To the Future - Mass Effect leading the way

Thought this article had a very nice point, that I've been trying to put words on myself while playing it. It's short so go ahead and read it, but the summary of it is: the gender of your main character - Shepard - has little to no effect on the actual story and gameplay. There's a general limitation on who you can romance, which is quite realistic since not every person of every gender will throw themselves at you. Other than that your gender is basically never mentioned. In a future where people run around with biotic and tech implants left and right, complex AI's bordering on independent life, and fibers you can weave into your skin to make you sturdier, there's no reason why the gender of your soldiers would matter at all, rather you would want the right minds at the right places. Shepard has the mind of someone who gets shit done at any cost, and who can inspire people to do their best, and so she's a commander.

One can argue about the average boob size or the greatly uncommon and revealing dress of a certain news anchor and the frequency of female "dancers" but absence of male, but these are details. There are many things one can complain about in a game, but then again, there's a lot more one can complain about in reality. All I ever wanted out of games, as a female gamer and as a human being who believe we must abandon prejudice to grow as a species, was to see these minds in female bodies, because I know that they exist in real life already. There are women out there who make real commander Shepards, and while they still suffer from the limitations of their biology, there is no reason why that wouldn't be fixed in the future - why that wouldn't be one of the great things about the future. A world where what you are born as put even fewer limitations on what you can become.

Something that someone showed me recently made me think along these lines: If art and culture are to guide us into the future, if we are to learn morals and values and ascend through the works of Shakespear and Jane Austen, then that should be true of all creative accomplishments. Artwork, movies, and now in modern times, games. So here's to BioWare guiding us into the future, by showing us a possible future where it doesn't matter if you're black or white, girl or boy, a saint or a ruthless bastard. All that matters is that you get shit done, stand up for yourself and what is important to you, and are prepared to sacrifice everything if it comes to that.

Not a common cover

Wish I could have done this one better, because it's awesome (and also cheating - genderflipping Witchblade is like shooting paralyzed ducks with a homing rocket launcher) but it's got way too much detail and stuff so I just preserved some general moody darkness.

I can't actually remember ever seeing a graphic novel with this kind of cover. Yaoi can possibly have scantily clad guys in compromising positions on the cover, but not quite like this actually, even if that's how they end up in the pages. And for a woman to get this kind of position? No boob, hip or neck exposure and with a serious, dark expression... also notice her lips being closed, while the dude (you might not see this because it's so small) has his scandalously slightly open.

Looking closely also made me notice other things. Like that her blade-tentacle-censor thingy is drawn as if it's hands grabbing her boobs. And I have no idea what the snake has to do with anything. The dude (whose name is Darkness) actually doesn't have *that* crazy shoulders to be a comic book dude. Lately I've realized that to make men look even impossibly more buff, they draw their heads smaller relative to their bodies which, when you start thinking about it, makes them look more silly than cool actually - just like I think Witchblade and all her boob-job friends look silly. I'm not saying all artists draw either gender that way however, there are plenty doing a fine job of applying cool comic style without drinking too deep from the more-is-better-fountain and falling off the tower of exaggeration in their drunken stupor.

Special Flowers - A Superhero Gender Switch

I happened upon some "girl" versions of male superheroes, and was stuck by how extremely over the top sexual they were. To put Batman or Wolverine in that type of porn-poses would certainly raise a few eyebrows, but apparently females do not suffer the same respect. So I looked around and found that, yes, fanart is indeed extremely exaggerated most of the time, but the actual comics are more sensible (it seems even most comic book artists figure you can't fight Magneto in stilettos). This being of course sensible comics, I can't mention Witchblade or Fathom in this context and keep a straight face. (Just google it if you don't know.)

Well, so I decided to make my own gender-switch fanart, but with two conditions:
1) keep the original costume as true as possible.
2) keep the original pose as true as possible.

So here's my little transexual darlings, with the originals down below (since blogger still refuses to put images next to each other... -.-) The coloring is very lazy because, well, I'm lazy.

I'm not happy about Wonder Man, and I apologize to the world for Batwoman but that's his pose I can't by rules change it. On the other hand I'm in love with Spider Man (I loved that suit already on Boobs McBoobpants, so on a pretty boy... mmm), and Superwoman is clearly over-awesoming the original. And who knew that when you turned Invisible Woman male she turned into her brother? A clever eye will see that the only difference between Spider-Man and his female counterpart is boobs, but it's because of his pose ok! There's no curves to work with and no muscles to shrink. And it's "superwoman" not supergirl and "batwoman" not batgirl -.- I'd like to see "Batboy" and "Iron Boy" try to be taken seriously. Invisible Woman is, in many ways, the first lady of Marvel (or superhero comics) in her whole-body suits and "woman" not "girl" name. Which they of course quickly remedied in the movies.

