Tropes vs Women: Damsel in Distress Part 3 is out.

I have to ask: What in the world is going on in Bleach these days?

Well the bleach manga is almost reaching its end, and the anime may not comeback to finish up the series, sense its been cancelled. It's rumored that the show might air a new season, but who knows. Though in the manga the story does take an interesting turn, I hope one day I can get to see it in action..

When they usually get to that stage they tend to do OAVs and movies more. But I guess I am wondering what is actually going on in the story? Basically I am wondering if they are doing anything or are stuck in a perpetual "Have they left Namek?" loop?

I will be endlessly happy if the entire rest of the thread turns into a derailed "Bleach" discussion. Sadly, I have not seen a single episode; where can I watch it for cheap / free?

Ha!

I'm not sure if it's on any of the streaming services like Netflix, Crunchyroll, or Anime Network, but those are where I'd recommend searching first.

I haven't been following the manga too much, but I've been seeing the last few chapters, Here's what I gathered..

You can watch it on Animefreak..

http://www.animefreak.tv/watch/bleach-english-dubbed-online-free

Actually finished it. Much better than the first video, the only criticism I thought was unfair this time was the whole Spelunky thing. I don't care how you dress it up, she said its okay to treat a guy badly but not a girl, and that's not something someone who believes in equality should say. Other than that the only complaint I have is that she needs to learn how to be concise. A lot of the things she says are redundant, and every segment drags on for far longer than it needs to, which honestly makes it kind of boring. Really a shame. Also she didn't make enough funny faces.

P.S. Did the Bleach anime ever end up adapting the final arc from the manga?

The problem is though that there must be 300 or so episodes which is approximately 5 days. I'm not sure what kind of being can handle watching 5 days of Bleach.

The anime itself has ended, but the story is on going in the Manga..

I spent roughly a month pounding my way through the 150 or so episodes of Fist of the North Star. It left me in a very weird mental place, but if I could do that, I'm sure there's someone out there that could shotgun Bleach.

oh no I missed that. Is that archived somewhere? twitch maybe?

@extomar: You can skip probably half of those. It has a ton of obvious filler.

Hulu has 366 episodes, which I assume is the full run. Crunchyroll used to have everything but a couple of seasons in the middle, dunno if they still have it or not now.

@slag: The Daily Dota is up on the site already.

I saw a good analogy somewhere else about this: think about how it's generally a bad thing to prominently feature a black character enjoying fried chicken, while having a white character doing the same thing is a fairly neutral image. The former enforces a negative stereotype of a historically disadvantaged group, which is why it is discouraged. In the example at hand, having a "damseled" boy-toy doesn't really tie in to a prominent negative stereotype, so its existence doesn't seem quite so bad.

And yet, it's just the inverse of the more prominent version of the trope. That doesn't necessarily make it better or more acceptable. And in desiring equality, one thing you should never argue is something akin to the above (i.e.: It's not OK for women to be hurt or kidnapped, but it's OK if it happens to men).

@amikron: oh I thought it might be a different special program instead of the usual stuff. Thanks!

@slag: No problem, will certainly have to give it a shot myself, Vinny always brings the fun.

@lively said:

I don't think that's a 1:1 example. Eating fried chicken is not an inherently negative thing. Being kidnapped, useless, and in need of rescue is.

@joshthebear said:

I've seen this image around for a while now, but don't really know the story behind it. Anyone care to explain the origin?

@spaceinsomniac:

*sigh* Not this thread has been a shining beacon of intelligent discussion on the internet or anything, but if people aren't going to post anything even remotely related to topic, I kinda wish they just wouldn't post at all. But, whatever, fuck it.

@babychoochoo: There are a dozen threads right now where people have done nothing but argue about sexism in video games. So who gives a shit?

Anita is balls. But good for her for suckering people into giving her so much money.

The only point I disagreed with in this one was the Spelunky bit, but after thinking about it I don't think it's as bad an example as I did at first. You can play as a female who rescues a guy, but it's still not the default mode and oversexualizing both damsels doesn't help anyone. The fact that the gameplay mechanic is called a 'damsel' in the first place (in the option screen) is part of the problem. The dog joke really did fall flat since it's just as easy to equate the women with the chippendales, so I'm not sure that I see the intent there. The regular male PC and buxom damsels is still the default, though -- and anyone that just picks up game for a little while may well not notice the option in there to change it. That section was clumsily handled and I'd like a little more detail.

People mad that this might be taught in college classrooms: my mother's been teaching a Language and Gender class since before I can remember, and this series is far far FAR more even handed then some of the reading in curricula used extensively since even the first wave of feminism. People that call her a ~crazy feminazi~ really don't have their thresholds calibrated.

I think it's pretty easy to see the problem here. You can't really put words in someone's mouth then get annoyed that they're not supporting the point that you think they're trying to make. I don't believe the onus is on her to prove that the trope is damaging in the first place, or even explain how to fix it. Third sentence from the kickstarter: 'The series will highlight the larger recurring patterns and conventions used within the gaming industry rather than just focusing on the worst offenders.' That you think she should focus more on the underlying effect of the trope is a fair criticism, but it's still not good practice to assume she's failing at something she's not even trying to do.

