Hitman: Plan B

[Susurrus]

Isn't everyone also forgetting that Hitman has had this problem before?

There was a series of "Executed" ads, in which a woman was dead in lingerie, on a bed, and the tag-line was "Beautifully executed". Pretty much the same controversy reared it's head then. Here it is (sorry for stupidly long link):

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&sa=N&rlz=1C1GGGE_en-gbGB402GB402&biw=1280&bih=929&tbm=isch&tbnid=UFHgGQlX7KFUvM:&imgrefurl=http://kitzy-katzy.deviantart.com/art/Beautifully-executed-56158244&docid=O3D-hvw3NjMO8M&imgurl=http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs18/i/2007/146/2/d/Beautifully_executed_by_kitzy_katzy.jpg&w=600&h=375&ei=5R3JT_vSHJDf8QPi4v3VDw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=182&vpy=166&dur=304&hovh=138&hovw=198&tx=150&ty=114&sig=105452377303409182584&page=1&tbnh=135&tbnw=191&start=0&ndsp=32&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:71

Isn't the same problem inherent in pretty much every CSI episode? You have some woman, usually in a bikini, murdered for some reason or other, and quite a lot of the episode features her on post-mortem tables, or being rolled out of cabinets. I stopped watching the show because it began to feel worryingly voyeuristic.

I'm not justifying it, really - but it's a far wider problem than just this one trailer.

For reference: the other "Executed" posters:
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&sa=N&rlz=1C1GGGE_en-gbGB402GB402&biw=1280&bih=929&tbm=isch&tbnid=UFHgGQlX7KFUvM:&imgrefurl=http://kitzy-katzy.deviantart.com/art/Beautifully-executed-56158244&docid=O3D-hvw3NjMO8M&imgurl=http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs18/i/2007/146/2/d/Beautifully_executed_by_kitzy_katzy.jpg&w=600&h=375&ei=5R3JT_vSHJDf8QPi4v3VDw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=182&vpy=166&dur=304&hovh=138&hovw=198&tx=150&ty=114&sig=105452377303409182584&page=1&tbnh=135&tbnw=191&start=0&ndsp=32&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:71

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1C1GGGE_en-gbGB402GB402&biw=1280&bih=929&tbm=isch&tbnid=XKBJ4ERm-GeoQM:&imgrefurl=http://www.giantbomb.com/hitman/62-306/&docid=KikY1e4HMfPsCM&imgurl=http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/3107/407260-coldy_exectued_super.jpg&w=600&h=450&ei=lx7JT5WoGM6u8QO3x5XZDw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=443&sig=105452377303409182584&page=1&tbnh=125&tbnw=156&start=0&ndsp=30&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:69&tx=76&ty=10

 

[Crimson_Dragoon]

Penny Arcade, of course, once again came down on the side of rape culture.

I think that's going to need a little more clarification. I just read their comic and accompanying text on the matter and it doesn't seem like they take a side in it, besides making fun of the whole thing. They certainly don't defend the trailer, if that's what you're implying.

They certainly went a long way to avoid condemning it, and taken in conjunction with the Dickwolves-fiasco and Gabe's pathetic defence of the rape simulator, a pattern emerges. Honestly, they keep missing the point so profusely, one must wonder if this is some elaborate prank at the expense of feminists and feminist allies everywhere.

"The answer is always more art; the corollary to that is the answer is never less art."

Yes, less rapey art can NEVER be a good thing.

Depends on how much you like hentai.

All kidding aside, I just don't see it. Yes, Penny Arcade has made jokes about rape before. But all that says is that they don't see the subject as some sort of imaginary line they shouldn't cross. Is it tasteless or unfunny? I guess that depends on who's viewing it. But making a joke about something and actually supporting that thing are not two and the same.

Besides, the guys at Penny Arcade usually take a "live and let live" attitude to everything. As in "if you like it, have at it; if you don't, pass it by."

 

[BrotherRool]

While it's not quite the attack against women some have seen it as, it certainly is dumb and, assuming the shock value was intentional (why wouldn't it be?) really quite pathetic. Is this how videogame advertising is always going to be? Are we going to see 47 strangling a baby in the next trailer to rile up the controversey machine?

You mean strangling a baby... in slow motion!

Yeah it's stupid, but it probably worked. I started to watch the trailer and then I realised I was too tired for this rubbish but I'm pretty sure if you didn't know a Hitman game was coming out, you know now

 

[itsthesheppy]

That it can be claimed that wearing sexualizing outfits 'distracts' people in a fight with a straight face is rather astounding. It takes a lot of mental gymnastics to get to that point. They're not dressed that way to distract the Hitman. If they really wanted to kill him, they should have just waited for him to come outside, kept the nun costumes on, and then riddled him with bullets when he least expected it.

They wore those outfits to titillate *you*. After all, I don't know of many video games heroes who go around dressed like a male stripper in order to 'distract' their opponents. No, men usually get full suits of armor or, in this case, snappy business suits. Women, of course, get to be "sexy _________" because that is their role. To titillate us.

