Artemis’s answer to “Are there really misogynistic elements in this book?” > Likes and Comments
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ugh, that's so saddening considering how crazy popular it is. books that are even mildly problematic lose my interest which sucks because i really wanted to read Ready Player One before the film came out and also, being someone not even remotely interested in video games, i thought it would be fun and educational in a sense. i might still read it because of my personal obsession with reading 'the book' always before 'the movie' but for the most part i'm gonna hope spielberg corrects the 'obnoxious, gratifying sexism' AND get everything else right, too. thank you!
If you say there is only one female in the book, obviously you did not read it. P did not stalk A. He stopped contacting her when he asked him to.
Umm, excuse me? Art3mis has no personality or goals? So, (view spoiler)
Don't even get me started on this supposed sexism.(view spoiler)
No. RPO is not sexist or misogyinst.
@ Beth: For the vast majority of the book, Art3mis is the only character you know is female. Once Aech is revealed to be female, she never has another speaking role or any screen time again. Effectively, there only is one female character.
And Parzival did not stop contacting her when she asked him to. He sent her incessant emails until she blocked him and started avoiding him. I have to say, it sounds like you're the one who didn't read it.
@ A_Random_Book_Reader: once her backstory is explained, the only things Art3mis does are in response to Wade. She likes all the things he likes, and only the things he likes. She knows all the things he knows, but a little bit worse than him (she found the first gate first, yeah, but she failed to beat it over and over until Our Hero beat it on his first try, and only then was she "allowed" by the narrative to succeed). She has no unique opinions, and she never materially disagrees with Wade in any way, except for the one token "You want to be selfish, I'm going to teach you to not be selfish" conversation.
Besides that one conversation, does she ever ACT like she wants to "make the world a better place"? Does that have any effect on her choices or actions, ever? No, only her crush on/avoidance of Wade ever has any real effect on the actions she takes in the story.
Aech, who you're led to believe is a white boy all book, only gets revealed very late to be a black lesbian. This is never examined, never put any thought into, and then, as I said before, the moment Wade is done patting himself on the back for being So Accepting And Progressive, Aech disappears from the story, having no screen time or speaking lines, and her avatar is still referred to as "he".
Trust me. I've thought about and discussed this a /lot/.
You can disagree with me about the quality. You can like the book. I don't care. But you can't say that if I think the book is sexist that means I didn't read or understand it.
Yes, RPO is incessantly sexist.
So you willfully ignored that (view spoiler) huh?
And this is first person perspective book. Wade is an anti-social recluse. He barely interacts with anyone. Hell, we barely know anything about himself other than that his parents are dead, lives with his aunt, wants to find the egg.
You can't say that it's sexist because Art3mis and Aech weren't explored much, when NOBODY was explored much, including our protagonist.
Nobody was explored much. The characters were all flat. That was part of why I think the whole book was bad. And this was an extremely obvious and extremely male wish fulfilment fantasy that involved Winning The Girl, Who Dislikes You But If You Just Harass Her Enough She'll Realize She Loves You, Actually!
And I didn't respond to the thing about the second key because it's irrelevant to the point I'm trying to make. She's the perfect, flawless love interest who's good, but not as good as our much less experienced and much less interesting hero - a pervasive trope whose pervasiveness is part of a sexist pattern. She's the typical manic pixie dream girl, with no personality except that which agrees with and benefits the male hero who likes her. She's Really Really Good... except when it matters. And she has no unique personality, perspectives, or opinions to make that more palatable, and no critical examination of this common problem of putting women on a pedestal and not considering that they too have thoughts and feelings of their own. That's why she falls into a sexist pattern.
There are plenty of first-person-perspective books - with male viewpoint characters, even! - that give supporting characters depth, persolaity, agency, goals, hopes, fears, dreams, tics, pasts, that actually affect who they are as people and how they act. The Farseer books. Animorphs. Percy Jackson. Not to mention female-led books like the Hunger Games, or classics like The Great Gatsby. RPO doesn't even try. And it's the male characters - Wade, Halliday, and Sorrento primarily - whose thoughts, feelings, desires, and personalities actually matter. It's the disparity that's the problem.
The second key thing is irrelevant to the issue at hand? Are you kidding me right now? Art3mis is in no way lesser than Wade. Stop spreading misinformation. It was because of her that Wade was able to clear the third gate. If she didn't know the things she knew that Wade didn't have the slightest idea about. Oh yeah, sure sign of her being not as good as Wade.
