Feminist Frequency

I also didn't like his analysis of her points about the 'damsel in distress' trope. He tries to compare it to real life situations and misconstrues her point to suggest she thinks we shouldn't help people who are in danger. I don't feel it's the actions of the characters that she is criticising, as such, but their portrayal. Needlessly to say when a woman is kidnapped in real life she has thoughts and feelings and a personality; she is a real human being. The woman in the game has none of these things. She is nothing more than a MacGuffin. She could be replaced with a briefcase full of money, a harddrive full of state secrets, or a really tasty sandwich. It doesn't matter as long as it's something the male characters feel is worth chasing after. Her only 'character traits' and indeed her only reason for existing are her helplessness and the fact that she is an object of desire for the protagonists. This is what Anita means when she talks about objectification.

And that's where I got bored and stopped watching.

However Anita used ones games. I'm talking about games which skimped out on the story in exchange for gameplay. That's why in Mario Bros and double dragon, you rescue the damsel as it was an extremely simple storyline to catch on to. Its so basic it barely needs any detail.

Even final fantasy storylines (for the nes) and even most dragon quest games storylines were extremely simplistic. ( In this instance, going from town to town sorting problems which are a result of some evil entity, while getting stronger).

Complaining about damsel I. Distress storylines in games where people were technically unable to do anything complex easily is extremely asinine. I understand that Mario games and a host of other long running series still do the whole damsel in distress storyline, but that is only homage to the original games. Iirc the fact that bowser keeps kidnapping princess peach is even a big joke now.

Moreover in the same respect you can replace the damsel with a nice old sammich also works both ways. Taking double dragon for instance, you could replace the brothers with two robots and make the opening stage say a garage, or a laboratory. You could replace Mario with Sir Arthur and it would still work.

I’m not “discussing her conduct elsewhere”. I'm choosing to expose how the arguments used in her video are irrelevant as she has personally illustrated that regardless what happens vis-à-vis the problems exposed in her video, she will be unsatisfied. She spends a 20 minute video telling us how all female characters must

I think the point still works, though. Objects can also have meaning. "This disc of nuclear launch codes could start a war" "this amulet is a sacred moon amulet and, like, yeah go get it or whatever" "this watch belonged to your father and is like super sentimental" "this wand releases a monster when brought to the sacred cave of Arak'Thul'Kablammo". I admit I'm not much of a gamer so I don't know if you're referencing real games here, and if you are I'm not sure exactly what roles the female characters play, but it seems to me the damsel is almost necessarily passive and helpless.

The passage you quoted is from the abstract to her master's thesis and isn't supposed to stand alone as a point so I don't think it's fair to judge it without actually reading her arguments. I don't really see the contradiction, either. She's saying that positive characteristics that are generally considered by our society to be 'feminine' are rarely found in video game characters. It is possible to have a female character who is neither a helpless damsel nor what is essentially a male character in a woman's body.

That is not feminism! Not even close.
Not all of us are misinformed radical misandrists you know But it just so happens that those who are, are the loudest and bring a bad name to the rest of us.

As a fellow feminist I have a couple of major issues with her doing this.

Eh? What is there to understand? They're losers with nothing else in their life gather together but to cackle about the nasty
stuff they've posted to people who they don't like.

This is making me ****ing rage. I used to be an avid gamer, and still frequently play games [although nowhere near the amount I used to] and I want politics, ESPECIALLY feminism to stay out of this. I don't give a **** how females are portrayed in video games, I enjoy video games how they are [Well, the gaming industry has been going downhill but it's still decent] and I don't want any outside intervention. Hopefully game developers do something about this.

Even more the reason to hate feminism.

Likewise I don't give a **** how men are portrayed in Girls TV shows or anything of that like.

Cept without politics a lot of the major games would be pretty ****.

See: bioshock, Mass effect etc.

Wut?

Making sense, not even ONCE.

