That's rather a fucked up statement isn't it?
But, its true.
Right now, at this moment, I'm utterly disgusted at the fact that I'm a gamer.
Care to guess why?
Eh, no need, obviously, I'm going to tell you why.
The thing is, I'm trying to figure out where to start. I don't want to write a novella.
None of what I'm going to say is new. Bitching about it won't change it. But whatever, its my party and I'll bitch if i want to.
What I'm pissed about is female gamers; female gamers and hypocrisy and bullshit.
I wanna start it off by saying something that will probably offend some people (when do I not offend people): To the guys who call us "sluts with controllers" or make kitchen and sandwich jokes...fuck you, no really, go fuck yourself thoroughly in the ass with a 6 foot splintery pole. I'm sure there's a special place in hell for assholes like you. But, I expect that bullshit from the caveman boys club mentality so I'm not gonna waste anymore time on you.
Bitches.
Bitches is what I wanna talk about.
This is gonna touch on my post from the other day about social media as well.
Because my PC is now tragically deceased, I've had to amuse myself on my phone more often. The other night I was in Instagram and there was a poll of sorts. "Ladies are you a gamer girl or a gamer?" This was accompanied with a bit of text depicting a vacuous "gamer girl" giggling and flirting and a "real" gamer bitching about Rainbow Road.
This isn't a new topic, this isn't a new spin on it.
I commented that I am either/or. I don't care which term is used as long as people are respectful. Other...ladies were a bit less honest and a bit less diplomatic in their replies.
The whole thing was a slew of women replying that they are GAMERS!!!!! because they're REAL and SERIOUS.
Now, I'm not doubting them. Because frankly, I don't really give a tiny rats ass what you play or how often. What DID bother me is that these women accuse anyone that uses the term "gamer girl" as being a fake, shallow attention whore...let me reiterate...this was on INSTAGRAM.
Instagram, land of attention whoring. Why the hell else do people post selfies and their food and their dog and their games and their nails if not to dhow them off and have people "like" them?
There is NOTHING wrong with that. I do it, lots of people I know do it, we like showing off our stuff and having people admire it. That's pretty normal human behavior.
But to be on Instagram calling others attention whores seems ridiculous. Not only that but...(and yes, I checked) most of these women tag their pics with #girlgamer #gamergirl, #gamerchick, #girlsthatgame.
AGAIN, NOTHING wrong with that but, doesn't it make you a bit of a hypocrite to call women who are "gamergirls" shallow attention whores while you are on Instagram and tagging your pics with every variation of "female that plays games"??
I posted a follow up reply to that effect and as expected it was summarily deleted.
24 hours later I'm perusing my Instagram feed which is full of pics of ladies in various states of dress and undress holding games, controllers, plushes or whatever. Showing off their COD stats or their WOW characters. If I see a pic of a girl with a nice collection, or a cool character or whatever, I'll give it a like, its what you do on IG. Especially when you follow places that are all about shoutouts.
But then I come across one where someone comments that someone who only plays 1 game/series isn't really a gamer.
Who exactly made up those rules?
I was in a shit mood so I replied that people define shit differently, if they play a game they are by definition a "gamer" and why does it matter so much to others.
What followed were 2 women who were DETERMINED...on INSTAGRAM...on a FEMALE GAMER SHOUTOUT PAGE to prove that women who only play CoD or who take a pic with a controller are posers and use games as eharmony (that was actually said by one of them).
Lets get one thing clear....I LOATHE Call of Duty. With a PASSION. LOATHE.
Why?
I don't like war games.
I find it boring.
I think a 5hr campaign for $60 is ludicrous.
I don't like MP.
I don't really like very many FPS games to begin with.
But what I loathe more than CoD is people who like to insult others for the hell of it. I loathe people who jump on bandwagons, and have a bully/mob mentality. I hate those that make others feel small because they think they are somehow better.
Oh, are you looking at me and every single word I say?
Hypocrisy I guess.
Or maybe, I back myself up with actual facts. Maybe I fight for shit that is actually important. I mean, it impacts my life not at all if Betty Lou and Buffy run around in Assassin's Creed shirts and don't fucking know the difference between Ezio and Altair. Is it a bit irksome, since |I am mildly obsessed with Ezio? Yeah, I guess, in the way that Florida heat is irksome. Its there, its annoying but if I remove myself from it, my life continues uninterrupted.
If, there were only 1 copy of lets say...The Witcher 2 in the world. If this one copy was in front of me for sale and before I could take it in my hand another person, any person, swooped in out of nowhere, grabbed it and bought it because "oh, the person who buys it will be showered with applause when they walk out of the store and be featured in the local paper" and had no intention of ever actually opening the case, much less playing the game..yeah, I'd be fucking livid. I'd probably curb stomp the asshole and pry the game out of their hand.
But you see..there ISN'T only 1 copy of the game, of any game, and only 1 copy in the world. Therefore, who plays a game and who just holds the box in their hand affects my gameplay not at all.
But, you may argue, Fake Girls ruin it for REAL girls. People don't take us seriously.
Yeah, that sucks, it does. I know, I go through the annoyance of being treated like an imbecile because some guys assume girls don't play games.
Do you REALLY think that has anything to do with an army of fake girls?
If you do, let me be really blunt, you're a moron.
By and large the men who condescend and who assume women don't play games are small minded, sexist and sometimes flat out misogynistic.
Gaming has been a "boys club" traditionally. That mentality is still going strong. Because you see, Gaming is in its infancy compared to other forms of media.
Not so long ago if a woman wanted her novel to be taken seriously she'd have to publish it under a male pseudonym. I'm not talking about the dark ages either. I'm talking a couple centuries ago...So why would you think that gaming would be any different.
The tides are changing, but they change slowly and its frustrating and its aggravating and its disheartening. I understand that. I'm subjected to the same insults and ridicule. Its why I have an almost clinical phobia of online multiplayer.
But baring your claws at other women isn't going to change anything, at least not for the better.
What it actually does is give these closed minded people something to point at and go "yeah, THIS".
If we spend our time insulting ourselves, trying to unmask the fake and prove how real we are. If we aren't willing to give the benefit of the doubt...why the fuck should the gaming industry? Why should the male gamers that have cherished their toys so long?
Real, Fake, Hardcore, Casual, Gamergirl, Gamer...I'm still gonna spend every dime I can on games and I'm still gonna play and rage and laugh and cry. What I'm not going to do is take time out from MY gaming to go on a crusade to unmask the "fakes" to make myself look "real"
Bitches be trippin'
don't be a bitch.
Showing posts with label Girl gamers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Girl gamers. Show all posts
Monday, June 3, 2013
Monday, April 2, 2012
OMG...am I...FAKE?????
So a couple days ago I was reading an article on Kotaku about an article in Forbes denouncing the "fake geek girl"
After skimming through the article and the comments I had some thoughts in the matter.
How do you actually decide a fake geek girl from the real thing? Is there really some sort of Checklist or test?
From what I gathered reading that trainwreck a "real" geek girl has a deep and extensive grasp of whatever material they are "geeking" on, be it sci fi movies, video games, Manga and/or anime.
I'm gonna be honest, I am absolutely fed up with all the labels and stereotypes and bullshit.
I don't have this long pedigree of gaming knowledge. I never liked gaming when i was younger, so I didnt game much.
I don't know a lot of technical terms, game engines, or even most of the names of creators, developers, studios etc.
I haven't finished most the games I own, and I probably never will.
I don't the names or the stories behind all the X-men, I haven't watched a grand majority of the "popular" animes. I still haven't touched the first Haruhi light novel.
I like Gackt, but I don't know the names of that many J-pop singers beyond him.
So am I faking it?
Am I doing it for attention?
In a way, I guess I am, but not for the type of attention "fake geek girls" are accused of seeking.
I'm not trying to pick up guys, I'm not trying to impress anyone with "OHH look at me, I am a rare and mythical creature of grace and beauty, a Geek/Gamer Girl"
When I go out and I'm not sporting slightly revealing and inappropriate outfits such as this one:
What attention am I seeking?
So yeah, I dress geeky to attract attention and I don't see that as a negative.
Now that' that's cleared up, what about the whole deep extensive knowledge of the object of geekitude.
How much does one need to know to be a "real" geek girl?
How many games must I own and complete? How far in advance should I know of games that are slated for release? How many industry bigwig's names should I know and drop in conversation? Who decides what and what isn't geeky enough to be "legit"?
I might not know all the answers, or even half the answers, all I know is that I love collecting games, I love playing games, I love action figures and sometimes watch a few animes. I don't go a day without gaming in some way whether on a console or just on my phone. I drive my husband crazy and bore him to tears describing all the little things about the current game I'm playing, things that mean nothing to him at all, because I can't contain myself. I want to share my experiences in these games.
I also wonder, has it ever occurred to people like the author of the article or the people who wrote in the comments section that...maybe, these "fake geek girls" aren't fake at all? They are just new?
Everyone has to start somewhere right?
I'm not saying some girls do fake it for attention but...that's true of many people, in many things. It isnt exclusive to women or nerds.
Maybe some of these "fake" girls wanted to know more, to get into gaming or comics or whatever but after facing "nerd rage" for being "fake" they decided it wasnt worth it.
I guess my point is. Give people a damn chance, stop making snap judgements. Just because someone doesn't love or know something as well as you do, doesn't mean they are lying about their "nerd cred".
This goes into a bit of a broader issue which I could spend days writing about, but this is long enough so I will keep it brief.
All this crap about fake girls, attention whores, fake nerds...it really highlights a few of the complaints I see time and time again on gaming forums.
The first one is that Gamers/Geeks/Nerds whatever you wanna call yourself get a bum rap by society. They cry and whine and rage about being misunderstood, about not being accepted for who they are and what they love. They rage about people making snap judgements and accusations against the gaming community in general.
