Cause sexism is hilarious
This video isn't in English, but there's something about sexism that defies language barriers.
Obviously the whole video is gross and sexist, but it's the ending that really killed my morning. I'm not a video game player, so maybe some women gamers/tech folks can chime in - is this what gaming culture thinks of women? Or do you think it's just your run-of-the-mill stupid sexist bullshit?
Thanks to Moriah for the link.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Cause sexism is hilarious.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/13309
*stab*stab*stab*stab*stab*stab*stab*stab*stab*stab*
I think it's general sexist bullshit. Particularly disgusting sexist bullshit. GRAAAAARRRRR!!!
Yes and no. Gamer culture is not that far from the mainstream, assuming that you segregate populations. People tend to look at gamers who are men college-aged men and compare them to non-gamers of all ages, which yields bad results, the same percentages of people are sexist regardless of if they play video games or not. As for the games themselves, I really think looking at popular books and movies, they're not that outside of the norm when it comes to sexism. Movies in general are not judged because of sexist BS like Observe and Report, but games are judged for Grand Theft Auto. A lot of video game sites do "Hottest girls in games" but half of my local radio stations have babe of the month or whatnot.
Which isn't to say that gamers and games don't tend to be more sexist than non-gamers and movies/books/tv/music, just that the margin is much thinner than people make it out to be.
Oooooooooooh....I get it! Women should be good at ironing, shaving their legs, vacuuming, cleaning, and then at the end of the day, sucking their husband's d1ck!!! OMG THAT'S GENIUS!
I WOULD propose making a video game where men would practice penis pumping, stomach crunches to suck in their beer guts, learning to wash themselves regularly, and figuring out how to take of their damn selves when they're sick/depressed/feeling emasculated/etc., but why bother pointing out the obvious.
Because men don't enjoy doing that, whereas women love ironing and sucking cock.
hopefully not at the same time, oh, wait...
I thought it was quite sexist but mildly funny (I personally can enjoy a wide range of *ist humor, as long as it isn't extreme).... until the last part. What the hell?
Unfortunately, I think the classic sexist stereotypes are alive and well in gaming culture. I know that a lot of girls within RPG games are considered a hot commodity, if nothing else as a result of their scarcity.
I will say one very positive thing about guys who play a lot of video games, though: it seems that there's a greater appreciation for intelligent women than among other male-dominated recreational activities. Geeky girls and witty women seem to have a higher rank in the social hierarchy than merely attractive females.
There is a wide range in how women are treated in MMORPGs, like WoW for example, but I think this is still pretty accurate.
I've known women who, in games where you can choose the gender of your character, roll male characters to avoid the attention of omg-girl-alert-girl-alert! to play the game in peace.
I don't think WoW counts as "gaming culture", just regular culture with a coat of fantasy paint and grind...
Yes, and yes. My impression in WoW at least has been that a lot of players are kind of indifferent--they tend to assume that other players are male unless they have some reason not to, but it's not always very important. Insults of course tend to follow the typical young-US-male pattern of associating the insulted person with women or homosexuality ("Dude, that's so gay" or "Stop being a pussy"), but while the players who engage in that kind of thing may be the largest % of the population, and are often the most vocal, they're not everybody.
Instructive example: Check out the comments section of this article on a WoW blog. It's an advice column of sorts, and the basic question is how to deal socially with sets of spouses when one (in this case, the husband) is a really good player and the other (in this case, the wife) is not. The comment section, though, is really interesting--you absolutely see the obligatory misogyny (suggesting that of course the woman isn't a good player). But you also see an immediate pushback from other commenters. So I would say that while there's absolutely a strong strain of misogyny among gamers (and the relative strength probably varies quite a bit depending on the game), it's not the only thing going on.
"My impression in WoW at least has been that a lot of players are kind of indifferent--they tend to assume that other players are male unless they have some reason not to, but it's not always very important."
I think that's more "jaded" than "indifferent", since "female character is actually played by a man" is beyond cliche by now...
Despite the fact that women gamers are now extremely common, this is a popular view in the industry. There is an extremely small number of female videogame programmers (i.e. people involved in the development of games). According to at least one 2007 survey, only 3% of programmers are female. Because there is a lack of understanding as to how women play compared to men, you get games such as the following that attempt to cater to our demographic:
Cooking Mama: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooking_Mama
Imagine Babies: http://www.amazon.co.uk/UBI-Soft-Imagine-Babies-Nintendo/dp/B000UVNKUQ
And a table waitress game I can't remember the name of right now.
All of these games sell well enough for sequels, spin-offs, etc (there's an Imagine Fashion Designer and Imagine Dream Wedding too). However, they are with the exception of Cooking Mama pretty crappy quality-wise, and are doomed to the hell of "casual games" because it's assumed that's all women will play. The old, old Internet meme goes "girls don't play videogames" and is used whenever a poster on a videogame forum is found out (or announces) to be female.
