WoW and Body Image
I took a trip through No Cookies for Me and found this cool article.
In fact, both the male and female avatars share many qualities with the typical portrayals that Sheri Graner Ray outlined in her 2004 book Gender Inclusive Game Design. For women she described avatars with exaggerated sexual features such as large breasts set high on their torso, large buttocks, and a waist smaller than her head.6 For men she described avatars with exaggerated signs of virility such as broad shoulders, slim hips, and arms that are well-muscled. In contrast to the female avatars, however, their sexual organs are not exaggerated
I will say this about WoW: it doesn’t matter in the gameplay if you are male or female. If you play an RPG, more often than not, a male warrior is the center character. He’ll then collect a group of people to join his party and the healer or magic user will be female. This is a concept that is slooooowly changing in games.
But in WoW, you can play as a female warrior or a male priest. The males are not stronger and the females are not more agile. It all depends on the class you pick.
That’s not to say that it doesn’t matter if you play a female character. In the beginning stages, you’ll probably be asked to group or duel more. You’ll also get more buffs (bonuses to help you out) from other players if you’re playing as a female than you would if you were playing a male. But that’s all because of other players in the game and not the actual game itself.
Stop Making Me Think!
I may not agree with everything this blogger says, but the fact that he thinks through gender relations means that I’ll listen to him. And I’ll think about what he says.
Imagine if someone thought this deeply about things rather than . . . oh, I don’t know . . . calling people female supremacists. He might have actually gotten the attention he wanted so badly.
I can’t quite decide how much of this- if any- is a legitimate misunderstanding of what constitutes privilege, and how much of this is intentional intellectual dishonesty. The move here is from “men have privilege”, which is true, to “men never experience negative or harmful consequences”, which isn’t.
Being a part of the privileged class does not mean that one never experiences harmful or negative treatment. It’s possible to be a man in a patriarchical system, and still have people treat you unfairly sometimes. It’s still possible to be a part of an advantaged class and find that there are times when you are at a disadvantage.
When we say that we live in a patriarchical system, we’re not saying that every single member of the class “men” have a set number of advantages over every single member of the class “women”. When we talk about men having unearned privileges, that doesn’t mean that no woman has any of these privileges, or that every man has all of them.
Geek ‘Gasm! #2
Feminism + Gaming = Female Nerd Heaven
Nevermind that this is one of the major creative forces behind Assassin’s Creed. Nevermind her degree in computer science. Nevermind all the hard work she’s put in. Because a bunch of gamers have decided she’s the hotness, she’s depicted as a fan-servicing moron who can’t even pronounce “creative”.
Geek ‘Gasm!
Thanks to When Fangirls Attack, I found this great blog.
Because the little things? They’re symptoms of the same thing that’s wrong with society as the big things are.
Comics and feminism? Who’d have thunk it?
Is Marvel mocking feminists? Make sure you read the comments because someone pulls out the old Just Shut Up and Take It card.
Sigh. Another example of someone claiming to be a feminist but saying anti-feminist things. Just because you say it doesn’t mean it’s true.
I don’t want feminism to take anything away from me, comics-wise.
WoW, action figures, and comics?!?! Be still my geek heart!
Here’s you-know-who again. Boy, he brings the smarts, doesn’t he?
I’ve reread it a few times, and I can only say, after a review of Gail’s body of work, that yes she is a feminist, because she hates men.
You can’t even begin to debate with someone who can only think in stereotypes.
One of the reason I read comics in the first place is that its one of the last bastions of male competence in entertainment.
Oh, so that’s why he gets so upset about feminists complaining about comics. His He-man Woman Haters Clubhouse is getting smaller and smaller and he’s trying to keep the girls with cooties out of the back room. 
Nightmares for Everyone!
Here ya go. Sleep well tonight.
Wait . . . am I the only one who has nightmares about the Joker? Come on! Isn’t there any one else?!?!
Crap.
Uhhhhhh . . .
Remember this link? Well, some concerned citizen has decided to set the record straight.
Megan was a total drama queen.
Yeah she was kinda fat.
Oh one other thing about Megan is that she was soooooo shallow.
she was a total psycho and everyone knew it.
So yeah it’s to bad Megan killed herself but it’s not suprising.
I will assume that this blog is a fake, if only for my sanity. If not then it’s more proof of people’s stupidity and cruelty. This girl is dead. And the evidence points to an adult being involved in an effort to tear her down emotionally. This is inexcusable, no matter what the girl was like or if she had problems to begin with.
So It Starts
I like this time of year—mainly because I’m greedy. But I hate the BS the local stations give their audience about kindness and helping others. You get the lame graphics saying “Merry Christmas” or the stupid commercials about caring for other people.
You know, as much as I dislike people, I do think you should probably be doing kind things for them all year long. Santa doesn’t come to adults who are only nice during the holiday season.
Then you get the disgustingly sweet commercials about your family and how you have to buy them stuff so that they’ll love you. Buy the wife a diamond. Buy the husband a car. Buy the kids $3000 worth of toys or they’ll talk about you to their psychiatrist once they’ve grown to adulthood.
This crap makes me sick. I hate the cute children. I hate the loving families. I hate the hugs. It’s all made for me to roll my eyes at—all of the gross cuteness exists for the very cynical reason of making you give a company some of your money.
Whaaaaaaa?!?!
His early music was OK. But when your pancake make-up starts settling into your wrinkles, maybe it’s time to close up your goth shop.
She said smugly as she smiled around at her superhero action figures. 
