Well, where do I begin with this, I should lay some groundwork of where I stand and I'll segway to the topic of this new video; I guess it's fair to say I'm not of the feminist persuasion for so many reasons I could write a novel on the double standards they practice alone. However, to keep it simple, why I don't drink the Kool-aid is because it's not about equality; it's about superiority. After researching it, hearing about it, reading articles that offended the hell out of me (FYI I am a human being, not an animal) I have absolutely nothing good to say about it.

Originally I started going on a rant about why I felt this way - then I found I was going way off the topic at hand here, but I will say this - I am anti feminism; I am a HUMAN rights advocate - keyword here being everybody. This crap has been crammed down my throat long enough and like the trope that is the topic of discussion here, one real world trope that irritates me to no end is the struggling women in our society trope and how it's my responsibility to be as accommodating as I can be for them. And that has its own set of problems. I'm tired of constantly hearing about how it's problematic with how women are portryed in; everything, it seems as though everything these days is sexist - oh but only to women though because after all, it's impossible to objectify men in any way shape or form, misandry doesn't exist apparently. Once again regarding all this, I could write and write and write - which maybe I will when I have some more time.

Anyways, geting to the point of this thread - the topic of Damsels in games, while I have to admit, this video Anita made is nowhere near as bad or as narrow minded as her other ones, and she does make valid points and backs them with evidence, I have to deduct points because she had to go and say patriarchy - patriarchy is another trope feminists like to use, and it's fake, it's like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. Now I must say, that was pretty bad how they transformed that Krystal game into another Starfox game, I can understand some resentment over that.

To me it's the same feeling (although a different circumstance) as hearing about how a character like Astrea on Heaven's Lost Property is considered sexist because she's dumb, yet we have no problem whatsoever making male characters that are borderline retarded for some laughs such as Homer Simpson or Louie on Rune Soldier.

Now some issues I have though is that she does take a bit of a one sided approach to this, one of the things I'm curious about is how this trope - which has undeniably existed since the beginning of time practically came into being. Why is it that this damsel in distress exists, and why is it so popular? That's the root of the problem, and to be honest, nobody, men and women just don't seem to tire of it regardless of how much social engineering we as a society tries.

And to rephrase the question Anita is addressing; rather than why is the female always used for an object or goal, or why she always has to be rescued is why is it always the male's responsibility to have to bail her out again? And again? I mean, Mario must be seriously whipped to have to constantly go after the Princess time and time again. Another way to look at this trope is being sexist to both genders - yes, the female is objectified because she is the catalyst for the male protagonist - she's reduced to that prize at the bottom of the cereal box, however, in order for the male protagonist to earn her respect and admiration he must put his life on the line to save her, this is called the disposable male trope. Once again, Anita has failed to mention this, now don't get me wrong, she's right about the female objectification, but like every other video she makes, she only looks at things from her point of view - this is why she is not too popular with people - which I will address shortly.

In terms of anime, this is where I actually found SAO sexist towards both men and women - first, the female lead is a strong, powerful fighter, but when she wants to marry the male protagonist, rather than her fighting for her freedom, somehow it becomes the male protagonist's responsibility. I mean, if I would've done it, i would've made her fight the crimson knight, have it a good fight and the gamble would be if she lost, the male protagonist would have to join the guild - this of course he would've agreed to because he wants to be with her so much and he'd do it out of (wait for it) mutual respect.

Now, back to Anita:

I watched his video as well, and I really can't say it better myself, although, I can't say I've ever encountered a reasonable feminist.

So to sum up what I have to say about Anita, I don't care for her too much, I can't disagree with her more on most of her videos - I mean Lego sexist? Really? Lord of the Rings? Because there are not enough women in it, because it doesn't fit her personal test of satisfaction, okay. The bechel test - if we applied this to anime, and how it works for male characters - get this; Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and, haha, Queen's Blade are sexist towards men. Yes, her logic is flawed, I have no reason to take her seriously now. And I'm not even trying that hard to debunk her theories, nor am I projecting hatred to towards her - i'm just offering up evidence as to why I feel she is not exactly firing on all eight cylinders.