And then of course the square-jawed professional beats the hell out of them with little effort on his part. Maybe because he wasn't inexplicably wearing high-heeled fetish boots to a hit.

Ridiculous and insulting.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

It doesn't help things, from my perspective, that it's the Saints trailer, a word that has come to ironically mean "filled with absurd sexual hyperviolence" for me. Gee, wonder how that happened...

 

[Susan Arendt]

My biggest issue with the trailer is the damn clothes. Not because they're sexualize, per se, but because they make no goddamn sense. No woman is going to wear platform heels in a situation where she might have to run, or get into a physical altercation. Fishnet stockings? Laughable. Something with a boning, like a corset? Not if you plan on breathing particularly well. The aggravating part is that they all could've worn catsuits a la Black Widow in The Avengers and could've been "sexy" but also made sense from a practical point of view (though something like spandex would make far more sense than leather, though leather does help serve as moderate body armor against slashing attacks).

The nun outfits, as represented, are one of two things: a shtick or a disguise. If these lady assassins have some kind of gimmick, like the gangs in The Warriors do, then fine...it's stupid, but ok. But if these are actually meant to be disguises, it makes no sense because they wouldn't actually work, even from a distance.

I have no problem with sexy characters, but for god's sake, can we have it make sense? If it doesn't make sense in context for a woman to be wearing a merry widow, don't put her in one.

 

[Farther than stars]

Poor Agent 47, even on his Birthday, someone's trying to kill him.

Least he can grope the corpse afterwords.

I find that comment very disturbing and in poor taste, especially after I was glad to see Carter start an intellectul debate about the matter.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I don't see why people hate the latest Hitman trailer. It is completely consistent with weirdness that had always surrounded Hitman world. The atmosphere is very Hitman-ish, nuns are as well. Just remember all the weird shit from previous Hitman games: meat king and those crazy people at the party, assassin's dressed as birds, albino assassin, evil guy in a wheelchair with a facial scar, insane costumes in "A Dance with The Devil" mission in Blood Money. The trailer is as Hitman as you can get.

 

[WindKnight]

They wore those outfits to titillate *you*.

If they only wanted to titillate, they wouldn't have had them brutally killed afterwards.

You've obviously not heard of the old schlock rule of have them get their tits out before killing them, so the audience doesn't see a sexy wimmins 'wasted'.

And thats without getting into misogynistic territory like Species II where the women are only there to get naked and die as horribly as possible.

 

[Bloodstain]

So it's misogynistic to kill women but mowing down legions of men in every game is ok? Fuck that person from IGN.

Good comic as usual.

Exactly my thoughts.

I actually always thought it was good that Hitman can mow down men and women alike.
Making no difference is the one step towards equal rights.

 

[WindKnight]

They wore those outfits to titillate *you*.

If they only wanted to titillate, they wouldn't have had them brutally killed afterwards.

You've obviously not heard of the old schlock rule of have them get their tits out before killing them, so the audience doesn't see a sexy wimmins 'wasted'.

And thats without getting into misogynistic territory like Species II where the women are only there to get naked and die as horribly as possible.

A sexy woman killed is already a sexy woman wasted.

And that's not getting into horror movies, the point of which is to shock the audience with the painful and gruesome deaths of all genders involved.

A lot of schlock stuff treats women as a pair of boobs to die once their use is over. take the infamous 'Death Wish' films, where the hero sets out to avenge the rape and murder of his wife/daughter/girlfriend of week, where the crime each time was shot in a manner to titillate the male audience as much as possible, including one of the victims giving us a lovely close up full-frontal nude pose before being fatally shot, simply so the lads could ogle her naked body before she died.

People get upset about this sort of thing because it is wrong, and it keeps happening when it shouldn't.

 

[antipunt]

This comic is so accurate lol. It was basically what I was thinking.

 

[itsthesheppy]

They wore those outfits to titillate *you*.

If they only wanted to titillate, they wouldn't have had them brutally killed afterwards.

They didn't *only* want to. they felt like that had to try, otherwise you wouldn't care.

 

[Farther than stars]

My biggest issue with the trailer is the damn clothes. Not because they're sexualize, per se, but because they make no goddamn sense.

I completely agree. In fact, I just made the exact same point about the shoes on the forum linked to the trailer. I mean, I'm OK with the fact that it's sacrilegious because, you know, they're the bad guys and what do they care? But I'm pretty sure that they do care about the effectiveness of their assassinations.
By the way, I do have one question and I wouldn't know this, because I'm not a woman; I get why high heels wouldn't work, but how exactly would fishnet stockings impede your fighting ability?

 

[Shiftygiant]

I.. kinda.. got why they dressed as nuns? I mean they are employed as by the agency and seeming as there up against a guy who shows little to no human emotion and dresses like a stock broker, It would make sense for stylish and over the top violence at this point. I do find it odd that the media exploded the way it did, and yes, Carter did a good job parodying it. I honestly can see killer strippers. They did it without controversy in Saints, can't see why they wouldn't be able to do it in here.