Annoyed by the critics that suddenly feel betrayed by the series because they had convinced themselves the games weren’t sexist even when it couldn’t have been more obvious. People tried to tell them Bayonetta was misogynist as fuck but they were dismissed as “sex-negative” or whatever.
It’s…very weird looking at a thread that, from what I can tell, does not have any openly fem voices calling this character too sexualized and that it’s bad for women without really ever having asked a woman, and in the process very steadily erasing our thoughts.
I don’t know what to think when I hear ‘she’s too sexualized’. Are her breasts too big? Mine are bigger. They’re not unrealistic, I assure you. She looks very nice, and I enjoyed playing as her.
It feels like indirect body shaming and it’s telling that it always seems to be cis dudes demanding women cover up and getting angry when women are presented as attractive. There’s a difference between overly sexual hentai shit and ‘sexy and attractive’. Risque shit is fine and I don’t know why prudism is forced onto women.
It also feels like america’s sex negativity being laundered into leftism.
Women that criticized Bayonetta were harassed for not towing the line on misogynist nerd shit so they don’t talk about the character or the series as much anymore.
Examples are out there if you look.
https://gomakemeasandwich.wordpress.com/2011/06/03/bayonetta-and-the-male-gaze/
https://gomakemeasandwich.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/on-bayonetta-2-and-female-sexuality-in-video-games-tw/
https://feministfrequency.com/video/bayonetta-innovative-advertising-or-sexual-harassment-training/
https://twitter.com/femfreq/status/521778746655649792?lang=en
https://agameofme.tumblr.com/post/102909075862/bayonetta-2s-sexless-sexiness-and-the
Those that come to the defense of the character and series also ignore the obvious misogyny demonstrated by the creators. Bayonetta’s only feminist or unproblematic if you buy into Naomi Wolfe’s bullshit Fire with Fire feminism.
Thank you for telling a woman what to think choomfie I really appreciate it, I must have harassed all my woman friends into not disliking Bayonetta too
I’m not telling you what to think. There’s no evidence that points to Bayonetta being anything but some guy’s horny fantasy of what women should be but people can think what they want.
I think the point is that bayonneta can be a man’s horny fantasy and also a woman’s horny fantasy too and the existence of said horny fantasy isn’t inherently misogynist (although statements like “i think all women should dress like her” absolutely are) and saying that it is is a slight on women who enjoy said horny fantasy as well as those who might physically or stylistically relate to Bayonetta’s aesthetic
A woman having the same fantasy doesn’t mean it can’t be misogynist. That kind of defense only comes up when women are into something that was designed with men as the intended target audience.
These people didn’t come to the defense of 50 shades of grey with the same argument. It was something everyone dunked on as sexist even though it was written for women by a woman.
We live in a misogynist culture so it isn’t rare for us to have misogynist fantasies.
okay, well, I’ve just seen this user repeatedly express their frustration with the attitudes that it is wrong for a woman to enjoy or appreciate these things and construe it as a form of bodyshaming when they relate their own aesthetic to what’s being criticized and I don’t think they deserve to be browbeaten into believing they’re just internalizing misogyny or whatever just because that’s what you feel to be correct about it
I didn’t say they women wrong to enjoy these things. I don’t think we should pretend misogynist media is something it’s not.
We all enjoy problematic things.
I mean saying a sexualized female character is inherently misogynistic is literally saying that women are wrong to enjoy that thing, it is an argument inherently framed that the woman enjoying those things is just naively enjoying a misogynist male fantasy and is stripped of her agency and ability to enjoy said thing, which is kind of fucked up when that thing is, to those women, related to “being sexual at all themselves”
and saying Bayonetta is a misogynist thing because this dev guy said misogynistic things isn’t a really good argument
the things he said were misogynistic, the thing that was made with a small portion of his involvement (pretty sure like workers make things not just one dev guy btw) is not, especially not as a consequence of his saying or believing those things
“blah blah blah the artist’s intention” the Fahrenheit 451 guy said the book was about how bad TV is
Uh, hey, I’m also a woman and always found Bayonetta sexiest and objectifying. Just like I don’t speak for the women who find her empowering, you don’t speak for all the women who find her disempowering. Please don’t give people the false idea that it’s only cis dudes that have a problem with objectified characters.
As enby woman I have always been pressured into being “sexier” and “more feminine” for men. It’s given me bad dysphoria all my life. Shit sucks.