Mar 9, 2013

I fear the terms "feminism" and "videogames" when they're in the same sentence.

I see that there's a series of feminism vs games series is starting up on Youtube. Not going to link her since her views are slightly skewed and has comments blocked due to "haters" harassing her. Yes, there are some asshats on youtube that will spew tons of hateful crap on the comments section. But I don't believe in blocking comments, because sometimes the dissenting voices MAY have a point... Even if you don't agree with it.

Now back on to the main topic: The Damsel in Distress. She HAS a point that this theme has been overused in videogames. Then again, MOST of the videogames back then had very little character development and relied on well established archetypes instead of a whole backstory for the characters.

My main beef,(based on watching part 1 of her series) is that she will go for the easy targets and whenever something doesn't match her POV she'll gloss over it, or twist it and point out the sexist stuff.
In her first video, she goes through the whole "Peach is a Damsel in distress", but she quickly dismisses the few games where she's had an active role aside the "Damsel in Distress".

Sure, she was kidnapped the first half of Super Mario RPG, but she joins the party and is quite capable of kicking butt! She avoided Super Princess Peach... Which she'll "probably" touch upon on a later episode.

I'm betting that Future Episodes will tackle the Dead or Alive games... and will focus on the bouncy boobs, skimpy outfits, but then again, DOA IS a Sexist videogame series... Would be nice if she actually skipped it, cause let's face it DOA is blatantly sexist...

I mean, look at that intro: the girls are pretty much dancing around or standing on a street corner...(in before prostitute comment) while the male characters are doing something awesome like fighting or avoiding explosions... (OK there's one scene where Tina beats up Zack... a white woman beating up a black man... Racism, much?) and Naked Kasumi... Just one minute before playing the game and I'm already stating all the sexist stuff on it!

Lara Croft will suffer the fate that she'll likely emphasize her boobs and short shorts, but will gloss over her Toughness, resourcefulness, and the fact that she Wielded Excalibur AND Thor's Hammer(something something Godly powers, but Bewbs are Evil!!) I wonder if we'll see some discussion on Lara's newest game which is a total retcon and tells us the story of her first adventure and fight for survival.

And here will come the crux of the dilemma. If they make them pretty OR sexy, it's the game developers being sexist, or pandering to the lowest denominator (Bewbs are kewl! crowd)
If they make a competent female character that is not sexing it up, then "They're making a male character wearing a female skin!!!" So in any way Guys will never win.

It's an interesting series... I agree that females are oversexualized in the game media... But I don't believe that we'll get a fair view from her...

I REALLY fear when we reach the following games:
Tomb Raider
Art of Fighting/Fatal Fury/King of Fighters
Final Fantasy
Metal Gear Solid (Betting that Meryl, Naomi, Mei Ling, Olga, Rose, Fortune and EVA will give her tons of Ammo... I wonder what she'll say about The Boss...)
Grand Theft Auto... This one will be a doozy!

I wonder if she'll tackle the WWE games... which in a way they got better for females by eliminating the Bra and Panties match, but at the same time they got worse, by adding too many limitations for the female characters. (No Rumbles, no First blood matches, hit a girl and you get DQ'd automatically)

I seriously hope that future episodes head over on ways that the sexism in games can be remedied and find ways to make empowering female characters that are appealing for everyone instead of complaining about sexism in games.

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