• Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

Linkura

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,943
I was probably the only female in the thread and they were saying I was wrong because I was the only person who took issue.
 

Azem

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,005
What gets my goat is the "I'm a dude but this doesn't bother me" posts. Lucky I'm not a mod because I'd be handing out warnings left and right.
"I was just sharing my opinion. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I didn't say anything offensive. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I didn't imply that my opinion is the right one. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I don't need to meaningfully contribute. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ No, really, I don't even care about this discussion. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I totally support women. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I just think they're wrong about this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Oh, so women are the only ones allowed to have an opinion? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Sexist. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Whatever, you're clearly not interested in debate, I'm out. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯\_(ツ)_/¯"
 

Pet

More helpful than the IRS
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
7,070
SoCal
Go gargle a rooster ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


(I don't really know how to be nice when I'm annoyed.)
 

monapon

Member
Nov 9, 2017
253
Guy just told me in a thread that heels are lewd now to try to undermine my argument about how previous games in a certain series didn't have as lewd female outfits.

Today has been mentally exhausting.

Mm. I didn't really want to have to come out of lurking, but uh, sorry, I'm not a guy :P

Anyways, without dragging too much of that here, I just wanted to say I hope you had a better day, heels are totally cute when done tastefully in the case of that character even if there's a criminal lack of wedges in character designs, I dislike the lewd as much as you (more like hated at first but time has induced desensitization), but I'm also super super happy to see female characters in pants and flat heeled boots and not just the usual female character design tropes of skirts, leggings, thigh highs, high heels, boob windows, thigh windows, what have you, which is why I made that comment about why I didn't understand why the presence of female characters dressed in non traditionally feminine clothing would be necessarily a bad thing, even if I also loved that previous designs were feminine without being lewd and it would be nice if that had been maintained. It seems there was some misunderstanding because I don't feel like our positions should really be too different but I hope that clarifies my thoughts on that. Sorry for rambling!

*goes back to lurking*
 

Pet

More helpful than the IRS
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
7,070
SoCal
alvis.exe - may I offer you some free advice? Lurk less; post more. Let us know what you're against and what you're for.

;)

I'm kidding btw (you should do whatever you're comfortable with!), but your last line reminded me of that for whatever reason.
 

Aiustis

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
2,322
Cybertronic Purgatory
I sleep 4-5 hrs in summer/spring and 5-6 winter/fall.
My bf envies my ability to fall asleep practically on command.
That said I'm a super light sleeper and I get regular sleep paralysis and also do some crazy lucid dreaming.
 

Luap

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,894
Men of Reddit, what inappropriate question about women have you always wanted to ask?

There's some really funny shit in here. This one especially:

throwaway801780 said:
How often do you put fingers inside of yourself for non-masturbation reasons?
magnitude-of-light said:
During my period week. I dig out the blood slurry so it doesn't surprise blurt on the floor while I'm drying off after my shower

Omg. I never knew that, but I guess it makes sense. The responses absolutely slayed me.
 

Linkura

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,943
Mm. I didn't really want to have to come out of lurking, but uh, sorry, I'm not a guy :P

Anyways, without dragging too much of that here, I just wanted to say I hope you had a better day, heels are totally cute when done tastefully in the case of that character even if there's a criminal lack of wedges in character designs, I dislike the lewd as much as you (more like hated at first but time has induced desensitization), but I'm also super super happy to see female characters in pants and flat heeled boots and not just the usual female character design tropes of skirts, leggings, thigh highs, high heels, boob windows, thigh windows, what have you, which is why I made that comment about why I didn't understand why the presence of female characters dressed in non traditionally feminine clothing would be necessarily a bad thing, even if I also loved that previous designs were feminine without being lewd and it would be nice if that had been maintained. It seems there was some misunderstanding because I don't feel like our positions should really be too different but I hope that clarifies my thoughts on that. Sorry for rambling!

*goes back to lurking*
Firstly, my apologies for assuming your gender.

