Tropes vs. Women Episode 1: Damsel In Distress

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**Dreadclaw69**

I had a quick scan of the comments and the overwhelming majority of them are very positive towards what she has to say.

**Melissia**

For which I'm fairly certain we're all glad.

**easysauce**

ummm....

sure if you focuse on "sexist" portrayals... you find nothing but them...

however there are plenty of non sexist portrayals of women,

and plenty of sexist portrayals of men....

all in very equal proportions,

every "damsel in distress" stereotype has a "macho man" stereotype...

both are stereotypes, both are BORING, neither is the morally reprehensible man/woman hating crowd frothing at the mouth...

the stereotypes are simply archetypes, for characters, that have been around since the illiad over two thousand years agao

**Melissia**

easysauce wrote:
however there are plenty of non sexist portrayals of women,

Not really. There's a few notable ones, yes, but not many compared to the overall gaming industry.

Hell, even Metroid devolved in to a sexist depiction of its female lead with Other M.

**Slarg232**

Does anyone else get the urge to slap everyone who mentions Other M and say "THAT NEVER HAPPENED!!!"?

**LordofHats**

Slarg232 wrote:
Does anyone else get the urge to slap everyone who mentions Other M and say "THAT NEVER HAPPENED!!!"?

I'm sure Nintendo likes to do that (after stuffing the body of the CEO who suggested letting Team Ninja make the game in a shallow grave).

**Melissia**

Slarg232 wrote:
Does anyone else get the urge to slap everyone who mentions Other M and say "THAT NEVER HAPPENED!!!"?

Sadly, denying that it exists doesn't make it cease to exist.

If only it could, right?

**Slarg232**

Yeah, I know, I know. We can't even do that with DMC 2, the odds of Metroid being able to pull it off is considerably worse.

And wow, I didn't realize the gaming industry was being run by such overgrown children....

**Dreadclaw69**

Melissia wrote:
Sadly, denying that it exists doesn't make it cease to exist.

If only it could, right?

Put your fingers in your ears and just say "Na na na na, I'm not listening" louder

**Melissia**

Slarg232 wrote:
And wow, I didn't realize the gaming industry was being run by such overgrown children....

Now you know.

And knowing is half the battle (against your sanity).

**BrookM**

Whoever thought Team Ninja would give the franchise the proper respect it deserved.. Gah.

**Slarg232**

"You know who we should hand the most revered female character to?

The Boob Physics guys".

**Ravenous D**

Melissia wrote:
Yeah, she made some poor decisions. But at the same time, I do think that this sort of issue needs to be raised, and people DO need to have it pointed out when they're being douchbags. How to do that without legal liability and while respecting other peoples' privacy is an issue though.

Fun fact: 2 days before she got upset about those guys childish dick jokes she was posting dick jokes on her same twitter.

**Compel**

Was she doing that in a professional capacity?

Edit: My posting went to hell...

**Melissia**

No, she wasn't.

**Compel**

I figured as much.

More seriously though... Straying into more grey / murky areas.

Speaking realistically and self-damningly, I do think there is a time and place for a certain bluntness.

Although there is blunt and staggeringly (insultingly) blunt.

Taking that article posted earlier.

I moved in closer and inquired “Excuse me, what did you ask?” with a forced smile on my face, so to give him the benefit of the doubt. He laughed and didn’t respond, moving a few steps away as I repeated the question to the group of women. Turns out he’d probed what it felt like “knowing that none of the men in this room could please them in bed.” Yes, I’m aware it’s a poor adaptation of a gag told by a certain puppet dog with an affinity for insults. Lack of originally doesn’t excuse this behavior, however.

My anger flared upon hearing this, and for a moment I almost let it get the best of me. I attempted to calm myself down before walking towards him and the cameraman, and expressing that it was rude and unprofessional to assume that these young women were comfortable discussing sexual matters on camera. I intended to leave the conversation at that, but his subsequent response escalated matters quickly and clearly illustrated that this ran much deeper than a poor attempt at humor. He proceeded to tell me that “I was one of those oversensitive feminists” and that “the girls were dressing sexy, so they were asking for it.” Yes, he pulled the “cosplay is consent” card.