They ask for Tolerance, Understanding and Acceptance.
Yet for all that they aren't that far removed from a high school clique. Its the Geek club and you aren't allowed. You're a noob and you suck and we don't want you to be a part of our world.
The second thing that they cry and whine about is that they can't find a girl who loves their hobby or understands it. I hear so many "my wife/girlfriend bitches at me for playing too much" "She doesn't understand my hobby" "I had to cut down on gaming because of her" I tried to get her into it and she thought the game was stupid" "I'd love to find a girl who loves to game the same way I do" "girl gamers don't exist, I've yet to meet one"
But when a girl who shows interest in these things appear, she is treated at best as a poor pathetic girl that needs you to go easy on her in a game, and at worst as a poser,a liar and an attention whoring moron who can't possibly truly be into these hobbies.
How can you complain about society's lack of understanding, how can you expect the community to grow and prove its worth when you are too busy pecking away at each other? Gamers become the very things they claim to despise. and female gamers because silent, hide who they are online, becoming these mythological beings for fear of being torn down by the same community that clamors for more females to get involved.
Labels are for files, not for people.
Gamers of both sexes need to stop wasting their time and effort on belittling each other, coming up with terms and conditions for approval and instead accept each other, and work together to show that they aren't one of the cliques, that they aren't what society paints them to be.
The fake ones of either sex, will weed themselves out. You lose the opportunity for growth, friendship and the exchange of ideas when you spend your time splintering off the community into factions, demanding "geek cred" etc.
This is something that infuriates me to no end. I talked about it once before in a post about Hardcore vs Casual gamers.
your thoughts?
*****************************************************************************
So apparently word verification here on blogger has been acting up and a friend had trouble getting her comment to show up. Its a great comment and I'm gonna post it here because I think it should be read by all.
I hate labels as much as you do. People like to categorize people. For some reason, it's their way of 'maintaining order' when they're able to stick you into a specific category. And if you don't belong to any, you get shunned, ostracized, etc. Or in this case, labeled a 'fake'. Just because you don't know everything there is to know about the stuff you're geeking on doesn't necessarily mean you're faking it. On the contrary, if you actually knew everything there is to know about that, I'd have to call you 'Google'. Or better yet, NUTS.
After skimming through the article and the comments I had some thoughts in the matter.
How do you actually decide a fake geek girl from the real thing? Is there really some sort of Checklist or test?
From what I gathered reading that trainwreck a "real" geek girl has a deep and extensive grasp of whatever material they are "geeking" on, be it sci fi movies, video games, Manga and/or anime.
I'm gonna be honest, I am absolutely fed up with all the labels and stereotypes and bullshit.
I don't have this long pedigree of gaming knowledge. I never liked gaming when i was younger, so I didnt game much.
I don't know a lot of technical terms, game engines, or even most of the names of creators, developers, studios etc.
I haven't finished most the games I own, and I probably never will.
I don't the names or the stories behind all the X-men, I haven't watched a grand majority of the "popular" animes. I still haven't touched the first Haruhi light novel.
I like Gackt, but I don't know the names of that many J-pop singers beyond him.
So am I faking it?
Am I doing it for attention?
In a way, I guess I am, but not for the type of attention "fake geek girls" are accused of seeking.
I'm not trying to pick up guys, I'm not trying to impress anyone with "OHH look at me, I am a rare and mythical creature of grace and beauty, a Geek/Gamer Girl"
When I go out and I'm not sporting slightly revealing and inappropriate outfits such as this one:
I'm wearing jeans and some sort of T-shirt related to gaming or movies or TV shows, like the stuff in my previous post.
I wear Anime jewelry, game jewelry and the like as well.What attention am I seeking?
Kindred spirits.
I like meeting and talking to other gamers. I love talking about games with anyone, constantly. So, since I can't just walk around stopping people and asking "do you game? do you watch FMA?" "do you collect action figures?" Dressing in clothing relating to my hobbies helps find people who share these interests with me.
A long time ago, I used to use the FF7 Victory Fanfare as my ringtone. It went off one day at the 7-11 and the guy ringing me up commented on it, asked where I got it and which FF game I liked best. Fora year while my daughter was going to pre-school I would stop at that 7-11 for coffee, cigarettes and a chat about gaming with the cashier.
I've had great conversations with random people at the mall, at stores, at festivals because we happened
to bump into each other, looked and realized "hey I have that shirt/necklace" or "I love that game/show/book".
So yeah, I dress geeky to attract attention and I don't see that as a negative.
Now that' that's cleared up, what about the whole deep extensive knowledge of the object of geekitude.
How much does one need to know to be a "real" geek girl?
How many games must I own and complete? How far in advance should I know of games that are slated for release? How many industry bigwig's names should I know and drop in conversation? Who decides what and what isn't geeky enough to be "legit"?
I might not know all the answers, or even half the answers, all I know is that I love collecting games, I love playing games, I love action figures and sometimes watch a few animes. I don't go a day without gaming in some way whether on a console or just on my phone. I drive my husband crazy and bore him to tears describing all the little things about the current game I'm playing, things that mean nothing to him at all, because I can't contain myself. I want to share my experiences in these games.
I also wonder, has it ever occurred to people like the author of the article or the people who wrote in the comments section that...maybe, these "fake geek girls" aren't fake at all? They are just new?
Everyone has to start somewhere right?
I'm not saying some girls do fake it for attention but...that's true of many people, in many things. It isnt exclusive to women or nerds.
Maybe some of these "fake" girls wanted to know more, to get into gaming or comics or whatever but after facing "nerd rage" for being "fake" they decided it wasnt worth it.
I guess my point is. Give people a damn chance, stop making snap judgements. Just because someone doesn't love or know something as well as you do, doesn't mean they are lying about their "nerd cred".
This goes into a bit of a broader issue which I could spend days writing about, but this is long enough so I will keep it brief.
All this crap about fake girls, attention whores, fake nerds...it really highlights a few of the complaints I see time and time again on gaming forums.
The first one is that Gamers/Geeks/Nerds whatever you wanna call yourself get a bum rap by society. They cry and whine and rage about being misunderstood, about not being accepted for who they are and what they love. They rage about people making snap judgements and accusations against the gaming community in general.
They ask for Tolerance, Understanding and Acceptance.
Yet for all that they aren't that far removed from a high school clique. Its the Geek club and you aren't allowed. You're a noob and you suck and we don't want you to be a part of our world.
The second thing that they cry and whine about is that they can't find a girl who loves their hobby or understands it. I hear so many "my wife/girlfriend bitches at me for playing too much" "She doesn't understand my hobby" "I had to cut down on gaming because of her" I tried to get her into it and she thought the game was stupid" "I'd love to find a girl who loves to game the same way I do" "girl gamers don't exist, I've yet to meet one"
But when a girl who shows interest in these things appear, she is treated at best as a poor pathetic girl that needs you to go easy on her in a game, and at worst as a poser,a liar and an attention whoring moron who can't possibly truly be into these hobbies.
How can you complain about society's lack of understanding, how can you expect the community to grow and prove its worth when you are too busy pecking away at each other? Gamers become the very things they claim to despise. and female gamers because silent, hide who they are online, becoming these mythological beings for fear of being torn down by the same community that clamors for more females to get involved.
Labels are for files, not for people.
Gamers of both sexes need to stop wasting their time and effort on belittling each other, coming up with terms and conditions for approval and instead accept each other, and work together to show that they aren't one of the cliques, that they aren't what society paints them to be.
The fake ones of either sex, will weed themselves out. You lose the opportunity for growth, friendship and the exchange of ideas when you spend your time splintering off the community into factions, demanding "geek cred" etc.
This is something that infuriates me to no end. I talked about it once before in a post about Hardcore vs Casual gamers.
your thoughts?
*****************************************************************************
So apparently word verification here on blogger has been acting up and a friend had trouble getting her comment to show up. Its a great comment and I'm gonna post it here because I think it should be read by all.
I hate labels as much as you do. People like to categorize people. For some reason, it's their way of 'maintaining order' when they're able to stick you into a specific category. And if you don't belong to any, you get shunned, ostracized, etc. Or in this case, labeled a 'fake'. Just because you don't know everything there is to know about the stuff you're geeking on doesn't necessarily mean you're faking it. On the contrary, if you actually knew everything there is to know about that, I'd have to call you 'Google'. Or better yet, NUTS.
Friday, September 16, 2011
A short disgusted rant about tits
So, I was lookin around on Gamespot and decided to see what people were saying about Borderlands 2.
If I haven't made it clear by now I LOVE THE HELL OUT OF BORDERLANDS!!!!!!! Like 500 hours worth of love. Like, I'd gladly trade my eldest child (sorry Ghanima) to get Borderlands 2 now, this minute, completed, in all its glory.
uhm...
sorry about that....
As I was saying, so I go to the Gamespot Borderlands forum and...WTF its allabout the size of Maya's tits. Her lack of hotness. The size of Lillith's tits, her hotness. the size of Moxxi's tits, Steele's tits...the need for hotter chicks with bigger tits...and...well you get the idea.
Now, i'm no prude and I appreciate a nice rack, Hell I defended the hypersexuality of female game characters such as Ivy and Bayonetta. Being sexy doesn't have to mean the degradation and subjugation of women everywhere. You can be sexy with a huge rack and be competent, capable and intelligent. Not to mention that to be fair, men are idealized in video games as well.