A lot of people think that this series should be a one stop shop for all the feminist media analysis, but it really is just the tip of the iceberg and I think it's fine that she doesn't try to bite off even more of it.

She spent three episodes of this series talking about Damsels in Distress. I'd say she's bit off more than a fair amount to relatively little end, and the trope itself is rather low-hanging fruit.

@mcghee: I fail to see how that gives any of us license to devolve each one of these into into some weird circlejerk where we all take turns making statements about how little of a fuck we give. But hey, no one gives a shit, so fuck it.

It's not annoying the feminism rant that's annoying, it's the shoddy sophomore level structuralist analysis.

I really dislike Anita and disagree with so many of her points. But I also hate most of the people that are against her because a lot of them are misogynistic or ignorant and making terrible jokes about rape. I hate both sides of this ridiculous internet war. I want women to be equal, if you are truly doing anything against that then screw you, but don't just start flailing for things to point at and say "See look at all of this sexism!" It's a stretch and it makes your audience lose interest in the actual important moral quandary you are trying to pose! Gah, I'm just so tired of all the arguing on this.

I'd argue not. The Mass Effect series, and this is rather endemic of Bioware, chooses to use sci-fi and society's progression within it to simply ignore anything relating to the gender of its protagonist.

I'm with joshth on this. Even if she was a he, she'd be a fucking dumbfuck of an opinionpiece video shitter-outer using kickstarter money to pay her tuition who without work or research. Even if she was a he, she'd be best left alone and not harassed in private, leave it to making comments instead. The people backing the stuff got ripped off.

I know, right? I used to respect him so much more when he was attacking religion and other things that I don't like, but then he didn't have the same opinion about something that I do, and I'm all like, "what?" I guess he's not the brilliant web personality that I thought he was, since now he doesn't agree with everything that I think.

He also clearly doesn't know to construct a debate anymore, even though before we disagreed about this subject, he was objectively a paragon of argumentative logic.

And seeing how the preceding was text written on the internet, I feel obligated to explain that yes, that was sarcasm.

Whahahahaha, what how when, that Spelunky bit. Oh man, "even if is is the same, even if it is equal it is still not ok."

Let's all present my subjective opinion on female representation as fact, the video series.

Am I high or are her earrings bigger?

Also, listing off all those indie games made me want a Quick Look of some of those games. WHERE MY QUICK LOOKS, PATRICK?!

So how many Let's Play videos did she rip off this time? I'm guessing her games played count is still at zero.

I wear a dress when I play video games so it's not sexist.

It's really impossible to know either way, so why bring it up as a debate point?

Also isn't the Fat Princess thing based on the term "Let them eat cake" by historical princesses? And not based on LOL FAT WOMAN LOL..?

@aegon: Thanks for letting us know, I really liked the first two parts.

Because I can?

I don't think it singles out anything of the sort. Instead of putting my focus on "a guy rescuing a girl is sexist because she's a prize/object in that scenario" I place my focus on how people like Anita are OK with attacking one of the most wonderful things we have: empathy towards each other. Empathy and caring for others as a motivator is a trope in storytelling, yes, for good reason. It caters to the fantasy of rescuing someone. Because you care about them. So I respectfully disagree with her that it's a bad thing. What that "someone" has in their pants is besides the point.

And the Spelunky thing -- I've no audio at the moment but from an earlier comment in the thread it sounded like she designed her argument to fit her goal and claiming saving a dog was basically comparing dogs to women or something? Am I understanding that correctly?

@nmarebfly: Fair enough, but she starts each video stating that she will critically analyse the trope. As stated in my previous post, if she was trying to critically analyse the topic, then actually analyse it. She does a great job at pointing out games that use the trope but never really follows through on her ambitions. I am not basing my critic on my own opinion, but rather what I would base it on if she were to hand it to me as an academic paper. She never fully supports the thesis that she states that the beginning of the video. Again, the third video is better than the past two but is still underwhelming.

@patman99: Congrats, you win the 'Most reasonable person in this thread' award!

No he has fair points. Developer use this trope to get an emotional reaction and since the people who buy videogames the most are male they will use the male and damsel in distress trope. Nothing can you get stronger emotions than to try to rescue the person you love. No matter if it is the one you love, or your children or your family. You need a cause and a motivation and this trope is an easy tool for that.

Also the part that men are general physically stronger is a fact. Why do you think we have separated women and men in sport competitions? Because we are all sexist?

What we need however is much better writing but that goes for male and female characters. Naughty Dog does a great job here and still she even accused the Last of us as a normal damsel in distress and typical male power fantasy. Nothing you will do as a developer will satisfy her unless you do it exactly as she wants.

Care to provide a link to that? I must have missed that one.

The problem this video suffers even more than her previous video’s highlight just how much of a point she is desperately trying to make. There are so many problems with gender in video games, yet she ignorantly skips over those and reinforces her own opinions. Her video’s do nothing to highlight anything other than lazy/poor writing.