I hope I’m not committing some kind of Tumblr faux pas by reblogging this and adding on to it, but I feel like this question gets at a really important aspect of the psychology that contributes to a serious problem in this whole ongoing discussion/debate/cultural battle/whatever. (Danny and I certainly don’t always see eye to eye on things, and our disagreements have sometimes been heated, but I do respect him tremendously and I know that he has a good heart and really wants things to be better. We just don’t always agree on how to go about making them better. LOVE YOU DANNY!)
I believe that a lot of people feel like, when a game critic says “This game has sexist elements,” that equates to saying, as this anonymous asker’s question indicates, “You are sexist if you enjoy this thing.” And sure, if you feel like reviews of video games are saying “You’re a bad person,” of course you’re going to feel defensive and put upon, and a group that wants to do away with any such concerns about politics or gender representation in game reviews might seem to offer some solace, a place where you can be welcomed and accepted for who you are, where you can enjoy games to your heart’s content without ever even having to hear anyone say “Maybe this game traffics in some troubling racial stereotypes” or “This game suggests that women’s primary value is as sex objects and not as people in their own right.”
But the thing that I think people need to understand—and I really think it’s a failing of education, that thinking critically about the values embedded in media isn’t a skill that people are taught to develop—is that this isn’t what cultural criticism is doing. I mean, I don’t know how much clearer it can be that I believe that to be true after I gave GTA V a 9 and basically said “this game is incredibly misogynistic but is also in some ways utterly and completely amazing.” I think the politics of Shadow of Mordor are pretty messed up, but I still had a lot of fun playing it. I don’t think I’m a bad person for liking these things, and I don’t think you’re a bad person if you like them, too. But if we acknowledge that media has real cultural impact, that it makes meanings and shapes our culture, and if we think critically about those meanings and that cultural impact, then we can actually get a lot more out of our experiences with that media, and not be so easily swayed by the messages therein.
I think it’s very, very important that people start understanding that it is not a personal attack or a personal judgment to say “This game glorifies violence to a troubling degree” or, you know, whatever, any more than it is to say “The vehicle handling in that racing game you like kind of sucks.” Neither is a reason for an individual to feel judged or persecuted. It’s just a perspective to consider, to think about, to let challenge you and broaden your own perspectives, and to take back to your own time with that game or with other games, and get more out of them.
discoholicmusic
jacobvanloon
areudirty
dailybridgerton
tangentwithtanner
2087
andulkaphoto
