Sunday 17 February 2013

Busty Barbarian Bimbos does not empower women, it's just thinly veiled misogyny

Tenkar has just posted about a new RPG Kickstarter that has me severely facepalming. The game in question has already achieved over half of its funding goal with 28 days to go. It's also called Busty Barbarian Bimbos. Groan.

The synopsis is that players take on the roles of pin-ups from the covers of RPG books - you know, scantily clad and well endowed. However, instead of being the regular damsels in distress, these 'bimbos' are the adventurers, living in a society where "the values of aesthetic beauty, fashion, and social standing." Here are a few things that we can expect from BBB.




"Pretty girls get preferential treatment. They are treated better by other characters. They are treated better by their clothes. They are treated better by the rules."

"Dismissal of manliness. Men don't matter. The heroines aren't encouraged to solve problems by emulating manly characters from other games."



"We aren't taking Conan the Cimmerian and photoshopping a bikini onto him. Not to knock Red Sonja, but the model of empowering girls by having them act like boys is not the goal here."

Get that? They're "empowering girls" by emphasising that looks allow you to acquire a better social standing, and saying that women can't have physically strong 'manly' traits. I guess that referring to them as 'busty bimbos' is also empowering. I can totally see how women are represented equally to men in this game.

As for the stats - BBB uses a four stat system: Slap, Legs, Uhm and Tits - obviously spelling out SLUT. Seriously, I wish I were joking. This is approaching F.A.T.A.L levels of maturity, all in the guise of a 'light-hearted roleplaying game'. The designers clearly have a vast respect for females. Oh, and there's shopping! Hooray!

The creators seem to be kidding themselves into thinking that this isn't at all misogynistic, when in fact this is everything that's wrong with this male-dominated hobby in the first place. Sure, there will be women who might play this for a laugh, but I'm certain that most will look at this sexist piece of drivel and want to burn it.

I feel bad for giving BBB any publicity whatsoever, but it's important that sexism in the gaming industry is highlighted. We need less of this and more actual female empowerment - clearly we've still got a long way to go.


9 comments:

  1. Looks do empower women in the real world, where the hell do you live.


    Free press and speech means people can publish based upon their own opinions of empowerment.

    And the "sexism in the industry" is a fucking dead horse - go read some old White Dwarf letters columns where the horse was killed if you care, most don't anymore. We accept that people have different views and just don't consume what disagrees with our own.

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  2. I wouldn't get too worked up about it. The demographic of mysoginist gamers is persistent and unavoidable, but even if this project backs (likely with such a low cost involved) I doubt it's going to get any more visibility than the older "Macho Women With Guns" game. Ultimately the people who will buy into this....even if they think they are supporting a satire on the industry, or buy it ironically....are probably not guys I would associate with (or game with) anyway. You know....those greasy oddballs in the FLGS (say, in Laramie) who start to get worried anytime someone suggests that their natural male dominance is in the least bit anything less than the arbitrary social construct of power-retention it is. A dying breed, that lot.

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  3. And if it does, well? The whole paranormal romance/urban fantasy genre does something similar to men (and vampires and werewolves) essentially the same thing. Why is women's wish projection fantasy okay, and men's not? 50 Shades of Grey was one of the biggest sellers in years, it's about as tacky and well written as those Gor books. Only it's socially acceptable because it's aimed at women, not men.

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  4. I'd like to thank the OP for posting this. While this sort of game indeed isn't mainstream, it is a very distilled form of lots of problems that make many people uncomfortable. However, seeing that there are people willing to adress the problems is definitly something that helps.

    And as this ridiculous argument has already come up: Freedom of Speech/Press/Whatever doesn't mean it can't be criticized. In fact, the criticism is the OP using his Freedom of Speech. It just means that the government isn't allowed to ban it, which isn't on the table.

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  5. I read your article, looked into it and now I'm backing this project. Have you read the old freebie document? It really doesn't come across as misogynistic masturbatory fantasy material. Everybody is portrayed in an equally negative and stereotyped light. Women are bimbos/bulldykes/skinny b*tches. Men are eunuchs or absurd masculine stereotypes. I'll give you saying that it empowers women is wildly inaccurate. However it doesn't have any intent other than to amuse. Boris Vallejo's pin up girls vs bigoted stereotyped males is hardly a serious game.

    Let's look at a serious game angle, last Shadowrun game I played my team detonated a weapon that resulted in the deaths of ten's of thousands of people within an arcology. That doesn't include the 12 minimum wage security guards that got shot (and any survivors executed) by my character's team. Why did my character set the weapon off? A lofty goal or a necessary sacrifice? No a person who he'd just met paid him a large sum of money to do it, no questions asked.

    So a game that is based around a criminal community stealing/killing/blackmailing is acceptable but a game that takes the p*ss out of everyone by turning everyone into a sick caricature is too far? I think you're being oversensitive.

    It's a great to stand against discrimination (both Positive and Negative) in real life just as it is to stand against terrorism, gun violence etc.

    BUT!

    RP games aren't real life and thank god.

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  6. This sort of thing is the reason that my girlfriend will always and forever hate RPGs and the fact that I enjoy them :/

    Unfortunately, it's always easy to point to the terrible stuff, even if it's only a tiny portion of what's out there. No human being has actually played F.A.T.A.L., and most adventures do not look like what is portrayed in LotFP artwork, but simply by existing people can point and say "Look how f'ed up those RPG gamers are!"

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  7. I love this game. The goal of it is not to push an agenda, but a tribute and satire of busty fantasy art. There is enough on the internet to make you feel guilty for liking chainmail bikini stuff, and there has been enough of a social backlash against. Through all the guild ridden attitude, it is refreshing to see something like this get support and funding. I had a small part in the game's development, and at first I didn't give it any credence. I thought it was just another basement dweller's fap material. But once you look through it, it's not that at all. The game isn't meant to be perverted or an erotic roleplaying game, nor is it meant to be an ironic empowering women through sex agenda game. It's meant to be a fun romp for snickering adolescents, as the creator described it. Even my wife, who generally isn't into roleplaying games, finds the concept of this game fun and intriguing, and would be willing to sit down for a session. So chill, it's not trying to say anything, other than have fun.

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    Replies
    1. Maybe I misconstrued what the game was about, and I appreciate the comment. I'm rethinking my opinion of it at the moment.

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    2. At least you have the maturity to look at it objectively, which I can definitely appreciate in a blogger. But chances are, you like many others, are just not going to see the appeal to this. And that is totally OK. Even the creator of this project understood it was going to be controversial, and he takes the criticisms in stride, but I think it's important to note that he didn't make this game to troll the internet, although to some it would seem so.

      I like what I read here today. Consider me a new follower of your blog.

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