So I’m scripting out a goofy story idea I came up with to introduce in Cruiser Dynamo (and will probably continue elsewhere), and the whole time I’m feeling like something’s off and I can’t pinpoint what it is and then holy shit it hits me like a sack of bricks: internalized sexism strikes again!

Here are the tropes I’m trying to subvert in some way, and it’s really weirdly difficult:

• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics
• Men are Generic, Women are Special

Like, guy character is more “normal” and “realistic” looking, while the gal character is cartoonish, generic, and even ambiguous, it could be argued. In putting them together, I can’t help but feel awkward.

I know that part (okay possibly most) of this has to do with the different ways that men and women tend to be drawn at different stages of life— children are simpler, adults have more detail. But the girls/women almost always have more details than the boys/men (see the third trope link), and taking those details away to make her more generic either masculinizes or infantilizes her… or even both. This is probably why we never have ambiguous female characters beyond and up to a certain age in visual media. Once they appear to be at an age that’s post-puberty, then they need to be visually separated from the male characters for… the viewer’s comfort? Because we’re afraid that they’ll mix and mingle too much and that’s scandalous? Or is it because visually infantilizing/masculinizing female characters implicitly removes their agency and hands it over to the male characters, and that’s dangerous because menfolk are sexual and powerful and can’t be trusted?

There’s also something really interesting going on in terms of dehumanization/infantilization of female characters who have reduced or nonexistent secondary sex characteristics. The narrative here is that if you don’t look like the image of the perfect woman, you aren’t allowed to be sexual, and your romantic advances/relationships are hollow, selfish, and worthless. (See how horrible most of the examples of the Hot Guy, Ugly Wife trope are, and how many times the “ugly wife” gets exacted “revenge” upon, brutalized, or even outright killed in the end.) And on the other hand, of course, male characters are allowed to go without secondary sex characteristics without it impacting their ability to be sexual or romantic beings whatsoever. Don’t take that to mean they can be ambiguous, because they can’t— at least, not without being perceived as predatory and hyper-sexual most of the time. I’m saying that you could take the men’s restroom sign person, throw jeans and a t shirt on it, and voila, Average Joe. He’s on a quest to get a girlfriend, and no one thinks twice about his relationship credentials. 

Anyways, I hope I can power through this weird gut feeling I’ve been getting about this because it’s stupid bullshit all the way around and I hate that these images/narratives are so standard in media and I’m having such a reaction from trying to break away from it.

Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine

(Just finished the book, which is effing amazing, and I’ll be putting quotes here for the next short while.)

swegener:

quintus5:

Before I start complaining about people, I want to start with that I am a geek, a nerd, a collector of comics and action figures, a Star Wars fanatic, a Batman buff, and a guy who likes to look at facts and the history behind everything.

This post bothers be for a number of reasons, but the primary one is that it assumes that all comics ever are like the ones now, being released in this overly sexualized age.

The fact of the matter, is that comics were made for boys, back in the 30’s and 40’s when young boys had lost their fathers to war and needed something to stand in and teach them how to live virtuously, and to grow up as good, respectable citizens who would be willing to lay down their life for friends, family, and country. WWI had ruined soldiers’ lives because it striped them of their masculinity and any identity that they held, thus the 20’s was a huge party that ended in collapse and the most epic of economic failures in America. This led to the 30’s where Americans were trying to regain their values and identity, becoming more…American.

Thus, Superman was born. The Man of Steel. A man that could not die, could not lose, who had virtue oozing out his ears. He was to be the role model to a generation of kids growing up in a country that was sucking some serious dick. Superman taught courage, justice, and honor to kids who many times did not have a father to teach them these things. Not only that, but he was the personification of an ideal America. An America that stood strong in the face of all hardship, overcame any challenge, and defended the weak and innocent.

Superman is the character that formed the base of the future of the comic industry.

