Vagina Hero – Dick rhetoric bad, vagina’s ok
Ripten has posted a fake review of Vagina Hero, yeah, you guessed it a ‘funny’ look at a game based on Guitar Hero, but revolving around a vagina controller and pressing the right buttons. This made us wonder about double standards, given it’s clearly alright for guys to make funny / silly little articles about vagina’s, but an article about the ‘Biggest Dicks in Gaming’ will get you all manner of moronic abuse, despite the double-entendre of the word ‘dick’ as written.
So what’s the story, why is it alright for gaming sites to feature jokes about women’s anatomy, but not the other way around. Does that strike anyone else as being slightly odd and unfair? Another thing the article highlights is men apparently like exemplifying the fact they don’t know what to do with the vagina? In a way it’s actually demeaning it’s male readers far more than a silly article poking fun at dicks in gaming about virtual characters (ie not REAL men), but meh, whatever!
Thanks to Tracey for the heads up.
13 Responses to “Vagina Hero – Dick rhetoric bad, vagina’s ok”
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If anything, I feel sorry for the guy who had to make the graphics for that. At any rate, Trolls seem somewhat picky about their targets. I mean, sure there are some who do it for the lulz and will troll anyone anywhere for any reason but seems your most common troll likes to go after anyone who isn’t both white and male.
There’s this quote I once saw on a bummer sticker:
“I wish closed minds would keep a closed mouth.”
You can’t stop the stupids from posting, because there’s always someone who objects to everything and has to vocalize it. I admit, the Ripten article was funny. In fact, it was fucking hilarious! But you can’t diss them simply because this site was bullied a bit. Asshole will always be assholes…
@ Pescean
I think you sort of missed the point, could be wrong, but I think it’s a valid statement given the double-standard at work here. I think that was the original point of the post and not let’s bite back because we’ve been bitten which doesn’t seem to be the way here.
As for the Ripten article being funny, each to his / her own. I didn’t think it was remotely amusing.
Parody or not, it’s misogynistic.
Quoting from the article:
“You could also just mash all the buttons at the same time with your fist and hope to get lucky.”
Jesus Christ, whoever wrote that “review” (parody or not) has obviously never had sex with a woman.
The article also implies that the author thinks that all women are gold diggers, and believes that women are not people but things to be conquered (women = stages? WTF).
He obviously has a chip on his shoulder to hate women so much.
…eh…it’s kind of groan worthy to me (and not in a good way).
The primary difference is that the fake game is not called “Pussy Hero” and your report is not on the “Biggest Penises in Gaming”.
It’s not the body parts or their gender that cause the knee-jerk reaction, it’s the slang terms. People object to the slang terms, because they’re used as derogatory – in much the same way people object to saying something you don’t like is “gay”, like they might do on South Park or Beavis and Butt-Head.
To a certain breed of human being, “you’re a dick” or “don’t be a pussy” or “that’s gay” is childish and silly. It’s speaking in the way an eight or ten year old child might speak, keeping in touch with that childhood honesty and casual disregard for political correctness. We miss that in America, once we get into our twenties and are no longer supposed to have fun anymore.
But to another breed of American, these things are very serious political statements revelatory of deep-seated psychological bigotry that must be stamped out by any means necessary.
Now, me? I think that’s gay and those people are dicks, which I’ll happily say out loud because I’m not a pussy. And because it’s silly and childish, which is fun, and I believe I have a right to have fun – even if a bunch of dicks get offended.
Hello there. I am the original author of the Vagina Hero article that was published on ripten.com. I’m not here because I necessarily feel the need to defend myself, but I do want to clarify a few things.
First, I agree that there is a double standard, but we have certainly taken a lot of flak for our Vagina Hero story as well. Strangely, it mostly only comes from feminist sites, as most normal people found that we can all have a sense of humor about our bodies (though not all of your commenters would agree). Yes, I consider feminists to not be normal, and I think their extremist nature only hurts their cause.