It's true you don't find a lot of women playing Call of Duty, or Gears of War, and it's probably because of the violence (with many other contributing factors that don't need to be exemplified upon here-- think of any male-dominated industry and there you go), but yes this commercial is a bunch of tripe.
What's more disturbing is the idea put forth that women ENJOY cooking, cleaning, (shaving?!), and don't just do it to support the people they love or because there's a great deal of societal pressure to do so.
There are very few female programmers in *any* field.
Even in companies with an affirmative action policy, once the female programmers are hired, they are typically driven away by the males and forced into another line of work.
Speaking from personal experience: a female developer can be fired (not laid off, mind you - FIRED) for being sexually harrassed by a male colleague. He was a more senior developer whom I was supposed to ask any questions that I had; any time I asked a technical question, he twisted it into a sexual innuendo. I explained to my manager that he wouldn't give me the info I needed for my projects, and I ended up being fired instead of him.
Forgive my ignorance here - but they actually make "female oriented" video games about cooking, taking care of kids, fashion design and waitressing?
That's nuts!
Why would anybody want to play a video game about - real life drudgery?
That's equivalent to making "male oriented" video games about shaving, taking out the garbage, changing the oil and construction work!
I enjoy cooking, but so do lots of men. Cooking is recreation and/or art for some; thus, we have chefs. For others who don't find it inspiring, it's just a chore.
I'm trying to teach my (male) partner how cooking can be done without trashing the whole kitchen.
I like adventure/puzzle type games where you solve mysteries. Not MMORPGs. Yeah, I know, I'm weird.
I enjoy cooking too, and actually think Cookin' Mama is very fun, but here's the thing: so does my boyfriend. The game is clearly marketed towards women, so it is very unpopular for boys to play, but I've found that most males do think it's pretty fun. The REALLY weird thing is that they now have cooking style games marketed toward men, I'm guessing for this reason. I know that Jaimie Oliver has a game on DS, and I believe I've seen others. The major difference is that it isn't a cutsie mother cooking with cutsie family members, its a professional chef cooking in a high-stress restaurant scenario.
WOW. Especially the last part. Horrid.
In addition to everything else everyone has said up there, am I the only one who noticed that the men were fat and (let's admit it) unattractive, while the girls were pretty? To me that just adds another level of outrage that the guys were playing to have fun and the women's fun was practicing taking care of the men... In every way.
I tend to be less offended when the stereotypes are present on both sides. It's easier to dismiss when all angles of social commentary are divorced from reality. I wonder if the creative geniuses that came up with this commercial consider that using "gross" men perpetuates the implication that behaving this way is, in fact, also gross.
I hope you're right, but I feel like an additional message created by this is that women need to be pretty, while with men that isn't necessary. Essentially that a woman's worth is primarily determined by how attractive she is (and how much she likes to cook, clean, and give blow jobs without any desire for reciprocation...). In essence, that a woman isn't as human and multi-faceted as men.
And even if they WERE saying that kind of behavior is gross by making the men gross and unattractive, the women's actions were all solely meant to be ways to take care of the men, which in turns puts us even farther below that disgusting behavior.
The end is extra stupid. As if when you give us a VIBRATING, plastic phallus we're gonna put it in our mouths -- 'cuz we've tended to use them in other ways. Not that it wouldn't still be sexist, but why not put that in there? Oh, because men are uncomfortable with that.
Though I would say that it's also important to point out that the ad is sexist toward both men and women. While the women are ironing and shaving, the men are fumbling buffoons shooting and killing (I presume).
...this isn't satire?
It is, yes, but I don't think it's satirizing the gender roles. I got that you were supposed to laugh and think, "Yeah, that's just what women do!"
That's how you saw it? Because I didn't see it that way: the ridiculousness of the woman's "games" were such that it didn't seem like a "Oh, that's what women really do."
It looked more like a "You'd have to be an idiot to try and pitch this product to women: no one would buy such a stereotypical product."
That's what I got from this too.
I saw this, initially, as satire or parody as well - just as you describe it, in the "they'd have to be stupid to market this to women" - kind of like the pink tool sets that Home Depot did. But it would depend, I guess, on the context. If this were from something like The Daily Show, I think it would be hilarious. If this came from something like the Man Show or MANswers, then I think I would have to see it as awful.
For those discussing the gaming culture, I play WOW with my wife and sister. I happen to play almost all female toons. I do this because the "social emotes" of the male toons are all so very very douchy and stupid. We are in a guild with older members, two female officers who are just really cool people, and numerous other couples. Maybe that makes a difference, but I have never had anyone act "oooh, a girl toon" anywhere near me. There are so many versions of jackass that seem to come out first. But we don't have many young players, as we don't have the patience for the "OMG, I'm so leet, I pwn'd yer face" garbage. That isn't to say that it isn't there, but I've been playing a female toon for almost two years and still haven't gotten the "personal" attention.
