I really like video games, so I don’t know why I don’t talk about them more often. Anyway, new Hitman game
Anyway, in the new trailer for Hitman: Absolution (which is like the fourth or fifth sequel for the game), Agent 47 — the bald protagonist — is ambushed by a group of sexy nun assassins in BDSM outfits who he then violently kills. Now, it’s been a habit for decades to sell games using sexy women and over the top violence (teenage boys are the main target for most games), but the combination of them — violently killing sexy women — is kind of weird and misogynistic. Anyway, the person I linked to at IGN has a big rant about it (and that’s why everyone wins in these things — the game gets publicity from the controversy and people denouncing it get lots of material), and while I think she might go a little over the top, I basically agree. Still, to me, the more interesting question is what if in the trailer Agent 47 instead fended off functionally dressed women?
Now, if the trailer was of a group of men getting violently killed, needless to say it would be completely unremarkable. If, analogous to this trailer, it was a group of sexily dressed men — like in Chippendale outfits — it would be controversial for a completely different reason: for being the gayest video game trailer ever. But what if Agent 47 were attacked by women appropriately attired and violently killed them in response — would that be controversial? Or it would be sexist to care because women can be just as dangerous as men as thus just as deserving to be killed by a hitman?
This is one of those confusing areas of feminism: Should there be more gender equality in bad stuff as well? For the longest time, in the area of enemies being violently killed with little regard has long been male dominated (when not zombie or alien dominated). Like I saw a website detailing all of Jack Bauer’s kills throughout the series 24, and he killed 267 people during it — but only four were women. Is that sexist? Do we need more equality on stuff like that? Are we not truly gender equal until half of criminals are female as well?
Feminism is confusing. If only women stuck to the kitchen and made pies, everything would be much simpler. And we’d have more pies. Bloomberg wouldn’t like that.
Now, it’s been a habit for decades to sell games using sexy women and over the top violence (teenage boys are the main target for most games), but the combination of them — violently killing sexy women — is kind of weird and misogynistic.
Does that mean that I should stop putting it in the financial planning software that I develop? It’s been pretty popular.
What is a “functionally dressed woman”? Is it mom jeans? Khaki pants and sensible flats? Would you rather kill a June Cleaver look-alike who is pulling a pie out of the oven? Is it less mysogynistic to kill someone who is unsexy? What is a sexy nun? Is that like a sexy librarian, but with more black fabric? Is killing a woman more titillating than killing a man? Sexualizing violence seems particularly unhealthy for the teenage boy set.
I personally find all video game killing to be distasteful and without purpose; perhaps even numbing us collectively to the realities of the necessary killing that takes place to secure our freedom.
But I’m a chick that way.
This kind of thing is why I relentlessly mock feminists. Their whole premise is based on the faulty assumption that men and women are exactly the same. Or possibly that men and women should be exactly the same.
Either way, they are thoroughly, objectively wrong. And their apparent solution to their perceived problem is to piss and moan until they make everyone else as miserable as they are.
I could go on about this for a while, but unlike most of those feminists, I have a real job and real work to do. So, I’ll just finish up with this joke: Why don’t women need umbrellas? A: Because it doesn’t rain between the kitchen and the bedroom!
@KnitterChick “Would you rather kill a June Cleaver look-alike who is pulling a pie out of the oven?” — That is so wrong on so many levels. Like it means that I wouldn’t get pie.
One of the most distressing trends I see these days is violence among women. It’s so revolting to see youtube videos, or tv shows, or news items showing women rolling around, punching each other out. Who is it that wants to convince women that being liberated means acting like a man? The problem is the whole victim mentality. The left loves their victimhood, but feminists want fight back against the oppressors. At the same time, they don’t want to relinquish their precious victimhood! So they convince people that there is this constant war going on, which, of course, there isn’t. As man and women are necessarily different, let’s just accept that. We don’t have to box ourselves in to a role that someone else wrote for us that defines our genderhood.
All that being said, I love video games, too. I like a wide assortment of hero-types and I don’t care who the enemy is (as long as he or she is dressed). I predict, though, that before long, game producers will recognize the huge, largely-untapped market of women gamers, and the genius who develops a cross-over product will be very rich.
Well, I assume you’d wait until the pie was safe before you disemboweled her.
On the other hand, that’s like killing the Golden Goose of Pies, isn’t it?
Or! OR!
What if she makes crappy pie? “Is this a STORE BOUGHT PIE CRUST?!?! Die, you faker, DIE!”
And then what choice do you have, really?
See, what you need is, like, a killing game where the enemy is Martha Stewart. Then you’d appeal to the female audience, too.
Somebody get on that.
I have to make my own pies. 🙁
You can have pie at my house, Jimmy, if hubby brings any home from Shari’s. He likes strawberry rhubarb.
I just got through seeing The Avengers. If I could wear that Black Widow outfit and have Scarlet’s figure, I’d be willing to be violent.
And then I’d invite everyone over for pie.
I find her whole rant a little disingenuous. “Oh here’s this horrible, horrible trailer,” but let me embed it directly in my rant about how horrible it is. If you don’t like the game or the advertising for it and the message you think it sends, don’t buy it when it comes out.
Hold on. Sexy nun assassins ARE TRYING TO KILL YOU. Is June Cleaver trying to burn my face off with that delicious boiling hot pie? I’ve burnt myself a few times that way, but it wasn’t a suicidal cry for help or anything, though I did then cry for help.
I think we’re missing the main issue here: Are we a good hitman or a bad hitman? Since when is killing anybody arbitrarily for money ok?
You guys, I make a KILLER Pecan Pie. It’s my grandfather’s secret recipe and it has bourbon in it.
Is that relevant in any way to the killer nun thing? Y’all want to come over? I make my own whipped cream, too.
I’ve made wine from rhubarb, strawberries And pecans (not all in the same batch) and its all good.
Hmm… rhubarb, strawberry and pecan wine? … let me get back to you on that.
eh? Oh yeah, video game violence is bad, unless it’s against zombies, aliens or foreigners.