I opened a link to an old Time article on Anita Hill’s Legacy, and this came up as “Related“:
I’m a woman walking down the street alone. A man swaggers toward me and utters a sleazy come-on. I respond by leveling a gun in his direction and shooting him at close range. A gravestone pops up in his place, the epitaph inscribed with his last words: “I like your bounce, baby.”
__
This is the world of Hey Baby, a computer game in which hordes of men call out pickup lines that range from fairly innocent (“Excuse me, do you have a boyfriend?”) to pretty obscene (“I wanna lick you all over”). Players then choose whether to ignore the comment or shoot. The game’s tagline: “It’s payback time, boys.”…
__
Of the 344 females polled, Lotte Vermeulen, the study’s author, found that more than half said they didn’t mind shoot-’em-up stuff. “Women are not afraid of violence in games,” Vermeulen notes. “This violence, however, needs to have a humorous undertone as realistic battle scenes tend to put them off.”
__
That’s good news for the game’s creator, Suyin Looui, who says she intended the over-the-top violence to be seen as a joke. Hey Baby gives women “the space to act out their ridiculous revenge fantasies,” she says, “and have a laugh about it.”
(Megan Gibson, “Hey Baby: A Violent Video Game Geared to Women”, Friday, Oct. 08, 2010)
I wonder if there’s a programmer out there working on a plug-in where the targets can be customized?
Also, I can’t believe there’s not a tag here for ‘gaming’ or ‘video gaming’, so I must be overlooking it somehow.
Linda Featheringill
Oh, my. That sounds like fun.
A more interactive game, where you could insert the most irritating thing that So-and-So said and then decide how much violence to deliver on poor So, would also be fun.
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
Angry, ball-busting feminists. No wonder Real Murkins vote Republican.
beergoggles
Sounds to me like you’ll be waiting to catch up on all the past Hothead Paisan experiences you’ve missed out on.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
Open Thread? Open thread.
In which I suggest that maybe Israel should explore the possibility that its actions have real-world consequences:
Israel: Buffeted by fate? Or a character in its own play?
Just, you know: sayin’.
beltane
Does it have to be shoot-em-up or is there a feature that enables you to laugh at the perpetrator’s “equipment”?
Martin
@DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.: Rise of the feminazis! Rush called it!
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
Also, completely apropos of nothing:
Or babysitter’s brother is the drummer in an up and coming metal band, Veil of Maya. Or I thought it was a metal band — turns out it’s “progressive deathcore.” Which the Google tells me is some complicated subset of metal — but dude. I am sooooo out of my depth here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASzIvMddyxA
(The babysitter, just to complete the picture, is a 6′ 3″ young man who plays lacrosse. We have awesome neighbors!)
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@Martin: God, I’m so glad this is finally happening. I’ve been sitting by the door and waiting for ages. Finally – WE RISE!
freelancer
Sexism goes both ways you know…if programmers made a game where men shoot the “crazy” women they’ve been on dates with as soon as they say crazy scripted shit, NOW and every person here would rightfully be crying “Misogyny!”, but hey, “girls just wanna have fun.”
Ash Can
Ahem. On a moral and intellectual basis, I have to say that I object to this game’s violent and demeaning premise.
…On the basis of the fact that I’m a woman and that over my lifetime I’ve encountered my share of men whose faces I’ve wanted to break, and that I have the sense of humor of a 12-year-old to boot, this game sounds hilarious!
Origuy
Because we haven’t had a music thread in a long time.
Vishtèn Acadian from Prince Edward Island
Rosalita
Thelma and Louise for the next generation….
Just Some Fuckhead
Seems like a little harmless fun.
Reminds me of the time me and Mrs. Fuckhead acted out a little rape fantasy. She kneed me hard in the nuts and that little bit of fun was over.
lamh32
Okay,
I know you don’t know nothing bout this, but in myy hood, this title reminds me of this bounce song from New Orleans.
A Bay-bay
eemom
@freelancer:
um, no. Like WAY no.
You go on a date with someone, you assume the risk they’ll say crazy shit. If they do, you don’t go on dates with them again.
A woman walking down the street is a completely innocent target of asshole comments from asshole strangers.
