Oh boy! We knew it was only a matter of time until the trend of man-training books and movies like Men Are Like Dogs and Bring Your Husband to Heel would spread to online games, but we didn’t think it’d happen with this much gusto. The Boyfriend Trainer, with the tagline “No boyfriend is perfect! It’s time you trained him to become one,” is somehow even more ridiculous than it sounds.
In this game, rated appropriate for tweens, “training” means more than withholding sex—it means subjecting your eye-wandering, newspaper-dropping, sports-watching partner to slapping, Tasing, choking, and whacking with tennis rackets.
But before we crap ourselves with righteous indignation, let’s gather our wits about us, get some perspective, and consider what’s more harmful to young men: the barrage of misogyny and sexualized violence in mass-produced, “adult”-marketed, heavily distributed games such as Grand Theft Auto, or this laughable cartoon schlock, a stream of piss in an ocean of dime-store Web content designed for people with the most rudimentary understanding of gender relations.
Blogger Garland Grey comments on the lack of media outrage:
“Look at this thing you’ve never heard of! Why haven’t you come out against it yet?”
How many people are really going to play this “boyfriend trainer” game? How many people are going to be playing Duke Nukem Forever when it comes out? If [you] said, “What do you think about this game?” I would say, that’s abusive. Of course. But I’m not going to pretend that the two games are equally horrible or that we don’t live in a culture that sanctions sexualized violence against women.
Now produce an example of sexualized violence toward men that is being sold in Windows, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 formats, all across America, and you’ll look like less of a dipshit.
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If there were ever a choose-your-battles moment in the male blogosphere, it’d be now. Let’s have an adult conversation about the effects of hyper-realistic violence on boys, the racism and misogyny in the gaming community, and especially, as David Futrelle has asked, what women really want from games—and why those repelled by the morass of incivility on WoW or Xbox Live might be drawn elsewhere, be it Farmville or, you know, a game where you get to whack some tchotch with a tennis racket.
When we can address the deep-seated issues that plague and polarize the mainstream gaming community, then we can talk about the threat of AddictingGames.com—and why, suddenly, there are opportunities for anti-male baubles to make a profit.
Nothing like the HUNDREDS, probably thousands of games were men get to sexually abuse and rape women and little girls. These games are popular, men like these things.
send all your hate mail to the creator [email protected]
This is sure done by a broke gold digging skank who ignoring superiority of masculinity. As everything in world ( not cooking or raising children ) man lead and have to lead anything.
just a stupid flash game inspired by penis envyness.
Now you spoke like a true man. Like how most straight men think deep inside but are too hypocritical to admit.
I just wonder now how much men envy vaginas, though…bevcause most violent games against women are about raping them (and little girls as well).
Storm in a teacup.
Firstly, similar games exist for men. While they haven’t seen much coverage in the mainstream press (they’re mostly japanese imports you can’t find in a regular store) they have been covered by Kotaku and the like.
Secondly, the comparison to GTA and Duke Nukem is ridiculous. Both games rely on (satirical) gendered stereotypes. But it’s an absolute falsehood to say that they, or any other mainstream game, glorify violence against women. Violence against women is overwhelminly condemned in mainstream games, especially compared to depictions of violence against men.
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How about fighting games with female characters? The Soul Calibur series, in particular, has female characters that visit highly sexual violence on men. Ivy (a dominatrix archetype) can come up behind a guy, wrap a bladed whip around his neck, and step on his back while laughing. Sophitia, Cassandra, and Tali are also known to wrap their legs around a guy’s head during throws. Mortal Kombat’s female characters (particularly Sonya Blade and Mileena) are known for having “kiss of death” moves, where a blown or direct kiss can lead to an enemy (majority male) exploding, burning up, or being devoured.… Read more »
How about fighting games with female characters? The Soul Calibur series, in particular, has female characters that visit highly sexual violence on men. Ivy (a dominatrix archetype) can come up behind a guy, wrap a bladed whip around his neck, and step on his back while laughing. Sophitia, Cassandra, and Tali are also known to wrap their legs around a guy’s head during throws. You forgot Sohpitia’s groin kick…. Mortal Kombat’s female characters (particularly Sonya Blade and Mileena) are known for having “kiss of death” moves, where a blown or direct kiss can lead to an enemy (majority male) exploding,… Read more »
I’m sorry but I was under the assumption that this site was more along the lines of equality and anti-misandry, not petty rubbish and hyper sensitive feminist perspectives. ….. Is The Good Men Project just some front for Jezebel or something?