Then came WWII, and Captain America. A man who was given abilities to match his character. A super-soldier. Captain America stood for America (more obviously than Superman), and was the epitome of American ideals. Not only that, he gave inspiration to boys who would soon find themselves being shipped off to a foreign country to fight a great evil. Captain America was the man who could punch Hitler in the face, and overcome the entire German army. He was the fictional soldier that gave inspiration to the real ones. And if he wasn’t inspiring them, then he was inspiring the boys back in America who were lacking fathers and brothers to guide them. Captain America was a pillar of virtue that all boys could strive to be. Bucky, his young companion, was the connection between the young boy and the grown man (His death however, showed the stark reality of war and the fact that even the soldier is mortal). 

Captain America is the soldier that inspired the rest.

After WWII, Batman was the one to carry the torch. He was dark, fear inspiring, and human. He had no super powers, but relied on his intellect (and vast resources) to help him. Batman was the hero for a country that had fallen into darkness as the Korean War was starting and the Cold War loomed on the horizon. Batman wasn’t the fancy and undefeated character that Superman or Captain America had been, but was real, had weaknesses, could be beaten, but always came back and won, enforcing justice beyond what the law could do. Batman was the Dark Knight of a generation plagued by war.

Batman is the hero that blurred the line between the law and justice.

After the 50’s and going into the 60’s, comics lost their moral focus and became something of socio-political commentary and simply stories for pleasure, mostly just for pleasure. You have Robin taking off as Batman’s youthful side kick who brought an air of lightness to the dark stories of the 50’s (the Adam West Batman is a testimony to this). It was in the 60’s and 70’s that obscured the original intent of comic books, that being stories that could help boys grow up into virtuous men.

I would like to point out that there were female heroes, primarily Wonder Woman, who were the female counterparts to the predominately male cast of characters. However, these women were not overly sexualized, but followed in the same, moral vein as the other heroes, they were pillars of society.

In the 80’s, comics took a shift towards the darker themes of comic books, most notably A Death in the Family and The Dark Knight Returns (Batman comics that deal with death, loss, and the true corruption of society). At this time, there were romantic undertones between characters that had been established in the 60’s and 70’s, but that wasn’t the primary focus of these darker stories. Morality was being questioned and more adult themes were brought to the surface. Batman: Knightfall was another of these stories that changed the game. Batman had been broken and replaced by someone less focused on keeping people safe and more on ‘justice’. It was these themes that bled into the 90’s.

In the 90’s Superman died, and came back. Things became more whimsical and more heroes were introduced. This is the boom of comic book characters. Female characters began to reflect the social norms of women. Their costumes became more revealing and overly sexualized. The morality of the 30’s and 40’s had been thrown to the wayside, and pure entertainment ensued. Comic books were written for the enjoyment of the readers, not for the purpose of creating good citizens. Batman is caught in this weird place between the darkness of the 80’s and the entertainment of the 90’s (the Batman films of the era prove this point). Superman has become irrelevant after he is brought back to life, leaving fans feeling betrayed and lied to by the man who would never do such a thing. And Captain America…well…I’m not too sure what happened to the WWII vet other than that he was the leader of the Avengers. Either way, he had fallen to the wayside.

That brings us to the 2000’s and today, where tits are objectified and guys feel insecure about their masculinity.

I’ll say it right now, I don’t like how popular culture has objectified women, and I don’t like how that has carried over into the geek culture. It sucks, and personally, I hate it when people assume that because I look over an attractive female in a well made cosplay that I am some misogynistic asshole male who thinks women geeks are inferior to male geeks. It’s not true, and I speak for a number of guys who just want to be left alone because some guys are assholes. Which is a fact of life that women should understand because if you walk around a comic book convention in a skin tight, leather, Black Cat costume with plenty of cleavage showing, you’re going to attract attention, both good AND bad.

