297: The Princess Problem

[Therumancer]

And yet, the ones who end up biting off more than they can chew far more often are men. Statistically, it's the truth. They're far more likely to engage in, and lose, physical altercations.

So I think what we can extrapolate from that fact is that most women are already keenly aware of the differences in physical averages between men and women, and tend to avoid physical confrontations with men as a result. There will, of course, always be foolish people of either gender - but the numbers show us that the overwhelming majority of people who get into fights they can't handle are men.

So yeah, I think they should stop showing women doing physically improbable things, like kicking the ass of a man twice her size, the day they stop showing men doing physically improbable things, like taking on a man twice his size. Or five men. Or a man with a weapon.

In fact, going by the numbers, we should probably cut down on the latter fantasy first. If we're going to start policing fantasy for the sake of idiots, it would protect more people in the long run.

Statistics are a joke when your trying to make a point. For example here when two guys fight you can claim the loser always bit off more than they could chew, thus proving the point.

I understand why your argueing, but the bottom line is that what might be stupid and improbable for a guy is even more unlikely for a girl. Fair or not despite the odds the unreality of the situation is safer for guys, even if fighting an assailant is never safe (and someone who attacks another person usually does so from a position of confidence to begin with).

Your basically argueing that there shouldn't be a dual standard, in my case, as I've said to begin with, I feel that the same logic cannot be fairly applied to both genders here, and in a lot of other cases as well. Men and women are differant, and as such differant rules and standards need to exist. A lot of the most ridiculous problems and arguements occur by trying to insist that the same rules can apply to everyone when they can't.

 

[Ariseishirou]

And yet, the ones who end up biting off more than they can chew far more often are men. Statistically, it's the truth. They're far more likely to engage in, and lose, physical altercations.

So I think what we can extrapolate from that fact is that most women are already keenly aware of the differences in physical averages between men and women, and tend to avoid physical confrontations with men as a result. There will, of course, always be foolish people of either gender - but the numbers show us that the overwhelming majority of people who get into fights they can't handle are men.

So yeah, I think they should stop showing women doing physically improbable things, like kicking the ass of a man twice her size, the day they stop showing men doing physically improbable things, like taking on a man twice his size. Or five men. Or a man with a weapon.

In fact, going by the numbers, we should probably cut down on the latter fantasy first. If we're going to start policing fantasy for the sake of idiots, it would protect more people in the long run.

I understand why your argueing, but the bottom line is that what might be stupid and improbable for a guy is even more unlikely for a girl.

Annnnnnd there are already far, far fewer kickass female characters in video games than kickass male characters - in other words, the state of video games at present already reflects the difference in statistical averages. By your own argument, absolutely nothing needs to change. So why even bother bringing it up? It's no less realistic than many of the things we see men do in video games, like backflip onto rockets or punch out Spetsnaz.

Ultimately, if you're going to start policing fantasy, you could start with men taking on opponents twice their size, or multiple opponents at the same time, or opponents with a weapon, for being every bit as unrealistic as a woman taking on a much larger and stronger opponent.

So yeah, a) what you claim (i.e. women are less likely on average to be capable of beating a large number of people in a physical fight) is already being represented in video games.

b) The problem that you claim this is causing (i.e. people overestimating their own abilities in combat) actually applies more to men than women.

c) If we were to try to solve problem b) by policing unrealistic fantasy, we'd actually be better off (i.e. potentially help the greatest number of people, assuming that policing fantasy actually would stop them from overestimating themselves in combat) ceasing all unrealistic depictions of male combat prowess in video games.

And, uh, well, okay. Sounds a bit misandrous - I think it's fine for men to have unrealistic and escapist power fantasies, even if it misleads some idiots into getting hurt - but if that's what you want to fight for, I can't stop you.