The ‘Anders Is Sexist’ Arguement
So some people like to argue that Anders is sexist because of a slight change in dialogue between male and female Hawke. Specifically, the scene where we first meet him. Hawke bursts into the clinic, demands maps, and is all around rude.
If you’re male Hawke, he says, “Don’t threaten me, boy.”
If you’re female Hawke, he says, “Don’t threaten me, little girl.”
To a lot of people, the fact that he adds ‘little’ to the latter statement means that he’s sexist towards women. He’s looking down on female Hawke for being a woman and infantilizing her. Sexist, right?
You guys... It’s not Anders. It’s the writer. Specifically, it was the writer unintentionally bringing real world societal norms into Thedas.
Think about it. How often are women called girls? Like it or not, agree with it or not, fully mature adult women are called girls all the time. How often are men called boys? Sure, it happens - “Oh, he’s out with the boys tonight” - but it’s not nearly as prevalent.
Men are called generally ‘guys’ and since the equivalent ‘gals’ didn’t stick, ‘girls’ has basically taken its place. As such, it’s pretty standard to call a woman a girl.
So what does that mean in the context of my argument? It means that for the insult of calling male Hawke ‘boy’ to have the same punch for female Hawke, the writer felt it necessary to add ‘little’. It wasn’t to make Anders sexist, it was to make the statement have the same impact.
Sure, Anders could have called Hawke ‘little boy’ and he should have, really. The thing is, in our society, ‘boy’ gets the job done. You call a fully grown man a ‘boy’, you’re going to have one emasculated man on your hands. You call a fully grown woman a ‘girl’... Sure, with enough stank on the word, it could certainly have an impact, but it’s not the same.
To make it the same, you kind of have to add the word ‘little’. It’s the only way to ensure that it is interpreted the way it was meant to be interpreted when the words boy and girl do not have equal meanings in our society.
Anders wasn’t being sexist. In both cases, Anders was infantilizing Hawke. He wasn’t infantilizing female Hawke any more than he was male Hawke. It was the same - it just happens that the writer was writing from what they knew and what they knew is our society. It was the writer, not Anders.
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