[0:00] Thunderf00t: You ever sat down and wondered, what it would look like if men saw the world like pop-culture-feminists like Anita Sarkeesian? Well if you sit down and think about something, and DON’T conclude that you’re the victim, then you’ve just not thought about it long enough.
[0:16]: Well I think it might look a little something like this:
[0:19]: “In this video, we’re going to examine the trope of men as female target-practice. Now it’s no secret that throughout pop culture—in movies, videos, and computer games—that men are universally portrayed as little more than background objects that can be: shot, stabbed, or disposed of, without real world consequences, while simultaneously, feminist theory prevents this from being done to the women.”
[0:47]: “Now, remember, it’s possible to enjoy a media while simultaneously being critical of its more pernicious aspects and the socially harmful myths that it propagates.”
[0:57]: “In this series, we will critically examine, from a “pop culture perspective”, the trope of expendable men as female target-practice, and how this trope perpetuates and normalizes the acceptability of violence against men.”
[1:14]: “Now it’s well-known that Hollywood glorifies and encourages female violence against men. Indeed, it’s steeped in it. Like in this film, Misery, named after the man’s suffering in this film, where Ms. Chastain breaks the ankles of honest writer, Paul. It extends pervasively through modern media, where it’s seen that holding an un-consensual man captive against his will just because you like him, is fine.”
[1:45]: “Like in this Pink video, where we are encouraged to vicariously enjoy a man being held captive against his will, for no other reason than erotic entertainment of a female.”
[1:57]: “And notice, how fem-o-centrically sexist these videos are, in that the woman is fully allowed to express her sexuality while the man is simultaneously and physically precluded from expressing his.”
[2:12]: “Or in this Lady Gaga video, which takes it one step further, where she’s actually seen to set fire to the man and taking his property, sexualizing the aspects of a man that don’t even require him to be alive.”
[2:27] clip from Feminist Frequency, “Kanye West’s Monster Misogyny”: “I think that bears repeating. This video fetishizes the aspects of women that don’t even require us to be physically alive.”
[2:34] Thunderf00t: “You know, I’ve often heard it said, that in the game of feminism, men are not the opposing team. They are the sword practice.”
[2:41]: “In the film Kill Bill, a film whose very title glamorizes and normalizes the idea that fatal acts of violence against men are acceptable, and indeed should even be actively sought out.”
[2:55]: “Here, the interchangeability and disposable nature of these men is formally conveyed to the audience by virtue of the fact that they all wear masks. We are left with no other option, but to conclude that these men are generic, dehumanized objects with no distinguishing features.
[3:13]: “This is emphasized by the fact that we have no connection to these men. We know nothing about them. What are their names? What do they do at weekends? What sort of things do they seek out in a life partner, and so on? No, the only thing that we know about these people is they are utterly disposable. And the only thing left for the protagonist to decide is in which order to kill them.”
[3:36]: “We are simply left with the understanding that men are strictly indistinguishable, violable objects. And once they have been reduced to the level of objects, it’s okay for the protagonist to kill them with no more emotional investment than throwing away a fast-food container.”
[3:54] clip from Feminist Frequency, “Women as Background Decoration: Part 1 – Tropes vs Women in Video Games”: “The dehumanization caused by objectification inevitably leaves us to the concept of disposability.”
[4:00] Thunderf00t: “Again and again, we see the perpetuation of the widespread and regressive belief that the male’s primary role is that of mobile target-practice. And that’s a pity, because this medium presents such a great opportunity to explore why males shouldn’t be used for sword practice.”
[4:19]: “But that’s not what’s happening here. Here, it is clear that these men have been reduced to the level of objects. And once they’ve been reduced to the level of objects, you should feel no more pity about cutting them up with a sword, than a pizza.”
[4:33] clip from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
[4:45] Thunderf00t: “Remember, subjects act. Objects are acted upon. That’s what feminism taught me.”
[4:51] clip from TEDxYouth, “The Sexy Lie: Caroline Heldman at TEDxYouth@SanDiego”: “We’re thinking about the object-subject dichotomy. Subjects act. Objects are acted upon.”
[4:58] Clip from Feminist Frequency, “Damsel in Distress: Part 1 – Tropes vs Women in Video Games”: “-is via what’s called the subject-object dichotomy. In the simplest terms, subjects act, and objects are acted upon.”
[5:04] Thunderf00t: “And these days, the indoctrination of impressionable children, starts younger and younger.”
[5:10]: “Like in the movie Kick Ass, where a young woman is shown just how exciting it is to go on a killing spree of men. After all, they’re only objects, right? It’s not like killing them should have any real world consequences. Like explaining to the children of this poor, defenseless man”:
[5:29] clip from Kick Ass
[5:30] Thunderf00t: “-killed in cold blood, as to why daddy won’t be coming home tonight.”
[5:35]: “Even law enforcement officers in the line of duty, are not spared from this trope of men as target-practice. It should be noted, that in all of these media, the portrayal of men is universally sexist. The women are allowed to project their sexuality in many aspects, while simultaneously this female privilege is strictly denied to the men, who must remain as generic objects.”
