Why do they keep getting offended?

| Thursday, August 26, 2010
I've been very slowly creating a MMORPG based on a magical space civilization. It's a pretty fun game so far, but every time I try to get funding for it or any hired or volunteer help, people run away screaming as if there was something so terribly offensive about it that they could not possibly be associated with it. I keep pointing out that it's fantasy. It's escapism. It's not a representation of the real world and only an idiot would think so.

But somehow no one can seem to immerse themselves in the hunting missions to catch Neggers and sell them. What is the problem? It's a fantasy world where you hunt dark-skinned aliens. I even added cool concepts like moral alignment and faction switching: if you side with the aliens ever you instantly join their faction and become a FFA PvP target.

It's just a fantasy game, why do people get so offended?

Speaking of which: Women.

A few months back I wrote a post titled "Are women just a fad?" I was trying to make a joke about how incomes are becoming more equal, women are gaining more power, and in general in the civilized world sexism is going down, at least gradually. So ha ha, women are so great, but that's just a fad. Ha ha. Well then I kept re-reading it and trying to find the funny part. Was it the part where I suggested that equal rights are just a temporary social obsession on par with Jar Jar Binks and Pokemon? Or maybe it was the part where I pretended that a male-dominated society was the historical, and therefore natural, situation. I suppose I could have thrown in some kitchen jokes while I was at it.

But I have no problems with Irish jokes. I love to joke about how 100 years ago I'd be missing a few fingers working in the coal-fueled underground textile mill and probably have black lung. It's totally relevant right? Sure one is "from the outside" and the other is "from the inside", I'm Irish so I get to make fun of us, right? No, that's not it. Other people can make Irish jokes as long as they're sufficiently not intended to be offensive and done with a proper sense of irony or sarcasm. So what makes that so different from women getting back in the kitchen?

Ah yes, current events. Irish orphans losing their fingers in textile mills just doesn't happen much anymore, at least in the US. So to joke about it doesn't degrade the situation that I could potentially end up in. On the other hand sexism is well, what's the word? Still here. Maybe it 100 years we can make kitchen jokes with no sense of irony and a weeping Jaina will just be yet another character as she weeps next to Weeping Gradosh, the new new Warchief.

3 comments:

Quicksilver said...

The effect of feminism in Two Words: Positive Discrimination. Learn to hate it.

There are a lot of things to be said about the discrimination of women inside a video-game.

One thing is for sure: as long as video-games like WoW will be played by mainly sex-deprived young males, you can be sure that they will spill their frustrations on women especially because its a non-repercussion environment.

Thought of the day: if sex would be widely available even for these losers maybe there would be a lot less sexism around. hmmm? what do you think?

Z said...

Okrane:

Because clearly sexism is always and only about whether or not the MENZ are getting enough sex, right?

Klepsacovic said...

As your average frat party can demonstrate, getting enough sex isn't the cure for sexism. I think what could help are healthy relationships with women: romantic, family, work, etc. Then again, perhaps the sexism is what makes those difficult, that or general social issues. Whatever it is, there's no easy fix. That's right, not even cheap prostitutes or sluts can fix sexism.

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