Now I've heard the counter argument to that which is that its not demeaning to men to have idealized and stereotyped characters such as..say... Marcus Fenix. (and before you say he isn't idealized cause he's one ugly mofo, I say, hey everyone's got their kinks besides an unstoppable badass with a heart of gold can be just as sexy as a pretty boy with perfect hair even if he has no neck and facial scars) or if you prefer the more Bishie option of pretty pretty boys lets say...Nero, Vergil, Dante.(what? I like white haired boys). And before you say that THAT is not degrading to men..tell that to Dante and his nipple strap in DMC3. If that isnt degrading I dont know what is! lol
So no, my rage isnt at sexy characters with big knockers. Its not even with men enjoying looking at pixelated sex kittens with big knockers. Its the fact that almost every damn conversation on that board came down to pixelated sex kittens' knockers. Then men wonder why they can't find a single woman who games. Treat us like mythical creatures or huge posers craving male attention....
Look asshole, did it ever cross your mind that we don't throw ourselves at idiots who can't uphold a conversation about anything game related without mentioning tits or Chun-Li's thighs?
Its not that female gamers find over-sexed female game characters offensive, its that we find male gamers offensive. Big difference.
Recently there was a post somewhere about whether or not you looked like a gamer, more specifically a fan of a particular game. Everyone was describing themselves, either playing themselves up or down, posting links to pics of themselves and generally being silly with it. I stupidly decided to join in.
Immediately it was about whether or not I was a butterface and whether I had a nice rack. Got a few IM's from a few different guys as well. Hell even this place took a pageview spike. I ended up deleting my picture.
I was told at one point that not only do I not look like a fan of said game but I don't look like I would know anything about games at all.
why is that?
because i'm female? because my boobs are big or not big enough? How is it that regardless of what the pics of the guys looked like, their actual "gamer cred" was never called out?
So guys, next time you whine about not finding a "gamer girlfriend" understand that women gamers are a very large group, we just tend to keep it quiet around the guys we feel will deride us for it, or those that make constant crass comments.
We aren't mythical, we aren't posers, we aren't stupid, we aren't special.
We're just gamers and want to enjoy our games and talk about games with other people who love them.
oh and for the record...before the whole "she's just a bitter, ugly, lesbo, bitch, feminist nazi, barbie horse adventure playing, poser" argument or the "get in the kitchen and make me a sammich" jokes, I just want to point out from observing people on various game sites. It is proven that, conversations about female game character's anatomies will be a dime a dozen. It is proven that you will be crucified if you object to said conversations...and it is proven that any talk about male game character anatomies will be shot down with comments of disgust and...my personal favorite...OUTRAGE by other men. Double standard much?
If I haven't made it clear by now I LOVE THE HELL OUT OF BORDERLANDS!!!!!!! Like 500 hours worth of love. Like, I'd gladly trade my eldest child (sorry Ghanima) to get Borderlands 2 now, this minute, completed, in all its glory.
uhm...
sorry about that....
As I was saying, so I go to the Gamespot Borderlands forum and...WTF its allabout the size of Maya's tits. Her lack of hotness. The size of Lillith's tits, her hotness. the size of Moxxi's tits, Steele's tits...the need for hotter chicks with bigger tits...and...well you get the idea.
Now, i'm no prude and I appreciate a nice rack, Hell I defended the hypersexuality of female game characters such as Ivy and Bayonetta. Being sexy doesn't have to mean the degradation and subjugation of women everywhere. You can be sexy with a huge rack and be competent, capable and intelligent. Not to mention that to be fair, men are idealized in video games as well.
Now I've heard the counter argument to that which is that its not demeaning to men to have idealized and stereotyped characters such as..say... Marcus Fenix. (and before you say he isn't idealized cause he's one ugly mofo, I say, hey everyone's got their kinks besides an unstoppable badass with a heart of gold can be just as sexy as a pretty boy with perfect hair even if he has no neck and facial scars) or if you prefer the more Bishie option of pretty pretty boys lets say...Nero, Vergil, Dante.(what? I like white haired boys). And before you say that THAT is not degrading to men..tell that to Dante and his nipple strap in DMC3. If that isnt degrading I dont know what is! lol
So no, my rage isnt at sexy characters with big knockers. Its not even with men enjoying looking at pixelated sex kittens with big knockers. Its the fact that almost every damn conversation on that board came down to pixelated sex kittens' knockers. Then men wonder why they can't find a single woman who games. Treat us like mythical creatures or huge posers craving male attention....
Look asshole, did it ever cross your mind that we don't throw ourselves at idiots who can't uphold a conversation about anything game related without mentioning tits or Chun-Li's thighs?
Its not that female gamers find over-sexed female game characters offensive, its that we find male gamers offensive. Big difference.
Recently there was a post somewhere about whether or not you looked like a gamer, more specifically a fan of a particular game. Everyone was describing themselves, either playing themselves up or down, posting links to pics of themselves and generally being silly with it. I stupidly decided to join in.
Immediately it was about whether or not I was a butterface and whether I had a nice rack. Got a few IM's from a few different guys as well. Hell even this place took a pageview spike. I ended up deleting my picture.
I was told at one point that not only do I not look like a fan of said game but I don't look like I would know anything about games at all.
why is that?
because i'm female? because my boobs are big or not big enough? How is it that regardless of what the pics of the guys looked like, their actual "gamer cred" was never called out?
So guys, next time you whine about not finding a "gamer girlfriend" understand that women gamers are a very large group, we just tend to keep it quiet around the guys we feel will deride us for it, or those that make constant crass comments.
We aren't mythical, we aren't posers, we aren't stupid, we aren't special.
We're just gamers and want to enjoy our games and talk about games with other people who love them.
oh and for the record...before the whole "she's just a bitter, ugly, lesbo, bitch, feminist nazi, barbie horse adventure playing, poser" argument or the "get in the kitchen and make me a sammich" jokes, I just want to point out from observing people on various game sites. It is proven that, conversations about female game character's anatomies will be a dime a dozen. It is proven that you will be crucified if you object to said conversations...and it is proven that any talk about male game character anatomies will be shot down with comments of disgust and...my personal favorite...OUTRAGE by other men. Double standard much?
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Ouch!
So I pop in in a drug induced haze and realized something.
If I ain't talking controversy I get no love!
That's Harsh! come on, you guys can do better than 4 visits. I know I've been boring you to tears lately but still. Do I need to stoop to low tactics like posting boobs every day? Wait, I can't do that. I've been talking about boobs for days now, that was like how this whole mess got started, boobs.
boobs are the enemy, right? I don't know, I like boobs.
Oh well, I'm here, I need page views and I've had you dangling for a while, so, I'll give you a quick crash course in feminism.
Oh but you already know what it is, right? What I've noticed is that the word gets tossed around a lot and most of the time its used incorrectly.
First is the fact that people seem to think Anti-Feminism and Post-Feminism are the same thing and use them interchangeably, on top of that its constantly paired with complaints of Sexism, another word tossed around a lot whether its right or not.
Quick example of that and gaming:
I want to clarify for people that having a small amount to no females in a game is not, i repeat NOT SEXIST! When's the last time you played a game that looked like a UN summit meeting? Shall we scream RACISM then? Of course not.
Lets be honest, games portray a certain moment, whether going towards realism or fantasy, a game is a moving snapshot of a moment. A moment in people/aliens/bugs/blobs/whatever bizarre creature the creator conjures up's lives. Its representative of those characters experiences, viewpoints, opinions, -isms. You can not judge that by real world standards...well actually you can but not in a global sense.
Lets say that instead of being a net savvy hotty born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York, I was born in a tiny secluded village near the banks of the Amazon river in Brazil. In this village my people are completely isolated from the outside world, we live much like our people have lived for hundreds, maybe thousands of years.
One day the village elder tells us a story passed down through the generations of the time one of the more adventurous members of the tribe wandered a bit further from home and saw something mind boggling. While hiding in the brush he saw these strange things, they walked like us, and they had features similar to ours and they made noises that sounded like some sort of language but their skin, it was bone white! they wore no jewelry and they were wearing clothes that covered them basically from head to toe. He was so scared he ran all the way back to the village where he told his story to the others, who laughed at him. He never left the village again, he was too scared. No one else from the village have ever seen one of these "white creatures" he talked of but its an entertaining story.
Because the villagers have never been exposed to people of other races the villager who saw a white person thought they were some sort of bizzare creature and no one else in the village believed him.does that make the previous story racist? Does that make the villagers racist? Of course not. You use what you know, what you've been exposed to, what's in the moment, in your mind, in your memories. Nothing more, nothing less.
Now moving back to my sassy New Yorican self, if I referred to a caucasian person as a "white creature-thing" that might be a lil racist cause well, I live in Florida and I'm surrounded by Crackers! Oh yeah, get your pitch-forks, I said Crackers!!!! you know what? I'd leave my husband for Garth Brooks' chubby bald Cracker self! So there you go, make of that what you will.
So what was my point again? Oh yes, Sexism in games. Anti-Feminism in games. Well, much like my above story, and my above points, Everyone and Everything cannot be in Every Game.
I have not played Modern Warfare 2 yet, though I got it for Christmas but I have played CoD4. It was pointed out on a site that shall remain nameless by a person who shall remain nameless (yeah, like most of you don't know what I'm talking about) that there was only ONE, I'll say it again ONE female in CoD4. On top of that this ONE woman was piloting a helicopter, that got shot down. Note this person claims that the chopper was shot down NOT because its well...A WAR ZONE, but because it was perpetuating the sexist stereotype that women can't drive.
I just wanna throw out there that being the awesome diva I am I was once complemented on my tight turns (no nasty double entendre intended) at 95 miles an hour in my old Jetta by an actual race car driver.
But wait! there's More! (my tribute to the late Billy Mays)
When the Chopper goes down the chopper the player is on goes back to rescue the female pilot. According to the same person this is NOT because she is a fellow soldier, but because she is a woman.
