Re: should these be reworded?
2008/7/25 Christian Perrier <bubulle@debian.org>:
> Quoting Meike Reichle (meike@alphascorpii.net):
>
>> So, I guess you could send a wishlist bug or even better a patch I you
>> personally mind, but IMHO this is not a terribly pressing issue.
>
> Well, after all, the best benefit of Kevin Mark's mail was probably
> that we had this interesting discussion with much valuable comments
> (thanks Lynoure).
One of the main complains we have been traditionally having against
the gaming industry is that it was made by men and for men. As someone
has previously mentioned, this is not the same as to say that we
should enforce that every single game should be politically correct in
every aspect. You don't usually go that far in your requests about a
film or a book. What is important is the overall picture and the ideas
and stereotypes transmitted by the whole of them. As Monique said:
"One game having a male protagonist isn't a big deal; (almost) all of
them having a male protagonist is more problematic."
[ Warning: From now on what I say in this message is partially
offtopic, so please skip it if you're not interested. ]
On the other side, my point of view towards this matters have slightly
changed in the last couple of years.
Some months ago I read the book "Stardust", by Neil Gaiman, and I
really loved it, which bothered me a lot, because it repeats every
single gender stereotype out there in fairy tales. I was really
worried about it, I just couldn't understand why I loved that book, I
shouldn't. But there was no point in denying that to myself, and I saw
no benefits in trying to artificially force myself to dislike it, when
my inner feelings told me to like it.
Anyway, the thing is that once talking about this with a friend of
mine, who happens to be a very good psychologist, he told me that the
story was not really about males and females, but about the archetypes
that every single person has inside: Anima and Animus, Jungian
archetypes for the female and male part in each of us. That was the
reason I liked it, because the characters represented things that
resounded against my inner feelings.
After thinking about it under that new light, it stopped bothering me
that the characters in the book were so obviously gender-stereotyped,
because I didn't understand them to be describing real men and women
in the world, and I found that I was capable of identifying myself
with or against the different traits in all the characters
irrespective of their gender.
I don't know if it makes sense for anyone else than me, but it really
doesn't me bother that much that same topic in a game. It bothers me
much more, for example, the oversexuallized physical avatars
representing women in the games (big breasts, few clothes, erotical
postures, etc). Of course, it would be nicer if you could choose the
gender of your player (remember the game gauntlet, for example? you
could play with a female), but I wouldn't really start a war because
of it.
Greetings,
Miry
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