As one who had a couple of particularly ugly experiences with this sort of thing back when I was younger and cuter, I actually don’t think this is a funny game at all. I like the tombstones.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@freelancer: Actually to be equivalent from the male point of view it would have to be like this: When the woman rejects the man’s advances he can either choose to let her go or have sex with her anyway (it wouldn’t be rape, it’s from the man’s POV). How do you think this game would go over?
stillnotking
That sounds like… an incredibly boring game. Is it really fun for more than 2 minutes?
Ash Can
@freelancer: I agree with your point, but what makes this different is the established, traditional power relationship. I mean, assuming you’re a man, imagine yourself physically smaller and weaker than most women. Then imagine the, ahem, pitching and catching equipment reversed. Now imagine having to deal with unwanted come-ons from random women on a fairly predictable basis (social settings, after work, at bars and parties, etc,). And many of them refusing to believe you when your answer is “no” right off the bat.
That’s what makes this game funny.
Anne Laurie
@freelancer:
__
Time‘s sophisticated affinity-based marketing program thinks that women will read about Anita Hill and want to commit imaginary violence on jackarse men. Why do you hate the ‘Related’ web-robots?
jeffreyw
I’m getting a bit hungry, it’s been a while since breakfast.
Sentient Puddle
@freelancer: Meh.
Linda Featheringill
@Ash Can:
Amen. I also object to the sexism in it, yet another example of men being slighted and picked upon.
And yes! It sounds like fun!
Maude
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Not well at all.
I don’t like this type of game.
A lot of teen aged girls play video games.
It also sounds stupid.
Hey Baby, Bang, you’re dead.
Linda Featheringill
I still think it would be nice to get even for some of the crappiest lines I’ve ever heard.
My nomination: “You have a child so we both know you aren’t a virgin. Why don’t you give me a little?”
Just Some Fuckhead
If Anita Hill had shot Clarence Thomas, we might have a functioning democracy right now. Just something to think about.
R-Jud
@eemom:
I had a “gauntlet” I had to run every day, to and from my El stop, when I lived in Chicago, and it seriously made me anxious about going outside. So I don’t think this game is a good idea, any more than I think beating up and murdering prostitutes in Grand Theft Auto is a good idea, but I can understand where the impulse behind it comes from.
stormhit
@stillnotking:
No, because it’s not actually a game. It’s a publicity stunt.
Sentient Puddle
@Ash Can:
I can’t. Dealing with frequent come-ons from random women is not something most men deal with (or if it is, I’m clearly doing something wrong), and then if we were to take the subset of the unwanted ones, that’d be quite a bit smaller (hey, sex appeal works on me).
But that’s also the point.
Men and women deal with different things, and to pretend otherwise is pretty damn foolish. Trying to say “This is clearly offensive because it would be if the genders were reversed!” is weaksauce because it’s trying to pretend that men and women are the same.
ETA: I don’t know if it’s clear or not after rereading what I wrote, but I am agreeing with you.
freelancer
@Ash Can:
Sorry for the whinging. I get it, and like most men that are 6’1, 190lbs, I take for granted the fact that I’m probably not going to be sexually assaulted or verbally intimidated just walking down the street.
From that, I see where the humor of this game (which is probably a super stupid flash game that will get no real notoriety,) turns that anxiety of just being in the world amongst threatening unknowns and turns it into empowerment.
My point was that we if made a point of shooting every man for a crude remark, there wouldn’t be a male alive today. And it’s that kind of one-sided eliminationist sentiment that a lot of women in American culture might agree with initially, that gets my ire up, and I find intellectually hypocritical.
Also, I really don’t care too much about it, cause it’s a freaking video game.
JWL
It more or less sounds like taking a rooting interest in an NFL game.
Or how it used to be, anyway, prior to league officials fucking everything up with new rules to “protect” namby pamby ball carriers. If a player isn’t prepared for the onset of middle aged dementia, he has no business being in the league.
R-Jud
@stillnotking: Probably not. It also looks crappy. Now, if it were a kind of Katamari Damacy, where you roll around balls of stuff, picking up the street harassers, that would probably be more up my alley.
Martin
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther: Just don’t shove me in an oven, okay?
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I think we’ve all had the fantasy of kneeing you hard in the nuts.
Lysana
@freelancer:
Balance of power. Scared that we get pissed off at being the target of your gender’s fuckwits much? PS – Sexism requires the power structure to enforce it. A woman can be anti-male, but sexism is your gender’s bailiwick, thanks for not owning your privilege.
