259: Vaginophobia

[FruitFusion]

This article reminds me...
...And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a fact.

Completely agree with you. Reading the comments on here i can see alot of anxiety.
The fear of personal feminasation is very strong in our society. Men are very
afraid to have female attributes or to sympathise with women. this leads to overreacted
machismo defense mechanisms.

The gameindustry is a extention of our culture and as such you can see developments in
it that mirror the rest of society. The western culture is a male oriented culture (like most other cultures)
Because of this leaders/protagonists are mostly male and females have the secondary roles,
such as the "trophy"/"motivation" role and the "sex" role. (sometimes the nurture role)
Examples of these roles are in almost any game. Spanning from Mario to Gears of War, Xbox
to Wii. But this not a problem within the game-industry but a problem in our culture.

 

[afaceforradio]

I am so bored of hearing the big kerfuffle about female gamers! Jesus H. Christ what's the big deal? I'm female, I'm a gamer and I fucking hate Farmville. How women are portrayed in video games neither interests nor bothers me. I'm sure lots of other females who console or PC game feel the same way.

Seriously though the constant hoo-haa about female gamers is about as interesting as writing an article about female soldiers. They are soldiers with anatomical differences. That's bloody well it so get over it already, yeesh.

 

[Jinxey]

This was one of the worst articles ever written by the escapist imo and the comments from the original sympathized....

how the hell did it make it into "the best of...."?

 

[habslove]

"Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Left 4 Dead 2, Assassin's Creed 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Batman: Arkham Asylum.

To whom are these experiences most likely to appeal?"

I'm a girl and I love every single one of these games and I doubt I'm the only one. We're not little frail creatures that can't handle "aggressive antagonists".

 

[Sonofadiddly]

After reading that article the first time I actually bought The Wimp Factor and read it. The psychological parts were more interesting than the politics, and there was a lot of stretching going on. I can't remember any examples right now, but even I (as a feminist who eats this shit up) thought that some of the claims the author made were a bit out there. Not a bad read, but I don't know if it's the most reliable source.

 

[Epitome]

Reading far too much into far to speculative a nature of things. Sometimes a again is just a gun and not a penis extension, this desire to symbolise everything is pointless. I have no fear of vaginas, I dont find my masculinity threatened by powerful women, I have no qualms about admitting a female can be my equal or my superior. I disagree whole heartedly tha the industry is skewed in favour of some Freudian display of superiority over the fairer sex.

Nico couldnt beat male hookers because Nico wasnt gay. The player may have been a gay man or a woman, doesnt change the fact that Nico Bellic wasnt gay and had no business with male hookers. Dom killed his wife as an act of mercy not of convienience, Really it goes on and on. The last game I can remember that truly fit the bill was Duke Nukem, and we have all grown beyond the Duke mythos.

I sit down to game at night its to relieve stress and have a few laughs chatting to friends. If we are all toting penis extensions at each other what does that say about the online community?

 

[RDubayoo]

In Gears of War 2, Dom kills his wife in an alien prison because she would be a burden.

Stopped reading right here. C'mon, really? That's why you think he killed her? That Dom went through all of that searching just to go, "Derp, she'd be too difficult to drag along, gunna shoot 'er, derp derp!" That kind of heartlessness is completely out of synch with how he really acted. Watch that scene again. When Dom's wife steps out of that sarcophagus thing she's emaciated, unresponsive, scarred, and likely dying. HE SHOT HER AS AN ACT OF MERCY.

 

[Boba Frag]

Pfff... it is WAY more fun to decapitate the hookers with the samurai sword

Joking aside, a really interesting article. Very thought provoking. I think the definition of what it is to be a man in the modern world needs some serious examination. It's too easy to think of being a walking murder machine as the masculine ideal, and, well, it's a little childish, isn't it?
Guess that's the problem right there too.

Either way, it's something for all of us to think about.

Personally, I get really irritated whenever cultured and civilised behaviour is discussed in purely feminine terms.

Just because I happen to appreciate poetry, or find a work of art moving does not mean that I am somehow connecting with a fictional "feminine side".
I just don't buy it. If a girl likes cars, does that mean she has a masculine side?

Narrow definitions really bug me.
Now, gender differences are unavoidable, or so far as I can tell, but I am extremely wary of anyone who insists that the masculine must equal physical prowess at every juncture, or equate to destruction in some form.

Absolute bollocks if you ask me.

Thanks for the article, though! Really enjoyed it.

 

[Paksenarrion]

SNIP

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?

This reminds me about the article that talked about how Japanese game developers for DOA placed a lot of effort in "jiggle physics". Clearly, Bayonetta is America's answer to Japan's opening shot in this technological race.

We like big butts...in America!

 

[The Random One]

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.

It's embarrassing to run an article in a "Best of" issue? That's pretty much the point of a Best Of - to rerun articles you might have missed the first time that we think are worth seeing and/or discussing.

