rocky41_7

I finally had the chance to try out the Persona franchise last month or so when I picked up Persona 5 from Gamestop. For a number of reasons I will probably never finish it, but one of the things that stood out very sharply to me as a grating factor was the treatment of Ann by the narrative.

The player character is male, as is the mascot, and your first friend/team member, Ryuji. Both boys are in high school, and the first girl recruited to the team is Ann, who joins almost entirely because she's being sexually pursued by one of the teachers, Kamoshida, who the boys are looking to expose as a predator and abuser of students. Ann is furious about how much Kamoshida's gotten away with and more than willing to put herself at risk as one of the Phantom Thieves to stop him from hurting anyone else.

And what outfit does the game put her in as soon as she joins the team? Skin-tight bright red body suit with cat ears and a tail.

Most of her battle poses have her standing with her chest and ass thrust out, often towards the viewer. Her knock-out pose has her face-down on the floor with her ass up in the air.

Both the PC and your companions have multiple chances to make sexual comments at her or about her. One of the mascot's repeat battle dialogues is a breathy line about how she's "so gorgeous!"

This very anime hypocrisy, where sexual harassment is gross if it's one of the bad guys doing it but funny or cute if it's one of the heroes doing it reminds me aggressively of the reasons I've distanced myself from anime since I was a teenager. The game has no real respect for Ann's feelings or the story it created for her. It pays lip service to the trauma of being a teenager pursued by an adult in a position of power when Ann feels like she can't refuse, but it jumps right from exclaiming about how terrible it is for Kamoshida to treat her like a sexual prize into the PC joking about what a sexual prize she is.

If I had any hope that this would be addressed later on--that Ann might call them out for being disrespectful, particularly in light of her trauma--I might feel differently, but I don't. Ann is a romance option for the PC and given how she's been treated so far, I can only imagine how cringe-worthy that path is.

I am now obsessed with this blog on 1970s sci-fi art...need to stop myself from trying to paint a mural on my bedroom wall and buying an egg chair.

I went down to the used bookstore today to pick up some books for my lit class and they gave me this sticker for free



nice

And there's a coupon on the back! \(￣︶￣*\))

Recently The Asexual Agenda brought to my attention this article , where the author makes an argument for why platonic marriages are invalid and generally undermine the institution of marriage, and while the article is over a year old, I felt the need to write a response.

Obviously, asexual people are harmed by the notion that platonic marriage should be forbidden or frowned upon, but I think more generally the obsession with controlling how other people operate their marriages is damaging to all of us.

Response under the cut.
( Read more... )

My sister was in town this week. It was her spring break so she came out to see me since we probably won't see each other this summer, and she probably won't be able to make it to my graduation because of her own school things.

We had such a fun time and I'm very tired but it was great and I was sorry to say goodbye this morning. It makes me wonder where we'll be when we both finish school and settle into jobs and such...I don't like the idea that I might only see her a few times of year at best (；′⌒`) I hope we'll be able to be close enough that regular visits aren't too much trouble, but it'll never be the same as living in the same town.

While she was here we made it through all of Arcane so I've got her on that bandwagon!