I enjoyed this, thanks. I find it hard to watch crap like Thunderfoot puts out, mostly because it rustles my jimmies to the point I can't rationally respond. Oh well!
I saw Anita's video, and I saw that comments were disabled, and I know that it's a huge controversial thing totally out of proportion to the amount of content that's actually logically disputable. But I have not walked into the mire to look at any of the trees up close, because fuck that. idk, maybe I should give her a dollar or something.
Dude, you have enough money troubles right now as it is, surely? Anita did a donation drive for this project where she made way more than she needed. She's doing absolutely fine for money right now, trust me.
She suggested that people embed her video and discuss her work on their own blogs. Considering the reputation of youtube comments, she's got a point I feel.
Naturally wanting to help people who are in trouble is generally a good thing. However, the decision to make all female characters helpless is not. It is unrealistic that every female character will be entirely helpless.
Nicely said! I'm not a feminist myself, but I hate it when men view women as helpless objects. Hate it with a passion. If they have to demean us women in order to make themselves feel better, it's time for them to man up.
I've had a look at some of the other, less moronic, critiques of Anita's work. One guy was like "look, here are all the wonderful female protagonists in games that Anita doesn't think can exist". Anita isn't saying that. All she is analysing here is the damsel in distress trope and showing how pervasive it is in many games
( ... )
Have you ever played Super Princess Peach for the DS? Oh my god it is so, wow.
So, get this, Princess Peach rules over her kingdom with a Vibe Scepter, no shit, and Bowser stole it! So now her emotions are uncontrollable, and you are on a mission, playing as Peach, to get the Vibe Scepter back. You overcome obstacles in the game by making her happy (she floats), sad (she cries), angry (fire happens), and I forgot the other one, since it's sitting on my shelf after 3 years in disbelief.
Super Princess Peach does sound seriously cool. I really hope that Anita tackles the spin-off Peach games in a later video. I think there's a lot of scope for analysis there. :)
I disagree with Anita re: a lot points about women in games - most especially the notion that female characters who "act like men" (whatever that means) don't count - but that said, her treatment was (and continues to be) absolutely appalling and makes me too ashamed to associate myself with her detractors. I'm not providing more shit for those moronic primates to fling at her, so go Anita. Speak your mind!
most especially the notion that female characters who "act like men" (whatever that means) don't countNaturally the biggest issue, to use movies rather than games here, is where you get a female character who gets to fight a little bit, but ends up needing to be rescued by the male protagonist anyway. Being randomly able to do a bit of kick-boxing, does not cancel out the typical female stereotypes being used elsewhere
( ... )
Ergh, yes, the Faux Action Girl is even more demeaning and insulting than having a Damsel. At least you know where you stand with the Damsel. You can imagine she has other redeeming qualities that simply aren't suited to firing guns or stomping koopas. Maybe they'll even write her that way! But the Faux Action Girl is a tease; she's like a male character, only with 50% less agency and crappier in every single way and still winds up being a damsel for the hero to save and a reward for him to bang
( ... )
"That said, a legit action girl, like Samus? Anita takes issue with characters like this, saying they're nothing more than men with breasts pasted on"
Where has she said that? I'm quite surprised since I was expecting Samus (at least in the Metroid Prime series) to get a fairly favourable response at some point in this series.
Of course, for female characters (and male characters for that matter) to possess and be appreciated for traditionally "feminine" traits, games as a medium would have to stop telling stories about nothing but killing.
There have been some attempts to move away from mindless killing. I can't help but think of Metal Gear Solid where there's a point where Solid Snake refuses to shoot because his conscience won't allow him to do so. That's just a male character being given a bit more depth, but it's interesting all the same.
For a protagonist to succeed, they have to excel at violence. And that is a traditionally "masculine" trait. Yeah, I'll need to see Anita's views on this in more detail. She seems to be
( ... )
Meant to comment on this before--but YAY, she's started her project! I don't always agree with Anita (i.e. the "women who act like men" thing ariseishirou mentioned earlier), but the points she raises are always interesting. More to the point, the backlash she's gotten over this is absolutely ridiculous.