( PS. I’m not hating on anyone, I just wanna know the truth)
It’s an open content site that accepts articles from a variety of contributors. They don’t specifically publish one political ideology over another. If you’d like to submit an article to Lisa on the subject I’m sure there’s an email address around here somewhere.
Absolutely. You are right Peter, we accept contributions from all sides of the ideological spectrum. WingsOfLiberty, feel free to submit to me by email — [email protected]
I like this quote at the end: “When we can address the deep-seated issues that plague and polarize the mainstream gaming community, then we can talk about the threat of AddictingGames.com—and why, suddenly, there are opportunities for anti-male baubles to make a profit.” Hypocritical to the end. Believe it or not, seeing wrongful actions ignored elsewhere does not, actually, make you immune to actually addressing wrongful actions sitting right in front of you. I cannot help but think of a five year old’s remarks after throwing a rock at his little brother – “But he *started* it.”. Yeah, because we… Read more »
Honestly, I really would like to know what the author was hoping to get out of framing his article the way he did, because I’m honestly baffled. If he wanted to discuss portrayals of women in video games, as the last few paragraphs suggest, why not just start out with an article like that?
Seriously, why even bring up this “boyfriend abuse” game if you didn’t want it to be discussed?
I just don’t get it.
I wonder too, Paul. I’d take it as far as the site itself. What exactly is its real, intended purpose? If the goal is to talk about issues affecting men without making them feel ashamed for it, why do we have writers like Amanda Marcotte and Hugo contributing when they are well known for their biased slant towards Mens Rights Advocates and even male issues? Unless of course it can benefit women primarily, then they change their tune on the spot. Why are articles like this allowed to exist? Clearly, if this site is so adament about male issues then… Read more »
This article is disingenuous, not to mention somewhat strange. It’s like the author is angry that there are many games where you can mistreat women or whatever, and when a game like this comes out, he’s also angry… because he is reminded of those games where women get mistreated? huh? Also, I’ve been playing computer games since the early 1990s. I can’t think of a single example of a mainstream, successful game where the actual object of the game was to hurt or mistreat a woman, or where this was rewarded in any way (with the exception of fighting female… Read more »
For the people pulling out the Duke Nukems and GTAs bear in mind that the content in those game are secondary to the actual objective. I haven’t touched a Duke Nukem in a while but I’m pretty sure you can play through those entire games without engaging in that behavior and as far as I know you can play through any GTA game out there without running over a single prostitute (funny how people seem pull this up like they are the only people you can run over). In fact if I’m not mistaken in GTA3 if you stick to… Read more »
Oh okay..well that that makes running over female prostitutes (because there certainly aren’t any male prostitutes in the game) and strippers okay.
Sorry. I don’t care if ot’s a main goal or a secondary one. If there was a game that made it okay to steal a man’s wallet and then kick him out, I wouldn’t want my daughter playing it. Period.
Like I said, games use to be about saving the princess. Now they are about abusing nearly naked porno looking women.
Erin
There are no games “about abusing nearly naked porno looking women” there is a contraversal Japanese one that fits that description but on the whole your statement is a wild exaggeration.
Marketing non-consensual humiliation and control of men by women through multiple mainstream outlets 24/7 to the point it goes unnoticed by the masses is not ok because because of the few counter examples in video given by the OP.
