Feminism

[melmer]

[Twig]

That is pretty much exactly what I'm seeing. And I guess that is pretty much exactly what's happening.

HOW

HOW HOW HOW

[TheLastBaron]

her feet aren't actually that pointy/bad, but yeah some nub needs to l2forshorten.

[brkl]

It's like a photo taken with a very wide angle lens and very close up, except the perspective fails to affect her breasts or butt.

[Twig]

I don't even really see a butt. I guess there's an ever-so-slight dip in her back prior to reaching the weird thigh.

[TheLastBaron]

It's where the weird lens flare thing is I think.

[Twig]

Yeah it would have to be. That's clearly where the butt would BE, given the outfit. It just doesn't look like a butt.

[miffy495]

This one was by far my favorite: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mef5inbiiW1rmx3kqo1_1280.jpg

Ha. My partner has a habit of sitting in ridiculously uncomfortable positions for long periods of time without noticing. We call it "Mary Jane-ing" in honour of that cover. I've walked into a room in which she was sitting in that exact pose and had to explain why I suddenly burst out laughing.

[I_smell]

w/e I'm sittin like that right now, that's how I sit.

[jeremywc]

w/e I'm sittin like that right now, that's how I sit.

I mean, sometimes you just want to feel pretty. Is that so wrong?

[Argobot]

I ran into this link on twitter early today and figured some people might be interested in it: The 25 Pieces that Should be Required Reading for Women.

Granted, it has a terrible title, but there are some really good articles from the past year on a wide range of gender issues, so it's worth checking out.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Speaking on nonsensical poses...

also, related

Have you got the full version of this, because I just can't quite believe it?

Edit: Yikes. It looks like it is real. I just can't get my head around it...!

[Argobot]

Sigh. Remember how in 2012, people actually started to have intelligent conversations about sexism in video games and it really seemed like the community at large was tired of games pandering to a really specific, straight, male demographic? Remember how I actually felt hopeful that games were headed in a more progressive direction?

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/15/deep-silver-promote-dead-island-with-appalling-statue/

Sigh.

[melmer]

I swear it's getting worse or perhaps just the worst offender are delving even lower

Saw this pop up on neogaf a few days back

The game appears to have a groping simulator 15:30

http://www.neogaf.co...ad.php?t=507849

[tegan]

For a moment I thought that was going to be this:

...Video games really set new standards of creepiness when touch controls became the norm.

[Nappi]

Sigh. Remember how in 2012, people actually started to have intelligent conversations about sexism in video games and it really seemed like the community at large was tired of games pandering to a really specific, straight, male demographic? Remember how I actually felt hopeful that games were headed in a more progressive direction?

http://www.rockpaper...palling-statue/

Sigh.

Many of the ancient Greek sculptures were actually painted at one point and the pigment has just worn off since. And who knows, maybe the limbs are missing by design and not due to some accident. That Dead Island sculpture might actually be a surprisingly accurate recreation of an ancient marble statue.

In all seriousness though, that thing is incredibly dumb.

[Nachimir]

“make a striking conversation piece on any discerning zombie gamer’s mantel.”

I think what the publisher meant was "conversation in which the owner is struck".

Given some of the stories I've heard and seeing some of the seamier bits of Reddit emerge in the last few years, I'm only partially surprised. The games industry has a hardcore of actual misogynists and sexists in it who won't respond to reasoning or perhaps even ever empathise with, you know, the other half of their own fucking species. The rest of the industry simply has to work to distance itself from them, in a "No, they're not what games are, they're just culturally shit games from a very specific part of our industry" kind of way.

[MrHoatzin]

The people who are defending this is "satire of art" get to me the most... like, what cogent and timely point about "ART" could you possibly be making by poking fun at some broken sculpture from the bronze age?

[Luftmensch]

I'm glad there's attention being brought to women empowerment in games, comics, films, &c. Great stuff. Now that it's something that's being studied and recorded, even if the goals and standards are fragmented, everyone's seeing improvement. Yippee.

I still don't buy the idea of the Patriarchy. As far as I can tell, the Patriarchy essentially refers to a state of culture where there's an imbalance of power skewed in favor of men. Its anthropological definition is more niche and defined, but as a catch-all explanation for feminist frustrations, it's fair. You can look at the public data and see that, worldwide, women hold relatively little public power. So in that sense it's valid.

Where my beef comes in is where people use "The Patriarchy" to refer to a huge amorphous evil that's responsible for all the problems in the world. The most telling thing, for me, is when people throw out slogans like "Misandry is just The Patriarchy biting men back!" That's absurd. It's come to a point where The Patriarchy doesn't represent anything that can be defined, and without definition it's just a meaningless rallying cry.

