The problem isn’t that there is some media which cater to male sexual fantasy and entertainment. The problem is that the entire video game industry is dominated by that kind of thing.
Imagine if most book publishers were only interested in producing romance novels with half-naked Fabio clones on the cover. Would you be as likely to become an avid reader?
White Male Privledge is not being stopped by the cops for driving at 2am sober.
Um, now I am. Holy shit, that would be the best! Chop, chop internet! Let’s get this done, please!
No I wouldn’t> her series is called “tropes vs women” though, which seems to be saying that the trope itself, not its relative popularity, is detrimental to women.
I also think 'the game industry" is a pretty diverse place. from Candy Crushes, to MMOs to FPSs etc.
What this is ISTM is she’s looking at the Pulp Genre of game publishing, and declaring the presence of pulp tropes in pulp gaming to be detrimental. But there are other genres. Pulp is just very popular.
I apparently got a 49…? That’s sort of surprising. But I guess my situation had changed a fair amount over the years. I’m definitely more privileged now than I was as a youth.
Edited to add: This time, I got 59, so that’s a higher percentage of privilege and probably more in line with reality.
The big budget console game market might be, but the video game market as a whole isn’t dominated by anything. Assuming that is like looking at the book rack at Walmart and deciding that the 100 books they sell is the majority of the book market.
The console market is completely fucked up. The numbers are setup so that you have to sell a ridiculous number of copies of a game just to break even. Chris Roberts (Wing Commander and more recently Star Citizen) did a presentation at SxSW talking about why he went the crowdfunding route for Star Citizen. In that presentation, he breaks down the numbers for making money on a console game.
Looking at the console market and declaring that to be the video game market is like looking at summer blockbusters and declaring that to be the movie market. No one is going to invest $100 million in Shelter (a game where you play a mother badger protecting her cubs), but that game exists on the PC because it didn’t need to sell 5 million copies. Minecraft only came out on consoles after it proved to be a huge hit on PCs.
You realize that the developers had some say in implementing a “PRESS X TO GROPE STRIPPER” button, right? It didn’t just appear there magically from the collective wills of the horny masses. Someone wrote that code, someone wrote that message, someone translated it into spanish, someone tested it…
Her argument did get a little weak when she was talking about how the women could be murdered in the open world game – which is a bit odd when you’re playing Dudekiller 17 and spending 98% of your time killing dudes. The sexist portrayal of the three women who show up in the game IS a problem, certainly, but that you can kill them in a game where you can kill literally every other character is … well, weak.
Accusations of cherrypicking feel equally weak, though, like complaining about a cheeseburger having cheese on it. Her video series is about identifying tropes and providing examples of them. If she had made a video series about pictures of mountains, would people have complained that she didn’t include a few pictures of oceans in order to provide a more balanced perspective? After all, it’s not like the entire world is made of mountains!
The fact of the matter is that sexism is a major problem in the video game industry, particularly the triple-A games. It should be obvious, considering how many games feature a bland white protagonist, and the most famous female-led franchises either strip to a bikini to reward you for playing well, or are famous for the size of her tits.
Someone wrote that code, someone wrote that message, someone translated it into spanish, someone tested it…
I’m imaging there’s a beta tester our there, furiously…typing this sentence:
"I hit X to grope, but I just didn’t feel like I was providing enough degradation to the NPC. Make the grope longer, perhaps add a satisfying noise. Or let me hit X + Y for an ass smack. "
Now I feel dirty.
In the video she explains that exposure to this type of media affects the way people think. She also points out that people who don’t think it affects the way they think are ironically the most affected by it.
I personally doubt that consumption of media has predictable long-term effects on people. When people play aggressive games they tend to behave more aggressively immediately after (listening to loud music has the same effect) but last I heard there isn’t research to show that meaningfully translates into how you behave in situations where you aren’t playing games. Still, her point is that the trope itself is damaging. I’m not totally sure I agree it is without the surrounding cultural context, but it is in the surrounding cultural context it is in, so I think that might be a moot point for a philosophy class.
Yes. That is correct.
What I’m trying to say is that not every straight white male benefits from every advantage that being straight, male, and white confers- If you’re heavily tattooed, you loose “can expect to be treated fairly by authorities”. If you’ve been victimized, you loose “can walk alone at night without fearing for safety”. If you live somewhere like the US Virgin Islands, where white people are a minority, the dynamics change considerably. I’m not saying that privilege doesn’t exist, and I’m not claiming to be exempt from it- Just that as it always is, the reality is more complicated than the arguments around it.
