On Starfire

Article: To My Someday Daughter by JulyFlame on 2011-09-24 21:10:00 UTC Reply

Lee linked me to this article earlier this day, and I found it interesting enough to link in the chatroom. Because of its length, I also decided to link it here, because while we're not a gaming community, and we try to not be sexist, I thought it'd be worth giving a thread.

The topic of the article is, essentially, casual (and no so casual) misogyny in geek circles, and how it causes a feminist crisis of sorts.

It's definitely worth some introspection.

To My Someday Daughter

Oh hey here's also a video about the media in general by DigitalSocrates on 2011-09-30 05:02:00 UTC Reply

http://vimeo.com/28066212
That was quite a read by DigitalSocrates on 2011-09-29 20:57:00 UTC Reply

But a good one.

I particularly like his breakdown of where Nice Guy Syndrome comes from.
That was well said. by Vixenmage on 2011-09-26 05:40:00 UTC Reply

The geek community is fractured-- there's parts of it, obviously, that are better than others. But the "Girls Are Bad At Math" is still pretty heavily touted, and a lot of other negative stereotypes get thrown out there.

For the comic book end of things, there's this, The Big Sexy Problem with Superheroines and Their "Liberated Sexuality", which may be NSFW, if only by dint of quoting the problems it addresses.

On Starfire by DigitalSocrates on 2011-09-29 20:59:00 UTC Reply

I actually tried to find the Starfire discussion that July said happened on the board and this doesn't really look like a discussion on Starfire so much as VM just linked it.

As this thread is more of a commentary on Feminism than explicitly about the comic, this may be slightly off topic but I figured I'd share this rescript of the Starfire comic I found on tumblr that tickled me.

(Like the comic that it is based off of, moderately NSFW)

http://romanadvoratrelundar.tumblr.com/post/10734855529/now-this-is-much-better
Aha, link fail. by Vixenmage on 2011-09-26 13:52:00 UTC Reply

Let's try this! Better?

Thought-provoking indeed. by LunarHuntress on 2011-09-25 05:50:00 UTC Reply

I've always thought of geek culture as more accepting than most of the rest of society - that among fellow geeks and nerds, race and gender and sexual identity and whatnot were less important and differences more embraced. I'm not sure why, but I supposed it has to do with geeks and nerds being outcasts along with more conventional Disenfranchised Persons, and the fact that so much of sci-fi, the geek's staple, involves looking towards the future, and reflecting the problems of society today. It still isn't perfect, but it's better and getting better all the time.

But it seems we've got even further to go than I thought.
A fascinating read by Maslab on 2011-09-25 00:06:00 UTC Reply

I'm still not quite done with it, but it's one of the few articles that's actually held my attention like this. I was honestly not aware of the Dead Island coding thing, and now I'm pretty mad with myself for giving them my money for it.

On another note, and I mentioned this in the chatroom: This is why I like strong female characters like Kat (Halo: Reach, although any female Spartan outside Halo Legends is in the same boat) and female Shepard (Mass Effect). Female Shepard does seem to be "cuter" than she should be, but pull the looks aside and she and male Shepard are almost identical.
Very interesting. Very good, too. by Sedri on 2011-09-24 23:24:00 UTC Reply

I can only hope everyone reading it takes it in the spirit that is meant. Thanks, July.