The $%*! frustration thread

[Lord J Esq]

I think you left out a closing quote!

[Katie Skyye]

I don't know what you're talking about.

[Lord J Esq]

=P

Me neither. Must've been a butterfly floating across my screen.

[Radical_Dreamer]

Having a beard is great; I pity males who can't grow them. I keep it clean and well groomed, and thus have no regrets. I don't maintain it out of some silly notion of manliness; I enjoy having it.

It doesn't make a big difference to me whether women shave their legs/armpits; the truth is I rarely notice these things. Generally, it's only if I'm in a relationship with a woman that I'll be aware if she stops shaving. In those cases, I don't weigh in on that decision. After all, my beard isn't going anywhere. That said, it's worked out that I've not dated a woman who allowed her leg/armpit hair to grow to a length that bothers me, so I can't say where that threshold is.

[Lord J Esq]

You have an awesome beard. My goatee is nice, but it's a goatee. Petite and commonplace. You are friggin' Jeremiah Jedediah Dreamer.

[Syna]

I find it interesting how much I get away with regarding hair and shaving. I never shave my upper legs and have never received any kind of flak for that. That may be because it's not noticeable -- I have fine, blonde hair, and I'm pretty sure it's virtually invisible-- but I've never received comments when I haven't shaved my armpit hair for a week or so, either. I think that's evidence at how much privilege we allow people who are at least partially in step with beauty standards. I'm not a "Hollywood pretty" type, but I am small and blonde and white and female, and people are willing to forgive a lot from me because of that...  

The looks a woman gets when she doesn't shave her legs are generally very nasty, though; a couple of times I've gone to the gym without shaving my lower legs for awhile, and people have been rather contemptuous. On the male side of things, a friend of mine, with an awesome full beard and slightly long hair, has gotten grief from many a job for being 'unkempt' (even though he is not -- he trims and takes good care of his hair).  And my brother -- who has amazing shoulder-length curly Jim Morrisson hair that girls swoon over and touch wherever he goes -- is criticized constantly for his hair being too long and 'feminine'.

I'm bi, and I'm having a hard time deciding if my personal standards conform to beauty standards or not. I tend to favor, in the abstract, men and women without a lot of hair, but in practice I haven't minded it at all on the people I've involved myself with. I'm glad I can prioritize individual aesthetics when it comes to real people to some degree -- even if abstractly I am influenced by normative beauty standards.

[Katie Skyye]

After all, my beard isn't going anywhere.

Radical Dreamer knows what's important.

[tushantin]

And my brother -- who has amazing shoulder-length curly Jim Morrisson hair that girls swoon over and touch wherever he goes -- is criticized constantly for his hair being too long and 'feminine'.

Blimey, ya know it! A friend of mine's a victim of the same. He was raised in Jamaica, so he doesn't find it weird to have long, feminine hair (though, frankly, he looks like a puppy -- not in a bad way, rather adorably, because I'm quite fond of his unique way to present himself). However, here he is criticized too often for having long hair -- not by strangers, but some close to him -- and some strangers even confuse him for a girl.

I think the perception depends on most cultural norms: if the culture is used to a gender having long hair then having short cut is simply "unnatural" and thus gross, but in another culture it's the opposite wherein shorter hair is preferred to longer ones. In Capitalist nations it stands to reason (by which I mean, "the reason according to Capitalists", not mine) that people have no excuse to not look good because they can afford cosmetics, shaving and good clothes. But of course, the "aesthetic grade" is universal.

Syna, your post triggered a chain of reasoning in my head, an extensive unbiased psycho-analysis regarding the Whats, Whys and Hows of human "aesthetic grade". However, whenever I'm in my analysis mode I tend to be straightforward, and thus I ask: would it be appropriate to share it?

[Lord J Esq]

There won't be a proper left-handed mode in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Therefore, I am declaring that game to be excluded from the series cannon. I'm also invading Japan.

This seriously dampens my enthusiasm for the game. I may not even buy it. I've passed over various Zelda titles. It's easy enough to do so with this one.

Also, while my complaint is primarily aesthetic, the controls for this game are reported to be so precise that it sounds as if it might be genuinely difficult for left-handers to play.

I am really, really disappointed...

