From front page: http://www.gamespot.com/features/that-girl-is-poison-6366216/

GameSpot Feature Written by Incompetent Transvestite [/COLOR] (self.gaming) [/COLOR]

My comment:

Oh wait, they DID talk to the Editor. Its gone from the front page. I should have taken screen caps. Imagine the CONTROVERSY.

uh...?

It's just that I've been feeling grumpy all day, I guess: http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/qy8wq/gamespot_feature_written_by_incompetent/

So I better order a pizza.

this **** is reposted from drkoobie.blogspot.com

[h=1]Blog not found[/h]

I really don't get it. Like, she's not Faulkner or Hemingway, but I can find worse writing in the column of National Sportswriter of the Year Peter King (for example) every single week. It's just a mildly interesting and harmless piece about a video game character I didn't know anything about who represents an identity that's widely misunderstood. I'm not sure how this compares to a news organization regularly producing stories that obscure or omit facts necessary to a proper understanding of the matters reported on.

I'm just easily annoyed today. I suppose the article is not THAT terrible (albeit I'm still proud of the GameSpot Feature Written by Incompetent Transvestite header). And you're right about Fox News. They're not bad, they're evil. GameSpot, on the other hand, is just bad. Bad, bad, bad.

But... "transvestite" is wrong.

Gamespot is crap, if people listen to Gamespot and take it seriously, at the most it's amusing. Fox News can be hilarious but the thought that some people take them seriously it's terrifying.

Why did you pick on that one again, of the millions of bad gaming articles out there? Because she whines about the presentation of transsexuals in video games?

Don't get me wrong, I think her arguments are ridiculous at best:


One would like to point out that her beloved "Poison" does not identify herself as anything nor does it "live a life", because it's just a bunch of polygons.
And the comments from Capcom she takes so much issue with are completely harmless in my opinion. It's all "Oh, it's a boy after all."
I'm quite sure that a real transsexual taking part in a fight and losing and then being found to be biologically male would have to endure worse.
And the real issue with transsexuals in games would probably be that they are way underpresented. They basically don't exist.

However your shallow critique merely attacks the fact that she's whining in the article. That is a non-argument. People whine about stuff all the time. That's normal and human. The question is if the whining is legitimate and how the case is presented.

But you just whine about this article being bad, ignoring the real issue of transsexuals in games as well as how badly Carolyn presents her case. Which is still better than you do by the way.

When I played Final Fight back in the day (Arcade Version), I always thought I was beating up a woman. Now I feel a little deceived. Which might be accurate to most people's first transgender experience?

This is the only point I disagree on. This whole "trap" mentality is dangerous and demeaning. The vast majority identify because of how they feel, not because they're trying to trick someone. And it's not a "boy", it's whatever the person chooses to identify as. This is why gender in general is such a hot issue these days.

In general though, transsexuals and otherwise are far from the only misrepresented, or underrepresented group in video games. They can't even get portrayal of women correct after all these years.

I don't get this, Koobie. I read the article. I don't understand why you would attack the author for being a 'transvestite', when she isn't. I also don't see how the author is 'incompetent' and 'whining'. What's your deal?

To be fair I dont think Koobie choose the word 'transvestite', it's the title of the link.

I did not attack her for being a transvestite (which she is, by the way). I attacked GameSpot's choice of a feature article. Having re-read it, I admit that the article was not as badly written as I had originally thought. I think it's a matter of disagreeing with the content. Admittedly, also of me having been very grumpy and in an altered state of mind.


[/COLOR]I think I'm going to go play a video game now.

I chose the word as it was me who titled the link. I chose that word because, well, she's a transvestite. The negative part was the word incompetent and not transvestite.

A transvestite is someone who dresses up in the clothing of the opposite sex. A transgender person is someone who identifies as the gender opposite his or her biological sex. The author of the article is the second one.

I was about to say basically what Tracer did. Having read it (and watched through the video she links), she seems pretty justified in being upset at Capcom's transphobic attitude of keeping using Poison as a sort of running gag in the games and because she's controversial. (Also it didn't seem badly written to me, but I may just have really low standards; frankly Koobie's response to it was much less coherent and well-written..)