Two things regarding the subject at hand:
1. I was very taken aback by your suggestion that heels are lewd. Can you explain this? Feminity is not lewd.

2. The point I was trying to make was that the game seems to have no happy medium in regards to its representation of females. Either they are full-on lewd, or they are androgynous to the point that it's difficult to discern gender. My criticism is that there is definitely a wide middle option for depicting women that the game does not even attempt. It's particularly jarring considering they did a good job in previous games of the series making the women look clearly like women, but without egregious T&A. In my opinion, the way they depict women is piss poor compared to the previous games in the series.
 

Rory

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,159
The point I was trying to make was that the game seems to have no happy medium in regards to its representation of females. Either they are full-on lewd, or they are androgynous to the point that it's difficult to discern gender. My criticism is that there is definitely a wide middle option for depicting women that the game does not even attempt. It's particularly jarring considering they did a good job in previous games of the series making the women look clearly like women, but without egregious T&A. In my opinion, the way they depict women is piss poor compared to the previous games in the series.
Nobody has problems to tell the male and the female blades apart from one another but you up to now.

Maybe you shouldn't expect every female character to present their cleavage or display half of their body naked and/or in combination with items such as (high) heels which have always served a sexualizing purpose then you would be able to do so too?

Your examples in said thread were ridiculous. Meliaand Sharla do display way more skin than necessary and to actually say this is good female character design because of emphasizing breasts, long legs and high heels (I do wonder how you climb mountains with high heels, really, because that's what they are doing) is ... really, it doesnt make sense.

Oh for the rest of our audience the characters in question are:

Morag Tank (!)
Nia
 
Last edited:

Morrigan

Spear of the Metal Church
Member
Oct 24, 2017
34,401
Mm. I didn't really want to have to come out of lurking, but uh, sorry, I'm not a guy :P

Anyways, without dragging too much of that here, I just wanted to say I hope you had a better day, heels are totally cute when done tastefully in the case of that character even if there's a criminal lack of wedges in character designs, I dislike the lewd as much as you (more like hated at first but time has induced desensitization), but I'm also super super happy to see female characters in pants and flat heeled boots and not just the usual female character design tropes of skirts, leggings, thigh highs, high heels, boob windows, thigh windows, what have you, which is why I made that comment about why I didn't understand why the presence of female characters dressed in non traditionally feminine clothing would be necessarily a bad thing, even if I also loved that previous designs were feminine without being lewd and it would be nice if that had been maintained. It seems there was some misunderstanding because I don't feel like our positions should really be too different but I hope that clarifies my thoughts on that. Sorry for rambling!

*goes back to lurking*
I checked your posts in that thread and I just want to say, I agree with you. I think Linkura misunderstood your points. It happens, don't worry.

Linkura I don't think alvis is saying heels are lewd; but they are a needlessly gendered way to show "hey look this character is FEMALE and kinda hot/cute", even when the character wearing heels doesn't make sense for the context (same as boobplate etc.). But, I think what you are trying to say (correct me if I'm wrong), is that you'd like to see more feminine designs that aren't thrashy and sexualized, instead of replacing sexualized women with androgynous designs?

I don't know if that's really an issue at all. A few characters might be androgynous, but non-sexualized women can and do look very feminine, like Aloy, Emily, Titania, etc.
 

Linkura

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,943
Heels have always served a sexualizing purpose....?

Even a quick Google search says they were originally worn by men, but ooooook.

Otherwise, it just seems like no one is understanding my point at all, so I'll just stop with this post. I didn't mention Sharla at all in any of my posts because she does show a lot of skin. When I mentioned Melia, I forgot she has a window in her top, I will admit.

But anyway, I am exhausting myself trying to explain myself, so I am just going to stop. Looking forward to actually playing the game tomorrow.
 

Linkura

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,943
I checked your posts in that thread and I just want to say, I agree with you. I think Linkura misunderstood your points. It happens, don't worry.

