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asakiyume“It seems that when you want to make a woman into a hero, you hurt her first. When you want to make a man into a hero, you hurt . . . also a woman first.”
--Leigh Alexander, “What Did They Do to You: Our Women Heroes Problem.”
I was going to argue that although this is powerful rhetoric, I don’t think it’s true, but I realized I was thinking of the realm of literature, whereas the writer was talking about video games. Sadly, I think she’s pretty correct about video games.
What the article describes is how male protagonists in video games are motivated by harm to women who are important to them, whereas female protagonists are motivated by harm they themselves suffer. The thing I dislike about this most of all, which I haven’t seemed mentioned, is that it denies female protagonists the opportunity for the same level of altruism as the male protagonist. He gets to be motivated by love for someone else and anger over harm that comes to them. . . but this is apparently not possible for the female protagonist in video games. Her concern ends up being only herself.
--Leigh Alexander, “What Did They Do to You: Our Women Heroes Problem.”
I was going to argue that although this is powerful rhetoric, I don’t think it’s true, but I realized I was thinking of the realm of literature, whereas the writer was talking about video games. Sadly, I think she’s pretty correct about video games.
What the article describes is how male protagonists in video games are motivated by harm to women who are important to them, whereas female protagonists are motivated by harm they themselves suffer. The thing I dislike about this most of all, which I haven’t seemed mentioned, is that it denies female protagonists the opportunity for the same level of altruism as the male protagonist. He gets to be motivated by love for someone else and anger over harm that comes to them. . . but this is apparently not possible for the female protagonist in video games. Her concern ends up being only herself.
