Feminist Frequency needs a fact check?

[James Ennever]

This whole debate over a bunch of petty chauvinistic virgin?s vs a blogging feminist with a habit of shitty research has me in a conundrum.
If I agree I am also agreeing to her view that all her other videos are good and well thought out arguments, which they are not. If I disagree I face being crucified by people jumping to the conclusion I am a women hater which I am most certainly not.
I believe in gender equity and better pay rates for women. To address why Feminist frequency is in dire need of a fact check I shall digress below.
For augments sake I am a HUGE Lego fan
After watching her videos on the subject of Lego supposed problem with marketing to girls I was taken aback at some of the lack of focus on the research. Lego does in fact have female figures in nearly all of its lines. She says that creator is a good step in the right direction for lego yet it has no female mini-figures.

In my personal collection ($3600 worth) the gender segregation is 1 female to 5 male figures. Before 2000 the ratio was 1 female to 8 male. So we have established that Lego is getting better not worse.

The colour pallet of friends
The colour pallet of Lego friends is gender neutral compared to any Hasbro product aimed at girls. The house features brown prominently as well as foliage and the pastel colours are limited to the fittings of the house. Compare this to many other female aimed toys and Lego is in fact progressive.

On conflict and educational value.
In the police sets she argues that conflict has been put into the line by the addition of criminals. Bear in mind that criminals in Lego sets have existed since the 80s and you have another made up factoid in her video. Also bear in mind that the criminals are not implicated in violent crimes in any official Lego media and the only scenarios the we can play out are of traditional cops vs robbers not axe wielding psycho vs swat team. The absence of any directly military related theme is one of Lego base traditions and only in the Indiana jones line of sets do you see any resemblance to traditional military machismo.
The Lego advertisements are always shown in fast motion photography of the construction of the model. The advertisements show nothing of the educational value(that in research has been scientifically proven) but on the website parents have a wealth of information regarding educational activities.

In short if she does make the videos with the same emphasis on nit-picking on facts that are inconsequential and also flat out lying to the audience, then our collective media culture will be made worse.

 

[Rawne1980]

What irritates me the most is the things people pick on to make a statement of "sexism".

LEGO for christs sake.

Issues like job equality, same pay rate and the like? No, fuck that, lets have a bash at little plastic bricks you make things with. That is clearly a huge issue.

And herein lies my issue with extreme feminists.

9 times out of 10 anything they have to say is complete horseshit and not worth the paper i'd use to wipe my arse with. The other one left over is usually a topic so hilariously stupid it's worth reading for a giggle.

Feminists that fight for equal right, all good. Extreme feminists that are bat shit nuts, not worth wasting the time it takes to hear them out.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

This is what pisses me off. You have people bitching about a 25% wage difference statistic (which is false), people bitching about ridiculous things like fucking LEGO or a 5 second snippit of a movie, but NO ONE talks about the actual 4% wage difference between men and women doing the same job. (That's Germany, by the way, I hear the situation is pretty much reversed in some other first world countries.)

Not to mention none of these "feminists" care about how women are forced to live in some nations with strong Islamic leanings, no, lets rag on a fucking TV show no one watches instead! Lets get all rustled over some video game! After all, who cares about the real issues?

It's frustrating because some people put so much effort into fighting "inequality" and "sexism", yet ignore it when it's really present.

It's what pissed me off about the whole slut walk moment. We've got all these legitimate issues that affect women, and what gets them fired up? Some cop giving some candid advice about stranger rape. It really doesn't matter that stranger rape is more rare than date rape, the issue in question was specifically stranger rape. Also, shut up about the word "slut" already. You cannot reclaim it, anymore than men can reclaim the word "bastard," which if you actually know the meaning of the word, really shouldn't be offensive at all, yet it is. See also: **** vs. cock, pussy vs. dick.

Not that you should want to. No matter how much you claim it, you won't make "slut" mean "woman who enjoys sex." It's more "woman who lustily throws herself at men without taking any care for safe sex or anyone's emotional health. Female version of 'cad' or 'pig.'"

 

[Kahunaburger]

Issues like job equality, same pay rate and the like? No, fuck that, lets have a bash at little plastic bricks you make things with. That is clearly a huge issue.

Guise, problem A exists so we have to ignore problem B until we've fixed problem A. There's absolutely no possible way we could identify and propose solutions to both problems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dichotomy]

EDIT: also, discussing feminism on Off-Topic?

I give it five posts before we're overrun by people who got lost on the way to r/mensrights.