Anyways, regardless of that - she is free to her opinion just as I am mine, and one being, I really don't see Queen's Blade as sexist to anybody (I'm not going to write about now, I have already - go read my older posts). As I've mentioned, I can't take her seriously, I think she gets overly petty and picky, perhaps to the point of where she can't enjoy and work of fiction, which is not a good way to live, and yes, I know I get a little nit picky sometimes, but I'm more concerned about all out hate against males - which is why I was so hard on Thelma & Louise and Girls Against Boys or the anime Love Hina , they were sickening to watch. However, other things like Homer Simpson that I bring up - I only bring characters like him up to validate a point, I'm not really offended by him, or Louie from Rune Soldier, hey, I can accept a ditsy character like Astrea, I can accept a silly male character too. I bring them up to show things go both ways and that people should really chill out sometimes and try to enjoy themselves when watching entertainment.

One thing I can say about Anita is that she is a professional victim or damsel - and I say professinal because she's laughing her way to the bank with close to $160000 for her pet project - a lot of this was sypathy donations for her crying about how the "bad men" where causing her problems. This here is a perfect example of her being rescued, her TEDx speech was nothing more than a sob story of her traumatic ordeal dealing with the evil male dominated game community. I'm going to be honest here - most of us really don't care, at least speaking for myself.

Yes, I like DOA and Ninja Gaiden, both games are famous/infamous for the female characters on there, however, the male characters are quite attractive as well - so much so that a lot of female gamers actually like them on DOA (they talk about them the same way the fanboys talk about the girls - everyone is happy) - but it's not just the guys that attracts them to DOA - it is a fun game that has nice fluid controls to it - a great game for both the casual gamer and hardcore (set the game up on the hard difficulties, it's crazy, I tried). And recently they offered a DLC costume pack for the male characters that consists of swimming and UFC style shorts and trucks. This is what I mean here, this is consideration for the female gamers that play this game, some fanservice for them.

As for Ninja Gaiden, on the first one Rachel (voiced by legend Tara Strong) does play the damsel in distress, but then at the end of the game rescues Ryu (NG's male protagonist) as payback. In Ninja Gaiden Sigma she is a playable character, and quite lethal, way more powerful than Ryu's attacks, her abilities and moves make her a fun character to play. When I was challenged by another gamer about her scantly clad out fit I replied - she's so good at what she does, she doesn't need armor, but at the same time, Ryu's outfit is skintight leather. Speaking of which, I even remember playing NG and one of my roommates, who is a girl was watching me play and she even said to me - "he's got a hot ass, hey, do you think yo could get an outfit like that?"

In the later incarnations of NG more of the female characters are playable, on Ninga Gaiden Sigma 2 there's Ayane and Rachel, but also Momiji, and her battle cry is pretty scary. For the upcoming Razor's Edge for PS3 and 360 (already out for Wii U) there's Kasumi, Ayane, and Momiji, I'm really looking forward to seeing what sort of moves list they all have.

Now, with Anita, somethings I do want to bring up - when she announced her plans for this video project she was met with both praise and scorn to varying levels. There were some real assholes out there who said and did some horrible things on her page, there was also a game created where she was the villain, defaced pictures of her a beat Anita game and more. Now, as much as I dislike her, I don't feel anybody deserves that. I have no issue with people posting about disagreeing and discussing, but all out bullying is unacceptable, I don't like it when rad fems bully and harrass Men's Rights Advocates for voicing a reasonable opinion, so the inverse is true, if a feminist wants to stand on her soapbox on youtube about something as harmless as pop culture (I mean Anita isn't calling for the castration or extermination of men - although some others are), that's fine, but she needs to understand a person disagreeing with her and expressing that in a constructive, critical and diplomatic fashion is not harrassment, or bullying, she has that wrong.

And you know what? No matter how well written a female character is, they will not be happy, it's a no win situation. If they make a strong capable female character, but make her average looking, they accuse misogyny because there's the implication that strong women are not pretty or sexy, so make the heroine pretty and sexy; but then misogyny is called again because there's pandering to the male demographic going on, it seems like there's such a small margin of what is acceptable in terms of creating a well developed female character. And yes, i have heard these arguments. Actually, Tomonobu Itagaki who created the new Ninja Gaiden incarnations (except for the most recent ones) and also the DOA series spent a lot of time developing his characters, his lead female characters in DOA proved to be a chalenge for him because he wanted to find a balance between strength and power but still some softness and a good female presence there. When he did Ninja Gaiden he realized then and there, it is so much easier writing a male lead than a female lead.

