Tropes vs Women SECOND VIDEO - "Damsel in Distress: Part 2"

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Voulan

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Tenmar said:
I swear to god reading some of these responses honestly makes me think the next generation of the moral majority, bible thumpers isn't going to come from religion but from people who play video games.

I mean aside from just constantly being negative and condescending she really is just taking a bunch of games and squeezing them into a concentrate and making you think that those were the only games that existed and putting her agenda of being anti-anything against women so developers start making the games she wants instead of the games developers want to make to express themselves.
Except this third part will be about female characters that subvert the trope, and she has mentioned that these tropes don't carry across every game ever, and the fact that violence towards women in of itself in games isn't the issue; rather its the context as a plot device and the underlying things it suggests. Not only that, but she did state how some of these tropes also depict negative connotations towards men.

Anyway, I'm enjoying these so far. Can't wait for the third one.
 

Vegosiux

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Mick P. said:
That's clearly not the point of the series. It's documentarian. If she didn't get so much money, it easily could've been like that. Not that it would be anything like Jim. Jim and Yahtzee's video's don't even have actual useful game footage. Of course that isn't their format. But its such a huge deal just too see all of this game footage back to back with a straight forward indisputable narrative.

And there will be hours upon hours of it before the series is done.

^Of course know-it-alls will always dispute everything.
Great, at least the "villain status" of those disputing her narrative has been reduced from "bloodthirsty woman-haters" to "know-it-alls". I suppose that's at least some progress in crushing this annoying polarization thing that has been going on around the topic.

Still, if "insights and solutions" aren't the point of her videos, what is? I mean, isn't it the point of documentaries generally to at least provide new insights? I'm not going to get into that "indisputable narrative" thing, because you can't know anything is indestructible before you've done your damnest to destroy it, basically.

Voulan said:
Except this third part will be about female characters that subvert the trope
That's something that was promised for the second part (this one), actually, so I won't hold my breath. But, well I did say this is less "part 2" than it is "part 1, v2.0", on the other hand...
 

animeh1star1a

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Well i watched the vid and here's what i thoughts; Beginning was benign and a bit bland, middle was a tad odd (it felt less like reason and more like condemnation, especially when she tries to be snarky at that one point), and the end brought it to a satisfying conclusion. She makes valid points, and provides a host of examples to reiterate her point (i enjoyed the use of repetition. It was actually kind of funny). Her videos are a nice sum of to everyone else's points in this topic (becuase i feel like she doesn't add new information to a topic that has already been beaten to a pulp by many before her). It puts a lot of good points in one place to mull over, and her third part seems promising. One thing a lot of Anita's other videos lack is a positive example..... That and im a bit of a governor Marley Fan =)
 

Erttheking

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Shamanic Rhythm said:
Yuuki said:
and also that there is nothing inherently "evil" about using females as a plot device in fantasy/fiction because it if were really such a wrong thing then there wouldn't be such a huge market existing for them.
There once existed a huge market for slaves. Surely that couldn't have been wrong, right?
No. No no no no no. I call false equivalency, false equivalency. You can't just go and compare a trope in a creative medium to the selling and owning of Human beings. They're two different things.
 

Uratoh

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Watching this video I get the impression she just now noticed the mainstream videogame industry is just a bunch of lazy hacks who keep churning out the same cliche stories over and over to show off their new shiny graphics engines.

As a side note, I kind of object to bringing up any individual from Psychonauts as 'giving a damsel in distress characterization doesn't make them better'. *EVERYONE* in that game got abducted. the girls, the boys, the ultra badass teaching staff...the game wasn't singling out a woman/women for distressing.
 

Darken12

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Father Time said:
There could be no shock factor if it wasn't treated with gravity and/or respect.
So you would consider that the torture porn genre and the diverse horror exploitation films represent a take on violence and death that is full of gravity and respect? Because I don't consider "Oh, we need something shocking in this part of the game. Uh... just slice open a girl and call it a day" to be respectful at all.

Shock is not a synonym of respect. I can jump out of a closet to shock you, or I can say the world's longest string of profanity. Neither imply any degree of respect or gravity whatsoever. To shock, something must be very sudden and very vulgar. It has to be violence, death, sex, profanity, things that are shocking because they are not commonly spoken of in public (and whose overuse leads to desensitisation). The essence of shock is the portrayal of the vulgar in an unexpectedly crude manner.

