„Ist es die Mutter oder das Bemuttern, das ausschlaggebend ist?“

Selbermach Mittwoch 54 (30.03.2016)

Auch in den Osterferien gibt es bestimmt Neuigkeiten!

Was Frauen antörnt XX

In Japan gibt es bereits seit längerem Spiele, in denen Frauen einen „virtuellen Liebhaber“ haben. Interessant ist, welche Figuren am Besten bei den Frauen ankommen:

When I asked Gray which character types tend to perform best, she told me that the „sadistic but charismatic“ archetype is beloved in both Japan and the US. She pointed to Eisuke Ichinomiya, which she says is the most popular character in Kissed by the Baddest Bidder, Voltage’s top-grossing game in the US. In most dating sims, the player chooses which story they’d like to play by perusing a character menu rife with alluring boyfriend options; in Voltage games, each character has his own profile page featuring a brief personality synopsis and occasionally a quote describing his hypothetical relationship with the player. On Eisuke’s character profile, he is billed in glittering pink and purple script as a „cold-hearted narcissist.“ His quote is „I’m going to make you mine. And you don’t get to say no.“

Der Bildschirm, über den man ihn auswählen kann ist dort ebenfalls als Bild enthalten, es sieht so aus:

Was haben wir da:

• Aussehen: Attraktiv
• Mulitmillionäre: Ressourcen
• Denkt die Welt dreht sich nur um ihn: Status
• Immer von Frauen umgeben: Preapproved by women
• „Ich mache dich mein“: Er interessiert sich für dich
• „und dein Nein interessiert mich nicht“: Anführer, Dominant

Also klassische Elemente, die sich in sehr vielen Darstellungen von Männern finden, die Frauen attraktiv finden.

Of course, this isn’t unique to Voltage, nor is it even confined to dating simulation games. As anyone who lived through the year 2005 can attest, „I’m going to make youmine. And you don’t get to say no“ is basically the central narrative of Twilight, an omnipresent cultural phenomenon that went onto influence the Fifty Shades of Grey series, an equally omnipresent cultural phenomenon with the exact same plot. „In real life, most women tend to avoid choosing [this type of person] as a boyfriend or husband,“ Gray said. In romance apps, however, women can’t get enough of it. „Usually [this character is] sadistic and mean to you, but sometimes, when you and him are alone, he becomes so sweet and very kind to you,“ Gray explained.

Like Voltage’s millions of other customers worldwide, I quickly came to find the virtual experience of blandly flirting with a variety of assorted hunks, all of whom are inexplicably obsessed with me, very absorbing.

(…)

The allure of the unkind man in fiction is well-documented; in Reading the Romance, Janice Radway’s landmark 1984 study of the way women interact with romance novels, Radway details her interviews with numerous fans of the genre. Reviewing the plots of books that were designated as „ideal,“ she notices a striking similarity in their narrative structures: These romances tend to be „very tightly organized around the evolving relationship“ between the female protagonist and a „brooding, handsome man who is also curiously capable of soft, gentle gestures.“

The climax of these narratives necessarily involves a moment in which „the hero treats the heroine to some supreme act of tenderness, and she realizes that his apparent emotional indifference was only the mark of his hesitancy about revealing the extent of his love for and dependence upon her.“ This is also true of otome games—even the gentle male characters tend to have some sort of „hidden darkness,“ often in the form of an evil alter ego, to facilitate this moment of shocking tenderness. (Mine and Scorpio’s tender climax occurs after a run-in with a small militia composed of child soldiers—an unfortunately recurring theme in Scorpio’s life—at which point he starts calling me by my actual name and we confess our love for each other.

(…)

Here it is instructive to mention Scorpio, my favorite fake boyfriend. Per his character description, he is „A God of Unparalleled Callousness.“ His quote is, „I live for terror, dread, and hate…“ (Ellipses, again, his.) Scorpio is a star god who was banished to earth after committing a grave sin; we first meet when I fall off the roof of a planetarium and he very begrudgingly rescues me. I later learn that, before ascending to the heavens, he was a child soldier who was brainwashed by a nefarious terrorist, which explains why he is so moody now. He exclusively refers to me as „woman“ and „stupid woman.“

Also eine klassische Figur, das Arschloch/der Bad Boy mit dem Herz aus Gold. Der Mann, bei dem man die weiche Seele unter der harten Schale entdecken muss. Attraction und Comfort. Hoher Status, eine gewisse Unnahbarkeit, er muss erobert werden.

 

(zu Vorgängern der Serie)