Particularly irksome was the guy who insinuated he considered himself a feminist and then told me, "Your argument is invalid" when I expressed an opinion on the latest Metroid video game giving Samus Aran a cutesy Japanese schoolgirl look that aesthetically looked more stereotypical to me than her appearance in Super Metroid. There are probably a lot of things I don't know about feminism, and a whole essay on the psychic residue that gets attached to visual patterns in pop culture doesn't fit into a tweet, BUT I said something that was missing details and he answered with confrontational language that made me feel excluded from the movement that is supposed to empower women like me just so he could win an internet for being The Best Progressive Feminist Male Game Industry Person to draw someone into a confrontational debate they did not ask to enter while expressing an opinion on a video game character in a friendly tone.
I may yell at the guys who are trying to do it right some more later. For now, let me also say THANK YOU for doing it right. It's a step in the right direction that you're trying. But I am starting this blog to discourage the employment of confrontational language in discussions about civil rights.
Similarly, last year I saw a W. Kamau Bell episode on jokes about sexual violence wherein the topic was framed as a debate but both sides were trying so hard to be funny in a biting and cynical way because one function of comedy is to bite an idea and make people look at it whether they wanted to or had to be tied down and waterboarded with it. In the end, no one on that show looked very good and the audience took to the Twitterfeeds and blogosphere and feminists attacked male comic Jim Norton and male comics attacked Jezebell blogger Lindy West. The sad thing is that both sides were making salient points about emotional safety and the importance of freedom of speech, but the audience wouldn't listen because they heard a buzz phrase from whichever side that closed their ears.
I am of the not-new opinion that both the game industry and the world of comedy have gender equality problems. While researching the sexual violence debate and tangentially also Daniel Tosh's audience member confrontation about his routine the year before, I found it nearly impossible to get everything that needed to be said out in one article. But the message of the need for civil discourse ESPECIALLY on the internet toward the pursuit of social equality bears repeating. I also need practice staying on one topic long enough to become an expert as I aspire to a career in comedy writing for television moreso than but also film. So, blogging.
I will try NOT to be funny when discussing the serious issues, because trying to be funny intentionally often leads to overgeneralizations and assumptions spewed like daggers into a fire of long-held but repressed fears. But I realize I have already broken that rule in this starting post unless cryptomnesia saved me from being surprising enough to laugh at. Let's just say I intend to publish slowly as I process what I read and consider both sides, and I will respond to criticism by editing what has been published and also apologizing.
Other topics I've been exploring lately:
* The #Solidarityisforwhitewomen and #YesAllWomen hashtags (race and gender relations on Twitter)
* The history of female comedians and the book We Killed (I'm thinking there is a better one out there and I just haven't found it yet)
* Japanese comedy and what gender relations felt like the year I was there (may not be explored; I may not be the best person to do this because my Japan Studies endeavors are on hiatus while I'm writing scripts and trying standup)
* Disability as explored in comedy by comics disabled but more often able bodied (I have another blog for this. I already have too many blogs to be buzzworthy and will update when I process something I've read for any of them till I figure out which blogs are sticking.)
So there's that! We'll see where this goes and if I can employ some sweet, sweet Westernized Buddhism to avoid the hate mail and trolling. I welcome invitations to educate myself if you'll first peacefully count to ten and try to imagine why I said what I did before you comment.
Welcome, all farcenschauspielers and la(d)ypersons who do not salute Hitler or name him at the end of web fighting. Does the German word for comedian exclude the female ones like some languages do with gendered nouns? Oh I must meditate out of this tedious search for perfect social correctness already!
Also, FIRST! (At the blog title. Oh crap, now I have to prove I'm worthy.)
