Assumptions of power and privilege mapped into gaming
The essay below is inwork. I have just pasted in a message I sent to the 'roleplayers of color' yahoo group. I will probably come back and edit is a little later on.
Hermetic wrote:
>>
>> arcady's When purity prevails ... [evil triumphs] 3D art piece.
>>
> We continue to recreate the power structures, prejudices,
> oppression and injustices of the cultures we inhabit, despite the fact that
> in fantasy we COULD imagine anything.
>
> In my dissertation of women in gaming, that's essentially the central point
> of one chapter on sexism in gaming. While we could imagine things
> differently, we continue to repeat the same and then wonder why things
> don't really change.
>
> While, I think the same could definitely be said for the experiences of
> racism in gaming as I continue to learn about through this group.
>
Presumptions of power and privilege are so ingrained that they get
repeated in our imaginary worlds, often without question, and often in a
light that tries to make them seem more just.
If they were challenged or questioned in imaginary worlds, it would be
an admission that the state of them in our world is -NOT- just 'natural'. It
is very common for assumptions about race, gender, and class to just be
mapped into a fictional world based on a modern revisionist
understanding of how they were in a given ancient period.
One of my favorite responses to challenges of how race and gender are
portrayed is:
"Well, this is an idealized society with simplified morality where it is
just easier to tell good and evil."
But... look at what gets labeled good and evil, or empowered and
disempowered.
It is not simple at all, it is not a black and white morality, not four
color...
My response is typically:
"What does it say about you that your idealized reality is based on
extreme racist norms."
An equally simple morality would be: "everyone is equal and good and
evil are not inborn."
Why is that never chosen? Could it be because the author simply does not
actually believe it to be true. It is actually a pretty complex affair
to build a system of oppression and inequality - and even more complex
to build a dialog that denies any morality to your enemy. These notions
of 'they are born evil savages' and 'women are weaker and need
protection' are not intuitively obvious any more than the opposite
conclusion. They take a lot of indoctrination to get across to people.
Calling them the 'idealized simple model' not only implies they are
somehow 'the natural truth', but it is just plain incorrect.
Anyone who's ever had to sit through a half hour of Barney the Dinosaur
knows it is just as easy to present an idealized world that presents the
opposite conclusion.
And even Pokemon shows a simple clear cut world with idealized
assumptions that does not present an ingrained notion of 'these types of
people are evil'. Even the villains in that, "Team Rocket", are seen as
flawed people rather than really evil - which can allow for a leap in a
more complex drama to examining what such flaws might lead to.
(I won't defend Pokemon on gender - I don't know well enough, but most
anime is very bad on that score so I would want to actually watch it
closely before I said anything there.)
So...
If the claim that this picture of inequality is there in order to make
it 'simpler' is a false claim, then just why is it presented that way?
I think that just comes back to 'power and privilege'. Those with power
and privilege find - even if not consciously aware of such - that it is
very dangerous to question their position.
If a fantasy world present empowered women, that challenges what happens
to women in their real world lives. If it presents a world where races
that are similar to stereotypes of native people, asians, and africans,
but not made evil, not simplified - then it says that their own
history's treatment of the real world equivalents was wrong, and that
maybe, the way it is today is still wrong.
Now, on my renderosity gallery I had to turn off comments after two
posters made humor of the nature of the presentation, but before I did
so I had posted a statement there:
********
"...most modern people today have bloodlines that have atrocity in them
somewhere. I have ancestors who walked the trail of tears and I have
ancestors who owned slaves (and some of them are the same people btw), I
have ancestors who were invaders in places like Ireland and South
America, and ancestors who were pushed out of their homes in the Amazon
rainforest, etc... More important is that we not excuse our ancestors,
but own up to them, and not let modern people repeat their errors.
Germany for me is one of the shining examples of a place that has owned
up to its past and now works against racial conflict. Not everyone who
errored greatly in that conflict has done so... But, the lesson of
history is not [about being] ashamed of who we were, but to be on alert
for and vigilant about what we might yet become."
********
In other words, you can admit that people you are descended from were
wrong, and still be yourself good.
So, I would wager that the desire to set up these 'simplified
inequalities' is predicated on an unconscious fear of having an
'idealized world' that challenges their real world positions of power
and privilege over race, class[*], and gender / sex.
[*] I didn't go into class much in this, but look at Batman for a great
example of an 'inverse Robin Hood' - protect the wealthy and middle
class from lower class predators. Think about what that says... and then
consider the dialog present in the 'Super Hero' and 'Modern Action'
genres... Gamer fantasy by contrast, has one of its glaring exceptions
on this issue. If gamer fantasy was really based on 'medieval era
societies' then 90% of the PCs would be serfs - slaves who could not
travel nor own 'Real Property' (as defined in the law - meaning land),
nor be armed with most of the weapons they typically carry, nor keep the
loot they find (the USA was the first western society to let explorers
keep found treasure - until the 1800s it was always the property of the
King or State, this is why the American gold rushes had such a major
impact).
Gamer fantasy is able to get over this 'idealized assumption', but
refuses to get over the others... The reasons for that mirror very well
to what is different about the US and other western societies, both in
what we have gotten over that they haven't, as well as what they have
gotten over that we refuse to do so about...
