SilverMoonDragon wrote...
Honestly, what bothers me is this... obsession people have with conforming to stereotypes, for either gender. Why must there be a certain way men must behave? Or women? When it is abundantly clear that there is a lot of diversity in who people are, how they act, who they are in society...to me, stereotypes are useless things that only create a breeding ground for ignorance, narrow-minds and sexism.
Like DuckSoup said, I'm glad that Bioware doesn't conform to just stereotypes, there are a variety of characters in either gender that are spread out across the spectrum in individuality and don't necessarily conform to stereotypes.
For starters, I agree with your central premise. Men and women should not be required to fit into the stereotypes of behavior that their gender is 'supposed' to have. They will still feel pressued to do so, since that's how social dynamics work. But both men and women vary to high degrees, and should never be made to think they just becasue they don't fit the supposed ideal that culture has put up for their gender, that they are somehow less worthy of the title of Man or Woman.
However, that does not mean that a culture having a view of male and female behavior isn't without its merits. Men and women are inherently different in many ways. Not irreconcilably so(afterall, we've managed to put up with eachother for the past 200,000 years or so), but trying to make men and women fit into the exact same cardboard box doesn't work any better. And some aspects(Not ALL, and I
really want to stress that!) of the sterotypes are, in fact, accurate. A stereotype doesn't just come into begin. At its heart, their tends to be a grain of truth. Sorry if that offends, but it's true.
So what ends up bothering me more than people being forced to fit into a stereotype, is when people DO fit the stereotype in some respects are critisized for doing so, and called 'repressed' or some other adjective. What is wrong with behaving in a way that a solid portion of your gender does? I'm a guy, and yes, I DO like my booze, beer and football, thank you(well, two out of the three. I'll leave you to guess which one
). I'm also kind, respectful, and yes, I'll open a door for a lady, and I'll pay for lunch(If it's ok with her, of course). Why should I be made to feel like this is not perfectly acceptable? My sister wanted to marry a good provider, stay at home and have a bunch of kids. Why should some of her friends pressure her to 'take more charge of her life', when she doesn't want to, and likes where she's at?
I guess what I'm trying to say is that the cultural expectations about men and women aren't just some form of social repression. They have in them some measure of truth. There is nothing inherently wrong with breaking with them, if that's just not how you're built. But if you do, you shouldn't be made to think that that is wrong.
........ok, no I have to bring this back to Dragon Age.......
Ok, uh....I appluad the Dragon Age team for making a concerted effort to provided a balanced view of male/female archetypes, and push the boundaries of both. Nothing wrong with breaking a few of the gender rules. Afterall, Isabella the pirate sees them as more like...guidelines...
Modifié par CastonFolarus, 24 février 2013 - 02:42 .
Retour en haut
, jk jk, seriously, so much of the reason why I wanted to play DAO is the diversity of the characters, in either gender. I love that Bioware wrote a male character that wasn't under the stereotype of a typical male warrior, and I know several people both male and female alike that feel the same way. 