[6:05]: “Seriously, could this sexism be any more explicit than in this scene, where the only two clearly distinguishable people in the room, and the ones with speaking roles, are women, where the rest of the room is full of identical men, whose only purpose in the film is to gurgle blood, as they like dying slowly, on the floor.”
[6:26] clip from Kill Bill: Vol. 1
[6:31] Thunderf00t: “Universally, feminist theory dictates that men are robbed of their sexuality during these scenes where women are simultaneously privileged to be able to appear as thoughtful, independent, sexually appealing, protagonists.”
[6:50]: “Sometimes this is graphically true, as seen in the film, Serenity, where the men are literally portrayed as savages, who the female is valiantly fighting to defeat.”
[7:02]: “Or in Shawn of the Dead, where there is little distinction made between the men, and the zombies.”
[7:08]: “Even in children’s programs, it’s portrayed that because men are not really human, it’s okay to kill them with fire.”
[7:16] clip from Sailor Moon [?]
[7:25] Thunderf00t: “This is now being taken into a new realm with interactive media, such as videogames, where female protagonists are given a subliminal manual on how to destroy cars with a few swipes of a bat, and killing unsuspecting males by jumping on them from behind and launching into savage, and unprovoked fatal attacks, is seen as a good thing—something for fun.”
[7:49]: “The game mechanics encourage this. The men are seen as nothing more than something to be shot, beaten, or blown up for fun. Men, as target practice. Again, once the male has been reduced to the level of object, it’s okay to kill them. Because that’s what feminism taught me about the subject-object dichotomy, is once people have been reduced to the level of object, it’s okay to kill them.”
[8:15] clip from Feminist Frequency, “Women as Background Decoration: Part 1 – Tropes vs Women in Video Games”: “The dehumanization caused by objectification inevitably leads us to the concept of disposability.”
[8:21] Thunderf00t: “It even glamorizes the female execution of law enforcement officers in the line of duty, by striking a happy and indifferent pose next to the body of the police officer she’s just brutally murdered. Let’s just say that again: these games glamorize women killing exclusively male officers in the line of duty.”
[8:45]: “So these interactive algorithms transmit near constant cultural affirmation that female violence against men is acceptable—and, even virtuous. It’s simply the only message being transmitted on this Feminist Frequency.”
[9:02]: “So why does any of this matter? Why should it matter if young women are being sent messages about killing men in uniform? Well the obvious—and negative—impacts have been studied extensively over the years. And it’s been found to have a widespread, negative effect on the behavior of women. And the effects on all people are quite clear and very serious. Research has constantly shown that games like this negatively impact female perceptions about real-world men, and reinforces socially harmful myths about the acceptability of using men, as sword practice.”
[9:43]: “And that’s all without taking into account how videogames allow a more interactive role for the impressionable women, and encourages a more participatory form of this sadistic enjoyment of violence against men. In these ways, the systems work to facilitate female violence against men, into turning it to a form of play; something to be amusing and entertaining.”
[10:09]: “This forces female consumers of this media to become complicit with the game developers in making fatal violence against men a participatory activity. Scholars have again and again found that this has a profound impact on women’s behavior.”
[10:27]: “Now, inevitably, whenever these game mechanics, or the clear academic findings are questioned, many female consumers of this media try to dismiss themselves or distance themselves from the issue by insisting that they don’t personally partake in the options to kill men.”
[10:45]: “But if they do, or if they don’t, does not change the fact that the object was designed and placed in that environment for that explicit function. A game designed to normalize that it’s okay for women to kill men, is still a game designed to normalize the disposable concepts about men, whether you choose to use it, or not.”
[11:06]: “And this we’ve recently been taught. While many might think they have a personal force field that shields them from the effects of these games, this is simply is not true”:
[11:15] clip from Feminist Frequency, “Women as Background Decoration: Part 1 – Tropes vs Women in Video Games” “In short, the more you think you cannot be affected, the more likely you are to be affected.”
[11:20] clips from The Matrix, Iron Man 2, Kick Ass, Kill Bill: Vol. 1
[11:39] clip from Feminist Frequency, “Women as Background Decoration: Part 1 – Tropes vs Women in Video Games” : “While it may be comforting to think that we all have a personal force field protecting us from outside influences, this is simply not the case. Scholars sometimes refer to this type of denial as a “third-person effect”, which is the tendency for people to believe that they are personally immune to media’s effects, even if others may be influenced or manipulated.”
“Paradoxically, and somewhat ironically, those who most strongly believe that media is just harmless entertainment, are also the ones most likely to uncritically internalize harmful media messages.”
“In short, the more you think you cannot be affected, the more likely you are to be affected.”
[12:16] Thunderf00t: I CANNOT BELIEVE that she comes out with this BULLSHIT!
Many thanks to Linda for supplying the transcript! 🙂
Thunderf00t 