I think that it is interesting, though, that one of the female toons does a rather sultry dance and occasionally you will see them dancing "naked" - actually looks like in a bikini - in one of the populous areas. That same toon gets a very sarcastic emote that goes, "oh, I'm DANCING again, I hope all of your friends are ENJOYING the show!"
I definitely saw it as satire too..like something from SNL...there are people laughing in the background, and I read it as look at what a stupid product this would be. Like the SNL commercial for once a year menstruation birth control.
It comes off that way to me.
Of course, we all read our expectations into it.
at first i thought it would contrast women sitting 'nicely' playing the same video game instead of jumping around like the guys.
which would be lame, but I would understand...
I just don't GET how this is even amusing - it's just DUMB. Are the guys playing "lawnmower" and "home improvement" games?
i even thought the end was gonna be a vibrator joke, but bj? truly offensive.
Depends on subculture. I know lots of girl gamers (and know of all-girl teams) but largely more competitive game-types tend to be more sexist (b/c of the idea that women dont like to compete.
But in others, like MMOs and RPGs, women are better represented and treated better. For instance, in my Warcraft group, I boot players that are racist/sexist. And I am by no means the only one that does this.
Because the degree of the stereotyping of the "games" the women were playing was way the hell over-the-top, my impression was this video was a satire of gaming culture and/or the way the culture excludes women. And I think it works. I think it's a mocking commentary on how women are treated within the culture.
I think its kind of sad that that cooking game already exists ._.
NO KIDDING!!!!!!
-Sophia
NO KIDDING!!!!!!
-Sophia
Are you kidding? Cooking Mama is fun! I'll admit I was tentative at first to buy a game so clearly aimed at women, but once I tried it I loved it. Both me and my boyfriend get a kick out of learning about new foods and ways to prepare them. Maybe it's just because we both like cooking in real like that we enjoy the game.
But I should point out that in no way does this represent the types of games I'm usually into. We both have our own tastes that don't generally fall along the lines I think the game-makers would expect.
You mean Cooking Mama? My 11 year old son has that game! I can't believe I never thought of it as sexist, since I learned of it through him. But now that I step back and think about it - D'oh!
You mean Cooking Mama? My 11 year old son has that game! I can't believe I never thought of it as sexist, since I learned of it through him, not through advertising aimed at girls. But now that I step back and think about it - D'oh!
As a videogame designer, I must say Cooking Mama is not only a very good game but addictive as hell. I never really thought of it as one of the shitty pink-coated "girl games" that Ubisoft and other companies pollute the market with, maybe because every boy I know loves it.
Well...
Demographically, people who play electronic games are a diverse set that cuts across the lines of age, gender, social-economic status, and race.
Culturally, gamer culture is almost all white, middle-class men in an extended adolescence. At least that's how the periodicals and web sites tend to be slanted.
Well...
Demographically, people who play electronic games are a diverse set that cuts across the lines of age, gender, social-economic status, and race.
Culturally, gamer culture is almost all white, middle-class men in an extended adolescence. At least that's how the periodicals and web sites tend to be slanted.
In a word: yes. Gaming "culture" is a putrid morass of male privilege and chauvinism. The industry banks on it (from Dead or Alive to PS3 advertising to Frag Dolls), and countless "gamer sites" have made it absolutely clear that women are not desired.
Sure, you get plenty of guys on these sites who whine about how scarce gamer girls are, but how awesome it would be to have a "gamer girlfriend" but what they really mean is "I want a girlfriend who will be cool with me playing Call of Duty for 7 hours on Saturday but not actually compete with me for time on the console. And definitely not pwn my sorry ass and threaten my masculinity."
Mostly, when presented with the feminist gamer, gamer guys chortle out tired "make me a sammich" jokes or try to declare that they are not sexist, ergo nothing they do could be sexist (rinse and repeat for racism), and then go back to making derogatory comments about women or people of color or homosexuals.
We had a very small band of men on FG who were smart, funny, and didn't have their heads up their ass. But if one of the larger gaming sites decided to link to one of our posts, it got ugly... quick.
Speaking of which, is your blog ever going to come back? I kind of feel lost without it. =(
I mean, if it isn't, it'd at least be nice if your only message on the site didn't promise a return so that I could move on. Not that there are many places to go.
:(
No plans to restart at the moment -- honestly, I don't have the time for it. But don't be lost! You were doing pretty awesome commentary on your own blog!
Lmao. That was a very entertaining comment And so.fucking.true.
