Sex, Comics and Video Games
As of late I’ve read some Feminist articles when I’ve been able to find the time to. After all, I’ve needed to find some place that makes me feel less crazy for thinking that women are completely capable of being strong, self-sufficient woman. Being a woman who doesn’t always require men.
In this day and age it seems that women are constantly being barrage with the statement you can’t. That’s a shame. Women are completely capable of doing so many things. It feels as though American society wants to force women back in the kitchen.
This is no more painfully obvious as it is in this year’s presidential election. Between the attack on women’s health care and rape being so casually accepted as “a means of conception”, it’s a very scary time to be a woman.
And nowhere is there a great lack of female power as there is in both comics and video games.
Image from Joystiq.com
I read a few articles talking about how women are handled in video games.
The most hilarious and simultaneously sad example is Team Ninja. Team Ninja are the same folks who brought us DOA, DOA Extreme Volleyball and Ninja Gaiden. They have spent so much time on breast physics, it’s scary. They’re so focused on one part of the female anatomy. They claim that it’s a cultural fixation. It does seem that Japan has a large amount of breast related objects, I don’t believe that the per-occupation is largely cultural. Of course, the physics have gotten to such that the boobs seem to have a gravity and thought process of their own. I have yet to see a women who has breasts that move as independently as Team Ninja seems to think they do. It’s so comedic that web-comic Ctrl+Alt+Dlt even wrote a humorous comic about it. You can see it here.
It’s also interesting to think about how women are drawn in more sexualized form than men in comic books. Women are typically put in slinkier, sexier costumes complete with large breasts and high heels. Now, while I acknowledge that it’s a talent to be able to run in high heels, I have to wonder if the male writers and artists have ever tried to do some of the things they’re expecting women to. They also have women pose in more seductive poses as opposed to the strong, powerful and dynamic poses the men generally have. The article actually showed pictures of athletic women and how they dress as opposed to how they’re drawn in comics. It was really an enlightening (and slightly long) article.
Then there was the most telling article about a man who was in a tabletop RPG. He decided to play a female character instead of a male character. He learned first hand what we women go through on a daily basis. How if a woman is secure and open about her sexuality, she must surely be a slut and willing to sleep with any one. In many ways, it brings up how we have this double standard between men and women. It’s the age-old argument about how is men are sexually open they’re considered studs. If the shoe is on the other foot, women are considered sluts. If women are ambivalent about sex they’re considered frigid. It’s a frightening and very sad development in our collective psyche.
It was reaffirming to see others voicing the same frustrations that I’ve had. It’s even more reassuring when I see an article about a man who feels the same way a lot of us women have. It’s helping me feel better in a time where women are largely discounted… At least there’s something for us out there.
Team Ninja breast physics: http://hikikomoiegaku.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/feminist-writings-sex-lies-and-videogames/
A man’s response to the double standard from the point of view as a woman: http://hikikomoiegaku.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/feminist-writings-a-man-on-the-other-side-of-the-double-standard/
Drawing double standards in comics and video games (more emphasis on comics): http://www.stormtiger.com/collie/bestiary/2006/06/what-dont-we-see/