There's a disease spreading from organ to organ / And you are the white blood cell that fixes the problem.

There's been a lot of discussion in internet about misogyny in videogames lately. I felt like adding my voice to discussion, because this is one of the things that make me go to full rant mode pretty damn quickly.

To get started, there's this article (the pictures in article are NSFW) and video below:



They both put this issue much more eloquently than I ever can (which is good because you know, they get so much more attention than my little corner of internet ever will)

I don't get much shit personally when I play, mainly because I stay far away from games whose audience is mainly fifteen-years old angry teenager boys with something to prove, and I generally don't play much online. (ok, Assassins Creed MP is darn cool, but you don't have to personally interact with your co-players in it so I guess that doesn't count.) Also the games I prefer; long, plot driven action and free roaming games have this issue well in control. Here in my little bubble all is fine. But then Hutchinson from Ubisoft's creator team says something like: “It felt like, if you had all these men in every scene and (a female assassin is) secretly, stealthily in crowds of dudes, it starts to feel kind of wrong. People would stop believing it"
And: American Revolution "is the history of men". 

As a result, I feel disappointed and betrayed by one of my favourite games. This argument doesn't work no matter what direction you look at it for several reasons.
1) There was female Assassins on AC: Brotherhood and AC: Revelations. Also Ezio's sister is big part of the organisation even if she doesn't participate in actual killing people activities.
2) We have lots of historical figures for women in war: Jeanne D'Arc, Catherine the Great, Cleopatra, etc. There was women participating also on US civil war, as seen at this website.
3) If Ezio and Altaïr could walk stealthily in the crowd dressed in a cape and full body armor, armed to teeth and sometimes having an eagle jutting form their shoulder, so can a woman. If anything, woman is not generally seen as a threat: they get to places unnoticed, because they were basically second rate citizens.

Ezio "No one can see my crimes against fashion because
I'm so fucking stealthy" Auditore

4) After the debated article in question, Ubisoft revealed that there will be separate story line for a female Assassin Aveline. Oh irony!

I'm getting a bit side tracked here. And by the way, I am against the idea that the protagonist in AC III would be woman, because we can't forget that it's really Desmond all the time in the memories of his ancestors. While it would be very interesting to see how bleeding effect from a different gender would fuck Desmond up, this game is not a time or a place for such investigation.
Anyway! Sidetracks.

So, lots of support for Feminist frequency, Il Doctorine and the rest who have spoken about this issue. I appreciate the work you are doing that I and many, many others can continue enjoying games and maybe, in future, widen our gamer horizons to genres that haven't been really female friendly in the past.

We want to lock you in our house / feed you with our spoon / we want to make you sing along

I've been bumping more and more into "how to care for your introvert" articles, pictures and comics, and they annoy the hell out of me. Let's take just one example.

In the next episode: How to Care for Hamsters

I am very introverted, and on the top of that, I'm the type of introvert who has no problem with isolating themselves from all and any social interaction. But I wouldn't, ever, expect someone to tiptoe around me just our of some misplaced respect for my "needs" as a introverted person. I don't need any of that stuff in the poster. I mean, what does some of them even mean? I know for a fact that if I start talking and no one interrupts me, I will talk till someones ears start bleeding. And then some more, just to get the point across. If I'm doing something wrong, I want to know about it now and not when you have the opportunity to speak to me in private. I don't get hurt very easily. Or embarrassed. But I do get confused if people act differently around me than they would around someone else.
Above everything else, I appreciate honesty in person. I don't see it as honesty if you change the way you behave around me just that you don't (and these are all quotes from care-for-your-introvert-guides) "scare me away" or "exhaust me with your company" We are all people here. I would hate it if people would treat me differently because I'm a girl, or an Atheist, or a person who likes colour grey. This also goes for me being introverted.
Also the thought that as a introvert I need someone to take care of me is total bullshit. If I need some time alone, I take some time alone. I am able to leave your presence if it exhausts me so much, you don't need to do this stuff for me. Chances are that you do it wrong anyway. By trying to respect introverts privacy and need to be alone from time to time you easily isolate them further and prevent them from forming a meaningful bond with you. Actually, the only thing I would put in these "care for your introvert" posters would be: Don't get offended. Yes, there are days when I rather stay at home reading a book than spend time with you. Get over it. I cancel and forget meetings all the time, not because I hate you, but because I can't be bothered. It's nothing personal (and it also makes me kind of an douche. Maybe you should get offended anyway.)

I can see where these guides come from, though. The dichotomy introvert/extrovert has been around from 70's, but the rising of the internet kind of gave introverts a channel to make contacts. At the same time, individualism made us all start to analyze ourselves, finding new ways to define the weird things we do and think. I think that these guides are just misplaced attempts to understand and cherish something that majority of population see different from themselves. And yet, we don't see any "how to care for homosexual" or "how to care for black person", because we can see outright that suggesting that those minorities need someone to take care for them is kind of racist. So, I appreciate the thought but just, don't. Please.

If it’s out of key well nobody’s perfect.

I have a hiccup and it's annoying as hell.
Anyway, what I really wanted to say is congratulations for all those non-failing students who graduated today. Honestly, I have no idea how you did it and it must be cool to be able to finish something on planned schedule. Must be very gratifying and all. I haven't ever managed it, though.

I went to two graduation parties, and managed to give a spontaneous lecture on growth of human brain and evolution, rhetoric, schooling system, absolutism and brief history of philosophy to unsuspecting guy over twice my age who half of the time had no idea what I was talking about. I'd call it a success. It also tells a sad tale about my social skills.

There is a point to this story, that is, how utterly and absolutely happy I am that I am not graduating right now. I have no clue what I am going to do after Upper Secondary. Sure I have plenty of options, good enough brain and motivation to apply for University of Helsinki. Question is, which line? What do I want to study to unforeseeable future, spend hours and hours reading and arguing about, when everything is so damn interesting? My failing as a student ironically gives me a kind of head start to my future studies and gives me time to sort out what I actually want in life.

Until I figure it out, I have this website to keep me company:

WTFshouldIdowithmylife.com