Or is it a good joke because it produces this type of response in the comment section?
You kids and your new-fangled technology…
… In my day we had to quote our favorite lines using our mouths memories…
…and get off my lawn!
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I’m not an expert on the gaming industry by any means, but I think it is mostly not caring. The not knowing is a flimsy excuse – any fool with an Internet connection can educate himself about how breasts work. Hell, he could even go so far as to educate himself on different points of view regarding said objectification and let that inform his art. But again, I’m no expert.
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Glad to have confirmation that I wasn’t going out on a limb with that last one.
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If that’s going out on a limb, I’d hate to see jumping off a precipice. To be fair, I know there’s a lot more at play that whether or not individual artists choose to educate themselves. I have a fantasy. Our friendly neighborhood comic book artist – let’s call him Flinn Wolfhand because I just watched “Stranger Things” and that is possibly my dream name – feels uncomfortable with how he’s representing breasts/women (which, really, aren’t women just breasts?). Flinn goes out and educates himself, comes back, creates beautiful art that is more representative, and then is smacked down because that’s not what sells. This is when I swooooop in, with my very own super power, the ability to give people a hug at the exact moment they need it, and clutch Flinn to my very own realistic breasts.
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And there probably are a few Flinns out there. As an illustrator, my heart breaks for them. I imagine it’s doubly crushing when you’re asked to do something so character-contradicting or otherwise hackneyed yet still in your recognized artistic style. That’s not just putting your name to something, that’s putting your heart into it. I can’t think of a quicker way to demoralize an artist.
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People make the same argument for why fag and gay are okay to use as generic epithets.
For instance my brother reasons that it’s okay to call people fags because he’s always meant “you’re a shitstain in the underpants of humanity” and that it has nothing to do with orientation. A lot of his friends claim the same view. It was similarly argued in an episode of South Park, in the context of asshole bikers who tool around town making life difficult for people.
I don’t buy it. He’s singling out a class of people who have no choice about their orientation.
I’m cool with using choices as derogatory terms, but unchosen states of being is below the belt.
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Dear god, I hope so. I’m trying to raise a Flinn and his sister, Suzie Bearkiller*, and from all I’ve seen here, I suspect many others are too.
*Not her real name, which I seriously regret.
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In The Last of Us, they portayed women damn well. They weren’t sexual objects, nor “moaned orgasmically”. They were just as grimy and fucked up as the men, took their licks and dished them back, and were of realistic shape and proportion with interesting and compelling characterization and arcs. Men in the game respect them, and so do I.
I wish more games were as well-made and emotionally ensnaring as The Last of Us.
Screenshots:
Marlene, the leader of a national resistance group fighting against the military government
Tess, a main character NPC, who often works with the male lead, Joel. She unfortunately dies early on
Ellie, one of the PCs. She’s a child, but has a history, and character development in the game, and you really root for her success
They’re all tough women who are almost too real.
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You miss my point. “Fag” and “gay” are used derogatorily all the time, including towards gay people. “Lame” is never used in the same manner about disabled people, in my experience at least.
Plus, using “fag” as an insult implies that homosexuality is a bad thing, which it isn’t. Using “lame” as a negative descriptor implies that being unable to walk is a bad thing, which it is.
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There’s also Maria, who is a co-founder of a settlement at a hydroelectric dam that she set up with Tommy, the main PC’s younger brother.
I can’t find a good screenshot of her from the game that shows anything but her head.
The not-knowing and not-caring are intertwined, but the not-knowing I’m thinking of is not having formal training, or having formal training (or self-training) that relied on either not-women - that is, previous fantasy, game and comic book art - as the model, or women with not-breasts (porn stars with implants) as the basis for what a woman’s body is supposed to look like. (Or, rather, what convention said was the appropriately stylized form to represent “cool” female characters.) It’s mostly the guys who have been in the industry a long time who were the ones who had no training except looking at fantasy art/comic books - but they’re the art directors now, overseeing the younger guys who were told to learn to draw bodies by looking at porn. There is a greater expectation of skill these days, though, so there’s more formally trained people sneaking into the industry.
Thankfully this is more and more true these days, as the form is being taken more seriously and there’s greater recognition of the diversity of the audience. (Those two things are not entirely unconnected…)
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You are “agreeing it’s fucked up” by saying things like “you think this is what I want out of a woman” and “What I want is a woman”. It doesn’t matter if what you want is a powerful, skilled woman doing her job without reference to others (like Furyosa); the problem is you are making it about what you want. What you desire. What you are attracted to. Female characters should be allowed to be who they are as people, not just what turns you on. It may very well be that this was your point, but if it was, it was lost in your description of what you desire.
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Oh for the love of- Sod off and get out of my face. I’m sitting here agreeing with everyone else that blatant objectifying of women then trying to justify it as something else is stupid, and you’re wanting to jab a pitchfork at me?
I will tell you like i told the other guy. Piss Off.
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That was the perfect and well reasoned response. Thanks.
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That’s not a given.
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If one finds it sexy, is it really pain? Doesn’t it become something else?
You aren’t really into sadomasochism, are you?
That’s actually a really interesting question about the definition of pain, nerve signals and perception.
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