silence

why do people think using silence as a weapon is fair? but it is just cowardice, it is a move of a coward who fails to value things that are true and worth. letting oneself be steered by the past, it is just a recipe for pain.

Playing with the Boys, Women Professional Video gamers

Of the many advances technology has offered people, some of the most important where in the area of entertainment. Thirty years ago my father played a videogame called Asteroid; it was an 8 color monstrosity where abstract geometrical squares attempted to resemble recognizable shapes. Today I can play games like Call of Duty: Ghosts where the line between what the game renders and reality is slowly blurring. With the advances in technology, videogame players also got one important thing, accessibility. Buying videogame consoles is no longer extremely expensive, and the proliferation of PC games also makes it easy for anyone to have access to games. With people playing more video games than in ever came the next step, online gaming. By the year 2000, what had started as small tournaments with arcade machines became international leagues with hundred thousand or even million dollar prizes. Traditionally dominated by men, many women have slowly found their way to the top of this profession. But one particular case interested me, the case of Sasha Hostyn. Scarlett, her online persona, is an accomplished gamer who has won many different World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2 tournaments. But the Canadian teen is also openly transgendered. Disregarding any question about choice in the matter, what this essay aims to do is offer an insight into the difficulties not only women encounter in a male dominated landscape, but also Sasha’s own journey to the top of the pro charts.

According to Owen Good of Kotaku, the history of professional video gamers started with the game Spacewar at Stanford University on the 19th of October, 1972. That day students competed for the grand prize of a one year subscription to Rolling Stone magazine. The availability of the internet by the 1990’s gave the game Netrek the chance to be the first online PC game to offer users the chance to play with up to 15 other players. The 2000´s brought some of the biggest tournaments including the World Cyber Games, Intel Extreme Masters, and Major League Gaming. There have been some important clans or groups of video gamers exclusively open to women. One of the groups is team PMS, which is open to any woman regardless of her video game playing chops. An interesting aspect encountered during research was that some women admitted to being acquainted to video games by their husbands or boyfriends, and that the creation of the group was a response to the male aggression they encountered as they honed their skills. They have strict rules regarding sexuality, their aim being not to denigrate the image of women gamers, but to offer the chance to be a part of a community. This social aspect of gaming is not only important to women, as many men find it much easier to socialize in this virtual world.

Now an important sector of video game players comes not from North America, but from Asia. Specifically South Korea, this country has dominated the professional gamer leagues for years. It was also the first country to have a 24 hour a day channel dedicated exclusively to video games. Most male American gamers have been unable to unseat the Asian contingent, so it is incrediblely interesting that the latest and most notorious challenger to Asian dominance is a teenage girl from Canada. She also happens to be openly transgendered. The idea Sasha being the “foreign hope” of online gaming carries a dual connotation for some observers, who unduly put a strong emphasis on her gender. But getting to this point for her was not an easy road, she had to face many difficulties, including cries from other female gamers after Sasha won the Ironlady tournaments in 2011 and 2012. Many forums started to refer to her in derogatory terms, questioning the validity of her titles and of her person. The sad part of this controversy is that no only men questioned her, but she also found that some women were strongly against her. The wars of words generated by people’s insensitivity sparked outrage. In her words after the controversy arose, “It is true I am [male-to-female] transgender, and I kinda expected this reaction. I have never tried to bring attention to myself for anything other than my play, so I don't feel like this should be a big deal,” Scarlett wrote. “Most of the girls I know knew about this already and don’t judge or care. In terms of actual play, there is (as far as I know) no advantage to being born male or female. But even if there was, being transgender means you are born with the brain of the opposite gender; so I would not have that advantage or disadvantage. All I ask is for people to be respectful and refer to me as ‘she.’” With her statement Scarlett, that is her video game screen name, shows one of the most important things to consider when facing the new reality of gender politics. One example that shows the difficulty of people dealing with these new politics is reflected in the following quote, “I accept her choice,” writes Wowcookiez. “I think it’s great as well as the way she plays. You know what, to hell with it. I’ll let the fanboys find out when they hug her/him.” While the chatter has enough sensitivity, the closing statement still reeks of lack of acceptance.  While the debate about nature versus choice has no place in this essay, it does necessarily have to refer to the reality that acceptance starts by heeding this young lady’s words. And while Scarlett faces not only the difficulties women have to face, but also the reality that her gender nature is not readily accepted, that has not stopped her from accruing over $35,000 dollars in winnings in the year 2013.