This video has popped up a few places on the internet, sometimes translated, and most places I've seen it (Reddit and Videocracy), have decided that it's satire of the gaming industry's marketing and design strategies, especially when it comes to their female consumership. The Wii is probably the most notable, if only because the other major gaming systems only feature war and sports games (and SpongeBob). Browse the Wii aisle in our local Target or GameStop (if you dare go in there...) and note the high number of "feminine" titles. Games like Cooking Mama (highly addictive), Petz, Animal Crossing, etc. are all designed and/or marketed for a female consumer-base. This video spoofs that.
Yeah, I thought it was a spoof, too. Except the part about sucking dick goes too far.
This video has popped up a few places on the internet, sometimes translated, and most places I've seen it (Reddit and Videocracy), have decided that it's satire of the gaming industry's marketing and design strategies, especially when it comes to their female consumership. The Wii is probably the most notable, if only because the other major gaming systems only feature war and sports games (and SpongeBob). Browse the Wii aisle in our local Target or GameStop (if you dare go in there...) and note the high number of "feminine" titles. Games like Cooking Mama (highly addictive), Petz, Animal Crossing, etc. are all designed and/or marketed for a female consumer-base. This video spoofs that.
That's an encouraging thing to know. Thanks.
My Dutch is a bit weak, but I'm 100% sure that this is satire - the voice over is in the tone of a cheesy infomercial and it is clearly mocking gaming culture for being sexist just as crshark says.
I can't say if it's good/funny satire or not - my Dutch really isn't that good - but you can't criticize it as an expression of what gaming culture thinks of women because that's clearly not what's going on here.
If there is anything to criticize in this posting it's the cultural arrogance of posting an "analysis" of a video when you 1. don't speak a word of the language and 2. don't even seem to know what language it is beyond "isn't in English". It reminds me of an elderly relative who complains about the immigrants speaking "Mexican" while standing in line at Wal-Mart.
Actions speak louder than words, and just because something isn't in a language everyone speaks does not mean people can't get the general meaning behind it.
Even if the perceived meaning is off, what's wrong with talking about it? If it's a satire then by it's very nature it's meant to be discussed.
I agree with you, I don't speak the language they are speaking, but I think it is satire, because you can hear people laughing when it is being played. But I also agree with you that you can't judge it unless you know the language, because you don't know the true context of it. What kind of show was this on?
In that case, this is just another one of those jokes that is delivered with a nudge and a wink, not unlike Family Guy.
I could tell a horribly racist joke and declare that I was just trying to be ironic and make a statement about racist culture, and most people would see through the bullshit and realize that I was just being a racist ass.
You have to be incredibly talented at humor in order to look at a group that's getting dumped on, make a joke about that, and not be an asshole. Sarah Silverman barely pulls it off and even then a lot of her jokes leave me really uncomfortable. I don't really see these guys passing any minimum awareness and conscientiousness requirement when they made this spoof commercial.
I am Dutch myself; this 'commercial' is probably from Belgium as the accent is different. I still understand it though, and it is a parody. The ridiculousness of the comments (if you understood you'd know it was parody), the cheesy shots - it's all too thickly done to be serious - and to be taken seriously.
Reading these comments, I couldn't help thinking that we'd all be laughing if sarah haskins had done something like this. And, I am offended by the idea that everyone judges this sketch without even understanding the language.
Ziggy -- It may be that this is a sort of Belgian Sarah Haskins spoof, but I maintain that a joke can CLAIM to be ironic and sarcastic and yet still support the very thing it's supposedly lampooning.
Apart from elly's comment busting the creators of this film, it has been made clear to me over years of hanging with the gamer community that gamers generally don't understand that nature of subversive humor. They're a very literal, face-value group. Very few games challenge a person to think laterally, or with more complexity than just "oppressive people are bad, you're the good guy, kill all the oppressive people!"
So audience plays a big role in this sort of thing. We might think the Sarah Haskins videos were a completely different kettle of fish if she were working for Concerned Women of America and the basic take-home message of her pieces were "women's advertising may be stupid, but women are pretty stupid too because they choose to buy into it."
Sarah Silverman totally DOESN'T pull it off - she just comes across as yet another really racist White comedian who hates Black people and likes to ridicule us.
I mean honestly, she did a whole episode of her show IN BLACKFACE!
And that show was taped in 2007!
Well...
Demographically, people who play electronic games are a diverse set that cuts across the lines of age, gender, social-economic status, and race.
Culturally, gamer culture is almost all white, middle-class men in an extended adolescence. At least that's how the periodicals and web sites tend to be slanted.
I tried to post this on feministing community on Saturday.
The group that performed this is M!LF Mans! Liberation Front and they are an actual TV show being aired in Belgium. They have a huge viewing and this clip is only the tip of the iceberg in their sexist films. You're right there is a universalism to sexism that surpasses language.
