King's Speech: Women in gaming (rant)

As king of this blog, and by extension the entire internet, I've decide that it is time to make a proclamation of sorts...okay really it's a rant but saying proclamation has a certain ring to it that makes me feel all regal. Ok enough with the pleasantries, let's get down to it.

It seems like you can't talk about anything related to the gaming world for more than 2 seconds without women being mentioned, which in itself is fine but when the conversation is always "the conversation" it starts to sound less and less like a conversation and more like a brainwashing technique to get you to believe women are under attack. How many times have you heard that the gaming industry doesn't want women working in it? How it's not inclusive to women? How women are subjected to unreal amounts of harassment and misogyny? My guess is you've heard it over 9000 times (yeah I still make that reference in 2015) but how many times have you've heard it from women who are in the industry? I bet the number falls drastically doesn't it? That's is precisely why media outlets do not talk to these women, they totally defeat the narrative that has been established by those who benefit from it and well they benefit from it so no way are they gonna essentially bury themselves by giving them a voice. I am so sick and tired of everyone speaking on behalf of the women in the industry, especially when it's men telling these women that they are actually oppressed and need help. What kind of logic is that to tell a woman that believes she can do it on her own that she cannot do it unless a man is helping her? Did you go so far to not be misogynistic that you actually became misogynistic? It's not just limited to women who work in gaming either as game characters have often bore the brunt of criticism.

  

.

A common complaint about videogame women is that they represent an unrealistic standard of beauty for women to obtain and that it's damaging to real women, but if that were the case they why is it that so many women cosplay as these characters? If they truly damaged them in the way the media says they do then wouldn't you see an over abundance of Peach cosplayers instead of seeing a million different Ivy ones? To me there seems to be a sort of war on women but no the one that you might be thinking of. As I said earlier you don't see as many Peach cosplayers as you do Ivy but at the same time when is the last time a "progressive" gaming site went after Peach for the way she looks? It's probably something you don't remember off the top of your head but if I were to ask you when the last time a character like Bayonetta was under fire, I'm sure you could give me enough sources to write a book on and that is the exact war I am talking about. It seems as if sexy women are no longer women, no wait that is wrong; sexy women are the wrong kind of women. Women are no longer allowed to be sexy because that means that they exist for the pleasure of men and definitely cannot be individuals that have their own agency and are comfortable/confident in their own skin. PAX recently changed their dress code policy so that women would not be allowed to show "aggressive cleavage" or anything that would basically be defined as revealing in an effort to make it more welcoming ( look here ). How can it be more welcoming if you are telling people that were able to go without such restrictions that they are now restricted? They mention how it is to keep the focus on games but if seeing an attractive woman takes away so much focus then the people who go to PAX don't really care about games now do they? I mean if I were at a panel and had the chance to demo a game I've been waiting for my focus will definitely be on that and not whatever costume a woman decides to wear.

TL;DR: All of this talk about women in gaming is getting incredibly sexist because more often than not it is about how they look and not about what they do or how they act. Too often do we see articles talking about how x female character hurts women but rarely do we see how x character empowers women. We've gone way overboard on this topic and it's starting to do way more harm than good; we now effectively have what are acceptable and non acceptable portrayals of women in both gaming and real life; wearing a revealing outfit? Who cares if you are intelligent and capable, you aren't acceptable...you must be y instead of x in order for us to view you as a woman that is worthy of respect. My decree is as follows:  STOP TRYING TO TELL WOMEN HOW TO BE/WHAT THEY SHOULD BE OFFENDED BY AND LET THEM THINK AND ACT FOR THEMSELVES. IF YOU TRULY WANT TO EMPOWER/SUPPORT WOMEN THEN QUIT TREATING THEM LIKE THESE FRAGILE CREATURES THAT NEED CONSTANT PROTECTION.

The king has spoken.