The right has won some huge victories lately, both in the political and cultural aspects of our society. These are well-earned victories, too, and represent an entire shift away from the despotism of the radical left and a divorce from the "wokeness" that has plagued us for around a decade.
While we should definitely celebrate, one thing we need to be wary of is taking our hard-won influence and utilizing it to become the very monsters we slew. A lot of people fought to make people free, but now we're watching as some of these people turn around and begin demanding purity to specific ideals just as the left did to people over their own.
Purity tests often happen, and in various ways, and for various reasons.
Right now, one of the most controversial things happening is a cultural battle over displays of women in video games, which has been at the forefront of a large cultural battle for some time now. As some of my loyal readers may remember, the left has been uglifying women in video games, and making them purposefully less attractive in order to deny the "male gaze."
At the time, video games began coming out from Eastern developers that featured sexy women, such as Stellar Blade. The game was attacked up, down, and sideways over the look of its protagonist, which was based directly off a Korean model. The left accused people who wanted to play the game of being sexist, misogynist, and perverted.
I'll quote myself here, as I responded to this accusation directly, and defended the desire for men to look at beautiful and even sexy women:
Is it objectification? Kind of, but that's the pattern in which the male brain operates and there's actually nothing wrong with that. We see first, and then we pursue. We're visual hunters. You may say men initiate relationships based on the shallow reason of looks, but it only starts there. What's not spoken about is how that man will then give his literal time, resources, and life to keep that beauty close and safe.
But if we're being honest with ourselves as a species, most women absolutely understand this dynamic and play into it themselves. They want to look cute and presentable in order to attract a man. They want to look good for potential suitors, and it works.
The point is that it's all part of the male/female dynamic that the woke left wants to destroy. They want to further drive a wedge between men and women to the point where they would make the natural dance of men and women around and toward each other seem unnatural and creepy.
This was widely agreed upon on the right. Moreover, we ripped back the curtain and revealed that, ultimately, this wasn't just about denying the "male gaze," but instituting and normalizing censorship based on left-leaning ideals. It was here that even people on the left could agree with people on the right, and it was a large reason why the woke left lost the argument, and things began to slowly normalize in the gaming industry when it came to women on screen. The transition isn't fully complete yet, but we're getting there.
However, now that the day is more or less won, the purity tests from people on the right have started.
Now that censorship on the terms of the left have been more or less overcome, censorship on the right's terms have begun from a few select individuals. To be clear, many on the right have come to push back on this call for purity, but it's still caused an uproar.
The culture critic Melonie Mac, who once argued in favor of games like Stellar Blade, have now turned around and begun saying that people who enjoy games like it are disgusting. She even goes so far as to say that Christian who enjoy games like it aren't real Christians. However, she was saying the exact opposite pretty recently, when the culture war over how women were displayed was in full swing.
Please Melonie. I beg you to listen….
— Smash JT (@SmashJT) January 18, 2025
To yourself. https://t.co/czh6BaYkYh pic.twitter.com/OnNJ88vyAH
To be clear, I haven't seen her call for outright censorship through legal channels, but this isn't actually necessary. The goal here is to demand studios self-censorship through guilt and public pressure, which is what Mac is now seemingly trying to do.
The backlash has now begun, and many people are attempting to say that the puritan right is making a resurgence, even making comparisons to leftist social justice adherents like Anita Sarkeesian, who once also demanded censorship of women from studios.
The thing is, these people aren't necessarily wrong. Even if you're starting from a different ideological point, you can still get to the same place as your opposition pretty easily if you don't check yourself.
Because what this all boils down to is wanting censorship based on personal preferences. If the ultimate goal is censorship, then you're the bad guy.
To be clear, I do believe censorship based on time in place is perfectly fine. For instance, Megyn Kelly went in on Jeff Bezos's wife, Lauren Sanchez, for wearing an outfit that drew attention to her breasts during the inauguration. I agree with Kelly here.
Megyn Kelly unloads on Jeff Bezos' wife for dressing inappropriately at Trump's inauguration:
— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) January 21, 2025
Megyn Kelly: "Lauren Sanchez: She dresses like a prostitute. She looked like a hooker! At the inauguration she wore a corset and had her boobs on display. The girls were out. I can see… pic.twitter.com/KkV6exxCcl
But let's be clear, while we can call out the appropriate time and place for certain outfits, calling for censorship of women via shame and pressure is not the way to get what you want. Moreover, I truly believe that shaming people for celebrating or enjoying female beauty, even in body, is a step too far. There are incredible pieces of art that display the female form that are celebrated the world over, even by Christians. The Venus de Milo, or the Three Graces come to mind.
Moreover, I'm having a hard time squaring the idea that displaying sexy women, even in video games, is wrong on a moral level. Of course, I can get why grotesque displays would get people's cackles up, but a beautiful and fit woman performing acrobatics in a skin-tight suit doesn't exactly approach that. If it did, then there are a lot of sports we should cancel immediately.
The female form isn't evil, and an all-out call for censorship of it isn't going to get anyone on your side. There are nuances we can and should discuss, and there are definitely lines where it stops being about highlighting female forms and beauty and starts being porn.
But the bottom line here is that it's wrong to call for "purity" on your terms once you got done defeating the "purity" requirements of the other side, especially if you're using the same tactics they used to get what you want.
This is exactly what causes the pendulum to swing hard. Cultural battles like this don't actually do society any favors. You can draw your own personal line and keep to it, but the moment you begin demanding others obey your line, either through legal avenues or just good ol' fashioned shame, you start to see the pushback.