Anyways, I digress. The past 13 years have seen a nostalgic look back to the origins of comics, or at least to the origin stories of characters. Every single superhero story that has come out in the past 10 years has been an origin story, with the exception of the last 2 films in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy (still fucking pissed at the implications about JGL being Robin. They could have at least given him a lesser known Robin name. In fact, Tim Drake would have been the best because he is the only Robin to figure out Batman’s secret identity, much like Officer Blake in The Dark Knight Rises, and yes Johnny Blake was a character from the comics, but he only showed up twice, once while being saved by Batman and another time when the Joker stole his report card). Anyways, these stories have flirted with morality, dark themes, social commentary, and pure entertainment (Green Lantern sucked because they tried to make it just an action movie. That one Superman movie sucked because it deviated significantly from the comic books. Avengers was awesome because it retained the original flavor of the comic books. And the Batman Trilogy was amazing because it brought back the darker issues of real justice and what it means to be “The Dark Knight”). And in the background of these more popular depictions, is the simple fact that you can’t turn on the tv for more than 20 min without seeing a busty, attractive woman, flaunting her sexuality, or perfectly chiseled men without their shirts on. It sucks, but is the honest truth. the past two decades or so has put sexuality into comics, and that is what people see, and what girls “object” to.

Its also worth noting that the original superheroes weren’t perfectly sculpted men to play out a “power fantasy” but rather because HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING TO PICK UP A CAR AND THROW IT WITHOUT MUSCLES???

So yah, female sexuality should be down played in comic books, but that’s not going to happen. Guys shouldn’t try to argue that male characters are anything other than practically muscled (I mean, I don’t think Batman would have the body of a slim dancer or acrobat, but would look more like male gymnast mixed with martial arts fighter). And women are portrayed as if they were in normal media, but women have every right to feel offended about that, but DON’T BLAME THE COMIC BOOKS OR GUYS WHO READ COMIC BOOKS.

And if you’re wondering how all that stuff about the history ties in, its this: Comic books were meant to teach/show young boys to virtuous. As time went on, the audience, or at least marketed audience, has stayed the same, but the art and themes have changed. Now, comic books no longer fulfill their role as role-models, but are rather a form of entertainment meant to please the young, male audience, which unfortunately upsets and offends women readers.

If you read this, I applaud you, and hope that you took some time to at least think about what I have written. It’s not all I have to say about the issue, but I think gets my main point across, that comics have changed, but that doesn’t mean you have to bash those of us that don’t support the current trends in geek culture.

I’ve mostly learned to leave the internet to it’s own silly devices but that is quite possibly the dumbest and most factually INCORRECT summation of “A History of Comics” that I have ever seen.

Brother, you need to read yourself some McCloud, some Eisner, and the Ten Cent Plague. Because basically everything you just wrote in defense of superhero comics is grossly wrong.

Ok I’ve made this thing rebloggable sans Walky because it is important to me that this OP gets his ass fucking handed to him, but I don’t want that goddamn strip getting more notes than it already has because of reasons I outlined last time I reblogged it. (Suffice to say, guys, start reblogging women and just generally everyone else that isn’t a hetdude when they say this exact same shit because, hey, this isn’t actually a problem that screws things up for hetdudes.)

stilleatingoranges:

The video game industry has a history of being attacked for its portrayals of women. This is not without warrant: female characters in games are much of the time unrealized and poorly written, and their body proportions are often frighteningly exaggerated. Brights spots like Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2 and Faith from Mirror’s Edge notwithstanding, things are bleak. But few seem to realize how much bleaker they are about to be. The Western video game industry is beginning to normalize a new kind of exploitation, which originated within Japan’s otaku community—a group of social outcasts—in the ’90s and ’00s. This is “moe”, a male protection fantasy. (The term has been applied in rare and recent cases to female-targeted entertainment as well, but this is a separate topic.) The West has consumed moe for years through imported, otaku-targeted anime, manga and video games; but we have not regurgitated it into our own culture. The video game industry is set to break that trend next month.