Well, I guess I did go into class after all...
:)
Hermetic wrote:
>>
>> arcady's When purity prevails ... [evil triumphs] 3D art piece.
>>
> We continue to recreate the power structures, prejudices,
> oppression and injustices of the cultures we inhabit, despite the fact that
> in fantasy we COULD imagine anything.
>
> In my dissertation of women in gaming, that's essentially the central point
> of one chapter on sexism in gaming. While we could imagine things
> differently, we continue to repeat the same and then wonder why things
> don't really change.
>
> While, I think the same could definitely be said for the experiences of
> racism in gaming as I continue to learn about through this group.
>
Presumptions of power and privilege are so ingrained that they get
repeated in our imaginary worlds, often without question, and often in a
light that tries to make them seem more just.
If they were challenged or questioned in imaginary worlds, it would be
an admission that the state of them in our world is -NOT- just 'natural'. It
is very common for assumptions about race, gender, and class to just be
mapped into a fictional world based on a modern revisionist
understanding of how they were in a given ancient period.
One of my favorite responses to challenges of how race and gender are
portrayed is:
"Well, this is an idealized society with simplified morality where it is
just easier to tell good and evil."
But... look at what gets labeled good and evil, or empowered and
disempowered.
It is not simple at all, it is not a black and white morality, not four
color...
My response is typically:
"What does it say about you that your idealized reality is based on
extreme racist norms."
An equally simple morality would be: "everyone is equal and good and
evil are not inborn."
Why is that never chosen? Could it be because the author simply does not
actually believe it to be true. It is actually a pretty complex affair
to build a system of oppression and inequality - and even more complex
to build a dialog that denies any morality to your enemy. These notions
of 'they are born evil savages' and 'women are weaker and need
protection' are not intuitively obvious any more than the opposite
conclusion. They take a lot of indoctrination to get across to people.
Calling them the 'idealized simple model' not only implies they are
somehow 'the natural truth', but it is just plain incorrect.
Anyone who's ever had to sit through a half hour of Barney the Dinosaur
knows it is just as easy to present an idealized world that presents the
opposite conclusion.
And even Pokemon shows a simple clear cut world with idealized
assumptions that does not present an ingrained notion of 'these types of
people are evil'. Even the villains in that, "Team Rocket", are seen as
flawed people rather than really evil - which can allow for a leap in a
more complex drama to examining what such flaws might lead to.
(I won't defend Pokemon on gender - I don't know well enough, but most
anime is very bad on that score so I would want to actually watch it
closely before I said anything there.)
So...
If the claim that this picture of inequality is there in order to make
it 'simpler' is a false claim, then just why is it presented that way?
I think that just comes back to 'power and privilege'. Those with power
and privilege find - even if not consciously aware of such - that it is
very dangerous to question their position.
If a fantasy world present empowered women, that challenges what happens
to women in their real world lives. If it presents a world where races
that are similar to stereotypes of native people, asians, and africans,
but not made evil, not simplified - then it says that their own
history's treatment of the real world equivalents was wrong, and that
maybe, the way it is today is still wrong.
Now, on my renderosity gallery I had to turn off comments after two
posters made humor of the nature of the presentation, but before I did
so I had posted a statement there:
********
"...most modern people today have bloodlines that have atrocity in them
somewhere. I have ancestors who walked the trail of tears and I have
ancestors who owned slaves (and some of them are the same people btw), I
have ancestors who were invaders in places like Ireland and South
America, and ancestors who were pushed out of their homes in the Amazon
rainforest, etc... More important is that we not excuse our ancestors,
but own up to them, and not let modern people repeat their errors.
Germany for me is one of the shining examples of a place that has owned
up to its past and now works against racial conflict. Not everyone who
errored greatly in that conflict has done so... But, the lesson of
history is not [about being] ashamed of who we were, but to be on alert
for and vigilant about what we might yet become."
********
In other words, you can admit that people you are descended from were
wrong, and still be yourself good.
So, I would wager that the desire to set up these 'simplified
inequalities' is predicated on an unconscious fear of having an
'idealized world' that challenges their real world positions of power
and privilege over race, class[*], and gender / sex.
[*] I didn't go into class much in this, but look at Batman for a great
example of an 'inverse Robin Hood' - protect the wealthy and middle
class from lower class predators. Think about what that says... and then
consider the dialog present in the 'Super Hero' and 'Modern Action'
genres... Gamer fantasy by contrast, has one of its glaring exceptions
on this issue. If gamer fantasy was really based on 'medieval era
societies' then 90% of the PCs would be serfs - slaves who could not
travel nor own 'Real Property' (as defined in the law - meaning land),
nor be armed with most of the weapons they typically carry, nor keep the
loot they find (the USA was the first western society to let explorers
keep found treasure - until the 1800s it was always the property of the
King or State, this is why the American gold rushes had such a major
impact).
Gamer fantasy is able to get over this 'idealized assumption', but
refuses to get over the others... The reasons for that mirror very well
to what is different about the US and other western societies, both in
what we have gotten over that they haven't, as well as what they have
gotten over that we refuse to do so about...
Well, I guess I did go into class after all...
:)