..or racist, or hateful in any way.
Lately I've become very disillusioned with the world for one reason. There is a growing, very vocal, group of people that will shout you down and belittle you for disagreeing with their definition of morality.
I'm not some crazy member of the KKK, I'm not a hateful misogynist. I'm just a guy who often feels bullied by the groups too rabidly pushing their own, overly progressive beliefs.
I can't go a day without seeing an article about how women are mistreated in video games and movies, today I was verbally abused by multiple people flinging personal insults in all caps because I claimed it was reasonable for a group to target white males with their product if that was their built-in demographic. I politely and respectfully made the point that, so long as they aren't suggesting that women are lesser beings, it doesn't hurt anyone to focus on a male demographic some of the time.
The specific discussion was about the avengers movie. Someone made a facebook post about how it's not fair that it's a male power-fantasy and the women characters don't get enough respect or air-time. I gave the viewpoint that they are trying to monopolize on the people who are most likely to buy into the movie and they aren't trying to demean women. I very specifically pointed out that it wouldn't be wrong to make a superhero movie about a strong woman, it would actually be something I would love to see; but it makes sense that they assumed they would make more money by doing a male-focused movie.
Is this wrong? Did I say something horribly sexist?
Here's a slightly more controversial, but in my opinion, alarming thought.
Who is the real victim of male dominance in video games? Think about it, women are often in need of aid or seen as a prize or commodity; this is upsetting and obviously a bit rude... but on a deep level, who does it cause real problems for?
Women play a game with a weak female character, and they fight to overcome the stereotype, they write articles, they argue, they fight for what they believe in. Men play a game with a weak female character and they come to the belief that a man's value comes from his ability to help women, which leads to an unrealistic understanding of self worth. It's seems obvious to me that the primary effect of this dynamic in mainstream games is an unrealistic sense of WHAT self worth is in males.
(mass effect 1 spoiler ahead)There's a reason most men saved Ashley in mass effect instead of Kaidan, most guys feel worse about themselves when they don't help a woman. This is unhealthy because in real life WOMEN DON'T NEED A MAN'S HELP, they are equal to us, not lesser. We are taught that our value is in helping them, which is in itself wrong.
How many women think 'wow I sure would like if a guy saved me'? How many men think 'wow it felt good to save her'? It seems obvious which gender these stereotypes are affecting more.
Thoughts?
EDIT: Fixed a present/past tense grammatical error.