WTF??? How do you come up with CoD4 and by extension Infinity Ward are sexist because the one woman in the game is a bad driver that gets rescued cause she has tits? (pardon my french)
My mom has a saying about projecting yourself on others: "The Thief judges by his own condition". What does that mean? it means that in a lot of cases the person screaming the loudest in protest is the one that secretly feels that way, hence they know what they are talking about.
I'll cover that more in depth a little later right now, I wanna give you a quick crash course in the definitions (there's more than one) of Feminism.
The First Wave of feminism takes place between the 19th century and the early 20th century. Its the one we all read about in school, Suffragette's. These Feminists protested, lobbied and marched for women's rights to vote but more importantly, they also lobbied for women to have Equal contract and property rights and for the disavowal of the belief that married women and their children were men's property. Basically the freedom of women, body, mind and soul.
An interesting side note is that women didn't start off as chattel. The Celts had a more liberal view back in the early centuries. There were famous battle queens like Maeve and Boudicea. Many might not know who Maeve was, for those I recommend you read the legends about Cucchulain. Boudicea is a bit more famous. She took to her battle chariot after she was flogged and her daughter's raped by the Romans. She gave a hell of a fight and poisoned herself finally to avoid capture. Also under Brehon Law a woman and a man were married for a year and a day. After that year and a day if either party decided they were unhappy they could simply state that they divorced the other party and there was no loss of honor for either, A woman had no stigma attached to her and could remarry again, and if she had a child within the time frame they were married the child was not considered a bastard, also, should the man be so unlucky as to be divorced while outside of his home the woman could keep the property.
In medieval times it was expressly stated that the wife of a blacksmith, should she become widowed could not only keep the smithy but become blacksmith in order to support herself and her children if she was trained in smithing. Seems like we started off well in the "barbaric" "dark ages" and regressed with progress.
The second wave of Feminism takes place between the 1960's and the mid-late 1980's. Its more of a continuation of the first wave goals. Mostly it was concerned with issues of discrimination and equality in the work place.
Both the first and second waves had clearly defined goals. This is where it get sticky. the Third Wave.
The Third wave of Feminism started in the 1990's and its the most convoluted, volatile wave. It has the most interior debates about its goals and beliefs. One example is Psychologist Carol Gilligan who believes that we women are inherently different from men both physically and pyschologically, hence we can't be truly equal because we are 2 different sexes. Others believe that she is incorrect and that there are no inherent differences between the sexes. That gender roles are due to social conditioning.
Finally we come to an even more misunderstood group, and one that I personally subscribe to if you haven't noticed yet. Post Feminism.
Post Feminism is NOT as is commonly believed Anti-Feminism. Post Feminists believe women have already achieved the goals they set out in the first 2 waves. They also question third wave goals and issues, feeling that Feminism is no longer relevant in today's society.
Believing that Feminism is not relevant does not make one anti-feminist or anti-woman.
I mentioned in a previous post that a woman once accused me of setting feminists back 50yrs because I liked being a stay at home mom and cooking for my family. I say that its the contrary. The woman who said that is the one setting feminism back. Huh? are you scratching your head in confusion? Ranting at my ignorance to the computer screen? Snickering at my idiocy? If you are, scroll up and re-read the part about the 3 waves of Feminism, then come on back here and continue reading, go ahead, I'll wait....
Did you reread? Did you see where I'm going? No? Well then, stop reading and begone cause you're never gonna get it. For those that got it or that think they got it, I'll give you the answer.
Feminists in the past fought for a woman's RIGHT to vote, work, own property, be their own person. That means they also fought for a woman's RIGHT to NOT do these things. They fought so that I could work outside of the home like I did from the age of 16 to the age of 24 just like my male counterparts, but hey also fought so that I could stay home and take care of my family if I chose to. There's the rub. That's the part that "Feminists" today forget. That's why Feminism as a whole is irrelevant nowadays. We women, can work, can play, can think, can vote, can act in any way we choose. What the hell are we fighting for now? I will not deny that there are still places where feminist goals have not been achieved, but for the most part in most non-third world situations that glass ceiling women cry and scream and rant about is in their own minds.
One final goal of original Feminism was a belief than in equality we would also bring the sexes closer together. We would come to a better understanding of each other. These days it seems that the sexes are drifting farther apart and it is due to women. yeah Yeah, you're pissed at me again and think I'm an idiot. Keep reading.
Women want men to understand them, to be sensitive, to take on a type of role reversal; stay at home dad's, men doing more of the cooking, cleaning, child rearing, shopping, gardening, whatever the hell they deem "feminine". However, we also expect men to be strong, manly, capable, hard working, intelligent. This has led to men being in 3 groups. The metro-sexual, the neanderthal and the wuss.
The Metro-Sexual, neat, clean, gets manicures, spends more time on his hair than a woman with floor length hair. Women don't want him because well, he gets manicures, spends more time on his hair and is prettier than them.
The Neanderthal, burps, farts, watches sports, drinks beer, asks you to go make him a sammich. Women don't want him because well, he's a pig that keeps them repressed.
The Wuss, maintains himself but not as much as the metro-sexual, however he has repressed any and all "manly" behavior. Women don't want him because if they were ever mugged he'd push her towards the robber and run off.
Now I know I'm generalizing and not all men and women fall into these categories but what the hell, we live in a world of generalizations...they are called stereotypes, and they aren't going anywhere any time soon whether we want them too or not.
Where do I fall into this? Post Feminist all the way and proud of it. I believe Feminism's goals hve been achieved. I also believe that men and women are fundamentally different in both physique and mentality.
And my husband? Well, he started as a metro-sexual throughout our 10yr friendship. Upon our marriage he has now completely reverted to the Neaderthal, at least in terms of cleanliness and appearance. and I love him just the way he is and wouldn't want him any other way. We can both be crass and admire a girls boobs but we can also both cry at a chick flick. For all our differences and arguments I think we are a very good balance of male and female and the essence of Feminism.
So that's it for this installment of Feminism, Sexism and Gaming. The final installment will be about a reversal of the "Hot chicks" with offensively large anatomy in skimpy outfits.
If I ain't talking controversy I get no love!
That's Harsh! come on, you guys can do better than 4 visits. I know I've been boring you to tears lately but still. Do I need to stoop to low tactics like posting boobs every day? Wait, I can't do that. I've been talking about boobs for days now, that was like how this whole mess got started, boobs.
boobs are the enemy, right? I don't know, I like boobs.
Oh well, I'm here, I need page views and I've had you dangling for a while, so, I'll give you a quick crash course in feminism.
Oh but you already know what it is, right? What I've noticed is that the word gets tossed around a lot and most of the time its used incorrectly.
First is the fact that people seem to think Anti-Feminism and Post-Feminism are the same thing and use them interchangeably, on top of that its constantly paired with complaints of Sexism, another word tossed around a lot whether its right or not.
Quick example of that and gaming:
I want to clarify for people that having a small amount to no females in a game is not, i repeat NOT SEXIST! When's the last time you played a game that looked like a UN summit meeting? Shall we scream RACISM then? Of course not.
Lets be honest, games portray a certain moment, whether going towards realism or fantasy, a game is a moving snapshot of a moment. A moment in people/aliens/bugs/blobs/whatever bizarre creature the creator conjures up's lives. Its representative of those characters experiences, viewpoints, opinions, -isms. You can not judge that by real world standards...well actually you can but not in a global sense.
Lets say that instead of being a net savvy hotty born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York, I was born in a tiny secluded village near the banks of the Amazon river in Brazil. In this village my people are completely isolated from the outside world, we live much like our people have lived for hundreds, maybe thousands of years.
One day the village elder tells us a story passed down through the generations of the time one of the more adventurous members of the tribe wandered a bit further from home and saw something mind boggling. While hiding in the brush he saw these strange things, they walked like us, and they had features similar to ours and they made noises that sounded like some sort of language but their skin, it was bone white! they wore no jewelry and they were wearing clothes that covered them basically from head to toe. He was so scared he ran all the way back to the village where he told his story to the others, who laughed at him. He never left the village again, he was too scared. No one else from the village have ever seen one of these "white creatures" he talked of but its an entertaining story.
Because the villagers have never been exposed to people of other races the villager who saw a white person thought they were some sort of bizzare creature and no one else in the village believed him.does that make the previous story racist? Does that make the villagers racist? Of course not. You use what you know, what you've been exposed to, what's in the moment, in your mind, in your memories. Nothing more, nothing less.
Now moving back to my sassy New Yorican self, if I referred to a caucasian person as a "white creature-thing" that might be a lil racist cause well, I live in Florida and I'm surrounded by Crackers! Oh yeah, get your pitch-forks, I said Crackers!!!! you know what? I'd leave my husband for Garth Brooks' chubby bald Cracker self! So there you go, make of that what you will.
So what was my point again? Oh yes, Sexism in games. Anti-Feminism in games. Well, much like my above story, and my above points, Everyone and Everything cannot be in Every Game.
I have not played Modern Warfare 2 yet, though I got it for Christmas but I have played CoD4. It was pointed out on a site that shall remain nameless by a person who shall remain nameless (yeah, like most of you don't know what I'm talking about) that there was only ONE, I'll say it again ONE female in CoD4. On top of that this ONE woman was piloting a helicopter, that got shot down. Note this person claims that the chopper was shot down NOT because its well...A WAR ZONE, but because it was perpetuating the sexist stereotype that women can't drive.
I just wanna throw out there that being the awesome diva I am I was once complemented on my tight turns (no nasty double entendre intended) at 95 miles an hour in my old Jetta by an actual race car driver.