So where did I say it was okay? What I am saying is that people seem to want to ignore that stuff like this (and that game “Hey Baby”) are created with the express intent of harming people yet we are supposed to believe that women being harmed are the ones that matter to the point of using a bait and switch post to say so? Sorry. I don’t care if ot’s a main goal or a secondary one. If there was a game that made it okay to steal a man’s wallet and then kick him out, I wouldn’t… Read more »
It’s not about “only” being outraged about what happens to women. It’s about also being outraged about what happens to women. The main compliant here is “what about men, what about men”. Yeah, talk about what happens to men! But have the courage to talk about what happens to women too. Have the honesty to admit degradation happens to women a heck of a lot. And have the heart to care about it just lke you care about how men are depicted.
“The main compliant here is “what about men, what about men”. ” I think this goes to show there is no safe space for men, men cannot be expected to talk about any persecution they may feel. They may not talk about how they feel unfairly portrayed in media, without someone claiming as women have it worse in all contexts, and thus thats the only issue worth paying attention to. This is specifically insulting considering this is SPECIFICALLY about abuse of a man in a SPECIFIC game. Erin, your derailing, falling into the oppression olympics http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Oppression_Olympics , or expressing plain… Read more »
Sad to say, but no. I don’t think we can. Because as long as even one woman has an unhappy life, we as men are expected to put everything aside to make sure we fix whatever problem she has. Don’t believe me? The rate of male suicide is five times greater than that of women… but all you ever hear about is depressed women “attempting” suicide. Five boys are actually dead, but the only thing anybody cares about is the one girl who tried to take her own life. Education is failing boys. But the only thing you’ll hear about… Read more »
Hey FlawinTheSystem, why don’t you finish that last part of my comments after that “what about men, what about men” statement? You know the part, the part where I said “Yeah, talk about what happens to men! But have the courage to talk about what happens to women too.” That’s right. I said “too”. Not “only”. So for you to claim that I asked men to “suck it up” is a complete disingenuous lie. Oh but that’s right, because admitting that I’m all for talking about man issues negates your victim position. How many times in this article did I… Read more »
Tell me Erin, where are men to go to discuss this issue without women coming in to demand we give consideration to how something effects women? If you want to discuss how women are affected by porn and other portrayals of them in media (and vice versa) you have literally thousands of feminist websites, mainstream newsites, and even religious sites if that appeals to you. Where are men to go? We can’t go to any of those places, because we’re told that “women have it worse” and that we should just suck it up. We’re told we’re displaying our “privilidge”… Read more »
I’m sorry Paul but where did I say you were whining? Did I or did I not agree that men face social issues. That games like Boyfriend Trainer aren’t healthy? That I wouldn’t choose to support such games by playing them? That I thought sitcoms that portrayed men poorly where bad for both men and women? Yes I said all those things. Right here in this article. But you choose to ignore that. You’re claim that I’m not for talking about male issues, is disingenous, because I made a ton of comments that I didn’t like the game “Boyfriend Trainer”… Read more »
“Oh but that’s right, because admitting that I’m all for talking about man issues negates your victim position. ” I am not a victim, I’m stronger than that. But my gender is poorly portrayed, as are women, and those who do not fit the gender binary. But you want to talk about women? http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/ http://geekfeminism.org/ http://restructure.wordpress.com/ http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/ Is it wrong to talk about women here? No, of course not, they have it bad too at times, just like men! But must the focus be women? I think not, but your many replies in the post indicate so. But in the… Read more »
Flaw, it’s really petty to list sites dedicated to women and cross your arms and say “see, see, this is what they talk about so we are only going to talk about *this*”. There are MANY sites dedicated to men that talk only about male issues. GMP seems to be a site for men, that has the openness to also breech gender lines. And that’s what men and women really need. Not sites for *just* women where they can have a b*tch fest about things and share no masculine point of view. And vice versa. Because those sites create seperation.… Read more »
“What better a place to talk about issues men face and issue women deal with too then a site dedicated to men. Don’t you think Flaw?”
