Sweden Considering Sexism Labels For Video Games

[ingemann]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

My opinion on the subject... as long as they don't begin to ban thing, I don't care much, through I would like to see how they define the whole "promote gender equality" before I decide whether this are our neighbours being idiots again or whether this is a good idea.

[Cory]

*FACEPALM*

[Marokai Backbeat]

Even setting aside arguments over whether something like this is necessary or not, there is no conceivable way some sort of labeling system like this could exist without ending up a complete and utter joke.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

My opinion on the subject... as long as they don't begin to ban thing, I don't care much, through I would like to see how they define the whole "promote gender equality" before I decide whether this are our neighbours being idiots again or whether this is a good idea.

I would just like to note that I didn't vote for this new Socialist regime, and I want no part of the blame for this government's moronic political correctness crusades over the coming four years. 

[DC Al Fine]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

My opinion on the subject... as long as they don't begin to ban thing, I don't care much, through I would like to see how they define the whole "promote gender equality" before I decide whether this are our neighbours being idiots again or whether this is a good idea.

I would just like to note that I didn't vote for this new Socialist regime, and I want no part of the blame for this government's moronic political correctness crusades over the coming four years. 

Who did you vote for SwedishCheese?

[MaxQue]

Current video game rating system is a joke. Adding another layer of it won't do any good.

[Wake Me Up When The Hard Border Ends]

This is just moronic... I think the current rating system is sufficient, and will not affect how people buy video games, aside from some parents. Even then, kids would still play it at a friend's house or get their older sibling to get it for them. Also there are plenty of strong female protagonists in video games, including:

• World of Warcraft's Jaina Proudmoore, Agra and Tyrande Whisperwind.
• Chell (and antagonist GLaDOS) from Portal.
• Joanna Dark from Perfect Dark.

Just another of the many reasons why I would not vote Social Democrat if I lived in Sweden.

[Gunnar Larsson]

I would just like to note that I didn't vote for this new Socialist regime, and I want no part of the blame for this government's moronic political correctness crusades over the coming four years. 

The gaming industry trade organsation got some money from a funding agency to in some way support gender equality in games. In what way has this got anything to do with the current government, rather than the trade organisation and the case officer at the funding agency?

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

I would just like to note that I didn't vote for this new Socialist regime, and I want no part of the blame for this government's moronic political correctness crusades over the coming four years. 

The gaming industry trade organsation got some money from a funding agency to in some way support gender equality in games. In what way has this got anything to do with the current government, rather than the trade organisation and the case officer at the funding agency?

Case Officer's that get to hand out funding get their directives from somewhere you know, they don't just get to make decisions on who to throw money at based on their own personal views.

As for the Trade Organisation, it is adapting to the political realities of the day. You can compare it to Hollywood adapting the restrictive Hays Code of Censorship back in the day due to the fear of Government mandated film regulations from Washington. Better to act than react so to speak. I doubt the Swedish gaming industry just woke up two weeks ago and had a sudden realization that they should probably rate their games based on sexism, they clearly fear that if they don't look as if they're doing something, they'd be the perfect target for the government to institute some "reform" trying to win back the 3,1% that voted for the Schyman cult.

Who did you vote for SwedishCheese?

The Centre Party

[Gunnar Larsson]

Case Officer's that get to hand out funding get their directives from somewhere you know, they don't just get to make decisions on who to throw money at based on their own personal views.

As for the Trade Organisation, it is adapting to the political realities of the day. You can compare it to Hollywood adapting the restrictive Hays Code of Censorship back in the day due to the fear of Government mandated film regulations from Washington. Better to act than react so to speak. I doubt the Swedish gaming industry just woke up two weeks ago and had a sudden realization that they should probably rate their games based on sexism, they clearly fear that if they don't look as if they're doing something, they'd be the perfect target for the government to institute some "reform" trying to win back the 3,1% that voted for the Schyman cult.

True, but 1) those directives are very likely the ones of the old government, it takes time for Vinnova to make decisions, it takes time for the applicants to write the application etc., 2) the directives are most likely along the lines "support gender equality in the work place" or something like that, i.e. rather general and in this case what people take issue with is the specifics about labeling games.

As for your second comment, I would say that Gamergate is a much more reasonable explanation.

[The Lord Marbury]

The title of that article is a bit misleading since it all seems to be about maybe giving games that pass the Bechdel test some kind of certificate or rating. It's not about rating films that don't pass the test as sexist.

Honestly I don't see anything problematic with this since in order to pass the Bechdel test a game only needs to have at least two female characters in it who talk to each other and about something other than a man. Some Swedish cinemas also decided to do the same on their own volition last year, so it's not really a new idea.

And I would like to note that I think SwedishCheese complaining about the new government because of this seems a bit silly, I don't really think the directives given to Vinnova are as specific as "support gender equality ratings in video games".

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

While I don't think this is some kind of evil feminazi conspiracy!!, it is a misunderstanding of the Bechdel test. Whether an individual piece of work passes or fails the test  doesn't matter at all. Films  like Gravity and Zero Dark Thirty fail (despite being very "feminist"), while highly problematic works like Twilight or The Spice Girls Movie pass. The Bechdel test is a crude measuring tool that you can apply to large groups of film. If one movie fails it doesn't really matter, but if films consistently fail; it shows a worrying pattern.

That said people are making mountains of molehills here...

[Lief 🗽]

Wonderful news!

[ingemann]

Honestly I don't see anything problematic with this since in order to pass the Bechdel test a game only needs to have at least two female characters in it who talk to each other and about something other than a man. Some Swedish cinemas also decided to do the same on their own volition last year, so it's not really a new idea.

