orangeban said:
I'd say manly most definitely exists, society is really very clear on it. From the very early ages, dolls are for girls, toy swords are for boys, because fighting and swords are manly. Distinguishing things as unwomanly because men are stereotypically known for doing it is the the definition of sexism, but I'm not the first to do it. Rather, I'm commenting on the fact that society has internalised these distinctions between manly and womanly and expresses them in the form of stereotypes.
And our current views of what is manly is not the only way to portray heroes. You mention unemotional, but why can't we have a very emotional hero? Why don't we see more poets or musicians as heroes? Why must they be big and strong, the less strong can still fire guns or command troops or work out puzzles? Why are their very, very few disabled heroes?
I'm not denying that the stereotype exists right now, in that stereotypically people assume one sex is more likely to act a specific way but I don't believe the idea that said traits are tied to one gender. What I mean is, men may be more likely to be written as a tough, strong willed soldier type but that does not mean a woman can't embody this kind of character just as easily without still being a female character (I think Gears of War and Bulletstorm had these soldier type female characters). The sexism comes from assuming females have an inability to have this personality, not that females who do have this personality are less female because of it.*
I may have made this up, but I keep getting the impression that people have problems with stories which put a female character in the exact same role as a male character, IE a big, tough, unemotional female soldier, and I'm not sure I understand why. I think it's sometimes because writers simply create a male character in the story and just use a female voice actor instead of thinking how a female may act differently to the situation. However, I don't think that kind of thing is sexist as much as it is difficult to create a mentally and physically strong character, regardless of gender, without resorting to the easy-to-write tough, unemotional, brooding one (of course writers which resort to this should not be thanked.)
I always thought unemotional characters were, again, easy writing because it made a characters which always knew what they were doing (because they showed no fear) and were incredibly strong willed (because they never panicked) without any actual effort on the writers part. And yes, an emotional hero with a hobbies and, well, personality would always be good; if theres one thing I think almost the whole gaming community would agree with, it's that games need better writing. There is a shooterfest going on right now however, and they all have to feature soldiers in some shape or form apparently; the writing problem is not currently due to sexism.
PS. I'm sure there's some deep psychological reason why theres a lack of disabled protagonists or heroes, maybe most people can't relate to them for some reason, but I'm not smart enough to guess at that one.
*This makes less sense each time I read it, so much so that I had to make the same point 3 times just to try and be clear... it's late, I do apologise.