cw// sexual assault, rape

Happy Sunday, everyone. Let's talk about something that I really don't want brushed under the rug in light of recent events.

Let's talk about what doesn't get talked about enough: male survivors of sexual assault. When people think of sexual assault (and by extension, rape), people often think of it as something violent between a man and a woman. Understandable, as society has conditioned people in this way.

Take, for example, the fact that sexual harassment and assault of men are

re: hero

A: Hero's not even good, why ban him?
B: It's not about him being good or bad, it's that RNG is anti-competitive
A: Here are examples of RNG in other competitive fighting games
B: But that's not Smash/That's less RNG than Hero
[rinse and repeat]

So, what is it? Imo, the discussion lies somewhere between the divide.

Hero's strength as a character actually does affect how much RNG he can use, because he needs to be able to roll the dice. In some situations/match-ups, he can't even do that, thus minimizing the RNG in that match

So yesterday, I was doing an orientation for our new teen interns and we ended up talking about mental health in men (they're all boys)

There were a lot of dismissive 'ugh emotions?' remarks and so I asked them if any of them knew Etika They all went silent for a moment before all piping up that they knew him, they watched his videos, and then mimicked some of his reactions for fun

Then one of them said they wished he'd gotten the help he needed

Btw I did some snooping on the JP reception to DQ Hero and Banjo-Kazooie and learned some interesting things

For context, JP LOOOOVES watching NA's reactions to things, so they all watched NA call their beloved hero a 'disappointment' both live and in tweet replies lol DQ is a cultural hit so obviously JP liked their inclusion, but it's worth noting that there's a generational gap. For people in my gen and older, it was a time of tears and belovedness in league with Banjo being back

For the younger ones though? It's cool, but not personal