention on movies she likes, where female characters are given the role she thinks they deserve ? That's what I am interested about. Making countless quotes doesn't make the argument better, it just makes it tiring.

Now on the idea of tropes and clichés in general. Yup, most movies are unoriginal and follow overused narratives, and not only around gender issues. Again, that's something I totally agree with. Yet complaining about it is not going to change things much ... Being opinionated and bitter is her choice but again what's the point ? I'd rather hear her tell me about alternative, original story telling ideas instead of ranting over and over again. Since she obviously researched the issue, I want to hear more!

Last, her little rant about artists and muses is really ... narrow minded and plain dumb really. Basically, she is complaining about male artists being in love with their partners, or finding inspiration in women. What the hell! Who is she to be judgmental about that really, that's super sad. Basically Picasso makes her puke because he is a man and might not have been married to a talented woman artist ? (Well guess what, he was!). It's as if she is saying that it's wrong to be in love ... seriously ...

Of course there are talented women artists out there, and (in a majority of places in the world) no one said the opposite, no one is screaming "Alanis Morissette makes me want to puke, because she is a woman and that sucks, she shouldn't be allowed to be awesome!!" ... Society is changing, and the biases against/for men/women are slowly reducing. In some places they are gone for good, in others they are not ...

It's sad that many places in the world are still stuck in the middle ages, in terms of culture, politics, sexual discrimination, and so on. However I dont think that ranting like she does is really helpful in any way tho ... She is irritated by female support characters ... the same way that a guy can be irritated by dumb one-dimensional male heroes. She just doesn't like ... movies made by men, with a male main character ?

Originally Posted by Joseph Silverman

I think you're missing the forest for the trees, two listen.

Part of making cool stuff is being informed about what you're making. Literary criticism is VITAL to a creative existence -- if you can't dig at the implications of what's in front of you, how can you possibly author something meaningful?

I'm not missing anything. That's why these videos really annoy me, she's obviously got a collection of axes in desperate need of grinding and it really, REALLY shows. Often times overshadowing some of her more valid criticisms. Yes, women characters often get the short end of the stick. Yes, we need to point out those examples and at the same time, show alternatives that have been just as viable/successful. (Edit: Looks as if pior snuck in and posted about this while I was typing!)

These videos do not accomplish those things. It almost makes me want to make my own damn videos, because I feel as if this lady is actually hurting her cause. Anyone who actually DOES the research will wind up facepalming at half of her examples. Of course if I was going to do my own videos trying to better advocate the same thing, I'd have to find a woman to actually show up on camera. Otherwise people (well, people like the lady in the video who can't look past gender for even a few seconds) would just view it as "a man trying to rescue women". And that, is pretty fucked up.

As usual, Jim saves the day!

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...xism-Situation

At least there is plenty of staring ladies in mass effect!

The isn't isn't necessarily the quantity, but the way women are portrayed in video games, I think in the first game you could have sex with every major women character bedsides Tali'Zorah Vas Normandy. They are more often viewed as objects instead of people.

Uhh you'll have to forgive me if this is false as I've never played ME but I was under the impression you could have sex with anybody, including males and aliens?

Mass Effect 3 is the first one you can have sex with males in (besides being straight). The first 2 you could be a lesbian.

Mass Effect, equally objectifying all sexes... and aliens.

I could almost agree with that, it does it to women and female aliens a bit more.

But it's written by a woman, so "it's okay"!

Originally Posted by pior

As usual, Jim saves the day!

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...xism-Situation

Haha!

Also, in case someone mistakes my passion for dismantling what I see as bogus regurgitations - Make no mistake. I am fully aware, and do believe that there are many things in popular culture, video games, and comics that are hurtful to the way women, AND men are perceived by themselves and by the other. I think there are real issues that this women isn't even addressing. She does other women a disservice by parroting things she's heard, and simply widens rifts and causes the very stereotypes which she abhors.

Originally Posted by ZacD

I could almost agree with that, it does it to women and female aliens a bit more.

For sure. I haven't played enough of femshep throughout the series to know how they treat things from the female perspective but I assume you're on a equally ridiculous sexual conquest at least.

Originally Posted by Ace-Angel

Ugh, seriously, this is starting to thick me off.

Can't we ever a FEMALE journalist/blogger/etc who can say what's need to be said without grinding her Axe about something? Extra Credits pretty much makes well rounded arguments without the need to grind an Axe about anything, is it that hard?

I simply don't have time to sit down and hear rants anymore, we get it, everyone's an angry smuck, I'm angry, she's angry, children are angry, animals are angry, we have angry food, we have angry showers and we have angry sex.

Frankly, this entire sub-culture of "Hey, look at me, I can make an argument, but for the sake of 'views' I will throw in a couple of angry rants" is getting tired, you can make the perfect argument all you want, and be flawless in your jabs, but it takes that single "Grrr" moment to ruin everything because it shows 'your opinion', not an outside researched structure, but one where you're trying to push a couple of ideas, as well to get noticed more.

Also, the way she takes real people and claims they 'represent' a majority of us real-life people vs. a couple of cartoon characters is extremely cheap, and biased, especially considering it's limiting to female vs. male idealization. I can make the same exact argument by putting up Marcus Fenix next to a fat guy, next to a female alien character, while sourcing the female character from 2010 and male characters from Flash Gordon, let's see how fair that is.

Also, fun-fact, how come she's avoiding talking about products which had females be in the main part of the dev team, even leads, when these products at the end of the day were sexist to the n'th degree? Instead, she finds time to complain about Lego's.

This is why we can't have nice things, because all we get are complaints, not solutions or creative discussions.

steam pressed my clothes into the 2nd dimension with that one

Can we all agree that vaginas are pretty damned cool?

Originally Posted by pior

As usual, Jim saves the day!

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...xism-Situation

Are you kidding me?

I don't want to get into all the reasons why Jim Sterling is an awful games 'journalist', or an attention seeking misogynistic cunt because that's off topic, but you can get the picture that everything this guy says tends to rub me the wrong way.

And even as a joke that video was completely shallow and missing the point entirely. "HURR everyone thinks sexist objectifying shallow representations of women in games are the problem BUT WE JUST NEED NAKED DUDES HAHA L O L"

I'm not even sure how you can bring to the table the words of someone who while arguing with someone on twitter recently, called them "an embarrassment. To your gender, your species and all feminazi sluts like yourself."

Fearian - that's exactly his point tho! He's doing the naked hero dick joke to show how pointless the whole argument is in the first place. That is to say : of course, female fantasy warriors in chain bikinis don't make any kind of sense! And it would't make any more sense to have Marcus Fenix run around in a jockstrap. The point of pushing the joke further is to show how ridiculous the argument is in the first place ...

I think he is a very clever guy, using sarcastic humour very well !