Father Time said:
I fail to see how a game acting like it's a big deal makes it trivialized. In fact it should make it seem like a bigger deal if everyone is saying it is. It worked with 'war is hell' when everyone kept hammering it home.
The game isn't acting like it's a big deal for the woman. It acts like it's a big deal to the male protagonist. Anita makes an excellent point when she says that the games frame the context of violence against women not as a terrible thing unto itself, but as an attack on the player's sense of masculinity, due to the patriarchal ideas of "men as the protector" that are still clinging in most people's heads. The violence inflicted against the woman is treated as a terrible thing for the male protagonist, not for the woman. Whatever the woman feels or does in response to this violence is given a token representation, depending on the game, and then you're supposed to fill in the blanks on your own; while the male hero gets to monologue about his manpain to a greater or lesser extent.

The reason it's trivialised is because it's thrown in as a go-to way to give the male hero a motivation, some emotional resonance, and player empathy. The women (and the violence/death inflicted upon them) become tools that serve the male hero and his presumably male player (which is why we rarely see a male character trying to save his friend/brother/father, unless the friend/brother is very young and can fit under the "under my protection" umbrella, much like sons).

There is very much a problem with the game industry's archaic and formulaic storytelling, and this is one of them.
 

Bocaj2000

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In all seriousness, I liked the video. It's a HUGE improvement over the last one. Her first video left me frustrated because she didn't really touch on the issue. She just made broad generalizations about Zelda and Peach while misrepresenting them in the process. It was absurdly mediocre with the exception of her bit on "Dinosaur Planet".

This one, however, had support through video examples, had through variety, wasn't hostile towards its audience, cited games outside of my general knowledge base, and taught me something new. She learned from her past as is making quality products. Let's hope it stays that way.
 

Shamanic Rhythm

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erttheking said:
Shamanic Rhythm said:
Yuuki said:
and also that there is nothing inherently "evil" about using females as a plot device in fantasy/fiction because it if were really such a wrong thing then there wouldn't be such a huge market existing for them.
There once existed a huge market for slaves. Surely that couldn't have been wrong, right?
No. No no no no no. I call false equivalency, false equivalency. You can't just go and compare a trope in a creative medium to the selling and owning of Human beings. They're two different things.
Not comparing the two explicitly - more just pointing out that I find the idea that large markets self-regulate on any level to be absurd.
 

Vegosiux

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Darken12 said:
The game isn't acting like it's a big deal for the woman. It acts like it's a big deal to the male protagonist. Anita makes an excellent point when she says that the games frame the context of violence against women not as a terrible thing unto itself, but as an attack on the player's sense of masculinity, due to the patriarchal ideas of "men as the protector" that are still clinging in most people's heads.
Well, I'm still not sold on this one. I mean, of course having a loved one pummeled and kidnapped is going to be a horrible thing to you. Gender-flip it, and I'm pretty sure in case a female protagonist getting her boyfriend pummeled and kidnapped is a horrible thing for her.

I don't even see that as an attack on anyone's masculinity, I mean, what? If I see a woman that's close to me physically abused, my first thought won't be that I'm less of a man for it, but that something really bad happened to her and because I care for her deeply, I can't stay indifferent, it will pain me too, naturally. It's not about me, but I will not be unaffected.

And to go on on this...

The violence inflicted against the woman is treated as a terrible thing for the male protagonist, not for the woman. Whatever the woman feels or does in response to this violence is given a token representation, depending on the game, and then you're supposed to fill in the blanks on your own; while the male hero gets to monologue about his manpain to a greater or lesser extent.
Well, I'd argue that the cause of that is that she isn't the protagonist, not that she's a woman. It's obviously a terrible thing for both. In and of itself, this isn't a problem, after all, the protagonist is the focus of the story, naturally the impact on them will be the one in the spotlight and the plight of others will act more as a plot device.

The problem with this is that the same set of circumstances keeps popping up all the freakin' time. I really want to see a protagonist that's going through a trauma because they couldn't protect their family's priceless Ming vase or something. As long as it's different.

There is very much a problem with the game industry's archaic and formulaic storytelling, and this is one of them.
Agreed on this point.
 

CriticalMiss

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I didn't really see this as 'Tropes Vs Women', but more 'shitty overused plot devices in modern gaming'. It was certainly better than the last video, which came out so long ago that I barely remember most of it. Her arguments seemed to be backed up better too. But I'd like to hear her talk about something that isn't bloody damsels in distress! I'm starting a kickstarter for my video series "Tropes in 'Tropes Vs Women' Vs Viewers", who's in?
 

