If there were, for example, a few girls amongst the team working to protect the princess, I might flinch less than I do at the idea of a game where the only woman is a helpless ball of flesh being carried around as a literal trophy.

If there was, for example, another mechanic to slow her down, it might disturb me less than the image of a girl being kidnapped and force-fed, and the process being played for laughs. (But then again, what are our other options? Loading her up with jewelry? Tying her down with chains?)

If there wasn’t, for example, a really long tradition of active male player characters and hapless female NPCs in video games, to the point where games that break this pattern are lauded with trumpets instead of accepted as a matter of course, I might feel less annoyed about yet another game continuing the tradition.

Sadly, none of these are the case–and there are more ways to “objectify” a female character then inflating her breasts and dressing her in a miniskirt. Cake or no cake, this game leaves me with a lingering bad taste in my mouth.

You had to know I was going to respond lol. I totally agree with your general sentiment here. I personally hate hate hate when folks who have less privilege in the current social system feel it is appropriate to lash out at the folks they *perceive* as the enemy or whatever. The reality is we all are conditioned by society and therefore are all “victims” of the biases and assumptions and set ups that go with it. We just struggle in different ways. Everyone has an “other” they belong to.

I’ll be honest: the game does seem to have misogynist undertones. Just like the bulk of video games on the market do.

But this one is a little harder to look at for me. Not only does it reinforce the myth that women are incapable of taking care of themselves (which is super common), but now there is an element of humiliation introduced that you don’t normally see so blatantly.

Food and body image issues are in my opinion at the forefront of many of the issues women face in this country. And as a female there is something very visceral about the picture of a woman being force fed against her will like cattle. And then shlepped around… yeah I just cringe.

I am not sure how many of your readers are women, and I clearly do not speak for all of my gender here, but I wonder if polled how we who do have to deal with a constant onslaught of dehumanizing comments, behaviors, and perceptions, would feel about this issue. And this is NOT meant as a way to point fingers at men… I just think when a person isn’t in it it might be hard to understand how others might be affected.

Like I would never understand what it means to be targeted as Italian since I’m not. So it is more about that…

This whole thing really reminds me of the convo we all were having at my place over the weekend, when the comments about the “fat obnoxious” woman were made. As if the two were synonymous. It is sexist. Women are constantly referred to as if they aren’t people who have feelings and stories.

These kinds of games in my opinion subtly reinforce the sexist recordings I think are prevalent in our society. That is my problem with it.