PBS Game/Show Talks Harmful Male Stereotypes in Games

[makano]

Well in the "wave after wave of enemies" scenario they can't really mix in female enemies, because then some feminists will cry misogyny at how the player has to kill females. Not all feminists obviously, but some

I think the muscular male hero stereotype is equally damaging. I already have a low self esteem, always have, but I can see how some guys might get a little depressed thinking about how they'll never achieve what their favourite characters do every couple of minutes.

But the difference is that they CAN achieve that if they're willing to get off their lazy behinds and hit the gym. It's not like females thinking "oh no I'll never be pretty and I'll never have those curvy breasts/hips" because they can't really help being born with a certain body shape and they can't really help their beauty (crazy make-up fanatics come to mind).

Males can actually DO something about it, and believe me more guys definitely need to start hitting the gym (looking at your severe obesity issues America). Steroids are obviously retarded and muscle dysmorphia is pretty rare, but in most scenarios I would say idealized male heroes have done more good than harm for males.

You don't have to bulk-up like a tank, I would say ladies are more attracted to lean/toned bodies these days.

And here the hypocrisy shows. why do we have to do anything to look good for you if we are not allowed to judge women by the same standards as you judge men.

You call us lazy haha thats rich. oh women can help the body shape they are born with its called breast implants get them if you want them purely for my enjoyment.

 

[J Tyran]

Most men are depicted in such a way that it's unattainable.

Thing is though for most healthy men masculine attractiveness is easily obtainable, a man just needs to eat well, exercise a bit and put a bit of thought into grooming and appearance.

Just an anecdote for the deluded children like yourself. I've been doing the "eat right, exercise daily" routine for coming on ten years now, and I'm still not even close to being as big, chiseled, or "manly" as any Videogame character depicted as a "man". No matter how hard you work, you are limited by your genes, the amount of hours in the day, and your own sanity.

Could a guy such as myself get big and ripped in six months time? Sure could. Do I have the money to make the food purchases while also not having a job to pay bills in the itnerim? Not really. Reality sucks, sorry to say.

And I think this is a good video, because men are humans as well.

Trouble is ripped game characters like Marcus Fenix or Kratos are not intended to be attractive, they are a power fantasy. Nathan Drake is intended to be physically attractive for example, you are barking up the wrong tree entirely. The fact you seem to think it takes six months points out just how uninformed you actually are are. Those ideals are not only unrealistic they are unrealistically unrealistic because they are not what most people would actually consider attractive in the first place, as an alpha male image possibly but there is a lot more to being a dominant male than muscle size. Attitude, success, wealth and power are a huge part of that if not the largest part and they are much more nebulous and difficult to obtain than muscles are. Just ask yourself which man is the alpha in this example, the guy who goes to the gym for four hours a day every day or the man that exercises three times a week for 30 mins that just happens to own the franchise that runs the whole $200,000,000 national chain of gyms? Yet no-one seems to consider that at all, most complaints are purely about physical appearance and the self consciousness that brings forward.

I find it amusing that you manage to play enough games to upset yourself yet you claim you cannot afford decent food or find 20 mins a day to do a light cardio workout, you may need to realign your priorities if things are that tight. Completely ignoring perceived levels attractiveness its worth doing purely for health reasons, unless things are really bad for you a pair of trainers and some sports clothes don't cost that much and putting down your games for 20 mins is not impossible surely? Your problem is obviously not just appearance its related to attitude and wealth if finances are that tight for you and you have such low self esteem, a bit of exercise is easier to fix than the other problems.

If someone doesn't take care of themselves or eats rubbish food whilst growing a neckbeard and mullet they forfeit any rights to complain about expectations of appearance, just about every animal on the planet has some kind of display or behaviour related to making themselves appealing. Humans are no different, like I said a man doesn't need to look like Marcus Fenix to be attractive and it doesn't take huge amounts of time or money for a man to make himself physically attractive but if someone doesn't want to put the effort into it and its pretty pathetic for them to wring their hands and say how impossible it is.

It clearly highlights the real deficiencies too, lack of drive, ambition and confidence which in the right proportions are what really makes a man attractive as well as being the alpha.

 

[Bix96]

First of all, why do you spell women like that?