It's one of the main reasons I don't invest into feminism, it is not a kind place for guys, but there is the one sided perspective when seeing her videos and as I've mentioned, I feel Anita gets carried away all too often. Lord of the Rings sexist? Really?

Oh, I'm not denying misogyny exists, it totally does - and there are some real assholes out there that verify this, I never did say misogyny is a myth, but I will say there are so many times these days where as much as disagreeing with a woman is considering misogynistic and unPC. And a lot of the time, when something is sexist to women it is sexist to men at the exact same time - it is like an equation that balances - both points of view must be considered if people want to practice equality - and I've considered the female perspective on things for a very long time, as a matter of fact I've been forced to.

And there is nothing false about the equivalency - misogyny and misandry are both bad and they both are not acceptable - equally unacceptable. That's what separates a feminist from a human rights advocate. Your statement here is somewhat weak, perhaps a misinterpretation of my earlier writing? I'm going to have to apologize now for my blunt attitude, but to say that I'm creating a false equivalency is just sheer stupidity and ignorance on your part - if sexism towards women exists then you can bet all you have that it exists against men too - and it really doesn't take too much creativity to do it.

This is a big issue I have with feminists when someone takes and addresses male issues, or looks at something and can interpret it as sexism towards men. I'm not denying that women have issues to deal with, and I do agree with some of the points Anita made on her video, but that's the difference between me and feminists; I can look at things more objectively where as the feminist perspective is always about ensuring and securing female approval.

And since Anita did a video on the trope of damsels in distress, I have a trope for everyone to research, it's called the disposable male trope - a majority of the time, particularly in mainstream movies, while the male is usually the main action hero, the villain is as well - now, count how many henchmen and background characters that die that are male. It's what I call the Jurassic Park rule - not a single female character dies on all three of the movies, and let's face it, the male characters do suffer some horrific deaths on there, like being ripped in half by two T-Rexes and torn to shreds by some raptors. No, Anita never has brought this up, she has spoken of how there's little female presence in movies, but, there are very few vulgar female deaths (even on some of those gore porn movies like SAW and Hostel) and she'll go on about how men are always the heroes, but she has failed to explain how it all balances out with the male cannon fodder, or lunchmeat or their disposability.

Oh, boy, you'd be surprised how often this gets pulled out, okay:

I would highly recommend you search for the "why" component of this because I used to buy into the exact same thing - and you just need do a seach on youtube on the "wage gap myth." But what do you suggest to remedy this? Quotas? I can tell you they'd do way more harm than good. Do a little research, the answers are out there, I'm not going to spoon feed it for you. I will say though that there is no conspiracy to inhibit women from obtaining these positions, "the man" is not out to stop them, women are a mjority of degree holders - last I checked about 62% of degrees are obtained by women now. Okay, I'll give you alittle bite of the grub - one minor thing teh age gap myth doesn't account for is on average women do make less than men - however, men work longer hours, even within the company I work for which I can use as an example - a standard work week for a male employee because of the labour, tech, supply chain (what I do) along with the mechanics, field operators and maintenence is a 40 hours - a majority of the positions held by the female workers here - office and admin, accounting, finance etc. standard work week; 37.5 hours. This also doesn't not account for the mass of overtime many of the male workers put in as well - and we have women working in the warehouse with us who make the same salary as we do, and they are great workers, but they are not exactly the first ones to volunteer for overtime, even when it is personally offered to them.

I should also mention while a majority of upper management in these companies are men, a majority of the homeless are also men - so, yeah, they have the top, but they have the bottom too.

Now, there is so much information out there, my advice, seek out the why component of this, ask yourself questions such as "what lines of work are women choosing?" Heavy hazardous work? Jobs that require them to travel? "What are a magority of their priorities?" Be a CEO of a company that could care less about them or to start a family? This is the sort of critical thought that I used to question feminism and it's one sided attitude. Also, being a CEO isn't as attractive as it looks, and it is the most expendable position in the entire company, they won't hesitate to let a CEO go when share prices go down, and they can easily be replaced.

