Gender Neutral Games

There's something rather unique with Plants vs Zombies within that it is one of the few games that never asks you identify with a gender.

Most games don't ask, they just assume that you're male, or comfortable being identified that way, and the the story begins.

Now some of that has to do with the fact that not so long ago most of the individuals who played video games were male, so it wasn't seen as a problem to have most video game protagonist match their perceived players.  Hence why it takes until Pokemon LeafGreen and FireRed to be able to play as a female trainer in the Pokemon series.

But even now a days most games assume you're male or at least totally fine with playing a male character.  To be completely honest, that bugs the crap out of me.

If you look on the internet it actually bugs the crap out of a lot of people.  That particular aspect is not what I'm really interested in talking about today though, annoying though it is.

The situation I want to talk about is that video games are reinforcing gender stigma and double standards by asking each player their gender and then having that change game play.  One of the minor examples is from Animal Crossing where if you identify as a girl you can only wear a dress.  Boys also can only wear a shirt and pants

Oh great we're back in the 1950's, bravo.  It's not that asking for gender isn't a step forward, having the option to play as a female is quite a change actually.  However, quite often it causes as many awkward problems as it solves.  The certain type of armors female can wear has been spoken of many times on the internet.  

There's also something that's not very inclusive about demanding a gender from the player.  There those individuals that don't identify as one or the other, or there is just simple matter of being a girl wanting to play a girl but not wanting the male NPCs to hit on you.  Thank you very much I get enough of that unwanted attention in real life, I really don't want it in my fantasy one either.

The reason I bring this up is because I believe actively treating female identifying protagonist different reinforces aspects of video game culture that often makes females free unwelcome.  

There is an argument for the difference in gender treatment known as "story integrity," meaning that the story is dependent on the character's gender and must be changed if the gender changes.  My response to that is, really?  The story of a video game is THAT dependent on the main character's gender?  WHY?  Explain it to me, slowly if you think it will help, why that character absolutely has to be a male or must be treated different if it's a female?  

Is it cause they have to rescue a princess and it must love interest?  Because girls never have love interests that are also girls, nope that like never happens.

Is it cause the main character has to be believable strong?  Because girls are not as strong as men, none of them, there are no exceptions to that rule.  Every single woman is weaker than every single man.  

Is it cause of historical integrity?  Because that game was already so historical accurate.  You could always jump off a cathedrals and have no damage as long as you landed in a haystack.  

Is it cause programmers would require so much time to actual render a female character?  Maybe, they probably haven't seen a real female in a while, at least not that I can tell from looking at their games.

So yay Plants vs. Zombies for not asking my gender, and for not having Crazy Dave hit on me if I identified as a girl.

Plants vs Zombies Sunflower Cake

Yup I love Plants vs Zombies, the movie Zombieland, and flourless chocolate cake.  Flourless chocolate cakes are really delicious and moist so I've never felt the need to ice them. With this cake I used milk chocolate to keep the cake a light brown so that the black details would still be visible. If you want to ice the cake go ahead and ice it. But I like lazy cooking, and this is my lazy cooking turning out something pretty.

The twinkies I think make surprisingly awesome petals in my opinion.  They also allow me to reference another zombie franchise that I am quite fond of.  

Want to know how I did it?  Check out the video!

Why Princess Peach doesn't bug me

Oh Princess Peach.  She's one of the oldest female video game characters while at the same time probably the most archaic.  She is someone that many female gamers have a real problem with.  Being the most visible female video game character she is almost always a damsel.  The one time she wasn't and she had her own game, her super power was being emotional.  Basically they made a game about how Princess Peach uses her PMS to defeat monsters.  *sigh* This did not help female gamers feel welcome in the gamer community.

I can never over look how unwelcome female gamers often feel, and I can't really deny that Princess Peach plays a large role in why they're unwelcome.  However, Princess Peach doesn't bug me.

Why?  Well first off let's start off with her often being a damsel.  At this point it's clearly kind of joke to the Mario game creators.  They come up with some reason that Princess Peach is kidnapped and then Mario has to go through the levels to save Princess Peach.  With the exception of Super Mario Bros 2 which kind of wasn't really Mario game in some senses.  Mario games have a very set storyline and it's extremely simple.  Arguably if you changed one of the really major factors in such a simple story it wouldn't be a Mario game anymore.

On top of that Princess Peach is playable character in the RPG Mario Series, along with the Paper Mario Series.  She still sometimes needs to be rescued depending on the specific game, but she has her own powers and abilities to aid in the story.

That's not why she doesn't bug me though.  The reason she doesn't bug me is cause she's a representation of a type of girl.  I knew girls who loved her game, they loved that it was pink and girly, and they loved that her crying and her rage was a strength.  In current society women are presented as overly emotional and it's seen and detriment.  I knew girls who felt empowered by Super Princess Peach.

The problem isn't that Princess Peach exists in my opinion.  The problem is that she's so all encompassing because video game creators do not seem particularly interested in created other female video game characters.  We need female video game characters that are as varied as the male characters.  Honestly until that happens, female will probably continue to feel unwelcome in the world of video games.  I vote we stop sending all the hate to Princess Peach because that can make other female gamers feel unwelcome and send it where it's deserved.  At the actual game creators.