And why not on sites dedicated to women too? Why not try that there AS WELL. But oh look, your derailing again.
But have the courage to talk about what happens to women too. Have the honesty to admit degradation happens to women a heck of a lot. And have the heart to care about it just lke you care about how men are depicted. Courage? Yeah it takes a lot of courage to feint concern about men then tell us to focus our attention on women instead which is what this post does. Courage would have been just simply talking about what happens to women through out the post instead (I think intentionally) pulling a switch like that. And for the… Read more »
“Oh okay..well that that makes running over female prostitutes (because there certainly aren’t any male prostitutes in the game) and strippers okay.”
You keep coming back to that. Running over prostitutes isn’t a specific feature of the game, you can run over *anyone.* Are you saying it’s worse to run over a digital parody of a prostitute than a digital parody of someone on their way to work?
I mean, let’s be real. If this were called “The Girlfriend Trainer,” you can bet there would be some serious outcry from all over the media.
And I highly doubt this would be a bait and switch style post starting off talking about how said game is anti-woman but then going into a game of “who has it worse?”.
Exactly. Someone finally got to the point.
I don’t find a game like this humorous in the least, and I personally make a game out of running people over in GTA (but I would never do that in real life, so don’t mistake me for a psycho, thank you very much).
They are teaching men to be submissive to women and women to control and emotionally and physically abuse men in advertising, sitcoms and now here is a game that teaches teen girls how to operate a D/s relationship.
This sort of thing will produce large amounts of misogny.
Erin: “Eagle, I am not familiar enough with the games you mentioned to know if they treat women respectfully or not. But for sake of argument, to trust your judgement and say they do, what does that have to do with the games that don’t? This is a deflection tactic. to avoid talking about a certain sect of games by pointing to others. I didn’t say that *all* video game treat women poorly. However, there is clearly a big market and appeal for games that do. And these games are becoming increasingly more graphic and popular.” I’m not deflecting. Instead,… Read more »
I would like to add that the Grand Theft Auto games are restricted to young boys anyway.
Its also worth pointing out Duke Nukem has no pornographic content. If you’d have played the game to any small amount you would know this. Its a 2D platform shooter. Duke Nukem 3D was the first to have such content, was released as 18+, so no children (not boys, that others girls who game) getting hold of it without flawed and neglectful parents. In every country i can find it was below 18+, the copy released was censored.
Also grand theft auto, 18+.
But I see no age rating on this boyfriend trainer.
Eagle, you’re still deflecting. I can’t force you to recognize the degradement of women through video games. It’s disappointing but I wish deep in my heart more men were for advocating for positive portrayals of women instead of the highly sexualized, sex toy images usually that seem so attractive to men. And I don’t know who you are quoting but it’s certainly not me..I never said anything in that whole paragraph you just said “and I quote”, that you claimed was me. Point me to what article you got that quote from. You’re either lying, or you’re getting it from… Read more »
Erin: “Eagle, you’re still deflecting. I can’t force you to recognize the degradement of women through video games. It’s disappointing but I wish deep in my heart more men were for advocating for positive portrayals of women instead of the highly sexualized, sex toy images usually that seem so attractive to men.” So it’s not enough for you to re-direct how I should be feeling offended. Now you’re making assumptions on my eglitarianism just because, you claim, that I don’t bring enough attention to the plight of female characters in video games. I try to offer you balance by giving… Read more »
One last thing I should add:
If Grand Theft Auto were making the games solely about abusing women as the main goal to win and advance in status, then I would feel outraged. In fact, I wouldn’t give the makers and distributors a dime of my money for purchase or rental purposes.
But that’s not what the games are about. They depict violence against both genders at equal levels while providing positive portrayls of women in them.