But since we're talking career choice here, I think it's great there's encouragement for women to get into STEM programs, with the oilsands development here, we even have a program called Women Building Futures, which encourages women to get into trades such as construction, instrumentation, plumbing etc. I sincerely feel this is a great thing, I really do, but, once again, we need to balance the equation - where are the campaigns to make trades such as nursing and hairstyling attractive to men? My sisters fiance is an RN and still gets ridicule from both men and women - my favorite was when some fo the office women were walking around the facility where us workhorses are - I remember talking to one and she said she would never date a male nurse, her other peers concurred, so I quetioned her, why? It's a woman's job, she says, to which I reply, my sister's fiance is a nurse; and he makes way better coin than you or even most of the mechanics and engineers we have here, not too bad for a so called "woman's job."Now think this over for a moment - this is sexist to both men and women in the sense that we have people that look down on nursing because it's woman's work, and how people look down on men who may want to take that career path - and it is a good one.

So, this is what I'm getting at, there are no false equities, you can't elevate one group at the expense of another.

As for the abuse, it's another I would look very closely at - also, look up Erin Prizzey, she's a foremost expert on the subject who could explain it better than I could. But I also encourage to look into a man by the name of Warren Farrel, very gentle soft spoken man, but very smart. But it is said that over 40% of domestic violence victims are men - there are no shelters for them or any other resources, so, yes, a majority of domestic violence victims are female, but by a small margin, also, understand that I'm not accounting for those men who are too afraid to come forward, so when the numbers show an almost even split between the DV victims, this is where I challenge feminism to step up and help those poor guys out, which I have yet to see. So regarding this, you may want to crosscheck your numbers. And since we're talking a little about pop culture, this issue of female on male domestic violence has only been addressed on one episode of one show - at least, what I can recall, and that was an episode of King of the Hill, and it did a great job of showing the reality of the situation, one of the characters atarted dating a woman who would get drunk and beat on him, he tried hiding it, and of course at the end of the episode, things were resloved with Peg actually putting a stop to the abuse woman's rampage - which by the way was married to Peg's brother and she abused him as well - it's all I ever saw about this issue, I've never seen it come up again.

Once again though, I'm not disregarding the women who suffer domestic violence, it does happen and it needs to be stopped, but if equality is what everyone is going for, the male victims need to be addressed as well, however, feminism will not address this or speak of it - because who cares if men suffer, they probably deserved it right? Men so so badly demonized in our society so why should anyone care? It does explain part of the reason why men are at least four times more likely to commit suicide - nobody is willign to help them.

Well, men also don't report because they're afraid of being the ones who are held accountable. You will also see lighter prison sentences handed out to women for the exact same crimes, the articles written for them are also done in a way to make the read sympathetic to the perpetrator when she is female.

And this idea of our culture finding the premise of a woman hitting a man absurd needs to come to an end, just like the Damsel in Distress trope - but, another problem with feminism, if it was about equality why not address this problem? Why not empower men to speak up when their partner is abusive? I did, it's tough, but I did. Why not teach men as well as women to look for red flags in a person that may indicate that person may be controlling, and/or abusive? I could've used it.

Andyou call a man getting beaten up by a woman comical? Are you nuts? (there are certain situations, very, very, specific, but, that will get an explaination another time) -but this idea that it's supposed to be funny is just as degrading to women as it is men.

Also, your equation about the worst insults about being assosiated with a woman's private area is a very weak arguement - in the real world we call men

So, this idea of women being seen as less - get out there and have a look around, they're pedestalized, feminism build a pyramid and put women on top. I happen to know many mothers and fathers who are deeply worried for their sons because of how things are becoming.

Oh, no, I was'nt strawmanning at all, there is a user that is actually calling for castration of men and I'll take 1000 Anitas over her any day, at least, I feel, there actually may be a degree of reasoning with Anita, even her last video wasn't a total loss, but once again, you must look at everything from every perspective. I'm not making this crap up, I wish I was, but I do know much of this is of the radical feminist ideals.

I also know all feminists aren't lesbians, I know they don't hate men, however, from every video and article I've ever read i can sense a great deal of resentment towards men and boys, almost as if we're obligated to them or owe them something. I remember reading an article called Schroder's Rapist and just being outright offended by it, and it is was written by a so called reasonable feminist. Sorry, but I'm not going to treat women any better than men, but it seems as though, the impression I get is they want to be seen as untouchable royalty and I have a dire allergy to arrogance.

Lastly, when a man gets his penis severed and shredded in a garbage disposal and the jerks on the View can sit there and laugh about it, or as Sharon said "it's quite fabulous." And the rest of the audience comprised of women, and when Sara Gilbert points out the double standard adn they shrug it off as "oh its different." I know we live in a world that could care less about you, me and most of the guys here even because of our evil Y chromosomes.

