How do you feel about the squid game? Do you think it’s worth watching?

bananna_nut · 2021-10-04T15:13:03+00:00

I loved this show and wish I had more to watch honestly. It had some badass female characters that were interesting, realistic, practical, problematic/flawed, and contributive to the plot and the games. I loved that there was no romance, unrealistic sexual themes, or typical Mary Sue or beautiful characters. I personally love dark and violent shows but I'm often turned off with how weakly they portray women, but this show was not the case.

As for the sexism in the show exhibited by the contestants: the people in the game are down on their luck, desperate, and in some cases, very bad people, so it would be unrealistic to expect that inequalities or prejudices would not there, if not magnified in a literal life or death scenario like that. The show did a great job of showing that without weakening any of the female characters, instead showing them push through those hindrances and stay true to themselves.

If anything, I think this show mostly portrayed men badly, Gi-hun is a bad father and son (spoilers): (and still is), Deoksu is a great example of a typical NVM who thinks he's hot shit, enthusiastically sleeping with women and then degrading them later. And Sangwoo is an overall shitty, opportunistic human being, along with the old man. And the staff rape the half-dead female contestants before killing them and dissecting their organs. All these things are uncomfortable truths that happen in real life, and I think this show provided some great social commentary.

Also I loved the positive friendship between Sae Byeok and the other young female character (I won't spoil her name)! While the men's relationships were all utter shit, there was a beautiful display of a selfless female friendship that didn't rely on talking about romance or men etc. It was just so real and perfect in my opinion.

annrike1 · 2021-10-04T15:16:13+00:00

The main protagonist was weird at first, but I think it calls misoginy out. It highlights the objectification of women and also other struggles women face.

It is worth watching, believe me.

In my opinion it is also a very clever critism of violent porn, because the people have democracy and consented to the game, however the viewer is still aware that the game is still inhuman and just because there is money and consent involved, doesn't justify any of it.

andwhenwillitbegin · 2021-10-04T11:10:36+00:00

I really enjoyed the series and I have finished the whole thing.

I didn’t like the woman being hit either but that’s not a continuing theme at all.

It’s an interesting show exploring capitalism and how our society views people suffering/struggling as entertainment. I can’t think of any other shows covering these themes. It also shows sexism too in one of the games.

There’s one sex scene but then there is no male gaze or anything like that in the rest of the show. The amount of shows I have seen with male gaze made it very refreshing to me that this didn’t.

I hate gratuitous violence and especially hate torture in shows. There is no torture in this but there are dark themes and it can be graphic.

I loved the twists and character development. Episode 6 especially made me cry and I have not cried watching a tv show for years. There’s a great twist at the end too.

Anyway, that’s my take. I didn’t find it sexist and usually I’m the first to call shows out on that or male gaze or showing women suffering needlessly.

miwamus · 2021-10-04T18:10:46+00:00

It has sexism, but in a more "realistic" way. None of that sliding the camera up and down womens' bodies and explicit sex scenes where you only get to see the woman's body. Or, cue rape scene! So over the "mandatory" rape scenes. We get it, male directors, you like rape.

Anyway.

It's more of a, men select men over women because they believe they are physically superior but that trait has no impact on the outcome of the game.

I do want to add one thing. There was also racism. For example, Ali was seen as strong but, what I interpreted as, dumb. When everything he said and did was smart.

pinkcorolla · 2021-10-04T15:09:26+00:00

I struggled to get past the first episode because of how much of a loser the main character is and I hated how he stole money from his mum and let her work like that while being a huge bum. But I really loved the other characters apart from the thug, my fave was the woman that was disliked by everyone.

bonghits4jess · 2021-10-05T03:14:59+00:00

I have no idea how to do spoiler tags but spoilers ahead:

I think they nailed Seong Gi-hun’s portrayal of the low value male we often talk about on this subreddit. Living off his momma, broke, a shitty dad, addicted to gambling. It would’ve been funny except it was so painful to see because of how accurate it was. Same with Sang woo making bad investments with his moms business as collateral. Reminds me of the male narcissist obsessed with his image but really is a failure to launch—so they lie and lie to deny the truth of their lives.

As far as the scene where they gang up on Sae-byok, I saw it as showing how in our patriarchal society how nobody stands up for women and she is gaslit and victim blamed, for stealing even tho Gi-hun would’ve did the same as her if he had the chance. No one stands up towards the other guy when he starts hitting her.

I really enjoyed Han Minyeo’s character. I kinda saw it with an FDS lens of a critique on liberal feminism. She tries to be one of the boys by being manipulative and trying to sleep her way to power, but he turns on her at the very first opportunity to save his own skin. A man is her downfall literally. But I still respect her for not taking anyone’s shit and doing what she has to do to survive.