Thanks for the sincere apology on the misquoting Eagle. No, I am not making assumptions on your egalitarianism. Apparently it’s okay to misrepresent women in games because men are also misrepresented in games to a much lesser extent. And you don’t appear to like to discuss the gap out of it being unfair to men to admit that they have a bigger hand in degrading media content toward women in the gaming industry specifically. So somehow it’s *wrong* to make a factual statement of that accord. Apparently it’s much worse to smack a man (I in no way ever smacked… Read more »
Very well. Then we are at an impasse then. You believe I should get all hot and bothered because women can be prostitutes in Grand Theft Auto and I’ve told you, they are not the only portrayal of women in the game. There are women in the game who are on equal levels as the men in it, except to find them, you would have to play through the actual game. Follow the plot, complete the missions, don’t stray. Erin: “The difference between your argument and mine, is that you subjugate the degradation and objectification of women in media because… Read more »
Why don’t I tell you what I believe instead of *you* telling me what I believe Eagle. To me, it seems you’re defending and justifying showcasing women as prostitutes in GTA because it’s “optional”. (Again, there aren’t any man prostitutes are there?) You’re message is that optional degradement of women is okay. And as long as it’s not the “main” objective of the game, it’s okay to show treatment or signs of degradement of women in games. In “Boyfriend Trainer”, you can slap the “boyfriend”. In GTA, you can bang a prostitute, kick her out, beat her up, and take… Read more »
The real question I have is who would *want* to play this game? Who would possibly get any sort of enjoyment from playing it?
The women who are looking for men and who presumably hold the same sort of view of men as the game-makers do aren’t a huge game-playing market. Women who do play games would probably find it moronic and boring to play. Teenagers would probably get bored with it, dudes would have absolutely no desire to play with it, it would have very little appeal to the GLBT market… what kind of moron greenlit this project?
“The real question I have is who would *want* to play this game? Who would possibly get any sort of enjoyment from playing it?”
This sort of thing is huge with women, the media is awash with it, it sells many products. Its female game meets consumerism.
Aquaaba, I’m not so familier with games that project women using and portraying men in negative stereoptypical gender roles. If you know of any, please share. I’d love to know.
Erin
When I said female game, I meant the female game/relationship advice industry which is a large and very visible industry which is based around advice on how to manipulate men and the degrading of, minipulation of, emasculation of and violence towards men by women as humour is routine in sit-coms, film and advertising, this game is an extension of the systematic degradation of maleness in the culture, as is this article in which the op deflects makes it about women.
and men are routinely depicted as disposable death, violence and mutilation objects in computer games.
Well lets go full circle then and talk about pornography and it’s degrading and objectifying view of wom
…woops got cut off..
You talk like objectifications of women in other media aren’t made all the time Aquaaba. There are tons of negative messages about women in everyday tv, advertising and other popular men’s interests.
As I said before. I would be more okay with women being projected in equal terms as men, being out in the line of fire, being fully clothed, and having the same set of skills the men did then I am projections of prostitutes and strippers
Erin
Not to anywhere near the same extent, sex is used to sell and men do have an apatite for sex and attractive women as do many women, but there isn’t the same systematic and deliberate degradation of women and celebration of violence against women and humiliation of women broadcast on all channels as there is of men, no where near it, not even close, yes you will find women being trained and on leashed in consensual bdsm but you wont find teenage boys being trained to practice non consensual humiliation and control over women in the mainstream.
Yes. Please show us this.
I can at this writing moment find porn with fat women, with dominant women, with submissive women, with short women, with tall women, with women with glasses, with bold women, with black women, with asian women, with indian women and so on. But where can I find porn that contains men other than either fat and big dicked or ripped and big dicked?
