Take A Bow: Ms. Male Character Explored

[ismnotwasm]

The latest episode in Anita Sarkeesian’s Tropes Vs Women In Video Games series focuses on that most daft element of gaming: what Sarkeesian calls the Ms. Male Character. You know the ones – the pink version, or especially, the one with a bow on top. I confess to finding the “put a bow on it” meme to be very funny. The sheer absurdity of drawing a bow on the head of something to make it into a girl strikes me as comical. As a prolific doodler, it pleases me greatly to explain to someone that “this is a female teapot because it wears a bow.” Of course, realising that this is the depth to which so many games go when realising a female character rather brings that down. As ever, Sarkeesian explores the subject intricately. You can watch it below.

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What I find most interesting about this discussion is the key point that in gaming, women require “marks”. If a character is plain, it is by default, male. Whether it’s a plumber, hedgehog, alien or ball of rock, simply by being unmarked it’s a boy. Want a girl version? Colour it pink, add some long eyelashes, and put a bow on top. That reveals an absolutely intrinsic and inherent gender bias – a default assumption of maleness, with femaleness requiring a smothering of stereotyped decorations. Which of course says, “Boys are normal, girls are exceptions.” And yes, it’s just as true of cartoons, comics, and so on. But it remains true of games, and hey, we’re discussing games today.


I still think putting a bow on a rock to make it into a female rock is very funny. It strikes me more as a commentary on the ridiculous trope, rather than a participant. But you can see how when placed in the wider concept of the recurring pattern, it loses some of its charm. And it certainly does play into the trope, the reinforcing of the notion that default = male. This is, of course, an example of the nuance that is often missed in these critiques: something can remain individually interesting or humorous, and still play a part in a wider issue.

I’ve switched comments off on this post, because the hosting for RPS cost us a fortune, and I’m naffed if I’m going to pay for the usual Sarkeesian-haters to spew bile at our expense. Yes, this has the consequence that people who want to make counter-arguments, or rationally challenge assertions, and indeed those who want to voice support or agreement, are unable to at the bottom of this post, and I’m sorry about that. Thankfully my freedom-of-speech-destroying censorship powers only extend to the boundaries of this single website.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/11/25/take-a-bow-ms-male-character-explored/

What *I* find funny are the multitude of videos attempting to refute Sarkeesian’s contentions. Yet more whiny, perpetually outraged reactions. Too bad I have to work 12 hours today, I could spend the day posting about whiny perpetually outraged reactions-- when they're not out and out violent, of men threatened by feminist positions.

[NuclearDem]

1. I love Anita's videos, and she's absolutely right with this one.

Mass Effect's developer has had some issues when social stereotypes in their games (for example, the only black romance option in the Mass Effect series ends up cheating on Shepard and fathering a child with another woman, and gay characters don't make an appearance until the third game). I've always been part of that loyal FemShep crowd though.

[cemaphonic]

2. As a 39 year old male who likes computer games, and wishes the industry would grow up a bit..

I'm glad she's making these videos. While the abuse and invective on social media gets most of the headlines, her videos have also sparked a lot of genuine conversation on several of the game blogs and websites I read (such as the one that the OP is quoting). Maybe the industry will start to take notice, especially since it's not even really a predominantly male hobby anymore.

The only thing that grates on me about her videos is that she has a tendency to spout off TVTropes headers with no context as a sort of shorthand for critical analysis. She's hardly the first blogger/reviewer/youtuber/whatever to do this, and it always annoys me. To be fair though, it was a lot more pronounced in the first video than this one, so hopefully she's learning to curtail this.

[ismnotwasm]

3. I think she does that because she's trying to reach past the gamer community

It's an interesting series though