To give some examples of what I mean, here's some quotes pulled from Tumblr searching for Patriarchy:

[. . .]that the very conception of the modern individual belongs to patriarchal categories of thought.

(source)

the law’s a system

made up by patriarchy

to benefit men

(source)

Misandry exists and the patriarchy invented it

“You can’t blame guys for catcalling/harassment/rape because that’s just what guys do.”

“Men just aren’t nurturing/organized/empathic like women because they don’t have those mothering instincts.”

“Boys will be boys.”/”Men are naturally aggressive.”

The patriarchy doesn’t just teach us “men good; women bad”. It stipulates that men are worthy of power and women are not, and part of what makes men worthy of power is the flaws it assigns them.

Misandry is crucial to the oppression of women. When assholes use the word “misandry” to attack/oppress/silence feminists, it’s because they don’t know what the damn word means, and need to be corrected.

(source)

The first two are just vapid slogans that don't make any sense. The third says that the very existence of cultural gender norms, the existence of sexism, the existence of misconceptions based on sex, is the fault of men. It makes the bald-faced assumption that because stereotypes are harmful, and because men apparently benefit, that they created it and its their fault. Hell, the first two quotes basically say "I don't like this thing and it's all men's fault".

Encouragingly, I'm not alone in thinking it's all bullshit.

[Argobot]

To give some examples of what I mean, here's some quotes pulled from Tumblr searching for Patriarchy:

That was your first mistake...

But seriously, that's a really good point to raise that people toss around the word "Patriarchy" and "Feminism," without really understanding what either of those words mean. For me, the idea of 'patriarchy' has never been interchangeable with all men ever. Anyone can participate in the patriarchy, men and women, and both groups can even benefit from that participation (although obviously it overwhelmingly favors men). Conversely, men are harmed by patriarchal ideas just as much as women are, which is why it's possible to be a man and also a feminist (not suggesting that anyone on this forum thinks this way, but I'm constantly amazed at how many people believe that being male instantly disqualifies you from feminism).

[MrHoatzin]

Patriarchy is used interchangeably as the status quo. I take it to refer to power structures rather than "men" in general.

[Luftmensch]

That was your first mistake...

Haha I can't argue with that. I picked Tumblr because it's convenient. If I wanted to hunt for Anita Sarkeesian quotes I could have found something equally absurd, but it would have taken longer.

For me, the idea of 'patriarchy' has never been interchangeable with all men ever.

Patriarchy is used interchangeably as the status quo. I take it to refer to power structures rather than "men" in general.

Then why call it patriarchy? Regardless of what it means to you, as a concept it's lost any meaning it may have had for being tossed around as a catch-all root of all evil. The way it's used in modern parlance, Patriarchy can be substituted for Devil, the same way people used to blame their problems on Godlessness, Communism, or The Man. What good does this concept serve? It vilifies any abstract concept it's associated with--including men and male authority (under any circumstances), or anything of and associated with the status quo--and unnecessarily simplifies all the complexities in the world into an emotionally convenient but ultimately unhelpful good/evil dichotomy.

Like I said, without a definition, it's just a meaningless rallying cry. I'm not convinced that it has any place in any discussion outside of anthropology.

[brkl]

Luftmensch, first you say your beef comes in when people 'use "The Patriarchy" to refer to a huge amorphous evil that's responsible for all the problems in the world', but then you interpret the use of "the patriarchy" in your third example to just mean men. So your point becomes muddled. As MrHoatzin said, most people who use it refer to historically developed power structures and cultural norms that prop up those structures, not just "dudes". The third quote is right on the money IMO, but yeah it does sound odd if you decide to interpret "the patriarchy" to mean some actual men drawing up these norms.

[Luftmensch]

Sure I mean to draw attention to the point that its used interchangeably and ambiguously. I've heard people say "I hate men, and I hate white people, but I hate them as an institution, not in general" if you can't define what the institution is in any terms that's meaningfully different from any other form of sexism or racism, why make the distinction?

If you don't like the status quo, say so.

[James]

The people who are defending this is "satire of art" get to me the most... like, what cogent and timely point about "ART" could you possibly be making by poking fun at some broken sculpture from the bronze age?

Could it more accurately be described as "kitsch"? I don't mean in any way to defend or make excuses for the thing (it's vile); it just struck me that that might be a more appropriate term for low art aping high art (probably the wrong terms – I'm not well-versed on this stuff) without having anything to say about it.

To be clear, I think that thing is horrible and stupid.