Video Games, Youtube, & Objectification

Common Core Math does not serve as the subject of today’s post. However, I will take this moment to strongly urge you to Google the subject, especially those of you with kids who attend public, elementary education in America.

Common Core Math proves a ridiculous bit of incomprehensible nonsense that all but guarantees to confuse your children and turn them away from math.

It shouldn’t shock anyone to learn that a group of Washington politicians, who possess not a single bit of educational background, invented this crap.

The cynic in me suspects that someone wants to sell a lot of textbooks, and paying off our government to make old math books obsolete seems the easiest way to accomplish that.

Google it. Take a look. Write angry letters.

Today’s post concerns something even more unpleasant: objectification of women in the entertainment industry, specifically in video games and animated, online shorts.

Don’t wince.

I don’t want to sound as if I climbed onto a moral soapbox, so I’ll begin with a confession. If we encourage objectification through our purchases and where we go online, I serve as part of the problem.

I don’t suspect that I singlehandedly support the porn industry, but . . . my computer spent time in bad neighborhoods. I like to look at beautiful women, while they’re naked if possible.

I want to believe that I can do this and still respect women as a human beings.

Video games and animation exhibit women with perfect bodies, flawless skin, and inhumanly big, brilliant eyes. Heterosexual men enjoy this so much that we seek any excuse to justify it, myself included.

I used to, back in high school, make statements such as, “Yes, comic books depict women with unrealistic bodies while they wear what amounts to a thin layer of paint, but they also depict men with unrealistic muscles.”

I soon realized the flaw with my observation. Men rarely face the same degree of judgment based upon their looks as their female counterparts. A physically unattractive man can still appear attractive if he demonstrates a kind heart, humor, a nice paycheck, an interesting job, respect from those around him, or the ability to sing for Aerosmith.

Guys possess options. We never face the same sense of insecurities that women do, not in the looks department. We can, therefore, laugh off with greater ease any unrealistic depictions of men in video games and animation.

When one guy describes a woman to another guy, he likely sums her (and her worth) with a number between one and ten (I again admit that I’ve done this).

We rarely see the same encouragement for bad behavior towards women as we do towards men.

A news anchor on Fox “News” actually encouraged his male audience to clap for attractive women as they walk past them, so that women will know we “approve” of them.

A news reporter asked Donald Trump if his beauty contests demean women. Trump shamelessly told the female reporter that her looks bought her career. God forbid anyone suspect she earned her position through hard work.

The four heroes in the recent, god-awful Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie threaten and sexually harass a character named April, who smiles and blushes in response. I hate to sound like an old man, but what kind of example is that?

“But,” I hear you say, “don’t women make sexual suggestions to guys?”

Sure, but guys typically possess a few pounds over their female counterparts. How threated do guys feel when sexually harassed?

I realize that this post avoids the topic of unwanted advances within the homosexual community, but I hold little authority over that portion of this discussion. Feel free to leave a comment if you wish to add anything on that front.

Sexual harassment predates video games and animation. Rape might predate consensual sex. We can’t blame objectification on computers and television.

Porn, Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball, topless calendars, half naked vocaloids (look it up), and the like exist as nonliving, non-thinking entities. They can't (or want to) objectify anyone.

However, if we wish to keep our fun-to-look-at, animated dolls, then we, as men, must accept responsibility for said objectification.

The late George Carlin suggested that bad words didn’t exist, that only people could use words for good or bad purposes.

The same holds true for porn, videos of topless women, and all the rest for it. None of it carries its own agenda, but men (and women) can use it to justify bad behavior.

I perhaps provided only a convoluted path to nowhere new. Look, but don't stare. Enjoy, but keep unwanted comments to yourself. You heard it all before.

Maybe this entire post serves only to say that I think like a pig, but I draw a line somewhere so, gosh, doesn’t that make me a bit better than most?

When I watch a Beautiful Agony video, or something similar, my brain releases happy chemicals into my bloodstream. I like to feel happy. I’ve never thought, Give that girl two-thirds what I make and take away her voting rights!

I suppose that sets the bar low, though.

You can catch my novels, such as Daughters of Darkwana, on Kindle.

I publish my blogs as follows:

Short stories on Mondays and Thursdays at martinwolt.blogspot.com

A look at entertainment industries via feminist and queer theory, as well as other political filters on Tuesdays at Entertainmentmicroscope.blogspot.com

An inside look at my novel series, its creation, and the e-publishing process on Wednesdays at Darkwana.blogspot.com

Tips on improving your fiction writing Fridays at FictionFormula.blogspot.com

Movie reviews on Sundays at moviesmartinwolt.blogspot.com