No, sorry, the game isn’t sexist. Grand Theft Auto 4 is sexist. Also, one shot and a guy gets a tombstone with his last words over his head is cartoon violence. May as well bitch that Elmer Fudd practiced cruelty to animals when he shot Daffy Duck’s beak off.
MikeJ
@Lysana: Some of the characters in GTAIV are sexist. I don’t know that the game itself is.
Onihanzo
Greatest piss taking of the “Anita Hill should apologize” nonsense:
http://twitter.com/search?q=%23apologizeanita
freelancer
@MikeJ:
I don’t know, last time I burned a live hooker in front of a cop, the cop high-fived me.
kindness
Go Giants!
2wrongs
freelancer,
Don’t you know that there is no behavior that women can do or say that can’t be excused due to multiple past and future transgressions of men you don’t know?
suzanne
@freelancer:
The power differential doesn’t.
FAIL.
stormhit
@freelancer:
If you’re saying this happened in the game, I’m quite confident it didn’t.
Splitting Image
I think it’s hilarious. I’d play it to see all of the tombstones.
On the other hand, I’m a lifetime pedestrian who thinks Carmageddon is endlessly funny and I pull out Deer Avenger to play every so often for a bit of fun.
What can I say? I’m easily amused.
Even so, I agree with stillnotking. Unless the game has decent level design, the humour value won’t keep me occupied for too long at a time. Even the Carmageddon crew couldn’t maintain the series’ entertainment value past the first game.
Martin
@Splitting Image: Carmageddon was awesome. And yes, the sequel sucked donkey balls.
I really should dredge that game up.
suzanne
@freelancer:
Then stop making crude remarks.
And it’s that kind of equivocation that a lot of MRAs agree with, and I find intellectually lazy.
Privileged, party of one, your table is now available.
Martin
Obama is going to get Steve Jobs to make everyone vote Democratic by sending out Obama liberal mind-control rays through the iPhone.
freelancer
@stormhit:
Sarcasm, there, storm. GTA is a sandbox, what you do in it is up to you. Kill or punch a woman, and the cops still come after you. Hence, you are free to be a misogynistic asshole, but you are by no means rewarded for it.
gwangung
@2wrongs: This is an example of how the 2nd party ALWAYS gets the flag, not the instiagator.
Just Some Fuckhead
@That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal: Any time yer feelin froggy, I’ll be happy to let you try.
MikeJ
@Martin: Seattle this morning. Google tonight. Apple in between.
This can only mean one thing. He’s building skynet.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@beergoggles: Heh, I named one of my cats after her. It was either that or “Yaaargh get off you psycho bitch!” and the vet would have called the ASPCA.
freelancer
I’m not sure what “MRA” refers to. And it made me smirk to hear myself referred to as “Priveledged” simply because I’m a guy. I get that there’s an asymmetric power difference that’s unresolvable, but isn’t it the least bit condescending to women to infer that the entire gender is underpriveledged?
Lighten up, Frances.
scarshapedstar
You mean like where the targets say “I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!” and “WHERE’S THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE?!”
NobodySpecial
You all need something more peaceful in your lives.
Listen to this while I go play Modern Warfare 2.
Mark S.
I’ve never measured my two Maine Coons, but they sure as hell aren’t 4 feet long.
freelancer
@maus:
In the game, several “targets” are soft-selling themselves “Can I help you with something?”, but the object of the game is still blowing them away.
If approaching any woman, however politely, is the equivalent of dropping a C-Bomb, then this is the most ridiculous thread I’ve ever been privy to.
Just Some Fuckhead
@freelancer: You seem to be confusing a game with real life.
suzanne
@freelancer:
That’s why they invented a thing called “Google”. So you can look up things like that.
Actually, I called you “Privileged”.
It’s because of that unresolvable power difference that men enjoy greater privilege than women. That’s not “condescending”, that is the definition of sexism.
Wow, a tone argument! Seriously, I don’t think you could be more of a misogynist if you tried.
Comrade Dread
Seems like a harmless way to blow off steam. No need to get the ‘Violent video games are evol!’ card out yet.
At least not until the women playing this start to become gamers, buy an Xbox, go online, get subjected to 1,001 profane comments from 12-25 year old horny desperate idiots, get insanely pissed, and then decide to enact a shooting spree in real life.
Which… I suppose if they only targeted the Xbox Live trolls still wouldn’t be all that bad.
You know, never mind. Carry on, ladies.
Jennifer
Just curious, but is one of the men in the game lazily masturbating while wearing plastic shoes?
