I'm doing most of these in alphabetical order, going down the list, but I thought I'd talk about girls on International Womens' Day.
Girls, or the lack of sexism in the Fatal Frame games. 511 words.
One of the things I like best about the Fatal Frame games is that some of the most memorable characters are female. Of the ten playable characters - temporary or otherwise - there are only three men. This may be because of the sexist assumption that using women as protagonists, especially young ones, are vulnerable and therefore help heighten the tension the game feels. This is a common choice in horror/survival horror games, for the same reason as horror movies tend to have the villains stereotypically go after women - the weaker sex.
For a female gamer, however, this makes these games more attractive. Video game makers tend to create games with male protagonists, or presume the default "you" is male - even the game "Zombies Run", which has a fairly sizable female audience, refers to the player with male pronouns at least once. So there's a good female audience for the Fatal Frame games, like many other survival horror games, because the girls represent us, the player.
The most interesting thing is that there's very little sexism in the Fatal Frame games themselves in their universe. All the protagonists are able to fight ghosts, whether they're male or female. The women are strong-willed, especially the antagonists, who all managed to come back and let out their anger on the people who hurt them. Likewise, there are no real gender differences among the ghosts; Lord Himuro from the first game might be scary, but so is Yashuu Kuze from the third, and they're both family heads. It doesn't matter whether you're being attacked by Ryozo or Yae Munakata, the husband and wife from the first game - they're still both hard to fight. The ghosts only care if the protagonist is alive, not what organs they have.
Even in the universes, some things are equal. Sure, the rituals for the first, third, and fourth games involve girls, but the Crimson Sacrifice ritual just involves twins - and boys are just as eligible as girls.
The games aren't completely free of problematic, sexist elements. Some of the outfits for Mio and Mayu can get uncomfortably skimpy, including the default ones, especially when you consider they're fifteen year olds. The other female protagonists have outfits that can be fairly on the light side, considering that they're running about in haunted, cold areas. There's also the infamous game mechanic in the third game where Kei is the only one who can push things out of the way, as well as jump between fairly close roofs.
Coming from fandoms where male characters are dominant, I find it refreshing that this is a place where women can be the focus. For me, it's more what the characters do than what they wear. I tend to write male characters in fanfic, because for me they're the more interesting, but Fatal Frame is slowly changing that because there are so many interesting girls to write about. It's full of girls who live, who angst, who heal, and who are equal to the guys. And that's important to me.
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winterfish
Meta 7: Girls
Date: 2013-03-09 04:13 am (UTC)Girls, or the lack of sexism in the Fatal Frame games. 511 words.
One of the things I like best about the Fatal Frame games is that some of the most memorable characters are female. Of the ten playable characters - temporary or otherwise - there are only three men. This may be because of the sexist assumption that using women as protagonists, especially young ones, are vulnerable and therefore help heighten the tension the game feels. This is a common choice in horror/survival horror games, for the same reason as horror movies tend to have the villains stereotypically go after women - the weaker sex.
For a female gamer, however, this makes these games more attractive. Video game makers tend to create games with male protagonists, or presume the default "you" is male - even the game "Zombies Run", which has a fairly sizable female audience, refers to the player with male pronouns at least once. So there's a good female audience for the Fatal Frame games, like many other survival horror games, because the girls represent us, the player.
The most interesting thing is that there's very little sexism in the Fatal Frame games themselves in their universe. All the protagonists are able to fight ghosts, whether they're male or female. The women are strong-willed, especially the antagonists, who all managed to come back and let out their anger on the people who hurt them. Likewise, there are no real gender differences among the ghosts; Lord Himuro from the first game might be scary, but so is Yashuu Kuze from the third, and they're both family heads. It doesn't matter whether you're being attacked by Ryozo or Yae Munakata, the husband and wife from the first game - they're still both hard to fight. The ghosts only care if the protagonist is alive, not what organs they have.
Even in the universes, some things are equal. Sure, the rituals for the first, third, and fourth games involve girls, but the Crimson Sacrifice ritual just involves twins - and boys are just as eligible as girls.
The games aren't completely free of problematic, sexist elements. Some of the outfits for Mio and Mayu can get uncomfortably skimpy, including the default ones, especially when you consider they're fifteen year olds. The other female protagonists have outfits that can be fairly on the light side, considering that they're running about in haunted, cold areas. There's also the infamous game mechanic in the third game where Kei is the only one who can push things out of the way, as well as jump between fairly close roofs.
Coming from fandoms where male characters are dominant, I find it refreshing that this is a place where women can be the focus. For me, it's more what the characters do than what they wear. I tend to write male characters in fanfic, because for me they're the more interesting, but Fatal Frame is slowly changing that because there are so many interesting girls to write about. It's full of girls who live, who angst, who heal, and who are equal to the guys. And that's important to me.