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Well, authorial intent only counts for so much. I doubt that writers of ME2 intended me to feel exactly the way I did when I played it and all the different ways I read into the characters. But I did anyway. And it works the other way too. The most recent Call of Juarez game is really, really racist. Probably not intentional, but it's kind of hard to ignore. The law of unintended consequences can be a real bastard sometimes. I try to judge actions and intent separately because I don't believe that you can predict all the consequences of your actions. But fact remains that sometimes things just screw up and you have to take responsibility for it. | |
Incompetent Writing is a bitch. | |
I'm gonna stop you right there. Fighting games actually do have quite the narrative and backstory to their characters, however there is a problem. That problem is actually translating what the player has done to the relation to being canon to the next sequel in the franchise. The one big challenge with fighting games is that they want the player to win with the character they like to play. However, the challenge comes when you need to decide which ONE character actually took down the antagonist in the game cause the character you liked to play might not have been the one to beat Bison, Seth or Tengu or any other boss in fighting games. So that results in for the player fractured stories which to understand the big picture often requires actually following the narrative which means reading the instruction booklets and make the connections from the previous game to the recently released game. Fighting games like it or not as a franchise actually have some of the HARDEST narratives to actually write in video games especially when you want to keep using the same character and only those who are either fans of the franchise or people who sit down and research the subject will actually understand just how complex the characters are and how they all connect to the narrative. The second problem is that because of this complication it is much easier to simply overlook all this and think that fighting games don't have a story or narrative which means that the media and fans will often make parodies of fighting games and their characters. Now I love a good parody but when you add this next factor it becomes a problem. When you have people who honestly believe that characters from fighting games are sexist or racist by using the FAN works instead of actually doing the research then that is where the problem begins. The person who is using said fan works as evidence instead of actually doing the research and looking up the characters is what makes fighting characters seem to be nothing more than a pair of boobs and the developers to be sexist. Now I'm not a huge fighting game guy, you won't see me with a dedicated joystick or taking part in tournaments but I am the type of guy that LOVES to actually sit down and read the instruction booklet(what can I say, 20+ years of gaming growing up since the 5200 kinda does that to you) and there was always a story and explanation of the characters so I can understand who they are, their motivations and how they are connected to the game. The depth of fighting games is actually there but it is the failure of the media and "researchers" who actually can't take the time to understand the complications of writing for a fighting game and not perform due diligence to understand the characters and narrative as created not by the fans but by the developers by reading the narrative just as much as playing through the narrative. Simple question, have you actually tried looking up the instruction booklet or wiki for games like Dead or Alive or Soul Calibur and then actually play the story and see how if any of the story you experienced translates into the sequel? | |
You're welcome! Sure, I'll post some more... how about an explanation of what an argument ad hominem is, why it is a fallacy, and how I believe you've committed yourself to it? An ad hominem argument is an argument that bases its rejection or acceptance of a certain proposition upon the facts regarding the person who has put forward the proposition, rather than arguing from the conceptual implications and presuppositions of the proposition itself. For example: Plato is wise, therefore his theory of the forms is true. Here the proposition that Plato's theories of the forms is true is argued for by appealing to premises that are irrelevant to the truth of the proposition. However, the argument can be made into a proper syllogism by adding a few premises: 1) Whoever is wise has true beliefs. Of course, by doing this the problem shifts from a fallacy of reasoning to the questionable nature of the premises. (Someone who is unconvinced in the first place that Plato's theory of forms is true will likely remain unconvinced by this argument. They would then just question whether premises 1 and/or 3 are true.) There is still no analysis of what Plato's theory of the forms actually is. This article provides further illumination: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-informal/#One Now let's take a look at your definition of "mansplaining":
Allow me to start off by saying that there is a difference between ordering a person to do something and telling a person what you think they should do. The first can only be done when you hold some power over the person so that you can force them to do the thing in question. A judge can order someone to do community service, but a neighbor can hardly order her neighbor to cut her lawn. One can certainly speak as though one has authority, but this is different from actually possessing authority and it is the latter that is required in order to give out orders. Anyone who speaks as though they were giving out an order but has no real power is just delusional and does not actually issue an order. Telling a person what you think they should do is an expression of an opinion, and can take the form of a rational argument. Of course, one has the political and social freedom to ignore other people's arguments. However, if one wishes to claim that their position is true or superior to other positions one cannot dismiss these competing positions without a sound basis for doing so. At least not if one wishes to claim that one is rational. Now the definition of "mansplaining" you've given above is clearly oriented towards de-legitimizing the ability of men to disagree with women. An explanation is distinct from an order. An explanation is just part of an argument. In fact, most arguments start with one person explaining why they