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This is a post based on a personal experience. The general topic of the sexist nature of video game culture can be found here.
As of late, I’ve been on a bit of League of Legends binge; a fact the Intransignet One can well attest. The problem with League of Legends (LoL) is that the competitive aspects of the game makes it very rewarding to win and thus, difficult to not to play. It is a strategic game based on skillful play and teamwork – it rewards the teams that communicate and work together. Thus, voice over IP in the competitive stream, provides a definite leg up on those who do not use voice communication.
Ah the glories of voice communication… it exposes one to other gamers with different backgrounds and social experiences and therein lies the problem. What do you do when one of your teammates, as a part of their regular vocabulary, uses the word ‘rape’ to describe what is happening in game?
As in: “We are raping hard right now!” as a descriptor of our team doing very well or, “we’re getting raped” when we happen to be losing.
Here is where I pause because I’m stuck and I know I should not be. Rape is traumatic, horrible crime that should not be normalized in gamer talk. Yet, when I was confronted with it, I sat passively by and said nothing (tacit acceptance, if you’re keeping score). There were five people chatting and they noted that those darned Canadians were a quiet polite lot. Little did they know the social struggle going on within me.
The pressure to accept the normalized use of the word rape was stifling as it would mean, on my behalf, requesting that said individuals please refrain from using that terminology in chat. I was part of a social group and we were all having fun playing a game – and it would mean harshing that particular mellow.
In hindsight I can see that all the social baggage that prevented me from speaking up was/is utter bullshit. There is no excuse for not calling out rape culture when it is staring you right in the face, yet I declined to act, thus propagating and encouraging the rape culture that I vigourously campaign against in other facets of my life.
This is a personal failure of integrity and will. It leaves me feeling disappointed in myself and my culture.
Let it be said up front that this cranky second waver bears no animus with regards to hamsters, electric vehicles, or dancing. Yet, once these elements are mixed into the toxic soup of everyone’s favourite capitalistic patriarchal construct – better known as ‘our society’ – hilarity is bound to ensue.
The advertisement in whole, before we begin.
This commercial is about selling cars. (Duh!) But who is the target audience? (if you thought hamsters, please leave now there are places better suited for your attentions). Let’s break this down and take a look at the characters.
Science Hamster #1 – Red bow-tie, suspenders.
Science Hamster#2 – Red bow-tie, red glasses and polka dot shirt.
Science Hamster#3 – Rasta hat, white shirt.
Because not all dudes are not into science! Bonus marks for catching the racial commentary this characterization is making.
Female Hamster in Ball – Brown and cute. Context wise we don’t know the ball hamster is female, but with time spent on establishing a connection one could assume.
Small, helpless, and cute. Thematic material anyone?
We’re 10 seconds into the commercial and what do we have here – 3 male represented characters creating, designing, and actively teching out with all sorts of futuristic displays and machinery. The female role, to smiled and waved at; the unsurprising passive receptacle for male attentions.
Audio note – “Baby I’m preying on you tonight. Hunt you down eat you alive,. Just like animals (x2). Ah yes because the predator/prey relationship is so sexy, and filled with equality too!
Well nothing new here under the sun so far, but as with most patriarchal adventures it gets worse the farther you go. Our intrepid female hamster gets herself into a jam by wheeling her ball into the experimental area and is zapped along with the vehicle by the transmogrifying beams of science.
Oh, silly female! Caution be thrown to the wind cause she doesn’t get Science!
Our first glimpse of her portents much of what is to come. Disembodied woman parts with feminine signifiers for the winz!
The body parts of women – sexy!
The requisite Male gaze.
To quote Keanu Reeves: Whoa…
And after a full body pan, we as viewers to get to experience the male gaze. Just some reinforcement in case you missed the objectification the first time around.
Audience gets to objectify her to, as women should be judged by the quality of their tuckus.
Now that we have primed the audience for sexual objectification, lets use it to sell the damn car!
Inviting female = inviting car?
Where is the female empowerment (do tell my Third Wave friends)?!? Oh wait the power of love. How charmingly original for a female character (do contrast this with the creator, the scientist, the engineer).
Empowerful stuff going on here.
Oh, dudes like their technology more than any single vampy female. Let’s get a shot of her looking flummoxed so we can reiterate the “female body selling car” angle again. We do remember the advertising truism – the sexual objectification of women sells.
Damn, they picked me over a car, what could they possibly after?
Our intrepid dudes roll to the nearest pet store to ‘pick up some chicks’. Consider the perceived power differential – the dudes looming over a cage of helpless females – and of course the anvilicious buying of women for happy fun sexy times.
Write your own snark about how empowering prostitution is…
So cue more science and boom! Let the female empowerment roar while striking sexy poses for dudes (science and/or otherwise)!
Huh, because vamping for dudes is approved female behaviour!
Recently bough females remarkable receptive to their buyers, with nuzzling and other overt signs of female powah affection.
Oh, we like you dudes and our role as eye-sex-candy and everything is awesome, see how much fun are having?
Cue the formation dancing with of course, our protagonists front and centre, we must never forget the centrality of the man and his power.
Never forget who is the subject and who is the object.
And thus endeth the analysis.
Going through this post made me think of all the conversations, mostly with men, about how we don’t need feminism anymore because we are an equal society now thus there is no use for feminism or feminist analysis. This was a cute commercial until you actually look at the underlying patriarchal messages that surprisingly happen to dovetail nicely how society perceives, and thus, how society treats women in 2014.
You could knock me over with a feather given how surprised I am about the level of misogyny present in our media.
As always, IBTP.
Patriarchy pissing in the punchbowl for hundreds of years continues to make things crappy, even in the land of video games.
I suggest stop being like these guys and try a new fanciful tact – treating women with the respect and the dignity that you as a dude get by default.
Seems like we have a bit of feminist theme going on here this week – quelle suprise! Harassment and how women and men are taught to exist in society. If we can edumacate a few dudes about the toxic patriarchal soup we all swim in the world will be a better place.
“A male friend of mine that develops AAA games told me, “When a woman criticizes me, it goes to a different part of my brain than when a man on my team does. I get defensive really quickly. I’m trying to get better about it.” I don’t think his is a unique experience.
We live in a society that’s sexist in ways it doesn’t understand. One of the consequences is that men are extremely sensitive to being criticized by women. I think it threatens them in a very primal way, and male privilege makes them feel free to lash out.
This is why women are socialized to carefully dance around these issues, disagreeing with men in an extremely gentle manner. Not because women are nicer creatures than men. But because our very survival can depend on it.”
Sooooo… experiences are different for women in the game industry who would of thunk? Might it be because women and men are socialized differently and are taught to respond differently to situations? Might one set of strategies be beholden to the other, thus reinforcing the disparity? Food for thought –
The highly quotable Margaret Atwood clarifies the idea:
“Men are afraid women will laugh at them. Women are afraid men will kill them.”
[Source:Polygon]
Part of the reason why feminist analysis is such a valuable tool is that FA deconstructs and identifies the constructed norms of society and rightly points out how craptacular said norms are for women.
So, dudes, a glimpse into the faux-egalitarian society you’ve created and learn the implied lesson of “don’t be that guy” – thanks in advance for being a better person.
Oh, hey did you need more evidence of the power imbalance in society? Take a look at the comments section and count how many responses with the motif : If you dress a certain way you are asking for it.
How reading ytube comments makes me feel:
Talk about unintended veracity.
Fascinating don’t you think?
Consider the neat way this dovetails into how relationships in our society are structured and the expectations placed upon those who are male and those who are female.
Pro-tip: The deformed cup or one that isn’t complete without the other is where you should start your discussion blaming. :)
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