Leigh Alexander wrote an interesting and succinct essay entitled "Bayonetta: Empowering or Exploitative" for Gamepro.com recently (Gamepro.com?!??! Yes, and we all welcome John Davison's new leadership there). You can find it here: http://www.gamepro.com/article/features/213466/bayonetta-empowering-or-exploitative/
I was compelled to reply but, being far less succinct than her, was vexed by the 2,000 word limit in Gamepro.com's comment box. Out of frustration and defiance, I post my full response here, on Bitmob, where word limits be damned!
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I took plenty of classes in feminism back in college. And repression of a female's right to express her sexuality and her sexual freedom is far-and-away a more prevalent symptom of a male-dominated culture than a more liberated culture.
Look at Muslim societies. The ones that are the most traditional, the most male-dominated, are the ones that also demand that women cover up almost all of their bodies, heads, and faces with traditional burkas. The rationale (ostensibly) being that men are tempted into evil by a woman's open expression of her body, and thus, by extension, that the sexual evil that men do is the direct result of the temptation women's sexuality presents when set free to be "in your face." Rape? Well if the girl was showing too much skin, it's her fault, says the dogmatic idea. This archaic blame of men's sexual aggression on the presence of women's open sexual expression is one of the chief "thinly-veiled threats" that has been used for centuries to keep women afraid of the men around them, and thus oppressed in their sense of freedom in self-expression.
Similarly, in our own "forward-thinking" nation, the Salem witch trials demonstrate a similar period where women who broke from stylized and constrictive clothing were suddenly identified as sources of unnamed evil, and subjected to horrible consequences, namely being burned as witches. A similar example of this double-standard in the same rough time period can be seen in the tale of the Scarlett Letter, where only the adulterous woman in the tale is branded with a visible public sign of her "transgression."
A society that respects the rights of women allows them to be free in all their expressions, sexual or otherwise. Now, I'm not sure if Bayonetta had very many female creators involved in the process of bringing this hyper-sexualised character to life, and it's a worthwhile question to ask, just as it was a worthwhile question when N'Gai Croal asked how many people of African ancestry were involved in the making of Resident Evil 5.
History shows that many of the victims in Salem were identified by other women, if I remember correctly, a cadre of young girls with a set of vendetta against other women in the community. One could argue, if one were in the mood to stick their neck out, that it is ironically the self-judgment of other angry women that helps confuse the issue and perpetuate the sexual repression that maintains the status quo--just as one could argue that the anger and self-judgment expressed through African American gangster culture helps continue to perpetuate racists fears. Me, I'm not in the mood to stick my neck out THAT much. I'd just like to thank Ms. Alexander for dodging such a predictable response.
Because it appears to me that, when it comes to combat as much as sexual self-expression, Bayonetta needs a man just about as much as a fish needs a bicycle. And I'm glad for the raw, unedited, uncompromising presence of her upon this stodgy scene--so ripe with violence and yet so devoid of anything but the most rough-sketch impressions of sexuality--to stimulate thought and conversation on these topics as much as anything else!
Look at Muslim societies. The ones that are the most traditional, the most male-dominated, are the ones that also demand that women cover up almost all of their bodies, heads, and faces with traditional burkas. The rationale (ostensibly) being that men are tempted into evil by a woman's open expression of her body, and thus, by extension, that the sexual evil that men do is the direct result of the temptation women's sexuality presents when set free to be "in your face." Rape? Well if the girl was showing too much skin, it's her fault, says the dogmatic idea. This archaic blame of men's sexual aggression on the presence of women's open sexual expression is one of the chief "thinly-veiled threats" that has been used for centuries to keep women afraid of the men around them, and thus oppressed in their sense of freedom in self-expression.
Similarly, in our own "forward-thinking" nation, the Salem witch trials demonstrate a similar period where women who broke from stylized and constrictive clothing were suddenly identified as sources of unnamed evil, and subjected to horrible consequences, namely being burned as witches. A similar example of this double-standard in the same rough time period can be seen in the tale of the Scarlett Letter, where only the adulterous woman in the tale is branded with a visible public sign of her "transgressions."
A society that respects the rights of women allows them to be free in all their expressions, sexual or otherwise. Now, I'm not sure if Bayonetta had very many female creators involved in the process of bringing this hyper-sexualized character to life, and it's a worthwhile question to ask, just as it was a worthwhile question when N'Gai Croal asked how many people of African ancestry were involved in the making of Resident Evil 5.
History shows that many of the victims in Salem were identified by other women, if I remember correctly. One could argue, if one were in the mood to stick their neck out, that it is ironically the self-judgment of other angry women that helps confuse the issue and perpetuate the sexual repression that maintains the status quo--just as one could argue that the anger and self-judgment expressed through African American gangster culture helps continue to perpetuate racists fears. Me, I'm not in the mood to stick my neck out THAT much.
But it appears to me that, when it comes to combat as much as sexual self-expression, Bayonetta needs a man just about as much as a fish needs a bicycle. And I'm glad for the raw, unedited, uncompromising presence of her upon this stodgy scene--so ripe with violence and yet so devoid of anything but the most rough-sketch impressions of sexuality--to stimulate thought and conversation on these topics as much as anything else!
Letter of the month! Awesome.