think the other person's position is incorrect. While the other person may find this insulting, they can easily respond by explaining why they think that the first person's explanation is incorrect, and voila: you have an argument. While the term "explanation" might have the negative connotation of condescension attached to it, I'm afraid this is irrelevant to the question of which position is correct. That question must ultimately be decided by the logical form of the arguments and the conceptual implications of the premises involved in each position. Now, bearing all this in mind, there are, as far as I can see, (and feel free to correct me if I am mistaken) two ways of interpreting the definition of "mansplaining" you offered above: 1) Any instance in which a man disagrees with a woman is an instance of "mansplaining" simply in virtue of the fact that the man is disagreeing with the woman. In most (if not all) instances in which a sincere disagreement arises, one party will think they have a better idea than the other.[1] Thus when you say that "mansplaining is when a guy tells a woman (or anyone else, I suppose) that he has a better idea about what she is trying to do, or say," it seems you've committed yourself to the view that "mansplaining" is the simple result of disagreeing with a woman and being a man. In the following sentence you state that by arguing with a woman a man is "putting himself in the automatic position of authority and talking down to that individual, educating them about the err of their ways or the superior way of going about something." On face value this seems to be a statement concerning psychological facts of the male individual in question. However, one could argue that it is social context that puts the man in this position of authority regardless of his particular mental states. If one makes this argument then it seems that one is committed to the conclusion that a man can actually be completely respectful of a woman's opinions in terms of his mental states, while still taking on a functionally condescending and counter-productive role due to the social context of the conversation. This would allow one to avoid making unfounded psychological generalizations. In either case it is still an argument ad hominem because it suggests that whatever conclusion the man might argue for must be false due to the fact that the man is arguing for it, regardless of the content of the view. Construed in this way, your argument would seem to suggest that the exact same argument could be made against a position held by a woman by both a man and a woman, and that while in the latter case it might be productive and convincing, in the former it is counter-productive and unconvincing. 2) "Mansplaining" only occurs in specific instances when a man actually thinks he is superior to the woman. If the point of "mansplaining" under this definition is just that men should avoid presenting their arguments in a condescending manner then that is fair enough. However, if this is the real implication for "mansplaining" then while one can rightfully use it to ask men to behave better in arguments, one cannot use it to dismiss or ignore the conclusion put forward by the a-hole in question. Unfortunately, it is still an argument ad hominem to suggest that a person's conclusion must be wrong because that person happens to be an asshole. Were that not enough, this version of "mansplaining" has its own particular difficulties. The most preeminent among these difficulties is that in order to accuse a particular individual of "mansplaining" one must supply empirical evidence that they embody the psychological traits in question. Unless, of course, one assumes that all men are condescending to women as a matter of psychological law, in which case one must supply some evidence for this rather dubious fact. And even if one were to accomplish these goals, one still cannot dismiss the man's arguments for the reasons stated above. Under either definition you still seem to be committing an argument ad hominem given your specific replies to Machine Man 1992. For instance:
Now it's clear that he isn't telling anyone what to do, so it seems that your objection is to the very idea that a man might have a better idea than a woman. As one onlooker put it (which you didn't read because what he said was impolite):
I agree that he was being overly offensive, but you certainly didn't respond to his criticism by ignoring him. Now if I have somehow misunderstood your position, then please feel free to correct me. I am merely operating on the information contained in your posts. I would not presume to explain to you the meaning of your own position. Nor am I ordering you to accept my argument, I am merely presenting a criticism. However, I will not deny my condescending tone. It tends to come out when I think people are using fallacious reasoning in order to self-righteously dismiss other people's positions. So you can also feel free to ignore the entire content of everything I just said and reject my position as an instance of "mansplaining". [1] The one exception to this is when one side presents a solely negative argument against the other. For instance, Socrates was famous for sincerely arguing against those who claimed to be wise while at the same time professing his own ignorance. (Well, at least the historical Socrates supposedly did this. Plato's used Socrates as a literary figure to express his own positive philosophical system, and unfortunately we mostly get our picture of Socrates from Plato due to the fact that Socrates wrote nothing himself.) One should also note that it is not really a sincere disagreement when people play devil's advocate. | |
I read the Soul Calibur II and Mortal Kombat Biographies. Let's break this down a little: | |
I think Stephen Fry best explains it in this video here. He talks about the changes in how the people of Germany referred to Jewish people in language before and during World War II. Calling them "lice," "vermin," and "subhumans" over radios and in letters, allowing the people to psychologically separate themselves from the cruelty of what was happening. Toward the end he recites part of a letter from a German officer who worked at a death camp to his wife, and it's just incredible how human and ordinary it sounds even though he is quite plainly talking about Jews being brought in to be killed. Objectification and dehumanization may not directly lead to oppression or cruelty, but it is certainly a frightening step toward the correct mindset for doing such things. And it's not really the type of thing that becomes clear until hindsight sets in.
