First of all - SPOILER FREE thank you!

Think about it. Pit is extremely submissive and pretty much does everything Palutena tells him to. If Pit was a girl and Palutena a male God who was bossing the little girl around, wouldn't that be considered sexist? But because Pit is male, everyone just laughs about it.

Just a thought...

Doesn't that kid from Ico boss/order that little girl around?

Here's a better question, aren't we all sexist every time we play with a female character? Telling her which way to run. When to jump. When to attack. When to equip that skimpy ou-LOOK the point is we're all guilty...aren't we?

@BabyChooChoo said:

Here's a better question, aren't we all sexist every time we play with a female character? Telling her which way to run. When to jump. When to attack. When to equip that skimpy ou-LOOK the point is we're all guilty...aren't we?

Quick, someone tell Kotaku we found their next feature.

@BabyChooChoo said:

Here's a better question, aren't we all sexist every time we play with a female character? Telling her which way to run. When to jump. When to attack. When to equip that skimpy ou-LOOK the point is we're all guilty...aren't we?

I disagree. What would be sexist if we took control of a female character is if we let her purposefully die or fail all the time while we didn't do the same with a male character. Controlling her to make her succeed at her objective, well, that's a good thing.

@assisclass said:

First of all - SPOILER FREE thank you!

Think about it. Pit is extremely submissive and pretty much does everything Palutena tells him to. If Pit was a girl and Palutena a male God who was bossing the little girl around, wouldn't that be considered sexist? But because Pit is male, everyone just laughs about it.

Just a thought...

Well, Pit is a devoted angel. He does what Palutena says because he trusts her implicitly and respects her deeply. Palutena also only playfully teases him and never in a way that plays on Pit's gender.

@BabyChooChoo said:

Here's a better question, aren't we all sexist every time we play with a female character? Telling her which way to run. When to jump. When to attack. When to equip that skimpy ou-LOOK the point is we're all guilty...aren't we?

I think I'm very "guilty", but that wasn't my point. My point was that when women/girls in games are being ordered around or scantily clad, the game is considered sexist by media. But when a guy have little clothes or is being submissive everything is perfectly fine...

Yeah it's called double standards. That's just how it is.

@FluxWaveZ: @assisclass: Right now I'm sitting here hoping both of you knew I was joking -_-

Aren't we all sexist by choosing to be just a single gender? I think it should be mandatory that people shift genders every hour, for the sake of equality.

if it was just a male god bossing a girl around, no, if they said things about how being a girl made her a terrible shot or something then yes

also all of you "funny" people get fucked

@Hailinel said:

@assisclass said:

First of all - SPOILER FREE thank you!

Think about it. Pit is extremely submissive and pretty much does everything Palutena tells him to. If Pit was a girl and Palutena a male God who was bossing the little girl around, wouldn't that be considered sexist? But because Pit is male, everyone just laughs about it.

Just a thought...

Well, Pit is a devoted angel. He does what Palutena says because he trusts her implicitly and respects her deeply. Palutena also only playfully teases him and never in a way that plays on Pit's gender.

That's a good point, but does that mean it's OK as long as you don't "play on the gender"? For example, which of these examples is OK according to you?

A

Man: Go back to the kitchen and cook me some food!

Woman: Why?

Man: Because I'm hungry.

B

Man: Go back to the kitchen and cook me some food!

Woman: Why?

Man: Because you're a woman.

See what I did there? The woman went to cook food in both cases, but the speech is different. Are both sexist, or is it only sexist when the speech includes gender talk?

Yeah it'd be seen as sexist by someone somewhere. It's hard to talk about gender bias against men and be taken seriously, it's hard to talk about race bias against white men and be taken seriously, and it's hard to talk about age bias against young white men and be taken seriously.

It's a shame, in some situations, but understandable in that you can see how we got there. I don't think anyone will ever in a hundred years turn the tides on any of those things, because I think the people who jump the gun and discredit their own movement will always speak louder than whoever's doing it with good intentions. I can't see there being a huge revolution to get Brad Pitt portrayed better in films any time soon.

This is why I just usually stay out of these kinds of politics and stick to talking about game design.

I also don't know what movie this is, at all.

I suspect you're reading too much into the matter. This isn't a very practical topic of debate, as none of us involved can actually know for certain what the public perception of that setup would actually be. There's no point to getting worked up over a perceived yet entirely hypothetical double standard.