Susie and Escapist crew, you guys should maybe warn this is a repeat article, maybe on the topic's first post, to stop people from saying you were busted repeating old articles and getting warm fuzzies over it. I absolutely must not allow people to get warm fuzzies whithout my consent.

I did think this article wasn't very good when it first came out, but I remember a more recent one that was even worse and had more or less the same point, so it's realitively better, because the overall scale has been shifted downwards. Yay!

Also, I had promised to ask Ryan North to use the word 'vaginophobia' on a comic and forgot. I can never forgive myself.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I remember the first time I played Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. After the opening cut scene, I stepped into the polygonal metropolis and saw a woman in a bikini across the street. I approached her, as if by instinct, and then proceeded to beat her to death. I was simultaneously delighted and horrified that I could do such a thing in a videogame. Somewhere inside, I felt that old adolescent insecurity stirring inside me, the seed from which my delusional "honey magnet" persona had sprung. "It's still there," I thought.

I think this article says far more about you than it does about us. A guy who starts from being dumped and leads through to beating up a woman.

Then I moved on to the real business of killing immigrant gangbangers and stealing their cocaine.

Which is, of course, so much better...apart from that's not what you do in GTA:VC.

Bottom Line: There's a lot of blame in this article, and from the writing style, a lot is aiming for the wrong person. Simply saying that games that sell mostly to adolescent teen boys have a lot of things that APPEAL to adolescent boys (like half-naked women, big guns etc.) isn't really vaginophobia. More like phallophobia...or more accurately, fear of both becoming an adult and not being able to become an adult.

Men's entire trip into adulthood has been battered down to "turn your head and cough", due to it being "unsuitable". So what do you really expect from scared teens that have their hormones going wild? Their "right of manhood" is killing the largest predator and proving their fertility.

Women, sad to say, are targets of one or the other. Because teens don't have the ability to comprehend, or control, what's actually happening. Praise be they soon learn.

How women feel about this? I couldn't say. I'm not one. But what about the woman (in GTA) that picks up a hooker, pays her and then beats the money back out of her? I know at least one of them.

 

[Asurnasurpal]

To qoute my religions veiws on this, Gender is a blight on culture. It serves no purpose but the betterment of one group over others. It is the wall that says we must be one and not the other. It must be irradicated.

 

[keyton777]

i just read this for the first time, and saying that the people that play Left 4 Dead 1&2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1&2 doesnt make a lot of sense, most of the time your playing with or against someone that is little more than a kid, just thought i would put that out there, the other games mentioned probably have the same issue, mostly kids

 

[Kermi]

I stopped reading when you said Dom killed his wife because she would be a burden.

If the writer of this article is so deliberately misreading plot elements in order to justify this flamebait disguised as an article, then I have no interest in reading it.
I don't think there is a fear of feminine influence in gaming, there's just a lack of feminine influence in gaming. This has improved over time and will continue to trend upwards, I'm sure.
It's only in recent years we've got an equivalent amount women playing games as to men, why would we have abundant representation among development teams already. What percentage of Congressman or Senators are female? Maybe the government is afraid of women too?

 

[Something Amyss]

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.

The latter is rather indicative of the former.

Why yes, you are right. I am all but certain that there is a correlation between the two!

Yeah, sorry, I misread the first part as "I understand how people can..." Which made your post seem contradictory.

But I agree with you. I don't understand why people are so uppity about sexism. I mean, you have a culture which has traditionally treated one set of people differently based on their genitals for most of recorded history, and people dare complain about how cultural indications still demonstrate that. The nerve of some people!

 

[Jinxey]

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.

This man blew my f-ing mind
/applaud

 

[okogamashii]

Not saying all men are this way, but I find that it's the men that spend the most time going on about how manly they are that tend to be the most pathetic, especially at talking to women.

 

[Lucifron]

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.

The latter is rather indicative of the former.

Why yes, you are right. I am all but certain that there is a correlation between the two!

Yeah, sorry, I misread the first part as "I understand how people can..." Which made your post seem contradictory.

But I agree with you. I don't understand why people are so uppity about sexism. I mean, you have a culture which has traditionally treated one set of people differently based on their genitals for most of recorded history, and people dare complain about how cultural indications still demonstrate that. The nerve of some people!

They're not so much complaining as they are obsessing over it to the point of confusing "lack of vaginae" with "fear of vaginae" and "finding" proof of their theories in the most laughable of places. It's not that bad. Give it a rest already. This is not 1960. Argh!

 

[shlominus]

The hostility found in these comments pretty much proves just how insecure some of these male gamers actually are. The 40% is an accurate number, and no amount of chest thumping is going to explain that away.

this!

 

[LiquidGrape]

I'd like to see a comprehensive Bechdel Test of video game culture.
It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the medium has a staggering surplus of females who are constantly in want of direct or indirect affirmation from their male counterparts.

I thought it was quite obvious that the average game caters to a rather infantile boys room demographic.