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Weekly Update - 9/24

Black Six

Entry posted by Black Six

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Intro

Welcome back, one and all, to this week's wonderful update. In the spirit of mixing things up I think we're going to have a little chat tonight.

 

Updates

So Gatanui continued to provide information about the Hero Factory TV series as it aired in Germany. I have more that I need to post, but it's been a busy week.

 

We also had another set review, courtesy of ChocolateFrogs. Those Atlantis sets sure seem to be pretty popular.

 

The there was that new chapter of Yesterday Quest, with it's interesting revelations at the beginning about Psionics.

 

And that brings us to our chat.

 

Sexism is bad. Just like racism, elitism, and all those other things that hamper our society. Still though, most of us are guilty of them at some point. It's the better people who realize this and strive to avoid repeating the same mistakes. We can never be perfect, but we can do our best.

 

That said, I personally think it is a bad idea to even bring up gender stereotypes when you're writing for kids, even if you claim your intent is to break them. Just portray women and men for who they are: individuals that can make their own choices and have the power to do what they think is best, not what society tells them is right or proper. That is setting a good example for your readers. It's not confusing them and opening the possibility that you may be misinterpreted. Be sure to remember that kids, especially younger ones, might miss certain subtleties in the story - they might look at only what is on the surface.

 

This goes for race, status, sexual orientation, whatever the topic may be. Forget about what society has done in the past, and encourage and shape what society should be - a place where such stereotypes don't even exist. Of course there are always exceptions, period pieces and the like, but if you're creating a fictional universe for children there are certainly things that I think are worth leaving out, like some of the worst parts of society. Also, don't get me wrong, I don't think these subjects should be ignored, but they should be discussed in the proper context. I don't claim to know the perfect way to do that, I'm an engineer, not an educator, but I think I can spot a wrong way when I see it.

 

The discussions raging on our forums prove just how big of an issue this really is, and how these stereotypes still exist and are still perpetuated, and how certain instances can just reinforce it - not to mention bring out the worst in people. It sickens me to see people defend these stereotypes so vehemently in some cases. I had really hoped we had moved beyond that, but I guess I was mistaken.

 

So, the moral I suppose is that stereotypes are bad, sexism and racism, et. al. are worse, and bringing them into the spotlight in the storyline for a kids toy is never a good idea and can never end well.

 

Mailbag

1) Quick! You have to write a Doctor Who episode! What will the premise be?

2) Bow ties are cool, right?

3) What is your preferred method for destroying Macadamias: flamethrower or Dalek ray gun?

1) The Doctor and his companion try to go to one time, but end up somewhere and somewhen else. Something weird is going on and the must get to the bottom of it. Awesomeness ensues.

2) They are so cool.

3) Incineration it great no matter how its done.

 

1: What's it like running the most awesome site ever?

2: Which forum do you like the most?

3: Which do you like the least?

4: Why'd you revert back to your sinister and scary avatar?

5: Which BZP fad have you liked the most?

6: Why do you think people don't send up many mailbag PMs?

7: Do you know who I am? *hopeful*

8: Would you Guest Star in a comic series ever?

1: It's awesome to be told how awesome the site you run is.

2: It's like children, you can't pick your favorite. (Definitely not RPG. :P )

3: See above. (There's no way it would be Comics. ;) )

4: Sometimes it's time for a change. To something old.

5: I always like the ones the BZP staff starts.

6: They're too busy having fun on BZPower or in real life? I appreciate your dedication though.

7: I've seen you around a bit.

8: If I was asked, maybe.

 

Want to see your questions answered? PM them to me and put 'Mailbag' in the subject line. I'll pick the few I like the best and answer them in the next update.

 

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed that. It felt good to get it off my chest. Have a good weekend everybody. See you all next week!

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12 Comments

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-Toa Lhikevikk-
1) The Doctor and his companion try to go to one time, but end up somewhere and somewhen else. Something weird is going on and the must get to the bottom of it. Awesomeness ensues.

 

Isn't that how most of them are, though? :P

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Tilius
1) The Doctor and his companion try to go to one time, but end up somewhere and somewhen else. Something weird is going on and the must get to the bottom of it. Awesomeness ensues.

LOL.

 

But yeah, I pretty much agree with the stereotyping stuff. I mean, I agree with what you said about it, not that I agree with it. I do still think that the OUTRAGE that some people are showing is a little excessive, though. There are greater problems in our world than a character in an online serial most people aren't going to read. Plus, I'm quite sure that Orde is male due to a factual error on Greg's part in the first chapter - understandable, since the fans got Psionics canonised and put the gender limitation in place themselves. So, when it comes down to a guess as to the gender, you go for the one that it usually is in Bionicle - male. Though he could've looked it up, lol.

 

So, as a solution to this, he is forced to stereotype. There are few other options. However, he still puts in the lizard-killing to make a statement that the stereotype is wrong and a bad thing to be thinking. Which doesn't entirely negate it, but it's kinda a way of getting around the stereotype issue a bit - almost 'preaching' that stereotypes are bad. Which is good. But it shouldn't have been brought up in the first place - but it sort-of had to be, because of the mistake in the first chapter. But there were probably other, safer options.

 

BUT ANYWAY I RAMBLE.

 

- Tilius

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Emzee

o_O

 

...whatever I missed this week, I think I'm glad I missed it.

 

As for bow ties, they're cool, but I've always had a favorable bias towards neck ties for some reason. I only wear a bow tie when I'm wearing at tux. :P

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Ektris

So I'm pretty sure everyone here can agree that it's bad.

 

However, I'm pretty shocked by how people simply are raging. THe issue was legitimately blown far out of proportion - I also think most could agree there also. In the long run, it seems like such a trivial thing to nitpick over that you're just wasting your time. And how certain people immediately went on the attack did not help rhetorically in making people wanting to bother reading what they have to say.

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Tuan Taureo

I suppose it's a good thing I've been rather inactive on BZP lately.

 

Sad that something like this apparently makes the fora explode on themselves. But maybe that's the cue? Sometimes the only way to realise how bad an issue still is is to see for oneself how bad the issue still is.

 

We always like to think we've gotten pretty far with society ... never a pleasant experience to realise just how much left we still have. :|

 

But a very necessary experience nonetheless.

 

:udaman:

 

--Tuan

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Vezok's Friend
I'm an engineer, not an educator.

 

Is that you, McCoy!?

 

 

 

I am pretty happy to have missed the latest favourite debate theme.

But since this is related to the story serials I am 10050% sure Greg didn't mean anything by it.

I always found it odd that there could be no female Matoran of fire or Ice, but that's where I revert back to the Slogan Lego used back in '99 "Just imagine" and that problem fades out of existence.

 

On another note, the more mailbag PM's are up here, the more I am tempted to send one of my own.

 

 

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Black Six
So I'm pretty sure everyone here can agree that it's bad.

 

However, I'm pretty shocked by how people simply are raging. THe issue was legitimately blown far out of proportion - I also think most could agree there also. In the long run, it seems like such a trivial thing to nitpick over that you're just wasting your time. And how certain people immediately went on the attack did not help rhetorically in making people wanting to bother reading what they have to say.

I think people were very much justified in not liking what happened. It's not very trivial when the comments made are incredibly offensive to both men and women. They could have done it with more tact, for sure, but I understand completely where they were coming from.

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