Author Archives: Luke

Nothing to buy. Not yet.

Posted on October 13, 2008 by Luke

[As one speaker said today, "Pretty much all the games today are the same five games in different packaging."] I have an Xbox 360. I want to buy more games. I mainly play sports (basketball and baseball) games and I … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular Culture, Video Games | 5 Comments

For male gamers and readers, something embarrassing

Posted on November 18, 2007 by Luke

The backstory: Assassin’s Creed is one of the most anticipated games of the year. When Yahoo! is talking about your game on the front-page, you know the buzz is pretty significant. The producer for this game is Jade Raymond who, like the lead-producer of every other game created in the modern age, gives a good portion of the interviews with the press. That is, if you’re a producer of a game and you’re noticeably articulate, you’re the one talking about it, you don’t tell the advertising executive or the intern to do that. As the game is being released, a comic/drawing surfaces, most infamously on the Something Awful forums depicting Jade performing fellatio on male fanboys (not to be confused with the photoshopped nude photos of Jade that are floating around). This comic is seen and shared by members of the SA forums at which point Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka of SA receives a cease and desist/threat of lawsuit letter from the legal representation of Ubisoft telling them to shut it all down and to let them know everything about where they get the image, who drew it, etc. At this point, the story becomes popular outside of SA and other blogs start picking it up, forming their own opinions (yes, just like me and just like this one). The story appears on digg and with it a rash of the most sexist comments (and some countering the sexist comments) appear. Continue reading →

Posted in Discrimination, Popular Culture, The Internet is Serious Business, Video Games | 21 Comments

And yet he still has a (multi-million dollar a year paying) job

Posted on May 4, 2007 by Luke

The last thing the NBA wants you to think about while the playoffs are in full and exciting swing is one of its most habitually toxic players pleading no contest and then being sentenced for a misdemeanor domestic violence charge.

Ron Artest is, without a doubt, the single worst role-model when it comes to active professional athletes so it comes as no surprise that though reported, it’s of little concern to the sports world when upsets and game sevens are amuk in the NBA. Artest is also one of the best defensive players in the game and, strictly for his on-court performance, one of the most sought after. So sought after, in fact, that his current team, the Sacramento Kings, agreed to take on Artest after the infamous Malice At The Palace and then stood behind him throughout the entire DV ordeal with talk about “everyone makes mistakes,” “think of the children” and “second chances.” He likely won’t be dismissed from his current team and even if he is, there are always other franchises looking for a gun-for-hire regardless of how they conduct themselves off the court. Continue reading →

Posted in Abuse, rape, and domestic violence, Companies Behaving Badly, Feminism, Media and journalism, Popular Culture | 1 Comment

I Was A Teenage Feminist

Posted on September 19, 2006 by Luke

Has anyone seen this? I hope a local library has it because the individual purchase price is a little steep and it’s not screening anywhere here soon. See a YouTube clip of the documentary here. And here.

Posted in Feminism, Film and televison, Gender issues, Media and journalism, Popular Culture | Comments Off

What does your t-shirt say? (now with MORE dumb t-shirts!)

Posted on June 28, 2006 by Luke

With the popularity and availability of screen printing and selling t-shirts over the internet, seems like everybody’s got some idea, phrase or illustration they want to market in t-shirt form. So for anywhere from $7-25 bucks, you get to wear not only a piece of clothing but something that says something to everyone else. It’s what you want other people to read or notice or learn about. For that moment, whether it’s a wayward glance on the subway or the start-up of a conversation in line from a deep gaze, the t-shirt and its modern storytelling (oh, lets say in the past couple years) reveals another form of violent backlash and aggression by men to women. Continue reading →

Posted in Gender issues, Popular Culture, Racism, Shrub.com Related, The Evil -ism's, The Internet is Serious Business | 11 Comments

Pimp Your/My Oppression

Posted on June 12, 2006 by Luke

[First a big shout-out to Tekanji, Lake Desire and Shrub.com for giving me the chance to guest blog! My name is Luke and I rushed this post out to press once I read jdpbookworm's great post below that I think is a good branch-off point. I warn, however, that this post is a real behemoth in length. The more I went back to it, the more I added on so you might want to pack a ham-sandwich before diving in or something. Anyways, i'd love to get your feedback, thoughts, comments, criticisms, etc.]

Pimp Your/My Oppression

We’ve all seen them.

It’s some night-owl hour and in-between reruns of Roseanne and ElimiDate you see for 30 seconds the uniquely American bazaar of young, thin, often blonde women with flowing hair and large breasts: In some form, you see “The Yes Girls.”

All-too-discreetly advertising itself as none other than a phone-sex line for men where young women dressed (or undressed, for that matter) in lace and satin seductively grasp their phones, bodies supine with eyes gazed towards the camera whispering lines of “We always say ‘yes’” like they know exactly what customers of the phone-sex line would want to hear in some meta-rape fantasy sort of way. Continue reading →

Posted in Books, magazines, etc., Feminism, Gender issues, Media and journalism, Popular Culture, Sex, sexuality, and sexual politics | 7 Comments