Ah, so it's basically the equivalent of "The Man Show" (which was hilarious when it focused on being a drunk loser, but I'd go forage or something when the proud-to-be-sexist shit inevitably started up).
exactly.
Interesting. Milf? Like the milf word from America? lol
Yeah, this looks like a bit made for a late night talk show like Letterman or Conan or something. I actually don't think it's a satire of the gaming industry or "gamer culture" (as a gamer, I think that to the extent this exists, it's not what most people think it is and most gamers prolly have a different idea of what it is than a lot of other gamers). This strikes me as simply a more modern version of a bit about how guys like sports and their girlfriends don't and don't. Saying it satirizes the Wii's marketing of "feminine" prolly gives this too much depth, tho it's possible. Really, it seems more to be making fun of female gamers, as if women couldn't like video games that aren't about "women stuff" like shaving and ironing. (I also think that a lot of games that might be considered "feminine" like Petz and Animal Crossing [I've never heard of Cooking Mama—I'm imagining Guitar Hero style play but with food] are simply meant for kids.)
regarding views of women, the gaming community isn't that different from the rest of the world. Are there some guys who think like the people who made this video? yeah. Are there still some really cool guys, and even, on rare occassion, some self-proclaimed feminist males? yeah. I've actually met one of my most feminist male friends from the gaming community.
Anyway, I haven't gamed much since I started college 8 months ago. so take that as you will.
Is this an ad, or a SNL style satire? The BJ piece makes it hard 2 believe this is a real ad.
This is 100% a joke, regardless of what the target and intention of the joke might be.
I interpreted this video as making fun of how Nintendo creates games specifically intended for women and girls. The video itself I think is stupid and beside the point of what I'm trying to say here. While I'm sure that Nintendo is simply trying to create Wii games that appeal to a wider range of demographics, maybe more inclusive marketing would work too. The female gamers I know (myself included) have always played the "traditional" nintendo games (mario, zelda, metroid, etc) and I think they're trying to reach out to people who might not identify as gamers by making stupid stereotypical games like the Imagine: series.
It seemed pretty obvious to me that it was satire. The cheesy laugh track the way it's filmed make it feel like an Saturday Night Live fake commercial. I took it as the makers of this film poking fun at the gaming industry for making games targeted towards women that only focus on domestic duties like cooking and raising babies as if that is the only way to appeal to women.
I think the final scene was a great punch line to the joke that if you think women would only be interested in games about cooking, cleaning, and knitting, then the next logical choice is that they must love a game about proving their worth by pleasing their man sexually.
That being said, I have major problems with the gaming industry making these games and with the way the "gaming culture" acts. That is why I play very few online games. I was a beta tester for Xbox live on the original Xbox and had nothing but bad experiences. That was just during an open beta, so I can't imagine what it is like with the whole world of gamers online now.
Gaming Culture used to be different. There was a major shift that begun in the mid-1990's. Before that it was relatively well understood that the average gamer was (contrary to stereotypes) approximately 30, this is probably less true today, because around 1995 greater corporate involvement led to a marketing push more exclusively towards the young male demographic.
As I see it this is occurring all across the gaming industry and advances with greater corporate control.
Its puerile and frustrating. The industry was never perfect (far from it), but in my opinion, it is getting worse rather than better.
It's not a commercial. It's from a comedy show, I'm guessing. Laugh-tracks don't usually accompany commercials.
We laugh at this shit when Tina Fey and Amy Poehler does it:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/10234/saturday-night-live-annuale
It's the exact same thing. So why not laugh at it here?
I love Tina Fey. That was freaking hilarious!!
OH MY GAWD! THANK GAWD IT WASNT IN ENGLISH TO MAKE IT EVEN WORSE!
WHAT A BIG PILE OF FECES! THE stench of SEXISM burns my nostrils...I think I need a paramedic X.X
This is kind of unrelated but why do they have some english words but speak in dutch? I find that a little strange.
wow. that's gross. i mean can't anyone find humor in gender without being sexist?
On the subject of Cooking Mama:
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=254
somewhat unrelated - but I clicked on this link after watching the posted video and was even more disturbed: http://www.break.com/pranks/dickhead-pranks-his-girlfriend.html
I don't know if this was a set-up where the young woman was in on the joke and it was all scripted - or not. But, it's repulsive nonetheless - and who knows how many guys out there would find this funny and re-enact the prank? It's simply abuse.
You know, the only thing I found kinda offensive was the ending. But um, hello? This was obviously a comedy show from the audience laughter you can hear, NOT a commercial for actual GAMES.
Did you notice the games they put in there for the ladies? "Kitchen Queens?" Laundry? Vacuuming? If you look at the games that they really do make for girls, they really are about clothes, cooking, and taking care of babies. Cooking Mama? Diner Dash? SatisFASHION??