[Sajainta]

There won't be a proper left-handed mode in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Therefore, I am declaring that game to be excluded from the series cannon. I'm also invading Japan.

This seriously dampens my enthusiasm for the game. I may not even buy it. I've passed over various Zelda titles. It's easy enough to do so with this one.

Also, while my complaint is primarily aesthetic, the controls for this game are reported to be so precise that it sounds as if it might be genuinely difficult for left-handers to play.

I am really, really disappointed...

????

Why would they do that?  Is it seriously that much trouble to try and accommodate one tenth of their audience?

That's rubbish.  D was rather excited to play the game, and now he'll probably have a hard time if he tries.  Bah.

[Lord J Esq]

I could not tell you why they wouldn't go to the trivial effort of including a mirroring function. Maybe it wasn't trivial.

More than any other trait, physical or mental, cultural or philosophical, artistic or scientific, left-handedness is the trait I most strongly identify with. You show me a left-handed character in a story, and I'll drool. Link has always been left-handed, until Twilight Princess for the Wii came along and test players started reporting that, being right-handed, they couldn't handle a left-handed Link. So Nintendo mirrored the entire Wii version of the game. (That version has also been struck from series canon, as far as I'm concerned.) And now with Skyward Sword there won't be any left-handed version at all.

Link is just about Nintendo's only prominent left-handed game icon. You could make a non-watertight argument for Samus Aran, and they occasionally show up as less-iconic characters (like Crono and Frog!), but, really, Link is pretty much the only top star.

I know most people don't really care, beyond the left-handers who complain about once again being made to play right-handed, which is a poorly addressed problem in the industry. But I care for narrative reasons. I like to identify with people in stories--I think we all do--and, whether or not it makes sense to others, I really identify with left-handedness. It aggrieves me that Nintendo would turn a left-handed character, and essentially its only left-handed star, at that, into a right-handed character without any consideration given of the narrative impact or the practical one.

It really bums me out.

[tushantin]

My browser is littered with Psychological Science links regarding Human Interpretation, Sexism, Chronic Depression, Perception, etc. AND THE LINKS BEG ME TO READ THEM.


This is weird. Whenever my friends here "Psychology" they turn tail and run away, because studying is boring, right? And here I am, glued to every scientific knowledge that comes my way, addicted to the grandeur of researches and critical thinking. Does that make me a "Book Worm" or "Screen Worm"?

[Radical_Dreamer]

You have an awesome beard. My goatee is nice, but it's a goatee. Petite and commonplace. You are friggin' Jeremiah Jedediah Dreamer.

Thank you, sir. I had a goatee for a time, but it wasn't enough. I don't regret keeping my jawline covered.

I share your disappointment in Skyward Sword. I purchased the GameCube version of Twilight Princess over the Wii version because, as it portrayed Link as left handed, it was clearly the legitimate version of the game. Hopefully future systems will revert to portraying Link as he ought to be.

[Acacia Sgt]

While I'm also kinda disappointed about Link being right-handed in Skyward Sword (I'm left-handed as well), and even got the GameCube version of Twilight Princess over the Wii one, but isn't the whole 'right handedness being not canon' a little extreme?

One thing you guys should be aware is that Link is actually ambidextrous, mostly since Shigeru Miyamoto is ambidextrous himself. The only reason we've seen left-handed Links so far has been because, as stated by Miyamoto, they've all favored the left.

However, Link is not strictly left-handed. Indeed, I remember that for A Link to the Past, I think the Manual stated Link would switch hands when he had Death Mountain to his left because of the superstition that all evil came from there, and so would have his shield on the left in-between the mountain and him. Gameplay-wise this is just because the sprite was mirrored when facing the other way, but why have this big of an explanation then?

So him switching to right, even if it's because of the controls out-universe, is not unreasonable in-universe either. Sure, doesn't stop me from being slightly disappointed of not being able to actually played it with the controls properly, but the right-handedness is not out of place to merit the criticism.

[Thought]

To note, Link's handedness is rarely consistent even within a game. He swings his sword with his left hand, yes, but which hand does he use to operate the hookshot, to pull the string on his bow, or to push objects? His right. What hand does he used to throw the boomerang? His left.

Ambidexterity really is the only explanation.