Aquaaba, are you saying because men have an appetite for sex and attractive women it’s okay to objectify and stereotype women then? Maybe I am not understanding. I understand that porn isn’t “mainstream” in the same context that sitcoms are. But I would bet you serious money that you have more 11 year old boys watching pornography and playing video games then you do having them watch Everybody Loves Raymond. I see so many degrading things projected about women daily. Everywhere. I use to be in advertising. Google “degrading advertising” or “sexist advertising”. You don’t even have to type in… Read more »
Well Erin, sexual objectification is normal behaviour and something that all sexual people of all orientations do, its very feminist to expect others to prioritize the sexual objectification of women over that of other people and its even more feminist to expect others to prioritize that over training violent and emotional abuse of male targets , emasculation and humiliation of males as a cultural norm, genital torture of men as routine entrainment, men being depicted as violence, death and mutilation objects and so on, as well as that women routinely objectify men as sexual and status objects, no doubt you… Read more »
Plus the op is very out of touch with mens issues if he thinks that commercial misandry has just “suddenly appeared”. The mens movement have been writing about it for years.
Aquaaba, I didn’t realize not objectifying women is now about putting them on pedestals. But you cleared up my question. You do think objectification is okay per the other genders shallow desires. But I don’t. Call me crazy like that. You’re not willing to talk about it because I don’t think you care to give an equal quarry to how women are treated. You have yet to contribute one point on the subject. You’ve given me a earful about how you think men are abused, you are clearly troubled by it and I think you should be. There are poor… Read more »
Yes, but despite that this group exists, they’re not even traditionally consumers in the video games market. They’re probably not even fans of platforms like the Wii which do have a broad demographic appeal. Why bother making it if the people who it’s designed for won’t even buy or play the game?
How about GTA? Full of negative male stereotypes.
Eagle, I am not familiar enough with the games you mentioned to know if they treat women respectfully or not. But for sake of argument, to trust your judgement and say they do, what does that have to do with the games that don’t? This is a deflection tactic. to avoid talking about a certain sect of games by pointing to others. I didn’t say that *all* video game treat women poorly. However, there is clearly a big market and appeal for games that do. And these games are becoming increasingly more graphic and popular. You can disagree with my… Read more »
You can also run over men in the Grand Theft Auto series. It isn’t just prostitutes. You can run over any number of person in that series. GTA is just depicting an accurate setting to NYC. Do you deny that prostitutes roam the streets at night? Do you deny there are strip bars in NYC, primarily pandering to men? GTA is just a mirror for life. Everything is portrayed realistically in GTA because that’s how life works. In real life, you can run over hookers (with consequences, like there are in GTA, only temporary though), and you can run over… Read more »
Video games are now accurate projections of reality? That’s the first time I’ve heard that.
The good video games are, and what’s wrong with projecting reality through video games? If you were actually a gamer, you would understand the evolution of video games is going more toward realism than anything else, particularly among the hardcore gamer crowd. With the softcore gamer crowd, you’re still going to get games like Mario (which I love), Donkey Kong, and the like, but the hardcore gamers is where the money is at, and so because these gamers want realistic games, you’re going to get realistic games. And there’s nothing wrong with that, and I don’t see why you’re acting… Read more »
By the way, your princess saving games still exist. Buy a Wii, and you’ll find plenty of kid friendly games, all of which I love to play as well.
Not so much accurate as parodic. It depicts the kind of new york seen in crime films.