Linkura I don't think alvis is saying heels are lewd; but they are a needlessly gendered way to show "hey look this character is FEMALE and kinda hot/cute", even when the character wearing heels doesn't make sense for the context (same as boobplate etc.). But, I think what you are trying to say (correct me if I'm wrong), is that you'd like to see more feminine designs that aren't thrashy and sexualized, instead of replacing sexualized women with androgynous designs?

I don't know if that's really an issue at all. A few characters might be androgynous, but non-sexualized women can and do look very feminine, like Aloy, Emily, Titania, etc.
Apologies for the double post as I am on mobile.

Morrigan, you have perfectly summarized the point I was trying to make with your last two paragraphs. Thank you. You're a real gem. I was writing my last post when you posted yours, so that one wasn't in response to you. But since you clearly articulated my point, I am very appreciative that we can put this to rest.
 

HyperFerret

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,140

This one gave me a chuckle.

Does your vagina fill with water when it's underwater? Or does it do the same as an ass and create a barrier

Not really, sometimes a bit of water comes out when you get out. But if you want it's fun to suck some water in like a pipette and shoot it out like a water gun.
 

Deleted member 1287

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
613
Oooof. I mean nice stylized feminine designs we could definitely use more of. But I personally don't subscribe to a way of dressing and stuff that is necessarily considered "feminine." I don't consider myself androgynous either. It's pretty obvious even though I never wear heels, dresses, or makeup. I could also easily tell those characters were female, with the exception of the one in more armor.

I guess what I'm saying is I take a bit of offense to the idea that a character should possess some typical feminine elements that I don't even apply to myself. I just get frustrated by what we're told we should wear to be more ladylike and this in a small way feels like that.
 

Morrigan

Spear of the Metal Church
Member
Oct 24, 2017
34,401
Oooof. I mean nice stylized feminine designs we could definitely use more of. But I personally don't subscribe to a way of dressing and stuff that is necessarily considered "feminine." I don't consider myself androgynous either. It's pretty obvious even though I never wear heels, dresses, or makeup. I could also easily tell those characters were female, with the exception of the one in more armor.

I guess what I'm saying is I take a bit of offense to the idea that a character should possess some typical feminine elements that I don't even apply to myself. I just get frustrated by what we're told we should wear to be more ladylike and this in a small way feels like that.
I agree too.

That said I can see what Linkura is getting at. I certainly don't want to "force femininity", but having some feminine designs that aren't thrashy can certainly look really cool and elegant and I can respect her desire for wanting such designs even if I am not a fan myself.

Linkura, what do you think of Lady Maria from Bloodborne? To me that's a perfect balance of femininity, badassness, and classiness.
 

Linkura

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,943
I agree too.

That said I can see what Linkura is getting at. I certainly don't want to "force femininity", but having some feminine designs that aren't thrashy can certainly look really cool and elegant and I can respect her desire for wanting such designs even if I am not a fan myself.

Linkura, what do you think of Lady Maria from Bloodborne? To me that's a perfect balance of femininity, badassness, and classiness.
The woman in your avatar, right? Love it.
 

Zuly

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,185
Puerto Rico
I always thought the valkyries in the Valkyrie Profile series looked really nice sans the goddamn breast plate.

latest
 

Deleted member 1287

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
613
I agree too.

That said I can see what Linkura is getting at. I certainly don't want to "force femininity", but having some feminine designs that aren't thrashy can certainly look really cool and elegant and I can respect her desire for wanting such designs even if I am not a fan myself.

Linkura, what do you think of Lady Maria from Bloodborne? To me that's a perfect balance of femininity, badassness, and classiness.
Right, we need more variety in good female designs overall.
 

PixelParty

User requested permanent ban
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
345
I feel as though I have nothing of value to contribute to the sexism discussions. I have stopped trying to reach people with reasonable argument. I don't have the energy or inclination to do it any longer.