Skimming the comments just on the first page of 24 pages really emphasizes how far people have to go with regards to understanding gender issues.



I agree with your second point here, but it is actually why your first point matters. Transsexual (or transgender in general) characters are extremely rare. On the occasions they do crop up, how they are portrayed and written becomes the only media touchstones within gaming culture for how people find it appropriate to feel about them, and given general societal ignorance in the West, it reinforces already-held stereotypes.

If Capcom made a series where the only black character went around saying "Yes massah" to everyone and trying to rape white girls and eating nothing but watermelon, a lot of people (I would hope!) would have a problem with that. But when the only transgender character is continuously mocked, misgendered, and unsexed by the writers of the series, when people speak out against it they are silenced for "whining" or trying to bring up irrelevant political awareness (and even demanding she and her articles be removed from Gamespot)?



"Transvestite" is actually pretty pathologized (eg only men acc/to to the DSM can be transvestites) and stigmatized. The general consensus I'm aware of at least is that "cross-dresser" is preferred. Also to be precise, "transgender/trans*" is an umbrella for a great diversity of gender-variance, including (but not limited to): transsexual, bigender, genderqueer, agender, and so forth. "Transsexual" is generally considered appropriate for people whose brain-sex is in conflict with their assigned-sex-at-birth. (There is a huge discussion which could be had about the unhelpfulness of phrases like "opposite his or her biological sex" given that neither sex nor gender are purely binary, but I'll leave it at that.)


Edit: Like Carolyn, this issue of media representation is pretty personal to me, being along a few trans* spectra myself.

It was the first GameSpot article I opened.



Yes. And she's apparently a staff writer.



It would have been a non-argument if I would've been reading her blog. I'm reading a GameSpot feature. Like you've said, present a case, don't tell me what a bunch of pixels must be feeling in their poor repressed little pixelated hearts.



Fair enough. You make a good case, and I'd have no right to whine if I wouldn't have thought that I could write a better article on the subject. As a matter of fact, I think I can. And I very well might.

Are you telling me that transvestites do not identify themselves with the gender opposite to their biological sex?

Yes.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/transvestite

There are, however, people who /sometimes/ (eg while they are dressed as another sex/gender) do identify as another gender/sex. They generally are referred to as "bigender".

Fair. I was just going for the five-second explanation, but "different from" would probably have been better than "opposite."

Putting the whole gender situation on the sideline for a second, is Koobie's only problem with this article was the way the writer connected with Poison as a person? Is it really that ridiculous that one would empathize with a video game character's situation and story? After all, I thought the whole point of any remotely decent character was to have a story to tell.

Of course they're not real, but seriously, if that's your only bone to pick with it, that's pretty weak.

Back on the gender situation, Koobie, if you think gender had nothing to do with your problems with the article, why even mention transvestite in your header? You could have easily written it as "GameSpot Feature Written by Incompetent" and had the exact effect you were supposedly looking for. The addition of transvestite implies that her cross-dressing somehow plays a part in the "poor writing".

Well I do find it odd that someone would connect with the Final Fight story on such a level, it's not like it has a deep story with lots of character development. But I guess if your looking to relate with transgender videogame characters then you dont have alot of options.

My bad. I thought you were commenting on a thread with that title and linked directly to your comment. I really dont go on reddit, ever.

Compare these headers:

Woman Murdered by Jealous Fisherman
Bear Molested by Frustrated Lawyer

Does being a fisherman play a part in being jealous? Does being a lawyer play a part in being (sexually) frustrated?

Now take these:

Incompetent Man Shoots Bird, Misses
Incompetent Woman Shoots Bird, Misses
Incompetent Transvestite Shoots Bird, Misses

Which one is worse?

Arguably all three, but mostly the third.

Edit: Unless you're going for shock factor, in which case Fox News would prefer you chose #3.

I think the better question is: why do you feel it is important to include if they were a man or woman or lawyer or fisherman or so forth? Is it significant that a the fisherman murdered a woman, that the woman was murdered by a fisherman? Why should I as Jane Q Public who has almost certainly never met either party, reading your headline, need to know the sexes or professions of people involved in a murder?