Sadly, these are the kinds of games that most people in the industry think girls like. True, I do love most of those games as well, but they seem to forget that we also enjoy games like Oblivion, WoW, and other strategy/action games?
However, I found this hilariously funny, except for the end, as I have already said. Think of it like Sarah Haskins. It's satirical humor. I found it really funny, and true to what the industry really does try to TARGET to us WOMEN.
Something tells me an actual Sarah Haskins video about video games would be much funnier. I honestly don't know if they were trying to satire how Nintendo markets games to women, or if they were just satirizing the types of games women (supposedly) actually would like.
I would just like to say, my boyfriend, another male friend, and my 5 year old male cousin all love cooking mama. Nothing wrong with Cooking Mama, people.
Sarah Haskins probably could do a better job at it, that's true. After all, she's the highlight of my week. =D
I don't think they're satirizing what women are SUPPOSED to like, but rather what they ADVERTISE to women. Have you noticed that they have made a video game for nearly every thing that women are 'supposed' to enjoy doing? Cooking, cleaning, clothes, shopping, caregiving, etc, etc....I do enjoy those games as I have said, and I think that Cooking Mama looks great. (Although I'm sure my boyfriend would like it better than I would. He's an amazing cook, while I burn water. =P)
I guess that's why they went all the way with the blow job at the end. It's like the gaming industry says, "Women like to cook, clean, take care of kids, and shop" and what else do women supposedly enjoy doing? Why, pleasing their man, of course! Which is how the whole blow job fits into there, I guess...
Basically, I see this as a really funny video making FUN of the gaming industry which seems to find women to love playing games that double as domestic chores while the guys like to blow things up and such. They're making fun of how stupid it is, not saying that it's the truth.
I hate how people say that "all feminists have no humor" blah, blah, blah, but seriously, people...Lighten up. It's a funny video.
I don't think they were satirizing video game sexism.
I think they were saying that women are wet blankets who don't appreciate video games the way men do - and women would only like video games about housework and sexually servicing men, because women are boring and joyless.
It's more accurate to say they were CELEBRATING video game sexism.
I honestly cannot see how you figure that, but whatever. It's your opinion and you're entitled to it.
I think it's hilarious. I mean, just look at the titles of the games. "Kitchen Queens?" Don't try to tell me they're not making fun of "Cooking Mama" or any of the HUNDREDS of games that are just like that.
Jennie,
I agree with you, but I even found the end funny.
There are all sorts of commercials that make fun of guy stuff and beloved boyfriend laughs as hard at them as anything else.
He would probably be more 'bothered' at this skit than me.
A guy I was chatting with one time showed this video to me. He didn't think it was funny because it was a clever satire of how video game companies perceive what kind of games women want, but because HAHA the women suck dick at the end and that's what they like to do, along with shaving and cleaning. The guy who sent it to me is also a misogynist ass.
Sorry, but to me this video seems to reinforce the idea that women can't like video games, unless it has something women stereotypically like to do, like ironing.
Woah. My roomate is a hardcore World of Warcraft player and I've watched her kick ass. She devotes 4 or 5 hour periods of her day to play with a guild and it's amazing to watch.
I have a problem with this type of humor. It makes sexism "okay". It takes sexism and stereotypical gender roles and makes it into a joke. It is all in the rhetoric. Since it is funny, it is okay, right? NO. I don't appreciate this and I don't like it when it is reversed either. I don't like that men are made out to be stereotypical airhead jocks. This just shows how deeply rooted sexism towards women is in our culture. It has gotten to the point of it being okay because it is a "joke".
First off, I have to say that the spoof idea seems a bit apologetic for a sexist video. A little self-deprecatory humor is good for us all, but I just don't see the fair share on both sides. Sports, fighter-pilot simulations, action-hero shooters---these are action-packed and /or fantastical activities regardless of whether you enjoy them or not. Vacuuming and cleaning dishes are chores or even punishment. You'd be hard-pressed to hear a parent tell their child "I want to see that living room strafed with gunfire and the couch decimated by missiles by the time I get back from the store." To try to defend the whole as a fun laugh for all seems to me a bit of a stretch to ignore the fact that this is a joke at women's expense.
The gamer culture is still very much male-dominated. As a result, gaming (outside of general games like those for Wii), is linked to males and male camaraderie. Because of this established "realm", women are seen as intrusions or at best novelties in the gaming world. This is changing of course, but the current stigma remains.
Mainstream culture mirrors this culture and that is where I think this ad stems from. It is essentially reinforcing the idea that women don't (and shouldn't want to, as the culture purports) play video games. If they did, the games would simply mirror the things girls "normally do". The punchline: girls aren't gamers and they don't know how to have fun.
Yes, the ad is a joke alright, but at the women's expense.
Man, that's just fuckin disgusting.