On Samus: Definitely a cool character, but don't forget the Reveal about Samus being a girl was . . . well, a Reveal. Her being female was a plot twist. "OMG, that amazing, badass, fighting machine is a GIRL???" It's a Trope, for crying out loud. Almost every player*, of Metroid back in the day assumed they were playing from a male POV, based solely on bulky armor that reveals no form whatsoever.
*I say "almost" out of pure political correctness, as there might be one or two folks out there who assumed Samus was female from the get-go. But I doubt it.
Well, the Metroid games that I love are the "Metroid Prime" games which make it pretty clear that you are playing female character all the time, but never make a big deal of it.
Metroid is a whole series of games and you can only 'reveal' that she's female once. :)
I've only heard of Anita worrying about female characters being problematic in what I've gleaned from what I could find out about her masters thesis (which apparently used to be available online). Is there somewhere else you've seen her mention this before?
Ariseishirou recognises that it can be problematic when female characters just get given a bit of kickboxing as if that solved all gender issues, but apparently this is a different issue?
Metroid is a whole series of games and you can only 'reveal' that she's female once.Exactly, which is why I said "back in the day"--but it was a pretty big deal. I was only...three years old, and not playing games myself at that age, but from what I gather it was a major twist. The success of the games in subsequent years is encouraging though, after the reveal was old news
( ... )
Watching her video about Mattie in "True Grit", I think a major problem is that she doesn't understand the Coen brothers. It's no big deal, since plenty of people don't seem to recognise this, but every single Coen brothers movie is a black comedy
( ... )
Comments 34
Reply
Glad you enjoyed what I wrote. Thunderf00t's stupid video just got me so mad, y'know?
Reply
Reply
Reply
She suggested that people embed her video and discuss her work on their own blogs. Considering the reputation of youtube comments, she's got a point I feel.
Reply
I guess there are better places to donate. It's just discouraging seeing this stuff fall on deaf ears.
Reply
Nicely said! I'm not a feminist myself, but I hate it when men view women as helpless objects. Hate it with a passion. If they have to demean us women in order to make themselves feel better, it's time for them to man up.
Reply
Reply
So, get this, Princess Peach rules over her kingdom with a Vibe Scepter, no shit, and Bowser stole it! So now her emotions are uncontrollable, and you are on a mission, playing as Peach, to get the Vibe Scepter back. You overcome obstacles in the game by making her happy (she floats), sad (she cries), angry (fire happens), and I forgot the other one, since it's sitting on my shelf after 3 years in disbelief.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Where has she said that? I'm quite surprised since I was expecting Samus (at least in the Metroid Prime series) to get a fairly favourable response at some point in this series.
Of course, for female characters (and male characters for that matter) to possess and be appreciated for traditionally "feminine" traits, games as a medium would have to stop telling stories about nothing but killing.
There have been some attempts to move away from mindless killing. I can't help but think of Metal Gear Solid where there's a point where Solid Snake refuses to shoot because his conscience won't allow him to do so. That's just a male character being given a bit more depth, but it's interesting all the same.
For a protagonist to succeed, they have to excel at violence. And that is a traditionally "masculine" trait. Yeah, I'll need to see Anita's views on this in more detail. She seems to be ( ... )
Reply
On Samus: Definitely a cool character, but don't forget the Reveal about Samus being a girl was . . . well, a Reveal. Her being female was a plot twist. "OMG, that amazing, badass, fighting machine is a GIRL???" It's a Trope, for crying out loud. Almost every player*, of Metroid back in the day assumed they were playing from a male POV, based solely on bulky armor that reveals no form whatsoever.
*I say "almost" out of pure political correctness, as there might be one or two folks out there who assumed Samus was female from the get-go. But I doubt it.
Reply
Metroid is a whole series of games and you can only 'reveal' that she's female once. :)
I've only heard of Anita worrying about female characters being problematic in what I've gleaned from what I could find out about her masters thesis (which apparently used to be available online). Is there somewhere else you've seen her mention this before?
Ariseishirou recognises that it can be problematic when female characters just get given a bit of kickboxing as if that solved all gender issues, but apparently this is a different issue?
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment