Monday, March 5, 2012

Let Us Discuss A Bigot (+Joesky Tax)

This is one of my players:

This is some politically correct BS currently making the rounds and getting the standard conservative PC +115 "OhMyGodThankYouForAddressingThisImportantIssue" treatment:

This Is Mandy being a slut:
This is Mandy with one of her (900) controllers:

This is Mandy talking about this cartoon and saving me the trouble of explaining what someone who fucks with people because of their sexual preference is called:

I think the artist is a bigot through and through and I hope is getting some backlash for continuing to promote negative sterotypes abt women in general, gamer or no, and women who may be pretty, or enjoy sex along with their game-centric lifestyles.

This is some dickhead trying to defend it:

before you attempt to throw around overly aggressive trending topics like slut-shaming, perhaps you should attempt to actually digest the intent of the comic - which is to draw attention to the fact that gamer girls as shown in the media and ads are sexualized unrealities. If the term slut offends you so much, use the same for a man - whores of sexualized conquest. (This is me going: ?????) Get a clue before you insult things.

Dickhead again:

See the original thread and comments by folks like (a smart woman) who actually have the foresight to stand up for the slut shaming issue through rational means.

This is what (that smart woman) said:

Ehh, I'm not really behind the word slut because there is nothing wrong with a woman behaving like a man.
But, other than that, I'd agree. Except, I prefer showers. But you know -- we're all different ;)
Yesterday 4:32 PM

This is what I said:

Hey, I'm not stopping her from being nice to the bigot who drew this and all the bigots who +1ed it if she wants. But apparently it didn't work because you still reposted this cartoon unaltered as if you didn't realize how totally fucked it was.

This is what I wonder:

What the hell is wrong with people?

Here is another woman pointing out another flaw in this cartoon:

Zelda is not a 360 game... This artist fails...

Here is a guy trying to defend the bigot:

Pointed this out before.
There are PC emulators of previous consoles (and games).
There is also a Microsoft XBoX 360 config PC controller.
It may make me a dick to say it but before 'failing' an artist for having fun, know your gamer tech.

Here is the girl again:

The chance that the artist meant that is slim and seems like an out. And to play Zelda of all games with a 360 controller (even if it is an emulator... which thanks I know what they are and have used them...) is an insult to the entire Zelda series :)

Here is me wondering why people are so fucking condescending when women talk about games:

??!

This is where I was going to post a link to where you can see this exact same stereotype in action in real life as used against the girl in the picture at the very top of this post:

(But I decided not to, because screw the intra-RPG-community drama. If you really want a link to it, hit me up via email or G+.)


__________________________

This is how awesome most of this corner of the community (male and female) is:

Yeah, it smacks of one-true-wayism; it's basically saying you're not "true" if you have hygiene or social skills. Kinda dickish.
7:32 AM +4

You nailed it.
7:33 AM

See, my problem with this is that it says to me : "If you self-identify as a 'gamer-girl' then you are also unwashed and unattractive." I have a hard enough time with identity issues, and _____ has just barely convinced me I'm moderately attractive. This kind of depiction does not help.

And yes, I may have put off chores to grind my mining and herbalism last night in WoW, but showering was not one of them, TYVM! :-P
7:35 AM +2

Damn, I think I need a chart to parse this crap out. I'm pro-slut in that I support the right to have sexy time on your terms not mine or anyone elses, but I'm anti calling people sluts as an insult. I'm pro gamers showering but on the other hand if you want to stay home and stink while playing a video game, how is that my business? I'm calling it a four-way clusterfail.
7:40 AM +6

The intent of the comic was to call out a specific person and is saying "this is what a Real gamer (in this case a girl) looks like" both of which bother me more than saying slut or whether any specific person has had a shower today.
7:42 AM

Okay, then it's just plain ordinary bullshit.
7:44 AM +3

yup. run of the mill, standard internet asshattery.
7:47 AM

Which gets +151 and 115 shares. Standard internet asshattery that gets lots of positive affirmation. Good job! ( ._.)
7:48 AM +2

You hit on the head some of the *squirm* I was having with the 'slut' tag! I didn't want to be 'anti-slut', because the Slut Walks are all about reclaiming our sexuality; and 'slut' from the right person in the right way... hurr hurr hurr!

But used as a pejorative, it really gets my back up!

And yes, showering is completely optional if you're having a lazy day (cough need to outlevel your boyfriend cough), or just don't have enough spoons. I'm not sure stench should be a badge of honor, or requirement for admittance, though?
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7:51 AM

well, when you're living in mom and dad's basement, you know, you take what you can get.... ( <-- see what I did there?)
7:51 AM

Pretty straightforward "telling people what they are or what they aren't" bullshit to me.
8:42 AM +2

A shocking number of +s on this cartoon and all the shares.
8:43 AM

Some of the apparent propopents of the illo could be reading this as anti-booth babe type pandering.
8:45 AM +2

that was how I took it when I first viewed it.
8:46 AM

kirin robinson - Rather than be appalled/disgusted with humanity/whatever it's not too hard to speculate on the underlying trends for why such an assertion is popular.

