There has been a lot of talk lately about women in gaming, how they're portrayed, the sexism they face, the dick pictures they receive, and so on. There was also a Twitter trend, #1reasonwhy. I'd like to give my opinion on that.
One of the biggest events of the year was Anita Sarkeesian, who created a Kickstarter campaign to study the position of women in the industry, and the challenges they face. She succeeded well beyond her dreams, but at the same time, ignited the flames of the Internet, receiving death threats, kitchen comments, and the likes.
Look. I'm all for more women in the gaming industry. That's a given. More and more people game nowadays, and I myself know quite a few hardcore gamer girls. They play the real games, no Facebook shit. They were SNES fans, played FF and Chrono Trigger, went on to Playstation and Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, Tekken, then N64 with Zelda, Goldeneye, then Xbox with Halo, etc. The same path we've all gone through.
Where I take a stand though, is where things get ridiculous. Some women feel that we shouldn't have games like Mario, because it portrays the princess as a helpless woman, who needs to be rescued. Well, first of all, it is a fact that women like to feel secure with a man, it's in their genes. Second, us men LOVE to rescue our women. We enjoy feeling like we saved the damsel in distress. What is wrong with that ? There are games where women are powerful, and badass, and we enjoy them too ! Can't we have the best of both worlds ? And I remember games where the woman saved the man too ! Isn't it great ? We can all have our types of games.
But no. There is a movement right now. The Tomb Raider controversy, the Hitman controversy, the Borderlands controversy ! So many controversies, everywhere ! Though I will admit, the Hitman "small tits" promo was...what the hell were they thinking ? Anyway, moving on, there is a movement to ensure women are never "in need" and to me, that is stupid. Everyone needs help when they're in danger, be it men or women. And saving someone always feels good, whether you have balls, or boobs.
I am all for more women working in making games, they have a knack for emotional story (my personal weak point) but please, let us save women from time to time. We like to think we were that strong.
"it is a fact that women like to feel secure with a man, it's in their genes."
ReplyDeleteOh shiiiiiiii, controversy! :D
Rather than genetic I would say it's social, but I agree with saying women like to feel secure with a man. I'm a heterosexual male, I always was the protector in my relationships, and I've heard plenty of girls saying they wouldn't be "able" to date a guy less tall than them. And love is supposed to be magical and everything.
I'm all for the equality of sexes, and the Internet tells me damsel in its archaic sense also applies to males, so you know what? Let's have male damsels in distress, too. I love the female characters with determination and strength, the girl raised by wolves, the princess who leaves the castle and throws away her dress because it's in the way when she kicks bad guys in the face, and history has its share of female knights and fierce empresses. We've seen some male damsels but they are often exaggerated crybabies, like it wouldn't be possible otherwise - Peach isn't even a crybaby!
I've seen a guy get up on his toes to kiss his girlfriend who was one feet taller about 8 years ago, and I can tell you I haven't seen anything cuter since then. And I will never see this in a love movie. Let's keep all the female tropes and the male tropes, and expand them to both genders; it will just make all our novels, games, and movies more interesting.