Yes, the characters are bland, ALL OF THEM. That makes it not that great of a book. IT DOESN'T MAKE IT SEXIST.
"Stop spreading misinformation" lol did you even... read what I wrote... something can be bad and sexist, you know. They're not mutually exclusive. In fact, they overlap pretty often.
I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying. We get told that Art3mis is as competent as Wade at some things... but 1) not the things that really matter (beating the first key, a crucial scene; despite being an elite gunter, she's inexplicably worse at Joust until Wade shows up and beats it on the first try. Figuring out IOI's plans. Doing literally anything besides geeking out about the things Wade likes) and 2) not the things that are gien heavy plot weight (she has a popular blog!... which never gets brought up again. She wants to make the world better!... it's never brought up again and influences her thoughts/opinions/actions not at all. She finds the second key!... it's given, like, two sentences). Meanwhile, the important events that are actually given narrative weight and importance are done by the boys. Wade's feelings and opinions are gone into in depth. Halliday's, more than in depth. Ogg has things he wants and works to get them. So does Serrano. Art3mis helps Wade, supports Wade, spurs Wade to action, rejects Wade, ignores Wade, Wade Wade Wade, everything she does revolves around Wade and he gets incredibly pouty when she ignores him and it's implied (but never shown! because who cares, right) what she's doing or thinking or feeling without him. It's just one facet of a pervasive problem, and yes, it's sexist.
Something can be bad and still not be sexist. Which I don't think this book is, I just don't think it's that great.
Why do you still treat like the finding the second key doesn't matter? Her blog and making the world a better place never gets brought up again? Plain false.
How the hell are we supposed to know what Art3mis is doing when she's not with Wade? It's first person perspective.
Your rest of the comment feels like "boo-hoo the protagonist for doing protagonist-like things!"
I'm done here. For anyone who's reading this, Artemis is twisting facts and straight up spreading misinformation at times.
For the last time, RPO might not be that great of a book,
butit is not sexist or misogynist.
Pfffff. Nobody's reading this except you, dude. Every fact I've pulled from the book is true, and having a different opinion and a different interpretation of those facts than yours isn't misinformation, you know. It's literary criticism. It's a thing.
I agree that we're done here, though, because you refuse to actually read and understand what I'm saying, or engage with what my actual problem with the book is.
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shrish
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Sep 04, 2017 08:18AM
ugh, that's so saddening considering how crazy popular it is. books that are even mildly problematic lose my interest which sucks because i really wanted to read Ready Player One before the film came out and also, being someone not even remotely interested in video games, i thought it would be fun and educational in a sense. i might still read it because of my personal obsession with reading 'the book' always before 'the movie' but for the most part i'm gonna hope spielberg corrects the 'obnoxious, gratifying sexism' AND get everything else right, too. thank you!
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If you say there is only one female in the book, obviously you did not read it. P did not stalk A. He stopped contacting her when he asked him to.
Umm, excuse me? Art3mis has no personality or goals? So, (view spoiler)Don't even get me started on this supposed sexism.(view spoiler)
No. RPO is not sexist or misogyinst.
@ Beth: For the vast majority of the book, Art3mis is the only character you know is female. Once Aech is revealed to be female, she never has another speaking role or any screen time again. Effectively, there only is one female character.And Parzival did not stop contacting her when she asked him to. He sent her incessant emails until she blocked him and started avoiding him. I have to say, it sounds like you're the one who didn't read it.
@ A_Random_Book_Reader: once her backstory is explained, the only things Art3mis does are in response to Wade. She likes all the things he likes, and only the things he likes. She knows all the things he knows, but a little bit worse than him (she found the first gate first, yeah, but she failed to beat it over and over until Our Hero beat it on his first try, and only then was she "allowed" by the narrative to succeed). She has no unique opinions, and she never materially disagrees with Wade in any way, except for the one token "You want to be selfish, I'm going to teach you to not be selfish" conversation.
Besides that one conversation, does she ever ACT like she wants to "make the world a better place"? Does that have any effect on her choices or actions, ever? No, only her crush on/avoidance of Wade ever has any real effect on the actions she takes in the story.
Aech, who you're led to believe is a white boy all book, only gets revealed very late to be a black lesbian. This is never examined, never put any thought into, and then, as I said before, the moment Wade is done patting himself on the back for being So Accepting And Progressive, Aech disappears from the story, having no screen time or speaking lines, and her avatar is still referred to as "he".
Trust me. I've thought about and discussed this a /lot/.