I have accepted that the gaming community at large is hostile to women and has been since probably the late 1990s, if not longer. Speaking of my own personal experience, I never had a single negative experience, in person or online, until the early 2000s. Video games, dungeons and dragons, etc, used to be considered family activities. Many of the founding game designers were women, who have since been all but erased from history. Joyce Weisbecker, Carol Shaw, Roberta Williams, and the list goes on.

On a personal level, in the early 2000s I started noting a rising hostility towards me, both in physical spaces (shops and meetups) as well as online, simply for being a woman. And it isn't in just video games, it is the same in board game shops and comic book stores, any space where the "nerd male" is supreme.

As an example, my last visit to a board game store, the owner insisted I didn't know how to play L5R and attempted to persuade me to let him "teach me" in a very aggressive manner (while staring at my breasts in my lose fitting t-shirt), as obviously I, a woman, did not know how to play such a game. When I politely declined, he became hostile. This is not an isolated incident, nor it is contained to this one shop. This has pretty much been my standard interaction for over a decade now, which is why I almost always shop online. I could speak in detail of the comic shop employee who refused to sell me a graphic novel, or of the video game manager who insisted I was purchasing for my boyfriend, but most of us are familiar with the varying levels of everyday aggression towards women.

My choice has been to almost completely stop interacting with the community. I made an account here, but it's turned out to be just more of the same.
 

Morrigan

Spear of the Metal Church
Member
Oct 24, 2017
34,401
PixelParty I'm so sorry you had to deal with this. You are a welcome voice here and we are glad to have you.

I find myself incredibly fortunate to have largely escaped this kind of experience IRL. It's crazy how I've somehow managed to avoid receiving this kind of blatant sexism in my personal life despite being in several male-dominated fields. I wonder if my location has anything to do with it, or if I just give off scary vibes that repel misogynistic assholes (I'm not being serious right now) or what. I keep hearing these stories from so many women and it depresses and infuriates me that y'all have to deal with this shit so often. *hugs*
 
Last edited:

Linkura

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,943
I always thought the valkyries in the Valkyrie Profile series looked really nice sans the goddamn breast plate.

latest
I LOVE Lenneth's design. Great example. <3

PixelParty, I too have really grown tired of trying to reason with misogynists in sexism discussions. As you can see from the last page in this thread, it's even led to big misunderstandings on my part because at this point it's just all so exhausting that I'm immmediately on the defensive. Fortunately there's a lot of great women in this thread who are understanding and can commiserate.
 

kaytee

Member
Oct 28, 2017
440
USA
I feel as though I have nothing of value to contribute to the sexism discussions. I have stopped trying to reach people with reasonable argument. I don't have the energy or inclination to do it any longer.

I have accepted that the gaming community at large is hostile to women and has been since probably the late 1990s, if not longer. Speaking of my own personal experience, I never had a single negative experience, in person or online, until the early 2000s. Video games, dungeons and dragons, etc, used to be considered family activities. Many of the founding game designers were women, who have since been all but erased from history. Joyce Weisbecker, Carol Shaw, Roberta Williams, and the list goes on.

On a personal level, in the early 2000s I started noting a rising hostility towards me, both in physical spaces (shops and meetups) as well as online, simply for being a woman. And it isn't in just video games, it is the same in board game shops and comic book stores, any space where the "nerd male" is supreme.

As an example, my last visit to a board game store, the owner insisted I didn't know how to play L5R and attempted to persuade me to let him "teach me" in a very aggressive manner (while staring at my breasts in my lose fitting t-shirt), as obviously I, a woman, did not know how to play such a game. When I politely declined, he became hostile. This is not an isolated incident, nor it is contained to this one shop. This has pretty much been my standard interaction for over a decade now, which is why I almost always shop online. I could speak in detail of the comic shop employee who refused to sell me a graphic novel, or of the video game manager who insisted I was purchasing for my boyfriend, but most of us are familiar with the varying levels of everyday aggression towards women.

