Sexism

[The fish]

For games like Tomb Raider, it's less sexism and more the fact that sex sells well.

[bluey]

For games like Tomb Raider, it's less sexism and more the fact that sex sells well.

 

that's just a general advertising rule for EVERYTHING - EVER though...

 

and it's usually women that are used 'cause

 

..women are better. doy.

[Slaggis]

Do you think it's sexist that girls are allowed to wear ear studs at my school, but boys aren't?

 

Yes, that's completely fucked up. I'd go mental, had my college done the same thing/I wanted to wear one. I don't get their logic in the slightest.

[tapedeck]

Not me. I am, aptly enough, doing an assignment about masculinity.

 

I've been covering this recently at uni too. Looking at the way there's a masculinity crisis developing in relation to the world of work.

 

We live in an information age now where work tends to be further away from physical loads like it was in the past. Therefore men and women (in the workplace) are now closer than ever before. And coupled with the aforementioned 'information age' things must be delivered fast, instantly and not via physical labour taking traditional masculine skill sets like previous.

 

Therefore it's not hard to see that men are at a bit of a social turning point. Even though it's not "clicking". I still see hundreds of young people who want to do 'grafting' jobs like mechanics, plumbers, labourers. There just isn't the work anymore. And although men are still clamouring towards those jobs (potentially as their fathers are telling them to)...they just don't exist in large enough numbers. (Especially at the moment too!)

 

Thus a crisis of masculinity develops...or depression!

 

You could even argue why we have "pink" isles for girls and "blue" isles for boys when it comes to toys. And why little girls are expected to play with dolls and little boys are expected to play with trucks. It's all ingrained in our culture. Whereas in a hell of a lot of eastern countries babies are seen as "female" and are dressed in skirts and are given 'pink' as a primary colour of dress.

 

The world is messed up.

[Ashley]

And in addition to that; within school a lot is focused towards girls. In an attempt to not exclude girls they're beginning to exclude males. Look at the reports after GCSE and A-Level results; its all about the girls that have done well. Can lead to males feeling hopeless/inferior.

[Paj!]

It's all very confuddled.

 

The fact that we have strong (unbelievably so) female leads in games/movies is prgress, but then more often than not it's also a sex-based selling-point.

 

Interestingly, surely Samus was an exception to this for AGES, until recentl?, They've been making more of a point of showing her out of suit, as of late.

 

But I like the way Nintendo has that androgynous thing going on, I think it's healthy...I mean obviously not in mario, which is very stereotyped on a basic level, but Link being a lithe elfin boy, rather than a Captain Falcon figure, and Zelda turning into the androgynous Sheik, Samus androgyny etc..

 

Good thing imo.

[Shino]

I love me some sexism. And the average man is a bald space marine.

[fex]

Thats why mums go to iceland

[The fish]

Do you think it's sexist that girls are allowed to wear ear studs at my school, but boys aren't?

 

Yes, very. Very very very. In fact, I believe you have a good chance of suing the shit out of them.

 

My school was like that with ear studs, trousers for girls below 6th form, in theory kilts/skirts for boys and (the big one for me) hair length for boys. They eased up a little one the hair thing after I informed them I'd spoken to a solicitor and instead "suggested" I get it cut to help the school's appearance. They also altered the wording of the uniform rules because of it.

[tapedeck]

I love me some sexism. And the average man is a bald space marine.

 

Now I feel worthless in comparison!

I must obviously do the following:

 

Step 1). Shave head.

Step 2). Join Forces.

Step 3). Demand the opportunity to take another persons life.

Step 4). Suffer from depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Step 5). Never really respect anything nor care nor love anything

Step 6). Retire with a healthy bounty for protecting my country

Step 7). Never understand 'civi street' or those not associated with the forces again.

Step 8). Die lonely as I don't value any life but my own selfish existence.

 

Sorry for that one-sided rant...I had to listen to an army careers talk today and basically if your not in the forces your life isn't worth living... And what's with all these kids wanting to "kill something" and "get paid a mint" for it? Meh.