ThrobbingEgo

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Shamanic Rhythm said:
erttheking said:
Shamanic Rhythm said:
Yuuki said:
and also that there is nothing inherently "evil" about using females as a plot device in fantasy/fiction because it if were really such a wrong thing then there wouldn't be such a huge market existing for them.
There once existed a huge market for slaves. Surely that couldn't have been wrong, right?
No. No no no no no. I call false equivalency, false equivalency. You can't just go and compare a trope in a creative medium to the selling and owning of Human beings. They're two different things.
Not comparing the two explicitly - more just pointing out that I find the idea that large markets self-regulate on any level to be absurd.
"Because if there's one thing we at DOW want you to remember today, it's that the only good skeleton is a gold skeleton."

What's most shocking about this Yes Men stunt isn't that they're using a gold skeleton in the closet to sell an 'Acceptable Risk Management' financial tool for human lives, but that investors were actually interested in the product.

But I digress...
 

invadergir

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Her delivery is much better and she did good research. I'm about half-way through but just a couple comments:


"Euthanized Damsel" It is a very common trope for a man to kill his suffering and dying buddy or comrade in a game/movie. This is especially prevalent in war genres. This is very common for male characters and is so rare for female characters that it doesn't qualify as a trope. And its definitely not misogyny or it would be used as a plot device for women more often.

Facepalm and laughter after making a comment about bionic commando was forced and cringe-worthy. it should have been cut as it didn't fit the tone at all. If it is meant as educational, facial gestures and laughter don't count as commentary.
 

invadergir

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Ronack said:
Glad to see that there are still DUDE BROS out there that can't handle a poignant conversation, instead choosing to falsely flag an innocent video and get it pulled down. What would we do without them? Oh, right, advance as a human species.

Anyways, regarding the series itself: As I've suspected from before, you really can't see this as individual video's. Rather a series where the big picture can't be seen until the credits of the third installment.

Regarding the video itself: It's a pretty good video, bringing together a wide selection of a disturbingly overused plot device. Though, she did royally miss the point when it came to the Timesplitters series, if you ask me. This and Dante's Inferno get a pass from me. (Dante's Inferno is an old story, adapted in to a videogame. Wouldn't be much of an adaptation if they changed that part of the story ...) Still, there were a lot of really disturbing examples in there. Like Duke Nukem Forever. Not just the game, mind you, but also those two girls. And the lady who got fused with a monster. And, well, all of them.

Regarding the upcoming part 3: Aaaaaaah, so that's where she'll most likely talk about The Boss. Man, I was kinda afraid she'd put The Boss in the "bad example" column, because that would have been a gross wrong-doing.
pewdiepie has every other video flagged. Get a grip.

So tired of an entire community being blamed for the actions of idiot youtube trolls. Even Anita claims victim-hood in her tweet about her video being flagged. Every popular youtuber gets flagged all the time. Amazing Atheist is constantly being reported for terrorism. Should he claim that all feminists are to blame since many of his videos are anti-feminist?
 

Darken12

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Vegosiux said:
Well, I'm still not sold on this one. I mean, of course having a loved one pummeled and kidnapped is going to be a horrible thing to you. Gender-flip it, and I'm pretty sure in case a female protagonist getting her boyfriend pummeled and kidnapped is a horrible thing for her.
That's the point, though. It doesn't happen nearly as often. It's very rare that a man has to rescue a male loved one (and I've yet to see a single case where that man isn't a son or much younger brother), or a woman has to rescue a man (especially with the dearth of female protagonists). The tool becomes a trope because it has so many examples backing it up, and she specifically points out Wreck-It Ralph's case as an example where the gender subversion itself is the punchline of the joke, because it happens so rarely so as to be funny when it comes up.

Vegosiux said:
I don't even see that as an attack on anyone's masculinity, I mean, what? If I see a woman that's close to me physically abused, my first thought won't be that I'm less of a man for it, but that something really bad happened to her and because I care for her deeply, I can't stay indifferent, it will pain me too, naturally. It's not about me, but I will not be unaffected.
Pay attention to the actual game examples. There are plenty of cases where some bad guy taunts the male hero as if the woman was a possession that he has just stolen or destroyed. There are also plenty of examples in the video where the male hero says something along the lines of "it was my job to protect her/keep her safe". That's where the "attack on the character's masculinity" comes from, it's either subtext or even sometimes explicitly stated by the game.

Most games who use the resource do not linger on the woman's reaction, or the way she deals with what happened to her. Everything she says and does is directly related to the male hero. Some try to reassure/thank him, others ask for his help, others plead him to take care of their daughter; but in all cases, the woman is used as a tool to drive the male hero's narrative. She becomes an object, devoid of true personality of her own, who serves exclusively as motivation for the male hero.

Vegosiux said:
Well, I'd argue that the cause of that is that she isn't the protagonist, not that she's a woman. It's obviously a terrible thing for both. In and of itself, this isn't a problem, after all, the protagonist is the focus of the story, naturally the impact on them will be the one in the spotlight and the plight of others will act more as a plot device.