If feminism was truely about equality it would be a little more vocal about speaking out against garbage like this - and I know there are some feminists who actually do stand up to this, the problem is our society and radical feminists scream louder - so that's all we get to hear. If you want me to even address and respect the feminist standpoint and believe it is actually about equality - this disgusting behaviour needs to be spoken out against by these reasonable feminists, and it must be loud; of course, it happened to a man, so who gives a crap right? I even remember Lorena Bobbit who severed her husband's penis was actually revered as a hero among feminists and women, she was on talk shows for f^ck sake, if feminism was so great - why are they endorsing this sort of behavior, and if it's those "other feminists" then the "good feminists" need to speak out against them.

And lastly, I am a male. And I'm proud of that, it was the way I was born, and I shouldn't have to worry about being shaming for saying that I'm proud of who and what I am - everyone else gets to. I am not the rapist, or a thug, or a neanderthol, or whatever feminists want to believe me to be or tell me. I am a human being.

Don't even get me started on the double standards that exist, all I can say is that you have some homework to do, lots and lots of homework.

At the end of the day, the closer I look at feminism, the more I see that it's more about superiority over men. I can't endorse that, I will however be very welcoming of equality - which is how I treat people anyways.

So, more of address to your post, off topic, but regarding this damsels in distress - what I usually see feminists (other than Sarkeesian) themselves embracing - when it suits their purpose.

If you ask me, I feel feminism infantilizes women rather than empowering them. It says it's about obliterating gender steriotypes, liberating men as well as women and yet men are more ingrained in their traditional roles more than ever. Women, empowered women still most of the time practice hypergamy, so, the pressure for men to earn more is higher than ever, and I swear, if I see another "where are all the good men gone?" Article, god help me. Speaking of breaking steriotypes, after being in a few relationships myself and not really have enjoyed them, I have decided I want to stay single - I don't know for how long, I'm not really sure, life is actually quite fun, my family notices I'm back to my old self, however, people I know, people I meet, when they hear of my life choice they immediatly assume I'm gay, like a hetero male can't choose to be single or something.

Come to think of it, whenever I go out with my friends, I get hit on way more often ever since I ended my last relationship and I'm enjoying my free time for myself. And those girls are so pushy too, they get right up close, quite aggressive actually.

I would also like to add that Anita Sarkeesian is not too much of a radical feminist, yes, she's petty, she makes up ways different pieces of visual and auditory media are misogynistic, but she is not a radical, a little looney, but not like some of the others that do call for male extermination, or outright mention female supremacy - I would say Anita Sarkeesian is more like the Macdonald's or fast food of Feminism.

Well, I'm tired, time to call it a night.

@Soundmonkey - yes no doubt, the points you make here are relevent and I think what we need to do when it comes to ourentertainment media - which I will stay focused on here is to understand things need to be fair. I consider myself quite fair when it comes to criticising media in terms of this whole gender.

As I've mentioned before, I hvae no issue with men being portrayed of silly or dumb, but this is the same thing with women as well, hence my comparision of Louie from Rune Soldier and Astrea from Heaven's Lost Property - both characters are dumb and silly, and played out for laughs, and I can honestly say I'm not offended by either's portrayal. Now, I've picked on feminists like Anita Sarkeesian, but, since I go to a Men's Rights forum, there are a lot of guys there that are male equivalents to Anita there - everything is sexist towards men, they won't tolerate men being portrayed as silly or dumb yet have no issue with women being portrayed as such, this is a double standard displayed on their part - and it's no different than those nit picky feminists they rag on about. THey go on about how movies such as Deathproof, Kill Bill, Sin City and even the Watchmen portray men in a negitive light, I feel they are just as misguided as feminists like Sarkeesian.

Getting back to myself, with anime, movies and games, or even commercials, there are a lot of jokes that rib both genders, I have no issue with that, same with any sort of fan service, I have no problem with the Twilight movies in this aspect (I just didn't like them because I didn't like them, I made it to the second one and stoppped), as I mentioned earlier, I recently got a DLC for my DOA 5 game for the male characters that are equivalent to the swimsuit packs for the female characters. I admire this because it demonstrates consideration for the female fans on Tecmo/Team Ninja's part.

