Overwatch Represenation Isn’t About What I Thought it Would Be

When Overwatch was announced I had one of my Shedding a Tear Over Representation-moments. I took to social media, venting my joy over seeing a woman leading a Blizzard franchise, along with other women, some of them brown, many in practical clothing, one as old as 34. In the same breath I voiced frustration over how all of them came in one, slim body type, how two thirds of the support characters were women (the third an androgynous robot), how the sexy woman was the evil one and how the Japanese men just had to be samurai and ninja. My concerns were however minor in comparison to my blissful joy over the Overwatch roster.

There’s Nothing Wrong With Sexy Costumes – Follow Up On My TSW-Post

Some time has passed since I wrote about representation in The Secret World. I’ve had some great discussions since, and I want to officially follow up on a few things.

When Funcom retweeted me I freaked out. In a mixed yay!/nooo! way. I got so scared. “This is it. My carefree blogging days are over,” I thought. I’ve seen what the hate groups do to people expressing feminist opinions, and I’m terrified of them mobs. With The Secret World‘s some 24k Twitter followers, at least some critics would find their way here. I went to bed that night without daring to check my comments section or open my mail, and talked to my friends about my fears. The next day I steeled myself, and apprehensively checked my mail, ready to run crying from my computer.

Funcom Nailed Representation In The Secret World

The Secret World was love at first sight for me when I bought it in 2013. This buy-once-and-play MMORPG draws heavily on the works of H.P. Lovecraft and folklore from different cultures, has teamwork across factions and a welcoming, helpful gaming community. Storytelling and puzzle solving in The Secret World is fascinating, engaging and feels surprisingly fresh while still being a game based around combat. But the thing that made me fall in love with the game at the title screen was representation. Not just at the title screen, but directly when you launch the patcher.

The Secret World game launcher

November Update

If it’s one thing I like to talk about more than anything in the world it’s me, so that’s what’s in store for today. This is an update of what I’ve been up to, and what I’m doing.

First of all, writing a lot of words in my blog isn’t all that tempting these days, since I’m over 32000 words into NaNoWriMo.

A-Force Puts Men On the Bench

Today I’ll be talking about Marvel’s A-Force by Marguerite Bennet & G. Willow Wilson, and I’m happy to tell you I swapped out the headline “A-Force To Be Reckoned With”. You’re welcome.

What is A-Force? The comic is one of many in the interim series called Secret Wars, that are in the process of reshaping the entire Marvel universe. The whole Secret Wars things is a mess that I never bothered wrapping my head around, and I think the purpose of it is to kill out some less profitable comics from the production line. Initially I just wanted to keep track of where Ms. Marvel and Thor ends up when it’s over, but then I learned that the author of Ms. Marvel is co-writing this all female led gang of super heroes called A-Force.

Week 37 Follow Up

Did you know Swedes talks about weeks when scheduling stuff? As in, “My annual leave starts week 34,” or “Our deadline is week 40.” It’s the most idiotic thing, because nobody except school teachers knows which weekday it is. Then Google calender doesn’t show which week it is, so we need to use web pages like whatweekisit.se with a smiling cartoon lady on it, who look suspiciously much like a teacher. At least once a week you hear someone asking, “What week is it?” It’s almost as silly as the imperial system, though there is some predictability in the fact that the week system only counts from 1 to 52 and then starts over again from 1 without mixing in a logarithmic scale or anything.

Anyhow, this week is 37, and I kind of promised to follow up on The Malazan Book of the Fallen, as well as Thors. I thought I could say something about Midnight’s Blessing too.

Thors Issue #2 Is Lesson #1 in Toxic Masculinity

(This is a stand-alone follow up on my post Marvel’s First Issue of “Thors” Is a Train Wreck By Men, For Men, About Men)

I ended my subscription of Thors, to the let-down of my comics dealer. “But you liked Thor so much!” he said, and asked if I wanted him to renew my subscription when Secret Wars ends and Thor will be about girl power again. I said no, because Thors crushed my hope so thoroughly that the same writer that wrote Thor and then Thors could ever be able to write a women friendly comic again. It even took away my hope that he could write a decent comic.

Compared to how bad Thors #1 was then, how bad was Thors #2?

Hey, it’s me.

When I started this blog I had several years worth of stuff to say about feminism and geek culture, and it was a relief to gush it all out here. I wrote some pretty good pieces, if I’m allowed to say that myself. (I’m not allowed in Sweden because of the “jantelag”, but I’m pretty sure I’m allowed to in the USA.)

Sylvanas gets new armor

Sylvanas has some new armor on the Legion expansion website! Finally they decided to give her half decent clothing, and wooh. Look at how much cooler that made her! Such a simple thing, just put some armor on the ladies.

Women and Rape in The Malazan Book of the Fallen

Trigger warning for descriptions of rape. No spoilers.

The Malazan Book of the Fallen is a fantasy book series by Steven Erikson. It’s one I read when it was new in 1999 (last book released in 2009) and I loved it dearly. After half a life of reading fantasy I was fed up and had sworn never to pick up another title again, especially not high fantasy, but a friend of mine was persistent in wanting me to read Erikson. I gave in, and I’m so thankful to that friend. A Wizard of Earthsea might be my favourite fantasy trilogy, but the Erikson epic is no doubt in hot pursuit on second place.