While the situation of women on the other side of the track, particularly in video game development, continues to be difficult because the video game industry still being considered a male driven business, about only 40% of American women admit to playing video games. Many women who work in the industry speak of the difficulty of working in what is essentially a “boy’s locker room”. The statistics are clear, only about 11% of game designers and just 3% of programmers are women, and most make on average about $10,000 a year less than male counterparts. Video game characters continue to over sexualize and objectify women showing the regard most males in the industry show for the gender. One encouraging note about the industry can be found in the rallying of women for game jobs, with websites dedicated to encouraging women into the profession and also offering help by creating networks of support from important female figures in the industry.  

So in conclusion, one important aspect this essay attempts to impress upon readers is that while there will always be a discussion about transgender people, if it is about nature or nurture or just choice, people must come to accept the ever changing politics of gender. As women fought for and continue to fight for equality, transgendered also fight for not only tolerance but understanding and acceptance. While it is well known that Sasha is transgender in the video game world, it has not made her any less of a victim of personal attacks to her gender. But it has also shown a different side, with many people accepting and strongly supporting her through her professional gamer exploits and her life decisions. And it should be said decision, because it disregards the idea of nature versus nurture, it just recognizes freedom to pursue what is best for that person.

Work Cited

Ryan, Smith. How a transgender “foreign hope” is challenging the pro StarCraft world. A.V.

Club, 5 Feb. 2014. Web. May 2014.

Boone, Jeb. Starcraft 2: Transgender Gamer Quietly Wins, in More Ways than One. GlobalPost.

Global Post, 16 July 2012. Web. May 2014.

Campbell, Gerard. Girls Play Games, Too, Explains Pro Gamer 'Jinx'. The Sydney Morning

Herald. The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 Sept. 2009. Web. May 2014.

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(2011): 247-65. Print.

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Globe, 27 Jan. 2013. Web. 1 May 2014.

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Perception-Based Explanation. Media Psychology 15.1 (2012): 44-67. Communication

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Wonderfalls, the quirky subversion of archetypes

A television show is a fragile object dependent not entirely on its own legs to stand, but on the fickle nature of an anonymous audience. It can lure in audiences in with flashy production values, an exciting cast, or simply with engrossing storylines; yet in the same vein it can also alienate said group and simply be categorized as being weird. There are many critically acclaimed series that were cancelled for failing to find their niche audience. Some of these series got a reprieve in the form of un-cancelation and delivered on their target viewers’ hopes. Most just never see the light of a second season or even a complete showing of all its episodes.  The show Wonderfalls is one of the latter odd objects. It was applauded by connoisseurs, beloved by its fans but just plainly too strange to connect with mainstream viewers. This show was extremely innovative in the way it subverted many television tropes and archetypes challenging audiences and dazzling critics; it ultimately failed to connect with audiences for reasons outside of its creators reach like constant time slot changes and competition from other networks.

Wonderfalls was produced by the team of Brian Fuller and Tom Holland. It was originally scheduled to premiere in the fall of 2003 on FOX. But due to the debut of a similarly themed program called Joan of Arcadia at the same time it was moved to March 2004. The show is about a young woman called Jaye Tyler, played by Canadian actress Caroline Dhavernas, who is a recent Ivy League graduate with no real life goals and a generally nonchalant attitude towards the world who starts to suffer what she believes are hallucinations that force to get involved in other peoples’ lives (Rubinoff). Jaye is a twenty something underachiever who has the unfortunate luck of belonging to a family of overachievers with a successful pair of parents and siblings; she is a sarcastic, antiauthoritarian, sneering slacker who seems content with a menial retail job and hanging out with her best friend at a Niagara Falls, NY dive (Heldenfels). These hallucinations come in the form of animated wax lions, toy monkeys, teddy bears, and other inanimate objects which all deliver cryptic messages instructing her to intervene in random events in the lives of people around her. The supporting cast also deserves mention, delivering strong performances. It includes actors and actresses such as: Kattie Finnernan, William Sadler, Lee Pace, Tracie Thoms, Tyron Leitso, and Diana Scarwind. Some of these performers like Finnernan, Pace, and Dhavernas herself appear in more than one of Holland or Fuller’s other projects. The era of the auteur in television started a third golden age, where the word show runner became shorthand for god on the small screen effectively diminishing the contribution of the scores of people working behind the scenes to build a functioning product (Fehrman). It is important to note that since most of a lot of the same teams wind up working together in other shows, the creator or creators will always be identified with a particular visual look. And this is not only about the technical staff, but also performers who constantly choose to work with certain creators or directors. So while the show presents an aesthetical and structural style that repeats itself in other works of the creator and director, in this case the auteurs, these are not the only ones with creative input. Just the better known to the general public and therefore more easily identifiable with the finished product. With this small introduction to the more general aspects of the show, its cast, and technical team; next is a more in depth analysis of the tropes, vision, and structure mentioned earlier.

