Feminism and Gaming

[DeistPaladin]

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.

If I had to guess, it seems women and men have different tastes in how they socialize. My wife played in the campaign I ran for a time but she got bored with it saying there was not enough story telling and too much action. It's not like I run a hack-and-slash campaign, I do like story telling and character development, but I operate a balance between the two aspects.

Men seem to like the strategy aspects and the action. The reason you find more male gamers, I think, is we socialize indirectly through team work or competition, all directed in efforts to reach some sort of goal. Women prefer more direct conversation to feel that social connection.

I wanted to ask "why don't they make male characters sexy?",

From my perspective, they do. You just know that a realistic "Conan" would wear armor into battle or cover up to protect himself from the elements. Instead, he goes about topless to show off his physique.

As mentioned earlier, this is the kind of physique that few men can attain. I once worked out and was on a self-imposed strict diet. I was proud of the body I managed to build but I was nowhere even close to the fantasy-type characters.

Just take a look at this image from one fantasy comic series I enjoyed reading back in my high school years (I'm showing my age here, I think). Check out the guy in the center. The story is set in an arctic north type environment. He's standing topless, showing off his fabulous body, as the snow falls around him. I'm not kidding. You just know he'd freeze his damn sexy ass off in real life but there he is in the story.



Just look at that chest vs. those abs. Where are his intestines? His waist tapers to be almost as narrow as one of either of his legs.

Clearly, this is "stylized" art, with unrealistically exaggerated sexy features, and that's OK because it's fantasy.

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Really? You just sit in the living room looking at your porn with your wife there? Maybe that's why she's telling you about the body image angle, but you're not getting the hint.

Fuck, my wife and I met because I liked her porn that she wrote and draw (she's an artist) and wrote her offering feedback. That's how our online relationship began about 10 years ago.

My wife would only be upset if I was looking at porn and didn't invite her to partake.

Get the fuck over your uptight puritanical self. Oh, wait, you're a Christian. Not going to happen. Never mind.

I'd rather convince them that they're not mindless animals and with practice can rise above their baser nature.

Agreed. Men can be taught what is and is not appropriate ways of flirting with or wooing women. Men can be taught to respect sexual boundaries. Society can do a better job of punishing sexually predatory behaviors.

That doesn't mean we hypocritically pretend we don't like sex or hate ourselves for being sexual beings. It only means we know how to seek sexual gratification in ways that also please the ladies.

I'm quite capable of choosing not to view pictures of young, slender, scantily clad women.

Sorry you're so repressed. Maybe that's your problem.

I know that my wife, like many women, suffers from body image issues, so I do what I can to build her up,

You can do both. I do. Just ask my wife. I make her feel sexy. She makes me feel sexy. Neither of us have any cause to doubt the fidelity of the other. Yet she doesn't pretend not to drool over David Bowey in Labyrinth or the actor playing Ichobod Craine in Sleepy Hallow. I always agree. Maybe that both of us are bisexual helps. Or maybe neither of us believes in an uptight, sex-hating religion that tells us we should feel ashamed of our nature.

Er, no, those in a marriage (an arrangement you apparently endorse) are told to have sex regularly.

Only for procreation purposes. Celibacy is the preferred lifestyle. Marriage is only the second option grudgingly offered. Shall I quote you chapter and verse?

I'm a married man with three daughters. If you want to spin my stance against objectification of women as uptight and puritanical, so be it.

Done.

Puritans had kids, too.