259: Vaginophobia
- Thread starter Michael Thomsen
- Start date
Recommended Videos
I'm gay and so this article both doesn't apply at all and applies horrendously accurately. I'm not manly, and I would take it as an insult if anyone said I was. I am in fact rather camp... But the funny thing is that whilst the spirit of the article does not apply to me (the over-masculine, femininity hating bit) the actual words of the article do (I don't enjoy viewing vaginas. It wouldn't put me off a game, but it would dampen the enjoyment momentairily)
I agree with the article, though. All bar one of the gamers I know personally are terrified of their masculinity being undermined - the fear is heightened by my presence, it seems. The only one that doesn't fit the bill is my boyfriend. This article will be fantastic material for his dissertation on the gender and the psychology of gender, as well... Thank you for writing it, Michael, and thank you for publicising it, Escapist!
I agree with the article, though. All bar one of the gamers I know personally are terrified of their masculinity being undermined - the fear is heightened by my presence, it seems. The only one that doesn't fit the bill is my boyfriend. This article will be fantastic material for his dissertation on the gender and the psychology of gender, as well... Thank you for writing it, Michael, and thank you for publicising it, Escapist!
Yeah this is what I was gonna say.Jiraiya72 said:
Most of those women have probably just bought a Wii for their kids, and have to join in now and then.
Those insights are so 19th century ...
Seriously, I thought modern psychology was way over Freud. At least they were the last time I checked into one of those seminars. Repeating those grand recits over and over again's just the way to make those stereotypes live forever.
I'd love to see an psychological analysis based on the woman to pig relationship in Beyond Good & Evil. That would be an interesting reading.
Seriously, I thought modern psychology was way over Freud. At least they were the last time I checked into one of those seminars. Repeating those grand recits over and over again's just the way to make those stereotypes live forever.
I'd love to see an psychological analysis based on the woman to pig relationship in Beyond Good & Evil. That would be an interesting reading.
OH, now I know how this "best of" thing works.
It's just whatever gets this site the most hits.
Seriously, this article deserves to be in the archives of shame.
It's just whatever gets this site the most hits.
Seriously, this article deserves to be in the archives of shame.
Ok, seriously, I rarely post here, but I cannot even begin to resist the urge.
First off the author is a male, presenting the concept that our gaming culture is representative of fears of women, manifest by damsels in distress as it relates to dominion and over sized machismo be it guns, utilities, attitudes, ect
I think we can at least agree, that games do typify male roles in a more dominant way, Although Last I checked video games are a form of recreation, relaxation, escapisim and fantasy. If there is a fear of women present It would have to lie in not fear of women, but more accurately a fear of a world without masculinity.
Perhaps that is the appeal, after turning on the tv to see countless emotional dramas, reality tv that banks on pointless emotional drama, then commercials come on featuring a movie marketed to young males, featuring the lead role to an effeminite mouseketeer like say Shia Labouf followed by Axe fragrances that insist that if you just feminize yourself, women will like you more. Then get sick of seeing it and change the channel to see pervasive anime, which Otaku culture frequently presents men as nothing more than childish boys who have nothing resembling a spine and are typically subserviant to females desparately begging for their affection. I literally could go on for a lifetime.
Did the author or the cited speaker ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe, men get tired of seeing men turned into metrosexuals and effeminate lady boys and seeings as you basically cant do anything in this world that hasnt been hyper feminized over the last 50+ years, Dont belive me? Take a stroll through your local mall, find a Ambercrombie and fitch, Areopostle, Rue 21, Hot topic, Hell basically any retailer gearing for the 15-25 demographic and note that the sections selling mens clothes basically look identical in cuts, designs, colors as the sections selling female garments
Can you really blame a guy to have to turn to video games for anything even remotely construed as representing masculine qualities?
Seriously, its hillarious that the author out and out disclaims him self at the begining by projecting his own subconscious insecurities. All I can say to all of this is just because your too afraid to be a man, dont assume there is something wrong with a culture that allows and celebrates what has worked for the species for 200,000+ years, 3500 years, or since last thursday dependent upon which book you choose to read.
First off the author is a male, presenting the concept that our gaming culture is representative of fears of women, manifest by damsels in distress as it relates to dominion and over sized machismo be it guns, utilities, attitudes, ect
I think we can at least agree, that games do typify male roles in a more dominant way, Although Last I checked video games are a form of recreation, relaxation, escapisim and fantasy. If there is a fear of women present It would have to lie in not fear of women, but more accurately a fear of a world without masculinity.
