L to R: Zen, Jaehee, Jumin, 707, Yoosung
When I first saw the advert for this game, I've decided that I liked Han Jumin's character (for design). His personality is super-cute as well, what we call "gap moe", I guess? "Gap Moe is when a character does something completely contradictory to what their usual habits/personality/character/appearance dictates."- posting from urban dictionary. Jumin looks like he's cold and calculating, the "out of my league" kind of guy, but he's got this obsession over his cat and he types "meow" in the chatroom and I'm like ????? my weak little heart is fluttering.
Anyway playing his route, yup the attraction is that this guy, who's cold-hearted and looks like he doesn't care about girls, totally falls for my character, and is all "you taught me how to open up and how to love, you changed me for the better". And WHEWWWWW isn't that the ultimate fantasy, you're so attractive that you made someone who's not interested in girls interested in you.
I was indulging in this strange little game, because I'm soooo goddamn deprived of affection I'd settle for hearing a virtual character say, "I love you". Then the story took a weeeeird turn and I thought "what the fuck is going on".
See they basically ripped off the storyline of 50 Shades of Grey, and then I realized Han Jumin is Christian Grey. If you haven't read 50 Shades, you probably know it as the infamous female-erotica. To give you the basic background, it's about this rich CEO kind of guy who is kind of fucked up, but obsessed over the female lead, and wants to do kinky things with her... but in a really weird, sociopathic kind of way. Anyway the Mystic Messenger story kind of mirrored that, and like, I GET why it's written into the story like that, since 50 Shades sold so well there has to be a lot of people into that kind of shit, but for me it's just ??????? Like this is so unhealthy.
I don't know why there is this stereotype that "men can't be trusted" or that "all men want from you is sex". Repeatedly the characters in this game like to remind my character, "hey, I'm a guy too, you know", or "you can't trust him, guys are beasts". Sometimes the line is spoken a lot for comical effect, and everyone just sort of goes along with it like, "well what can you do, it's in their nature".
Except it's not??? Like personally I can't deny that I think about sex alllll the fucking time, but that doesn't make me dangerous? Maybe I'd like to have sex with you, but that doesn't mean I'd rape you or coerce you or do ANYTHING. Maybe you'd come up in my fantasy, and if you knew that'd gross you out, but it's not like I'd ever tell you, so no harm done, right?
I hate being compared to beasts. Even beasts can be trained. To say that no men would be able to resist taking advantage of a girl is just ridiculous. There's this portion of the game where the main character (my character Alice) stays over at Jumin's house, and every other character in the game freaks the fuck out. The implication is that my character is going to get raped, an that implication pisses me off, even if it's in a game.
This shit is why we need feminism in this world- I used to misinterpret that line. Now I know, it stands for so much more. Being a feminist is the same as striving for a world where there isn't an expectation that women will be raped if they are over at a man's house. When I want to argue that "men are not sexist pigs who let their primal urges rule", I should also really argue that "women are not dainty delights that are as free as condoms in an STD clinic" (I can't believe that's the first simile that came to mind). When you refuse to see women as human, and treat them as some evil seductress who were created to tempt men, you propagate the idea that men, fallible as we are, could not possibly resist and could not possibly shoulder any blame. And that's fucking disgusting (i.e. don't do that).
At the end of this rant, what we should really examine is how my love-life is a field of poverty and even indulging in a female-oriented dating-sim makes me irate. What has been a fun little mobile game for many people becomes a field trip in the exploration of sexism and homophobia in popular culture for me. I didn't want to go full social-justice-warrior but maybe deep down I AM a filthy SJW and I'm not even ashamed of that.
Also Mystic Messenger sucks and I needed a walkthrough to reach the "good end". Fuck me I can't even get a dating sim right.