And I quoted you because I thought you would be interested in the video, too :-) | |
I wish there was a more verbose means of replying to you (I feel like your essay-length response perhaps warrants something a bit more verbose) but I feel that I only have so much to say in response. You seem to be alluding that because I thought he was speaking condescendingly about a woman because he was a man and thought himself superior, I dismissed his arguments. This was not the case. As you may or may not have read in the post where I dropped the term, I explained that what he was doing could be inferred as mansplaining, and then went on (for two paragraphs) to explain why his reasoning was flawed. Moreover, the fact that he was (in my feeling) constructing his entire objection based on this perceived superiority, compelled me to address it as my focus because it was the spring from which the waters of his objection flowed. So you see, your accusation of ad hominem dismissal falls a little off the mark. I did not say he was not worth listening to purely because he was 'mansplaining', as though that were merely an accent and I thought that people from his neighborhood couldn't form coherent thoughts. It was, rather, a dismissal based on the fact that he was composing his objections based on that feeling of male primacy, and I also took the time to break down my objection in a more specific manner. Also:
I don't have to respond to him. As far as I'm concerned he's welcome to say and do whatever he likes. There's nowhere that says I have to give him the time of my day if I feel he's not being respectful. In summary: you're mistaken that I was dismissing him because of 'mansplaining'. I merely indicated that it was what he was doing; that it was perhaps the source of his opposition, and that said opposition did not stand up to scrutiny. I even made a point to indicate that it was very possible he did not consciously believe that he was superior and being condescending, but that it was the message that was coming across. | |
Thanks for the video! I just have a question, where does one step the line between protection or affection into objectification? Goin to something that objectifies positively "That girl is pretty like a flower!" (somethign corny like that) to "Make me a sandwich, woman!" Is having something like an escort mission in a videogame or a plot where you protect/rescue a woman objectify that woman. Is the problem with videogames that they seem to only do that or just put women as a set of tits that occasionally move. Is objectification inherently wrong, or the problem is what objectification may lead to believe? | |
Even after watching the video, I still have a problem with this thing a whole. Not because I don't see a problem with sexism in video games. I think there is, and I'm probably part of the problem. It's true, I have done things in video games simply to satisfy my hormonal urges. I've chosen to play as female characters in games with 3rd person cameras simply so I could have a constant view of their backside. I've stressed over the customizable wardrobes of female characters. I've installed mods for Oblivion that... that... let's leave that one alone. No... My problem with this is the whole 'Give me money so I can make internet videos' thing. It's not that I have a problem with Vloggers. Hell, I actually respect the ones that are talented enough to make a decent living out of it. It's when you feel the need to go to Kickstarter to cover your expenses that I have ask a question... What are your expenses? If you take one look at her other videos, it's plainly obvious that she puts a bit of work into her projects. The video is clean, smartly cut, and the script is clearly well though out. By vlogging standards, she's at the top of the pile. Arguably, this kind of quality doesn't come cheap... Her original goal was for $6000 for five videos, each 10-20 minutes long. That comes out to $1200 a video, and $60-$120 a minute. I can see why she needs some money, but I just don't see why she needs that much...
Oh, so we're paying her to play video games. Hundreds of video games, it would seem. That's nice. But we're not even talking about $6000 anymore, are we? No, we're talking over $150,000. What is a vlogger supposed to do with that kind of scratch?
Anita, I now expect your videos to be TWICE AS GOOD as Eraserhead. | |
Many years ago I played through Metal Gear Solid 2. After completing it, it unlocked a cutscene viewer where you can rewatch every video in the game. It came with a feature where you could substitute characters in the scene with any other character model in the game. Including Office Woman. One of the hostages models in the game is a frumpy-looking, short-ish, middle-aged woman wearing grey suit that modestly covered her probable munt. Now for my actual point: I went through every cutscene, swapping out the most impressive character in the scene for Office Woman. I vividly remember watching Office Woman jump from RAY to RAY, shooting them to bits with an SMG, then tearing apart with her bare hands and robo-tentacles (Instead of the main baddy). I remember this whenever I see this general call to include a wider range of female characters in gaming, in the same roles that butch men do.* My point is, Office Woman can be featured doing this kind of thing. But only if you want everybody to laugh at the ludicrousness of it all. *(I'm assuming that's what you want, because otherwise you're just asking to remove all the super models, which you seem to imply is all the women. And if they were to do that, then you'd still be complaining based on a total lack of ANY female characters.) | |
Can't help but admit to being a bit disappointed by this episode- I was hoping that Bob was FInALLY getting around to doing an episode on the TV Tropes Wiki, which he has referenced in passing several times in the past. But oh well, this was still an interesting episode, even if it IS ground he's already covered before. There is nothing I hate so much as internet gamer rage. It's literally repulsive his vile some people can act when someone does something as "heinous" as express the opinion that there may be some kind of flaw in some aspect of their chosen hobby. Sometimes I'm embarassed to call myself a gamer... | |
Well, I'd like to say the line is usually pretty clear, but honestly these sorts of things just tend to creep up on society. And then they become so normal that your personal gauge of what is and isn't appropriate becomes pretty unreliable. Again, those who held those views didn't see a problem with them until hindsight set in. I guess the best way to keep things in check is to never shut yourself off from the opinions and objections of the whomever you're referring to. I'm sure the Jews in Germany expressed objections to how they were being talked about, but it was allowed to go on because the people using those terms didn't care what they had to say about it. So tell that girl she looks pretty like a flower if you feel that is appropriate, but be open enough that you notice if she happens to take offense. Some girls may not like flowers, but then some girls may not mind the "Make me a sandwich!" jokes if the situation is right. As for the escort mission example, I think it really depends on the intended message and theme of the situation. A woman being helpless isn't inherently sexist, just as a guy being helpless isn't inherently sexist. Everybody is helpless at some point in their life, it is a perfectly human situation to be in. The difference lies in the context--are they being portrayed as somebody temporarily in over their head, or are they being portrayed as somebody who wouldn't be able to do anything without help? And if they are just a very needy person, it should be made clear that trait is exclusive to that individual character. Yes, there are real women out there who spend their lives looking for a man who will take care of them. And that is a valid character type to use. But it only becomes a problem if it's made to seem as though all women in the world are like that. Which on the surface seems like a difficult thing to accomplish, but if the only women in your game are the needy type, then it doesn't become so hard to see. It shouldn't be a problem as long as the mission is focused on the person being an individual in a unique situation, rather than "the person in escort mission 22." It all wraps back around to dehumanization. When you take the human and individual elements out of a situation, that is when generalizations and stereotypes become rampant. | |
Ok, in this context I can see why women have a problem with the industry. Looking at individual games it may not be a problem, but expanding your scope, patterns emerge. Games that I consider have good female characters (Ghost Trick, Psychonauts, Phoenix Wright) have a female co-lead who needs to be rescued. Still I would say its because games have bad writing since the industry doesn't have an emphasis on story that movies or books have. A good game can have a bad story, and since videogames take a lot of time, story is what is usually sacrificed and end up treading cliches that were old when King Kong came out. | |
Didn't really plan for this to be potentially TLDR, but it kind of kept writing itself.
