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Blogpost 03-29-2016: A quick, little comic.

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2016 5:47 am
by Guus
As most of you know I am interested in social structures and power relations. So it is kind of impossible for me to ignore the current blog post.

Thunt, I want to tell you this (and others may correct me if they disagree):
There is no problem with finding someone (or a video game character) sexy. Physical attraction in itself is no problem whatsoever. It also happens universally, everyone has things they are attracted to and if they spot that then their mind will instantly become conscious about it. It's how people are wired. It becomes problematic only when you start to treat someone differently because of their looks, but that too is difficult and happens to people all the time for different reasons. This is not immoral, not evil, not sexist and not creepy. How you react to your observation and if that reaction is fair or not, that is what makes the observation of attractiveness sexist or not.

"I'm only going to play this character because I want to see her breasts jiggle and no other reason" is sexist.
"This character is sexy, but I play her because she has amazing bonus stats on her INT" is not sexist.

I could say a lot more, but I will dabble a bit too much in topics that don't need to be brought up here or should be done in another part of the forum.

If this is too controversial I apologize to the mods, I think I stayed reasonably within the lines. If it is creating too much of a "big thing" please move the thread to the appropriate place or delete it in its entirety.

Re: Blogpost 03-29-2016: A quick, little comic.

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2016 4:44 pm
by Sessine
I'm pretty sure Thunt doesn't need us to tell him that thinking of a video game character as sexy is neither immoral / evil, nor sexist / creepy... and despite the punch line being funny, the voice that tells him it's okay is NOT coming only from him wanting to feel the attraction. It's coming from his common sense.

He knows all that, I'm sure. At some level. The problem is that he has internalized certain messages about sexual attraction that DON'T make sense.

I imagine he drew this quick sketch to get his mind (and ours, too, maybe) focusing on the fact that these guilt-feelings are irrational.

You can't avoid accumulating irrational voices in your mind; everyone has some! But you CAN fight back and say, wait, this makes no sense.

Re: Blogpost 03-29-2016: A quick, little comic.

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2016 12:07 am
by WearsHats
He drew it to explain something he'd said on Twitter. These are not internal voices. This is how he feels "conservatives" (right) and "liberals" (left) want him to feel. (I think "Gamergate" and "anti-Gamergate" might be more accurate than the political divide.) What I think it comes down to is that the Internet amplifies the most extreme voices on either side of an argument. But I also think he's taking personally messages intended for the companies making the games.

But, as you said, more in-depth discussion should likely go in Controversy!

Re: Blogpost 03-29-2016: A quick, little comic.

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2016 11:16 am
by Glemp