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I've spoken on my old GameSpot blog a few times about the sad state of women in videogames, and I'm about to speak to LiveJournal about the same thing because the issue just won't stop throwing itself in my face.
You see, UbiSoft is releasing a trio of games that they think speaks to the female demographic loud and clear.
Allow me a moment to scream my head off.
What the fuck is wrong with you, UbiSoft? I don't know how they could have missed it, but women and girls aren't quite that limited anymore. Not that I mind the existence of cooking games, but baby care?! Not only is this a socially irresponsible idealization of child care in a time when teenage pregnancy is through the roof, the message in this line of games is clear: "This is what you're good for, girl."
And this is the problem with "gaming for girlz" (it's always with a z, I've noticed): It's always either cheap, licenced crap, or it's continued propogation of female stereotypes. Sorry, but not all girls want to be a barefoot baby machine for men. Where's the positive, assertive role models for women? How about police officer, or athlete (no, figure skating is just too stereotypical), or bus driver, hell, anything but child care and cooking?
Since Kotaku was so kind to offer a few suggestions for future "Imagine" titles, I thought I'd share some of my own.
Imagine: Suck On my Balls, Whore
Imagine: Bend Over
Imagine: Double Anal
Imagine: Fuck Your Way Up the Corporate Ladder.
Imagine: Ditzy Secretary
Imagine: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader
Imagine: Take Your Husband's Beating and Don't Tell Anyone
Imagine: Get fucked up the ass while doing the laundry.
Seriously, this angers me more than anything I've ever seen on this blog before. The idea that women not only should take this nonsense, but should like it, gets to me. This while no effort at all is made to make women less objectified in mainstream games.
But then again, what should I expect? After all, it's not like girls play videogames or anything.
Now if you'll excuse me, my Master is on the couch watching the game, I have to give him some head.
- Mood:
enraged
Comments
I really feel for the passionate girl gamer such as yourself. Forced to play games made mostly by males for a predominately male audience.. If you have the chance I'd like to hear your answers to the below questions:
1- What kind of games to you play now ?
2- What kind of games do you wish they would make, or at least make more of ?
3- Seeing that there are a number of games featuring Woman with big guns, which is obviously done to titillate the male audience, does this offend you ?
Love your views.. super job !
2. I don't care about the type, I just wish games aimed at women wouldn't be so pigeonholed by stereotypes like this.
3. Well, you've seen blogs where I've tackled THAT subject. I'm not really a fan of the whole "Tits and ass" marketing style. Besides being a cheap way to sell based on sex, the idea that the only way to have a strong woman in a videogame is to have her dressed like a hooker is troubling.
And Yuko, I'm loving the uncensored you.
Ubisoft has really lost it lately, haven't they?
This is just a cynical cash grab, something that can make a profit off of minimal sales because so little is going into development budgets.
Don't like 'em? Don't buy 'em. There are more important things to complain about than grotesque female stereotypes in video games. Those have been around forever, and even us men have them. We were weaned on, after all, Contra.
The Ubisoft baby training line is marketing a game specifically to 8-14 year old girls. The foundation of this product and its marketing is "girls like babies more than boys, so they should like this game. Boys obviously should not be interested." It's not just about the (debatable) fact that they're trying to encourage girls to enjoy their role as baby-making machines... it's that it stigmatizes child rearing for males. By releasing a product that overtly declares that taking care of a baby is an activity for girls, it reinforces the centuries of conditioning in boys that it's not their job.
Those on the gamer forums that are publicly casting their voices in the "girls really do like babies more than boys, it's just good marketing" camp are basically saying that there's no reason to fight that attitude, because it's just true for reasons that aren't worth exploring or discussing. They are unwittingly (or not?) banding together to take a stand against feminine equality, because the unspoken truth is that no boy would even look at this game at checkout. Ubisoft could've easily put a gender-free skin on this game and left it to the consumer to decide, but instead they've declared that they're A-OK with assigning misogynistic gender roles to their customers.
And you know what? That's fine. I can understand why you'd take issue with this kind of thing, but I don't think that sort of psychology actually, frankly, matters. If a kid is going to grow up believing that girls really do like babies more than boys then it's going to take a lot more than a poorly produced DS game.
This isn't an equality issue. The glass ceiling, THAT'S an equality issue. Physical and emotional abuse. THAT'S an equality issue. A DS game that's marketed towards girls? Not so much. Blame the parents and grandparents. After all, that's who's going to be buying it for these girls.
Also, slightly off topic but still an important PS: Shouldn't girls enjoy their role as baby making machines (also known as mothers)? That is, after all, how we got here. And I know my mom enjoyed it. Either that or she's a pretty damn good actor.
Although I think that any girl buying this kind of game is already lost to the idea that she's going to have a kid by the time she's 14...It's not disliking becoming a mother, it's alienating males from becoming fathers and encouraging children to perform adult tasks when they're too young to understand. Kids should not be worrying about this kind of thing when they're 8, it's making life seem like a play thing.
It's also opening up womens roles in life so that the pinnacle of their life does not need to end in a child, that they can go on without having one at all. In a world so crowded, caution should be exercised when encouraging children to become parents.
I think the main reason these games cause so much anger is that they set cogs in motion, the early stages in a childs mind that they should be expected to do all that the games tell them because they're life lesson games. It really is going backward.
Your points are completely valid, however. Women have a lot more to worry about in life as do men. But imagine finding DS games on the shelf just for black people. How ridiculous and insulting would that look?
Besides, girls need to learn how to cook and make babies eventually anyway. Why not start early?