LOL @ assigning definite zoological nomenclature to Angry Birds.
2 Likes
Iâll deny it. I see no reason to make such an assumption.
I do see a certain arrogance, lack of cultural and period sensitivity, and just plain anger in menâs responses to her videos.
I donât get this impression at all.
13 Likes
Yeah, she does anger misogynists. She also angers people who go WAAAY out of their way to find problems with her as a person so that they can feel OK about completely ignoring her arguments.
16 Likes
Iâm sorry do you have a daughter ? Because that is bullshit. Iâm sure there are many girls, though I think theyâre a minority, who donât go for âtraditionalâ girls toys but a lot of them do and itâs not the parents fault. Like the OP I too have 2 girls, and they too gravitate towards princess/cute/pink stuff. Itâs gotten so I actively try to steer them towards neutral toys: my eldest loves construction toys so I try to encourage that. A couple of days ago she said to me âBlack is for boys and pink is for girls.â I was flabbergasted, never have we said anything like this to her and I set her straight. If anything itâs a cultural thing they pick up through all the cues they see around them in the world but blaiming the parent is just wrong.
3 Likes
A) If someone so influential in a movement does not have basic integrity, it is detrimental to the whole movement.
B) Frankly, Iâve always thought her cause was kind of stupid. The primary effect of a lack of female portrayal in video games, is young girls not playing so many video games. Is this really a substantial problem, girls not being properly encouraged to spend thousands of hours of their irreplaceable lives sitting around numbing their brains with vidya hyperstimulation like their male counterparts do? Would they be better off if they were all addicted to video games as much as most boys are?
I canât help but feel that the problem she points out may well be a blessing in disguiseâŚ
1 Like
It would be if they were there to differentiate her from her male counterpart. But theyâre not, so no.
Red Bird is the main protagonist in the Angry Birds series of games created by Rovio Entertainment. He is also the leader of the Flock. First introduced in 2009, the character is the primary bird used in marketing to promote the series. Red is a Desert Cardinal.
LOL @ laughing at yet another example of âdefault character is maleâ
A) Sheâs not particularly influential except among the gamer bros who completely melt down any time she posts a video on youtube.
B) If you think so poorly of video games then why do you have such a huge hate-on for someone who criticizes video games?
I think calling her commentary âa causeâ is pretty stupid. Itâs not a crusade or anything. Sheâs doing media analysis on video games. When people do the exact same thing for books, music, art, magazines, or fashion itâs completely unremarkable but when someone does it for video games or comic books fanboys go completely to pieces. I get the impression that a lot of people think Sarkeesian is trying to accomplish something really serious only because they themselves take video games so seriously.
But itâs worth taking them seriously in at least one sense: they are a medium of expression similar to books, art, music, etc. except interactive. Theyâre part of our culture and although you may think itâs a blessing in disguise I think itâs perfectly reasonable for the half of the population that have vaginas to want to participate fully in our society rather than put up with special âguys onlyâ media. People talk so much about what they watch on TV because they like to share the same stories. Any wonder that women would prefer not to be pushed away from a storytelling medium that has about as much reach and possibility as film?
9 Likes
Please, tell me more how rampant sexism, racism, homophobia, bullying and misogyny is a âblessing in disguiseâ?
7 Likes
I love this series, it always makes me think (also my blood boil in parts, but thatâs just part of having a different opinion.) I loved the part about the smurfette-principle and especially the male default. The latter especially is everywhere if you stop to think. What I didnât like was the part about the female characteristics. Itâs perfectly natural to differentiate female characters by adding female secondary sex characteristics to them. If you look at human biology the male is obviously the âplainâ, non exciting version where female biology is differentiated in a number of different ways (boys and girls are essentially the same until girls âdevelopâ.) Were we lions or some other species this might have been reversed: we would need to add specifically male characteristics to a character, like a mane, to gender them. So the gendering is not really a problem (as far as Iâm concerned) though the poor character development is.
3 Likes
My nearest high school team calls their team the Beavers. I hope they donât call the female sides the Lady Beavers.
5 Likes
Physiologically, female is actually the default for human beings. Itâs the men who are differentiated in a number of ways. This is also consistent with boys and girls being roughly the same until they develop.