Yes of course using the Bechdel test in general is moronic (the test is a f**king joke from a webcomic) and using it on individual movies is even worse. The Swedes are truly from a planet far far away in some galaxy whose name are made up of a random mix of letters and numbers.

[Associate Justice PiT]

While I don't think this is some kind of evil feminazi conspiracy!!, it is a misunderstanding of the Bechdel test. Whether an individual piece of work passes or fails the test  doesn't matter at all. Films  like Gravity and Zero Dark Thirty fail (despite being very "feminist"), while highly problematic works like Twilight or The Spice Girls Movie pass. The Bechdel test is a crude measuring tool that you can apply to large groups of film. If one movie fails it doesn't really matter, but if films consistently fail; it shows a worrying pattern.

That said people are making mountains of molehills here...

     It's also worth noting that many movies have a very valid reason for not passing the Bechdel test. Through A Glass Darkly, to pick a Swedish example, has four characters, only one of whom is a woman. That it fails the Bechdel test is no comment whatsoever on its contents.

[Ban my account ffs!]

The title of that article is a bit misleading since it all seems to be about maybe giving games that pass the Bechdel test some kind of certificate or rating. It's not about rating films that don't pass the test as sexist.

Honestly I don't see anything problematic with this since in order to pass the Bechdel test a game only needs to have at least two female characters in it who talk to each other and about something other than a man. Some Swedish cinemas also decided to do the same on their own volition last year, so it's not really a new idea.

And I would like to note that I think SwedishCheese complaining about the new government because of this seems a bit silly, I don't really think the directives given to Vinnova are as specific as "support gender equality ratings in video games".

So if there is an unrelated cutaway to two women where they say "we should do as mother goddess says we are meant to and make some cookies in the kitchen right now!" It could be certified as promoting gender equality?

[NewYorkExpress]

Stupid... All video games are sexist (and we love them for it)

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

While I don't think this is some kind of evil feminazi conspiracy!!, it is a misunderstanding of the Bechdel test. Whether an individual piece of work passes or fails the test  doesn't matter at all. Films  like Gravity and Zero Dark Thirty fail (despite being very "feminist"), while highly problematic works like Twilight or The Spice Girls Movie pass. The Bechdel test is a crude measuring tool that you can apply to large groups of film. If one movie fails it doesn't really matter, but if films consistently fail; it shows a worrying pattern.

That said people are making mountains of molehills here...

     It's also worth noting that many movies have a very valid reason for not passing the Bechdel test. Through A Glass Darkly, to pick a Swedish example, has four characters, only one of whom is a woman. That it fails the Bechdel test is no comment whatsoever on its contents.

Exactly. Similarly, Gravity only has two characters; and Zero Dark Thirty fails as nearly all the dialogue is about one man in particular - Bin Laden.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Honestly I don't see anything problematic with this since in order to pass the Bechdel test a game only needs to have at least two female characters in it who talk to each other and about something other than a man. Some Swedish cinemas also decided to do the same on their own volition last year, so it's not really a new idea.

Yes of course using the Bechdel test in general is moronic (the test is a f**king joke from a webcomic) and using it on individual movies is even worse. The Swedes are truly from a planet far far away in some galaxy whose name are made up of a random mix of letters and numbers.

Every so often I stop and marvel at the fact that one of the (unsurprisingly flawed) foundations of modern feminist media criticism is literally based on a joke in a lesbian comic strip from the mid-80s.

[Gustaf]

Stupid... All video games are sexist (and we love them for it)

Eh. You should probably keep to posting stupid links, buddy.

This seems a bit pointless, but also seems very harmless.

[they don't love you like i love you]

People tend to forget the Bechdel Test was created tongue-in-cheek in a comic strip mostly intending to just make a point in an amusing way: https://ladygeekgirl.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/bechdel-test-original-comic.jpg I doubt it was intended to hold up Alien (which it notes as passing) as some type of feminist paragon. I also bet the number of porn films that pass it is fairly long.

But aside from the already made obvious points about how no one is going to take this seriously ever, the grant mentioned in the OP is basically one employee's salary. So not much of anything really.

[Famous Mortimer]

Alien isn't considered a feminist paragon?

Most feminist like it very much. Although some of them don't like the sequel because of "stay away from her, you b****" line.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Surprisingly effective trolling. Approve.

[The Mikado]

Current video game rating system is a joke. Adding another layer of it won't do any good.

The European rating system is amazingly simple and easy to grasp.  PEGI (insert year), where the year number is "that age and up." It makes a hell of a lot more sense than the North American system that the ESRB uses. Any person unfamiliar with the European system can see PEGI 12 and instantly grasp "12 and up" when seeing M doesn't really convey the same information.

[Bacon King]

People tend to forget the Bechdel Test was created tongue-in-cheek in a comic strip mostly intending to just make a point in an amusing way: https://ladygeekgirl.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/bechdel-test-original-comic.jpg I doubt it was intended to hold up Alien (which it notes as passing) as some type of feminist paragon. I also bet the number of porn films that pass it is fairly long.

But aside from the already made obvious points about how no one is going to take this seriously ever, the grant mentioned in the OP is basically one employee's salary. So not much of anything really.

The point of the Bechdel Test (as a serious thing) is not that movies passing it are automatically feminist, it's meant as an exercise to highlight the distressingly high number of movies that don't include something as simple as two women talking about something besides men when there's no real reason the story shouldn't feature it. Passing the Bechdel Test should be considered a bare minimum for works in settings with female characters, not a benchmark that inherently means anything positive about the work itself.