Perhaps that is the appeal, after turning on the tv to see countless emotional dramas, reality tv that banks on pointless emotional drama, then commercials come on featuring a movie marketed to young males, featuring the lead role to an effeminite mouseketeer like say Shia Labouf followed by Axe fragrances that insist that if you just feminize yourself, women will like you more. Then get sick of seeing it and change the channel to see pervasive anime, which Otaku culture frequently presents men as nothing more than childish boys who have nothing resembling a spine and are typically subserviant to females desparately begging for their affection. I literally could go on for a lifetime.
Did the author or the cited speaker ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe, men get tired of seeing men turned into metrosexuals and effeminate lady boys and seeings as you basically cant do anything in this world that hasnt been hyper feminized over the last 50+ years, Dont belive me? Take a stroll through your local mall, find a Ambercrombie and fitch, Areopostle, Rue 21, Hot topic, Hell basically any retailer gearing for the 15-25 demographic and note that the sections selling mens clothes basically look identical in cuts, designs, colors as the sections selling female garments
Can you really blame a guy to have to turn to video games for anything even remotely construed as representing masculine qualities?
Seriously, its hillarious that the author out and out disclaims him self at the begining by projecting his own subconscious insecurities. All I can say to all of this is just because your too afraid to be a man, dont assume there is something wrong with a culture that allows and celebrates what has worked for the species for 200,000+ years, 3500 years, or since last thursday dependent upon which book you choose to read.
*ahem* No.WrongSprite said:
(Although I tend to find the same kind of reaction in places like Games Workshop too. They always assume first that I'm there to buy something for someone else, i.e., a guy. Indie game shops are usually a bit better. And I'll have that tyranid to go, please....)
I said most...please don't assume you are the entire gaming population of adult women.Amazon warrior said:
I actually really enjoyed that article. I wish he cited the statistical sources like a good journalist, but still. It was fascinating.
I don't agree with Freud on everything, obviously. I'm not stupid. But I think he had a lot of ideas that were correct; that insecurities, including sexual ones, inevitably show up in things that we create. I've seen it in my own artwork enough to know that it is a true sentiment. When I'm not even thinking about the implications, I'll draw portraits of women looking away, holding themselves, naked, curled up, hiding their face. It's really an expression of myself, because I am a woman, and a deep sense of vulnerability, fear, and shyness - all of which are traits I am intimately entangled with.
So I don't think it's unreasonable that some female-centric insecurities would niggle their way into video games, which come from developers who are primarily men... Whether that's a fear of commitment, fear of losing masculinity because of a relationship, or fear of rejection, you can see that working into power fantasies where those bad things will never ever happen and you will always be strong and powerful, like in Gears. This speaks more of the developers than the actual gamers, I would suspect.
That's not even a bad thing! That's what fantasies are for - so we can escape real world issues. That's why I draw and why I write stories, and why some people play games. Yes, my works are all separate and stand-alone pieces, but you can also see my internal issues and conflicts influencing them every time. It's unavoidable.
And while I understand how things like "vagina dentata" can seem bizarre and weird (because who the hell would honestly think that a vagina could castrate you?), I feel like there IS a kernel of strange truth to it and similar ideas. Not literally, like I said, but metaphorically. The subconscious works in fucked up ways, taking in your primal fears and desires and twisting them into underlying feelings that you can't exactly articulate without sounding like an insecure ass. God knows how many research papers I've done on it. Psychology is neat.
Anyway. I guess I just wanted people to stop taking this article like some kind of personal attack that YOU ARE JUVENILE AND ALSO DUMB. We've all got some issues we need to either avoid or indulge, and that isn't a bad thing. That's just human, whether the issue is a fear of rejection or the wish to be powerful.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this, so I'll go ahead and say thanks for the cool read. I hope we get more like it in the future.
I don't agree with Freud on everything, obviously. I'm not stupid. But I think he had a lot of ideas that were correct; that insecurities, including sexual ones, inevitably show up in things that we create. I've seen it in my own artwork enough to know that it is a true sentiment. When I'm not even thinking about the implications, I'll draw portraits of women looking away, holding themselves, naked, curled up, hiding their face. It's really an expression of myself, because I am a woman, and a deep sense of vulnerability, fear, and shyness - all of which are traits I am intimately entangled with.
