"Purity" in otome games

[Taosym]

Taosym, could it be possible that the same forces of sexuality that women want to be liberated to enjoy could also be responsible for the fetishes that they are subjected to? Sexuality is completely wild. Sex is necessary, enjoyable, but a lot of it is horrific and degrading, like in the case of sex slavery. The dirtiness of sex is what makes it appealing, it's a double edged sword.

The people in real life who have unhealthy sexual urges but don't want to act on them in real life, shouldn't they have an outlet? Pragmatically, it's one of the solutions to prevent them from doing anything drastic. It's sort of similar to the role video games play in society. Do video games want to make people go grab a gun and shoot down a school? No, they provide an outlet for those forces of nature in us that we cannot just get rid of. Suppressing and ignoring sexuality is exactly what causes people act in extreme ways. It does not make sense to take these fantasy outlets and censor them. People will just go find their fix elsewhere.

It's because society tells people that sex is wrong and dirty, that they suppress it. I think you're making my case for me.

It is because of the dirtiness or badness of sex that is taught to people that allows things like sex slavery exist. I feel you are putting the symptom before the cause. If two people have a fetish however, as consenting adults in their own right minds should be able to enjoy it with each other. If a woman is literally subjected to a fetish she doesn't want to be, that is straight out rape and it falls under the dirtiness I talked about.

I absolutely agree with you about outlets. Humans are emotional creatures with violent and sexual urges. These can today and have in the past be harnessed as forces for good. Through the proper focus these are things are not by themselves bad, it's when people are taught to bottle it up, bottle it up and never tell anyone, hide it, it's a dirty secret do people end up lashing out and killing or raping other human beings. That same person can in a healthy outlet formed around consent, vent their frustration. That's in large part what things like violent games do, they offer an outlet. Violent games won their right to exist, but human sexuality as a whole is still under attack. And I don't think we will truly have equality for women and sexual orientations until this undercurrent of wrongness towards sex is solved.

[trooper6]

I think, for me, as a creator or a consumer, it isn't "there should never be virgins," or "there should never be violence," etc.

It is *how* these things are portrayed. You can have a violent video game that makes the payer think about violence. That doesn't normalize it. I remember a really amazing moment in Brothers in Arms where the protagonist had a bit of a breakdown in Voice Over about all the violence he had been through after the loss of one of his soldiers. It was a powerful moment, and as a veteran, I really appreciated it. There are other games where the violence is a thoughtful part of the narrative. I really like those sorts of portrayals of violence. Then there are the "neutral" versions of violence that don't problematize it nor do they glorify it. Those are okay. But I have played one or two games that I thought fetishized violence in a way I really found distaseful...and usually also very unrealistic.

In the same way, one can have a protagonist who hasn't had sex and have that be totally awesome...or you can have that protagonist come off as harmful and creepy.

You can have a film with racism that is not racist. You can have a film with a virgin protagonist that isn't horrible to women.

It isn't just the what in the story, but the how as well.

Now, there are going to be people who are sexist and propagate sexism in their VNs. That is their right. But it is my right to respond in the negative.

The original poster asked what we think about purity in otome games. I don't like it and think it is harmful.