Although frankly I suspect the gamer community is not actually under any real sort of assault by exploitive hot faux gamer girls.
8:48 AM +2

I'll just repeat what I wrote elsewhere:

Let's start with the fact that it's utterly unfunny. If you're going to be offensive, at least be funny doing so.

I have a number of problems with that comic and few of them have to do with the word "slut."

I've got a bigger problem with the normalizing of what gamers "should" be. You're not a gamer if you're cute, girly, or even if you pose provocatively? Who the fuck are you to decide that?

This sounds like someone complaining about booth babes, which is a complaint I have no problem with, but it's being executed in a piss-poor way.
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8:51 AM +3

I've never been to a gaming / comic Con with booth babes. Is the argument against them that their presence is sexism (because they're sexy) or a Holden Caulfield type disapproval of their being actors and not "authentic" enough? (You're not really Wonder Woman are you? ) As a semi-outsider I find it confusing because the Cosplay community and the Booth Babes are often impossible to tell apart. I posted a link to some PathFinder Cosplay the other day and someone said they were a booth babe. It was a model who was a gamer and had chosen to dress like that to the Con.
8:51 AM +1

Just passed that along to my non-gamer wife. Will be interesting to hear what she says.
8:55 AM

I think part of the argument is the sexifying of ladies only. "Hey, where are the hot dudes in skimpy outfits?"
8:59 AM +1

I think they're mostly in Frank Frazetta artwork. Well, at least the dudes in ridiculous armor (lack thereof, I 'spose), anyway.
9:04 AM

There was a booth babe at the IPR booth at Gen Con one year and there was consternation. It helped that the 'babe" was personal friends with the creator and played the game. It also helped when (later? next year?) we got our booth dude.

(Though, for the record, I wasn't happy with any booth models.)
9:07 AM (edited)

from my non gamer wife, paraphrasing, as she doesn't want a direct rant of her's re-posted (lol): She was pretty appalled. Basically, she points out that the gamer subculture is quick to complain about unfair stereotyping, yet continue to engage in the same behavior. Also, it pisses her off that some people "misconstrue a pretty girl for a slut." Also, she is quite sure not all gamers have horrible hygiene.
9:10 AM

I understand why people dislike booth babes, but wow, this is a horrible way to express that.
9:12 AM +1

I don't like girls who gnaw on game controllers either; it's just unhygienic.
9:14 AM

Our society is into pathologizing and categorization to an alarming degree.
9:26 AM


Here is me paying the Joesky Tax for all this blahblahblah:

1. Grub A dull and ordinary village with a sheer cliff on its western side. Contains:
A stone statue of a manticore (on the edge of the cliff). Any single individual who has bathed in the blood of 4 freshly-slain medusae and then crushes the head of this manticore while swearing revenge will become immune to magic so long as they are in direct pursuit of their vengeance until the task is done.
Nysa Null, an innocent girl who is fated to be the consort of the Insect God.
An intelligent butterfly--secretly a transformed heroine, it will help those of good will, though it cannot communicate.
Jerkin and Orp, two young boys on toy horses who pretend to be a paladin and his squire.
The village elders, who secretly consult a yellow-eyed child of 6 before making any decisions. They believe the child to be a young lamia (it crawled up the cliff toward an elder one day). Their decisions are unremarkable
A charming but apparently useless ring in the pawn shop is actually the signatory ring of a great house in Vrokk. Wearers appearing in that city will be assumed to be long lost members of that house.
A book in one of the elder's homes contains a formula for turning up to 10 cubic feet of magma or volcanic rock into pear flesh.
A field of strawberries. Gorphin, a pig that jumps through hoops during festivals.

2. Labyrinth of Ice An artificial maze, carved into a frozen mountain by eleven of the Gorgon sisters to imprison Moroschka, their eldest sister. Contains:
Luminous emerald oozes that feed on magic.
White tamarins, (monkeys the size of squirrels) full of evil mischief, charged with the task of keeping Moroscha isolated and confused. They wear jeweled gloves capable of causing grievous injury. Their red-eyed monkey king, in his crown of knives.
A glass sphere, 10' in diameter, containing their strange, writhing god.
Pale polar lampreys, 7' long.
The egg-filled nests of the "Snow Wallow Nightmares"--a species of 12' tall snow mantis. The creatures themselves roam the slopes outside the labyrinth. Their aura makes the snow viscous in a 20' radius--effectively slowing anyone trying to move or attack in melee (but not shoot or cast spells). Walls of polished ice that reflect anything inside into a distorted infinity.
Mad Moroschka herself, who roams the halls, fearing to look into the faces of her reflections, believing them to be her sisters. She pleads with the reflections of her own feet, begging to be set free, all the while tormented by the tamarins. Her (usually lowered) gaze turns living tissue to ice.
Ice statues of curious children, bandits, lizards, birds, dinosaurs, and other creatures brave and stupid enough to have entered the lonely, reflecting halls of the labyrinth over the last million years.
The possibility that they will return to life should Moroschka be slain.
The tamarin's warrens, containing whatever weapons, trinkets and treasures these unfortunates may have brought with them.