Second, I am not being misogynistic in any way. I’ve been married for 7 years and have two children — I think I know my way around a vagina. The article was not written from the perspective of me as a person. It was written from the perspective of stereotypical idiot guys that don’t know much about women, and those guys go on to further stereotype women. The writer of this post was half right in saying that we were making fun of guys — we were intentionally playing off of stereotypes. You and your readers, of all people, should understand the importance of not applying stereotypes to actually represent all of the people that are being stereotyped. “Guys don’t understand women, hahaha!” This obviously does not apply to all guys, and was done in a self-deprecating manner to be humorous. Some people, however, seem to be taking this all a bit too literally and too seriously.
The whole idea came when I was chatting about Guitar Hero to the guy that ended up doing the pictures: Chad. I had recently read that Activision plans on releasing four Guitar Hero games per year, which I thought was a bit excessive. Then we got on to whether girls were equally attracted to fake guitar players and real guitar players, which lead to a conversation about how girls like guitarists because of their “magic fingers” and so on. Then one of us said that Activision should cut out the middleman and just make a finger-wiggling game that is about the vagina itself. Chad thought it was hilarious and started making pictures while we kept talking. Eventually he sent them to me and said “Hey, write something about this” and you saw what resulted from it.
So, in response to your commentors:
Don’t feel sorry for the guy that did the pictures because the article itself was based off of his pictures, which he gladly made.
Thank you Pescean for the support; I’m glad you were entertained.
I read the Biggest Dicks article before and found it amusing, though I don’t understand why you make fun of half of the characters on your “Biggest Dicks” list for having small dicks. Additionally, I don’t understand why lesbian gamers would be tired of seeing lists with hot chicks on them, and I fail to see why you would care enough about the lack of dick exposure to write the list in the first place. I understand that it is tongue-in-cheek, as has been pointed out many times, but so was Vagina Hero. A lot of people fail to see the correlation and bust my balls for writing what I did, so if there is a double standard as you say, it seems there is one on your side also.
The article is not misogynistic, and I’ve already explained why. If you truly still feel that it is after how I’ve explained it, then you are a feminist nazi and I don’t care what you think anyways.
For your information (which will most likely bee too much information, but oh well), I generally only use 2 fingers at most and I don’t button-mash. I’ve had 2 children and have proof that they’re mine, so there is some evidence that I’ve had sex before. My wife also makes more money than me, so I know she’s not with me for the money and is therefore not a gold-digger. So that’s proof that I don’t think ALL women are gold-diggers, hahaha. My shoulders are just fine and I only hate some women (you know who you are).
I hope this gives some of you a reason to stop drinking the hatorade and have a little more fun in your lives. Thanks for reading.
Well although I didn’t think the Ripten thing was remotely funny, I have to say the guys response is absolutely hilarious.
Probably my favorite part (oh, but there are so many LOL)
“I’ve had 2 children and have proof that they’re mine” .. you needed proof?
That was kind of a joke. The only “proof” I really have is that they look like me.
…and my name is on the birth certificate, but that doesn’t necessarily prove anything either.
Did… did that guy really make a response that was that… wow.. I don’t want to use any lump insult words because I’d be seriously dragging anyone associated with said word down.
“Additionally, I don’t understand why lesbian gamers would be tired of seeing lists with hot chicks on them”
Are 13 years old and high?
Simply put the idea of Vagina Hero and graphics could be funny, but man was that article just poorly written.
Though to answer the question as to why its okay an article like that exists: It isn’t.
Why don’t we hear more uproar about it? Simple. Lesbian gamers are a minority WITHIN a minority within a minority. So unless the majority males 18-34 turn around and pull standards out like I can, you won’t hear uproar about it.
Which is sad, but that’s the situation.
@Dan
The double standard isn’t so much that this site is being attacked for the “biggest dicks” while yours isn’t being attacked for “vagina hero”, I believe the observation has to do with the nature of the attacks. While this site has had to deal with an endless stream of ad-hominem attacks it would seem from what you said that you’ve only recieved emails critical of the actual content.
In other words, Feminists questioning the content for equating women with objects/playthings is expected and reasonable. Idiots attacking the site’s mods/writers because of who they are in response to a joke is quite unreasonable although completely expected.
Also, please understand that saying “I have a wife” as a way to refute claims of mysoginy is akin to saying “I know a black guy” as a way to refute claims of racism.