Women's power fantasy.

[Ursinedriver]

So recently, as a community, we've been looking at women in gaming. This is undoubtedly a good thing, but I've heard over and over again that one of the main problems is that games, particularly the ones that have been the topic of discussion recently are male power fantasies, from the idealized women, to the idealized man, it's all what strait males want to see.
Now personally, I have no problem with this. I have long contended that the issue isn't to much content aimed at men, but that there isn't enough aimed at women.
So, I have to ask, is the female power fantasy really that removed from the male one? If so, what is the female power fantasy, or the gay one for that matter.

edit

My fantasy is people using the search bar.
Sorry, but we had this exact topic like two weeks ago.
So, yeah... repeat thread.

Ah, my bad. my personal theory is that if it's not on the first five or so pages, it's okay to start a new thread. if this is explictly against the rules, it should be deleted, otherwise, I'm content to just let it die.

 

[Phasmal]

My fantasy is people using the search bar.
Sorry, but we had this exact topic like two weeks ago.
So, yeah... repeat thread.

 

[Lilani]

I can't speak for every female's power fantasy, but mine looks sort of like a lot of the women in this tumblr. [http://womenfighters.tumblr.com/] Fierce, independent, powerful, but still fun. Not always muscular or really thin, just whatever gets the job done. I don't think the problem is that the female power fantasy is different from the male power fantasy, as far as content. And it's usually delivered in games. I know some older games have the males more powerful than the females, but that hasn't been a major thing in games for a while. It's just that the problem is that power often comes with the male vision of female sexuality, which is usually totally different from a woman's vision of her sexuality.

And it's not that I'm particularly ashamed of my sexuality. It's just that I want it to be on my terms. My vision of sexy, and I get to decide when and where I dress that way. Games don't give you that option, usually. Not only is it the male vision of female sexuality, but also we have to be dressed like that all the time.

So, yeah. It's not that the female power fantasy is much different. It's that the male sexual fantasy of females usually comes with it, whether we like it or not.

 

[Screamarie]

Well I know it's been said a thousand times and it'll be said a thousand times more, but...FemShep. That's MY personal power fantasy. And I'm speaking strictly paragon, cause I never play renegade cause I don't like being an asshole.

So Femshep, she's strong and independent, but willing and able to lean on others when necessary. She's smart, but doesn't know everything and so asks questions. She's capable of being sexy and sexual, but when it's appropriate. That's my power fantasy.

Course something that I've always found interesting and probably a little more than troubling is that, whether male or female, power fantasies in games are often made to be one thing.

For male power fantasies they usually only show anger, strength, or unwavering heroic sacrifice or some other "male" thing.

For female power fantasies you usually have to choose between sex or competence.

That I think is a big problem for both genders and that's why I like both male and femshep. They're not perfect, they're not always the hero, they fuck up, they need others to get by, they're human enough to want love and sex and the game never treats it as a "reward", it's something you actually have to work at and you say the wrong thing and you can fuck it up (admittedly it's not hard to do the right things, but you get my point).

Just because they're fantasies doesn't mean that the character has to be perfect. Developers can still give us the feeling of being strong heroes without having to make one note characters.