259: Vaginophobia

[XMark]

One big thing the article glossed over (Gears of War 2 spoilers)

In Gears of War 2, Dom doesn't kill his wife because she would be a burden. He kills her because she's been turned into a mindless vegetable with absolutely no hope of recovery, and the only good thing he could do is put her out of her misery.

 

[NicolasMarinus]

"It's not that the medium is in its adolescence, it's that you're a bunch of ****ing adolescents."

It's exactly how I feel about the gaming industry. Male fantasies of domination and frustration.

The only realistic portrayal of a woman in a game I've ever seen is Alyx Vance in the Half Life series. Here is a woman who does not have two oversized watermelons or an outfit that emphasizes them. Instead she has a real life physique with her strongest points being her intellect and humour.

People call GTA a game for adults, I call it a game for teenagers. The Half Life series are the only games that come close to a real adult game, which should be characterised by nuance and restraint instead of blood and gore.

 

[FFKonoko]

I know this is old stuff, but I just have to comment on some bits.

Consider the nominees for the 2009 Game of the Year at Spike's Video Game Awards: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Left 4 Dead 2, Assassin's Creed 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Batman: Arkham Asylum. Each game is combat-oriented, features male protagonists, and presents a world full of aggressive antagonists in which the player must become a savior. To whom are these experiences most likely to appeal?

Bit of an assumption there. If men can enjoy playing female characters, why would not some women enjoy playing male ones? I did hear tell of a Conan-like game that seemed to be secretly more aimed at being enjoyable beefcake for women...
A girl greatly expounding on her love of MW2, and how awesome she thinks Spoon is, before going online to enjoy some combat. I don't think its unusual. And I'm pretty sure that despite the nerd-chic feel that some people promote, Batman transcends such gender stereotypes.

"If you could kill male prostitutes in the game, then it would be different, but you can only kill female prostitutes,"

You can totally kill them. You just can't find them. =p I'm sure some of those passerbys are male prostitutes, they are just much more discreet, because they are not a gameplay mechanic due to Nicos character driven straightness. And by character driven, I mean, cousin, let us go see big american titties!

...Nico should have turned gay.

 

[Susan Arendt]

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.

 

[haaxist]

This article reminds me of all the guys who say girls either can't play games or only play games like "Farmville" and "Cooking Momma" and therefore aren't actual gamers. Maybe they should all read this article, then re-read it so they actually absorb the information. I think this is a really good article, but I'm afraid that many of the male readers won't be able to come to terms with the information, because it deals with deep-seated phobias that they can't admit they have. It reminds me of the term "doublethink", from George Orwell's 1984. They don't want to admit to having these fears, so they forget they have them. I think society would benefit from having a little bit more feminism injected into it. Not hardcore feminism, but more being in tune with your feelings, being able and willing to talk to someone about your problems, and not being afraid to show care and understanding, especially if you're a guy. And for girls, we should stop taking offence at everything guys say about us, and remember: it's been scientifically proven that girls mature faster than guys. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a fact.

 

[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