Gamer "culture" is notoriously sexist, racist, homophobic, while still maintaining a psedo-"gamers are so oppressed!" mentality. It's the main reason I've never gotten into online gaming.
The intensely sexist and racist gamestop training video pretty much sums up the conventional gamer attitude toward women: here. (It's actually really disappointing to me, as the employees at the gamestop near me have always been awesome).
That's a shame. I'd really like to work at Gamestop. All the employees I've met (male and female) were really nice.
I don't think either sex was portrayed positively in this commercial.
It was pretty stupid.
I was a moderately hardcore WOW raider for a couple years at one point. Our main tank (most important functional position in a raid) was a woman for most of that time. The co-GM was female, and incredibly competitive, etc... Yeah, gaming culture can be misognystic, but it's like normal culture in the sense that it depends where you go and who you hang with.
That said, playing as a female toon, I got treated in a fairly ugly sexist fashion a few times. I took great pleasure in getting those people banned from the game. No question, it's there. But then, I see it in the real world, too.
I think something was lost in the language barrier here, actually.
This isn't a real ad at all (as I hope is obvious), or even a gaming-industry produced spoof. It's from a German Saturday Night Live-like comedy show.
All the discussion of gaming culture above, while generally valid, is quite off the mark for this video. A comedy show happened to use games as a substrate for a bit of sexist humor, as they use lots of other things. It has nothing to do with gaming culture at all (to answer the question in Jessica's original post).
In fact, the tone of the piece (though hard to place precisely in a foreign language) seems to me to suggest it wasn't actually made by someone who knows much about games.
(new poster: male, feminist, gamer)
I agree with H, this cannot be a real advertisement.
It would be nice to think it is satirizing the gaming industry. However it is also quite possible it is satirizing women, or at least female gamers. It's ultimately ambiguous in that regard.
It has certainly been noted both here and other places that the gaming industry is failing to market to women. Perhaps because they're all men, perhaps because they can only see in stereotypes, there is a lot of really stupid games out there.
Cooking Mama COULD have had a chef as the mentor/protagonist, but instead they had 'your mother but with a really bad accent'.
Some companies are far worse than others, though as a whole the industry could definitely afford to hire more women and take a deep look at what women like to play.
A lot of gamers are incredibly offensive people who are sexist, racist, etc. and feel no compunction against spewing their hate online. However I will point out that these gamers are by far the most common target of satire and ridicule from the rest of gamer culture, (well besides those who can't play the games).
In fact, the tone of the piece (though hard to place precisely in a foreign language) seems to me to suggest it wasn't actually made by someone who knows much about games.
uh, but the games that the women were playing in this video directly reference real games like the singstar series and second life.
Right, but the tone is from the perspective of someone on the outside of gaming culture making fun of it (and in a sexist manner), not from someone who considers themselves a part of gaming culture making a comment about women. The first part of the sketch, with the guys playing, is about as poor a caricature of gamers as the second part is of women.
The whole "what does gaming culture think of women" is misplaced in this thread, which was started because some random comedian happened to make fun of both videogames and women at the same time.
It's from Belgium, not Germany - they're speaking Flemish (a Dutch dialect spoken in Belgium) not German.
Thanks
As has been noted by many commentators, it's satire. And I wouldn't take too much notice of the laugh track telling us what is supposed to be the funny parts. Take it out and it would be a better satire.
And the ending, as disturbing as it is, is the final punch that I find makes the satire more effective.
Well, as a genuine belgian, I thought I could throw my two cents worth of opinion, here. By the length of my comments, you'll pray that I continue to keep quiet. In advance, pleace accept
my apologies... Also, I intend to give you some very disturbing examples of belgian humor, be warned.
First, what is being said in the video can be guessed by anyone (pretty much: you think your man is acting like a little kid? can't find any game that you think is fun? etc etc... the remaining is pretty much some dutch mixed with a lot of english...)
I can certainly tell you that what is considered to be "effective humor" by many belgian people I know, grew up with or was raised by is usually very abrasive (on the french side, at least), totally not PC jokes. And what I really mean is that Belgian people hate PC. Or is it that they love to shock and be shocked? Or is it that the belgian culture is actually f*cked up? I'll give you a few examples of my own "belgian experience" and you be the judge.
When I was a teenager, in the 1990's, there was a lot of belgian children going missing, turning up dead, abused, sold to pediphiliac webs around the world. For such a tiny country, it was mind-blowing, people were truly shaken by that. Well, one very popular joke I must have heard ad nauseam was about one of those kids, Gregory. You understand some french? Google "blague petit Gregory" and get ready to be very disturbed by jokes about a boy that was put in a garbage bag and thrown in a river. That's belgian humor. They don't laugh as they tell you the joke, that's not the point, yet, it's considered a joke. Go figure.
