| Title | Why the sequel to Hotline Miami should include a rape scene |
| Author | Tom Chick |
| Posted in | Features |
| When | September 5, 2013 |
Hotline Miami 2 used to contain a rape scene. Well, a "rape" scene. As with many things Hotline Miami, you can't take it at face value. But now it doesn't have that scene..
Read the full articleAll good points. And yet there have been several articles over the last two days about a related issue and PAX that make some good opposing points. The two issues are not identical, and yet not entirely dissimilar either. I guess if the world were only black and white, and I had to choose either defending rape scenes/jokes in the name of art/freedom, or rallying against them in the name of sensitivity/caution, I know which side I would choose. That we can appreciate both sides of the argument is fortunate, but the timing of this article in relation to those others is unfortunate and hopefully coincidental.
I understand your desire for creative freedom in games as much as movies, Tom, but there's as much reason to think that the rape scene would have been the one from Wings of Honneamise -- sudden, incongruous, and unwelcome -- as the one from Virgin Spring. We don't know, but the fact that Dennaton was willing to reconsider after one journalist voiced her concerns makes me feel like I might anyway.
And I'm not sure being able to name ten female characters (one from an unreleased game, one of them mute, and one a computer program) out of hundreds of games over the past few years means that the scales are tipping on that issue. Maybe you're seeing something I'm not, of course. I'd certainly like that to be the case.
Female representation is not an issue anymore? Pack it up everyone! These couple games made in the past few years are what you get! And since it's not an issue that means mainstream games made for 12 year old boys are perfectly acceptable since everyone has a place to go. If only that were true.
I'll be curious to find out what the rape scene is trying to say in context. Generally murder and violence is given an in-fiction justification (no matter how wrong murder is in real life), but justification for rape would be tough.
I am sympathetic to the horror question. Horror films often are about what makes us uncomfortable. Don't know how interested rape victims (murder victims don't keep on ticking) are in that. That's what rating descriptors should help with I guess.
I'd defend anyone's *right* to create a rape scene/joke, because freedom of speech and all that, but there's a very simple litmus test for whether those are reprehensible too: is it ultimately going to make a rapist or a rape victim in the audience more comfortable? If it's the former, it's morally reprehensible and you should be told so in no uncertain terms. Just because you have the *right* to say it doesn't make you protected from getting booed off the fucking stage.
I think Dennathon did the exact right thing: they considered the response from the half of the population likely to be victims of sexual assault, realized the scene didn't come across they intended, and then decided to pull it and rework it so it can get their intent across in a way that isn't icky.
Nothing is taboo. Let it spill into the streets and churches.
I guess if what you are making is for the largest audience possible, then change it. If the narrative or experience you are attempting to craft suffers from it, don't change it.
Brice, I'm not saying it's not an issue. I'm saying it's not an issue you can character by saying "videogame women don't get very many other roles to play but helpless damsel". It's disingenuous to express the issue that glibly, especially when there are so many excellent examples to the contrary.
Soren, would your litmus test apply to Virgin Spring? I find that scene extremely uncomfortable to watch, and I'm neither a rapist or a rape victim. What about Irreversible, where we know there's no justice forthcoming?
And more to the point, should morally reprehensible conduct not be depicted in videogames?
I think the scales are definitely tipping. Not tipped, mind you. But tipping. I think we're see the people who want to tell stories with videogames increasingly aware of gender issues, relying less often on women as merely sexual objects or McGuffins to be rescued from towers at the end of the level. They're growing up and having daughters and seeing Joss Whedon movies and watching their children read The Hunger Games. I'd definitely say the scaled are tipping.
Which is definitely a case for Hotline Miami to keep being weird and uncomfortable. :)
The heck? I know I commented on this post but it's nowhere to be seen. And I can't imagine said comment having been controversial enough to get deleted.
I haven't seen The Virgin Spring, so I can't comment on that scene specifically.
Of course morally reprehensible behavior can and should be depicted. The point of that test is not about *what* is depicted, but the *intent* of that depiction.
I'll skip the requisite astonishment that you haven't seen Virgin Spring. :)
Given your comment, Hotline Miami 2 -- and several other videogames and especially horror movies -- would probably meet your "they should be boo'ed off the fucking stage" criteria, because I'm guessing the intent is clearly to make people uncomfortable.
I think that's where you and I differ. I find that can be valuable at times, and utter trash at times. Based on what I know from the first Hotline Miami and what I read about the sequel in Cara's preview and the RPG interview, it seems to me the sequel is an example of a time when it can be valuable.
If you trust Dennaton so implicitly, why not trust that they're currently doing the right thing now, by reviewing the material, fixing or changing it if they feel it's necessary, and thinking long and hard about how they're presenting it? I can't seem any harm in that, and the game could be all the better for it.
Tom, do you think you could get Cara or someone who shares her perspective to dialog with you about this issue in a Qt3 post or on a podcast? The stance of people who object to depiction is pretty well established (it's the assumed perspective of the gaming intelligentsia), but I haven't read anything from a defender of depiction who doesn't affiliate with #teamrape.
I am deeply concerned about artistic censorship, and I'm also deeply concerned about the effects depiction can have on victims. I'm having so much trouble establishing my personal position on this issue, so I'd really benefit from a more in-depth discussion.
No, I don't think it is. 'Comfortable' is just a word that works better when it comes to discussing discussing comedy than horror. I'm not against uncomfortable work, I said ultimately one should be *more* comfortable with it than the other.
What I was getting at is that the work should be siding with the victim.
In comedy, that means making rapists, or the society that enables them, the butt of your joke. In horror, that means making the victim the subject, not the object. Or articulating something worthwhile about attitudes towards rape, etc, etc.
From what I've read about Hotline Miami 2, I think the intent behind the scene was fine, but that probably wasn't the best way to get it across, especially out of context, hence why I think it's a good thing they decided to rework it.
Thank you so much for this article, Tom. You expressed my opinion on the issue more succinctly and articulately than I ever could.
Best of all, now you appear morally reprehensible and I don't! Just kidding :)
I take real heart from the way in which Dennis Wedin expressed Dennaton's position in the RPS interview. I think he did a great job of being sensitive to the game's critics but also gave a real insight into the thought behind the scene. Of particular note was his explanation of it as a play on the expectations of many that Hotline Miami 2's only way forward was to be more shocking than the first game. This feint seems to have cut deeper than they anticipated.
"I haven't read anything from a defender of depiction" aside from this, of course.
I respect your opinion on this topic Tom, but I have to say the term "whiteknighting" just plucks an off-key note in my brain. It's used too often as a casual dismissal of people who sometimes just want to say hey, slow down. This might cause more harm than good.
In my opinion, the concern isn't that games can't or shouldn't be allowed to try to breach unpleasant topics, even rape. My concern is that such a complex topic requires a deft touch and videogames (not to mention other media) so rarely show a capability or even interest in handling with care. And I have doubts that Hotline Miami 2 is going to be the game that gets it right.
I say that completely aware that I know almost nothing about the game. I may be completely wrong, and will allow the game to surprise me. But I did play the first game and mostly remember it doing its best to fuck with my brain while I was taking a baseball bat to someone else's. I don't expect the sequel's formula to get shaken up too much.