But wait! there's More! (my tribute to the late Billy Mays)
When the Chopper goes down the chopper the player is on goes back to rescue the female pilot. According to the same person this is NOT because she is a fellow soldier, but because she is a woman.
WTF??? How do you come up with CoD4 and by extension Infinity Ward are sexist because the one woman in the game is a bad driver that gets rescued cause she has tits? (pardon my french)
My mom has a saying about projecting yourself on others: "The Thief judges by his own condition". What does that mean? it means that in a lot of cases the person screaming the loudest in protest is the one that secretly feels that way, hence they know what they are talking about.
I'll cover that more in depth a little later right now, I wanna give you a quick crash course in the definitions (there's more than one) of Feminism.
The First Wave of feminism takes place between the 19th century and the early 20th century. Its the one we all read about in school, Suffragette's. These Feminists protested, lobbied and marched for women's rights to vote but more importantly, they also lobbied for women to have Equal contract and property rights and for the disavowal of the belief that married women and their children were men's property. Basically the freedom of women, body, mind and soul.
An interesting side note is that women didn't start off as chattel. The Celts had a more liberal view back in the early centuries. There were famous battle queens like Maeve and Boudicea. Many might not know who Maeve was, for those I recommend you read the legends about Cucchulain. Boudicea is a bit more famous. She took to her battle chariot after she was flogged and her daughter's raped by the Romans. She gave a hell of a fight and poisoned herself finally to avoid capture. Also under Brehon Law a woman and a man were married for a year and a day. After that year and a day if either party decided they were unhappy they could simply state that they divorced the other party and there was no loss of honor for either, A woman had no stigma attached to her and could remarry again, and if she had a child within the time frame they were married the child was not considered a bastard, also, should the man be so unlucky as to be divorced while outside of his home the woman could keep the property.
In medieval times it was expressly stated that the wife of a blacksmith, should she become widowed could not only keep the smithy but become blacksmith in order to support herself and her children if she was trained in smithing. Seems like we started off well in the "barbaric" "dark ages" and regressed with progress.
The second wave of Feminism takes place between the 1960's and the mid-late 1980's. Its more of a continuation of the first wave goals. Mostly it was concerned with issues of discrimination and equality in the work place.
Both the first and second waves had clearly defined goals. This is where it get sticky. the Third Wave.
The Third wave of Feminism started in the 1990's and its the most convoluted, volatile wave. It has the most interior debates about its goals and beliefs. One example is Psychologist Carol Gilligan who believes that we women are inherently different from men both physically and pyschologically, hence we can't be truly equal because we are 2 different sexes. Others believe that she is incorrect and that there are no inherent differences between the sexes. That gender roles are due to social conditioning.
Finally we come to an even more misunderstood group, and one that I personally subscribe to if you haven't noticed yet. Post Feminism.
Post Feminism is NOT as is commonly believed Anti-Feminism. Post Feminists believe women have already achieved the goals they set out in the first 2 waves. They also question third wave goals and issues, feeling that Feminism is no longer relevant in today's society.
Believing that Feminism is not relevant does not make one anti-feminist or anti-woman.
I mentioned in a previous post that a woman once accused me of setting feminists back 50yrs because I liked being a stay at home mom and cooking for my family. I say that its the contrary. The woman who said that is the one setting feminism back. Huh? are you scratching your head in confusion? Ranting at my ignorance to the computer screen? Snickering at my idiocy? If you are, scroll up and re-read the part about the 3 waves of Feminism, then come on back here and continue reading, go ahead, I'll wait....
Did you reread? Did you see where I'm going? No? Well then, stop reading and begone cause you're never gonna get it. For those that got it or that think they got it, I'll give you the answer.
Feminists in the past fought for a woman's RIGHT to vote, work, own property, be their own person. That means they also fought for a woman's RIGHT to NOT do these things. They fought so that I could work outside of the home like I did from the age of 16 to the age of 24 just like my male counterparts, but hey also fought so that I could stay home and take care of my family if I chose to. There's the rub. That's the part that "Feminists" today forget. That's why Feminism as a whole is irrelevant nowadays. We women, can work, can play, can think, can vote, can act in any way we choose. What the hell are we fighting for now? I will not deny that there are still places where feminist goals have not been achieved, but for the most part in most non-third world situations that glass ceiling women cry and scream and rant about is in their own minds.
One final goal of original Feminism was a belief than in equality we would also bring the sexes closer together. We would come to a better understanding of each other. These days it seems that the sexes are drifting farther apart and it is due to women. yeah Yeah, you're pissed at me again and think I'm an idiot. Keep reading.
Women want men to understand them, to be sensitive, to take on a type of role reversal; stay at home dad's, men doing more of the cooking, cleaning, child rearing, shopping, gardening, whatever the hell they deem "feminine". However, we also expect men to be strong, manly, capable, hard working, intelligent. This has led to men being in 3 groups. The metro-sexual, the neanderthal and the wuss.
The Metro-Sexual, neat, clean, gets manicures, spends more time on his hair than a woman with floor length hair. Women don't want him because well, he gets manicures, spends more time on his hair and is prettier than them.
The Neanderthal, burps, farts, watches sports, drinks beer, asks you to go make him a sammich. Women don't want him because well, he's a pig that keeps them repressed.
The Wuss, maintains himself but not as much as the metro-sexual, however he has repressed any and all "manly" behavior. Women don't want him because if they were ever mugged he'd push her towards the robber and run off.
Now I know I'm generalizing and not all men and women fall into these categories but what the hell, we live in a world of generalizations...they are called stereotypes, and they aren't going anywhere any time soon whether we want them too or not.
Where do I fall into this? Post Feminist all the way and proud of it. I believe Feminism's goals hve been achieved. I also believe that men and women are fundamentally different in both physique and mentality.
And my husband? Well, he started as a metro-sexual throughout our 10yr friendship. Upon our marriage he has now completely reverted to the Neaderthal, at least in terms of cleanliness and appearance. and I love him just the way he is and wouldn't want him any other way. We can both be crass and admire a girls boobs but we can also both cry at a chick flick. For all our differences and arguments I think we are a very good balance of male and female and the essence of Feminism.
So that's it for this installment of Feminism, Sexism and Gaming. The final installment will be about a reversal of the "Hot chicks" with offensively large anatomy in skimpy outfits.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Finally! Let's talk about scantily clad women
One of the biggest complaints women make about games is that the women in them are all scantily clad, big breasted, cheap looking, unrealistic depictions. They ask "where are the strong, capable, and perhaps a tad more proportionately even women?" you know what? I can't argue that most women in games are scantily clad eye candy. Does that automatically discard them as strong capable characters?
The portrayal of women as sex symbols is nothing new. The depiction of unattainable beauty is one that still haunts women everyday. However, can we blame it all on men?
Since the beginning of time women have jumped through (and at some point worn) hoops to idealize their form and figure. At different points in history (and some still around today) women have bound their feet, their necks and their waists. They've put on makeup and straightened their hair. They talked in a breathy whisper and looked demurely at the ground. I'm not denying this.
However, there are quite a few things that people do not know, or have chosen to forget about many of these practices.
Though 2 wrongs don't make a right I'd like to point out something women tend to forget, they are not alone. What I mean is men have subscribed to a lot of the same beautification tortures that women have.
Why am I talking about make-up? If you haven't noticed yet these trends, these standards of beauty have been perpetrated by women, not men.
In both 7th century BCE in the Minoan era and in 1st Century Egypt there are depictions of women athletes wearing a bra/bikini type top. Interesting how far back these things go.
Personally I feel that the Middle Ages followed by the Renaissance had it right. In the middle ages women wore high necked, full skirted dresses with a straight bodice, functionality over form. The Renaissance of course favored the full figured woman.
All this wonderful practicality in clothing went out the window in the 16th century. Corsets. heck they are still around today.
In the 17th century the fashion was a tubular corset, straight up and down which flattened the breasts and made them swell over the top of the gown, this was paired with a Farthingale (a cage like undergarment) that gave women that wide flat look, Think Marie Antoinette and the like.
Moving on to around the 1820's-1830's the fashionable thing was a Wasp waist for...wait for it...
BOTH men and women.
our final Corset stop is the Victorian Era. This is the time that doctors started to realize that hey, corsets aren't good for you! They urged women to stop using them, but what did women do? They ignored the "unfashionable" advice.
Though this has nothing to do with garments I'd like to add one more torturous practice.
If you haven't noticed by now, I ramble, a lot. I also go off on all sorts of tangents. Sorry, that's just my way. However, all that talk about make-up and corsets and feet ARE related to scantily clad women in video games and the people this offends.
First it shows that in many cases women themselves submit themselves to these tortures and also that men are not immune to the pressures of an idealized mate.
Still don't see where I'm going?
Lets start with some visual aids.
I know that there are a ton of games out there with scantily clad women and content that offends most people. However, I wanted to keep it more well known so I'll be using some common characters from games like Soul Calibur, Final Fantasy and Dynasty Warriors to name a few.
We shall begin with one of my personal favorites:
Are those flotation devices?
Meet Ivy Valentine from Soul Calibur. While Ivy has been rockin' a pretty big rack since the first Soul Calibur game she really caused an uproar when her character model was..uh...enhanced for Soul Calibur 4. Both men and women were offended by the bodacious brit and her top heavy look. Me? I said to myself "damn her back must really hurt" and went back to life as usual. Obviously Ms. Valentine's design is intended to titillate (no pun intended). On top of this fact is the fact that a sensible person might want to wear oh...I don't know...clothes, armor, something more than floss and thigh highs if they were going to battle. But, does her lack of practical clothing and insane body proportions make her just a character for men to ogle? well, if you are familiar with Soul Calibur you already know that Ivy is one of the hardest characters to master. Should you master her moves however, you'll be pwning a whole lotta noobs left and right. So....Ivy? Sexy, overly sexualized, unnecessarily over sexualized but also a good fighter an expert swords-woman and an alchemical genius if you follow her story (which is admittedly not that deep but come on, its a fighting game). As a woman, you can be offended by the character design or you can get over it, use her alternate costume and enjoy your game.