These days audiences are much savvier when it comes to clichés and archetypes that constantly surface on television. What the shows creative driving force did was take a series of archetypes and truisms, subverted them with irony and a distinctive visual style, to create a unique product. The programs main creative input came from Fuller’s production and Holland’s writing and directing. It injected into the show variations of the common themes such as the genius kid on a fast track to nowhere like on Malcolm in the Middle, previously directed by Holland, and the slacker twenty something with a weariness beyond her years as in Dead like Me created by Fuller around the same time; this particular quirkiness and subversion would later also resurface in Pushing Daisies and Hannibal both created by Brian Fuller (Heldenfels). The blend introduced to viewers a revision of the Joan of Arc archetype which is central to the whole premise of Wonderfalls. The archetype refers to the French heroic figure who was besieged by visions and voices in the form of the Archangel Michael, Saint Margaret and Saint Catherine that convinced her of her destiny. That destiny was to lead the armies of France during the Hundred Year War with England and to return the throne to the rightful ruler Charles VII. After a series of impressive victories, she was captured by the English, put on trial, and burned at the stake accused of being a witch. So in essence we have a young woman, a mystical element with a prophetic quality to it, triumphs due to following these instructions, and eventual defeat. The character of Jaye serves as an effective Joan proxy and yet the series plays with the archetype by introducing a number of tropes to subvert it and make it identifiable for Generation Y. This change in the archetype makes her character identifiable by giving it some of the same social and economic issues that people born between the years 1980 to 1990, a general disconnection from their parents’ generation and a difficulty climbing in the work place or lacking of general direction in life.  So by extracting certain essential characteristics of the Joan archetype like a young female, in this case Jaye, who is in contact with a greater power she does not completely understand which communicates with her in the form of voices only she hears, she is persecuted for heading these edicts, but eventually finds redemption in following these visions; the creative team fashions a world of magical realism where the lead character is forced to grow up (Rubinoff).

Wonderfalls also borrows from Jungian faerie archetypes, where a female derives her power from denying herself to the lust of men (Hernandez). Jaye offers a updating of this by refusing to get into romantic relationships with men thereby holding on to her independence, which is gender role inversion because usually men are the ones who fear commitment and women actively seek it. The archetypes of the Father and the Mother following this gender role analysis are switched around completely, so while Jaye’s father is nurturing and soothing, her mother on the other hand is controlling and stern with daughters (Jung). This actually updates the program with the premise of a world where old notions of gender status quo and traditional roles is ever changing, which itself offers an answer to Jaye’s uncertainty about forming romantic relationships. This gender role reversal also affects her brother and sister, the former is a scholar slow to act and prone to overanalyzing situations, yet the latter is temperamental and quick to act out of anger or as a show of strength each showing more characteristics of what is considered common for their opposite gender. These subversion can seem to just be skin deep, but by adding themes such as just wanting to be normal, the black sheep of the family, being a cosmic plaything, sisters’ rivalry, and prophecy twists; but Fuller and Holland create a nuanced object which can be digested superficially yet layered enough that critics can delve into it further. While Joan of Arc is an archetype of virtue which would be extremely difficult for audiences to truly empathize with, all of these tropes turn Jaye into a relatable imperfect vessel for young adults. Her visions affect her intransigent behavior forcing her into action and every episode reflects her desire to return to normalcy or in her case a life of drifting aimlessly. In that way she considers herself a plaything for a greater cosmic power powerless to its whims, even going as far as saying, "I'm fate's bitch" (“Caged Bird”). She is the youngest of her siblings, and with a pair of successful progenitors. Despite having all of the advantages of this upbringing including access to Ivy League education, Jaye just cruises through life unwilling to compete with her more successful older brother and sister. This strained relationship with her family is especially noteworthy when observed through her interaction with her older sister, a successful attorney who also happens to be a lesbian. This affects both daughters’ relationship with their mother, who views both daughters as disappointments each in their own way; it is a reflection of the matriarch’s role as a Father archetype rather than a Mother. So by changing an established archetype and combining it with many common tropes or themes, the series challenges stereotypical gender roles reflecting the ever shifting reality of these roles in the real world and its effects on a generation.