I just have a problem with any term like “mansplaining” that dismisses someone’s argument out of hand- It’s presumptuous, and 99 times out of 100 it’s much more effective to ask “why?” “What makes you think that?” “Where is that coming from?” In my experience, most problems are really just symptoms of other, deeper problems.
But for the record, I’m all cool with the gluten. No way I’m giving up my pasta and triple-fudge brownies.
Even in situations like the ones you describe, straight white male benefits still apply. A black person covered in tattoos is likely to get even less respect from law enforcement than a white person covered in tattoos, a man who has been victimized still has less reason to fear walking alone at night than a woman who has been victimized, etc.
I started writing a sarcastic comment but it occurred to me that it would be more useful to share some of the resources that have helped me educate myself on the subject.
For a snarky (but very informative!) guide to how people keep derailing interesting discussions: http://www.derailingfordummies.com/
A useful introductory guide to feminism: http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/purpose/
I hope this helps someone else understand where the arguments and perhaps also where some of the frustration comes from.
Privilege isn’t a one dimensional score, like in that quiz, it’s multi-dimensional. Having a low overall privilege “score” does not make you immune to being criticised for having e.g. terrible ideas about Latinos, especially if your terrible ideas about Latinos can be traced to your white privilege. No, not even if you’re poor, and gay, and paraplegic, and have halitosis.
Similarly, if one goes around telling women in a discussion about sexism against women that one’s experience as a man outweighs their experience as women, then one is mansplaining, pure and simple, and no amount of being e.g. a homeless Asian orphan will change a bad argument into a good one. If one is being told that one is mansplaining, then the first thing one should do is check if one’s argument has validity and relevance, not decide that one is being mistreated because one is male.
Use of ‘happy ending’ and ‘she bang’ in a comment on this thread? Bravo!
‘Push your luck’ dragon, you mean.
Much along the same lines, and much nicer than my planned reply to him.
<3
Radical Feminist objectifying sex workers as “prostituted women” rather than term accepted by World Health organization, Sex Workers - is not any better than men that objectify women.
Faulting sexy women as cause of violence is also victim blaming and slut shaming.
I hope boingboing goes beyond the feminism of the 60’70’s and understand that women also have sexuality and autonomy - paid for or not.
Having said that, yes - I too am sick of hetero normative patriarchal language in everything. I don’t think this will change - nor will the privileged racist language of radical feminists that views and talks about all asian sex workers as victims and never allowing the people themselves to speak on their behalf. This is the very reason why we have Somaly Mam types and Half the Sky crew - ignoring the Cambodian sex workers that has been saying for years that Somaly and Kristoff’s raids have been the cause of violence and rape by police - only to be taken by force to “rehabilitation” clinics and to sewing factories where they are making less than living wage. If they weren’t "prostituted women " before - they sure are closer to being that now … thanks to those wishing and talking about them as nothing more than victims and there fore, unwilling to listen to the people due to objectification by white colonialists that places western imperialists as “rescuers” and brown/yellow people as nothing but “victims”
It doesn’t matter what the women is wearing or offering. No one has the right to do anything she doesn’t want - including being talked about as " prostituted women" The way this woman goes about talking about other women sickens me just as much. While attempting to say something important, it is actually more regressive and re-enforces the structure of inequality.
I’d think it does affect thinking: all communication does at some level.
But ultimately it seems to be “common preferences of male sexual fantasy is detrimental to women”
Not sure how you really combat that except with religion…
That’s cultural and not even universal within a particular culture. I don’t think that the fantasies that these games portray are really as resonant with men as the makers of the games think they are. In a game where you have sex with a sex worker in order to refill your health, I’d wager the majority of players are visiting the sex worker only for the health refill and would be just an interested in the game if they had to go to a doctor to refill their health.
I also don’t actually think that men having fantasies like the ones in this game is necessarily problematic. That one particular fantasy would be picked up by major studios and sold to us as the only narrative available seems very troubling. I’m not sure Sarkeesian would agree with me about the first bit, she probably would about the second.
Your argument is that it’s an innate fetish. This is wrong. Cultural norms have consistently provided windows into the sexual fantasies of men (more so than women, due to the “patriarchy” of history), so there’s a far and detailed history of what men considered sexual.
What goes on in every single thread I’ve seen regarding most sociological phenomenon, is a consistent divide between those who use learned and narrow definitions (ie, comparative studies) and those referencing popculture that stems from the learned and narrow definitions.
It’s one giant clusterfuck of noise. But there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that what is portrayed in current society influences the behaviors of future inhabitants of that society. Even something you believe is so ingrained in your sexual fantasy, is often merely a form of social desire to conform.
After all, no one knows wtf you sick fucks think you’re doing.