Mario Mushroom T-Shirt Recon

I love the concept of cutting up old t-shirts and crafting them into something more fashionable, or at least less boxy.  The problem I always ran into was that so many t-shirt recons, either from books or internet, involved either showing your bra or not wearing them. 

When I was into t-shirt reconing the most I was 16.  My high school could have sent me home for showing my bra, and honestly 16 year old me wasn't comfortable with not wearing a bra.  On top of that so many of the recons just involved cutting the t-shirt up in various creative ways.  Although this can look awesome, it doesn't always feel very stable on your body.  Another no no for self conscience 16 year old me in fact still a no no to this day.

So when I decided I was doing a t-shirt I did it for a body conscience person like myself.  This is very stable, it will stay on without the straps but with the straps it's bullet proof.  It also covers all sensitive areas thoroughly.  Lastly, if I do say so myself, it looks pretty darn cute. 

Below are the patterns for appliques.  The squares should be 1" X 1" while the eye pieces should be 1.5" wide X 6.5" long.

Lastly if you want to see how I made the Mario Mushroom shirt check out the video below!

Soot Sprite Earrings

Oh my goodness how to explain the impact Miyazaki has had on my life.  I was watching and obsessing over his work before I even knew what anime was.  I remember loving My Neighbor Totoro and watching Kiki's Delivery Service repeatedly.

Miyazaki and Walt Disney are probably the movie creators that had the most impact on my childhood, and how I view the world now.  To this day I can't resist adorable creatures who are clearly mostly there as comedic relief.  The soot sprites are one of the few side kicks from my childhood that I consistently feel zero guilt about loving.

They're so cute! It helps that the movies that appear in are so engaging and wonderful in other ways, but mostly it just reminds me of fond days of my childhood getting lost in Miyazaki's worlds.  

So this week Soot Sprite Earrings with the sugar stars we see them eat in Spirited Away.  Check the video out below!

If you're curious I used black Palette yarn from knitpicks.com  I can not recommend knitpicks.com enough.  Awesome yarn, great shipping time, and wonderful customer service.

Why Mrs. Potts deserves more credit

Alright so Disney is rather all encompassing, as in you probably watched multiple of their creations during your childhood.  Or if you're me, almost all of them even into my adulthood...  Given that knowledge about me you probably are not surprised to learn that I have a lot of opinions about Disney.  Today we're going to stick to Beauty and the Beast.

In the Disney canon almost all main characters don't have a full set of parents.  Even the ones that do, etc. Rapunzel, the parents don't really have an affect on the film.  This has everything to do with the fact that Disney likes to adapt fairy tales/fairy tale styled pieces.

For whatever reason there was a huge trope in the 1600's within the folklore of having the protagonist of the tale be orphans.  I think it actually entirely has to do with the guilt of the time period for what happened to orphans.  There wasn't really any sort of structure in place so either the orphans found a way to work for food/money, if their family was well connected it was possibly that they would become a ward to another family, or possibly would just end up begging on the street.  With all three possibilities there was never a guarantee that any said situation would be pleasant.  I think because of this cultural knowledge people displaced their guilt by telling these phantasmagorical story about orphans that did extremely well.  

Despite that lack of parents being overly common in Disney's inspiration source they still managed create an awesome maternal character in Mrs. Potts.  She and her child is turned into china, I can't imagine not having a break down if that happened to me.  Mrs. Potts however just continues on being a parent because that's what she had to do for her child.  She provides the feminine mature adult voice in the story.  Belle's father occasionally provides the counter part of the masculine mature adult voice but isn't as active as Mrs. Potts is.  It's an important voice to note because such females are rare in Disney.  Most older females, aka not princesses, in Disney's canon are evil.  Mrs. Potts breaks this rule.

She also actually looks old.  Another truly unique trait in the Disney canon.  Check out Rapunzel's mother, she doesn't actually look like she could have 18 year old daughter does she?  On top of all that she has a body type that is not common in the positive characters database over at Disney.  Most of individual who are not stereotypical attractive are evil or stupid.  Mrs. Potts is neither, she's friendly and very competent.

If you haven't watched Beauty and the Beast since you were a kid, give another view.  It's beautifully animated, has a story worth watching, and the cherry on top one of the best representations of a female that Disney has ever done.

Mrs. Potts and Chips Necklace

Mrs. Potts has always been one of my favorite characters and she one of the few Disney mothers that we really get to know.  On top of that she's a teapot, I never got into coffee so tea runs through my veins.  Not to mention that the movie Beauty and the Beast won two Oscars the year it came out along with a slew of other awards and nominations.  So I really like this project and what inspired it basically.

Below is the template that I made.  Mrs. Potts is a coloring book page that I found online, and Chip is actually a paper craft I think used with the Cricut paper cutting machine.  You want to make sure to size it so that Mrs. Potts is around 4.7 inches  to be the same size as necklace I made.

Didn't see the episode?