When a fat guy talks for 10 minutes on a video how irrelevant the issue of overmasculined men in video games are - that's ok.

when someone on a forum dares to imply some feminists are making up issues that are in fact irrelevant = hurr durr so ironic, lol, amirite guise?

He didn't say it was irrelevant, he said it is a different issue.

Yeah, talk about irony.

When interrogating a person and forcing your own morals down his throat while putting down his work means "asking another person a question about a video game" in that RPS article.

When debating becomes "walls of text" and the opposition become "complainers".

And all in that delicious passive aggressive tone a lot of people seem to favor these days.

hahahaha, nice one. :)

interrogating. forcing your own morals down his throat. text book passive aggressiveness. summed up their flaws perfectly!

that is gold!

You want to play the amused card. Well, good for you, laugh and applause all you want.

It would just be better if you explain why you find that the sexualization of fictional female characters in videogames is threatening and traumatizing to women instead of parading. Just saying.

Saying that "sexualization" of female characters in video games is responsible (or even an influencing factor) in teenage female eating disorders, trauma or even suicide, is basically exactly the same as saying that violent video games cause gun massacres or related violence. That is to say, completely bogus bullshit that has been debunked by every study every done.

But it is quite ironic to see how the Taliban feminists are adopting an almost identical political ideology and strategy as the right-wing conservative moralists they despise.

oh shit. you weren't paradying. hahahahaha. now that's even funnier. I totally misread your post.

Personally, I don't believe the sexualisation of female characters (fictional in my view being a redundant word in that context) in any media is "threatening" or "traumatizing" to women as you put it. I personally find it (often not always):

1. immersion breaking - eg, girls wearing armour that covers nipples and genitals only;

2. lazy and boring - the female character often (though not always) playing the same role doesn't interest me at all;

3. without merit- I personally don't see the appeal of fake scantily clad women. I enjoy real life women, wearing clothes or otherwise. I don't see why people fight so hard to defend their right to look at pixels arranged in a certain manner, and yet ridicule others for finding those same pixels offensive.

I can appreciate why some female gamers would find it annoying. If there were way more games featuring the sexualisation of men than vice versa, it might annoy me too.

I also think its absurd for people to suggest that media (be it videogames, tv, movies, books, etc) has no effect on peoples attitudes. I am not saying violent games cause violence or sexualised women in video games causes rape, but I think its naive to suggest that media simply plays no role in shaping attitudes [nature vs nurture, the effectiveness of proganda, etc]. When I look back I can't help but think that the cartoons I watched, the comics and books that I read and the tv shows that I watched played some role in influencing the person that I am now.

They're just my views. I hope you don't consider me expressing my views as "forcing my own morals down your throat".

Nope I wasn't. Just reacting to a post I found a bit scornful.
You can't expect a healthy discussion when you summarizes some interesting views as "walls of text" and stereotypes people you don't agree with as "complainers".
If it makes you laugh, that's your call, though.

And yeah, I think you misread a part of my post and maybe took offense.
When I was talking about "forcing morals down the throat", I was exclusively talking about the interviewer in RPS.



And these are views I find completely respectful and founded. You just misread and misunderstood a part of my post.

Sadly, I don't think you can expect a healthy discussion about this topic on the internet at all. The previous 39 pages of posts demonstrate this, in my view.

Well, with this type of topic it is easy to give in to a "with or against us" position. And I myself felt into that...
But, even if there is a strong debate atmosphere in these 39 pages, I found some points interesting.

Like yours for example.
I too find some of the videogame heroine designed with nipples and genitalia armor lazy and immersion breaking (except if they are in a Conan the barbarian, or a fantasy amazon setting).

The thing I find annoying though, is when some "bien-pensant" person generalizes the whole thing and labels every fictional heroine showing some sort of feminity as sexism, disempowering or traumatizing. (just to be sure... not speaking of anyone who posted here in particular)

The armor is cut in a fashion feminine way? This sorceress has a dress showing her cleavage? There is a molded breast zone in that paladin armor? Sexism and disempowerement!
They just can't or don't want to understand that this could be an art direction choice where the creator insists and exagerates on the masculine and feminine traits to define and differentiate their characters. (ex: strong muscled powerful warrior guy, busty agile and deadly gal)
More than that, these "bien-pensant" persons are the ones often reducing these characters to their sexual attributes, objectifying them themselves and ignoring their other numerous traits and their role in the game. (Kerrigan is a fine example of that).

That doesn't mean that I am against more diversity! The more the better!

But if this is the view of the artists, I don't see any problem!

What's a "bean peasant"?

Yeah, sorry, I couldn't think of an english equivalent :D Self-righteous being a bit too hard and incorrect for my tastes.

By "bien-pensant", I meaned someone who think as he should think in his society and can't imagine other ways.

But I like bean peasant too. Beans are delicious. Japanese sweet anko or beans soup are amazing.

"Girls wearing armour that covers nipples and genitals only" could you give us a list of games? Not just you but anyone who reads this. I want to see this list of offending games since with all the games I've ever played I'm struggling to come up with one on my own. But with all this internet rage I'm assuming it's actually huge.


Can't argue with that. Repetition gets boring.

That sounds like an age-old art debate.

The one I have off the top of my head is The Last Remnant (an example image attached). There are plenty of MMOs that fall into the same trap. It's pants on head stupid how many sets of armor for women in video games don't actually, y'know, protect vital organs.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a game that had male armor more revealing than female armor.

Edit: This quote! Not the other one.

The ladies from Soul Calibur say hi.