Then, if you really want to be puzzled by what my proud people my age consider to be funny, go ahead and watch "C'est arrivé près de chez vous" (which means: "it happened near where you live"). Don't be put off by the french language you might not understand, just know that the very long scene where the very sweet mother is brutally raped in her kitchen is supposed to be funny... no, not funny, hilarious, and is regularly quoted by people I know. There's no ambiguity there, it's atrocious and cruel, and bloody, and horrible. A movie not unlike Clockwork Orange, only very very badly remade and more gruesome. Watching that, you might not believe it's actually mainstream material for my generation. I watched it when I was a kid, as did every one of my peers.
So that little clip about gaming? yes, very mild and gentle belgian humor.
Oh, and if you just happen to visit Belgium, wherever you go, you'll see an ad for a beer. The name of the beer is Jupiler, and the slogan is: Mannen weten waarom/Les hommes savent pourquoi, "Men know why". You can read it everywhere in Belgium, I've been brainwashed with that sentence.
Belgium is one very misogynist little piece of land, and I could go on and on. But do not forget that it is also where a catholic king stepped down his thrown just to allow abortion laws to be passed without him and his faith interfering with the people's will. And same-sex marriage has been allowed for a few years, as well as adoption by same-sex partners. I don't find the humor funny or the following practice ideal, but the jokes have always been told to me so that a real discussion could start. Belgian people really love to shock you into a social debate. Put the video back into its cultural context and you'll see that as sexist and terrible as it is, it's a tiny bit more complex than what you see...
I meant throne, of course, not thrown.. sorry
I had no idea belgian humor was so dour and brutal.
It does stand to reason that this is satire, however poorly-executed. it was sort of a commercial parody condemning corporate culture attempting to entice women based on bullshit stereotypes, however ineffectually.
"suckund life" gave me a chuckle. I like puns.
Belgian humor can be brutal, certainly for and from my generation (I'm 28). But I must also add that I painted a very one-sided portrait of Belgium, humor there can be marvelously witty and erring on the side of the magical, sometimes, especially from older folks. I've seen it change since the early 90's, though, and I think the brutal quality comes from a deep and painful cynism about society, and everything political or commercial.
Context is key. Thank you!
Can I add something that is unrelated to videogaming?
I wish that we would stop adding knitting and cooking to the list of shitty-stereotypical-things-that-women-have-to-do-but-hate-to. And they aren't "flighty" like gabbing on the phone with your girlfriends. Knitting and cooking are both useful activities AND art, like quilting. These used to be absolutely integral to the running of the home and were well respected activities. Let's not bash women's art; let's celebrate it, can we?!
Run-of-the-mill sexist bullshit. Girl gamers are totally not like this. we actually like to play games about fantasy. not what we 'should' be doing in real life. its just to 'train' women into doing what men want them to do. so they don't have to do it. its complete and utter bullshit. the ppl who made that need to get their heads out of their own ass and take a real look around. and, i don't know, figure out what real girl gamers do.
My jaw just fell to the floor. What were those women thinking, taking a job like that?
i saw this ages ago when it was posted on a gamer site and it infuriated me. not surprised to say the guys on the site loved it. ugh.
This is not what the video-game industry thinks of women.
But honestly in my experience its always been the guys playing their video games and their girlfriends just sitting around waiting for them to be done. Atleast among adolescents.
I think the "shii" video games were hilarious. Especially when they start "wii-ing" shaving their legs and what not. People look so funny when they play wii. lol
Overall im not offended except for the blow-job part at the end. But I think it was just supposed to be a joke.
I think the "shii" video games were hilarious. Especially when they start "wii-ing" shaving their legs and what not. People look so funny when they play wii. lol
Same thing I was thinking! Thank you cute!
canada,
Thank you too.
Knitting and cooking are both useful activities AND art
I can cook fine as well as beloved boyfriend, but that knitting? I wish I could. I so wish I could! Mom and my aunts tried to teach me but I am awful at it. I knit as well as I weld, which beloved attempted to teach me and he was so sweet as I destroyed metal.
Nice that we share good cooking and other things.
Is it impossible for the original poster to edit their silly comments here, or do the clueless words have to live forever?
I thought the video was hilarious, not gonna lie
Um, this is clearly a spoof. You can hear the laughtrack in the background.
I play an MMORPG occasionally (City of Heroes), and the game site required me to change the name of my super-hero Super Plus Tampon after someone complained about how "vile" it was apparently. I argued it, but in the end I lost. I can't imagine how that would have offended anyone more than I am offended consistently by the constant stream of scantily-clad, big-breasted women characters, the lack of female sidekicks due to the developers' strange fears they would be used to represent prostitutes (???), and the lack of sexy/bare clothing options for men while there are more than plenty for women. Lots of sexism in the development. Lots.