Meet Taki, another Soul Calibur lady with deadly skills and built in airbags. Again, I know a lot of women would find the character design offensive. Personally, I just wonder how she doesn't knock herself out with those when she's doing her ninja flips. Yet another character who you can either dominate with or be destroyed if you don't know her moves well. Her weapons have short range, but she compensates for this failing by being extremely fast and acrobatic. Again, another woman who would kick your ass in a heartbeat. Her looks don't offend me, and her skills put her in the strong capable woman category.
You see, its all in how you look at it. You can choose to be offended because men will be attracted to her character design, or you can see it as a plus. Nothing like distracting an enemy in order to stab them from behind.
Ivy and Taki are but 2 of a bevy of kick ass females in Soul Calibur. They come in every flavor and size, from the young cute Talim (who will destroy you with her elbow blades) to the the small breasted Seong Mi-Na and her Halberd. My personal favorites however are Tifa (the psychotic with the razor sharp ring blade and split personality) and Sophitia (as if that weren't obvious) the blonde Greek mother of 2 who fights with a short sword and shield and some bitchin' kicks.
To me these characters are a very strong female presence in the game world. Strong independent kick ass fighters. Its not the characters themselves that offensive its what people do with said characters, how they choose to exploit them. For example, when Soul Calibur 4 was released it didn't take long for someone to exploit and degrade them.
See, that IS offensive. That is sexist and mysoginistic. Its insulting and only serves to support and strengthen the negative views about games and the people who play them. It does gamer's a great disservice because as they say, One bad apple spoils the barrel.
Now the following lady in this list is a newcomer but due to her looks and abilities has gotten a lot of attention.
Meet Bayonetta
And her perfectly sculpted rear.
Bayonetta has been the talk of the town since the game was announced. A librarian-ish looking witch with a killer body, guns on her feet and clothing made out of her hair. Aside from the fact that her creator is most proud of the time and skill it took to render her derriere to his satisfaction there really isn't anything all that offensive about the character model, is there? Her outfit while tight is pretty conservative, her breasts are a normal size and her face is attractive yet nerdy. What's the drama?
Not only does Bayonetta duel wield pistols, she also duel feet's them. Her walk is sexy, her voice is sultry, her special attacks require her to undre- wait what?
Yes, aside from her impressive arsenal of weapons and abilities Bayonetta can use Torture Attacks. These are special moves that can summon Iron Maidens into which she flings her enemies, Guillotines to which she kicks her enemies repeatedly until she finally drops the blade on them, but wait, that's not all (I feel like an infomercial). Bayonetta can also magically turn her hairshirt I mean catsuit into an assortment of creative attacks which leave her in a shocking state of mostly undressed.
Though none of her naughty bits are shown, I'm sure there will be a few people (if there aren't already) who will not be pleased with the wily witch. Personally I find the idea of her clothes being her hair and her weapon particularly cool and different from the usual gaming fare. I also wish I could rock the librarian look as well as her.
I've only played the demo as the game won't be out until Tuesday but I can honestly say that far from being an exploitative, sexist take on a female character, she's an awesome asset to the game world females, hell, from the bit I've played she'd give quite a few male characters a run for their money in bad-assery.
Making a female character sexually alluring does not automatically invalidate them as positive female characters. To illustrate this point I'd like to show you a few characters from one of my favorite gaming series' Dynasty Warriors. If you aren't familiar with Dynasty Warriors, its a game based no the Three Kingdoms period of China. It takes the real life people who fought in the many wars between Wei, Shu and Wu, makes them super pretty and then pits them against wave after wave of nameless foes as you wade your way through the famous battles they fought, sort of, I mean its not really accurate, but it is fun.
This is Diao Chan, considered one of the 3 fabled beauties of China. A dancing girl who captures the heart of one very big, but not very bright and extremely scary man named Lu Bu.
She's beautiful, scantily clad and carries a whip. If I was a guy I'd probably need to take a break right now. (damn I'm a sexist pig.)
Meet Sun ShangXiang. The daughter of Sun Jian, the Tiger of Jiang Dong and ruler of Wu. Despite the fact that her game model looks like a young girl in a skimpy cutesy outfit, her skills with her bow are deadly. Historically she was a skilled fighter as were her 100 handmaidens. In an attempt at alliance she was married to Liu Bei, Ruler of Shu. Its said that Liu Bei was terrified of her servants.
Finally we have Yue Ying, wife of the great strategist of Shu, Zhuge Liang. She's my personal favorite because she can decimate a fort full of enemies easily with her bow. She's also one of the characters (along with Diao Chan) that is almost completely fabricated. Historically not very much was known about Zhuge Liang's wife except that he was impressed by her wisdom and that she wasn't very attractive. Glad they changed that for the game, seriously, I don't wanna be an ugly chick.
Wait, that's just it. No one wants to play an ugly character. Games are escapism, games are role play, you can be pretty much anything in a game so why would you choose to be ugly in a world where you can be anyone? You can't judge in game characters with real world logic. Its just ridiculous.
I know, you might be saying "yeah but you contradict yourself when you posted the crotch shots from Soul Calibur and claimed to take offense".
Yeah, you're right, guess I'm a hypocrite, but its still my blog ;) I kid.
Ignoring my hypocrisy, you might say, "but wait! you've just made me read this never ending blog post about stuff that has nothing to do with gaming followed by pics of cute/hot/big breasted game characters that you claim don't offend you and that you enjoy playing as but..we're not talking about a woman playing games with these characters. We're talking about men drooling over pixelated women." (and if you did say that you better take adeep breath and get a glass of water, your mouth must be dry)
To this I say, yeah, you're right...what was my point again?
Oh, now I remember.
I've written this post assuming a few key points.
1. Women play video games
2. Men play video games
3. Game characters are made to appeal to the player.
4. There's a difference between a sexy character model and placing said character in degrading positions that serve no purpose but to strock a few messed up libidos. One is A-ok and the other is sexist and insulting.
5. Tomorrow is another day and I'll be putting the shoe on the other foot.
hmm....I guess I could have just written the last paragraph and called it a day huh?
well tomorrow I'll wrap it all up with a brief history of feminism, post feminism and flippin the whole damn game chick argument around.
The portrayal of women as sex symbols is nothing new. The depiction of unattainable beauty is one that still haunts women everyday. However, can we blame it all on men?
** Warning there will be a long ramble through history that is seemingly unconnected with gaming but bear with me, I have a point.**
However, there are quite a few things that people do not know, or have chosen to forget about many of these practices.
Though 2 wrongs don't make a right I'd like to point out something women tend to forget, they are not alone. What I mean is men have subscribed to a lot of the same beautification tortures that women have.
Make-up!
Both Egyptian men and women wore Kohl eyeliner and contrary to popular belief, it had nothing to do with beauty. The Egyptians believed that rimming the eyes with Kohl would ward off evil spirits and improve sight. I'd say that now women wear it for appeal but they aren't the only ones, men rock the guyliner every once in a while too. In ancient Rome female slaves called Cosmitae produced cosmetics, and in China around 3,000BC high born women stained their fingernails with a mixture of gum arabic, gelatin, beeswax and eggs.Why am I talking about make-up? If you haven't noticed yet these trends, these standards of beauty have been perpetrated by women, not men.
Now on to Garments!
I'd like to quickly mention as well that in Ancient Egypt most women went bare-breasted, their traditional garments being either a skirt or a tunic that could be worn just below or above the breasts. Obviously the Ancient Egyptians were a lot less repressed than us.In both 7th century BCE in the Minoan era and in 1st Century Egypt there are depictions of women athletes wearing a bra/bikini type top. Interesting how far back these things go.
Personally I feel that the Middle Ages followed by the Renaissance had it right. In the middle ages women wore high necked, full skirted dresses with a straight bodice, functionality over form. The Renaissance of course favored the full figured woman.
All this wonderful practicality in clothing went out the window in the 16th century. Corsets. heck they are still around today.
In the 17th century the fashion was a tubular corset, straight up and down which flattened the breasts and made them swell over the top of the gown, this was paired with a Farthingale (a cage like undergarment) that gave women that wide flat look, Think Marie Antoinette and the like.
Moving on to around the 1820's-1830's the fashionable thing was a Wasp waist for...wait for it...
BOTH men and women.
our final Corset stop is the Victorian Era. This is the time that doctors started to realize that hey, corsets aren't good for you! They urged women to stop using them, but what did women do? They ignored the "unfashionable" advice.
Though this has nothing to do with garments I'd like to add one more torturous practice.
Foot Binding.
I, like a lot of people have at one point or another for some odd reason heard of the practice of foot binding. Like those other people I was quick to blame men for the barbaric practice of torturing girls for aesthetics, that is until I actually read a bit about it.
You see, the binding of the feet began with wealthy well-born women. It was a way to flaunt Status not appeal, though of course that came into play as well. The binding of the feet was a way of showing the world that these women didn't have to do manual labor. It also demonstrated the fact that their husband didn't need their wives to work. They could afford to take care of them, while the wives' only duties were to serve her husband and order the servants, never lifting a finger herself. I won't go into the gruesome particulars that go into the process of foot binding, but I would like to share the fact that the ideal foot size was 3 inches. Balancing on 3 inch feet made women take small steps and walk unsteadily on their heels, this necessary walk made them sway alluringly, however, men weren't stupid. Though they liked the effect most of them never let their wives remove their shoes and bindings in their presence.