I mean, obviously, noone working as a reporter should ask that question. And no reasonable guy would ask that too. But if we change the question slightly, it can cross into slightly uncomfortable territory for guys. I'm not trying to justify that reporter but it does beg the question, where is the line that a reasonable guy is allowed to feel/act/say when confronted with several very attractive girls dressed up as Lara Croft. Though I suppose this line of thinking is stretching into the off-topic, "mens rights" thread territory, which doesn't exist and quite frankly I'm a bit worried about what I'd read in there anyway...

**Slarg232**

Hitting on someone, which any nerd guy would do to a girl who can actually pull off a Lara Croft Cosplay, is totally different from "Hey, everyone else here sucks in bed."

ESPECIALLY while the camera's are rolling.

**Compel**

Hence the "change the question" part.

**Ravenous D**

Melissia wrote:
No, she wasn't.

Oh I see, she can make dick jokes on twitter but when she over hears two men talking and making childish dick jokes to each other thats bad.

**Slarg232**

Change the question to what?

**Melissia**

There's a difference between being aroused/excited/joyous at seeing a number of girls scantily clad in various forms of cosplay... and saying "they're dressed like Lara Croft so that means I should get to have sex with them".

There's nothing wrong with something like "Wow, that cosplay looks great on you!". Don't get me wrong, I'm not immersed in cosplay culture, but as far as I know, complimenting a person's outfit and how good they look in it, as long as you try not to be creepy about it, is actually a good thing.

There IS, however, something wrong with saying, essentially, "you're dressed like a slut so I'm not going to treat you as a fellow human being" and belittling everyone around you, including the women you're talking to by treating them as nothing more than sex objects.

That guy was a smarmy donkey-cave who was trying to say "you should take a real man like me".

Ravenous D wrote:
Oh I see, she can make dick jokes on twitter but when she over hears two men talking and making childish dick jokes to each other thats bad.

She was not making the jokes in an official capacity. They were.

It's a rather important distinction. You don't make sexual jokes while you're working (or representing your work place) and interacting with strangers.

**Slarg232**

Unless, of course, you're that comfortable with the people you work with.

And yeah, been dragged to some cosplay events in my area. Trust me, telling a cute girl that they pull off the cosplay better than the actual character will yeild great results

**Compel**

I just figured that was a point to bring that distinction into the conversation.

Especially in the UK, quite a lot of discussions about a great many things tend to be dismissed with "that's health and safety / PC gone mad!!!!!"

**Melissia**

Slarg232 wrote:
Unless, of course, you're that comfortable with the people you work with.

Even then it's a bad idea to do it while on the clock.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Compel wrote:
PC gone mad!!!!!"

Yeah, there's been a bit of that garbage in this thread as well.

**Slarg232**

Melissia wrote:
Slarg232 wrote:
Unless, of course, you're that comfortable with the people you work with.
Even then it's a bad idea to do it while on the clock.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Compel wrote:
PC gone mad!!!!!"
Yeah, there's been a bit of that garbage in this thread as well.

It all depends on the workplace, naturally.

Hell, I knew every woman I worked withs favorite sex position and how their husbands were clueless over when they wanted to engage in such activities.

**Melissia**

I dunno, I still think it's always better to leave it for after-hours conversation instead of on the clock stuff. Managers in my experience don't like it when they catch you chatting on the company's time.

**Monster Rain**

I'm glad no one around me at work is that uptight.

Compared to some of the female servers I'm the very picture of chaste professionalism.

**Dreadclaw69**

Monster Rain wrote:
I'm glad no one around me at work is that uptight.

Compared to some of the female servers I'm the very picture of chaste professionalism.

In my last job you could cut the sexual tension between staff with a knife. Nothing like watching married people (although not to each other) drool over each other, sit on one another's laps, discuss oral sex techniques or flirt at a loud volume all day. The only way to get a promotion there seemed to be sleeping with the right person, or being related to someone higher up.

**Melissia**

That's a rather drastically different experience than I had. Very unprofessional.

**Compel**

Working in the techy world, I can't say I've ever noticed any sexual tension in the jobs I've been in, even in a workplace in a non techy area where I had random desk allocation fun. There are however occasionally inappropriate comments, as I assume in every workplace, though at least they tend to be inspecific.

Folk at work are far more concerned about Android Vs Apple.