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Splitting Image: “On the other hand, I’m a lifetime pedestrian who thinks Carmageddon is endlessly funny…”
Same here, and I still play it to this day (esp. Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now). If someone made the Electro-Bastard Ray I would have one mounted on my car. I like to find unique ways to wipe out large groups of pedestrians, caribou, sheep and such. One fun way is to build up lots of cash and time, pick up the electro-bastard ray, accelerate to top speed, hit an angled surface to get airborne and bounce all over the place zapping everything in range.
Just be sure to repeatedly hit the repair key while doing this!
Our adult daughter grew up on Duke Nukem, Doom, Quake, Carmageddon and the like. She now plays online multiplayer games like Quake III & IV, Serious Sam, Left4Dead, Team Fortress, Day of Defeat, Counterstrike and the like. She runs her own Left4Dead, Team Fortress and Garry’s Mod servers that are up 24/7 (on my server hardware but she takes care of her own servers). She’s even dragged her Mom into Left4Dead and now there are times that our whole family is on her server killing zombies and finding new ways to fuck with the game code.
For example, playing L4D (or L4D2) with low gravity is a riot. Nothing like having tanks and hunters who can come after you way above the ground. She also replaced some of the sound files in the game so we have things like the Japanese Ronald McDonald yelling “Run Run Rooooo!” as he is stalking you, which changes to him mumbling “Hamburger Hamburger” over and over as he rips into you. The children singing in the background as Ronald rips into you just adds to the ambiance.
Shoot’em (or hack’em) if you got’em ladies! :)
General Stuck
I feel like Nurse Betty of the Balloon Juice soap operi/ Today’s feature. Who’s Your Bigot Daddy? The Juan Williams episode/ could someone spool up a juicy Israel (Jew) V. Palestinian thread later on? Those are the bestest for layered intrigue and unqualified bullshit. And would some one take DougJ’s foot out of his mouth, puhlease!
I gotta take a shower, and whip up a new batch of popcorn. Maybe when I get back this will blossom into all out gender warfare and I will curl up into a ball of ceaseless wonder.
Spaghetti Lee
@Sentient Puddle:
OK, then imagine a game where men were approached by their whiny, bitchy, clingy ex-girlfriends and then gleefully blew their brains out. Or some game where a guy got dragged to the mall one too many times then went on a killing spree. Still no problem?
Personally, I don’t games like this cause real-world violence, but that doesn’t mean it’s anything other than lizard-brain-level trash with the usual gender roles reversed.
WereBear
We already have a readily recognized analog to this from the men’s side; it’s the hysterical overreaction conservative men have to being in the same county as a possibly gay man, especially large and powerful ones.
But they don’t have the empathy or brains to recognize that, so they get all homophobic instead. Jerks.
Martin
@MikeJ:
Meh. Some of us have been living with a Skynet component as governor for some time now.
JamesHarrison
I wonder how many women would buy the game for the pleasure of shooting Ben Roethlisberger…..
Just Some Fuckhead
@Odie Hugh Manatee: That is awesome. I loved me some team fortress back in the day when it was still a Quake mod. Tell yer daughter you know the guy that discovered the indestructible sentry gun bug.
We have a more traditional family. Mrs. Fuckhead likes to watch her shows or TCM. The girl reads when she isn’t overwhelmed with school sports or her global studies program. The boy likes to play video games and it was a lot of fun stepping him through the first player shoot ’ems starting with Wolfenstein, going through the Dooms, Heretic, Duke Nukem and the rest. He still plays Dungeon Keeper, his favorite.
MikeJ
@Martin: Don’t blame me, I voted for WOPR.
Mark S.
The mouse control on that game really sucks. Trying to aim the gun often results in looking straight up at the sky. After killing three guys, I couldn’t find any more, so out of curiosity, I tried shooting a gal. She was impervious to bullets. Just trying to walk down the street gave me a headache.
freelancer
@suzanne:
The power difference I was referring to was the fact that I can walk down the street as a white man, and not have the fear of rape or assault in the back of my head, or have to steel myself against such anxiety. It’s akin to white privilege of not having to worry about DWB, which I’m sure is something that causes a nagging fear or stress. Yes, Racism and Sexism exist, but if I uniformly classified minorites or women as a priori “underprivileged”, that in and of itself is hugely condescending. At this point though, I doubt there is very little that I can say to you in this thread, there’s no response that I can give where you won’t go “SEE? That just shows you hate women.”