As it happens with everything, once the wealthy or popular start a trend the masses will eventually follow. By the 17th century most women had their feet bound, even the poorest.
Ok, but what the hell does this have to do with anything?
If you haven't noticed by now, I ramble, a lot. I also go off on all sorts of tangents. Sorry, that's just my way. However, all that talk about make-up and corsets and feet ARE related to scantily clad women in video games and the people this offends.
First it shows that in many cases women themselves submit themselves to these tortures and also that men are not immune to the pressures of an idealized mate.
Still don't see where I'm going?
Lets start with some visual aids.
I know that there are a ton of games out there with scantily clad women and content that offends most people. However, I wanted to keep it more well known so I'll be using some common characters from games like Soul Calibur, Final Fantasy and Dynasty Warriors to name a few.
We shall begin with one of my personal favorites:
Are those flotation devices?
Meet Ivy Valentine from Soul Calibur. While Ivy has been rockin' a pretty big rack since the first Soul Calibur game she really caused an uproar when her character model was..uh...enhanced for Soul Calibur 4. Both men and women were offended by the bodacious brit and her top heavy look. Me? I said to myself "damn her back must really hurt" and went back to life as usual. Obviously Ms. Valentine's design is intended to titillate (no pun intended). On top of this fact is the fact that a sensible person might want to wear oh...I don't know...clothes, armor, something more than floss and thigh highs if they were going to battle. But, does her lack of practical clothing and insane body proportions make her just a character for men to ogle? well, if you are familiar with Soul Calibur you already know that Ivy is one of the hardest characters to master. Should you master her moves however, you'll be pwning a whole lotta noobs left and right. So....Ivy? Sexy, overly sexualized, unnecessarily over sexualized but also a good fighter an expert swords-woman and an alchemical genius if you follow her story (which is admittedly not that deep but come on, its a fighting game). As a woman, you can be offended by the character design or you can get over it, use her alternate costume and enjoy your game.
You see, its all in how you look at it. You can choose to be offended because men will be attracted to her character design, or you can see it as a plus. Nothing like distracting an enemy in order to stab them from behind.
Ivy and Taki are but 2 of a bevy of kick ass females in Soul Calibur. They come in every flavor and size, from the young cute Talim (who will destroy you with her elbow blades) to the the small breasted Seong Mi-Na and her Halberd. My personal favorites however are Tifa (the psychotic with the razor sharp ring blade and split personality) and Sophitia (as if that weren't obvious) the blonde Greek mother of 2 who fights with a short sword and shield and some bitchin' kicks.
To me these characters are a very strong female presence in the game world. Strong independent kick ass fighters. Its not the characters themselves that offensive its what people do with said characters, how they choose to exploit them. For example, when Soul Calibur 4 was released it didn't take long for someone to exploit and degrade them.
Where are your clothes? Where is your dignity!
Now the following lady in this list is a newcomer but due to her looks and abilities has gotten a lot of attention.
And her perfectly sculpted rear.Bayonetta has been the talk of the town since the game was announced. A librarian-ish looking witch with a killer body, guns on her feet and clothing made out of her hair. Aside from the fact that her creator is most proud of the time and skill it took to render her derriere to his satisfaction there really isn't anything all that offensive about the character model, is there? Her outfit while tight is pretty conservative, her breasts are a normal size and her face is attractive yet nerdy. What's the drama?
Not only does Bayonetta duel wield pistols, she also duel feet's them. Her walk is sexy, her voice is sultry, her special attacks require her to undre- wait what?
Yes, aside from her impressive arsenal of weapons and abilities Bayonetta can use Torture Attacks. These are special moves that can summon Iron Maidens into which she flings her enemies, Guillotines to which she kicks her enemies repeatedly until she finally drops the blade on them, but wait, that's not all (I feel like an infomercial). Bayonetta can also magically turn her hair
I've only played the demo as the game won't be out until Tuesday but I can honestly say that far from being an exploitative, sexist take on a female character, she's an awesome asset to the game world females, hell, from the bit I've played she'd give quite a few male characters a run for their money in bad-assery.
Hot chicks, scant outfits, much ass kicking, lots of fun
(historically relevant..sort of)
This is Diao Chan, considered one of the 3 fabled beauties of China. A dancing girl who captures the heart of one very big, but not very bright and extremely scary man named Lu Bu.
She's beautiful, scantily clad and carries a whip. If I was a guy I'd probably need to take a break right now. (damn I'm a sexist pig.)
Meet Sun ShangXiang. The daughter of Sun Jian, the Tiger of Jiang Dong and ruler of Wu. Despite the fact that her game model looks like a young girl in a skimpy cutesy outfit, her skills with her bow are deadly. Historically she was a skilled fighter as were her 100 handmaidens. In an attempt at alliance she was married to Liu Bei, Ruler of Shu. Its said that Liu Bei was terrified of her servants.
Wait, that's just it. No one wants to play an ugly character. Games are escapism, games are role play, you can be pretty much anything in a game so why would you choose to be ugly in a world where you can be anyone? You can't judge in game characters with real world logic. Its just ridiculous.
I know, you might be saying "yeah but you contradict yourself when you posted the crotch shots from Soul Calibur and claimed to take offense".
Yeah, you're right, guess I'm a hypocrite, but its still my blog ;) I kid.
Ignoring my hypocrisy, you might say, "but wait! you've just made me read this never ending blog post about stuff that has nothing to do with gaming followed by pics of cute/hot/big breasted game characters that you claim don't offend you and that you enjoy playing as but..we're not talking about a woman playing games with these characters. We're talking about men drooling over pixelated women." (and if you did say that you better take adeep breath and get a glass of water, your mouth must be dry)
To this I say, yeah, you're right...what was my point again?
Oh, now I remember.
I've written this post assuming a few key points.
1. Women play video games
2. Men play video games
3. Game characters are made to appeal to the player.
4. There's a difference between a sexy character model and placing said character in degrading positions that serve no purpose but to strock a few messed up libidos. One is A-ok and the other is sexist and insulting.
5. Tomorrow is another day and I'll be putting the shoe on the other foot.
hmm....I guess I could have just written the last paragraph and called it a day huh?
well tomorrow I'll wrap it all up with a brief history of feminism, post feminism and flippin the whole damn game chick argument around.
Women and gaming- Sexism. Update
So, I'm a day late as usual. I apologize, I'm lazy.
Ok, its only partly laziness. As you know (cause I mention it ad nauseam) I have kids. 3 of the little buggers, and they are home on Winter break. Its cold out and its been rainy so I have 3 kids pent up in a house getting restless.
I had fully intended to work on this last night but by the time everyone was in bed I was too tired. Now my 4th child is home as well (that would be my husband) and I've got a million distractions.
Right now I'm gathering up the images I want to post between breaks to help my son play Elite Beat Agents, refereeing my girls and watching Torchwood with my husband, not exactly Ideal working conditions. Of course its all part and parcel of being a mom, especially a gaming one. Thank god for wireless controllers, Pause buttons and autosave!
Update: Hard at work right now. somehow a little quest for pics led me to wikipedia which led me to start some research which just made me get all ambitious, which has led to more research which is gonna lead to one helluva long post very soon.
SO I swear and Promise that if you come back tonight I WILL have this damn thing written.
There will be boobs, there will be upskirts (probably), there will be scantily clad people. See, I'm already using low woman-insulting tactics to get you to come back.
Before other women find me and bludgeon me to death with a copy of Queen's Blade. (speaking of, anyone speak Japanese? can you translate the game menus for me? I really want to play the game) I guarantee there will be pretty boys and burly men as well, because though women hate to admit it, Sex sells to BOTH genders and its no different in games.
I must go now because I've had multiple DSs shoved in my face for help with levels on multiple games but come hell or high water, even if I have to stay up all night I will write this because it needs to be said and I want to say it.
Ok, its only partly laziness. As you know (cause I mention it ad nauseam) I have kids. 3 of the little buggers, and they are home on Winter break. Its cold out and its been rainy so I have 3 kids pent up in a house getting restless.
I had fully intended to work on this last night but by the time everyone was in bed I was too tired. Now my 4th child is home as well (that would be my husband) and I've got a million distractions.
Right now I'm gathering up the images I want to post between breaks to help my son play Elite Beat Agents, refereeing my girls and watching Torchwood with my husband, not exactly Ideal working conditions. Of course its all part and parcel of being a mom, especially a gaming one. Thank god for wireless controllers, Pause buttons and autosave!
Update: Hard at work right now. somehow a little quest for pics led me to wikipedia which led me to start some research which just made me get all ambitious, which has led to more research which is gonna lead to one helluva long post very soon.
SO I swear and Promise that if you come back tonight I WILL have this damn thing written.
There will be boobs, there will be upskirts (probably), there will be scantily clad people. See, I'm already using low woman-insulting tactics to get you to come back.
Before other women find me and bludgeon me to death with a copy of Queen's Blade. (speaking of, anyone speak Japanese? can you translate the game menus for me? I really want to play the game) I guarantee there will be pretty boys and burly men as well, because though women hate to admit it, Sex sells to BOTH genders and its no different in games.
I must go now because I've had multiple DSs shoved in my face for help with levels on multiple games but come hell or high water, even if I have to stay up all night I will write this because it needs to be said and I want to say it.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
There are Women and Girls who play Games
Now that we've got that out of the way we can move on to the messy little details: the stereotypes and the mocking, and the surprising group they come from most.
The gaming industry is usually on the receiving end of the righteous anger of people (I won't say women because there are plenty of men who feel the same) who feel most games are sexist and/or exploitative. The games who don't fall into those 2 categories, the games that developers create to try and split the difference, those are the Girly games, which are also considered sexist because they are silly and frilly and pink and insulting to female gamers.
