nuclear waste aerobics

jm-henry said: “I don’t like how you’ve made Chie so weak and helpless" If that grinds your gears, imagine how game devs must feel. My point was that you’re contradicting yourself. Your attitude about “weak" females in gaming can be easily applied to your own work.

This is the last time I reply to your nonsense and only because I’m personally invested in my comic and won’t tolerate that kind of nonsense about it

I’m not contradicting myself.

The “weak" female character I have a beef with is the type who only exists to be a trophy for the male protagonist, to motivate his heroic quest and/or to be won as a reward (= usually the “damsel in distress"). It’s not cool because it reduces the woman into a passive item that has no independence, no agency, she can’t make choices, her life literally revolves around The Man and depends on his actions instead of her own. We’ve been force-feeding these gender roles to people for centuries - that men exist to do shit, and women exist to complement those men - and while it may have turned more subtle over the years (thanks to feminism), it won’t end until there’s a conscious effort to end it (with feminism). Thus we need female protagonists who fight their own battles. They’re still less common than the damsels, and that’s a problem.

That said, Chie does not match the description. She’s not a prop in Jon’s story because the story is about her. Granted she did get in trouble once and got saved by Jon, but it’s not romanticized. It’s not presented as a cute little bonding moment for the characters - it’s the opposite. Jon hates it and finds it unacceptable from Chie’s part that she failed to protect herself; she’s expected to grow a pair and not be a burden. Which she then strives to achieve.

jm-henry said: The point was especially made when she mentioned Phantomland, because by your own logic, Chie should be the character leading the story, but she doesn’t. By you own logic, your comic would be deemed sexist again, by your own logic.

Umm Chie is the main character. The story is told from her point of view.

She’s not as brave or powerful as other characters, but how would that negate her status as a protagonist?

Truly it grinds my gears on the rare occasion when someone goes “I don’t like how you’ve made Chie so weak and helpless” of course she’s weak and helpless THAT’S THE POINT x__x The story is about her learning to survive in a world populated by violent assholes is it really that hard to figure out??

Yes, women come with individual flaws and shortcomings. It’s called the bare basics of decent characterization and has nothing to do with sexism thank you very much

jm-henry said: Honestly, Anon makes a lot of really good points and your dismissive responses show how much you *want* this issue to exist. It makes your viewpoint sound entire faith-based since you refuse to do any sort of critical thinking.

Ppppfft dude, you again… There are sexist patterns in media, their existence and damaging effects have been proven countless times, thousands of people in different industries talk and write about it every day, I stack up those sources to support my argument, and you keep telling me that I’m literally imagining the whole problem

If you think that 3% of game protagonists being female is a reasonable number - then I’m sorry to inform you that no, you do NOT support gender equality, and that’s quite sad and unfortunate, and arguing with people like you is a giant waste of time (which we’ve already established previously!)

Haha I lost some followers after the rant

That’s too bad - while I intend to dedicate this blog mostly to my drawings, if you annoy me enough I WILL shed my gentle facade and out comes a vicious demonic ~tumblr feminist~ who won’t shut up until I’ve gotten my point across. Just a heads up

Thing is, not only do I play a lot, I will likely work in the videogame industry in the future which means I’m gonna run first-hand into a lot of bullshit that needs to be addressed and fought against. So yes these issues will be increasingly important to me the further I proceed on that path.

jm-henry said: It… isn’t? Why the persecution complex?
jm-henry said: Besides, we have much larger problems in the world than who does/ doesn’t show up in videogames. It’s just silly to me :/

Starving African children are an awful thing but, surprisingly, they do not negate the gender inequality that I witness and experience

You’re telling me women aren’t marginalised in games? Sexism is over huh? Don’t be that guy. You are making an ass of yourself

You’re a good person, I know you’re better than this. Do me a favor and educate yourself on the subject pretty please. I’m not gonna bother spelling out sexism and white male privilege to every guy I come across

jm-henry said: This is awesome, but can’t we all just enjoy games without doing the whole “gender war" thing? :(

“gender war”

as in “oh your gender is constantly being marginalised in videogames? why is that a problem to you?”