I'm tired of feminists butting in things which are dominated by men and things in which other women have no interest with. Games are basically played and made by entirely men. I don't like a feminist telling my game developers what to do. I want developers to listen to their consumers as opposed to an ideological nut. This also happens in many other areas such as the army, boy scouts [in America, was dominated by boys, girls had no interest, now it's basically 99% girls, forced by feminists and hardly any boys], sports, firemen [Yes, Firemen not firefighter], police etc.

It's almost as if women can't bare to see men having their own space. Men don't seem to care about women and what happens in their spaces, so I think many men would also like women to keep out of their business.

Wut?

Making sense, not even ONCE.

I'm tired of feminists butting in things which are dominated by men and things in which other women have no interest with. Games are basically played and made by entirely men. I don't like a feminist telling my game developers what to do. I want developers to listen to their consumers as opposed to an ideological nut. This also happens in many other areas such as the army, boy scouts [in America, was dominated by boys, girls had no interest, now it's basically 99% girls, forced by feminists and hardly any boys], sports, firemen [Yes, Firemen not firefighter], police [In regards to standards being dropped just to accommodate women smh.] etc.

It's almost as if women can't bare to see men having their own space. Men don't seem to care about women and what happens in their spaces, so I think many men would also like women to keep out of their business.

Yeah, it's not like the army, sports, fire service or police have any relevance to women, is it?

Seriously, there are plenty of women who have seen these services in action as children and been inspired to join, or have become interested in it after some research or whatever. It is disturbing that you think those things are 'men's spaces'. We're all affected by the things they do, so why should they be dominated by men?

In regard to the topic - games developers are under no obligation to pay attention to her criticisms. But if they want to expand their market share, it would be good business sense to not reduce 50% of their potential audience to sexual objects.

Question. How good do you think bioshock 1 would have been without the theme of libertarianism gone wrong? How do you think mass effect would have been without the racism between the races constantly effecting what you do as Shepard?

Capable female characters add a lot to a series and to completely dismiss that it should even be an issue is dumb.

I think my problem with this is that it is impossible to find an example of an acceptable game woman for those kind of people. Damsel in distress, oh so weak and helpless, misogyny. Strong main character, oh now you're saying women have to be masculine to be worth anything, misogyny. Seriously, I've heard that every which way is misogyny.

One: Games are for profit, not political correctness.
A game-maker will make what sells. You can't change it at the source - if there's an issue, you have to make the changes with your wallet. Once you've actually worked out what changes should be made in the first place.

Two: I think it's devaluing games that are equal between the sexes. I've just been playing Diablo 3.

Three: It's about interpreting it however you want. I could interpret everything as misandry if I really wanted to. It reminds me of the argument, "males aren't taken seriously as rape victims, or given support of shelters and from other people, and their female rapists legally are not 'rapists', because of misogyny - it's the view that women are too weak to rape! The issues of male rape victims is a female issue, not male!".

(Yes, I have seen thunderf00t's video, you'll notice some similarities in my post and his video).

My point is that they are a very vocal minority. The death/rape threats are done "for the lulz", and although their dislike for her is very much real, I don't think there is any chance at all they would actually consider violence against her. You are acting as if there has been a genuine misogynistic backlash against her, when in fact it's edgy teenagers and basement dwelling neckbeards who take absolutely nothing seriously.

The passage you quoted is from the abstract to her master's thesis and isn't supposed to stand alone as a point so I don't think it's fair to judge it without actually reading her arguments. I don't really see the contradiction, either. She's saying that positive characteristics that are generally considered by our society to be 'feminine' are rarely found in video game characters. It is possible to have a female character who is neither a helpless damsel nor what is essentially a male character in a woman's body.

I find her to be really rather annoying, and honestly I see no evidence of where all that money went since she had all the video hardware and editing programs from her pitch video on kickstarter.

Don't get me wrong I'm all in favor of having better women and men characters in video games, and while what she's saying is nothing new it is something that needs to be addressed.

I'd much rather play characters who feel like real people rather than Damsels in distress or battle vixens for women or 'badass' space marines for men.

I feel this video does a good job expressing what is wrong with women in video games right now.