259: Vaginophobia

Michael Thomsen

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Jan 4, 2010
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Vaginophobia

Videogames have long been characterized by the mainstream as an adolescent medium, played by stunted males who have trouble associating with the opposite sex. Those who play games might scoff, but is there actually a fear of the feminine within the content? Michael Thomsen takes a scholarly look into the accusations of vaginophobia.

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MercurySteam

Tastes Like Chicken!
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Apr 11, 2008
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Is it just me, or have I see this before?

Here it is: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_235/6978-Vaginophobia

Still, interesting article.
 

The Cheezy One

Christian. Take that from me.
Dec 13, 2008
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MercurySteam said:
Is it just me, or have I see this before?

Here it is: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_235/6978-Vaginophobia

Still, interesting article.
i thought thi all looked familiar
it is a good article though
 

FallenJellyDoughnut

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Jun 28, 2009
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I never, ever felt the need to beat a woman to death in a videogame, but maybe I'm just strange like that.

Seriously though, I have nothing against vaginas, they're cool beans in my book and I never got the impression of the vagina looking like a castration wound.
 

Darth_Dude

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Jul 11, 2008
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Konrad Curze said:
Ouch. Busted recycling your own articles. How embarrassing for you.
I am not gonna read the same article again but I do remember thinking it was a load of crap last time.
You know thats it's a 'best of' thing right?
 

Le_Lisra

norwegian cat
Jun 6, 2009
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Gosh I'm glad I was brought up the way I was. I watch all this masculinity business from some way away.

Anyway, we had something like this before, so... why again?

Tip: Buy the Puscifer album "V is for Vagina" and overcome your fears. ;)
 

Anah'ya

a Taffer
Jun 19, 2010
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So... wait. I can claim to be a creature that potentially inflicts horror upon others?

Sweet.

(I second the random comment)
 

Lucifron

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Dec 21, 2009
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I don't understand how people can obsess over sexes and sexual stereotypes and insecurities and blahablahoblahargh. I really couldn't care less about "vaginophobia" in games.

Also, a castration wound? Seriously? What the fuck is wrong with you people?
 

Aurgelmir

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Nov 11, 2009
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Mortagog said:
I really couldn't care less about "vaginophobia" in games.
At least not when the games that was presented in the article are all more or less the most "macho" games out there.

I would argue that the way a game like Mass Effect 1 and 2 handles romance and females is far from how it is in this article.

In the end we will always find proof for our hypothesis' if we go looking for only them
 

the December King

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It's interesting that in today's entertainment world you have strong female lead characters murdering scores of big male adversaries, from Joss Whedon's River and Buffy to Ultraviolet (or basically anything Mila Jovovich is in), and fan boys LOVE it. It's still all about murder, though, and often the female characters could just as easily be swapped out for males, but it's still happening, and in games, too. Like Bayonetta.

I'd also comment on the sexual appearance or even impractical attire of the female characters, but that would be a waste of time, because male characters are often given the same degree of mass- marketing sex appeal- impossible abs, flawless skin, rugged good looks, huge muscles, chiseled features, etc. Remember, just because it doesn't appeal to you...

While there might be something to vaginophobia, there also might be a backlash as well.
 

Booze Zombie

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Dec 8, 2007
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Uh, no.

When I play a game, the "primal instinct" I feel is called fun and I do not derive fun from the act of killing and sexual imagery, I derive fun from challenge (which combat can offer, so can dialogue), good story and well made characters.

Give me a female main character, make her beat people up non-lethally, make her talk to her male friends in a non-sluttish manner, make her dress in battle fatigues and proper clothes...
I don't see why ANYONE would be bothered about it, really.

I honestly think the feminists are just as up their own arses as the so-called "men-children".
 

SonicWaffle

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Oct 14, 2009
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Aurgelmir said:
Mortagog said:
I really couldn't care less about "vaginophobia" in games.
At least not when the games that was presented in the article are all more or less the most "macho" games out there.

