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

[Gotthammer]

[Kirsten]

[URL=http://s1216.photobucket.com/user/KirstenIGMB/media/drowning_zps26ed21d9.png.html][/URL]

[Gotthammer]

[eldargal]

[URL="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/hate-crimes-against-muslims-soar-by-65-per-cent-in-a-year-in-london-9767628.html"]Hate crimes against Muslims up 65% in one yearin London[/URL], many of the victims being women wearing the hijab.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Good old UKIP supporters...I hope to high hell they don't get power.

Also that viewpoint on literature was interesting - I've always felt similar things towards the "are games art" argument. It's a fledgling media that needs time to grow before it can be taken seriously, but we're seeing the first signs of what it might achieve right now.

Another thing I took from that post is that Twitter is a horrible means to write anything at length.

[eldargal]

It's what makes the backlash against Anita Sarkeesian so pathetic. You have all these gamer guys squealing about how games are art and a brilliant narrative medium (both true) and how they ned to be taken seriously, but then when you get feminist critiques of them they react violently and start with the 'they are just games for fun!' defense. If games are to be taken seriously they need to be critiqued from lots of different perspectives and developrs need to listen and learn. That doesn't mean big dumb action games will disappear, but they will be accompanied with more thoughtful, nuances narrative games that will often still include violence and all that fun stuff, just like teevee does.

I like to think of Bioware as the HBO of video game developers. Ubisoft are the BBC*, they did really well for a long time but now it's just a bunch of white guys with brown hair doing their thing...:


*If the BBC were French.

[eldargal]

[Mr Mystery]

I just like button basher games.

Excepting Alien Isolation - that's part of the poopypants challenge - eat a red hot curry, and play Alien Isolation. Last one to befoul themselves, wins.

[Al Shut]

Latest sign of widespread discrimination.

This thre4ad seems to be the only one were my email update alert is lost in the spam filter.

I must remember to turn those of anyway.

[Necron2.0]

I listened to [url=http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/10/07/353270270/an-uplifting-story-brazils-obsession-with-plastic-surgery]>>this<<[/url] on NPR on the drive home today. It's about how, in Brazil, women feel they need massive body modification to feel "happy," to feel complete … they feel they need it just to fit in to society. These are women in general in Brazil - all women. An unemployed woman spent the equivalent cost of three cars for boobs, booty, belly and lips.

Truth be told I normally don't care about these sorts of things - specialty causes I mean, like feminism. Half the time I find it to be just nothing but whining, because somebody wants special treatment. Welcome to the human race, pal. Nobody owes anybody anything, least of all respect. Earn it, if you can, but do not expect it.

Even so, I was horrified by this story. The notion that somebody would feel compelled to hack themselves to pieces in order to feel acceptable to others really rubs me the wrong way. My wife, to be honest, is not a looker. I don't care. She gets me. She puts up with me. She accepts me as I am. She's a fine mother. She is the best damned woman on the face of the planet, and the only one for me. I would never want to see her mutilating herself for some cockeyed notion of "beauty." If society cannot accept someone for who and what they are … @#$! society. Society can be rewritten. Society is nothing more than today's garbage. People, however, are unique. There will only ever be one of us … and not for very long. Frankly, it is a crime not to celebrate who and what you are, instead of lamenting over what you are not and were never meant to be.