Look I'm saying it right now, a gametype called 'Capture the babe' in which the woman is reduced to literally an object used only to earn points and of whom is tied up and you pick up and slap on the rear when she 'freaks out' is
not a positive image to present to the mainstream media.
Maybe it won't encourage acts of real sexism, but all the same.... I really don't approve and am actually more inclined to agree with the feminists then the gamers on this one. There are times when you defend the games industry when it deserves to be defended, and there are times when you point out that you are being needlessly juvenile and sexist for the sake of being needlessly juvenile and sexist.
As for the game series itself as a whole? Well I can't say for sure as I never played the old games, instead I only studied them. But from what I've seen with all the stripper business and women flocking to worship Duke, one might argue that not much has changed.
Maybe back then it didn't matter as much, but by now in the full decade since Duke has been gone, too much has changed for him.
I'd argue that from what I've seen, the games were always sexist. It's only now that they've returned into a more enlightened society that people are taking notice.
Exterminas said:
A side note on the whole objectication thing: Has any of you ladies ever considered how men, especially Duke, is portraied in the game(s)? No? Go look at it.
Duke is a hormone and violence driven Maniac while the other men are at best pigs and at worst incapable sissies.
That is sexism and objectification too. Because, you know, not all men are violent, strong, smoking sex-maniacs. Just as well as not all women are "babes".
At that is the reason why Duke Nukem isn't sexist: Men don't get protrayed anywhere close to realistic. Nobody, nothing gets portrayed realistic.
Okay now let's get something straight here, yes it's true that the macho tough guy manly man of manliness is a stereotype of males but here's the thing that seperates it from the standard female stereotype in a standard Duke Nukem game.
Namely, it's a
positive stereotype, one that is a juvenile male fantasy of how they wish they could be. An awesome, badass wise cracking action hero who can destroy giant monsters and get with any girl he wants because he's awesome.
Duke is a fantasy but he's the approximation of all the fanatasies of immature young boys with action hero dreams. Not of horny girls wanting to make him their ideal sex toy.
When the character of Duke Nukem was made, he was made to make all the young boys say:
"AWESOME, I WANT TO BE THIS GUY! HE'S SO COOL!"
It was not a fantasy made to make girls think:
"MMM YEAH, SEXY MAN!"
Duke wasn't made to be a simple stereotypical load of eye candy for the pleasures of the opposite sex, that's what differentiates his stereotype from the stereotype of the women.
Meanwhile let's look at the stereotypical depiction of the women in Duke Nukem games. Strippers, hookers, all sexed up and eager to sleep with Duke. Incapable of rescuing themselves and helpless in the face of danger unless the big brave Duke and his mighty ass slapping hands come in to save them and then they get all horny for him.
How many modern day women or teenage girls do you think would look at this image and think to themselves:
"Oh boy, I really really want to be a sexed up doll so I can strut my stuff for the pleasures of men everywhere. Man I can't wait to be completely helpless in the face of danger and have to be rescued by a man who I am then obligated to sleep with!"
But on the flip side, how many boys do you think looked at it and said:
"Awesome, strippers and sex and blowjobs and boobs and more blowjobs and strippers and ass slapping!"
Sure both got depicted as stereotypes... but which one had it worse?
Just because some feminist activists like to imagine men as mean pigs, out to get them, doesn't make that true and doesn't make us immune to stereotypical portrays or sexism.
Yes it's true that men aren't immune to sexism.
However that doesn't also mean that feminists are evil and have an extreme agenda to destroy men who they consider mean pigs just because they happen to think that a game mode where a woman is made into an object that is depicted as emotionally hysterical and needs a slap on the ass to calm her down should be considered 'acceptable'.
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