As i said, I have no issue with any of this material, when I do, well, I get to that in a minute - but first, what I do have a problem with is how people only seem to go into defcon 7 when any of the joking, or fan service, or violence happens to women, this I disagree with, it's an imbalanced equation, you can't argue for one group's representation in fiction and say f^ck off to the other group, that is unfair. That is what I'm trying to convey here.

I said I would get to this, what does offend me is usually material that I can consider hate material, as I said, this is why I'm so hard on Thelma & Louise, aside from it just not being a very good movie, it pretty much tells those who choose to view it that men are degenerate scumbags to which it's perfectly acceptable to execute at any given time, not only that, but to the woman who does this, she is a hero. This is one reason I have chosen to not go and see Girls Against Boys, it's an interesting concept for a horror movie to have some women go on a killing spree of men, however, based on the reviews I have read, and what some of my peers, both men and women, the female characters in this movie are played up to be scary, they played up as heroes, there's absolutely nothing noble or funny about this.

The other thign I get offended by is when female characters beat on innocent male characters - so I've spoken of Girls Bravo, when Kirie beats on Yukinari - first, he doesn't do anything to warrent such treatment, but what makes it worse is that the power dynamic is in her favor - she's bigger, stronger, faster and knows how to fight.This was the same issue I had at times with Okamisan, as much as I enjoyed watching this anime, there were a few scenes where Okamisan hit the male protagonist and I thought to myself; "Did she really have to do that?"

So how do I gauge if I feel it "crosses the line" and offends me; simple, if I were to switch the genders around in all these situations, would any of this be acceptable? Or funny? If a movie was made where a two men go on a rampage and specifically target women, would they be heroes, no, actually, such a movie would be done as a terrifying horror movie and the men would not be heroes, they'd be the worst of the worst. Or how about it anime where a male beats on a female for laughs? No, wouldn't be funny, it would be quite disgusting. So why is it perfectly acceptable to peddle this sort of material? That's what this all comes down to, if we refeuse to tolerate any of this sort of material against women, we shouldn't against men.

Moving on, I must admit, there are times when a female character beating on a male character is actually funny - on Okamisan, one ale character is a masochist and he loves getting kicked in the face, he even tells his girlfriend, do it again. On Girls Bravo, when Kirie beats on Fukuyama, that's hilarious, most of the time he actually enjoys it, and he does bring it on himself, he is also the villain of he series, he is the epitome of the douche bag male.

When it comes to movies and animes that do portray women positively, it is possible to make great female and male characters, movies such as the X men series, I mentioned before Wolverine faces off against two strong female antagonists on the first two Xmen movies - and the fights were just as thrilling as if it was two male characters, as a matter of fact, Wolverine had to go much further using his cunning and other powers such as his keen nose to defeat these opponents, the fact that he won isn't sexist, the fact that he had to give it his all showed how strong these characters were.

There's Quentin Tarantino movies that do this as well, Kill Bill for example has some great female heroes and villains in it, there's Deathproof, where the male antagonist at the end actually did get what he deserved - those who have seen this movie understand why. It just comes down to the fact that if people want strong female heroes, then there is a need for strong female villains, and just as all other movies, female henchpeople - that get killed off and blown away, some of the time in the most grusome of fashion, hey, they do it on male centered movies. On Kill Bill Uma Thurman cuts the top of Lucy Liu's cranium off exposing her brain, then Uma Thurman plucks out Darryl Hanna's eyeball, then proceeds to crushing it, and let's not forget when Uma chopped that one woman's arm off. There is also all the male characters she chopped through in this movie, so to say it's sexist to any gender (men or women) is just, well, what can I say, absolutely retarded.

It's the same reason an anime such as Puella Magi Madoka Magica works, the strong female protagonist and pretty much all female cast while they own the screen and they get to do all the cool stuff - some of them get the worst of the worst, decapitation by a giant worm, being turned into a witch, not really desirable fates for anyone. This goes for any anime that has strong female characters, such as Moribito, Blood C, Dance in the Vampire Bund and even Ikkitousen and Queen's Blade. In all of these animes the characters are not being infantilized, it's almost as if they had taken the disposable male trope and did it with female characters and that's prefectly fine.

