A Crash Course in Feminism Mk. II (or, why everyone should be a feminist)

[Gotthammer]

That, my friends, is what we call a failure of the imagination.

See also: refusing to cast non-white extras as extras in The Hobbit as "We are looking for light-skinned people. I'm not trying to be -- whatever. It's just the brief. You've got to look like a hobbit."
Where could the casting director have gotten the idea that Hobbits were exclusively white? Had he seen the Lord of the Rings films where there are almost zero black people in the billion hours of film?

Peter Jackson reacted quickly at least by firing the casting director and then making the Hobbit films with zero black people anyway.

Oh wait.

[YorkNecromancer]

I was having a discussion with some friends about Game of Thrones and the whole issue of Danaerys' massively problematic storyline in season 3 ([url]http://io9.com/daenerys-whole-storyline-on-game-of-thrones-is-messed-513189766[/url])

If I was casting the series, I would have made House Targaeryan exclusively black, because it solves that problem nicely, gives more black actors work, job done. Of course, they reason they didn't do it is because it would be too much of a divergence from the books, and the TV series is commendably dedicated to following the books precisely as they are written without any changes to the source material at all.

...




Actually, a shot-for-shot remake of the show with every character's ethnicity reversed would be fascinating to watch. Idris Elba would be amazing as Ned Stark.

[Kirsten]

Think I'm at least partially guilty on that last one.

Not interested in certain body types, but very much drawn to others.

Possible redemption? Dim girls are a massive turn off. Even if I suspect they're just acting dim.

nothing wrong with being attracted to particular types, I am not attracted to all women.

If you think that's anything like actual hate-speech I just... I guess you are very lucky not to have heard any.

so very very true.

[Mr Mystery]

IIRC about a year ago, they discovered that one of the Roman administrators of my home town and his wife were both black and of African descent. Still Romans, because that was how the Empire worked.

I seem to recall the idea of racism itself as we understand it today was largely a product of the slavery business, where it was necessary to dehumanise those poor Africans who had been enslaved because otherwise we would have had to admit that slavery was a monstrous, monstrous evil. Up until that point, I seem to recall black people had largely been regarded as *shock* human beings.

I do know that Daniel Conn, one of the first police officers in the UK, back in the 1700's was both black and gay. And this was when the police force was made up of four men, of whom one was blind, and another lame. His ethnicity was deemed utterly irrelevant in his selection as an officer.

More or less my understanding.

And as for UKIP and the other mind numbingly stupid right wing, they seem to think a multicultural Britain is something new. Which is so far from the truth it's not even funny. Heck, even pre-Roman Britain could be considered multicultural!

[Wolfshade]

Yes, you had citizens, then everyone else below them...

[CoffeeGrunt]

I think UKIP voters are astonished when they wake up and discover the sun every day. The world must be so new and scary to them.

Wait, did you say John Hurt voices the dragons in Merlin? Might be worth looking into that show, I've heard a lot of hype about it.

Reading through that review of The Last Of Us, it seems they didn't complete the game, as their point about Marlene is rendered somewhat moot by the ending. (She's an important character who drives the final act.) She also says that Joel never lets Ellie take over and be able to protect herself, which is patently untrue as it's a major plot point. She's also wrong about Ellie dying in the end, so really I have to ask why link to a review that barely scrapes the game and doesn't even get to the parts that address the complaints the author has? She also seems to ignore Bill being an LGBT character in preference for wanting him to be a woman when IMO he was an excellent representation of a gay character as-is, and tbh why demand removing one minority in place of another?

Also I concede that The Walking Dead TV series is crap from Season two onwards, that Andrea's character takes on a pitiful rendition in Season 3 while Michonne's is clammed-up and dull to the part where she partially instigates the Woodbury War by not talking to anyone and sharing information that could help. Also the treatment of black characters like T-Dog, Oscar, Big Tiny et al also sucks, the game seems to be handling such characters better right now, (such as an amusing scene with a Confederate jacket. I won't reveal too many spoilers, but it's between two black characters where one gifts the other the jacket to keep warm and apologises over the colour, and the other really asks whether it's relevant given their current situation.)

As for 'The Last of Us', I'm not sure how a story about a thirty-something, grizzled, het, white, cis man with permastubble who's all sad because SPOILER bad stuff happens is so different from other stories where thirty-something, grizzled, het, white, cis man with permastubble are all sad because a female character dies on them. It might be a better told story than the others, but a really delicious hamburger is still a hamburger, no matter how much you might try to convince me it's a lamb kebab.

If you ignore the 1/3rd of the game where you play as Ellie and the story starts to center on her role in the world, yes. If you choose to ignore her bitterness towards the strangeness of pre-infection life and how difficult her own is as possibly the last hope of mankind, yes. If you ignore the character development throughout the latter section as she comes to terms with her death possibly birthing a cure for all mankind and saving the world, and accepting it under her own agency as she sees it as a way of making up for the bad things she's done over the game in the name of survival.

Of course, it switches back to Joel's perspective and I have to be honest, I absolutely hated the ending he brought about, personally. I can understand the reasons but he overtakes Ellie's agency and pushes the story in his own selfish direction at the end. But hey, that's his character, especially after what was laid down in the opening.

So just like the article you linked, it would help you massively if you actually looked into the things you decry.

Also, the argument that minorities of an industry is irrelevant pretty much begs the question of, "what is the point?" You people here in this thread are a minority of the Wargaming scene, of society in general. If you don't espouse the good actions of the small factions working against the crappiness of the greater whole, what is the point? If you don't acknowledge the better way they are doing things so that the whole can see and demand this in turn, what is the point? If you bury everything that's trying to be better and just keep whining at the big, immovable crapheap before you, what is the point?

[Wildeybeast]

So, AC5 does actually have wimmins in it. Ubisoft decided the best way to introduce her was having her rescued by a man.

[url]http://www.allgamesbeta.com/2014/07/assassins-creed-unity-trailer.html[/url]

[eldargal]

****, Ubisoft. Generic stubbly mcwhitey protagonist and damseling the main ****ing female character, well done. Just need to find a way to include a strip club and have Arno become an assassin due to the death of a female loved one.

[Mr Mystery]

****, Ubisoft. Generic stubbly mcwhitey protagonist and damseling the main ****ing female character, well done. Just need to find a way to include a strip club and have Arno become an assassin due to the death of a female loved one.

Is that before or after they suggest he's had a three way with her and her bestie?

[Morgrim]

There is no culture in the world where the majority of the population is white AND male AND straight. It would be nice if all games and other media could therefore have a 50% cap on straight white male characters. Want all dudes? Fine, then half your cast must be queer, PoC or both.

I bet there would be howls of protest at there being 'too many minorities' though. :|