Yes...this. The problem that Bob glosses over is that men ARE expected to have the same godlike physiques as women--at least in the circles and classes we are told that matter--and if you don't rock a sixpack, then you are very specifically targeted by billions of advertising dollars for workout diets/machines/facilities and your social peers for your ugliness/wheatbelly/lack of focus or determination/whatever else. Our society is becoming ever more Greek in that way: we are becoming more and more obsessed with our physical image, and more proactively judging ANYONE who does not fit in with our expectations. Towards the end there, even the Romans started obsessing over baths. You could say that this is just an expression of class separation, but we have to remember that almost all Roman and Greek bathhouses were free and public. Gymnasiums were similarly free, and the athletes competed and practiced nude specifically to encourage God-bods. I call them God-bods because that is exactly what they were: an attempt by man to honor the Gods they believed in by emulating their perfect forms. People who were not at their physical peak were regarded not as poor, but as ungodly. Even Dionysus and/or Bacchus were not excluded from this requirement; it is only in more modern times that we have made those deities corpulent and middle-aged in a very concerted effort to attach certain behaviors and lifestyles to certain body types in an attempt to use Chaucerian Physiognomy to separate "good" people from "bad" people. Even those qualifications of what makes people "good" or "bad" have become increasingly subjective over the last hundred years, and so the separation has shifted towards class distinctions: if you look this good, it is because you can afford to, and that makes for a more potentially attractive mate on two levels--looks and money. I have to suppose, Bob, that you don't get out much into the social environment. There is just as much, if not more judging of men going on than women. Whenever I go out, I see gads of men chatting up women of all body types...because every man wants to get laid or have companionship, and there's an individual fetish for every one of us alive; that is to say, you have ass-men (subcategories of small-, big-, athletic-, and apple-), tit-men, legs-men, neck-men, hair-men, big-girls-men, eyes-men, etc., etc. To a very large degree, it is how the woman dresses and presents herself as opposed to her physical attributes. Not so for men. The men who are bald, too old, have worked very hard lives and have skin like leather, the men who can't afford a dentist and so are missing a tooth here or there, the men who are fat, the men who don't have the right amount of bling, the ones who drink too much...these men are judged and ostracized by both men and women. They can only exist in social strata that are similar to themselves, or that are populated by less-judgemental people...who are also typically judged by men and women. I would say, from personal, real observation of people in the wild, that the pressure on men and women to look a certain way is roughly equalized. What's worse, is that women who do not look a certain way are just considered to be less attractive. Men who do not look a certain way are considered not to be men. I don't think that depiction of men or women in video games is a problem at all; it's an artist's rendering. To be more specific, it is a continuation of artists' renderings that have been in existence for thousands of years. Our very evolution has encouraged these body expectations: women grew larger breasts because the women with larger breasts were more often chosen by the males, and those were the genes that were passed on (and no bologna about lactation--modern science has debunked the assertion that bigger breasts provide more milk)--women developed an enlarged clitoris to encourage front-to-front intercourse so that lovers could look each other in the eye (and so that women could focus on more attentive lovers as men focused on bigger breasts). Our biology is based on these things. When a twelve-year-old sees T&A in a movie, TV show, advertisement, or video game and begins to make judgments about body types, it's not because the media format is telling him to do so, it's because his body is telling him to do so. As the child matures, the expectations will level out by a large margin as fantasy continues to collide with reality--and if they make it to middle age driving that red convertible and still thinking rock-hard torpedo tits are the shit, well, what do we always say about those buffoons? What are you, TWELVE?? Which leads us to the next point. Game developers are not consciously reinforcing stereotypes and body expectations because they believe in them, but rather because they sell. A major game costs tens of millions of dollars to develop these days, and the developer and the financiers MUST recoup their investment. Every month we see some developer lay off a dozen or more workers or a small dev house close its doors forever because they only sold two hundred thousand copies of the game they made, rather than the two hundred and ten thousand they needed to. In such a financially hostile environment, i.e. one where a smaller percentage of the population have significant (if any) amounts of disposable income to drop on an entertainment product, the gamemakers can rarely afford to take risks. So they don't. They go with the titillation, because that's where they can make enough money to do riskier things in future projects. A lot of the time, they never even get to that point of stability, and just keep releasing the same stuff so they can stay afloat. The only way to not be affected by these things is to simply choose not to be affected by these things...to know that they have been with us as long as human beings have walked this Earth, and that maturity yields wisdom. Let us also not forget who these trolls are who hate on women not made of silicone and how old they are likely to be, and also not forget about G.I.F.T. (formally known as the Online Disinhibition Effect).