Erin: “In not any of these games where b*tches, hoes or cartoon girls with huge pornographic knockers. Not in any of these games where prostitutes run over or women were slapped. In not any of these games where men depicted as the sado-masochist take no prisnors,macho man. Back then, the games where about saving the day or saving the adorably decked out Princess in Pink. The cartoons where cartoons, not 3D porno fantasy people.” In case you hadn’t noticed, there are games that treat women with respect and, GASP, portray them as fully capable of saving the world. Where the… Read more »
I remember when Nintendo came out. My brother and I would stay after school at our mom’s friend’s house who had 5 boys. Their dad was always buying the boys big ticket items and they always had the newest of everything. Their father built them a huge football field in their front yard, a baseball diamond in the back and they were the first kids to get Nintendo. We had a lot of fun playing and I was lucky that among all that young boy male energy, they always let me play too. There were some awesome games! A few… Read more »
So when you were a kid you played kid’s games? It’s hardly surprising that adult games will have adult themes and content. I’m not sure what games you’re talking about but if it’s the GTA series (the one mentioned the most above) then I’m pretty sure the depiction of men (and women) is satire. As I mentioned above any scene which seriously depicted DV against women clearly condemned it and usually expected the main character to set things to rights. I’m not sure the fact that men gravitate towards hyper-masculine games is relevant. Women also gravitate towards hyper-feminine media that… Read more »
Devil’s advocate here, again. Let’s agree just for the sake of argument that there is far more male-on-female violence in video games. (I’m not saying there is, just posit this for the moment.) And, let’s say that the male-on-female violence is in games that are far more popular, played for much longer, and have a bigger impact on the culture. Let’s say then that we can just ignore the violence against men in the games because it’s so tiny compared to the violence against women. Okay, so tell me how common the anti-male images have to get before they count… Read more »
For me, I don’t think the point is to say that anti-male conversations have to reach a certain point before we start talking about them. I think we should talk about them. But again for me, it seems that guys are much quicker to see how they are mistreated, and disregard the mediums they are attracted to that are very anti-female. I don’t think men want to be abusive at all. But there are lots of mediums out there that show men treating women abusively and men, consciously or unconsciously, like it. And so often, the subject gets avoided being… Read more »
Probably because this article feels like a giant misdirect. It would be one thing if it was talking about violence against women in games from the start to finish. But no this is pretty much, “Hold up! Before you start complaining about how anti-male that is you should really be focusing your attention on this anti-female stuff going on.”
When presented in this manner I really have a hard time blaming people who feel like they are getting a “who has it worse?” pulled on them.
Thats a good point Danny. Honestly I’m wondering what the point of this article actually was. Why bring up a video game and then tell us we shouldn’t discuss it?
I mean, if one wanted to talk about negative portrayals of women in video games, fine, I guess, but make that the article you write.
“Even in this article, not too many men that posted so far said two cents about negative portrayls about women in video games. But it happens quite a bit.”
Look, I’m honestly not trying to sound snarky here, but do you think that might be because this site is (supposedly) for talking about men’s issues?
It’s okay Paul. I don’t think you sound snarky at all.
Do some of men’s issues not concern women and how men relate to women?
Sure. But must that be all that we ever talk about? How whatever relates to women? How it effects women?
The purpose of this site seems (and I’d bet this is why so many men are turned off by it) to be to improve men, …in order to help women.
helping men for the sake of helping men? Doesn’t compute.
Not true at all Paul. Currently on the home page here are the featured stories: Worthless Rookies On-Court Redemption A Wealth of Risk The Dick-tionary Mastering the Midnight Rodeo Isn’t Being Good Kisser Good Enough A Stroke a day You Should Wear your Wedding Ring Nice Guys: Finish First Without Pickup Gimmickry The Man Repellar: Not About Men Myth-Busting the Gender Wage Gap The Pound of Cure When Men need restraining orders Can We degenderize domestic violence All those articles are about men. The articles in the Relationship and Sex section of course also relate to women most of the… Read more »
Can you give examples? The GTA games I’ve played didn’t seem very misogynistic (the only time a woman was beaten up your character was expected to go out and save her, quite unlike the many many men killed throughout the game) and the closest Duke Nukem 3D got to misogyny was “having strippers in it.”
I can’t think of many mainstream games that show this kind of dehumanising sexism, against men or women. Mostly it’s just an issue of representation and stereotyping.