 

[Vault101]

I think anything with the word "feminism" involved people really need to take a double does of "lets think about this rationally"

the fact is, as weave seen surround the (frankly overblown) controversy with Lara croft...people NEED to under stand that any issue regarding women/feminism is going to get a million opinions

there is not set standard/Ideal/set of rules when it comes to these things

some people think that Lara is being make an ineffectual wuss...others are happy that she's been put through some actual trials in order for us to really empathise with her

both sides...the "easily offended" and the "sexism isn't an issue" need to realise that you're not going to please everyone...so people shouldn't get hung up on eather extreme

 

[Equality]

There are so many problems with the Tropes vs women thing.

1. What's the money for? She's already got the equipment and we already have feminists like her producing this shit for free.
2. The sexist/racist comments issue. On Youtube? People are being offensive? Awww, really? I also like the fact that anyone complaining about the posts she got acts if there isn't a shit load of posts from women on all kinds of YT videos that use exactly the same kind of racist/sexist crap plus death threats etc. Nope - it's just so much easier to act as if only men can write this kind of stuff.
3. The demand for strong female characters - I challenge her and anyone like her to come up with a female character that every feminist will agree is "strong" and "independent". What does she look like? How does she act? What happens to her? These women will argue incessantly about stuff that no-one sensible would give a shit about. For example - are big boobs "sexist" or "sexy"? Lara Croft's new character model is very different from the original. Is there supposed to be a correlation between breast size and how "empowered" she is? When I play any game does it matter to me whether I play as a man or woman? No. I'll play Tomb Raider or Uncharted and the only thing I'll care about is how good the gameplay and story are.
4. But, they whine, male characters are portrayed as "idealised" while female characters are portrayed as "sexualised". Then let's cover everyone up and make them all androgynous like that weird chicken looking thing in "Journey". No? Then please do tell us what you want - can we make sure that the bad guys are 50/50 men and women so that we also shoot, burn, blow up, decapitate etc. women in exactly the same way that it is fine to do with men in games? If they want more "realism" in games then let's have size and strength work the way they are supposed to do - for example, if a female character is faced by a guy who's three times bigger and stronger than her ... then she gets the shit kicked out of her which is what would happen if she tried to fight him in the real world. Or maybe they could accept that "fantasy" is a key element of games - just like the fantasy that women obsess over in stuff like Twilight and the romance books. Hmm. Fat chance.
5. Games and game characters are already changing. There are more female characters in games and it seems more and more games are giving you the option to play as a male or female. Will her lame vblog videos do anything to affect this? I strongly doubt it.

If customers want more "empowered" women in their games then the games companies will make them - the only success I see her vblogs having is making this woman over 100,000 dollars.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Guise, problem A exists so we have to ignore problem B until we've fixed problem A. There's absolutely no possible way we could identify and propose solutions to both problems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dichotomy]

A valid argument - until you realize no one is focusing on (the significantly more important and bigger) problem B. If people were so concerned with inequality, they would focus on more significant things, not LEGO.

I don't think it's unfair to say that more resources (by several orders of magnitude) are spent on things like reproductive freedom and fighting sexual assault than are spent on analyzing sexism in ad campaigns for childrens' toys.

 

[Rawne1980]

Guise, problem A exists so we have to ignore problem B until we've fixed problem A. There's absolutely no possible way we could identify and propose solutions to both problems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dichotomy]

Oh no, a smart arse reply. Whatever shall I do.

I know, i'll point out again that her rant was over LEGO .... LEGO.

Not anything remotely connected to a specific gender argument. It's fucking LEGO.

Is there anything less sexist that coloured building bricks?

My point, that seemed to have wooshed slowly over your head, is that this is a feminist debating LEGO and not anything that furthers gender equality.

 

[James Ennever]

Issues like job equality, same pay rate and the like? No, fuck that, lets have a bash at little plastic bricks you make things with. That is clearly a huge issue.

Guise, problem A exists so we have to ignore problem B until we've fixed problem A. There's absolutely no possible way we could identify and propose solutions to both problems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dichotomy]

Because you all know, things like a pay gap are on the same level as coloured bricks for children.

I only put that aspect of my opinion on women in my initial post to stop morons calling me sexist.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Because you all know, things like a pay gap are on the same level as coloured bricks for children.

I don't know if anybody's saying they are.

Is there anything less sexist that coloured building bricks?

Colored building bricks that aren't marketed in a way that reinforces gender stereotypes?

 

[James Ennever]

Because you all know, things like a pay gap are on the same level as coloured bricks for children.

I don't know if anybody's saying they are.

Is there anything less sexist that coloured building bricks?

Colored building bricks that aren't marketed in a way that reinforces gender stereotypes?