Here's the nugget here. It's all about the benjamins. You see, there's this thing called the Glass Ceiling, and although it has largely been broken, it will never truly die until the fathers of its philosophy are, themselves, dead. It dishonors those women and minorities who really struggled in this last century by raising Glass Walls in its place. I don't think that the Suffragettes would take too kindly to Ms.Sarkeesian (I use Ms. as opposed to Mrs. as I assume that she has trouble finding men who will put up with her, and that even if she DID, she would elect not to marry them, as some feminists believe that marriage is a chauvinist pair bonding scheme used to exult the importance of taking a woman's maidenhead, objectifies them as barter chips to increase the land and holdings of father figures, and also reinforces the outmoded idea that women need to be taken care of by men and that their only roles in a nuclear family or even society as a whole are those of a janitor, cook, and sex slave...is that sexist of me?) and her points of view...but we all know that she doesn't really even believe them herself, don't we? Those Glass Walls are very profitable, and in this age of 24 hour homegrown internet media, the squeaky wheel gets the moola. I suppose the biggest irony in all of this is that her argument (and arguments like it) are self-defeating. A XX-year-old (How old IS she, by the way? It seems a card she holds very tight to the vest...possibly because she doesn't want to lose that 18~24 demographic that brings in most of her money by aging? Just a thought.) woman who owns and maintains her own website that doesn't rely on external google ads for revenue who can film in HD because of her professional-grade equipment and professional-grade studio and professional-grade editing hardware/software/capability AND uses it to vociferously decry the effects of sexism upon the fairer gender? Really? She's the one saying women are mistreated and objectified? Maybe if I had a nice rack I could weasel some of those opportunities into my life (SEE WHAT I DID THERE???). Nah, just kidding...her post-pro and webmastering and such are probably all done by men she exploits on her staff (SEE WHAT I DID THERE AGAIN???). I also find it interesting how she presents herself: nice makeup, nice haircut, nice attire, perfectly clear skin (I wonder how much of the money her fans donate goes into making her look as attractive to men as she could possibly look)...all in all, a very professional appearance. Tell me, do feminists usually wear ruby red lipstick and hoop earrings? I thought that was against the whole paradigm. Anyway, the point is this: She should be grateful we are coming up on the 50th anniversary of the Feminine Mystique and that she lives in a time and a world and a country where women have the freedom to engage in activities like hers. One hundred years ago she would have been beaten and told to remember her place, and a thousand years ago she would have been rape fodder for simply not being born a man...and if she were an African woman today, she would be more likely to be raped than learn to read AND would have to be told by other feminists that wearing an anti-rape device is a form of enslavement. Yeeeeeep, sounds like the argument defeats itself. P.S. | |
I think you're very right, in all of that. Many developers still haven't found that balance when it comes to developing games with stories and characters. They are pushed toward deadlines before they're ready, which causes them to cut corners. And, let's face it, it is a lot easier to sell a well-functioning game with flat characters than it is to sell a game with well-rounded characters but plays like shit. It happens in movies, too--people often won't mind what they're watching as long as it's presented well. Just look at the Transformers movies. The characters are flat and awkward, but it's big and shiny and 'splody so the masses don't care. And I think Psychonauts is a good example of a female in need of rescue. She proves herself to be strong and independent in the first part of the game, but then she happens to get overwhelmed. And I was fine with that, it happens sometimes. Yes it was sort of a stereotypical situation, but she is a good character and the game itself is sort of a parody of stereotypes so it just felt right. On the other hand, I see old westerns do the whole damsel in distress storyline and it makes me want to puke my guts up. The women are so sappy and helpless, and never get anything done without a man's intervention. Again, being helpless is perfectly human. But if that's all there is to the character, then the audience is going to be insulted, and rightfully so. | |
Problem is, people gave her the money to make videos. It would be profoundly dishonest to do anything else beyond making videos (and associated tasks like promoting them / updating her web presence etc.) with that money. Besides, feminism isn't a single "cause". I believe every woman should have free, easy access to contraception and abortion, but not everyone who's a feminist agrees. So, if someone gave me money to make a video, it would be plain wrong to give their money to a pro-choice organisation or contraception provider without consultation. | |
It's not that she says things I don't like, I didn't say that...I said I'm not a fan of the way she says the things she says(and, ok...occasionally the things she says, which I have made it clear I think is her right to say). You see how that's different? This is a public forum, I don't need your permission to involve myself in any conversation, nor do I need to meet your standards(seriously, what the hell?). You seem to be confused by my not picking a side and yelling...now that would be pointless, and not something we're short of. I've involve myself because I think I've said something that other people weren't saying. I'm offering other explainations as to why some people are finding this distasteful, something that I thought would be refreshing if anything. I do so because certain people are lobbing the term "women-hater" around too readily, as if it serves to do anything other than stunt conversation. I would sooner accuse them of misplacing their anger than of being willfully sexist. She is singular, a woman, she is not representative or symbolic of women everywhere(luckily). A strike against her does not a bigot make. You are right in assuming I don't have much of an emotional stake in this, but that disqualifies me how? How is that bad at all? Out of interest, what's your stake in this? Why are you so involved? I think I'm 3 posts deep in this thread, you've posted way more. Prometheus was good. | |
My argument was directed at the concept of "mansplaining" in general as a form of ad hominem that I based upon the definition that you provided. Given that your definition was slightly unclear I also alluded to the way you used the term in your specific argument against Machine Man. His claim seemed to be that there are other things that she could do with her money that would do more to help her cause. Here's the argument you presented against the actual content of his claims:
