TOR MISOGYNY

The Bizarre Sexism in BioWare's 'Star Wars: The Old Republic'


Ok, this is not so new in games. In the KOTOR games you can have a few situations like this where you help or hurt a dancing twi'lek for example.

But; this is a Sith thing. I think folks confuse "cool" with "bad guys". As if Obi Wan kenobi never listens to Star Wars heavy metal music.

So, is this aricle pointing out sexism or is it showing you that if you are going to play on the side of evil then YOU ARE ON THE SIDE OF EVIL.?

 

Eh. I am a girl playing a female character and there is less misogyny in TOR than most other videogames.

Sure, there are blatantly misogynous things in the game like that slave girl outfit, and I'm not terribly happy about that. One of the Sith Inquisitor's companions is impossible to build affection with if you're playing a female character, which I'm not happy about either. There are loads more flirt options for a male character than a female character. However, there are plenty of female characters in positions of power, female armour is sensible and (as far as I've seen) avoids the Chaimail Bikini trope, and in general I haven't gotten the "this game is made for people who are not you, suck it up" vibe that many other videogames have.

If one seriously wanted to write about misogyny in videogames there are plenty of better targets. The Kotaku article basically boils down to "I did bad stuff and now I feel bad, and IT'S ALL BIOWARE'S FAULT" ... seriously? He did it. The game didn't make him mistreat Vette. In fact the game made him feel terrible for doing it which seems to me far better than preventing him from doing it at all. "This is a terrible thing to do and you should never do it again" is more effective than "You can never do this because we decided for you that you can't".

This is just some journo posting about a "controversial" topic for ad traffic, in my opinion.

Also, General chat is full of trolls.

 

Eh, there's been worse when it comes to people bashing video games with overblown claims of sexism and other mature content

Unless its really blatant I just scoff at people's attempts to link aspects of a video game with controversial subjects such as sexism. In the case of Vette and the Sith...they're Sith. They do bad things. They'll zap subordinates and do other bad things, what do you expect? I mean yeah its there but, as Xani pointed out, its not like its something that will happen no matter what you do; it was the player that made the choice to do it just because he could. Felt bad about it too and I know I would never do that stuff

However, I totally object to any complaints about the iconic slave girl outfit

But nah, its not like Return of the Jedi was promoting sexism because they decided to show off Leia in that outfit. I mean that didn't stop that woman from strangling the Hutt that put her in that in the first place. And that was only the most recent moment of female badassery that had been put on her pile next to those dozen or so Storm Troopers that she mowed down previously

 

Almost all video games portray women in unhealthy ways, and one can find people trolling and bragging about sick **** in pretty much any in-game chat. I don't think that article should be presenting it as an issue unique to SWTOR.

Also, the author loses his right to pretend to be a feminist for using the term "girl gamer" to refer to female players shortly before he states many players of both sexes are adults. The infantilization of adult women has historically been a tool of oppression. Some women do embrace the "grrrl" label, but I don't think a male author should be throwing it around.

Folks like the Extra Credits team have discussed the broader issues of sexuality and the presentation of women in video games far more intelligently than this.

 

I hears good thing about the slave Girl outfit. It is popular amongst Consular Shadow's, since it is mod-able. Most consualrs go for social items because consular gear is hidious.

 

The gaming industry is still largely aimed at males, even many game heroines like Lara Croft were obviously designed as a male fantasy and not done in a realistic way.

But I don't see why TOR should get bashed in this way. As stated these are Dark Side characters and most will want to do Dark Side things. Plus these are slaves and as history has shown us slaves are not normally treated very well, if a slave misbehaves they are often disciplined very harshly (as can be the case in TOR).

I think in general Star Wars games have portrayed women in a very positive way. Juno Eclipse, Jan Ors, Bastilla, Meetra Surik and even villains such as Tavion & Kreia are characters often equal or superior to their male counterparts.

 

I don't think this person knows very much about SW games, like many non-gamers who comment on the industry, he has no idea.

Besides, a female Sith Warrior can shock Vette too. How is that sexist?