Thor in God of War: Ragnarok

So, every now and again you’ll see brodudes rushing to argue that there’s nothing wrong with bikini armor because “men are sexualized too” and that shirtless barbarians are made sexy to cater to women, etc.

However, whenever something that comes out to challenge this… its always the same cishet men who make this claim who also cry about a male character not meeting their expectations.

That’s because, unsurprisingly given that they’re usually designed by men, those supposedly exploitative images are generally made by men, for men to fulfil not just their fantasy of power but also of being some weird form of hyper masculinity.

Appealing to women is not a priority they actually care about, only the fantasy that their ideal would definitely get them laid. Many don’t allow themselves to consider if its appealing to men-loving-men… and well, they certainly don’t think about nonbinary people or anyone on the asexual spectrum.

Of course, if you read this blog, you almost certainly already knew these guys only thing about themselves – but I thought you’d enjoy the hilarity of them telling on themselves so spectacularly.

– wincenworks

Jack Saint tweet

justjasper:

male gamers like to pretend that male characters designed, draw/rendered and written by men, made hulkishly muscular and hypermasculine by men for a deliberate target audience of men is objectification and hypersexualisation rather than actively appealing to male power fantasy

and it’s somehow women’s fault of course

My favorite example of this is when people try to invoke this guy as their ultimate trump card of “Men are objectified in video games too!”

image

The ultimate steroid rager who converses primarily by screaming and murdering.  A completely selfish man who, since murdering his wife and daughter, seems to only one emotion (anger) and prone to random acts of violence.  A man so terrible that he goes out of his way to incorporate murdering random women* into “puzzle solving”.**

People actually point to this character, created by a man (David Jaffe) and try to tell us this is objectification of men in order to pander to women.  

Then, presumably, after throwing a tantrum and destroying random objects in their home, then wonder why women aren’t impressed by this and find them undateable.

* The fact that almost the entire female population, including the monsters, goes to great pains to show off their breasts to the player also never seems to factor into their assessment.

** This sequence featured in Tropes vs Women in Video Games – however please be advised that this sequence along with other parts in the video contain extreme depictions of violence against women. (x)

– wincenworks