It's a feminism thing. Females shouldn't be defined partially through the masculine word man such as they are with the "man" ending in woman, thus they should name themselves womyn. The same goes for human, why should man define humans?

Wasn't the term "mankind" meant to refer to every human as in men AND women? that would mean that "MAN" would more or less just mean human with the "WO" in woman differentiating gender besides our language is littered with words that include man like penmanship or sportsmanship...I don't really know that I'm getting at it always just seemed to me that the word "MAN" unless specifically used to state somebodies gender was more or less neutral.

As a side note not that I'm trying to bash feminism or anything...but isn't the point equality? so why go out of your way to separate the two genders over silly words...

 

[Lurklen]

I dislike the use of the word problematic. To me that word implies that somehow the games in question are the problem instead of being symptomatic of the problem(I.E. extreme gender stereotypes)the games themselves are simply guilty of having a lack of realistically formed characters and ideas. The ideas behind the creation the games are what could be termed problomatic.

Fictional media itself cannot be sexist or racist, it can have characters that are racist or sexist or situations, narratives or ideas that are examples of those ideas but the work itself doesn't have that capability.

An example of this is The Lord Of The Rings. It in and of itself is not racist or sexist despite the lack of female protagonists and any representations of people of colour in any role but that of a villain. It is a story, one which unfortunetly is lacking in a deep depiction of its world in certain areas. The culture, ideas or perspective of the story teller or even of the readers can be sexist or racist and in turn define how those people feel about the story but the story (or game) are simply fiction.

fic·tion

Noun

1.Prose literature, esp. short stories and novels, about imaginary events and people.
2.Invention or fabrication as opposed to fact.


People are problomatic, games just have problems.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

I hate to see the games medium follow what the TV and films medium did and glorify to extremes the perfect male and female specimens, giving the consumer unrealistic expectations of what we should be like.

Unrealistic expectations becoming 'reality' is the exact reason why we play videogames, watch TV, read books....

No one wants to play a game as Boring McNormal: And The Adventure of Morning Traffic. We like to see Commander Shepard headbutt space dinosaurs. We like to see Robb Stark fight an entire war for honor relying on his wits against a much more powerful force. We like to Walter White slowly descend into evil as he builds the largest meth empire in the world. If he had just stayed a boring normal teacher, how long do you think anyone would have bothered to watch?

 

[Yopaz]

First of all, why do you spell women like that?

It's a feminism thing. Females shouldn't be defined partially through the masculine word man such as they are with the "man" ending in woman, thus they should name themselves womyn. The same goes for human, why should man define humans?

Wasn't the term "mankind" meant to refer to every human as in men AND women? that would mean that "MAN" would more or less just mean human with the "WO" in woman differentiating gender besides our language is littered with words that include man like penmanship or sportsmanship...I don't really know that I'm getting at it always just seemed to me that the word "MAN" unless specifically used to state somebodies gender was more or less neutral.

As a side note not that I'm trying to bash feminism or anything...but isn't the point equality? so why go out of your way to separate the two genders over silly words...

Oh, I totally agree with you. I was just explaining the meaning behind the word. There's a lot of battles for equality and I don't believe spelling should be considered as one worth fighting.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

I could only stand watching 2 minutes of that shit before rage quitting.

Seriously, stop this. Stop this right now. Stop being a bunch of whiny pussies and looking for problems where there are none. I want to quit playing video games more than ever as a result of that jackass spouting that bullshit. I am sick of the feminism/sexism debate, but even more sick I am of this "waa waa misandry, men's rights boo hoo" garbage. Don't even start it. Kill it! Kill it before it is even born!

Seriously, the guy complains about men getting killed in video games? What the fuck do you expect when the biggest video games are all about physical combat in some form or another? And about what effect male video game characters have on men in real life? Hello, wake up dumbass, what have male models, Brad Pitt, David Beckham, countless action movie stars, professional athletes etc. been doing to the male self image for MILLENNIA??!?!?!??!?! Male gender roles have changed? Yes, in rich, educated, stable mostly western countries. Look anywhere else, and traditional gender roles are still going strong.

Eeeyyeyaeauuaeuhhrhfhhghhhh, this might be the giantest load of gaming-related bullshit I've ever heard.