Now, if you're not using the concept of "mansplaining" as an ad hominem argument then it frankly seems irrelevant. In order to respond to his argument your focus should have been on proving that what she was doing is a positive move to accomplish her goals. The argument was going well right up until the emboldened part, where you reverted back to the assumption that he was telling this woman what to do (which he clearly wasn't). It was a non sequitur to tell him that he has no right to tell her what to do because that wasn't what he was doing. In contrast, I think you were building up to a good point about how the fact that people are willing to pay to hear her videos meant that they do, in fact have value. I actually agree in that a thorough and intelligent analysis of where these tropes come from and their possible effects would result in a positive outcome. What I can't stand is people constantly complaining about these things without either giving an in-depth analysis of why they are bad or presenting a possible solution. In regard to the concept on the whole, I am still skeptical. First of all, anyone can be condescending towards another person due to some bias, it certainly doesn't apply to men alone. There's nothing stopping a woman who holds herself superior to men from doing the same thing. I agree that our society is such that it is far more likely that men do this, but even so there is certainly no guarantee that all men do this. Given that this is the case it seems that the concept will rarely, if ever, be used legitimately in any argument that isn't directly centered around the psychological disposition of a man in the first place. I think that in most of its applications the concept of "mansplaining" will likely turn out to be at best a rhetorical distraction, and in some cases an argument ad hominem. Sure, a man being condescending is poor decorum but it has little to do with his arguments. Accusing him of being condescending and operating under the delusion that he is superior before you actually examine his arguments isn't very conducive to promoting decorum either. It's basically a slap in the face. A cynical person could perhaps suggest that it is meant to divert the person's attention away from defending the initial argument they presented by forcing them to defend themselves. I am, of course, speaking of the concept on the whole. Given the content of your posts I would say that your motives seem to be pure. I do try my best to react coolly and rationally, but I must admit that when presented with the initial idea my response went a bit overboard. The fact that I reacted so harshly in my initial post is perhaps a testament to the underhandedness of the concept. I do apologize if I offended you; it was behavior unfitting of a gentleman.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt considering it wasn't 100% obvious that you were using it as an ad hominem argument in your post (hence why I gave multiple interpretations and invited you to correct me). However, I should point out that 1) it would be fairly difficult to prove assertions about someone's psychological dispositions from a few paragraphs, and 2) even if you were able to prove that his reasoning was based upon a feeling of male primacy, that wouldn't conclusively prove that the proposition that he was putting forward is false. Instead, it would merely force him to provide a valid argument for his position. If he was unable to do this then you would have won the argument.
Oh, I understand completely. I wasn't suggesting that you had a duty to respond, just that you weren't accomplishing anything by ignoring him (except peace of mind). Given your response it seems clear that you did not believe his arguments to be disproved on account of his impoliteness, so I rescind the statement.
If I might summarize in return: I'm still thoroughly unconvinced that the concept of "mansplaining" is anything but a product of ressentiment (which was the thrust of my initial objection). While I have no doubt that there are some or even many men who engage in "mansplaining", I remain dubious about how people implement this concept in arguments. However, I do not mean to suggest that you personally were deliberately being misleading, and I apologize for any offense my initial comment may have caused. | |
My stake is pretty simple. Whenever I see people ragging against feminists in a way I believe is unfair, or betrays a sexist bias, I push back, because someone has to. I'm a gamer; this is my community as much as it is anyone else's, and I refuse to tolerate misogyny... something our community has a serious problem with. | |
Bob, There's a lot of research out there about the impact of attractiveness on hiring, much of it conflicting, but little that fits your assertion that the hiring bias only affects women, or that it affects women substantially more than men. Attractive men and women both reap an advantage over less attractive peers, regardless of sex. Example: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071206124838.htm Several studies have shown that being too attractive can actually hurt a female's chances of getting a job (but not a male's). http://www.workopolis.com/content/advice/article/353-can-you-be-too-attractive-to-get-hired Another study concluded, after statistically correcting for everything they could think of, that the "too beautiful" effect was due to HR departments being mostly staffed by women, who (it is speculated) subconsciously punish women they think are more attractive than themselves. http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/03/photos_of_attractive_female_jo.html So your "why it's bad" argument about the societal cost of sexist games, or sexism in general, is wrong; though I'm not trying to legitimize either one. I think the real shame is that the (somewhat well founded) stereotype that all games are sexist, and the (less well founded) one that all gamers are pimply, overweight, bile-spewing, misogynist goons living in mom's basement keeps a lot of women away from video games who might otherwise really enjoy them. I know several women that own library-worthy personal collections of fantasy and sci-fi books and films, but refuse to try or outright disapprove of games like Skyrim, Mass Effect, or even Portal, with it's non-violent gameplay and female lead character. It's frustrating that I can't share the enjoyment I get from my favorite games with these people who should, by all rights, enjoy them. | |
I'm happy that we can have a more civil conversation about this. At first when you started throwing Nietzsche and Plato at me, I was of the mind that you were trolling in some advanced sophisticated manner. It would have been a nice troll, but this is much nicer. I think you may be a little too hung up on the 'mansplaining' thing. Perhaps if you immersed yourself in the feminist culture, and saw what they usually have to put up with, you'd be more familiar with the term; I get the impression that to you it's like having a corn kernel stuck in your teeth. You just can't help worrying it with your tongue. I think you're giving it a great deal more weight than it's worth. I used the term to give a word to what is, in essence, a complicated concept that would otherwise require a sentence to explain. Unless I am mistaken, you are suggesting that the term is too convenient in skewing the 'advantage' of debate to the feminist side of things; that any man who has a difference of opinion, and speaking that opinion, sets himself up for having the label attached to him and de-legitimized as a result. This is not the case. It certainly could be used that way, improperly, but it does in fact have a specific purpose. I felt it was applicable in the situation that sparked this debate. The person in question was stating, with authority, that what she was going to do with the money was the wrong way of doing it, and that he instead knew the right way. This wrung as mansplaining for a couple reasons: 1) The implication that she wouldn't know what to do with the money. There was no confidence from him (and I haven't seen much confidence from many others) that she would use the funds properly. The common thread seems to be "all she does is sit in front of a camera". Given the tone and the universality of this objection, it seems to me that they don't think she has the capacity to handle the money, or intent to use it 'properly'. 