An example of the objectification and sexualization of men in video games. Note the obscene amount of skin Dante is showing.
I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore! Every time I turn on a video game, it’s shoved into my face: hulking meat-heads with sweat running down their chiseled abs, sticking their huge, massive guns anywhere they want to. I am disgusted at the way men are portrayed in video games.
Today we’ll be exposing male stereotypes in video games, revealing how developers tend to spend more time on female characters than male ones, and demanding a stop to the international objectification of men. We’ll begin with my favorite company, the savior of video games, Blizzard Entertainment.
As you can see, World of Warcraft’s female human model is delicately crafted by the master artisans of Trabia’s Shumi Tribe. It’s clear that the graphics artists spent a lot of time on it to make it look good.
Oh my god! My eyes! I don’t think my sphincter will ever detract again! Is this a screenshot of A Machine for Pigs?! —I’m canceling this editorial! I can’t go on, not after seeing this!!
How the hell did this get out the door? I can hear the World of Warcraft director right now: “Uh, yeah, that looks good, I guess. It looks somewhat alive. Print it. The female version isn’t this bad, right? Hey, I’m gonna go sacrifice a goat in preparation for the summoning of Diablo 3 in a couple years, so you guys just do whatever. BRB.”
Blizzard isn’t the only company who is desperate to spread their misandry. EA, Activision, Mojang—they all seem intent on stuffing the stereotypical American hero down our throats: shaved heads, protruding muscles, bursting packages, bulging pecs, and tree trunk arms to hold you gently and yet so securely while you’re playing Silent Hill. You’re going to need someone there to dry your tears when you see what they’ve done to that wonderful series.
These companies, with their pro-military and pro-muscle training agenda, want you to believe that every man is a buff, brainless war hero. This may shock you, but this is simply not the case. Meek and out-of-shape men like myself exist all over the world, hiding away from a culture that expects all men to be strong and brave. I, for one, am sick of it. Tomorrow, I am going to Wal Mart in a huge pink Cinderella dress, and that’s that.
But looks aren’t everything. While women in video games are always depicted in a gorgeous variety of lights, there’s also substance to their character—a substance that is almost always missing in their male counterparts.
If you too are sick and tired of being assaulted by an industry that presents men as if they are nothing more than slabs of meat to be exploited, then please donate to my Kickstarter project:
Despite Vaan and disembodied hands, there’s a lot of truth in this editorial.
You’re a brave soul to even put it out, farm tool wielding hordes will come for you.
10/10 would read again
What’s funny is that bulky, muscle-ripping image is completely repulsive to the vast majority of women. It’s a MALE power fantasy. Statistics that have been gathered suggest that girls like athletic dudes, but generally prefer slim figures to bulky ones.
Another symptom of the patriarchy being oppressive to everyone.
Or of a generally confused culture that doesn’t know what it values and in what proportions. I’d like to meet this mysterious Patriarchy someday. Apparently they’re supposed to be giving me a leg-up in everything I do. They sure as shit aren’t running a branch office out of my university.
Nice satire, Ricky. I lol’ed.
What statistics? Gathered by who? Who was interviewed? Why do we assume the interviewees were telling the truth? Is the sample size representable? What conclusions do the statistics provide and with what degree of certainty?
If they were gather on a sample of 150 female students of social sciences at a popular university they might not necessarily reflect much. Statistics like that are shaky at best and blatantly misleading and sensationalist at their worst.
I’ll let the patriarchy comment slide. It’s the freemasons and the lizard people, you fool!
“bulky, muscle-ripping image is completely repulsive to the vast majority of women”
When anyone says this, they are lying out of jealousy over people who are in good shape. Bodybuilders are sexy as fuck.
OMG RICKY YOU CHAUVINIST MISOGYNIST TRIPLE HITLER ALL YOU’RE DOING IS REINFORCING RAPE CULTURE ONE IN FOUR WOMEN ARE RAPED DONTCHA KNOW
The military haircut in a lot of modern characters is more out of laziness than active misandry in most cases. Rendering good hair in a video game is extremely difficult, so most developers opt to either hide it in a hood/helmet or make the characters bald. Otherwise it tends to look like sculpted plastic or a mop or something.
Interesting. Laziness is the reason that men are retarded looking… COULD IT BE THE SAME FOR THE WOMEN? Could it be that our games just suck?
“http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ABCD1234/give-me-8-billion-dollars-to-write-an-800-word-editorial”
Speaking of this, I wonder why the $150,000+ was not used to actually design, code and release an independent video game that would set the standard for female representation in video games.
Oh, wait, I forgot that “women in technology” is also an issue because the patriarchy keeps women from picking up C++ for Dummies. When 12% of computer science degrees and 76% of new psychology PhDs go to women, it’s no surprise that the big feminist Kickstarter project about video games is full of psychobabble.
While the ratio of women earning degrees (at all levels) relative to men is now 60:40, with that gap expected to widen well into the next decade, the proportion of women earning computer science degrees has actually decreased from 37% in 1984 to 30% in 1999. It now stands at 12%. The more outreach they do, the less women want to be involved in careers in computing.
It’s not that women are being barred from becoming educated and getting ahead, it’s that they are choosing to get ahead in something else entirely.
Thank you, someone had to frigging say it. Yes, the circumstances are ever so slightly different (power fantasy VS DA OBJECTIFUCASHUN) but the symptons are pretty much parallel. For fuck’s sake, don’t ‘tell’ me “You’re awesome” by giving my character a bald head and ‘Murrican Football Armour (which mysteriously takes 5 shots to kill me through), make ME come to the conclusion I’m awesome through the damn game mechanics. Prime example: Devil May Cry 1, and 3, and 4. Cutscenes? Fast-paced, Dante looks awesome. Gameplay? Encouraged to be fast-paced, Dante looks awesome, I FEEL awesome. Almost no ludonarrative dissonance there. DMC2 is another story, the reboot…I’m actually on the optimistic side for.
With regards to the documentary itself – that amount of money? Seriously? Professional editing may cost quite a tidbit, yes, but come on. She has a good camera. She can greenscreen. We don’t need anything more. Research? If you’re so compelled to make this, surely you have a very strong case from what you know, instead of asking for the money to buy hundreds of other games (also, youtube. Seriously.).
My main beef with it though is…why? I’m for the discourse being out there, freedom of speech, yadda yadda yadda but it doesn’t seem progressive. Just stagnant, self-indulgent, pissing in a sea of piss. Everyone who’s into gamer culture knows that this thing exists, knows about the ‘problem’ (if you want to call the trends that have slowly introduced more and more women into playing video games a ‘problem’ – also, tropes are reflections and distortions of reality. Deal with it.) and being told about it isn’t going to teach anything new, especially when positive female characters was added as a ‘bonus video’, a perfunctory afterthought.
And yet I’m still going to probably watch it anyway while furiously rubbing one out /rant
i just thought i should point out the 1st vid is WAY overdue and Anita hasnt said anything on her blog in months
if i ever see her ill blackmail her for the money