The Big Picture: With Great Power

[Looming_Shadows]

Although I agree with Bob, one thing, I believe, he didn't touch on is that Geek (and metal) Culture IS NOT supposed to be mainstream. Like he said we were built to avoid mainstream, and that's where I believe the whole exclusion and sexism comes from, not join it. We're already seeing the repercussion of this morphing of cultures, i.e. The Big Bang Theory (I'm not saying the shows not funny, its just that it's "humor" is more like dog-and-bone for us nerds and a geek exposition for the mainstream), posers, etc.

 

[Reeve]

Weirdest Big Picture so far. It started out as a history lesson on geek culture then turned into yet another american liberal rant against the patriarchy (that's popular to do at the moment) and then finished by preaching some kind of left liberal geek ideology.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

though we all realize that's going to be a long, HARD road due to geeks thinking they're owed something.

 

[Mr. Q]

As a geek, I've always wanted to be treated fairly and with kindness as I have with others. Sadly, that was never the case during my later period in grade school to high school. Today, while I'm still at odds against those who look down at others as if their shit doesn't stink, I do my best to be respectful towards others and their beliefs. It's high time that geek culture started extending the olive branch towards others instead of the close fist. It's time it stopped being disrespectful towards people of different gender, race, and sexuality. It's time for it to mature without losing its inner child, not act childish when someone disagrees with us or offers an opinion that we don't want to hear.

I want to see a better tomorrow for geek culture and the world itself. I'm willing to fight for it, how about you?

 

[DerangedHobo]

Maybe it's my myopic world view flaring up again but I don't see many racist geeks, Xbox live may have a bunch of 13 year olds spewing ****** and make me a sandwich every 5 seconds but those are all types of people. Of course people are going to spew racism and sexism and homophobia and hate, in a society where you're taught that thinking 'x' way is bad and muttering a 5 letter word will get you slandered a degenerate racist people are going to use the internet (one big soapbox) to express all of that repressed hatred.
Good video though.

I feel kinda bad about saying this but it's very hard to deny that a very defining factor of what you call geek culture is and always was a certain sense of elitism

Muh PC Master Race

 

[GamemasterAnthony]

I don't know why...but I almost felt Bob was trying to run for president with that video.

Actually, the idea of "geek for president" doesn't sound too bad, though personally for the geek ticket I'd prefer Jim Sterling for the vote with Yahtzee as his running mate...but that's just me.

 

[itsthesheppy]

Christ. This was pretty much a sociology class in 6 minutes. I hate those stupid terms like "cisgender" cause it just adds to the idea of difference. If people truly want a unified equal human species, we need to stop making up stupid meaningless terms like that.

Those terms do have meaning to people who are different from you. Accepting that reality and adopting it into your worldview is a big step towards maturity and understanding. Spend less time fighting against that is meaningful for others, and spend more time trying to work those differences in perspective into your overall worldview.

Bob killed it here. The only thing missing was where he drops the mic and walks away in front of a stunned, silent crowd. Unsurprisingly there are already comments of people expressing their "Yeah, but..."s. Grow up, nerd community. Accept that it's all too easy for the oppressed to themselves become oppressors; in fact, its often too tempting for us to resist, to get a little payback. We were once (and sometimes still are) powerless, so the temptation to exercise power when offered is almost too powerful.

One needn't join any gay pride parades or write lengthy feminist book reports. But trolling those who do makes one the type of person who they resent. The abused becoming the abuser.

 

[Machine Man 1992]

Those "homophobic, sexist, trolls" you rail against are just that-- trolls. They aren't going away, ever, no matter how much mainstreaming is done.

So man the fuck up and deal with it.

And what do you care anyway? You, by your own admission, don't play games online, outsider.

 

[Norix596]

Nice episode.