I really appreciated the friendship between Ji-yeon and Sae-byok. We think Sae-byok is the most tragic character but then comes Ji-yeon with her story. And that she was still genuinely hopeful and happy to sacrifice for Sae-byok to get a chance at happiness. It just speaks to that connection women have for each other, and there’s something about suffering trauma but finding healing in sisterhood. They were constantly overlooked and underestimated. I’m still processing the meaning behind it. Overall I enjoyed the show.

wondertarget · 2021-10-04T11:43:15+00:00

I really enjoyed it. The last episode was kind of meh, but the character relationships, stakes, and how well it portrays certain parts of Korean culture made up for it.

The show isn't about the violence itself, but the lengths that people will go to in order to obtain wealth and prestige.

Give it a watch, and if the violence proves to be too much, drop it~

Japanese_Lasagna · 2021-10-04T13:45:58+00:00

If you don’t like it, you don’t need to force yourself to watch it, regardless of whether it is or isn’t sexist. It sounds like you haven’t liked it so far and that your main reason for thinking you should watch it is FOMO.

Squeakendorf · 2021-10-04T16:02:13+00:00

The only part I found unnecessarily sexist/gross was when that one dude admits that some of the employees took turns raping what they thought was a dead woman. But, I mean, it's a show about rich people making The Poors fight each other for their amusement, there are a lot of -isms going on.

Women were def unfairly disadvantaged in the games but it wasn't by design, it was because there was an info leak (trying not to spoil too hard here). There's actually a scene where the Front Man talks about how every single player is given an equal chance because they're all walking blindly into exactly the same situations on exactly the same terms.

Personally, I liked it aside from that one scene mentioned above (ETA: also the main character is pretty aggressively unlikeable throughout the entire thing, like he has so many opportunities for character development and just...passes them all by).

LR_today · 2021-10-04T17:13:21+00:00

All I wondered while watching that is "how much would I need to be paid to run that show/game? Would they have to kidnap my parents?" 😆

Honestly it was a lot of filler and I skipped a lot but got the jist.

I think there will be a season 2, they certainly set up for it. It could be from the employee (prisoners?) prospective.

I wasn't able to watch most of the deaths in red light green light. It was really disturbing to me.

Snugglyy · 2021-10-05T04:25:19+00:00

The show subtlety frames sexism in a way were the viewer can react to it, but for world creating they missed the mark. The lights out massacre and tug-of-war gave off “time to get rid of the women” vibes, and in the grand scheme of things makes you wonder why even bother invite women to be in the game then?

samedinuitmort · 2021-10-04T10:03:45+00:00

I haven’t seen it, as personally I tend to avoid any sensationalized “shocking” TV shows that lack real substance or are just an excuse for gratuitous violence. It seems to me that people are desensitized and need gorier, more disturbing stimulus to feel any excitement. It’s similar to the progression with porn, so I avoid it. I also find the reality of life to be grim enough, so I don’t need to indulge in violent fantasies either. I generally prefer hopeful, wholesome content (save for some exceptions).

And yeah, violent “shocking” shit will always be extremely misogynistic under the guise of “realism”… Just like fully waxed and made-up healthy beautiful prostitutes with gorgeous teeth and hair were “realistic” in Game of Thrones. It’s not realism, it’s pornography/gore packaged in a “socially acceptable” format of a series.

Anyway I digress lol I might be boring, but I haven’t been impressed by violence and sexuality since I was a teen.

sourcircus · 2021-10-04T12:44:11+00:00

I am actually very confused as to why it is raved about.
I think there are a lot of issues with the show.
You don't get anything out of it - like the reason as to why the games are held (well there technically is but as a mystery lover it was such a banal one) , who are the masked people and why they are there. I don't think it's a refreshing or new take on society, we know the extent in which people can be self-serving.

I am doing my best not to spoil it in case you do end up watching it.
Just know that there are many inconsistencies in the logic applied to the games and that several plot lines are there for convenience to move the story along. There is close to no character development. What happens in each round is highly predictable as well.

I believe that this show is just for shock, violence and gore because there is no takeaway from it. Your time is much better spent on other things. I feel like a minority on this since people keep on talking about it. Even without diving into how the female characters are treated in the show I would not recommend it.

Title	How do you feel about the squid game? Do you think it’s worth watching?
Author	GlitterLoveAngel
Upvotes	97
Comments	29
Date	October 4, 2021 9:51 AM UTC (4 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/FemaleDatingStrategy
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/FemaleDatingStrategy/comments/q129vo/how_do_you_feel_about_the_squid_game_do_you_think/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/FemaleDatingStrategy/how-do-you-feel-about-the-squid-game-do-you-think.1077639 https://theredarchive.com/post/1077639

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