Being a woman who loves video games has often felt lonely, like being on a hostile planet – but Metroid’s female space hunter has been with me all the way

It’s 1986, and you’re playing a brand-new game. (You’re in Japan in this scenario, by the way; the game in question, Metroid, won’t come to North America and Europe until later.) Anyway, this new game has you in its grip. You are a lone astronaut exploring a hostile alien planet full of ancient, mysterious structures. This astronaut looks human enough – but this distinctly alien place is full of objects that power up their spacesuit’s capabilities. Each new ability allows you to explore a new area, and as you do, you realise that the entirety of the planetary base you’re exploring is one, massive, interconnected maze. Whoa.

Hours later, you finally defeat Mother Brain and set off a timed self-destruct sequence. Upon your escape, you’re treated to an endgame screen: the little astronaut faces you as text on screen implores you to “pray for peace in space”.

With mass immigration we are witnessing a clash of sexual civilisations, says Bettina Arndt: two incompatible systems of rules about men, women and desire are colliding and the consequences are playing out in courtrooms.

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Men account for three in four suicides in the UK, yet this crisis is met with silence. Why does society care so much about women and girls, but so little about the wellbeing of men and boys?

The post Masculinity Isn’t Toxic, But Demonising it is, With Men Accounting For Three Suicides in Four appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Seven men die by suicide in Australia every day. Last month, the peak body for men's health decided to address this by teaching boys about gender equity. But men are not dying for lack of feminism, says Bettina Arndt.

The post Suicidal Men Don’t Need More Feminism appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.