2) They he had a better solution. His immediate reaction si to place himself above her. She doesn't know what she's doing, she's doing it all wrong, she's wasting time; HE, however, knows the best way. 3) His (and everyone else's) alternative solution involves options whereby she doesn't speak out. He'd rather she didn't produce the videos at all... no suggestions to, perhaps, increase the production values. No, the alternatives were to go and make a game, or give the money to developers. All of it smacked of condescension and contempt. Not only do they automatically think she is wrong (based on no evidence, only conjecture), but they think they're right, and the alternatives they provide involve her shutting up. And the cool, reasoned, sounds-ingratiating-but-is-in-fact-insultingly-condescending nature of the delivery fits 'mansplaining' to a T. Don't worry your pretty head about it, little lady. I'm a dude, and I got this shit figured out. Now, this feeling of primacy is the source of such objections; such was my feeling, and it was this that I addressed. An easy in was to point at the method by which the delivery was made. I was pointing out the intent and the action. Male Primacy was the intent, mansplaining was the action. But I was not dismissing what he said purely because he was delivering it in a condescending way. It was the condescension itself I was attacking. | |
Thisthisthisthisthis. There was an article here on the Escapist that rang something to the tune of "How to make games for women". One of the suggestions was to have "Deep and relatable characters and story." The implication being that men do not enjoy such things. I wanted to throw my monitor. Characterization and a well-developed story are awesome things that I would love to see in every video game and I'm sure that can be said for the majority of people who identify as gamers, not just women you sexist fubswnlminmb. Anyway, that's why I love things like A Song of Ice and Fire because there's (Besides the awesome fantasy stuff :P) A) Little to zero gender pandering. There's sex (More in the TV show than the books, but I digress) but it's a relevant part of the plot and not just LOOK BOOBIES/MUSCLEY MEN BUY BOOK NAO PLS! B) Fantastic characterization of characters of all genders/personalities/ages/looks/what have you. Cersei Lannister, Arya Stark, Sansa Stark, Brienne of Tarth, Catelyn Stark, Lysa Arryn, Ygritte, Melisandre, Olenna Redwyne, Arianne Martell, Maergery Tyrell; I could go on. They live in a world that has stupid, abitrary gender roles and they are acknowledged, but that doesn't stop any of them from being awesome characters.
My point is: I'm not saying it's the of the female gender that Twilight is so popular and awful, nor is it the fault of the male gender that Dead or Alive: Extreme Beach Volleyball is so popular. It's the fault of the idiots within those genders who buy those products and the people who make a living pandering to them. My problem with the "Why men should hate Twilight" thing is her making a broad generalization about our entire gender being dudebros and that we need to have why Twilight is bad explained to us. Anyone who knows the general plot/message of the thing should be able to figure that out. I don't think the guy who says he hates Twilight because "Edward is so gay and sensitive and junk." wil learn anything from such a video anyway. | |
Think of what Kickstarter is: people pay for what you make. People are going to pay a certain amount of money for the documentary. So they're essentially paying for a copy of the doc, and any other shit she's going to make and sell. Why is this a problem? It's not free to film. She probably needs to pay all that off, too. So, yes, money is necessary. | |
Umm you really didn't watch her promo video did you? We aren't talking about the money here we are talking about how you suggesting that she needs the money for equipment was quite incorrect. The reason I listed all that stuff is that all that equipment and space she already OWNS as in there is no money necessary in terms of video/audio equipment or physical space. | |
Yeah, she spent a lot of money on that shit. It could be that she needs to get it back. Could be she used loan money from a bank or a friend or something. Also, my other reasons still apply | |
I gotta say you are really missing the point and going so far to make yourself in the right. First off she's been making 720P videos since 2009 and also been using picture in picture video editing software for the same time. I'd also estimate that for at least two years she's had a room that has been sound proofed and also improved her audio quality with a dedicated microphone setup and not relying on the microphone built into the camcorder. You really going to say that she needs to recoup money she spent on equipment she has clearly owned for three years? Cause if that logic applies hey start me up on a kickstarter cause I need to get my money back as well. That is how much of a stretch you are making here and it honestly is pathetic. Heck I'm not even arguing with you, just telling you that she doesn't need the money for equipment cause she already owns the equipment. That's it. Anything else you are reading into this is honestly just you thinking this is some adversarial post and you have to be correct. Christ, no wonder I don't post here anymore. People aren't willing to ask a question for clarity anymore. | |
You know, you might be on to something.... Objectification doesn't have to be evil. As far as I see it, as long as you are a decent human being IRL, what you do during your, um, "private time" is your business. It's not like sexism is a one-way, male on female thing. Objectification happens to everybody; man-on-man, woman-on-woman, woman-on-man, etc. It's just that western society has been male dominated for so long, there's going to be some growing pains as women get acclimatized to the notion that it's okay for them to look at eye candy now. captcha: I like people. Why are my hands cramping up? | |
Well, we'll always have the broodmother in DOTA. | |
MovieBob takes yet another stab at once again dogmatically reiterating how in a society where men live shoter lives, suffer more from all self-destructive attitudes, ranging from alcoholism, to addiction, to simply suicide, and how even though men, as a group, make more money, women, as a group, possess more purchasing power, men still have it better. Because if you look only at the highest echelon, they are mostly men, so there. And, clearly, women generally labouring under greater expectations to look good than men do is far worse than men labouring under greater expectations to sacrifice themselves to protect women (a theme that saturates all of western media, including video games), because clearly women feeling bad is worse than men dying. The presentation of female characters in popular media is juvenile at best, but being expected to look pretty is a much lower level of expectation than being expected to be competent and self-sacrificing, the effects of which saturate our entire society and leave obvious marks - marks that people prefer to ignore, because implying that men, as a group, are in a position of weakness, is bad for ideologues on both sides. The female chauvinists can never support anything that doesn't further the narrative that women are weak and oppressed (thus men can't be), and the male chauvinists can never support anything that doesn't further the narrative that men are strong and independent (thus they can't need help; or if they do then they are not 'true men'). But carry on scratching the surface as you please... I'm an anoyomous person on the internet, not a cop. | |
Lol, it's hard NOT to seem like a troll when quoting Nietzsche. He was the original and most hilarious of all trolls.