I think part of the problem here is that a pink bow is not like a mane. Male lions donât go to the store to buy manes and the masculinity of manes doesnât have to be reinforced by lion society. However, pink bows are merely stereotypically feminine and the criticism is of the stereotype. Obviously a female character should look physiologically female but that doesnât mean she needs to wear a pink frilly dress, ya know?
6 Likes
Who gives a shit ? The videos make an argument and are interesting even if you disagree. So make a counter point or start a discussion, the question if she as a presenter is presenting a persona or not is wholly irrelevant. As is the age old nonsense of saying you can only be a critic if you can do better yourself (critic as failed creator trope.)
3 Likes
Just having this argument yesterday tooâŚ
You can not like her, as a person, thatâs fine. But sheâs not creating the games, sheâs merely talking about them. Talking about sexism in games is not controversial and her being funded to do this is not a scandal. The sexism and issues she brings up would exist if she didnât talk about it. Talking about it is good, even if you donât personally like her.
I have issues with many âcontroversialâ feminist speakers, Camille Paglia. However saying that she should not speak because I have issues with some of what she says would be wrong. Everyone gets to speak. You donât have to listen to the ones you donât like. Feminists wonât show her the door, all are welcome, even you.
9 Likes
I donât mind her criticism of video games, I mind her dishonesty. And Iâm not a gamer anyway, the last game I played through was Oblivion itself about five years ago, and a few retro titles. They are, for the most part, a complete waste of time and bad for the brain, willpower, and attention span.
There is a flourishing industry of indie gamers. Some, such as the wildly successful âWorld of Gooâ game, were made by just one or two guys working on their laptops in coffee shops with almost no budget.
If she or her fans want so passionately to have women-friendly games, why not create some? The money she used for this video would have been more than enough to bankroll a successful mobile game.
The reason, of course, is because itâs a million times easier to criticize than to create. Doesnât actually do any good in any measurable way, but itâs easy.
I donât think readers should â in the sense of automatically downgrading the credibility of any particular observation. With a properly skeptical stance, no additional salt grains need be applied to the observations of Mr Pinker and Ms. Sarkeesian.
Youâll find that Pinkerâs observations are buttressed with rigorous findings such as twin studies. By the way, heâs a psychologist.
It is culture and your daughter wonât grow up in a bubble. This is pretty blatant in advertising, TV, movies, peer pressure and even from video games. Wasnât this the point of the video?
Donât worry too much if they like âtraditionalâ toys made for girls. Just donât forget to stick a chemistry or programming set in front of them to let them see if they like it. Itâs hard to know what you like if you never get exposed to it.
3 Likes
Itâs about disparaging X while practicing X. Please donât ask me what X is.
See, I have this funny feeling like the âdishonestyâ in question is based entirely on a single quote that was taken out of context by people with axes to grind. People were making video games about beating her into a bloody pulp even before anything about this âdishonestyâ got into the memosphere which makes me suspect that thereâs a teensy bit of bias from those parsing the intent behind the statement in question.
Game making and media analysis are two different things. Apparently she wanted to do media analysis instead of making games. Why do you care so much about the personal choices of a human being who is not you, is not associated with you, and more than likely doesnât even know you exist?
If you donât like her analysis youâre free to ignore it just as youâre free to ignore book reviews you donât like by people who havenât written any books themselves, or reviews of movies by people who donât themselves make movies, or music criticism by people who donât themselves perform and/or record. As I already noted, media analysis is not new or even particularly exciting except in the context of video games. In that case, people go absolutely to pieces over rather mild criticism (I havenât seen Sarkeesian offer anything other than fairly mild criticism).
Instead of ignoring it, though, you seem to be really heated about her doing her thing. Why? Isnât the world big enough for Sarkeesian to do what she wants to do (and what many people agree is a good and worthwhile thing to do even if you donât agree)? Why is it so important to you that she not do this?
Edit: Waiting with bated breath for your firestorm of criticism for Roger Ebert who criticized films for years before making any.
13 Likes
Basing your conclusions on raw Google numbers isnât really justified, IMO, because the majority of the âFemShepâ references will be fans writing in response to EA/BioWareâs almost-exclusively marketing the male option (and, in the run-up to ME3, making the default appearance of FemShep more stereotypically pretty than the default appearance of the character in the first two games). The term is used by fans to challenge the notion that DudeShep is the superior option, not reinforce it.
1 Like