I was talking about a stupid video game. Let’s not turn this into “anyone not in full support of dumb ‘Girl Power’ electronic minutae is a member of the He-Man Woman Haters Club.”
lamh32
I think it’s funny, all the angst over Juan Williams.
The interesting thing is that his primary defenders are 1. conservatives, 2. fellow journalist.
Conservative because he was THE TOKEN Black “Liberal” guy on FOX news. If Juan Williams was on MSNBC (first of all, he probably wouldnt’ have felt comfortable enough to say the comments anyway), I bet dollars to donuts all this “concernerd conservatives” would not be so quickly defending Juan.
Journalist like Eugene Robinson, are defending Juan Williams, cause as they say, “there by the grace of God go I..”, and if not Juan, then it could be them next.
If anyone cared, they could research and see that NPR have had a laundry list of problems with Juan Williams. This incident was just the straw that broke the camels back.
Another thing, bully for Juan, he got 2 million for an extended role.
So what? Notice it’s an “extended role” but NOT HIS OWN SHOW! Which in and of itself tells you a whole hell of a lot, especially since Fox News can surely use some shall we say “diversity” in their “hosted programs”?
Also, this 2mill is a 2 headed sword now. At least with the NPR gig in his back pocket, Juan was not TOTALLY at the mercy of his Fox News overlord! Well now he has sold his soul, and Fox like their “liberals’ to follow their script. So Juan continues on in his chosen profession thanks to the “genorosity” of Fox News. And his soul will be more barren for it.
Look for Juan to either go full “Alan Combes” are to be even worse of a “Fox Liberal” than he already is.
Expect more stories or appearances involving Juan as the true evidence of the rift between Blacks and Obama. Here’s betting we will be seeing a Juan Williams special report on the truth behind the New Black Panther party.
Linda Featheringill
A little music for those of us who are tired but the battle isn’t won yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LMfkCfG_r8
Mark S.
Creationist scientists have discovered the oldest galaxy seen so far, nearly 5,500 years old!
Mnemosyne
@freelancer:
Because men are genetically incapable of learning and thinking, so therefore there’s no possible way they would stop making crude remarks if they were getting shot for making them.
They say feminists hate men, but they can’t hold a candle to what men think of other men.
Mnemosyne
@freelancer:
And yet you can’t understand why someone might find it cathartic to play a videogame where they get to vent that anxiety and make themselves feel better.
Mnemosyne
@Spaghetti Lee:
Because having to deal with people on a one-to-one level is the same thing as having strangers walk up to you on the street and drop their pants.
The Institute For A Meaningful Apocalypse
You’ve obviously never been aboard a 17th century expeditionary Naval Frigate .
K
I’m a game critic, and I remember evaluating this game when it first dropped for review. Controversy aside, it’s a pretty boring and crappy game. Take away the novelty of shooting sleezy pick up artists and there’s hardly a game at all.
HyperIon
@Just Some Fuckhead wrote:
Fuckhead, you are returning to previous form.
But I can’t decide if that’s a good thing….
Omnes Omnibus
Sounds like a dumb game. Also sounds harmless. YMMV. enjoy it if it floats your boat, otherwise don’t worry about it.
freelancer
@Mnemosyne:
I think a dumb video game where you shoot enemies to their bloody violent death that are doing nothing but talking to you is in poor taste, cathartic or not.
It is a dumb game, and I’m so ready to not worry about it.
PurpleGirl
I can easily understand the attraction of this game.
Coming in late but I want to comment on revenge fantasies:
At the time, A Fish Called Wanda was called out for how it treated a character who stuttered. Personally I liked the film and wasn’t bothered by the guy’s treatment because it was realistic or that they had a character who stuttered. However, I loved the ending… when he runs down the bully with a steamroller I felt like I was doing the same to every person who ever bullied me and made my life miserable. It felt good.
Just Some Fuckhead
@HyperIon: I’ve never changed form. Just because I don’t fall down and worship our President doesn’t mean I’ve changed. I consider him an employee. :)
catclub
@freelancer: “My point was that we if made a point of shooting every man for a crude remark, there wouldn’t be a male alive today.”
And MY point is that if you could buy a utiility Company for $200 the economy would collapse. But since it is a game,
the harm is slightly less.