While I understand the logic behind what you just posted, Dor, the alternative seems to be a bit absurd - a slew of "Person killed person" type reports. Names could be used too, but then it sounds more like some gossip or elevating the people to stardom than reporting.

The point I was aiming at, Geb, is that details can be included merely as a device for eliciting a particular reaction or shared opinion which may not have been evoked with more generic statements. ie, explicitly calling out (inaccurately) the staff writer as a "transvestite" in the header of your (generic you, not Geb-you) complaint adds absolutely no salient detail other than serving as a means to discredit her to people reading your article who may share your same prejudices and ignorance.

Let's get one thing straight about this transgender demand:
If your appearance differs from what you identify yourself with, then the only way to make people call you what you would like to be known as, is to make them your friends or have power over them. In the latter case you'll still be the butt of their secret jokes.

Just as a matter of fact no one calls anyone by what they would like to be known as, if they don't have to. That's just not how people work.
I'm a dreamer and visionary but my boss just calls me "the webguy".

Sorry, don't know how to play this video :(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFBOQzSk14c

If you listen to the GOP lately, it actually is every man's right to have babies. Women just keep trying to take that right away from menfolk and have a say in the matter..

This has nothing to do with anything. You don't choose to be a man or a woman, you just are one.

I didn't choose to be a visionary!

I agree that, even if descriptions are technically accurate, they can be manipulated to evoke wrong ideas, predudice, what have you, and solving such poor media coverage is not as simple as using more generic statements. At the very least, it's not the ideal solution to the problem.

I agree Geb, I wasn't saying that we needed to avoid using any descriptors, just to think about /why/ we are using them.

Yes. Well known case in point - Eddie Izzard.

[TABLE="class: ajC"]
[TR="class: UszGxc ajv"]
[TD="class: gG, colspan: 2, align: right"] from: [/TD]
[TD="class: gL, colspan: 2"] Max Salnikov [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: ajv"]
[TD="class: gG, colspan: 2, align: right"] to: [/TD]
[TD="class: gL, colspan: 2"] pitches@escapistmag.com [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: ajv"]
[TD="class: gG, colspan: 2, align: right"] date: [/TD]
[TD="class: gL, colspan: 2"] Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 6:59 PM [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: ajv"]
[TD="class: gG, colspan: 2, align: right"] subject: [/TD]
[TD="class: gL, colspan: 2"] PITCH: Transsexualism in Video Games: Are We Adult Enough? [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: ajv"]
[TD="class: gG, colspan: 2, align: right"] mailed-by: [/TD]
[TD="class: gL, colspan: 2"] gmail.com [/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Dear Editors,

A couple of days ago, GameSpot featured an article by one of their
staff writers about the character "Poison" where the author discussed
her struggles as a transgender gamer. It received over 1,000 comments
(and who knows how many hits) in less than 24 hours.

[/COLOR]http://www.gamespot.com/features/that-girl-is-poison-6366216/

I believe the GameSpot article failed to give the topic the treatment
it deserves.

As the video game industry matures, so does its audience. If we're old
enough to play a game where the main character sticks a metal probe
through an innocent man's eye (the Syndicate remake), then we are
surely old enough to speak about the under-representation of
characters that escape the usual conventions of sexuality... And
whether that's a good thing or not.

I would like to start the article with a bit of history, about the
Two-Spirit people of North America, the Hijra people of South Asia,
and then talk about how controversial topics such as these are
portrayed (or NOT portrayed) in the video games industry. The full
article would run between 1,000 and 2,000 words.

As a freelancer, I've written commercial copy for various private
companies, hotels, websites, brochures, and for projects ranging from
clinical software to Facebook games. My original short fiction also
appeared in Abyss & Apex Science Fiction Magazine and Tales of World
War Z.

Thank you for taking the time to read through my proposal.

Kind regards,
Maxim Salnikov [/COLOR]

I'm pretty sure they'll decline the pitch, but hey, at least I tried. Peace & love!