| Jun. 20th, 2012 @ 10:37 pm To those who complain about "portrayal of females in media" |
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1) It boils down to the new feminist rule: Only women are allowed to find anything sexually attractive; only men are allowed to BE sexually attractive. Any variation on this equation is to be called “sexist.”
This, it should not have to be said, is crap.
2)women and men are different, YAY. That includes in what constitutes sexy. Muscular men, curvy women— sexy. Curvy men, muscular women– not sexy. The fact that you are throwing a temper tantrum about how "you never see MEN posing like this" just underlines that you can't tell the difference between women and men and lowers everyone's estimation of your IQ.
3)Why is it that portrayals of ridiculously ideal women is such a peril to the self-esteem of young girls everywhere— yet portrayals of ridiculously ideal men are NOT a peril to the self-esteem of young men? Are you really willing to admit that women are emotionally weaker than men, or do you want to admit to a double standard? Because either one looks like a losing option for you.
If you want to be treated "equally," that means you need to do what you keep telling put-upon men to do--- you need to toughen up and get over it, and stop running off to your stupid girlfriends to sit around having a crying jag. |
rhjunior
In the first Mass Effect game, the writers present a female character meant for Male Shepard to fall in love with, and a male character meant for Female Shepard to fall in love with. The male character, Kaidan Alenko, is one of those ridiculous ideals. He's supposed to have a handsome face, a handsome figure, that vulnerable personality that supposedly chicks dig, and I heard they chose the actor specifically for his 'sexy' lover voice.
The game was released, and in a very short amount of time we had a huge fan base, made up of female players, centered around dark horse Garrus Vakarian, an alien with backwards-jointed legs whose figure is mostly obscured by his ridiculous armor. Ah, but he had a voice like brushed velvet with a very slight drawl, a wry sense of humor, and he was tough and independent. You very much had the feeling that he was his own man, and he was accompanying you because you were doing things he wanted to do, not because he was in any way subservient. Unflinchingly loyal, but always as his own man.
The women went for him in droves, despite the fact that turians technically have left-handed amino acids and can't even french-kiss a human without potentially killing both of them.
There's also an interesting lesson in how the men abandoned tough-girl feminist-dream Ashley to have numerous fantasies about Tali, whose face you never even saw, because they were drawn by her vulnerable innocence and the mystery of, well, never seeing her face... But the original post here seems to be centered on making men 'sexy' for women, so let's stick with Garrus for now.
(I'm a Garrus fan, too... Kaidan, 'sadly', perished on Virmire...)
*Snort* Okay, now you're just trying to kill my keyboard. Impressively phrased, though.
Rather, it seemed to come down to character developement. Less of them tend to be cookie cutter characters. Well done stories seemed to spend a decent chunk that prop the villain up. Give him a reason to be something dreadful. Sure they still can be cookie cutter like heros can be. However, even when they are in some ways like 'hah I'm a corporate master', they still have more things that sometimes set them apart from the hero. Primary heros seemed more often forced into a set look, set of lines, behaviors, and other things. Often why next to the main villains, secondary characters were still overwhelmingly more liked than the primary hero. Side characters and villains seem to be less controlled and therefor have more quirks.
I think it boils down to the same thing really. We're told we have to like this kind of man or woman. We have to like this type of hero with this type of motivations. The same forced love story with lil to no variants that villains often are not bogged down with. Nor bogged down with the same, 'woe I got issues so I don't know that I can do this whine whine whine'. They see the villain, confidant, knows what he wants, has reasons to do what he does. Or they look at the secondary character who has never whined about the mission, never cried about his past, has stable relationships, witty humour, a handsome figure, or whatever have you and go. No no, I'd rather have that.
What you said about her is true, she was, of all three of the females in the first game, the most imperfect. Both Ashley and Liara were trying to hard to be some sort of ideal, each perfect in their own way with just enough flaw to make them seem human.
Tali on the other hand, was alien in every sense of the word. Smart, cheerful, until she's homesick and don't tell me her voice actor doesn't make your heart hurt for her, and despite being tough as nails comes off with that vulnerable innocence, and then the mystery of her, what does she really look like. Not just her face, but all of her.
Ladies let Tali'zora be an lesson to you, men will find you far more alluring if you leave us a mystery to solve.
That said, my FemShep hearts Garrus and my MaleShep hearts Tali for the win.
It's also completely off the point. Point still stands. Whiny Women complain about how portrayals of unrealistic sexy women "damage" little girls (healthy, attractive, and come-hither, oh gods no!) but somehow nobody thinks that unrealistic overmuscled portrayals of men damages little boys. Why? reality time: because males are expected to-- and somehow manage-- to survive those hurtful hurtful portrayals.... and actually find nothing wrong in aspiring to features of those "unrealistic" characters.