I have failed my conditions on one single point, I'm sure you saw; I kept the Hulk shirtless and even ventured for nipples, but I couldn't put the male Supergirl in a skirt. The point was actually not to make fun of it or whine about sexism, but to see that many of them still make sense (like the gender-switched Superman and Mr. Fantastic) and that women not dressed in skimpy outfits and posing like porn stars are also cool and awesome - as well as the reverse! Special flowers like Elektro also deserve some space - look at that Hand assassin, isn't he some sexy shit? The male Storm turned into a manga character... but this is one of my least favorite Storm costumes.

Don't hold your breaths, but there will probably be more, I have some epic pictures of said Witchblade I'd love to switcharoo and even more agressively manly Batman (I know, how is it possible?!?).

PS. If you're dissatisfied with the average boob size in this post, I would let you know that I suck at drawing girls, and suck even more at drawing boobs, so you should be glad you have boobs to look at at all. I'm rather sure I got progressively better the more of them I drew though, mostly because for every n:th girl, I had to redraw them inifinity - n times.

Cute!
My personal favorite is the baseball guy. Look at that S-line! And nothing beats shorts and knee-high socks!

Random link link link link-chain results:

Nåtgot så ovanligt som en bloggning på svenska. Anledningen är helt enkelt att jag i ett svagt ögonblick blev intresserad av svensk inrikespolitik, eller snarare, jag snubblade på en blogg från en polisman i Storbrittannien och blev nyfiken om det finns sådana i Sverige.

Polis i Sverige är intressant. Polisen ska man vara kompisar och bundis med, de ska vara perfekta och ofelaktiga människor, de ska stå ut med precis vad som helst som görs mot dom både fysiskt och i media, de ska inte ha ett vettigt system att arbeta efter utan hålla på med byråkrati och göra socialtjänstens jobb, och egentligen, slutligen, är det inte pinsamt att ett så modernt, jämnställt land som rättsstaten sverige ska behöva en poliskår? Poliser håller ju på med våld och smuts i första person, i en tid då militären helst ska sitta i bunkrar och trycka på knappar, så det är ju lite fult.

Jag hittar ingen blog för svensk polis, vare sig officiell eller av enskilda poliser. Länka mig gärna om ni hittar nån. Däremot hittar jag massor av klagande och smutskastande. "Snuten" handlar det om, om hur de gör fel, alltid, mot alla. Jag hittar chockerande lite material från polisen där de faktiskt uttalar sig om anklagelser. Allt oftast möts all kritik med stenhård, vacuumvit tystnad. Jag undrar lite över det. Om det är bättre eller sämre. För obviously skulle samma människor som klagar på dom klaga ännu mer över svaren, men ger inte repliker mer trovärdighet? Men naturligtvis kan de ofta inte svara för att det skulle bryta tystnadsplikt om saker i fallen.

Folk klagar på domstolar och högre instanser också, naturligtvis. Länk-kedjan tog mig till Inte Utan Mina Söner, där jag hittade ännu en punkt där den lilla klockan som plingat bak i huvudet när man lyssnat på genusforskning och feminism har en vettig poäng. Jämlikhet ska vara balans, rättvisa. Inte att upphöja de som var förtryckta till förtryckare. Men på många platser slår det precis så fel, och det är männen som hamnar i kläm istället. Speciellt i traditionella "kvinnofrågor", som med barn.

Hur som helst, polisen var mitt huvudämne här. Det är ett ämne som igen och igen får mig att vilja rulla ihop media till en liten boll, tugga den i småbitar, låta den bytas ner lite i magsyra och spy upp den igen, bara för eget nöje. Men. Ja. Nu ska jag sluta.

Lumberjacks

I've heard a lot about guys and hairy legs lately. It appears this may be used to prove that men are as oppressed by gender stereotypes as women: those I've spoken to here are torn between hairy legs being a) less attractive, yet b) more manly. To the extent of some guy shaving his legs and being called gay by random people out on town. I thought being manly was about being attractive, but then again, the image of Canadian lumberjacks appear in my mind to remind me that is not so. I seem to remember having friends from all three categories; shaving, not shaving, and having nervous breakdown over wheather to shave. I guess that goes for both genders too. And then comes the complicated question; if you do shave, where do you stop? Can you shave legs but not arms? Back of the hand? Neck? Torso? Does the tiny innocent strands below your bellybutton prove an offence to humankind? Oh the problems the modern day human faces!

