Double Standards in Equal Gender

A quick glimpse in the past and you can see that women were treated unfairly and sexist. Although times has changed with help from the ideas of the feminist movement, this trope is still around. But this is beside the point. With the advancements in how women are treated for the better, this doesn’t change the major opinions of the masses.

Growing up, I was raised on the belief to respect women and the classic ‘a man should never hit a woman,’ like I believe many other guys were raised to act. In recent years, girls have been taught that they could do anything and that they are just as equal as men. This leads to completion between the two genders as some women try to reach the level as a men, and some men tries to outdo  women on their level.

In the nickelodeon tv show, Zoey 101, the main character Zoey joins the schools wrestling team. Throughout the matches she ‘competed’ in, she won because the men she was wrestling forfeited. Where Zoey wanted to be treated as an actual competitor, the men brought up a double standard. If they win, they beat up a girl who is seen as weak, but if they lose, they are humiliated for losing to a girl (seen as the weaker gender).

In the end, it comes down to people wanting to change the cultural norms but are unable do to stereotypes and how people were raised to think and act. As we see more women tryout for men sports, such as baseball and football, more men will try to protect their masculinity.

I think Deadpool speaks for most people….

How the LGBT Community is Identified in Video Games

Video games have been around since the late 1940s and ever since have expanded to the vast network of games we know today. When you are asked about any video game, how often would you talk or even think about the LGBT characters in them? Not very I assume. In many of these games the LGBT characters are not shown in the most positive ways.

The Resident Evil franchise is known for its gruesome and survival horror gameplay. Released in 2000 and rebooted in 2011, one of the main characters in the Resident Evil Code: Veronica is Alfred Ashford. Ashford is the villain of the game and suffers from a severe mental disability. After years of looking up to his more intelligent twin sister Alexia, he becomes more demented when they separated, and even goes so far as to dress like her and imitate her personality.
 

Trevor is the most memorable characters in the most recent instilment of Grand Theft Auto. This man who can be categorize as a psychotic white trash drug dealer of the lower class can be chalked up as a gun toting maniac with a mental disorder. Trevor can be seen as bipolar in the gameplay and is attracted to both genders, as well as crossdressing. He is not exactly a villain, but from the gameplay, Trevor is portrayed in a negative view for everyone to see.

Overwatch is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment, being released in 2016, and reaching the status as Blizzard's fourth major franchise. One of the most noticeable characters is Tracer. In the comic released by Blizzard Entertainment, “Reflections”, Tracer is depicted as being in a gay relationship although it was not actually said. This is the most recent video game character who plays the role of a hero and is not slandered in any of the gameplay.

Although there are many games that depict the LGBT Community in positive way, the ratio of offensive stereotypes to non-offensive are very little. Video games should include a larger option for LGBT Community and roles in the games. Even video games developed and made in Asia get changed to be less LGBT once they are sold in America and other countries this similar views on the matter.

What DC Wants You to Forget About Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman is one of most independent comic book heroes of the DC Universe. Since being introduced all the way back in 1941, this Amazonian Princess has undergone many, many changes to her character arc. In addition to being a demigod, a being who is the offspring of a god, Wonder Woman is one of the most powerful heroes in the DCU and is portrayed as the physical embodiment of feminism, I will get to this later.

“Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power. Not wanting to be girls, they don’t want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women’s strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.”

William Marston, the creator of Wonder Woman, wanted was the Amazonian to fight for justice, love, peace, and sexual equality, as much as he wanted to put forward his belief that the world would be better off if it was run by women. The lasso of truth came about because Marston was one of the inventors of the polygraph lie detector test. Did you know that?  With the insight of Wonder Woman’s meaning, however, she first appeared in All-Star Comics #8, where she quickly became an honorary member of the Justice Society, but by issue #14, they made her Secretary, for being a woman, a role she had for years. It would be best that DCU fans don’t see this aspect in the upcoming Wonder Woman and Justice League movies, both coming out in 2017.

It brings disappointment to the fans of the Amazonian Warrior Princess in her earlier years in the DC Universe, I will get to that later, and more recent outrage in the world. On October 21^st, 2016, Wonder Woman was appointed as the figurehead of the feminist campaign to be a “United Nations honorary ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls.”   This was shortly lived as not even 2 months later, on December 14^th 2016, Wonder Woman was stripped of the title for being “not culturally sensitive”. Talk about equality. This was a monumental to everyone, not just feminist, as Wonder Woman did what no other fictional character has before.

Although this may seem as a setback for feminism, it does demonstrate that anything is possible for a strong woman, and that she can achieve anything in modern society. As seen in this fictional character with strange roots, that I will NOT get into for the sake of keeping what she stands for alive, Wonder Woman will continue to be a role model for a range of people extending for men, women, boys, girls, and everyone else.