But tht is the thing about her rant which seems badly researched. the martketing only shows a hand building the models nowdays, the hand building the model could be female or 8oyrs old....
in alien conquest, legos latest sci fi line, the main problem is that the women reportor is shown to be smart street wise and well good at her job.

 

[Hoplon]

While I may not agree with all of her points on a per video basis, She at least attempts to engage in dialogue on a subject.

Having evidence you don't agree with says to me well thank fuck she is using the correct method to build an argument.

Also being able to engage on that level means you don't disagree there is a problem.

 

[Kahunaburger]

I don't think it's unfair to say that more resources (by several orders of magnitude) are spent on things like reproductive freedom and fighting sexual assault than are spent on analyzing sexism in ad campaigns for childrens' toys.

More resources by the people that have brains (ie, the people who are in charge of large resources) perhaps. Unfortunately, the kind of change we need can't be pulled through by those people alone, but everyone else is to busy criticizing LEGO.

It may be different in Germany, but at least in the States feminism seems to be much more focused on things like reproductive freedom, representation in legislature, pay, etc., particularly in terms of what people do IRL vs. what they talk about online. I can't think of anyone I've met or heard from who didn't vote/donate/etc. on these more core issues because they were too focused on media criticism.

 

[Chemical Alia]

Guise, problem A exists so we have to ignore problem B until we've fixed problem A. There's absolutely no possible way we could identify and propose solutions to both problems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dichotomy]

A valid argument - until you realize no one is focusing on (the significantly more important and bigger) problem B. If people were so concerned with inequality, they would focus on more significant things, not LEGO.

I still don't see why we shouldn't be discussing these things at all. Especially in the context of discussing them on video game-related websites where people talk about video game-related issues. I'm very interested in these types of discussions in general, as this is the industry I work in and I find it relevant to hear what everyone thinks about the games they play, not just the majority. I think this industry can stand for some big improvements, and it seems retarded to ignore the problems that affect me in my career just because there are bigger ones out there as well. :/

Also, I played with lots of legos as a kid. But all of mine were rectangles and I don't think any had faces on them. Thinking back, I only played with gender neutral toys back then. I hated dolls and shit, and if my legos were more girl-oriented, I might have ignored them.

I'm very confused, though, this is the first time I'm hearing of Legos being police. If all I got were the hand-me-down ghetto ones, maybe my family was just poorer than I thought, lol.

 

[Chemical Alia]

Guise, problem A exists so we have to ignore problem B until we've fixed problem A. There's absolutely no possible way we could identify and propose solutions to both problems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dichotomy]

A valid argument - until you realize no one is focusing on (the significantly more important and bigger) problem B. If people were so concerned with inequality, they would focus on more significant things, not LEGO.

I still don't see why we shouldn't be discussing these things at all. Especially in the context of discussing them on video game-related websites where people talk about video game-related issues. I'm very interested in these types of discussions in general, as this is the industry I work in and I find it relevant to hear what everyone thinks about the games they play, not just the majority. I think this industry can stand for some big improvements, and it seems retarded to ignore the problems that affect me in my career just because there are bigger ones out there as well. :/

Also, I played with lots of legos as a kid. But all of mine were rectangles and I don't think any had faces on them. Thinking back, I only played with gender neutral toys back then. I hated dolls and shit, and if my legos were more girl-oriented, I might have ignored them.

I'm very confused, though, this is the first time I'm hearing of Legos being police. If all I got were the hand-me-down ghetto ones, maybe my family was just poorer than I thought, lol.

The thing is the sexism problem with video games is made a lot larger than it really is on a regular basis. Maybe you had bad luck in what games you worked on.

I've gone through this a million times, but if you want to see just how sexist the video game industry is, go to Gamespot (the website) and look at their top 10 picks for the day. Then look at how many of them have these sexism issues everyone talks about.

I don't think video games have a problem with deliberate sexism, I think the have a problem with laziness and at times a lack of variety in what gets produced. You have a pretty homogenous group of people making this stuff, who all pull from the same references, inspiration, and end up coming up with highly derivative ideas. I'd like to see more women coming into game development, but just as importantly more people from other industries for more fresh contributions and inspiration in general.

I'd like to get more into character stuff some day, but as it stands right now, there's only a small handful of studios who produce character designs for their games that don't make me megaeyeroll in one way or another. Part of that may just be me being picky, but another part is because the same shit still gets done over and over.

So yeah, whether people are "right" or "wrong", I do want to hear their opinions. I want to hear what people like, what they think needs improvement, and what makes them mad, as that helps me guide my own intentions. I just don't see what the big deal is.