Well, recall that my objection was about the idea of "mansplaining," not about your specific argument with Machine Man. But fair enough. Philosophers use plenty of terms that would instantly rub people the wrong way. Lord knows if I start talking about Kant's doctrine of transcendental idealism most people will likely think to themselves "oh, wonderful, here comes some bs New Age hippie nonsense," when in fact the doctrine is fairly dry and technical (it revolves around our representations of space and time being the a priori form of how we perceive objects because we cannot acquire these representations empirically... etc.).
Even more broadly speaking, I don't see how it can really be used legitimately in an argument to prove or disprove the point at hand. I'm not really concerned with the social or psychological dimensions of why people use the concept so much as with how the concept can be used in a debate. You can suggest that it seems like someone is "mansplaining" and ask them to provide better reasons and prove you wrong, but that's not really an argument against their position itself so much as a rhetorical device used to move the conversation on the whole in a different direction. Though you can certainly mention it after you finish arguing the main point, in the hopes that you might open his mind or make him self-reflect or what-have-you. However, it is generally best to avoid dragging a person's psychological states into an argument unless they are displaying such qualities as to force the question upon you. (E.g., if they start speaking in word-salad you might want to ask them if they're feeling alright.) If a person is being so aggressive or hostile that it might lead you to question their mental state, then it's probably time to discontinue the argument altogether.
Meh. I'm not going to try to defend other people's positions. You can certainly attack people's condescension if you like, just as long as you don't take it to be a successful objection to their argument as a whole. | |
You sure love to play the victim card, don't you? So, since you couldn't be bothered to read what I wrote earlier, because there was a terrible INSULT at the beginning, have this: He never told her WHAT to do, he merely suggested, that, since she made a lot more money than she said she needed, that maybe she could use that money to further the cause she claims to support. It's not because she is a weak and brittle women with a gaping vagina that hinders her from thinking, it's because she came in a shitload of money and using at least some of that money to finance female game developpers would not only make for good PR, but also make her seem legit. Personally, I want this video to be made, if only, because it will be interesting to see, if she manages to come up with new material that has not been seen before, which, based on the videos I have seen of her, I am not counting on. Not because she is a woman or because she has a vagina, but because experience tells me, that she rarely provides new insight and sometimes sees problems where there are none, and her Bayonetta review seemed to indicate that she doesn't really know a whole lot about video games, however, this does not mean that I do not believe that donating some of that money would be a good idea, since it would be good PR and give her more legitimacy. But I guess that this is ALL just fucking mansplaining. He wasn't patronizing, he didn't insist that doing what he suggested was the only correct thing she could do, he merely said that it was in fact something she should consider. And you are, in fact, saying, that HIS suggestion is not wanted nor needed and that he shouldn't even be allowed to voice it, simply because he has a PENIS, which is exactly what you accuse HIM of doing (you accused him as dismissing HER on the grounds of her having a vagina and an XX-configuration). Also, it appears you are incredibly sexist. You dismiss others on the grounds that they are born with a y-chromosome, and nothing else. You did not counter his argument, or his suggestion but rather went straight for the balls. You attribute a certain gender in general with certain characteristics. Now I would like a rebuttal, based on what I have written and not based on how you weasel your way out of writing a decent response. Since someone pointed it out: | |
Soul Calibur 1 features nice noble clothes as her default. While sexy - they aren't the ridiculous dominatrix revealing outfit she's had since - that was the alt costume. Was my favorite costume of hers. My favorite fighting move set, too. Now I just don't like her costume and rarely play her. Superficial on my part, I know, since I really like her moves. | |
You know, I hear this argument a lot, but you know, the budget and money and what she does with it is not our business unless we donated. Those that donated read the Kickstarter, saw what she was doing and voluntarily contributed. If it interests you she actually goes over what some in Kickstarter calls "Stretch Goals". If something gets overfunded, they do more. Now she only accounted for about 25k of that so far, and is trying to figure out what to do with the rest. I recommended to a graduate game designer on this very board to get in touch. Crowdfunding sources are new, but they have this very problem. You can't control being overfunded, and you're not guaranteed to get a return on investment. In some cases the project promises some product in return (at expense to them) listed on the sidebar - usually in the form of merchandise or personal favors. I personally can't understand why someone gives Transformers so much money (actually I do, but I don't agree with it), when there's much more deserving product out there. But they do, and it's none of my business. I just don't see the movie. Edit: To add - in certain cases I will respond to content I don't like. I will react and produce content to counter it. That is within my power. | |
No offense Bob but this video pleasantly surprised me. Well done on highlighting this facet of the argument! | |
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The misogyny is rarely intentional. I don't disagree with you, necessarily. But the sexism is there, and shows itself in the form of these vacant, window-dressing characters on display your my titillation. It happens more often than I think a lot of us notice, and part of the objective of the video series is, I imagine, to examine this. What is, and what is not, objectification and sexist.