So let me see if I’ve gotten it right: You ask for a call-to-arms against Violent, Misogynic games like Grand Theft Auto, to clean up the act of the sexist against women videogames industry. But when games like this one, involving the same level of violence against men, from women I assume as this is “The Boyfriend Trainer”, they shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same breath as the former since its only budget flash freeware and all for a barrell of laughs? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought sexism worked both ways. And you guys are about… Read more »
Misogyny of video games? Really? Shall we look at the body count of men killed v that of women in … well, damn near every game? Or does it only count if the player goes “she’s got a nice rack” before blowing her face off? Lest anybody bring up the perrenial favorite of Grand Theft Auto…. Hey guess what? You actually do kill FAR MORE MEN in that game than you do women. Just like every. other. game. ever. But hey, nice try at the smoke and mirrors. “This games low budget so it can’t possibly be offensive! Now, let’s… Read more »
There’s similar low budget games that objectify women. Mostly they don’t leave japan.
I don’t understand how violence against men is always justifiable.
“slapping, Tasing, choking, and whacking with tennis rackets.”
People have gone to jail for doing these sorts of things to domesticated animals yet it is being encouraged as a method of “training” human beings.
Clark, you should check out games like Duke Nukem and Grand Theft Auto to see how they portray and treat women in it. I hope that works you up just as much.
As I mentioned below, let’s do a body count and see which gender has a higher pile.
pssst… it won’t be women. Even in games with female protagonists, like say Lara Croft, it will not be women.
I articulated below that I would be more okay with women being treated more like equals in video games, even if that meant a higher body count, showcasing women who were fully clothed and carrying guns and “in on the action” with the same set of skill sets as the men vs. projections of women nearly naked with porno graphic bodies being strippers and prostitutes being slapped around.
If it meant a higher body count it would be condemned as promoting “violence against women” as predictably as violence against men is ignored.
If the women were just as disposible as the men in body count terms you would instantly see the disposibility and all the twisted, distorted rhetoric about being in on the action and skill sets would evaporate.
If nearly naked men with pornographic bodies were depicted being slapped around I have no doubt you (and many others) would trivialise it as less problematical. Hypocrisy is hypocrisy.
Notice I said “human beings”…
Also the author is attempting to justify overt violence against men by citing games such ad Duke Nukem and Grand Theft
Notice I said “human beings”… Also the author is attempting to justify overt violence against men by citing games such ad Duke Nukem and Grand Theft Auto (as you’ve pointed out). I didn’t say violence against women was acceptable in those titles either. What I am saying is that when it comes to violence perpetuated by women against men its always downplayed as a non issue or “not that serious”. Even worse its framed as being a useful tool to train men and protect them from their (dangerous) nature. Using games such as Duke Nukem and GTA shouldn’t be used… Read more »
There are at least the following GTA games. Can you be a bit more specific as to what GTA game you are referring to?
GTA 1, GTA 2, GTA 3, GTA Advance, GTA China Town Wars.
Also GTA: Vice City, GTA: San Andreas (best of the lot IMO), GTA IV with its expansions…
A better comparison would be the rape simulation and “dating” games that come out of japan.
Women in GTA and Duke Nukem aren’t shown in the best light, neither are any of the men, but none of them really justify violence against women. If anything they’re far more likely to condone violence against men.
This game is funny. I laughed. So by that rationale, a game where a guy can smack around a woman for looking at other guys should be equally as amusing right? Because no one would get upset about a game like that. The GMP might spontaneously combust from the number of people clamoring to rage about that game. The GMP constantly takes little known studies that make the news and expounds on them. Yet this game comes out and you talk about the importance of NOT talking about it. You then go on to highlight this particular game, only to… Read more »
This video game simply perpetuates the view that violence from a female against a male is acceptable. Even if the video game is meant to be comical, it really shows a sad view of the game developers against men. Would a game depicting violence or “training” a woman be allowed anywhere? I think not, you would have all the Feminists in the word up in arms.
They exist actually, also “rape” games. And they do tend to have the feminists up in arms, even if they don’t make the front pages.