Actually my daughter did become a civil engineer, and one of her very first jobs was to investigate the best way to stop trucks and buses from colliding with bridge spans. I’m not totally sure what this proves.
2 Likes
[quote=“neonflame, post:171, topic:72494”]
I feel like her videos make it sound like this is true in ALMOST EVERY VIDEO GAME EVER, that a lot of the clips she uses ignore points in those games that actually REFUTE what she’s saying.
[/quote]I agree she paints with too broad a brush, but I also feel that her irritating format of 6-8 minute videos is the major reason for her using too broad a brush… but her examples are true. There’s been a steady stream of butt counts as jokes on video game videos for years, like Final Fantasy X’s obsessive “butt in the foreground, actual scene in the mid-ground” camera angles. Her comments on marketing material is particularly on point.
1 Like
Great video. Really well argued. However, Cory’s conclusion: “meaning that the perils and triumphs of that character mean less to the player.” seems like a stretch.
Tomb Raider is a hugely successful franchise and I’d think that’s in part of players partaking in her perils and triumphs. Anita does not make that claim in the video, but instead points to the bias of representation and how that sexualizes the character.
I feel as though this particular video needs some thorough fact checking… A MRA could easily compile a bunch of male game butts, and DESTROY this argument by putting it on tumblr for the rest of the MRA to see.
And a crack will be found, simply by cherry picking views from different feminist groups.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
(I have an idea for a game that will probably never be made because of the 
s. You could argue that they win because I won’t make it, but I do not have the emotional energy to deal with their kind of abuse again.)
1 Like
“I feel like her videos make it sound like this is true in ALMOST EVERY VIDEO GAME EVER”
No, that’s you inferring that from what she says. In fact, in this video she specifically gives an example where this is not so.
“actually REFUTE what she’s saying.” You can say that sure, but without any evidence i.e. 3-4 examples, it’s just you saying it and is a poor argument. Now you might not have time to investigate this, but maybe it would be worth the while and maybe you’ll find her argument more solid in the search.
Remember, this is about a bias, a trope “The word trope has also come to be used for describing commonly recurring literary and rhetorical devices, motifs or clichés in creative works.” Note key words: “Commonly recurring.” That’s not the same as every single time.
Sure, there are games like Frogger which is a video game and doesn’t have butt stuff. But she’s talking about the representation of women in video games. Without a doubt what she says is true for a large portion of games where the conversation is relevant, i.e. not Mario Brothers.
Why is 6-8 minutes irritating? How much time do you think people have? I find this video exceptionally concise and on point from beginning to end.
7 Likes
And what do you think is the intent of prominently displayed female asses in video games?
8 Likes
So “smartr” is irony?
1 Like
That was actually my comment that you’re quoting a bunch of. The one example that comes to mind to me directly (I haven’t watched her newest video yet, going off old ones) was the use of zelda as an example of damsel in distress. Particularly twilight princess. She completely overlooks the fact that the main supporting character in that game is also a female, and is actually the one who saves the main character near the beginning of the game. There’s more of these, but I’d have to look them up to get them right. It’s hard to take her videos seriously when I see huge holes in them while just watching and not even trying to look into them more deeply…
There was that time that Harry Redknapp made an abusive fan play for West Ham for 45 minutes. The fan scored a goal though, so it kind of backfired.
1 Like
20 Likes
Consider the Mass Effect 3 example I posted above. The dialog snip captured in the screenshot was about a character being concerned about her father threatening her sister’s family, part of a conversation about her bigger issues with the father and whether she should deal with him on her own or whether Protag can help. It’s part of an arc that’s all about her character development across two long games and many many interactions. So why do I have her butt in my face for this? What was the intent of the designers when they implemented that camera angle?
14 Likes
[quote=“clifyt, post:25, topic:72494”]I understand what she is saying, but…in a perfect world us men would be wearing these same outfits and not thinking about it. Over the last few years, I’ve taken to wearing compression tights while working out, biking, or even when I’m rock climbing. You know what? I can COMPLETELY understand why women love their Lulus and otherwise. I use to wear shorts over my man tights to hide the fact that my ass is perfectly framed and lifted, but these days I don’t care.
I use to get strange looks wearing them, but it is getting to be normal attire at the gym wearing these.[/quote]I have the impression that a man’s subjective impression of what constitutes “normal attire at the gym” evolves with age in strange and interesting ways – but I have yet to experience it personally.
1 Like
1 Like
I think if you have to ask that sort of question, you missed the message on the picture.
YEAH!! That way, those eeeevil feminazis won’t be able to see it! SMART! THEY’D BE SO DESTROYED if they could see it. Oh, but just think…tumblr AND myspace! MAN THAT WOULD DO IT WOULD’NT IT! I mean, it wouldn’t, because nobody but a bunch of weepy dudebros would see it. GREAT IDEA!! christ that’s a stupid fucken idea
10 Likes
Off-topic, but It has over the years, but people seem to be evolving to the same age these days. Everyone seems to dress like they are 18 at the gym – with the hope of eventually regaining our 18-year-old bodies. Personally? I’m in better shape than I was at 18, but I’d still like the hair I had back then! I’d ALMOST consider it an even trade.
Regardless, at least at the higher end gyms I go to (back on track) men and women both wear form fitting revealing clothing. Why? Because it is comfortable as hell. Then again, I was only one of three men in my Zoomba class with a hundred people last night.
I say she paints with a broad brush because in the past year AAA games have had a few egregious examples of this trope while the vast majority have been using actual clothing in models of the female characters, if you notice her examples are all from older games and not the current crop of AAA games. It’s been a reoccurring issue with the presentation to draw from games she is most familiar with where she goes back nearly a decade to find the prime examples in her argument. It doesn’t make the trope untrue or even remove the trope from video games, it is just a bad structure for an argument to use older examples and present them as modern. Even most of the games she has brought up have had sequels tone down the issues dramatically. If she took even 15 minutes or 30 minutes which is more typical for the format she could add nuance and more detailed explanation as to why these things are bad beyond a few sentences.
I find Anita’s taste to be in extremely pretentious games that frequently fail to stand up to the praise she gives them, and it is the opposite extreme of the dregs of /v/ who feel that only the technical aspects of video games are important. The media she praises are obvious choices and she glosses wildly over their flaws, and she has a contrarian attitude on… pretty much everything. It’s not that her bias is bad, it’s just not enjoyable to watch since I don’t have a stake in it and it makes for a poor place to talk rationally as a critic. I also feel that she is easy to dismiss because she doesn’t take the time to explain anything beyond a very superficial level.
I still watch a lot of her media not to be critical of it, but because it’s something friends of mine agree with and other friends of mine dismiss with varying degrees of reasonableness. It doesn’t hurt that it makes so many people so mad that they pick apart everything she says in a ridiculous manner and the drama was juicy. Like I said, she is getting better at presenting a point and is even becoming more entertaining doing so.
2 Likes
Well, you can’t argue with feelings. can you?
7 Likes
