A Very StarCraft Rant

So I'm playing through StarCraft 2 again, and I seriously cannot believe just how bad the portrayal of women is. There are five total female characters that I can think of off the top of my head:

 1. Dr. Ariel Hanson starts as the damsel in distress, and depending on which plot choice you make, her part in the story either ends with death or with asking the main dude (Jim) out.

2. Mira Han "tricked" Jim's starship captain, Matt, into marrying her.

3. Protoss Executor Selendis. As far as I know, the Protoss are asexual - nothing about them is sexualized at all, and Selendis is the only decent female character. Naturally, she appears for only one mission and one cut scene. (Not to mention, of the five Protoss heros to be in that mission, she is the only female. Looks like the Protoss have problems with glass ceilings too!)

 4. Nova Terra seems generally decent, but her exit from helping Jim and company involves another dude turning to Jim and asking, "You ever think about hitting that?" COME ON NOW.

5. My personal (least) favorite, Sarah Kerrigan. She's Jim's actual love interest that got kidnapped by the Zerg and transformed into the evil Queen of Blades. But wait, Zerg are disgusting, slimy insectoid creatures! That means Kerrigan would be too, right?

HAHA NOPE! She gets to be a naked porn star with a bit of Zerg scales in the right places, and bony wing-things! This cinematic demonstrates even better Blizzard's intentions - she shows up at 1:45. I (do not) love how she is completely nude, yet somehow is still wearing high heels.

All of these women are white (there are two black dudes in the game, one of them UNBELIEVABLY stereotyped - I wasn't into social justice at all when I first played this game and I was still uncomfortable) and perfectly slender. Even Selendis is given a supermodel body. Oh, and not a single one of these women EVER speak to each other. About ANYTHING. The closest it gets is when Jim has to choose between Selendis' and Dr. Hanson's solution to the Zerg infestation. They are arguing about it! But they never actually address each other, but rather, talk directly to Jim!

Seriously, Blizzard? 14 years between the original and #2, and the best you have are these breathtakingly sexist tropes?

I can't bring myself to look forward to the next expansion. I just can't. Not after this.

Venting

[TW for sexism, racism, jingoism and classism.]

Okay, I just need to rant for a bit.

I'm a fan of country music.  I love the sound, and many of the songs are absolutely fantastic, and deal with difficult topics that most mainstream music avoids (e.g., cancer, abuse, etc.).

On the other hand, country music is a proud bastion for so many things that are horrible: racism, sexism, jingoism, BOOTSTRAPS.  This has intensified to absurd levels since 9/11.

But the one I need to rant about today is probably the most egregious example of sexism that I can think of off the top of my head (how sad is that?): Keep Me in Mind by The Zac Brown Band.

The way I listen to music is that I pretty much completely ignore the words for the first five listens, and then suddenly the words are there.  Now, Keep Me in Mind is the catchiest song EVER, and Zac is an excellent vocalist, so I kept hearing this fun new song and kind of hearing the words but not really. And then, suddenly the horrible, horrible words registered.  I don't even have to go past the first stanza, because IT IS THE WORST.  One line at a time:

How come all the pretty girls like you are taken, baby?

Ugh.  Yet another message of many reminding single women (NOT GIRLS FFS) that they're single because they're ugly, and that men are superficial enough to only be interested in women that meet the conventional standard of beauty.  Isn't it the feminists that are supposed to hate men?   Dudebros, y u hate men so much?

I've been looking for someone like you to save me

Men are not infants that require being saved.  Again with the misandry.  Which, of course, doesn't actually result in the marginalization of men but rather the women (saviors), and so it is misogyny masquerading as misandry.  Boys will be boys, and all that.

Life's too easy to be so damn complicated

If your biggest life complication is yearning after a woman you can't have (and you're whining about it like a toddler denied candy), then you are on a level of Not Getting It that no one can touch.  You are standing on top of Privilege Peak, and the reality down in the foothills is completely obscured by the mists of your white, straight, rich dudeliness.

Take your time and I'll be waiting

YOU ARE A CREEP NOW.  Go find a woman that is actually available.  OH WAIT all of the pretty girls are taken!  Well, gosh, that just leaves you in a pickle now, doesn't it?

Go away, think about your life for a while, and come back when you've moved beyond frat boy levels of sociability.

Lettertime

Dear Mayo Clinic/Science

You have disappointed me today. I looked up the risk factors for gestational diabetes, and you told me that one of the risk factors is "Nonwhite race." I became even more disappointed in you when I read the description after the risk factor, which says "For reasons that aren't clear, women who are black, Hispanic, American Indian or Asian are more likely to develop gestational diabetes."

Please consider doing studies on actual factors, such as socioeconomic ones and ones in which either the effects of a lack of privilege is studied, or ones in which privilege is accounted for and taken into consideration. The world would be a better place for it.

Still expecting more,
Ange