Spotted hyenas are larger, more aggressive, outrank the males, and even have bigger psuedo-penises than males. Smaller male cuttlefish who want to mate disguise themselves as a female, cuddle up to the bigger male to fool him, and mate with the female. Queen ants only produce female offspring when they fertilize their…

I think the problem with this angle of argument is they almost never make it out to be remotely that way. Peach throughout the vast majority of Nintendo media is made out to be pretty much a “trophy” rather than a true ruler. Most of the games are extremely light on story, and Peach is given a highly stereotypical…

Can you imagine something like Star Wars with two or three women in the center of the poster and a guy off to the side? I doubt I’ll get to see it, but I’d be fucking thrilled.

Yeah, when I grew up I saw that. It wasn’t as obviously and visually impressive to a little kid that negotiation is just as heroic as raw strength- something little boys usually don’t have to split out, because their heroes get to do both all the time.

“What I MEANT was, if you don’t like it, don’t watch/play/buy it, AND don’t ever tell anyone about that decision, and certainly don’t talk about the more inclusive things you plan to consume instead. What I want is for you to shut up.”

I hated it. I only ever wanted to watch the second half of Return of the Jedi as a kid because Leia gets a gun and gets to shoot stormtroopers and befriend Ewoks. Mostly I read books about girl knights who got to do their own rescuing, because there were almost no movies for me. By the time I got to be in highschool,…

“If they don’t want Peach as a playable characters, then the game would largely be the same if she was replaced by a chocolate bar.”

This is actually part of the problem. If the part the female character is in could easily be filled by an object, then you should just use an object and not an empty sexist trope.

Or, you could take your own advice. If you don’t like his op-ed, write your own instead of complaining.

Where do you think the damsel in distress/prince charming narrative comes from? No, a single game will not be alienating and insulting on its own. But Super Mario Run is a single game in an entire storm of media that our children are subjected to that still rehash many of the same old tropes. Parents…

There are, in fact, more stories out there than “dude rescues helpless lady.”

Not immediately, no. But a few years of seeing that trope everywhere, and a lot of girls start to believe they’re supposed to be rescued and the man is supposed to be the rescuer.

The best bit is their whole air of “sorry, but I have to break your heart by telling you I don’t like women with tattoos”— it’s NEVER anybody I’d ever consider fucking, not even with a rented pussy, not in a million years! But they all think they’re God’s gift. They’re doing their good-hearted Christian best to warn…

“If you don’t like it, don’t watch/play/buy it!”

I like the idea of make up as artistic expression or war paint rather than to look pleasing to men.

It feels like most women, particularly after they get to a certain age and have had a lot of bad experiences, have a lot of rage, but sometimes it’s far below the surface. Some day that rage will be tapped and we will see a revolution. We can’t just keep pushing that rage down.

That seems like a false equivalency, comparing the complaints about the overuse of damsels in distress to your imaginary complaints against dramatic tension in general. They’re not comparable in scope or kind.

Replace the words in your sentence and see if that changes things. “This seems like such a weird thing to get upset about. Volkswagen has been cheating on emissions tests since the 80's.” Hmm. That doesn’t make it right. That they used to get away with it, so it must be OK now.

Because we are taught from the moment we come out of the womb that we must be nice, we must be polite, we must be sweet, to the detriment of our safety and self of selves. We are taught not to yell when a man gropes us, not to make a scene when a man stalks us, to contort ourselves to be pretty objects.

I’m happy to have this conversation with you!

Let’s be clear here. People with power being offended by the way someone refuses to comport to aesthetic expectations of women is not “unacceptable.” It’s a form of protest, it’s a stab at liberation, and I really need you to just listen to all of the rage and anguish that’s being expressed here and not feel like you…