TrishB
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, because it’s not like when taking the L in Chicago to work a major trade show that I had to explain to my coworker that she needed to ignore the guy jacking off in the seat across from us. Then, I realized how sick it was that I knew how to deal with the situation, and that I know how to use my elbows and knees to maximum effect on a standing room only car in the Bronx.
John Scalzi on privilege earlier this week: Things I don’t have to think about today
beergoggles
@kommrade reproductive vigor: I’m just amazed it’s still around after all these years.. and that someone else had heard of it.
HyperIon
@Jennifer wrote:
Thanks for the link.
Maher was right on target.
(Now I have to find out about Bret Farve.)
footnote: yeah, i know i spell his name differently than he does.
i NEVER understood that.
FYI: asterisks in comments cause strange effects…large fonts.
Just Some Fuckhead
@catclub: Utilities are only $150. And they aren’t worth that, IMHO. You might be thinking of the railroads.
freelancer
@TrishB:
Wow that Scalzi link was beautiful.
suzanne
@freelancer:
What is genuinely condescending is the implication that you know better than I do about my own position in the social hierarchy. You know, the way in which I exist in the world on a daily basis. Please, tell me some more about how recognizing injustice is condescending. I am truly grateful for your expertise in this area. Please deign to teach me some more.
Brick Oven Bill
Let’s not forget….
Thomas was the lone dissenter in the Savanah Redding case.
The case that was about school officials being able to strip search teenagers without a parent present.
He said it was allowed by the constitution.
Sometimes he mistakes what the constitution allows with his own deviant fantasies.
8 other justices thought it was wrong. He disagreed.
TrishB
@freelancer: Glad you liked it. I’ve been trying to disseminate it widely. Sometimes, it’s the small things people take for granted that make other people’s lives hell.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Brick Oven Bill:
lolz
Having laughed, I’m reminded you are dead to me. Carry on corpse.
freelancer
@suzanne:
I implied nothing of the sort. What I was referring to would be that I specifically don’t know what it’s like to be a woman. And living in a country where 1 in 3 women is sexually assaulted some time over the course of their lives, I was trying to empathize with what one might feel on the street. I know that insulted you, but if that kind of trying to raise consciousness and empathize with something we take for granted is an insult to all women, than I apologize, and you’re welcome.
The Institute For A Meaningful Apocalypse
We have studied this phenomena at The Institute, and found that phallic symbolism is no vice and for sake of level playing fields, can legally and morally be fashioned into weapons of choice, in love, war, and politics. We recommend rhetorical jockey straps for ‘cojone” countermeasure.
eemom
@freelancer:
No, actually, you were the one to turn some light chatter about a stupid video game into a misogynistic rant about why you can’t have a video game where you shoot women who say crazy shit on dates that you presumbly were not forced to go on.
And I do NOT use the “m” word lightly.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Just Some Fuckhead:
A family that slays together, stays together? :)
I forgot all about Heretic and Wolfenstein…lol! Toss in Redneck Rampage and RR2: Rides Again for some great fun. Our daughter grew up around computers so she is quite the geek. She likes to tell me how the guys in the Source/Valve universe are surprised to find out that she is a she. She’s a member of the SourceMod and Garry’s Mod groups, she writes and mods code to customize her servers and clients, makes humorous machinima clips (like her ‘Aggressive Insurance’ clip starring her Source versions of Beavis & Butthead), uses 3D Studio Max to create custom 3D animations for Source and the like.
Darned proud of that girl I am! She really likes to screw with people by adding ‘games’ to her Valve client like “Notepad: Deathmatch Edition”, “Multiplayer Solitaire”, “Paint: Super Sentai Edition” and such. It really gets people scratching their heads as to where and how she obtained these ‘games’.
I guess she like to fuck with peoples heads. Gee, I wonder where she got that?
Mark S.
@Brick Oven Bill:
I forgot about that case:
freelancer
@eemom:
What a bullshit strawman. I wasn’t pining for equally sexist misogynistic “men shooting women” video games.
Here’s EXACTLY what I said:
I said if the game that you falsely say I want so badly were made, women as a bloc, and every person here rightly, rightly, RIGHTLY would have been outraged.
Did you catch that?
Just Some Fuckhead
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Gotta say, I love the stereotypical gender role busting. You should be very proud, and I don’t say that lightly.