This subduing and subsequent subversion of the archetype could have resulted in a convoluted show, but by using a conventional three act model most modern serials work with, it remained legible to viewers and critics alike without affecting its particular quirkiness. Starting with an expository first act, followed by a second act twist to leverage the audience’s involvement and increase the stakes, to finally a resolution third act that served to tie up most loose ends (Lavandier). Typically an episode is structured in three acts to facilitate viewing and to offer a compelling pace. The first act has Jaye shown in her usual abject dejection of the world only to be confronted with difficult people. The act ends by the first commercial break with the intervention of some fateful words Jaye heard from a trinket and her look of confusion as to what to do. The second act opens with her deliberating if she should act upon these words, only to be accosted by other objects if she fails to do so. Once she has acted upon the prophetic words, the twist comes into play. That means that at first her actions just seem to cause more problems than they solve. This signals the end of the second act as Jaye reflects upon the futility of following or ignoring these words. This is one aspect where the dark humor of the shows creative duo’s previous work in other shows can be seen in full, with the prophecy twists. As the protagonist battles trying to avoid fulfilling the prophecies she hears from everyday curious items, she ends up forced to heed their words to avoid insanity. By following their instructions Jaye burrows deeper into the world of other people, by doing things that seem to hurt people on the surface, end up being good for her and those affected. This forces Jaye to interact with the world she desperately tries to shut out, helping her and the other person.  That resolution in third act was generally a satisfactory ending but delivered in a convoluted way, if not for those affected by Jaye’s actions for her own view on the world around her. Sometimes these solutions would end up affecting other peoples’ view in the same positive way, strengthening their relationships with others or with Jaye. All of this made Wonderfalls a darling for critics and a niche fan favorite, yet it failed to deliver on a tangible but very important area for networks, the Nielsen ratings.

Even with the accolades of the medium’s critics, the show failed to garner enough support for a second season. In fact it had a rather ignominious exit, being consistently moved around FOX’s schedule, and not even being aired in its entirety. There were many reasons why the series failed to connect with audiences. It started with competition from Joan of Arcadia, a show with a similar idea but a completely different execution. The problem was compounded by constant time slot changes decided by the network heads without ever really trying to keep the audience informed of said changes. And as posited previously, it was weird enough that it failed to find more than that niche audience that would have kept it going or at the least give it a chance for a second season (Elber). Being weird or having a relatively small niche audience in itself is not a death knell for a program, with a few receiving the call of un-cancelation.  Two great examples of this are Family Guy a show that was not only canceled once, but twice, and revived only after the staggering number that DVD sales of the first two seasons produced (McKinley). Another is Arrested Development which failed to connect with viewers despite experts’ praises and Emmy awards, only to be revived years later thanks again to booming DVD sales and an agreement with Netflix (Itzkoff). While the first case reflects upon weird shows, the latter demonstrates that quirky can be critically acclaimed and the importance of timing. Timing referring to the aid of the nascent online original programming wave started by Netflix and Hulu. But ultimately acclaim does not count when Nielsen numbers do not reflect what a network hopes to lure with its offering. Sadly for the fans, Wonderfalls did not fall into this category of the un-canceled. While it has a faithful following, its creators have long ago moved on to different endeavors while fortunately for fans, not losing their particular artistic vision.

            In conclusion, with a unique visual style and an aggressive, almost deconstructive subversion of familiar archetypes, like Joan of Arc; interchanging of gender roles; the complications of familial relationships; and a theatrical structure that enables strong tension while allowing for this tension to be both comedic and dramatic for maximum effect; Wonderfalls delivered a unique vision of a generation. With a strong central characters portrayed by talented actors and a behind the cameras team with a proven vision, the series had all the elements needed to succeed. Unfortunately, the issue of timing, a competing program with the same premise, and bad executive decision by the network are what finally doomed Wonderfalls to the category of the untimely cancelled critic darling.

Work Cited

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