Feminism and Gaming

[Losty]

This topic comes up periodically in the discussion of games and other popular entertainment and I thought I would offer my nuanced view:

If the goal of feminism is to establish professional equality for women, removing the glass ceiling, ensuring equal pay, combating stereotypes that women are incapable of certain jobs, promoting equal academic and professional opportunity, etc. then I am a feminist and offer the movement my full support.

If the goal of feminism is to create a safer sexual environment, to promote awareness of the problems of rape, sexual harassment, stalking and other forms of predatory behavior and abuse, to address the problems of domestic violence more effectively, to foster greater education of men on sexual boundaries and appropriate vs. inappropriate ways to woo, court and seduce, and to make it clear that women are not only (key word) sexual objects, then I am a feminist and offer the movement my full support.

If the goal of feminism is to make men not like sex so much, to make us less "visual", to make us not like looking at pictures of young, beautiful scantily clad women, to enforce prudish standards against anything sexy in popular entertainment and to advocate double standards against idealized female body types in fantasy while being perfectly fine with similarly idealized male body types (complete with shoulders thrice the width of their waist, perfect washboard abs and pecs as big as your head) then I'm going to suggest that feminism needs to either come up with a plan to fundamentally rewire the way men's brains are biologically designed or else get over it.

We men like sex. We are visual. We like looking at young, beautiful, scantily clad women. Sorry but that's not ever going to change. Get over it.

That said, you can work within that framework to create a better society. We men will always see women as sex objects but you can educate us so that we don't see you as JUST sex objects. We will always like sex but you can raise us to be aware of and respect sexual boundaries. We will always like sexy female characters but you can write them in stories to have other aspects to their character, including skills, intellect and spirit. Making men feel guilty about normal sexual urges is not healthy for anyone.

Sexy does not mean sexism.

I completely agree with everything here. I wonder if there are not more female gamers simply because there's a lower number of females who are sexually attracted to video game characters.
I wanted to ask "why don't they make male characters sexy?", but then I thought about it. I like men, I couldn't care less what the male characters are wearing. Not in games or films or sitcoms, but I like the women to be sexy. I've even seen a study about almost everyone is attracted to seeing sexy women regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
If I were ever to play a nintendo game or whatever other kind of video game, I would want the female characters to be attractive. I don't see what's wrong with that.

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OK, now that I'm back, I'll address your accusation. I was asking a question about something that makes women feel uncomfortable and if there was something that can be done to help.

Yes, there is something that can be done to help - stop portraying women as sex objects with unrealistic bodies. Some people are actually doing that. A review of the new D&D 5e PHB notes that "A pretty wide range of races, skin tones, and body shapes are depicted, including some of the iconic images that accompany the core classes. The women tend to wear reasonable, practical armor and cloaks, and there's certainly no gender division in terms of class or ability." Fortunately, the publishers apparently disagree that "young, beautiful, scantily clad women" are necessary for sales.

This is possibly something that CAN be changed, which is why I asked. As opposed to what CAN'T be changed and even there I discussed how to work within that framework to address legitimate concerns women have.

Yeah, wimmenz has to change cause boys just walk around with bonerz all the time and can't be expected to change.

I had to check my eyes for a minute. Woah!? Really!? One of the most sexist posters on this forum (in my humble opinion) and you're attacking DP for looking at half naked nintendo girls? :eyeroll: