Men Incapable Of Portraying Videogame Women Fairly?

Thanks to GameSpot for its 'GameSpotting' editorial discussing whether men can be trusted to portray women fairly in videogames. The author references Metroid ("I don't appreciate that Samus being a woman is a punch line"), and Ico ("Yorda... [is] this supposedly sympathetic female character in a video game that can do absolutely nothing for herself and is constantly in danger of being kidnapped"), and ends by leveling the charge: "I think men are inherently incapable of doing an adequate job of properly presenting female characters in games."

Comments

Seen male characters lately?

[Kris_J]

Male characters in vidoegames are:

• Cigar chomping muscle-brains
• Weasley little pick-pocket wimps
• Corpse-obsessed psychopaths
• Spineless cannon-fodder clones
• Sex-obsessed jocks
• Coke-bottle glasses nerds that love computers

Etc, etc, etc. It isn't a sexism thing, it's a "the story writers are stupider than the game's AI" thing.

This just in...

[Anonymous Coward]

A study in The New England Journal of Medicine shows that fully 64.3% of all persons born female, show markedly below average, or even undetectable, senses of humor. Their hyper-emotional nature and comparitively large hormonal fluctuations appear to impede the detection of the logical discontinuity necessary for humor.

I feel sorry for the guy...

[MachDelta]

...I really do. Here's a male, a gamer, who has been GUILTED by the "feminine movement" into a state where he cannot look at a modestly attractive portrayal of a female in a game without feeling shameful.
That's pathetic. It really is. Why does he feel the way he does? What kind of horrible psychology has warped his mind into this sad state?
He feels guilty that Samus is a woman? And that Samus *can* be seen in a bathing suit? Oh dear lord! Someone call the thought-police, he might start forming an attraction to the opposite sex! How horrible! -- Though the true horror is that he feels this way. That, every time he views an in game portrayal of a woman even REMOTELY attractive, it is somehow a violation of "womens rights".

Let me tell you something guys. Not as a woman, because i'm not. But because i'm a MAN, and I no longer tolerate this "acceptable society" bullshit. Women in games? Thats great. SEXY women in games? Thats even fucking BETTER! Now before the "facist-femme militia of well-whipped men" decends on me, i'd like to point out one interesting fact: Women LIKE sexy portrayals of women. Women LIKE to feel sexy. They LIKE to feel attractive, they fucking ENJOY the power to reduce a man to a quivering puddle of goo with their bodies. Come on men, don't you too? All /. = nerd jokes aside, what man here can honestly say they don't like feeling sexy too? That they don't like feeling macho and handsome? What man doesn't enjoy the power to wow a woman with his body too?? Be it a nicely cut slice of cleavage or a well shaped bicep, we all like feeling sexy. Its hardwired into our brains. So claiming that every sexy portrayal of a woman in a game is somehow "wrong" is about as STUPID as saying breathing is wrong. I say again: Women are NOT offended by sexy women in games!!
I know, I know... a lot of you probably don't believe me. Well look right here. Its a page all about female characters in video games. Browse through the ratings, go ahead. Check out some good examples and some bad. Notice anything? Notice any attractive females with high ratings? Women are not offended by their own genders display of sexuality and power. They love that shit just as much as guys do. What's offensive is unrealistic images and blatant focuses on sexuality. Guys, a woman is a mind and a soul as well as a body, and if they're going to play games then thats the kind of avatars they expect.

I strongly encourage poeple to read this article if you haven't already. And check out some of the quotes too. This one was on the infamous Lara Croft (sp. the box art):

It's not the fault of the packaging. Okay, so her breasts are lethal weapons, sure. But I

like the cover art. It shows that she's strong, she's tough, she's an adventurer, she's solo - she doesn't need a man! She *owns* those guns, and she knows how to use them. What's not to like?

Whoa whoa whoa - back that up there. She LIKES the cover art? Lara Croft? What the hell? Look at her breasts! They're huge! And those shorts are TINY! How could any woman *LIKE* Lara Croft's signature pose? Its so blatantly sexual! By definition, all women should hate it, right?! WRONG. Like I said again and again: Women do not mind attractive females in games. They enjoy their sexuality too, because its *part* of how they define themselves as a woman. They IDENTIFY with a woman's sexual power. So what do they hate? Read on:

But the hype surrounding Lara Croft was gross. The hype undercut her image as strong smart archeologist. The hype made her into a sex kitten.

And BINGO! It was the marketing! The focus! Here, a female gamer was impressed not only with the attractiveness of Lara, but with her strength and confidence as well. For a b