#female expectations

[loungelizardatwar]

I just took a look through all of the characters from Overwatch 2 and I noticed something. If you look at the aging male characters (Soldier 76, Reinhart, Torbjörn, Cassidy, Sigma, Doomfist) you’ll see that the animators do have the capability to add wrinkles and age marks to the characters that add a lot of depth to them and actually make them look more human and believibly their age.

Taking a look at the female characters is a whole lot different.

95% of the female characters in the game have pristinely smooth skin (and mainly PALE skin but that’s not the point i’m making here)

Even Ana- a woman who’s canonly 62 years old only has a few lines around her mouth and eyes. She is probably the most well done example of a more aged woman in the game and she literally still only looks like she’s in her 40’s

Take a look at Ashe! She’s supposed to be 41 years old and does not have a single flaw or blemish besides a birthmark. Her skin is literally smooth as paper.

Mercy is 39 and has the flawless skin of a cosmetics commercial.

Widowmaker is 35 and has the most plush baby-faced facial structure i’ve ever seen. Not a single line or wrinkle.

Sojourn is supposed to look 51 YEARS OLD. Aside from her white hair having never seen her before I guessed that her age was going to be in her 20’s or 30’s.

Mei is 33 and looks pristine!

I understand that this is a video game franchise that has a more cartoony look to it’s characters but if you’re going to spend the time to add age diversity to the male characters then the female characters deserve it too. It sends a super unrealistic standard for all woman and I think it’s a very bad look considering that the majority of the game’s players are men. It’s like you’re showing men at a very young age that all women are naturally going to look perfect at all ages.

[maldita-geni]

One of the cruelest ironies of motherhood is that the harder it becomes to sustain the ideal of maternal perfection, the more women feel—and are made to feel—beholden to it. “As austerity and inequality increase across the globe,” and as “more and more children are falling into poverty,” Rose explains, the “focus on mothers is a sure-fire diversionary tactic, not least because it so effectively deflects from what might be far more disruptive forms of social critique.” For Rose, the failures of mothers become legible as the failures of society at large, placing motherhood at the heart of contemporary debates over immigration policy and ethno-nationalism, racism and police brutality, and the future of the welfare state […].

Merve Emre, Serious Work: Jacqueline Rose and the politics of motherhood

[maldita-geni]

Among the many horrors of mothering under the patriarchy is that the image of the perfect mother—emotional, but not in excess; accomplished, but never to the detriment of her children’s well-being; stylish, but not too sexy—has made women into extremely effective agents of their own and each other’s oppression. Motherhood is “thick with idealisations,” [Jacqueline] Rose notes, many of which converge on a fantasy of maternal virtue predicated on total self-negation—the essence of cruelty. A mother must be everything for her child, which leaves very little room for her to be anything for herself.

Merve Emre, Serious Work: Jacqueline Rose and the politics of motherhood

[maldita-geni]

We cannot quiet the voices of judgment or shame without casting off the disproportionate and crippling burden of care that is placed on mothers, and we cannot cast off that burden until we are willing to confront what a mother is: not the disembodied “angel voice that bids you good night,” as [Wendy Darling] sings, but a physical and emotional laborer, underserved, underpaid, and always on the clock.

Merve Emre, Serious Work: Jacqueline Rose and the politics of motherhood

[maldita-geni]

I know things are changing, and younger women have different experiences, but women older than me have horrifying stories to tell, and we are not out from under that shadow. Supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says of her arrival at law school in the 1950s, “The dean then asked each of us in turn to say what we were doing at the law school, occupying a seat that could be held by a man.” Hillary Clinton told an interviewer a few years ago about meeting with similar opposition in the 1960s, from the young men who’d shown up to take the law school admissions test at Harvard when she did. One even accused her of being homicidal in her ambitions: “If you take my spot, I’ll get drafted, and I’ll go to Vietnam, and I’ll die.” He didn’t imagine she had a right to compete; or that the place that neither had yet won was no more his than hers. It’s not just trouble at the top: women plumbers, electricians and mechanics have told me about being treated as incompetent, intrusive or both in their field.

Rebecca Solnit, Rebecca Solnit: if I were a man

[maldita-geni]

For the owners of capital, discriminating against mothers maintains power and control by creating divisions among workers. It takes a straightforward labor condition and makes it into an individual choice, punishing women who choose to have children (and who, by extension, choose to decrease their productivity) and rewarding those who do not—that is, those women who hold themselves to the workplace standards set by men.

Merve Emre, Serious Work: Jacqueline Rose and the politics of motherhood

[maldita-geni]

She mentioned a short story she’d just written and published. “Oh, you mean the most recent occasion for your abandoning me and the kids?” asked the very smart, very charming husband. The wife had been a monster, monster enough to finish the work. The husband had not. This is what female monstrousness looks like: abandoning the kids. Always. The female monster is Doris Lessing leaving her children behind to go live the writer’s life in London. The female monster is Sylvia Plath, whose self-crime was bad enough, but worse still: the children whose nursery she taped off beforehand. Never mind the bread and milk she set out for them, a kind of terrible poem unto itself. She dreamed of eating men like air, but what was truly monstrous was simply leaving her children motherless.

Claire Dederer, What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?

[chillichocolate25]

Hypocrisy and Double Standard Hidden in 'Modern Woman/Superwoman' Expectations

Since this is festive season in India, I want to rant a bit. This is the only palce where I feel I can vent my feelings. I am SO tired with the idea of burdening women/young girls with keeping up or maintaining traditions. Uncles who do not even a lift a hand are out there lecturing on social media values and greatness of our culture, where women/girls work tirelessly for their family. They will speak up for Indian women/girls and claim they do these things out of love and 'sanskaar' (religious and familial values), while ignoring ALL the pressure and social expectations put on them since they are young. We are literally told that you will shame your parents or never find 'suitable' husband if you can't cook perfectly. This is not limited to uneducated people, even urban families with degrees in STEM field expect women of their households to carry every housekeeping duties after they return from jobs

They expect every women to not only juggle both office and household work duties but do it perfectly. Nowadays some men will just say that 'Oh, women are just amazing. They can do everything, They are superwoman.' and just leave it at that while they congratulates themselves for being such 'modern man'. How could they be considered traditional when allow their wives to work outside of home? And if their wives have to wake up at 5 am and sleep at 1 pm, then it's just her dedication and love for the family.

Our community would be considered 'modern' as unlike some communities girls are highly educated, work in different fields and can handle their own finances. However, almost no effort is made to share the household duties. Sons are cared after by mothers and wives are expected follow the same tradition. Some girls consider themselves lucky if their husbands make them a cup of tea or capable of making edible food. That where the bar is. What makes it more sad often it's the women who perpetuates these behaviours and ideals. They will judge a women unworthy of having a good life if she doesn't put all her effort in pleasing her family or atleast put up appearances.

I don't know when or IF it will change but I am just tired of these young girls being put through so much in name of traditions? Now that I am at age where I should be married, I feel so distant and helpless. I don't want this to be my life but this is what everyone expect of me.

If you've read till now and have similar experiences please share them.