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Video Games--The Last Frontier of Men Only
Mar 2, 2006

In our ever changing world, where gender is trully becoming androgynous.  Women are becoming equal and the gender confused are becoming accepted.  It would seem that the long stuggle for women's right is archaic as the notion that the earth is flat.  Students in my class, even girls, scoff at feminist material and cannot conceive of a time when women had to fight for the opportunity to be treated with common dignity.  And yes, to be politically correct, there are pletny of other minorities that I am ignoring here (gays, lesbians, transgendered, all races, all handicapped, everyone is a minority now, I KNOW!).  Anyway, back to my point which is women are not equal, it's an illusion.  We make 70 cents to a man's $1.00.  What?  Equal?  No, ma'am.   But all in all, things are better.  I can vote, and I do every chance that I get because all the Womyn generation that taught me feminism demanded that women must vote to be heard--women fought hard so that we could have the right to vote.  So, every chance I get, whether I think it counts or not, I vote.  I vote for the women that were not allowed to and the women that are still not allowed to all over the world.  I vote for the Gilman's that were locked in their rooms and told to rest. 


So, my actual point to all this rambling about feminism is that I have stumbled into one of the last frontiers of male domination----Video Games.  Girls, they have taken over.  First of all, I have always been considered a tomboy--such a wonderful term.  Meaning I didn't want to play with dolls and be trained to be someone's wife.  Instead I played war in the "jungle" and ran around with the boys in town.  I also played Risk and Battleship.  So, yes I was different.  The boys excepted me as "one of the guys" and the girls thought I was a weirdo most of the time. 


Getting off track again!  I've recently become very obssessed with a PS2 game called Dragon Quest VIII.  Until this game, I haven't really played video games since I was a younger.  I began playing Atari on the black and white TV of my older brother's.  Then, later the original Nintendo.  Conquering the first SuperMario world, flying a plane in Top Gun, and mostly loving the hell out of Zelda.  Then later a Gameboy--ignoring the outside world for months tackling Tetris and SuperMarioLand.  But then like Christopher Robin, I grew up and left my childish things behind.  Video games were my Pooh. 


To my disbelief, video games grew up right along with me!  Sure, I watched boys in college stay up all night drinking and playing video games, then not making it to class.  Instead, we drank coffee, wrote poetry and discussed the Beats and listened to someone play a lone guitar while we drank coffee and smoked.  We didn't give a second thought to video games.  We had books and all these thoughts that we spouted with enthusiasm and everything was more important than it had ever been.  But we forgot about the video games.  We never discussed them or played them.  We rolled our eyes at the boys and their video games.


We were so wrong.  Although not the intellectual stimulous as Woolf or Wollstencraft, video games have redeaming qualities that I never really knew about. Boys don't invite us in to this video game world.  They don't convince us to play video games.  But I have discovered that video games rule!  They are just as fun as when I was a kid because they are amazingly advanced and powerfully creative.  But....


What the hell is the deal with the women in these games????  Yes, I came from SuperMario where the hero (male) has to save the princess.  How condescending!  Now the games have advanced but the neanderthal bullshit hasn't! Let me give you a run down of the women in Dragon Quest VIII...  Jessica.  One of the four in the hero's party.  Of course, the only woman.  Her defenses suck, her attack is weak and she is to up her armour you have to dress her like a hooker!!!  She even has a bunny suit outfit with fishnets and all!  And she is the only character whose clothes "change" with the scenes when you acquire a new outfit/armour/weapon.  Only the woman with her boobs flying out of her shirt and hips...well, you get the picture.  Also, under her magical quality category it is called Sex Appeal.  Whereas the men are Charisma and Humanity.  So, her entire worth is her sex appeal.  She is only in the game so guys playing have some chippee to look at.  She is not valued in any other way.   Then Red... How nice, she doesn't even get a name!  She is named after the color of clothes she is wearing.  She is dressed very scantily and is of questionable morals.  She is a thief and a bitch.  She lives alone with of course a guard protecting her.  Then there is the dead Queen of some land I forget the name--Arcania?.  She is your typical I will do anything to make my man the King happy--giggling, obviously younger than him and obviously wasting her goals on making him happy.  So much so, that he is devastated and in mourning until we come and make him stop whining.  She was devoted to him--what about her and her life?  It was only the king's!  Then of course there are the women we meet in bars which are trully...bar wenches... 


So, I get heated about this and tell my boyfriend about it, since this new video game obsession is all his fault.  He is very supportive of the habit, since he will be able to play anytime he wants without me complaining.  In response, he said that of course the games have women that are hot--mostly only guys play video games.  If you want to play games you'll have to get used to it. 


I'm sick of getting used to it! 


I want the video game companies to make a game that is not only woman friendly, but also is just as quality as the male geared games.  And I want a hand in it.  I want a strong woman video game and I want to help write it!


I'm not getting used to it!
Visibility: Everyone
Posted: Thursday March 2, 2006, 9:17 am
Tags: video games feminism gamers rpg [add/edit tags]

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