Talk about discrimination... making men stupid.

New political proposal: men should have extra money when staying home with children.
Reasons: 1) to have more men stay home, and 2) to fill the difference between how much money they lose if the man (high pay) stays home instead of the woman (low pay).
Arguments: better with carrots than whips, meaning it's better to make it more desirable to have men stay home than to force men and woman to stay home equally much.

Idiocy: why do men have to be "tempted" to stay home? Can't they figure themselves? Should they have a piece of chocolate every time they're good boys and do their dishes too? Should they be electrocuted every time they choose the picture of the car rather than the doll? Get the pay equal to begin with, then start blabbering about this shit, if the problem even remains then.

Pink Power Ranger

Here's something for you to elaborate on: tell me one of your most significant memories from middle school (I guess for Swedes that translates to 4-6th grade, approximately).

Loosely connected to my previous post: we had a woman here talking about - and if I translate literally it gets funny - "Power and Sex". Obviously we were talking about feminism and equality. She had a slow start, but then she had some interesting things to say, and the discussion afterwards was reasonably fun. Seeing the difference between "sex" and "gender" seems more and more necessary.

Anyway, she pointed out that we tend to contrast men and women against each other as though everything one is, the other is not. Weird. We do the same with light and darkness, and everything else we decided to divide in no less or more than two: attribute them with qualities they do not inherently possess. Like Rik said, we define things by what we think they're not, instead of what they are. Much like science then, right? To know if swans are only white, we do not test their whiteness: we look for swans of other colors. And now it's like we discovered there are sixtyfive nuances of "white". Bet Jesus didn't see that one coming.

Tell me something;

Who am I?

The question of whether I am a man or a woman confounds me; are there only two possible standards? Must I cathegorize myself in one of these? Does who I love and don't love make a difference, do I have to put these labels on myself in order to come to peace with myself? In the final choice, I have simply pointed to my born body to avoid making a decision. Nature made me woman. But does that mean I am a woman? Would changing my body make me a man, any more than I am woman now?

Am I the sum of my actions? The total of my projects? The thoughts in my head? Am I who I think I am, or who you think I am, or is there a universal constant somewhere? Identity has as many variations as there are humans. I know who I am, I can feel the essence of my creature, but does that really make a difference? For the rest of me, thoughts, actions, body, appearance, behavior, clothes, the color of my eyes, it must all contribute to who I am, right? Having a female body doesn't make me a woman, any more than being able to write makes me a writer. But does being a woman mean I have a female body, and being a writer mean I can write? That man can be born in the "wrong" body seems the be generally acnowledged through transexuals. That there are wonderfun writers out there who never got the education to put it to use, I have no doubt. Are these the only options? Is there only "right" and "wrong"? Is this what being a "human" is about? What if I don't want either?

Does this mean every single point of my character is individual and isolated? No man is an island. Cause and effect. They cannot be unconnected and unaffected. This means that being a woman in a female body makes me different than being woman in a male body. This means every single point of my character stands in delicate balance to every other; that variations are endless, that analysis is impossible. Everything about everyone is a sliding scale with a million points of reference and genres and cathegories are useless and despicable.

Following all this comes the knowledge that: knowing what I am will change who I am.

Therefore: Tell me who I am.

End-of-sadness-week Rant

The blog looks African now? It does. I just picked the colors that matched the banner. I wonder what colors it would take to make something look Japanese. Or American. Everyone knows what it takes to look German; some bright, sharp, blue+red+yellow. I fucking hate those signs.

I looked some stuff up for some writing. I translated "cat" to latin and got:
feles -is f. cat; marten/ferret/polecat/wild cat; mouser; inveigler, seducer, tom-cat; thief;

Then, to find a random word to start with, since I got tired of always starting with some mentioning of night and day, I googled the letter "s". I got: McDonald's Now isn't that amazing.

Just some minutes ago I watched tv, did you know the average bra size in Great Britain is C-cup? They said something like, the breasts are the main sign of that you're a woman. Firstly, the easiest way to see what physical gender someone is is to look at their ass and/or hips. I am not kidding. Secondly, you are not your breasts. If you're a woman, you're a woman, breasts or not. If you want to make your breasts bigger or smaller because of comfort/ happiness/ estethics/ whatever, fine. But it doesn't have shit to do with being a woman. And neither does menstruation, bitches.

Moving on: I want to learn a language that has no automatic gender specifications in the pronouns, have any suggestions?