 

Coupled with the many, many application forms I see where young girls (15-18) want to be glamour models I'm losing faith in Britain as a whole...

[Paj!]

As I don't play (m)any war-based games, how many violent games set in war zone feature female enemy/ally troops?

[MoogleViper]

As I don't play (m)any war-based games, how many violent games set in war zone feature female enemy/ally troops?

 

I don't know but in real life, how many women are soldiers compared to men?

[tapedeck]

As I don't play (m)any war-based games, how many violent games set in war zone feature female enemy/ally troops?

 

Duke Nukem has loads...

[Ganepark32]

^ That's a very good point. I think the last game I played where there was a woman soldier in a game was Halo 3 and before that it goes back to the other ones in that series. Which is strange because the number of female troops is increasing. While I did CCF at school, there was a lot, if not most of the girls, joined the army section, mainly to join the pipes and drums band.

 

But this brings me on to a valid point (me having a valid point? Who'd have thought it). There's no limit to what a woman or a man can do. Anything one can do, the other can do as well (and I'm not talking biologically). These words ending with -ism have become a real burden on society because they're so ambiguous that something which would seem alright can easily be deemed unsuitable. I honestly don't think there is a place for these words in society as they are, in most cases, the route of many problems which occur. They really should be banned.

 

A friend of mine a few years back brought up sexism after something I regularly do: hold open doors for women. He said that I shouldn't do it because, and these are his words, 'why should a man always have to hold open a door for a women?' See, even something as trivial as opening a door can be linked to sexism and it's just stupid. I will always hold open a door regardless if it's a man or woman because it's the polite thing to do. My friend obviously didn't think of that and it obviously didn't sink in because he brought it up again months later over me constantly giving a girl my chewing gum.

[Paj!]

I don't know but in real life, how many women are soldiers compared to men?

 

Probably very few.

 

I wasn't saying it had to be equal, I'd prefer it to be somewhat realistic in those kinda games in the long run.

 

But I wondered if the public had been given the chance to sniper a woman soldier's braind out at long-range...

[Molly]

Alot of the extreme views are ridiculous imo, like refusing to have a door held open for you because it shouldn't be 'ladies first' (as you said Ganepark), little things like that really annoy me. Maybe I am traditional but I don't see what's wrong with that.

 

The thing is, when it comes to the fundamentals like 'equal pay for the same job', that's just common sense. Like you said Tapedeck, in the ''information age'' men are women are doing more similar jobs, any rational person would agree they should be equally paid. Treating people fairly and with respect is important, kicking up a fuss about the representation of female characters in computer games just seems completely futile to me. I think people become obsessed with men and women being the same; there are differences, both physically and in nature, get over it.

 

That wasn't meant to sound so angry, peace and love yall.

[Raining_again]

Alot of the extreme views are ridiculous imo, like refusing to have a door held open for you because it shouldn't be 'ladies first' (as you said Ganepark), little things like that really annoy me. Maybe I am traditional but I don't see what's wrong with that.

 

The thing is, when it comes to the fundamentals like 'equal pay for the same job', that's just common sense. Like you said Tapedeck, in the ''information age'' men are women are doing more similar jobs, any rational person would agree they should be equally paid. Treating people fairly and with respect is important, kicking up a fuss about the representation of female characters in computer games just seems completely futile to me. I think people become obsessed with men and women being the same; there are differences, both physically and in nature, get over it.

 

That wasn't meant to sound so angry, peace and love yall.

 

This sums up pretty much how I (and probably a lot of women feel) no need to backlash a man for being nice and opening a door for you, its kindness!

 

Anything that's blatantly unfair is good to fight, but the same goes for the guys, we all have equal rights, both women and men

[Ashley]

It's all very confuddled.

 

The fact that we have strong (unbelievably so) female leads in games/movies is prgress, but then more often than not it's also a sex-based selling-point.