The problem with this is that the same set of circumstances keeps popping up all the freakin' time. I really want to see a protagonist that's going through a trauma because they couldn't protect their family's priceless Ming vase or something. As long as it's different.
Yes, but when the protagonist is almost always male and the character who gets kidnapped, murdered and so on, is almost always female, that's a problem. I personally don't much care for the fact that it's poor storytelling, my main concern is that the genders of these two character archetypes are distressingly unchanging. This whole issue wouldn't be a problem if we had a more or less equal distribution of stories where a man rescues another man, a woman rescues a man, a man rescues a woman, and a woman rescues another woman. While I would agree that the overuse of the trope itself is trite storytelling, the main problem is that it continues to be used in overwhelmingly gendered ways.
 

Seneschal

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Ronack said:
Though, she did royally miss the point when it came to the Timesplitters series, if you ask me. This and Dante's Inferno get a pass from me. (Dante's Inferno is an old story, adapted in to a videogame. Wouldn't be much of an adaptation if they changed that part of the story ...)
In the Divine Comedy, Beatrice is in Heaven, looks over Dante, and appeals to the angels to help him. She's the one who pops down into Hell to fetch Virgil to be his guide. At the top of the mountain of Purgatory, she presides over a court for Dante's sins and lays such a smack-down on him that the angels feel sorry. She then serves as his guide through Heaven. He never describes her with anything less than awe and is completely compliant and subservient to her. I mean, at the end, it's all still sexist towards both genders, but at least Dante gives women plenty of agency and an equal share of the afterlife.

The "adaptation" changed a great deal, including making the story more regressive regarding gender norms than the 700-year-old original. Now that's an accomplishment.
 

Trinab

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All and all, I quite enjoyed it. It accurately pointed out the tropes, why they are used in games, and the inherent problems/assumptions that go with it.

As a writer the points she made are ones I've long considered, and actively try to avoid in my own works, and ones I would like to see somewhat banished from video games.
 

General Twinkletoes

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erttheking said:
"Sigh" thread is only two pages long and I already see entire posts completely demonizing people that don't agree with the poster. This happens EVERY TIME!

This is why we don't don't get thoughtful debate out of this videos! People don't want to sit down and debate about it, they want to insult people for having the poor judgement to have a different opinion!
C'mon, you post this in every controversial thread. How about be part of that change you seem so desperate for? Have a rational discussion with someone, instead coming into the thread and getting annoyed at everyone.
 

invadergir

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Ronack said:
Seneschal said:
Ronack said:
Though, she did royally miss the point when it came to the Timesplitters series, if you ask me. This and Dante's Inferno get a pass from me. (Dante's Inferno is an old story, adapted in to a videogame. Wouldn't be much of an adaptation if they changed that part of the story ...)
In the Divine Comedy, Beatrice is in Heaven, looks over Dante, and appeals to the angels to help him. She's the one who pops down into Hell to fetch Virgil to be his guide. At the top of the mountain of Purgatory, she presides over a court for Dante's sins and lays such a smack-down on him that the angels feel sorry. She then serves as his guide through Heaven. He never describes her with anything less than awe and is completely compliant and subservient to her. I mean, at the end, it's all still sexist towards both genders, but at least Dante gives women plenty of agency and an equal share of the afterlife.

The "adaptation" changed a great deal, including making the story more regressive regarding gender norms than the 700-year-old original. Now that's an accomplishment.
Well, that's just plain pathetic on the dev's part. And utterly shameful too.

invadergir said:
pewdiepie has every other video flagged. Get a grip.
Are his video's flagged so much in a SINGLE hour that it's taken down?
Several of his Alice: Madness Returns lets plays were taken within hours after he posted them. And by several, I mean 3 or 4 out of the 13 that were made at the time. Do you think a highly visible and controversial figure would be immune?

Some of the youtube commenters were guessing that the thing the videos had in common was he made fun of Justin Beiber. Who knew that the Beiberites were as passionate as your misogynist Dude Bros!
 

Erttheking

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General Twinkletoes said:
erttheking said:
"Sigh" thread is only two pages long and I already see entire posts completely demonizing people that don't agree with the poster. This happens EVERY TIME!

This is why we don't don't get thoughtful debate out of this videos! People don't want to sit down and debate about it, they want to insult people for having the poor judgement to have a different opinion!
C'mon, you post this in every controversial thread. How about be part of that change you seem so desperate for? Have a rational discussion with someone, instead coming into the thread and getting annoyed at everyone.
I've been doing a little bit of chatting in this thread, but mostly I formed a group centered around this concept and take my talking there.