Mike Doolittle, a writer at gamecritics.com, has contributed a very interesting article questioning some of the feminist views of fellow writer Alex Raymond. He mentions some specific portrayals of females in games and defends these representations as perfectly acceptable based on the idea of artistic freedom for game developers.
This sort of discussion on gender roles always fascinates me. There are some valid concerns on both sides of the argument, but I tend to agree with Mike Doolittle in the end. The article is overflowing with comments, but I'd like to invite people who have traditional ideas about gender roles to post them here. Of course comments that would directly counter those ideas are welcome also. What are your thoughts on the article? Have you been concerned in the past by the portrayal of females in video games or other media? Is the idea of gender roles important or an illusion that belongs in the past?
"We have a new writer in town, a self-proclaimed feminist by the name of Alex Raymond, who at the time of writing has graced our site with three op-eds on the representation of women in video games. While I think issues of gender representation in video games are a perfectly valid and worthwhile topic, I'm consistently finding Alex's articles to be misguided and occasionally misinformed attempts to promote dubious and unscientific ideals about female equality."
Link to the full article: http://www.gamecritics.com/mike-doolittle/are-game-developers-ethically-responsible-for-gender-roles-in-games
2 comments:
A feminist could nitpick and demonize an artist all day for including (or even not including) female subjects in his or her work. This goes against the idea of freedom in artistic expression which I am definitely in favor of. Discussions like these shouldn't receive the attention that they often do.
I agree that before we are men or women we are individuals. It's up to each person to decide what aspects of gender roles to follow or to toss aside. It may be true that when we look at subjects of a certain gender in an artist's work, our behavior could be influenced by it. However the same applies when we listen to feminist criticisms about that work. In fact, that criticism will most likely be even more direct in saying how women are and aren't supposed to be acting.
If the artist's work truly did portray females in a totally unrealistic manner then the majority of people would automatically recognize that and reject his or her work. It is not the artist who is at fault, but society for not living up to the expectations of these feminists.
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