On another point, it's kind of a shame that Anita however-you-spell-it is the unofficial face "combating depictions of women in games" because when you step back from the vitriol, namecalling, threats and loud noise and actually watch her show (2 eps out to the best of my knowledge)... it's not very good. Two 30 min episodes equaling an hour of soapbox time in total and she's said less, less well than the one five minute episode of extra credits on women in games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1qndga6SNU


She picks up a hodgepodge of trends and unflattering female depictions of characters and says they're bad while not going beyond a surface level of WHY they're bad, how they came to be in development, what some better examples of female characters in games are, why those characters are better and how other female characters in game could be made more like them.

I guess she deserves credit for casting light on this ugly undercurrent of misogynistic attitudes in gaming but I hope she does more with all that kickstarter money than she is now.

 

[Easton Dark]

What I got from watching this is I'm happy there's more movies about lasers and giant robot fights than there are about football.

 

[templar1138a]

A very pretty sentiment, Bob. However, you forget one major detail:

People are shit.

 

[Hungry Donner]

Great episode! This is one reason why I'm so disappointed when I see fellow geeks and nerds attacking furries and bronies. I'm not a fan of either, but after going through school as a nerd because I played RPGs and computer games I'm not going to bully someone for their own niche entertainment, even if I think it's odd.

(And yes, the sexualized elements of these fandoms are pretty weird . . . but so are the sexualized elements of mainstream geek and nerd properties.)

A big part of the problem, however, isn't with nerds and nerd culture, but the fact that there are people who will attack groups on the margins regardless of what is mainstream. The so called frat-boy stereotype is a good example, the 'frat-boys' today are doing things that would have gotten them beat up by the 'frat-boys' of twenty years ago. (I feel a bit hypocritical using that example seeing how many college fraternity members don't fit this mentality.)

However, with no many key cultural figures coming from a time geekery was not mainstream, it would be nice to see more of a push towards acceptance and civility. It's the sort of responsible thing that past cultural figures didn't push enough, and it would suck to have a culture I grew up with maintain that status quo.

 

[scw55]

I agree. However I have always been inclusive (ignoring that period of time where I was homophobic because my teenage peers were homophobic solely because the only examples of 100% homosexual males were infuriating as people themselves) and will always will be.

I do think there is a problem.

Especially since the shit storm that was when someone said aloud: "What if the Next Doctor (in Doctor Who) was a female?"

You had people screaming: IT SHOULD BE A FEMALE COS ALL PREVIOUS DOCTORS WERE MALE AND LIKE IT'S SEXIST. EQUALITY MEANS NEXT DOCTOR HAS TO BE A FEMALE

and

THE DOCTOR SHOULD NOT EVER BE FEMALE BECAUSE LIKE HE'S ALWAYS BEEN MALE AND I WILL STOP WATCHING THE SHOW AND IT WILL RUIN DOCTOR WHO

And then you had the people in between talking civilly saying:

"The next Doctor could be a female."/"If the next Doctor was a female"
or
"I don't think the Doctor will likely ever be a female because [input very good reasons. e.g. He has always had a male form which means he identifies himself as a male]"

I just think everyone needs to be less stupid and less discriminatory. But also be aware when in the act of 'not be discriminating against y' they aren't also discriminating about x.

(my personal opinion is that it is possible for the Doctor to regenerate into a female form. Gender and Sex are separate things. The Doctor's gender is male, since his form and mannerisms has always been male. But he can have a female sex/physiology. I believe that both males and females (and people of all skin colours) should have the right to audition for the role of "The Doctor", and the best Actor [I use actor to encompass male and female] for the role should get it.

(a good question to ask about Doctor Who is: "Why has the actor who has played him always been a white male?" Is it because of discrimination of the era? And this discrimination has became lore?)

 

[Johnny Wishbone]

I generally like Bob's videos when he explains stuff (like comic continuity or supergirl origin stories) or tells a story with a moral and a point.

When he gets on a soapbox and starts to pontificate to us about how we need to do something different, or stop liking what he doesn't like, etc, I tune him out and turn him off.

I turned off this video about a minute in. Sorry Bob, but stick to what you do better and STFU about the rest.