As it is, I suspect the divine angle trumps any potential gender-dynamics at work. It would remain humorous if Palutena was male, both her and Pitt were female, or Pitt female and Palutena male, because in all of those situations the humor is primarily derived from the god / goddess being unreasonable, bossy, and even petty, and is not dependent on the genders of those involved.

@assisclass said:

@Hailinel said:

@assisclass said:

First of all - SPOILER FREE thank you!

Think about it. Pit is extremely submissive and pretty much does everything Palutena tells him to. If Pit was a girl and Palutena a male God who was bossing the little girl around, wouldn't that be considered sexist? But because Pit is male, everyone just laughs about it.

Just a thought...

Well, Pit is a devoted angel. He does what Palutena says because he trusts her implicitly and respects her deeply. Palutena also only playfully teases him and never in a way that plays on Pit's gender.

That's a good point, but does that mean it's OK as long as you don't "play on the gender"? For example, which of these examples is OK according to you?

A

Man: Go back to the kitchen and cook me some food!

Woman: Why?

Man: Because I'm hungry.

B

Man: Go back to the kitchen and cook me some food!

Woman: Why?

Man: Because you're a woman.

See what I did there? The woman went to cook food in both cases, but the speech is different. Are both sexist, or is it only sexist when the speech includes gender talk?

Scenario A would be no different if it were men in both roles.

On a side note: There's like a PAX panel or something about sexism in games on youtube, and oh my god it's fucking awful.

The whole thing's juts 4 women giving mad props to womankind, and completely shitting on men for an hour. That's what annoys me; when people confuse a talk about influencing the social zeitgeist with a fuckin circlejerk rally party. There's so much misguided talk about there about sexism, I'm so fed up seeing people try to talk about it seriously and completely missing the point.

Anyway that was a tangent, thought I'd try n get it in on Page 1. Y'know-- foreshadowing.

@FluxWaveZ said:

Doesn't that kid from Ico boss/order that little girl around?

Not really, you can call for her to come over and lead her by the hand, but not tell her to go anywhere. Also she's older than him so she's not a "little girl" from his perspective. It's not really relevant to the question but I thought I'd point it out.

@theManUnknown: This guy has it right. I couldn't imagine the humorous situations being any different with a different gender setup myself, based on what I've seen of the game.

When you turn off your ds, the tables turn.

@RockmanBionics said:

@FluxWaveZ said:

Doesn't that kid from Ico boss/order that little girl around?

Not really, you can call for her to come over and lead her by the hand, but not tell her to go anywhere. Also she's older than him so she's not a "little girl" from his perspective. It's not really relevant to the question but I thought I'd point it out.

@theManUnknown: This guy has it right. I couldn't imagine the humorous situations being any different with a different gender setup myself, based on what I've seen of the game.

Having played the game, I can verify that Palutena loves to troll. Her dialogue with Pit is amazing.

No. This isn't Other M.

I'm boycotting this game for Men's Rights!

@assisclass said:

@Hailinel said:

@assisclass said:

First of all - SPOILER FREE thank you!

Think about it. Pit is extremely submissive and pretty much does everything Palutena tells him to. If Pit was a girl and Palutena a male God who was bossing the little girl around, wouldn't that be considered sexist? But because Pit is male, everyone just laughs about it.

Just a thought...

Well, Pit is a devoted angel. He does what Palutena says because he trusts her implicitly and respects her deeply. Palutena also only playfully teases him and never in a way that plays on Pit's gender.

That's a good point, but does that mean it's OK as long as you don't "play on the gender"? For example, which of these examples is OK according to you?

A

Man: Go back to the kitchen and cook me some food!

Woman: Why?

Man: Because I'm hungry.

B

Man: Go back to the kitchen and cook me some food!

Woman: Why?

Man: Because you're a woman.

See what I did there? The woman went to cook food in both cases, but the speech is different. Are both sexist, or is it only sexist when the speech includes gender talk?

"Go back to the kitchen" is a well-known sexist/stereotypical phrase. Hence the reason you chose it. So yes, those are both sexist.

>Whould
Is that pronounced Hank Hill style, I tell you h'wut?
 
Pit as a girl, you say?  I can't unthink Kid Icarus with Pitgirl from Monday Night Combat.  Since she's in a support/submissive role, I guess that would work.  "I'll get that Eggplant Wizardry shut down, lickety split, sugah!" etc.

Not played this game but the situation described between god-girl and Pit sounds like any common marriage in Scandinavia.