Yes. Even facial symmetry, the last bastion, has been toppled in recent memory (see: emo side fringe).

You do acknowledge evolution, though, right? <.<

People often say this. But who do you think they are pandering too?

The vast majority of people who play video games hate "modern feminism" (see above 27 pages). Do you really think RPS are pandering to the minority of people who don't have a problem with feminism at the cost of disenfranchising the majority of their readers?

I don't know what you're referring to when you say "modern feminism" but I can assure you that many actual feminists (who are more believable than what RPS and Sarkeesian do) are themselves offended by their stance, particularly the sex-positive feminists. Are they not included in your definition of "modern feminism"?

Relevant: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/5950-Tropes-vs-MovieBob

Were the book covers below designed to appeal to male power fantasies?

No, it's an archetype. If you look around, a lot of the characters that get fawned over by women are actually kind of feminine -- just look at all the Japanese characters that are specifically designed to be attractive to women or the vampire guy from Twilight, for example.

Sure, a lot of them are. But a lot of them look like the ones I posted, too.

Do you think the ones I posted were designed to get men to read these romance novels? Or were they, in fact, designed with women in mind?

To say that the muscle-bound hunk type in video games is designed to appeal to men is both common sense (in that men have been the dominant demographic for this type of media, so of course they are appealed to), and also terribly misleading... because of freaking course women eat that right up. Most men are designed to look sexy, because men want to be that and women like to see that. Most women are designed to look sexy because women want to be that and men like to see that.

I think it's funny, this idea that men aren't being judged on their attractiveness all the time but women are. Look at TV shows. Attractive men are the norm, not the exception. I was just over on the "Psych" board on IMDB where people were bitching about James Roday having gained a few pounds. He was far from a sex symbol to begin with, but the fact that he put on a few pounds is apparently a ****ing travesty for some people.

Evolution? Part of the patriarchy!

His point is that it is not as big of an issue for men in real life. That these kinds of portrayals are not as harmful for men, because people don't expect men to conform to these ideals in real life nearly as much.

Yeah, because women are binary and they never ever like strong, savageous muscular men.

I don't know who is more sexist sometimes - women haters or feminists.

There are women who like more feminine men, there are women who like Vin Diesel too. But yeah, I guess Thor's overmuscular physique was designed especially for men, not women. Quoting one of the members of this forum: Thanks, Joss, I really wanted to see that big shirtless chest, you did it for me!

And also saying that Kratos-like men are anywhere near some imaginary "universal" male power fantasy is bullshit. I'll post that again, because I love that scene. This is my power fantasy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDzIS26aDK8

Somehow, men like that are almost universally portrayed as villains. I guess I need to burn down some cars and make few transprents, because my preference is underrepresented.

(Remember kids, generalization never works)

This is exactly the point that the video makes -- there are women who like these men. However, it's followed up with why it is irrelevant -- that the characters under discussion were not designed for women.

Yeah, definitely. This is why Loki vs. Thor looks debates never come up among ladies, but only among men. Oh, wait.

No. Marve's comics movies female audience is growing with every movie exactly because the creators decided to make them more appealing for this fanbase. Men like Thor because "he gets the chick and is powerful as hell" while women like Thor because he's "strong, good looking, reliable, funny and intelligent".

Win-win. Because again, people are not binary, and you can design a character so it has qualities that will be liked by both genders. Loki is another example, his design is solely made to pander to women who don't like overmuscular guys, but want rather smug looking fellas. Tony Stark, aka Iron man is another character loved by both sexes and saying he is designed solely to pander to one of them is a biased point of view, highly likely not based on reality at all.

Saying that actor portraying Thor is so popular among women lately only because of a byproduct of male power fantasy is bullshit. Simple as that.

He wasn't talking about Loki or Thor, though. Are you seriously going to argue that Marcus Fenix is designed to appeal to women?

No. I am saying that you can't make a line between overely muscular man = targeted at male audience.

Also, Gears of War isn't that good of example, you know, because it has everything feminists are fighting for - badass women who wear the same gear as men.