Spaghetti Lee
@Mnemosyne:
As freelancer pointed out, in this game, men get shot for basically approaching a woman, so I don’t see how my comparison is too far off the mark.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Me too. Nothing like smashing preconceptions to lil’ bits. She loves telling me every time she helps someone set up a server or crunch some code and when that person finds out she’s an early-20’s she. She uses a gender-neutral nym that can be mistaken for a male name (her nym is the first two letters of her first, middle and last names) and doesn’t advertise her gender in any way. She loves to tell me when the guys are talking about chicks in the IRC code chat and she tells them that she prefers dudes. Everybody assumes that she’s a gay guy.
She doesn’t set them straight either…lol!
Just Some Fuckhead
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Ha!
Well, I failed with my own daughter. She likes typical girl stuff: boys, Jonas Brothers, texting with her friends, Facebook, reading, etc. She wants to be a writer, which is cool because we’ll need someone still living at home to take care of us when we’re older.
Spaghetti Lee
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Reading qualifies as a girl thing now? Man, times have changed.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Spaghetti Lee: Yeah, I shoulda finished that: “reading the Twilight series”.
Spaghetti Lee
@Just Some Fuckhead:
My 55-year-old uncle likes the Twilight books. No, he’s not a pedophile or a sex-offender. He’s actually an ex-University of Chicago professor, so maybe Twilight love has something to do with Friedman fetishism.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Just Some Fuckhead:
If she likes reading then you haven’t failed at all. Our home is like a library with the number of books that we have. Our kids were raised to read and read they do. There is no better way to exercise your mind and learn new things than reading about things that interest you or expand your horizons.
Good on you and your wife for having a book worm!
@Spaghetti Lee:
No shit, I’ve been a rabid reader all my life. No wonder I’m such a pussy!
Odie Hugh Manatee
Oops! Once again I have angered teh BJ Mod Gawd and it has decided to mull my post over to see if it’s worthy of publication in these hallowed halls of hilarity.
I patiently await its judgment.
Mnemosyne
@Spaghetti Lee:
Everybody has a moment or two where they imagine killing the guy who just cut them off on the freeway, but not everyone imagines killing their spouse because she dragged them to the mall one too many times.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Mnemosyne: Little do you know.
Mnemosyne
@freelancer:
The problem is that the two things are not actually equivalent.
Weirdly, this whole argument is reminding me of when Thelma and Louise came out and you had social commentators wringing their hands about how the film was going to cause an ORGY of VIOLENCE because in the course of the film they killed two (2) men.
That same summer, at least 250 people died in the course of Die Hard 2 once they ran that jumbo jet into the tarmac, but that was okay because shut up, that’s why.
Mnemosyne
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I rest my case.
zuzu
@freelancer:
It’s akin to white privilege because it IS privilege. This is one of the ways that men are privileged. You may not think of it as privilege because you don’t think about being afraid of rape or assault.
That’s the privilege: You don’t have to spend your time thinking about this. Just because it makes you uncomfortable to have to think about your life as privileged doesn’t mean it isn’t.
zuzu
@Spaghetti Lee:
How is the woman to know your intentions when you approach her? Lots of men think they’re being polite, but their behavior reads as threatening. Or maybe the woman has had one too many men approach her with a seemingly-innocuous opening line, only to turn threatening, or even violent, when she ignores them or turns them down.
The game is a fantasy of the powerless getting revenge on the powerful.
suzanne
@freelancer:
No, what insulted me is the assertion that it is condescending to women/minorities to state that they have less privilege than dominant classes. Stating that one group is less privileged than another is not a value judgment, it is a statement of position in a social hierarchy. And in a society in which one out of three women will be sexually violated and the vast majority will make on average 25% less than a man with the same experience and education, it is patently ludicrous to suggest that women have NOT been systematically marginalized/underprivileged for the sake of men. But, again, by all means, please tell me, a woman, what I should find condescending.
Spaghetti Lee
@zuzu:
I get that it’s a game, and not reality, but do most women think this way, realistically? I mean, they’ve got jobs, they go out to restaurants and bars and such. There are men there. Do they all get tagged with “potential assaulter” for being men? If a man is unknowingly acting intimidating, maybe a better idea would be for the woman to tell he’s being a little too pushy first, before violence becomes necessary. If a woman is unsure of my intentions, maybe she should at least take the time to try to figure out what they are before taking action. This is not an unreasonable request, is it?
