2013-05-28, 09:28 PM
Yet another great video, with the last few minutes especially doing a great job at bringing everything together and explaining why it's such a problem.
You're not ignorant, you're just more intelligent and conscientious than most gamers. It's important to remember, when discussing topics like these, that the average person representing the majority is the one affected by such narratives to the effects described. For example, nearly every person playing a game with rampant gun violence will not pick up an assault rifle and shoot up a crowd, but only a very small percentage remains completely pacifistic. In other words, it's the heightening of aggressive feelings/thoughts/moods during and immediately after the playing of such games that afflicts the vast majority of gamers - those to whom Anita is speaking.
The success of these games is rooted in their ability to trigger an emotional response in their players, and though not every person will up and commit acts of gun violence or violence/abuse against women, the games' incessant repetitions of the same dehumanizing actions against women alters the psychology of audiences to view the gender with less regard. Which Anita said beautifully from 20:37 - 21:30, summarizing the point with: "So when developers exploit sensationalized images of brutalized, mutilated, and victimized women over and over and over again, it tends to reinforce the dominant gender paradigm which casts men as aggressive and commanding, and frames women as subordinate and dependent."
Therefore, sure, you may have guys who "appreciate women more," but are they appreciating them more as complex, dynamic human beings, or symbols/figures of sexual love and possession ("she's MY girl!")? And even if the former is the case, are these men truly appreciate of the gender as a whole? Or do they continue to perpetuate the same institutional sexism they claim to denounce through the usage of women as the punchline for cheap jokes and other "seemingly harmless" perspectives of comedy and discourse?
KhainiWest Wrote:Maybe I'm ignorant, but does anyone get these "women are inferior, they are simply waiting for my rescue" messages from playing video games? If anything it makes me want to appreciate the woman I have more, rather than how "weak" she is. I mean there's a thing called plot shield which I find much more hard to deal with.
You're not ignorant, you're just more intelligent and conscientious than most gamers. It's important to remember, when discussing topics like these, that the average person representing the majority is the one affected by such narratives to the effects described. For example, nearly every person playing a game with rampant gun violence will not pick up an assault rifle and shoot up a crowd, but only a very small percentage remains completely pacifistic. In other words, it's the heightening of aggressive feelings/thoughts/moods during and immediately after the playing of such games that afflicts the vast majority of gamers - those to whom Anita is speaking.
The success of these games is rooted in their ability to trigger an emotional response in their players, and though not every person will up and commit acts of gun violence or violence/abuse against women, the games' incessant repetitions of the same dehumanizing actions against women alters the psychology of audiences to view the gender with less regard. Which Anita said beautifully from 20:37 - 21:30, summarizing the point with: "So when developers exploit sensationalized images of brutalized, mutilated, and victimized women over and over and over again, it tends to reinforce the dominant gender paradigm which casts men as aggressive and commanding, and frames women as subordinate and dependent."
Therefore, sure, you may have guys who "appreciate women more," but are they appreciating them more as complex, dynamic human beings, or symbols/figures of sexual love and possession ("she's MY girl!")? And even if the former is the case, are these men truly appreciate of the gender as a whole? Or do they continue to perpetuate the same institutional sexism they claim to denounce through the usage of women as the punchline for cheap jokes and other "seemingly harmless" perspectives of comedy and discourse?