Tag Archive for sexism

| February 16, 2013
16 comments

Games Imitating Life: Rape Culture in MMORPGs?

Contrary to the Kotaku article, no one was accused of rape in game at any point, and that is not the point of this blog post. Any comment that suggests that someone was accused of rape, or attempted rape, will not be approved.

 

A curious event happened to me recently while roleplaying, and I’ll use direct quotes whenever appropriate. For those of you not familiar, I’ll explain things. Roleplaying, being the act of taking on the role of a character that’s not yourself, is traditionally done through tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons. With the rise in popularity of massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs) it’s taken on a different turn in the online space with people playing out scenes as their avatars (their usually three-dimensional computer generated character) in an online world.

These days I play Guild Wars 2 (GW2), a recent and fairly popular MMORPG set in the fantasy world of Tyria. Read more

Category: Culture, Media, Personal | Tags: , , , , , , ,
| February 5, 2013
10 comments

Introduction: Class, Poverty, Gender and Violence

A particularly insightful article by a blogger here got me to thinking quite a lot lately. More importantly it got me to writing and the subsequent post has ended up serving as my introduction in returning to blogging with my partner here.

I’ve had the good fortune of being a cis gendered male born into a wealthy western country. Even though I began life in one of the poorest corners of that nation, I count myself fortunate in many ways. Read more

Category: Culture, Personal | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
| January 7, 2013
6 comments

Seduce Me

Seduce Me is a new adult interactive / erotic strategy game. Initially I, and many others, heard about it when Steam pulled it from the greenlight section due to its adult content. The issue is, and continues to be that sexuality is treated as more damaging than violent media, despite the obviousness that violence is destructive and sex can be something tender and warm.

Instantly I wanted to know more, and I preordered it as soon as it was available.

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Category: Media | Tags: , , , ,
| November 22, 2012
13 comments

Women at Gaming Expos

Telling women what to wear under the guise of being against female objectification is not a positive action. There has been a lot of discussion over the past few years about the role of ‘booth babes’ and ‘sexy’ cosplayers, their treatment by fans, and how game expos can help.

One way that does not help is to make it ‘illegal’ to attend in sexy attire. One way that certainly does not help is to send home paid employees whose companies asked them to attend in sexy attire.

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Category: Culture | Tags: , , ,
| November 5, 2012
4 comments

Victim Blaming

Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault

I left this comment on a local website in response to a sexual assault and the fact that 69% of voters in a poll feel that women aren’t doing enough to protect themselves from date rape drugs.

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Category: Culture, Personal | Tags: , , , , ,
| October 22, 2012
7 comments

Female Privilege

The other night I went over to a friend’s place and was introduced to someone new. It turns out that we had worked for the same company, and he mentioned the owner’s name. I said he was a sweet man, and he asked if I was joking, saying the man had no heart. I said I found him to be excellent and that he spoiled me for Christmas when I worked there.

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Category: Culture, Personal | Tags: , , ,
| October 16, 2012
9 comments

Anastasia Steele – Mary Sue

Anastasia Steele is a much talked about character. She is the lead female protagonist of the popular 50 Shades of Grey, and people absolutely love calling her a Mary Sue.

You might not like her, or understand what Christian Grey sees in her, or feels that something in 50 Shades of Grey wasn’t really what you wanted it to be. You might find it hard to empathize or sympathize with her, or that her story is hard to believe. But none of that makes Anastasia Steele a Mary Sue.

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Category: Culture, Media | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
| October 9, 2012
4 comments

Problems with Feminist Labels

There’s a lot of splintering in feminist groups. Feminist seems like a bad word, even to women and men who want equal rights and equal pay for the genders. Even to those that agree there is a patriarchy and that we should work to dismantle it. Even to those who agree that the way we treat each other, and our daughters, and our sons, is shameful.

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Category: Culture | Tags: , , , , , ,
| April 27, 2012
3 comments

Jobs and Choices

Trigger warning for discussion of sex work.

There was a thread earlier on Literotica talking about prostitution, why it was illegal, and what that meant. Someone said the problem was that some women didn’t have a choice but to sleep with people for food to feed their family.

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Category: Culture, Personal | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
| March 12, 2012
5 comments

Guest Post: The Hate that Lurks

Rafael R. Piñero lives in Puerto Rico and is a writer, alum of the University of Puerto Rico and have a Juris Doctor from Thomas M. Cooley Law School, Lansing, M.I.

Their favorite genres are science fiction, urban fantasy and high fantasy. They also enjoy games and Harry Potter and can be found on their blog at Neither Here nor There

~~

Memo to all of you who have watched, perhaps in horror or wry amusement, as a certain right wing radio host flounders about like a beached whale.

We are not living in a post-racial or post-feminist world.

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Category: Guest Blog | Tags: , , ,
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