"The issue of the media promoting grotesquely unrealistic body standards for women is a problem, because those standards are still actively used against women all the time."
Bull$#it!
And that's also what I was screaming at my screen when I heard this.
When it comes to Bob and Anita I just can't help to see how monstrously wrong they are about understanding the issue at hand.
I'm not denying that there aren't women who aren't getting hired because they don't fall into a particular category of a beauty standard, especially when the person who is supposed to hire them is a man. But the FACT those two willingly tend to overlook is that this also applies to men when the hiring is done by a woman.
There are also standards of beauty set to men. You can't point to a male boss who hires a voluptuous female assistant and call "Foul!? when a female boss also hires a 6-foot tall good looking dark-skinned guy with a six-pack as her assistant (or whatever the beauty standard that female sets to her assistant happens to be). If you're the 5-foot bald fat guy (which gladly I'm not) you can kiss your job goodbye. Just because there are more male bosses in the workplaces than there are female, doesn't give anyone the right to call foul here.
The issue here is that it has NOTHING to do with particular stereotypes in some stupid video game and EVERYTHING to do with what our brains consider to be beautiful. Pretty people like to be surrounded by other pretty people (or things). Ugly people want it even more so. All the movies, games, magazines ? yes, they are filled with pretty women, but there are also pretty men in them. This is just how our brains work. Trying to struggle or fight against this is like trying to empty an ocean with a bucket. Anita is just building a giant straw man argument here and hopes to revel in the admiration of her sycophantic fans once she knocks it over.
The thing is that some women, like Anita, LOOOOVE to make it personal.
They see a particular female stereotype in a video game/TV series/movie/fashion magazine and they automatically think that this is somehow a comment addressed to them over how they should look or behave - when in fact it is not. The video games she plans to ?review? are purposely aimed at psychologically adolescent male audiences. They are bound to have these ridiculous female stereotypes in them, because that?s what the audience is paying for. To make a video and then complain about how unrealistic these stereotypes are, while ignoring this fact, is disingenuous to say the least. And then to suggest that these stereotypes should be positive representations of (what she thinks) a true female should look like ? because that is exactly what she is going to do - is cretinous beyond belief and just feeds her narcissism. You don?t see me complaining that men in romance novels are not true representations of REAL men.
And comparing Kratos with Mario/Link is disingenuous on Bob?s part, since those characters are also geared toward different audiences ? that?s why Princess Peach and Zelda aren?t scantily clad and their tits aren?t falling out of their top. That ?short fat hairy guys? audience is made up by 12-year-olds (those who think girls give you cooties), many are females.
Pointing out that the buff male body types in these games are self-image fantasies for men playing these games is reaching the boundries of Captain Obvious. Of course they are ? that?s what the target audience is. Suprisingly there are none in Super Mario games. Gee, I wonder why?
You might not have to look like Kratos, but considering the generousness of Bob?s waistline I bet that he probably wouldn?t get hired as a construction worker. You see it has nothing to do with the fact that Bob doesn?t fall into a particular category of a perceived stereotype of Kratos and everything to do with the fact that he is unsuitable for the job. Women make it personal*, while men look for another job.
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiEOd7Ks8xk
These buff chests and huge boobs games are being made because there is a demand for them and a male audience willing to pay. Games with strong and complex female characters, like Beyond Good and Evil and Mirror?s Edge, fail because they lack the audience. Market dictates the demand. It?s as simple as that.
100 years ago women had no right to vote. Before that women were being used as bargaining chips by men to make peace between families, pay off debts, or climb higher in the society. Soon there will be as many women in high-income workplaces and executive positions as men. But there won?t be any Male-Anita Sarkeesians complaing that the men are being objectified or not treated fairly. And Movie Bob will be fired by her female boss and replaced by Julio from South-America who looks like Enrique Iglesias.
From now on, Bob, please stick to movies.
Side point: I don?t know what Bob is trying to say with the picture of bouncer and women wanting to get into a club, but I?m going to preemptive strike him and say, that the reason almost any man can get into almost any club is because men are the ones paying for the drinks. That is not chauvinist, that is just a fact of capitalism.
Side point: there are some excellent posts on previous pages dealing why Anita is wrong on so many issues. The posters that I agree with - Katya Topolkaraeva, Ramzal, Terramax, maximara, and probably a few more whose posts I didn?t have time to read.