Image: Samuel Deats
Are you a gamer girl? Maddy Myers is, and she wrote an interesting article over at The Phoenix about growing up playing video games against boys: the violence, the sexism, the gender politics ...
So, this question still troubles me: why do I enjoy Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, Gears of War, Power Rangers, and even Fight Club? All of these games and movies and TV shows indoctrinate us all with the idea of what "masculine" means, by showing men (and a token "special" woman, or two) on the battlefield. Shouldn't I hate these reinforcements of those gender demarcations, as a liberal/progressive feminist/gender egalitarian/bleeding heart/whatever? Shouldn't I hate violence anyway, even just depictions of violence, since — gender-role indoctrination aside — violent media keeps enforcing the narrative that hurting other people is okay, and maybe even cool and fun?
I know that many of my female friends can't find anything to relate to in these games, that I am still a little "weird," a little "special" for enjoying violent video games and power fantasies. Especially since most of my friends are also progressives, feminists, gender egalitarians, people fighting the good fight against the sort of crap that I'm not "supposed" to keep on liking if I want to roll with them: the fetishization of gun violence, of masculine-oriented violent behaviors, of violence apologists.
And yet, here I am, engaging in a power fantasy and loving it.
Is there something wrong with me?
Read the rest over at The Phoenix: Link
Lastly, hats off to Samuel Deats (deviantARTist poojipoo) who created the fantastic art above.
Honestly, I tried reading the article, but it got too typical. There's a monotonously bland sameness about people who write about examining gender roles and defying stereotypes.
Is that worthy of attention? It's not my concern. Maybe there was something particularly memorable in the piece, but it I didn't notice it. Sorry, but I have an opinion, too. Sandi has an opinion, too (before it was deleted, his comment was a lot stronger than mine, but not altogether inaccurate). I don't think Neatorama readers' minds are that fragile, that they can't be subjected to differing opinions. Just because I say something is lame, doesn't mean it has to be lame - but I'm usually right.
Gaming companies aren't just slapping big boobs on a Lara Croft type and saying, "Finished!" any more.