Where does that leave Developers? Damned if they do and damned if they don't. Here's the question, is it really all the gaming industry's fault?
I mean, Nintendo sells Pink DSs and DSis. Sony recently released a Lavendar PSP, and not just ANY purple PSP, but one bundled with a Hannah Montana game.Then there are those games, the ones that clog the shelves of your average Target or Wal mart. You know the ones that say Imagine and the ones that end in the letter Z. The ones about the caring, nursing, feeding and petting of all sorts of animals. the ones that offer stereotypical female roles to play out, like Teacher and Ballet Dancer, Babysitter and Cook. Who are they marketed towards? Women and Girls. why? Because supposedly we like babyZ and PuppieZ and tu-tus.
I'll come back to the games geared for girls in a bit because there's another thing I want to mention before we delve deeper into this mess.
The gaming industry is usually on the receiving end of the righteous anger of people (I won't say women because there are plenty of men who feel the same) who feel most games are sexist and/or exploitative. The games who don't fall into those 2 categories, the games that developers create to try and split the difference, those are the Girly games, which are also considered sexist because they are silly and frilly and pink and insulting to female gamers.
Where does that leave Developers? Damned if they do and damned if they don't. Here's the question, is it really all the gaming industry's fault?
I mean, Nintendo sells Pink DSs and DSis. Sony recently released a Lavendar PSP, and not just ANY purple PSP, but one bundled with a Hannah Montana game.Then there are those games, the ones that clog the shelves of your average Target or Wal mart. You know the ones that say Imagine and the ones that end in the letter Z. The ones about the caring, nursing, feeding and petting of all sorts of animals. the ones that offer stereotypical female roles to play out, like Teacher and Ballet Dancer, Babysitter and Cook. Who are they marketed towards? Women and Girls. why? Because supposedly we like babyZ and PuppieZ and tu-tus.
I'll come back to the games geared for girls in a bit because there's another thing I want to mention before we delve deeper into this mess.
**This is where it might get offensive**
First in order to help you see where I'm coming from I'd like to share a couple of things about me.
My husband says he's more of a feminist than I am, he's right. My views on being a woman are complicated and sometimes contradictory. I feel that women and men are fundamentally different. We are different not only in looks and anatomy but also in thought. Since we are different there is no way we could ever be equal. Now, before women jump down my thoat, I don't believe or think women are lesser. We're just different. These differences are what lead to the "traditional" division of labor and power between men and women. I'm not saying that relegating women to the kitchen without a vote was right, I'm merely stating why I believe it happened.
Now, I'm a live and let live kind of girl. I'm the first one to tell my daughters to be whatever they want to be, however, I have my own personal opinions and philosophy that I live by and feel strongly about. A woman once told me that "Women like me set feminism back 50 years." Why did she say this? Because I said I was happy being a stay at home mom, that I enjoyed taking care of my husband and children. Of course this woman also prided herself on the fact that the extent of her cooking experience was pressing start on a microwave.
At this point you're probably wondering what the heck does any of this have to do with gaming? Well, I can't help but think that part of the problem with women and gaming is, well, women.
In our quest for equality we separate ourselves even more.
What do you call a man who games? Gamer.
What do you call a woman who games? Depends who you ask. We've got Girl Gamers and Gamer Girls (apparently there is a difference). oh and my personal favorite " I'm just a woman who plays games." Is that like Kevin Costner who "Dances with Wolves?" Rarely do they go by the simple term "Gamer"
But its not just different names, each name has a different definition. Its like a Feudal Caste System I keep waiting for the day when I come out of a Gamestop with a newly bought game only to have some random woman yank it from my hand and claim the right of Prima Nocta.
Thank god this is a blog and not an article because I'd be hard pressed to find a link to the specific post/article I read long ago by another female gamer which actually describes everything I've said above. The only difference being that she herself fell into the whole judgemental caste thing. I recall reading this and ranting to my husband about it. She claimed that Girl Gamers gamed not because they liked it but for attention. Attention from men as in order to A) get special treatment during gameplay and B) to pick up guys or C) they don't play REAL games. Whereas Gamer Girls gamed because they enjoyed it. She herself fell into the latter category she claimed though she preffered Female Gamer in the Style of Kevin Costner.
Now, I might have agreed with at least some of her points except her post was filled with vitriol against "Girl Gamers." As to the claims of gaming to pick up guys or get special treatment, yes, there probably are girls/women who do this. This is different from guys hanging out in the bookstore coffee shop with a Jane Austen novel or talking about a chick flick how? The second claim, Special treatment? why should gaming be any exception. How many women use their looks to get their way, or things they want? I'm not saying its right or wrong, it just is. And finally they don't play REAL games.
What's a Real game? Aren't all games pure fantasy and therefore unreal? Then again, I dropped $60 on Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and that was pretty Real in a physical sense (and a painful one to my bank account and later my Xbox but that's another story.)
I know! The non-real games of girl gamers end in a "Z" and usually have the word "Imagine" on them. Shovelware for little kids and casual gamers. I've been on that bandwagon too, ready to storm the gates of Ubisoft for implying women who game are fru-fru idiots. That Ubisoft is part of some nefarious plot to indoctrinate little girls to grow up to be pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen with all their babysitting and boutique owning and ballet dancing. Not only that but they are also stealing the money of the parents, the teens, the women who buy these games.
We women are quite capable of playing the same games as men. Invariably we women will name drop the "hardcore" games we play. The Halo's and Gears, Bioshock, Silent Hill. Oh we can name drop for hours and then we mock the Imagine players. I mocked my daughter when she wanted Imagine games. I told her "Real gamers don't play that garbage. come here and watch mommy play Devil May Cry." Then I decided, who was I to tell her that her interests are silly? So I let her play them. Then when I started writing this I decided to finally try one. Well, I didn't try 1, I tried 4.
What did I find?
I found out that babysitting is really hard, being a vet is kinda boring, Cheerleading was slightly annoying and modern dancing was really damn fun.
So I asked on a few different sites I go to "What do you think of Imagine games?" "Ever played one? if so, which one?" The replies were invariably some variation of "I've never played that crap."
My personal favorite was this one:
From a sociological POV I think it can be detrimental just because it reinforces core gender stereotypes (boys play games with guns etc, girls play games with horses and other euqally "girl" like things).
Fancy talk for "its telling girls to get their ass in the kitchen and make me a sammich" But of course, they've never played one. I guess ,I should ask another question. How many people, male and female played Elite Beat Agents? Thoughts on it? If you liked it, you'd probably enjoy some of the Imagine games. SHOCKER! BTW....Girls play with Horses? Horses are Girly? Wow, I think there's a whole history book of Cowboys that want a word.
But I've dedicated enough to the joys of Imagine.
Let stop here and regroup.
Tomorrow I'll tackle the Sexist gaming industry and their big boobed half naked heroines.
I'm going to go play Imagine Modern Dancer now, maybe a little puzzle quest while I smoke...and just to prove I'm HARDCORE when I'm done I'm going to shoot a few guys in the crotch in Stranglehold and pop a cap in a ghouls' ass in Fallout3. Cause I'm a Woman Who Games (but I've never danced with wolves :( )
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Good morning
If you've come to read about girl gamers I have good and bad news.
The bad news first.
I'm still not feeling 100%. I don't want to bog down this blog with my own personal issues but I feel like I should explain why sometimes, unfortunately, I might be less than punctual in my posting.
I won't bore you with details. I have certain health conditions that make life pretty hard sometimes. Yesterday I had Physical Therapy and its left me pretty worn and achy.
However, I don't want you to think that because I'm not done with the article that I'm not working on it.
As I began writing and outlining the "arguments" about girl gaming, I ran into one of the things that is met with he most derision. "girly games".
You know what I mean. We've all mocked these games... most of them start with Imagine and end in a "z". In the interest of giving an intelligent and researched post I have begun playing some of these games. You see, my daughter loves them and I think I own pretty much any game that begins with Imagine, deals with babies or with animals.
I won't reveal my thoughts yet because if I did, I'd have no article to post later :) .
Since I did not want to leave you with nothing for your trouble, I will post a game review of a game that is probably not very well known and I feel deserves a look.
The bad news first.
I'm still not feeling 100%. I don't want to bog down this blog with my own personal issues but I feel like I should explain why sometimes, unfortunately, I might be less than punctual in my posting.
I won't bore you with details. I have certain health conditions that make life pretty hard sometimes. Yesterday I had Physical Therapy and its left me pretty worn and achy.
However, I don't want you to think that because I'm not done with the article that I'm not working on it.
As I began writing and outlining the "arguments" about girl gaming, I ran into one of the things that is met with he most derision. "girly games".
You know what I mean. We've all mocked these games... most of them start with Imagine and end in a "z". In the interest of giving an intelligent and researched post I have begun playing some of these games. You see, my daughter loves them and I think I own pretty much any game that begins with Imagine, deals with babies or with animals.
I won't reveal my thoughts yet because if I did, I'd have no article to post later :) .
Since I did not want to leave you with nothing for your trouble, I will post a game review of a game that is probably not very well known and I feel deserves a look.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Felt I needed to log on and give a heads up
I'm in the process of writing a piece about Female Gamers. I was hoping to have it finished and up today but I'm a little under the weather so I'll hopefully (fingers crossed) get it up by tomorrow evening.
For today I'll be writing it out long hand, playing Fallout and taking pain killers. Sorry ya'll.
But Remember...tomorrow...girl gamers. I guarantee you it won't be for the faint of heart.
For today I'll be writing it out long hand, playing Fallout and taking pain killers. Sorry ya'll.
But Remember...tomorrow...girl gamers. I guarantee you it won't be for the faint of heart.
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