I’m aware that women may have to concern themselves more with personal safety, and I’ll obviously never fully be aware of how a woman lives her life in that context, but I think this is going overboard. You’re basically saying that the idea of any man’s actions towards a woman being so inherently suspect that shooting him in the face is an acceptable response is a perfectly legitimate idea, and I just don’t but that. Really, I don’t see how the idea that men as a gender are so violent that uniform distrust of all of us is any different than thinking that interacting with black people is risky enough that one would be better off avoiding it. Irrational bigotry is still irrational, even when it’s coming from a traditionally oppressed group.
I don’t mind revenge fantasies, and I think the idea of customizing the game with people you yourself hate would be dandy, or maybe if it was about shooting unrealistically ugly and grotesque caricatures of male chauvinism. Right now it seems to be a game that celebrates hating men for being men, and doing things that men do. That’s just not OK in my book.
suzanne
@Spaghetti Lee:
It wouldn’t be an unreasonable request if there was some way to know that you would not respond in an unreasonable manner. However, there is no way for a woman to know if a guy who seems at first merely mildly pushy or creepy will actually take no for a fucking answer. As stated above many times, one in three women will be raped. So the odds are actually pretty damn high that you’re going to put her in a situation in which violence becomes necessary. And no woman owes you the time to figure out whether or not you’re a rapist or merely an asshole. The onus is on YOU to not be a creepy, pushy, intimidating asshole. I realize this is a challenge for many.
No, she’s saying that enough women have dealt with enough creepy, pushy, intimidating assholes that, for some, this sort of revenge *fantasy* (do I need to repeat that? *FANTASY*) can be a cathartic way of dealing with the problem. No one has advocated actual violence against men.
Did anyone mention any women actually withdrawing from any and all male contact? Uh, no. This is a work of satire, and obviously many women identify their own lived experiences in this game. That’s not bigotry. THAT’S THE REAL FUCKING PROBLEM.
Yes, it celebrates mocking men FOR BEING PUSHY, CREEPY ASSHOLES. Not for asking me out for Chinese food. Not for offering to hold the damn door. So spare me the male-victimization bullshit. The problem is that almost every woman in our society has been the victim of street harassment. If men find being the target of this satire this uncomfortable, maybe they should stop harassing women on the street.
God, my suggestions are *so* ludicrous.
Spaghetti Lee
@suzanne:
You did see the part at the beginning where I said I know it’s a game and not reality, right? It’s possible to critique the ideas behind a game while remaining aware that it’s not really happening.
Also, nowhere did I use the term “male victimization” or any intimation that I think men are the “real victims”. And I also said that I’m aware that women face challenges that men don’t. Please critique what I actually said.
Mnemosyne
@Spaghetti Lee:
Yes. Because no matter how well you try to screen them and how closely you watch the men of your acquaintance, sometimes a squirrelly one gets through and you don’t find out until too late that he’s not going to just have one drink and then go home. Or that he’s been secretly hoping he can be your “friend with benefits” and becomes enraged when he discovers that no benefits will be forthcoming.
I realize that this is astonishing to you but it’s true: every woman who sees you every day does a quick calculation to figure out if you’re a rapist or not. Your girlfriend or wife has this as a secret worry in the back of her head, because we all know either through personal experience or through the experiences of our friends that you just don’t know until it’s too late.
I live three blocks from the grocery store in a very safe neighborhood, but if I need to go to the store after dark, I always drive. Because if God forbid something should happen and some guy jumps out of the bushes and attacks me, the very first question that everyone is going to ask me is, “But why were you walking alone at night? Didn’t you know this might happen?”
That’s how we’re expected to live our lives: suspecting every man we come in contact with of being a potential assaulter because men can’t possibly be expected to control themselves and if they can’t, well, we should have known what could happen if we led him on / let him into the apartment / went on a date with him / walked down the street after dark. We have to police all of our interactions with men because society tells everyone that you aren’t responsible for your actions towards us and any bad actions on your part are our fault.
vaux-rien
@suzanne:
No, no, no, no, no. Expecting people to google net-centic acronyms, not even remotely fucking cool.
Not that you shouldn’t use them or are obligated to explain them but if you wish to communicate with people who aren’t regular Pandagon commenters it’s best not to use them.
And MRA stands for “Moral Re-Armament” which was a progressive Christian organization which spawned both Up With People and Alcoholics Anonymous.
Or maybe you meant something else, but the meaning of a communication is in the way it’s understood.
stormhit
@Mnemosyne:
That’s what they deserve for identifying first and foremost as males.