Read More

The assumption that female game protagonists just aren’t inherently relatable (and yet half of gamers out there are asked to relate to male protagonists for how many titles even though they’re not male?) is what super duper bothers me about all of this. The idea of exploring protagonist/player dynamics in games sounds super cool… except for the part where we live in a world where they’re used as excuses to not have to do “player as female protagonist”. (Oh god, anything but that!)

Related: that study that found out that a depressing number of boys would rather kill themselves than be a girl.

batchix:

gamingwhilequeer:

BY JIM STERLING [DESTRUCTOID]

Remember Me is currently in development under the watchful eye of Capcom, but the story of a woman who can “remix” peoples’ memories had to do a lot of fighting to exist. According to creative director Jean-Max Morris, the industry at large hated the idea of a female protagonist.

“We had some [publishers] that said, ‘Well, we don’t want to publish it because that’s not going to succeed. You can’t have a female character in games. It has to be a male character, simple as that,’” he told Penny Arcade. ”We wanted to be able to tease on Nilin’s private life, and that means for instance, at one point, we wanted a scene where she was kissing a guy. We had people tell us, ‘You can’t make a dude like the player kiss another dude in the game, that’s going to feel awkward.’

“I’m like, ‘If you think like that, there’s no way the medium’s going to mature.’ There’s a level of immersion that you need to be at, but it’s not like your sexual orientation is being questioned by playing a game. I don’t know, that’s extremely weird to me.”

FINISH READING HERE

The simple answer is we need new, smaller studios developing games.  We need to be able to develop games in a more independent environment, without publishers or boards of directors or share holders or large corporations dictating what we do or do not put in games.  Unfortunately, the time and cost of putting together a game makes it extremely hard to make without someone financially backing the game.  It isn’t development  cost alone- but also advertising, packaging, promotions, conference space, ect…- that costs a lot of money. 

We’re seeing a trend toward smaller studios developing medium sized projects with decent success- which is hopeful.  Kickstarter seems to be the way many are going- but it remains to be seen if that will be a short lived trend or if it will be the wave of the future for the industry.  However, for each success, there’s probably half a dozen small projects that can’t get off the ground. 

Until then, we’re going to continue dealing with the llamas.  The situation where someone on a board says, “I like llamas!” during a meeting… and boom.  you have to put llamas in your game whether they fit or not. 

This.

And honestly, I’m pretty proud in this regard to be working for the game dev that I am. I’m pretty sure I’d get eaten alive otherwise.

I think this is a pretty exciting time we’re living in right now as far as indie media creators go .We’re seeing some pretty awesome dismantling of the establishment, we’re seeing small businesses and self-employed folks succeeding, we’re seeing that people are getting sick and tired of the gatekeepers out there and are actually putting their money where their mouths are: crowdfunding. 

We’ve got a helluva ways to go, but I think it can only get better from here.

fearlessfeminism:

Source: The Independent  http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/beyonce-in-gq-all-the-ladies-put-your-hands-up-for-feminism-8456294.html 

typingfrantically:

Let me talk to you about books.

Specifically, one book. This book.

This book should be a best seller. This book should be required reading for graduating from high school. Before you get that diploma, you read this book.

This book deals with debunking “Neurosexism,” which is a very fancy term for all of that evolutionary psychology bullshit that people spill about those “brain differences” between boys and girls.

This book debunks such myths as:

• Boys are better at math than girls
• Women make crappy lawyers/business CEOs/etc, as their brains are not cut out for aggression.
• Men make crappy counselors/primary school teachers/primary parents/etc, as their brains are not cut out for empathy.
• MEN ARE BUILT FOR GOING OUT AND HUNTING WHILE WOMEN ARE BUILT FOR STAYING HOME AND BABYMAKING IT’S NOT SEXISM IT’S JUST BIOLOGY
• And many other such myths.