I would argue that the way a game like Mass Effect 1 and 2 handles romance and females is far from how it is in this article.

In the end we will always find proof for our hypothesis' if we go looking for only them
In Mass Effect 2, I kept several women on the line. I didn't commit to anyone until I had to (totally went for Jack in the end, ***** was crazy and unfortunately that seems to be my type) and they all seemed OK with the fact I was clearly flirting with all of them. Hell, I probably even told them all that I loved them at some point. It did eventually get to a point where Jack asked me to make my choice, but still; I was the handsome space stud who managed to make just about every female member of my crew moist by merely chatting to them. Let's not even get into discussing how I could choose to dress them up in skimpier or more dominatrix-esque outfits. I suppose you could say the difference is that in that game, you can choose to play a female character, but male Shepard is still the canon one.

I think the author has a point. Take a look at Bayonetta; supposedly a game with a strong female protagonist, which doesn't reflect the vaginophobia idea. On the other hand, she dresses like a hooker, the developers bragged about the amount of time they spent making her arse move realistically, and she has a tendency to get naked. Can you see Marcus from GoW or Master Chief doing that?
 

Bealzibob

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I was sick of this arguement when it was first published and I'm still sick of it.

I was gunna make a big point here but it was stupid...

So anyway, On the point about GOW2 for example. The reason Dom' wife was given a measly cut-scene I think you'll find is not some deep seeded fear of emotions and love but the flow of the story. Dom's wife was set up as some a goal to acheive, basically a princess to be rescued from a castle (Thats not an obvious masculine idea... Whose side am I on). So when we actually got to her, deep in the castle we were leading up to a finale which gameplay wise is going to be fast pace,enemy heavy and difficult. Having to do a escort mission in the middle of that would of been both fustrating and pace destroying. So that descision is more due to gameplay than story.

Eh, vaginas are pretty scary, soul-eating things but at least they arn't violent, pulsing rods that you stab into poor innocent victims in a act of power, control and anger.
 

Eri

The Light of Dawn
Feb 21, 2009
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According to the ESA, 40% of people playing games are women. There are almost twice as many women over the age of eighteen who play games than there are boys under the age of seventeen.
I know this is not all women gamers, obviously, but these statistics aren't accurate because they count "playing farmville on facebook all day" as gaming. These are not gamers and should not be grouped together with "actual" gamers.
 

Michael Thomsen

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Jan 4, 2010
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MercurySteam said:
Is it just me, or have I see this before?

Here it is: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_235/6978-Vaginophobia

Still, interesting article.
This week's issue is Best of, The best articles of The Escapist Magazine from January - June 2010.
 

hanako

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Jul 16, 2009
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I don't understand how people can obsess over sexes and sexual stereotypes and insecurities and blahablahoblahargh. I really couldn't care less about "vaginophobia" in games.
If it's not you that people are belittling, it's much easier not to give a shit. :)

these statistics aren't accurate because they count "playing farmville on facebook all day" as gaming. These are not gamers and should not be grouped together with "actual" gamers.
PLZ try to think of some descriptive term other than "real" and "fake" gamers, ok? I'm not interested in facebook either, but it has tons of players and they're clearly enjoying doing something which is gamelike in at least some aspects. It's not the same kind of game as an FPS. Neither is a text adventure. That doesn't make them automatically "not games". (It makes them "not fun" to me personally, but Deer Hunter Xtreme isn't fun to me personally either.)

I don't personally meet a whole lot of people who try to tell me I can't be a gamer because I'm female, but I do run into a lot of people who strictly divide games into "real games for manly men" (ie guns, gore, and tits) and "games for kids". The idea that there might exist ANY other market is foreign to them (and I don't just mean 'women' either!). So they look confusedly at me and ask when I'm going to start working on REAL games, because if you can't make somebody's head asplode, it's not a proper game to them... and in many cases if they don't like it, they don't think it should even exist!