Sex in Games: Follow-up

In last Friday's airing of grievances I waxed poetic on the topic of sex in games, in particular, as it relates to the role of women and sex in The Witcher. The article that lead to that post was a review (and the comments thread that follows it) of the game at The Escapist (there's a link in the original post); a review penned by a gent named Corvus Elrod. This week, at his blog, Elrod posted an addendum of sorts to his objections to the role of women in The Witcher and in society that's worth reading, if for no other reason than to get the counter-balance to the point I was endeavoring to make. (I may be a grumpy, opinionated prick, but I try to be a fair one.)

Suffice it to say, I do continue to disagree with a lot of he says in the post. I have yet to find the dialog in the game "sexually predatory," unless you consider the mere act of a sexual advance
predatory. To me that's a pretty sizable leap and I think underscores my contention that there are a lot of well-meaning men out there who seem to assume that somehow the act of casual sex (be it in life or in a work of fiction) either takes advantage of or outright demeans women. I think that takes far too much credit away from women and the notion that somehow they're more pure of mind and body than men. Which, of course, is why trashy romance novels are such a tiny section of bookshops like Barnes and Noble or Borders.

Let's face facts. We're all human. Except for the puritanical self-loathers, we pretty much all like sex. Ain't nothing wrong with that.

You might be wondering why I'm belaboring this point. It's a game, right? Who cares? Well, that's just it. As Elrod points out in his blog, there is absolutely no shortage in today's day and age of actual, harmful sexism and outright misogyny. His example of some of the disgusting behavior that's gone on with regards to Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond is case in point. That kind of sh#@ needs to have attention placed on it, because it can genuinely be harmful. I think laying charges like misogyny at the feet of a game like The Witcher (rated M, by the way), a place where I really don't think the term applies, is a distraction from those places where the misogynistic shoe actually fits.

And with that... I'll shut up about it and get back to the fun stuff.