Comments on: large and in charge http://creativitymachine.net/2007/01/12/large-and-in-charge/ A personal research blog about vernacular creativity and technology by Jean Burgess. Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:22:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Jean http://creativitymachine.net/2007/01/12/large-and-in-charge/#comment-31001 Jean Sat, 13 Jan 2007 05:48:40 +0000 http://creativitymachine.net/2007/01/12/large-and-in-charge/#comment-31001 "it’s very telling when the dismissal of something that’s fun and playful goes from its characterisation as “kid’s stuff” to being “airhead sluts”." Yes, of course! "like the madonna/whore dichotomy, I think we’re being invited into another misogynistic binarism here" And yes again, I think. But my post-feminism just doesn't stretch far enough for me not to have a very strong desire to hit the airhead. [shrugs] “it’s very telling when the dismissal of something that’s fun and playful goes from its characterisation as “kid’s stuff” to being “airhead sluts”.”

Yes, of course!

“like the madonna/whore dichotomy, I think we’re being invited into another misogynistic binarism here”

And yes again, I think. But my post-feminism just doesn’t stretch far enough for me not to have a very strong desire to hit the airhead. [shrugs]

]]> By: ben http://creativitymachine.net/2007/01/12/large-and-in-charge/#comment-31000 ben Sat, 13 Jan 2007 05:36:15 +0000 http://creativitymachine.net/2007/01/12/large-and-in-charge/#comment-31000 "Opposing" the Wii-bimbo and Wii-baby was a bad choice of words -- I actually meant that the figure of the "Wii-bimbo" provocatively *ups the ante* on the popular portrayal of Nintendo gear as feminised and "kidified" (oh dear, vocabulary missing today). I mean, it's very telling when the dismissal of something that's fun and playful goes from its characterisation as "kid's stuff" to being "airhead sluts". And this does definitely come into play in the more obvious tension of the piece -- like the madonna/whore dichotomy, I think we're being invited into another misogynistic binarism here... “Opposing” the Wii-bimbo and Wii-baby was a bad choice of words — I actually meant that the figure of the “Wii-bimbo” provocatively *ups the ante* on the popular portrayal of Nintendo gear as feminised and “kidified” (oh dear, vocabulary missing today). I mean, it’s very telling when the dismissal of something that’s fun and playful goes from its characterisation as “kid’s stuff” to being “airhead sluts”. And this does definitely come into play in the more obvious tension of the piece — like the madonna/whore dichotomy, I think we’re being invited into another misogynistic binarism here…

]]> By: Jean http://creativitymachine.net/2007/01/12/large-and-in-charge/#comment-30999 Jean Sat, 13 Jan 2007 02:55:50 +0000 http://creativitymachine.net/2007/01/12/large-and-in-charge/#comment-30999 yeah, I wondered the same thing after posting - whether it does play on the "stop picking on PC, you smug bastard" thing. And I do think it has a sweet kind of humour too, on a second reading. But still, I do like to notice the obvious in my texts as well - it's not only the Wii-bimbo vs. Wii-baby; it is also the sexualised Wii-bimbo vs the fat geek grrrl. I just don't find faux-pornstar sexiness sexy at all, and I suppose I'm not meant to... yeah, I wondered the same thing after posting - whether it does play on the “stop picking on PC, you smug bastard” thing. And I do think it has a sweet kind of humour too, on a second reading.
But still, I do like to notice the obvious in my texts as well - it’s not only the Wii-bimbo vs. Wii-baby; it is also the sexualised Wii-bimbo vs the fat geek grrrl. I just don’t find faux-pornstar sexiness sexy at all, and I suppose I’m not meant to…

]]> By: ben http://creativitymachine.net/2007/01/12/large-and-in-charge/#comment-30998 ben Sat, 13 Jan 2007 02:42:29 +0000 http://creativitymachine.net/2007/01/12/large-and-in-charge/#comment-30998 I don't really think your reading is that much of a push; surely the piece plays with the very common "sympathy-for-the-beleagured-PC" reading of the Mac/PC ads. This time, however, instead of a smug Mac that we can read against the grain, we get a strangely eroticised variation on the stock denigration of cute Nintendos as being the antithesis of masculinity: the Wii-bimbo, as opposed to the usual, asexually feminised Wii-baby. I used to work on the Xbox advertising account for Microsoft, and we were explicitly told by the overlords in Seattle to create an animated trailer in which the macho Xbox robot crushes the flower-picking princess and her Mario-alike friends. "Pansies," he says. (The irony was that everyone who worked on that trailer actually preferred Nintendo's aesthetics.) I don’t really think your reading is that much of a push; surely the piece plays with the very common “sympathy-for-the-beleagured-PC” reading of the Mac/PC ads. This time, however, instead of a smug Mac that we can read against the grain, we get a strangely eroticised variation on the stock denigration of cute Nintendos as being the antithesis of masculinity: the Wii-bimbo, as opposed to the usual, asexually feminised Wii-baby. I used to work on the Xbox advertising account for Microsoft, and we were explicitly told by the overlords in Seattle to create an animated trailer in which the macho Xbox robot crushes the flower-picking princess and her Mario-alike friends. “Pansies,” he says. (The irony was that everyone who worked on that trailer actually preferred Nintendo’s aesthetics.)

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