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Showing results for tags 'Sexism'.
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On Individual Characters vs. Broad Trends
HeavyMetalSunshineSister posted a blog entry in blogs_blog_1774
I have recently seen an instance in which a single female character was portrayed overreacting to something. The scenario was played for laughs, and while a good amount of time could be spent going over the joke itself and why it was or was not funny, a more important issue is some of the criticism that the joke received - that having this character, who was female, overreact in an emotional manner, was sexist. That it implied the attitude that all women were prone to overemotional reactions. This, I believe, is a flawed judgment, for the reason that some individual women are, in fact, prone to overemotional reactions. This is not because they are women. This is because they are human, with any of an assortment of personality quirks that come along with that condition. I know more than a few men who are prone to such an overreaction. And perhaps, one might say, it would have been better to use a male character for that role - to make a man overreact instead of a woman, to deter the accusations of sexism. I disagree. Women are approximately fifty percent of the human population, and it is probable that approximately fifty percent of overemotional freakouts are had by women. Simply because years of consistent portrayals of a trait as a quality exclusive to women has made it a sensitive subject does not mean that this trait can never again be ascribed to women in fiction, nor does the ascribing of such a trait to one character mean that the writer is sexist. For that to happen ,the writer has to consistently portray the majority of their female characters as overemotional basket-cases - have a look at a good many sitcom writers if you need an example. Having one character with this trait is not sexism, it's having a character with believable human qualities - or, in the case of some works of amateur comedy, somewhat unbelievable human qualities. Even exaggerating these traits to absurdity in one case, however, does not make the writer a sexist - anymore than making a male character an unbelievably smug windbag suggests a belief that all men are cartoonishly smug windbags. When writing fiction, it isn't healthy to constantly be looking over your shoulder to make sure that nothing you write could possibly offend someone. Just write natural characters that fit the story you're writing. And even if you can't do that, a bad joke doesn't make you a bigot - perhaps a bit thoughtless, and certainly not a master comedian, but not necessarily a bigot. -
The Bionicle storyline is not sexist in my opinion and I'll tell you why. Before I continue, let's take note of some definitions: -------------- Male: of or denoting the sex that produces small, typically motile gametes, especially spermatozoa, with which a female may be fertilized or inseminated to produce offspring. Female: of or denoting the sex that can bear offspring or produce eggs, distinguished biologically by the production of gametes (ova) that can be fertilized by male gametes. --------------- Notice the issue? In the Bionicle universe, the ability to create new Bionicle is limited to very few characters: - Mata-Nui who possesses (and is) the Mask of Life [Male] - Makuta when he creates Kraata, giving them part of his life "energy" [Male] - The Bahrag (Bohrok "Queens") who create the Krana [Females] Take note that none of these involves sexual reproduction, and those who reproduce are referred to as both male and female. In these instances, creating life is simply imbuing bio-mechanical creations with "will" or the ability to perform functions independently. No Bionicle is known to have any reproductive organs (the instance of creating life seems to be a "energy" transfer). As they do not have reproductive organs, referring to them as different sexes is an absurd proposition. There are only a few differences between the "male" & "female" characters: - Color (Blue) - Voice - Culture (Water cultures such as Ga-Koro) As the male "factions" (Fire, Earth, Stone, Ice, Air) all have color and cultural differences, this leads to the conclusion that what defines a "female Bionicle" is the voice being "feminine". It could be assumed that living in water and having specialization with holding breath has an effect on the "voice box" (or whatever creates a Bionicle's voice). Of course this could be disputed as the early Bionicle only communicated via machines noises. Meaning that this distinction has literally no meaning. So why does it exist? Primarily due to Lego's marketing campaign identifying young males as their target audience (an idea which was correct as this is the overwhelming group that bought Bionicle sets). So if you are going to claim Bionicle is "sexist" because of it's tailoring to a target audience, then you must apply this title to anything that does this (namely every business). In fact, going beyond tailoring to target audiences on the sex/gender, companies do this based on age, ethnicity, income level and nearly every other noticeable difference. This is by definition discrimination (in the original sense) Discrimination: recognition and understanding of the difference between one thing and another. Of course in the modern era, this word has taken on a new meaning: Discrimination (Common Cultural Usage): the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. This is not Lego's intent. Lego is not trying alienate certain people, they are trying to maximize sales. Lego is a business, and as such is forced to compete with others for customers. This means doing what is both ethical and available to be done to capture target audiences for purchases. While I can sympathize with people wanting characters that better represent them, I think it is extreme to accuse a company that has brought you such a great series of such an action. It is also worth pointing out that referring to the Bionicle characters as "it" instead of pronouns kids are familiar with, makes their speech awkward. It may have been the case the Lego noticed this and decided to use common pronouns. They however would've quickly noticed that there were no females characters, so they made the Ga-Bionicle females specifically so that there are females present in the plot. Lego has taken note of their popularity of their products with female customers, and have changed their marketing practices to suit (they're not just making sets for males and females, but starting to make sets to appeal to both). The Bionicle series already has as part of its lore that the Ga-Matorans (Toa, Turaga, etc.) are female. Changing that now could cause some serious inconsistency in the established plot. Whether Lego does that, I cannot predict. It is important though to know that whether or not they keep this distinction, they use the terms incorrectly, as no physical male/female divide exist in the Bionicle lore. So is Bionicle sexist? In my opinion, No. Thank You For Reading P.S. Yes, I noticed I accidentally wrote "Seixst" instead of "Sexist"
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