So I don't think it's unreasonable that some female-centric insecurities would niggle their way into video games, which come from developers who are primarily men... Whether that's a fear of commitment, fear of losing masculinity because of a relationship, or fear of rejection, you can see that working into power fantasies where those bad things will never ever happen and you will always be strong and powerful, like in Gears. This speaks more of the developers than the actual gamers, I would suspect.
That's not even a bad thing! That's what fantasies are for - so we can escape real world issues. That's why I draw and why I write stories, and why some people play games. Yes, my works are all separate and stand-alone pieces, but you can also see my internal issues and conflicts influencing them every time. It's unavoidable.
And while I understand how things like "vagina dentata" can seem bizarre and weird (because who the hell would honestly think that a vagina could castrate you?), I feel like there IS a kernel of strange truth to it and similar ideas. Not literally, like I said, but metaphorically. The subconscious works in fucked up ways, taking in your primal fears and desires and twisting them into underlying feelings that you can't exactly articulate without sounding like an insecure ass. God knows how many research papers I've done on it. Psychology is neat.
Anyway. I guess I just wanted people to stop taking this article like some kind of personal attack that YOU ARE JUVENILE AND ALSO DUMB. We've all got some issues we need to either avoid or indulge, and that isn't a bad thing. That's just human, whether the issue is a fear of rejection or the wish to be powerful.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this, so I'll go ahead and say thanks for the cool read. I hope we get more like it in the future.
Please don't assume that I was only referring to myself.WrongSprite said:
Seriously, the assumption that *most* female gamers are only playing Farmville or because they're humouring children is as insulting as assuming that *most* male gamers are only playing games to gratify puerile adolescent power fantasies.
I wonder how they decided what the "best" articles were from the first six months of the year?
Most agenda-driven?
Most controversial?
Most commented?
Most politically correct?
I don't know, but I re-read this just to make sure it was as absurd as I remember it being. Yep, it was.
Most agenda-driven?
Most controversial?
Most commented?
Most politically correct?
I don't know, but I re-read this just to make sure it was as absurd as I remember it being. Yep, it was.
Yeah, 'cause it's not like commercials on television are full of manly men jokes or that television portrays men of all types (including the popular UglyGuyHotWife combo) where women get mocked as being hideous and fat if they're over 25 or a size 2, or that a vast range of movies don't even have two female characters ever speak to each other, or that film posters almost never put an actress' name as a selling point because it's ALL about the men. And nobody ever makes action movies anymore, gosh! And that thing about casting actresses *younger* than the lead actor as their *mothers* because they're clearly over the hill, or the vast number of movies in which no two female characters ever even speak to each other onscreen cause nobody wants to hear women chatter, or movies written and directed by men which are all about gross-out fratboy humor and only feature a few women in roles as The Nag, or male directors going on the record saying that the real reason female directors are never given mainstream awards is that wimmins is too dumb to make proper movies.
Women neeeever have to put up with a constant stream of advertising telling them they're too fat, too tall, too short, too dark, too pale, too hairy, too wrinkly, too smelly, too busty, not busty enough...
And anime culture never includes Spiky Haired Male Protagonists who are the Chosen Ones with their little Nurturing Healer female companion. (I'll grant you, harem comedy anime does have a weird fetish for the Hapless Male Lead, but this is usually more because they think their audience is full of losers who can sympathise than because they hold it up as an ideal. It is rather rude to their fanbase though.)
Yeah, because that gender pay gap was neutralised centuries ago, most major countries and businesses are led by women, women in public roles aren't constantly chided for their failure as mothers by daring to have a job, there aren't movements actively trying to keep girls from being educated even in America and trying to promote Man's Natural Rule.
Gosh, I never thought of it like that. Good thing there aren't any video games featuring effeminate male leads or women or bright colors that appeal to girls, then!
Insulting? I'd say they're both pretty factual, I know I amAmazon warrior said:
Oh and the main thing I want to say is that I hear, and see evidence of my point all the time, whereas I've never heard anyone go on about adolescent power fantasies, even though it's rooted in truth.
I think it's true that "holes" are scary without that necessarily having anything to do with women. That's just an unfortunate coincidence. A dark hole could have anything in it (including a pecker-eating spider! 10 points if you get the reference)
Which is scarier to find when you walk into a room, a sword hovering there whose menace is obvious, or a dark hole whose menace is completely unknown?