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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  3570 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Developers shooting the messenger: stop blaming the press for sexist extremism in games

    Most "nerds" would be unsurprised (though the masses would be) to see how many comic books actually pass [the Most "nerds" would be unsurprised (though the masses would be) to see how many comic books actually pass [the Bechdel Test] .

Comics have been talking about their problems with the representation of women much longer than games have, don't need (or expect) nearly the audience games get, and there is still a lot of tension in trying to represent women as people without giving up the cheesecake. There is nothing like Comics Journal in its heyday, there are people who study games but they're not primarily talking to the gamer subculture. Also, Bechdel is a comics writer.

    Even if its cause was fundamentally good (which is up for debate), it's got too many bad apples and too many co-opted sections to get itself anywhere other than the derision of the masses. I sometimes think similarly of feminism, but feminism's been around for a hell of a lot longer and keeps kicking, so maybe I'm wrong.

Feminism had a few coherent bodies of thought and a lot of history behind it before it became a thing on the Internet, and the Internet still spawns enough batshit that it's not surprising that people who haven't been exposed to it before only see the batshit. I'm not sure that objections to the quality of games journalism warrant the name, but social movements that start on the Internet are at a huge disadvantage in that unless they're very focused or esoteric enough that people who are really passionate about them are also well-informed, they start picking up nuts too soon and there's a good chance the nuts will take over.





coffeesp00ns  ·  3570 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Bechdel is a comics writer.

I knew that. for some reason I assumed she was dead. who knows why (probably some societal idea that we think no one important must be alive right now).

    social movements that start on the Internet are at a huge disadvantage in that unless they're very focused or esoteric enough that people who are really passionate about them are also well-informed, they start picking up nuts too soon and there's a good chance the nuts will take over.

100% agree. There is a lot to be said for ethics in games journalism (and indeed ethics in journalism PERIOD right now, as I mentioned in my first post with Brian Wilson Williams), but not much to be said for its current advocates.

edit: in reference to my correction