Furthermore, this book covers topics such as: 

• Neurosexism and gender perceptions in multiple races (as this is not a singularly white experience, just as the western world isn’t a singularly white experience)
• Sex discrimination in the workplace, and how women are (or, more often, are not) allowed to behave
• How science is used (badly) to support many of these claims
• Experiences of trans* people, both through interviews and empirical studies.

AND FINALLY - It is all brilliantly researched, cited, compiled - and it’s easy to read! Cordelia Fine actually manages to be funny while writing this, which I think is important, because it makes all of this information infinitely accessible.

Delusions of Gender has reinforced what Oberlin taught me: The gender binary is stupid and arbitrary, and dangerous. And it is a self-perpetuating bias that needs to be addressed to be overcome.

Buying this and then accidentally leaving it my dad’s car.

(Source: faetrouble, via womenaresociety)

fearlessfeminism:

holy-chic:

holy-chic

ohhhhhhh snap!

fearlessfeminism:

1.  Women make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes
2.  Women are called sluts while men are players
3.  Women are expected to remove their body hair while men are not
4.  Women only make up 20% of the United States Senate and12% of Governors in the United States
5.  Worldwide, women own 10% of the worlds property and do 2/3 of the world’s work
6.  Women only make up 12 of the CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies
7.  Women STILL are expected to and take on the majority of childcare responsibilities
8. Men can dress however they please without ridiculed, while women are harassed, shamed and scorned
9. Men don’t have to shave off their body hair to be socially acceptable
10. Women who masturbate are seen as desperate or weird while it’s men are expected to masturbate
11. Women are bitches, men are assertive
12. Teacher’s call on male students more than females
13. Men are seven times more likely to be quoted in the news about reproductive health
14. Only 33 countries (196 total in the world) have ever had a female president
15. In the 2012 election coverage in print media, women were only quoted 13 % of the time
16. Women working 41 to 44 hours per week earn 84.6% of what men working similar hours earn
17. Women are 10 times more likely to be a victim of violence by an intimate partner than men
18. At the current rate of increase, it will take 475 years (until 2466) before women are as equally represented at the top of the career ladder as they are at the bottom.
19. 79% of Fortune 500 company CEOs admit that there are identifiable barriers that stop women from reaching the top.
20.  In Fortune 500 companies, women make up only 2.6% of corporate officers, even though they make up 61% of all employees.
21. Only 7% of The New York Review of Books reviewed were written by women in 2010.
22. Less than 3% of artists in the MET’s modern art section are women, yet 83% of the nudes are of women.
23. It has been noted by researchers that most topics of conversation brought up by women get dismissed, but most brought up by men are talked about in-depth.
24. Women only make up 11% of engineers
25. Women only make up 30% of full-time faculty in science and engineering departments

Sources: 

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf08308/

http://www.urbanministry.org/sexism-and-gender-discrimination-statistics

http://math.berkeley.edu/~kirby/sexism.html

http://www.vidaweb.org/the-count-2010

http://library.thinkquest.org/C006274/fem/stats.html

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/06/journalisms-gender-imbalance-includes-whos-quoted-too/53058/

http://images.fastcompany.com/upload/lovesocial-case-for-girls.jpg

Corrections:

1. White women make 77 cents for every dollar a white man makes. White women in fact make more than men of certain races, and therefore they also make more than women of color in just about every circumstance. Way to ignore intersectionality in favor of juicy soundbites.

8. Get back to me when men can wear pants and skirts without being harassed, shamed, and scorned (and murdered).

17. This “figure”, in all likelihood, heavily relies on reporting bias. It’s far more socially acceptable for a woman to come forward as a victim of abuse than a man, especially if it’s physical or sexual, and doubly especially if the perp is a woman. And that’s not even noting the high population of people that genuinely think that men can’t be abused or sexually assaulted either because men are “tough”, or because any sex is good sex, even when it’s rape.

My god, perpetuating asinine/partial myths like this makes feminism look bad. Stop it.