My choice has been to almost completely stop interacting with the community. I made an account here, but it's turned out to be just more of the same.

Yeah, there are multiple threads today that are just...... I can't do it today.
 

kaytee

Member
Oct 28, 2017
440
USA
Hello! Not too much, attended the funeral today for my uncle, was a really nice mass but my Godmother/Aunt (his wife) breaking down right as they were bringing the casket away at the end of the mass broke me after I was strong the entirety of it beforehand >_<

I'm so sorry to hear that :(

The Al Franken thread has suddenly turned into a giant cesspool. No way some people in there aren't baiting.

It's soooo bad. I can't go on Etcetera lately. My blood pressure shoots through the roof.
 

Fairy Godmother

Backward compatible
Moderator
Oct 27, 2017
3,289
Was not aware of a community for ladies here. Just want to say I'm surprised at the push back in "those" threads. You'd think this community is more open minded. Sucks when that happens.

Also I'm disappointed there were no new announcements with prominent female leads in recent gaming events. At least this year was pretty good I guess.
 
Oct 27, 2017
2,053
The Al Franken thread has suddenly turned into a giant cesspool. No way some people in there aren't baiting.

I've lost hours out of my day today pulling my hair out in that thread. I can't even reason with these people anymore because they will throw out the "oh, so you won't fall in line to support franken that means you aren't a real Democrat" line and I just go ballistic.

Supposedly reasonable people a-ok with saying "ok women, we are groping you and fondling you and forcing open mouth kisses on you all against your will, but at least we aren't forcibly penetrating you! A vote for D is a vote for women, hurrah!"
 

Leeness

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,888
Sigh. Victoria Secret and La Senza, you have failed me again.

I just want a slightly cheap push up for my Christmas party haha. Oh well.
 
Oct 25, 2017
185
Linkura, honestly, I'm very disappointed in a lot of the designs in XBC2 for the women. Looking at the Japanese twitter account and seeing all of the female blades, I feel as if there's a lot of "waifu" pandering with the designs. I brought this up in a previous thread and the responses I got were basically "this is just Japanese culture, so that makes it okay." -.- Even if the old XB games weren't perfect with representing women, they at least had more diverse designs (Elma, Lyn, Irina, Melia, Sharla, and Fiona are all visually distinct). The few non sexualized women in XBC2 don't make up for the ubiquity of weirdly sexy blades to collect. I would be fine if the female lead at least had a good design, but..

Regarding the last few posts about talking about diversity in ERA, I def feel like it's harder here than the old place, as I've mentioned. I don't even go to topics surrounding diversity anymore because I'm tired of reading the same stuff. I wanted that, i'd be on reddit :/ I still love the general community of ERA though.
 

Leeness

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,888
QueenVulpix, sorry for your loss :(

Linkura, honestly, I'm very disappointed in a lot of the designs in XBC2 for the women. Looking at the Japanese twitter account and seeing all of the female blades, I feel as if there's a lot of "waifu" pandering with the designs. I brought this up in a previous thread and the responses I got were basically "this is just Japanese culture, so that makes it okay." -.- Even if the old XB games weren't perfect with representing women, they at least had more diverse designs (Elma, Lyn, Irina, Melia, Sharla, and Fiona are all visually distinct). The few non sexualized women in XBC2 don't make up for the ubiquity of weirdly sexy blades to collect. I would be fine if the female lead at least had a good design, but..

Regarding the last few posts about talking about diversity in ERA, I def feel like it's harder here than the old place, as I've mentioned. I don't even go to topics surrounding diversity anymore because I'm tired of reading the same stuff. I wanted that, i'd be on reddit :/ I still love the general community of ERA though.

Agree on XBC2, the women characters are all a bit much.

But...Xeno is one of my favourite series, so I'll get it (someday...when the switch isn't so obscenely priced), roll my eyes at it, avoid most of the exceptionally stupid looking blades and that will be that. :/