I also want to talk a little about female fronted movies where the males are supporting characters, but they are still well developed and well portrayed as supporting husbands and family members. There's Julie & Julia, it was a great movie and Meryl Streep is as impressive as ever, but Stanley Tucci (one of the only good things about the Hunger Games) did an amazing job playing her husband who was behind her and supported her in every way. Devil Wears Prada, another more female centered movie, however, when I saw the trailer for it in theaters years ago I wanted to see it, and it was another great movie.

So ultimately the point I'm trying to make here is how everyone seems to only focus on their interest groups (feminists women, men's rights advocates men) while turning a blind eye to the other side of the equation. Yes, I have ragged on feminists a lot in my last post, but there are men's rights guys who are just as bad with media who will only accept movies and animes where it shows men in a positive light, so yeah, Apollo 13 was great, but as I said, so was Julie & Julia.

I personally feel that we as a society need to exercise fairness when looking at and scrutinizing entertainment, I also think we need to understand and recognize what is actually demoralizing and can be interpreted as blatant hate as opposed to petty complaints.

I forgot to talk about one more thing here since we're on the topic of games, and I say this because I have Ninja Gaiden Razor's Edge for PS3 preordered and paid for. I'm curious to see if the female characters in it are going to be playable for the entire game just as Ryu is. If that's the case, that will be great not only for giving the player a good strong female character to play as, but also just adding a new feel to the game.

As I mentioned, I always want to see what the moves the various characters have, last night I stayed up play Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 after work just playing as Ayane because I was trying to nail a particular move where she throws the opponent into the air slices the crap out of them and then pile drives them into the ground.

So aside from this, there are two more things I want to mention here, and this is squarely focused on Ninja Gaiden, I noticed it's mostly male characters that you must kill in it, well, the minion characters. The first Ninja Gaiden did have these "cat monster" minions that were female, but they're tough to kill, but aside from that, there have not been any female minion or what I call "bum" characters in the game that serve as kill fodder for the protagonist, considering that in the Ninja Gaiden world, there are planty of good female ninjas or kunoichi as they're called, there are no evil female variants, curious. There are a few female boss monsters, one of which you must fight twice on the first one and she's very difficult to beat - although there are two more if you play the game on the higher difficulty levels - and they're crazy hard to beat as well.

Aside from that, there is only one female monster to fight on the second one, and as for the newest one, I'll have to see. Perhaps with 99% of the minion characters being male it comes back to the disposable male trope? Well, this is the case for Ninja Gaiden, however, I do know on Mario and other games there are female minions, with that said, Ninja Gaiden is still one of my all time favorite game franchises.

Lastly, I know down the road Anita is eventually going to touch on how female characters, regardless of great, strong or charasmatic, if they're done up to be sexy in any way, well, that's bad. I respectfully disagree, other people have spoken of this and I have heard opinions go both ways, while female characters are done to be sexy on many , many games, so are the male characters. Earlier I mentioned the DOA fighting games, I also mentioned how many female fans of that game speak of the male characters as male fans speak of the female characters, there was also what I described with one of my roommates in the earlier post, and yeah, I'd love to have a Ryu ninja outfit, and you're damn right I'd rock it. Aside from people speaking out about this a majorite and male and female gamers could honestly care less, and as I said with DOA, it gives something to both genders on it.

However, allow me to nitpcik, this isn't a feminist stance I'm taking, or a men's rights stance - it's a personal preference. I do feel, more so than anime, female bust sizes really need to come down, I'm not saying this as it being demeaning to women, I'm saying it in terms of too large is not that attractive. I came to this conclusion when I was playing Ninja Gaiden as Ayane and I was trying to nail that cool move, at one point I just thought, "god her breasts so way too massive." And this is the issue, they're quite disproportionate to the rest of her body - she's still a great and attractive character, it's jsut her bust actually bugs me a little. I know with a lot of Team Ninja Games, or many other games for that matter this is a trope that Anita may hint on later, but I'm sure she won't zero in on this; the bust sizes do need to come down , for me, it's cosmetic reasons. There is also a feature to make them "jiggle" i'm not sure how, but I saw some footage on youtube and it's a pointless application. Don't get me wrong, I like sexy game girls as much as the next guy, but in the case of my favorite franchises DOA and Ninja Gaiden, it really wouldn't hurt to skim the jugs down a little.

It doesn't help that sometimes men are referred to by that disgusting word as well. There's an anime reviewer who refers to unlikable anime male characters as "c**ts". Like Makoto from School Days.