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Anyway, I have delivered my version of the female power fantasy that I feel parallels the male power fantasy and am curious on other women's thoughts as well as the men in the thread.
Another example would be Ellie from Borderlands 2. She's just awesome and I would play the hell out of that character.
I think there are plenty of women that want their characters to be "hot", though. Personally, I like people. People are just great, I want my characters to have a vast array of appearances. I like different things and prefer not to put all my eggs in one basket.
But keep in mind a woman's version of hot and a man's version are oftentimes very different. Even being sexually attracted to women, I don't really have anywhere near the same tastes as a lot of heterosexual males (except my boyfriend, who sends me burlesque pics through facebook all the time and who I share a Suicide Girls account with.)
My REAL power fantasy isn't really a physical one though and would be boring in a game. A highly successful female in a male-dominated profession with quick wit and the ability to lay the smack down verbally on any sexist or creeper that comes her way. She would preferably work in a STEM job of some sort. She would moonlight as a feminist blogger that remains unbothered by the vitriol and hate from the MRA and red piller and generally anti-feminist communities. Although, I guess her profession could be like "assassin" or something. But that goes back to a more violence based fantasy.
That, however, is my -personal- power fantasy, as opposed to a more generally acceptable to the female gamer community power fantasy.
I feel that we should avoid looking for a "real" (majority, I guess?) female power fantasy vs. personal fantasy when tackling issues of representation since by nature that prescribes what being a woman is about and, like the male power fantasies, excludes people who might be attracted to some aspects of female protagonists that might not sit well with a majority of female gamers, even if complicated, or want to look up to someone not represented in any of it (like your example - which is fairly badass). The issue with female representation in my mind is not that "male power fantasy" is somehow universal to anyone identified male, but rather the ways these narratives are marketed, and the exclusion that presents for women who are not happy with the "sexy heroine" stereotype, especially when it does not appeal to the kind of sexy that more women are comfortable with because it seems to demand or at least enthusiastically encourage (rather than provide an option for) sexual openness or being there for the aesthetic pleasure of others. The commonality of this situation sets the way women are treated vs. men apart, and is something I feel should be criticized when it appears until things change more away from the skewed dominance of that type.
(less directed at smee)Also, dealing with the example power fantasy provided by other people of "women really good at attracting men", this ends up being a uni-dimensional focus to the detriment of everything from inclusiveness to good writing. A detrimental sole-focus that is historically what oppressing women into roles of sexual gratification (limited to husbands or other "owners" of it, enforced by adultery laws, coverings, or anything else that denies a woman's sexual self-ownership) and reproduction has been about, so I'm not very happy with people using these portrayals as somehow vanguard displays of female empowerment, to say the least :I
There are women who do want to pursue a heterosexual relationship, but it's a heavily complicated example tied into another person's wants, instead of fulfilling the ego at the same undiluted level as most marketed male power fantasies, which incorporate further elements such as how a man's sexual prowess is/was* displayed typically vs. a woman's (i.e. often body count - with a value label assigned to each interchangeable woman being used primarily as an object of ego-fulfillment). To use those same pop-culture magazine images as an example of this problem: there tends to be significant focus on "making one's man happy" while that concern is extremely rare among masculine magazines outside of being impressive (in bed, for strength, or whatever makes you seem like a better person in itself rather than directly meeting another's needs). In the damsel trope for instance, there's only the heroic rescue element which is almost universally considered positive no matter one's background and something that I think most people feel they should aspire to (if for accolades if nothing else). I mean, this would be slightly less of an issue if men weren't always making jokes about taking women for granted, but it seems that caring for one's romantic (or even just sexual) interest is too often pushed as something for women and not men.
* It's not a switch so it won't universally apply, and in 2014 (soon to be 2015) there's at least a fair amount of push against those representations.
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Topic: Females in Games? Thread (Read 165734 times)