You can disagree with me about the quality. You can like the book. I don't care. But you can't say that if I think the book is sexist that means I didn't read or understand it.
Yes, RPO is incessantly sexist.
So you willfully ignored that (view spoiler) huh?And this is first person perspective book. Wade is an anti-social recluse. He barely interacts with anyone. Hell, we barely know anything about himself other than that his parents are dead, lives with his aunt, wants to find the egg.
You can't say that it's sexist because Art3mis and Aech weren't explored much, when NOBODY was explored much, including our protagonist.
Nobody was explored much. The characters were all flat. That was part of why I think the whole book was bad. And this was an extremely obvious and extremely male wish fulfilment fantasy that involved Winning The Girl, Who Dislikes You But If You Just Harass Her Enough She'll Realize She Loves You, Actually!And I didn't respond to the thing about the second key because it's irrelevant to the point I'm trying to make. She's the perfect, flawless love interest who's good, but not as good as our much less experienced and much less interesting hero - a pervasive trope whose pervasiveness is part of a sexist pattern. She's the typical manic pixie dream girl, with no personality except that which agrees with and benefits the male hero who likes her. She's Really Really Good... except when it matters. And she has no unique personality, perspectives, or opinions to make that more palatable, and no critical examination of this common problem of putting women on a pedestal and not considering that they too have thoughts and feelings of their own. That's why she falls into a sexist pattern.
There are plenty of first-person-perspective books - with male viewpoint characters, even! - that give supporting characters depth, persolaity, agency, goals, hopes, fears, dreams, tics, pasts, that actually affect who they are as people and how they act. The Farseer books. Animorphs. Percy Jackson. Not to mention female-led books like the Hunger Games, or classics like The Great Gatsby. RPO doesn't even try. And it's the male characters - Wade, Halliday, and Sorrento primarily - whose thoughts, feelings, desires, and personalities actually matter. It's the disparity that's the problem.
The second key thing is irrelevant to the issue at hand? Are you kidding me right now? Art3mis is in no way lesser than Wade. Stop spreading misinformation. It was because of her that Wade was able to clear the third gate. If she didn't know the things she knew that Wade didn't have the slightest idea about. Oh yeah, sure sign of her being not as good as Wade.Yes, the characters are bland, ALL OF THEM. That makes it not that great of a book. IT DOESN'T MAKE IT SEXIST.
"Stop spreading misinformation" lol did you even... read what I wrote... something can be bad and sexist, you know. They're not mutually exclusive. In fact, they overlap pretty often.I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying. We get told that Art3mis is as competent as Wade at some things... but 1) not the things that really matter (beating the first key, a crucial scene; despite being an elite gunter, she's inexplicably worse at Joust until Wade shows up and beats it on the first try. Figuring out IOI's plans. Doing literally anything besides geeking out about the things Wade likes) and 2) not the things that are gien heavy plot weight (she has a popular blog!... which never gets brought up again. She wants to make the world better!... it's never brought up again and influences her thoughts/opinions/actions not at all. She finds the second key!... it's given, like, two sentences). Meanwhile, the important events that are actually given narrative weight and importance are done by the boys. Wade's feelings and opinions are gone into in depth. Halliday's, more than in depth. Ogg has things he wants and works to get them. So does Serrano. Art3mis helps Wade, supports Wade, spurs Wade to action, rejects Wade, ignores Wade, Wade Wade Wade, everything she does revolves around Wade and he gets incredibly pouty when she ignores him and it's implied (but never shown! because who cares, right) what she's doing or thinking or feeling without him. It's just one facet of a pervasive problem, and yes, it's sexist.
Something can be bad and still not be sexist. Which I don't think this book is, I just don't think it's that great.Why do you still treat like the finding the second key doesn't matter? Her blog and making the world a better place never gets brought up again? Plain false.
How the hell are we supposed to know what Art3mis is doing when she's not with Wade? It's first person perspective.
Your rest of the comment feels like "boo-hoo the protagonist for doing protagonist-like things!"
I'm done here. For anyone who's reading this, Artemis is twisting facts and straight up spreading misinformation at times.
For the last time, RPO might not be that great of a book,
butit is not sexist or misogynist.
Pfffff. Nobody's reading this except you, dude. Every fact I've pulled from the book is true, and having a different opinion and a different interpretation of those facts than yours isn't misinformation, you know. It's literary criticism. It's a thing.I agree that we're done here, though, because you refuse to actually read and understand what I'm saying, or engage with what my actual problem with the book is.