 

Interestingly, surely Samus was an exception to this for AGES, until recentl?, They've been making more of a point of showing her out of suit, as of late.

 

But I like the way Nintendo has that androgynous thing going on, I think it's healthy...I mean obviously not in mario, which is very stereotyped on a basic level, but Link being a lithe elfin boy, rather than a Captain Falcon figure, and Zelda turning into the androgynous Sheik, Samus androgyny etc..

 

Good thing imo.

 

I agree

[EEVILMURRAY]

There's no limit to what a woman or a man can do.

Not according to the Eliminator on Gladiators.

[tapedeck]

Alot of the extreme views are ridiculous imo, like refusing to have a door held open for you because it shouldn't be 'ladies first' (as you said Ganepark), little things like that really annoy me. Maybe I am traditional but I don't see what's wrong with that.

 

The thing is, when it comes to the fundamentals like 'equal pay for the same job', that's just common sense. Like you said Tapedeck, in the ''information age'' men are women are doing more similar jobs, any rational person would agree they should be equally paid. Treating people fairly and with respect is important, kicking up a fuss about the representation of female characters in computer games just seems completely futile to me. I think people become obsessed with men and women being the same; there are differences, both physically and in nature, get over it.

 

Truth.

Remember though, it's not uncommon for a man to feel as though equality has gone out of the window when he is entering trades such as hair and beauty or leisure and tourism. Jobs are sadly "gendered". It's a terrible shame. Half of the battle is dealing with the way the media presents specific jobs roles. How many gay men are perceived as beauticians? It's clearly wrong. Does this then FORCE homosexual men into those trades? Furthermore, how many women do you see entering the building trades? You could argue that physical attributes come into play. But in reality I'm not so sure.

 

I personally was always told (by my mother, go figure lol) to walk on the right of woman, open doors for women and generally be very polite to them. Where this has got me I really wouldn't know where to start. It seems that manners in general are in stark need (whole other conversation/thread) but like others have said, if a man opens a door for a woman is that demeaning in some way?

 

What I would say is that it's all up to personal interpretation. But sexism is something (similar to other 'isms') that is in the air, it's like a collective, social or cultural conciousness and when not in a collective it can seem to be dormant. On the bright side though, I enjoy doing nice things for women. Whether that makes me sexist in a positive way...

[RoadKill]

Who the fuck cares, if you can't differentiate between fantasy in a game and real life, you need help:- I'm pretty sure the treatment of a woman as a sex object in a game is a lot less objectionable than the massively violent content of the rest of games that typically do this

 

BUT NOO, apparently people are able to deal with MASSIVE SLAUGHTER JUST FINE AND THAT'S OK, but HEAVEN FORBID THERE MIGHT BE WOMEN TREATED A LITTLE BIT BADLY, NOW I HAVE TO DO THE SAME IN REAL LIFE! FUCK!

 

I'm only commenting on games by the way, and nothing to do with discrimination in the work place and such

[Ganepark32]

I think many people would actually be surprised with the number of women going into the building industry. Ok, few are going into the labour intensive jobs, which are still and probably will always be male dominated, but a lot around going into the designing aspects and the surveying aspects. There is a large number of women who are now taking up careers in quantity surveying and the other surveying jobs.

[Paj!]

I agree

 

That was good read, actually.

 

I totally forgot about Birdo being a transgender.

[Hellfire]

 

Interestingly, surely Samus was an exception to this for AGES, until recentl?, They've been making more of a point of showing her out of suit, as of late.

 

 

 

Honestly, I don't care. I like my moe and like some said, it's not like they don't do it with male characters either. Not that I'm saying I wouldn't mind seeing more realistic portrayals of either genre in some games and movies (which already exist), but fiction is escapism, so keep showing me them cleavages.

[tapedeck]

 

Ooo, so that's where Ginger spice got her fashion advice? (poetic heh)

 

 

Man I miss 8 bit.