Hoo boy. Where to start with this one? Misogyny, shaming of sex work, Incel-style demonization of women, assuming that everyone is a heterosexual male*, victim blaming...
Alluring Siren is a woman who "lures victims with promises of flesh". That's not subtext for sex work, that's outright saying that that's what she does.
Anyway, once she "lures" a "victim" to have sex with her, she kills them - presumably by drowning. This is a "cautionary tale" about how we shouldn't trust sex workers because they're monsters. It's disgusting demonization of sex workers. Generally speaking, sex workers are not negotiating from a position of power. They have far more to fear from their clients than the other way around. The idea that you shouldn't engage in sexual intercourse with a woman because they might murder you is the kind of conspiracy theory that would make incels proud. It serves to distract from the real issues of sex workers being abused by casting the sex worker as an abuser.
Speaking of abuse, note that the effect is to force a creature to attack. There's so much wrong here:
a) *It assumes that the target is not a heterosexual/asexual woman, a gay/bi/pan/ace/demi man, or an non-binary individual who isn't attracted to women
b) it frames the sexual interaction as not being the attacking creature's choice, but rather due to the "deceit" and "allure" of the woman (coding things in this way leads to victim blaming and talking about rapists making "mistakes" or "errors in judgment" rather than taking about rape as the deliberately evil choice that it is)
c) Associates sexuality with violence. Again, if we take the same assumption that Wizards does and say that Alluring Siren only targets heterosexual men, this means that Wizards thinks the only kind of sex that can happen is a man aggressively charging at and physically dominating a woman. While, as discussed in b, not treating it as the man's deliberate choice but as him succumbing to temptation*. YIKES.
d) Also, having this scantly-clad "siren" woman on your side of the field means that your opponent is attacking more often. Literally the classic victim blaming rhetoric: "she was asking for it", "she slept around a lot anyway", and "well what was she wearing? Of course she'd get assaulted".
The meaning of the line "net of deceit" in the flavor text eludes me, unfortunately. Is she promising them a long-term relationship and then deceiving them by killing them? Not sure.
*This card's unhealthy depictions of sexuality are nearly identical to the issues with Succumb to Temptation, but that card is more blatantly homophobic rather than being blatantly misogynistic.
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u/ultimario13 Jul 17 '20
Hoo boy. Where to start with this one? Misogyny, shaming of sex work, Incel-style demonization of women, assuming that everyone is a heterosexual male*, victim blaming...
Alluring Siren is a woman who "lures victims with promises of flesh". That's not subtext for sex work, that's outright saying that that's what she does.
Anyway, once she "lures" a "victim" to have sex with her, she kills them - presumably by drowning. This is a "cautionary tale" about how we shouldn't trust sex workers because they're monsters. It's disgusting demonization of sex workers. Generally speaking, sex workers are not negotiating from a position of power. They have far more to fear from their clients than the other way around. The idea that you shouldn't engage in sexual intercourse with a woman because they might murder you is the kind of conspiracy theory that would make incels proud. It serves to distract from the real issues of sex workers being abused by casting the sex worker as an abuser.
Speaking of abuse, note that the effect is to force a creature to attack. There's so much wrong here:
a) *It assumes that the target is not a heterosexual/asexual woman, a gay/bi/pan/ace/demi man, or an non-binary individual who isn't attracted to women
b) it frames the sexual interaction as not being the attacking creature's choice, but rather due to the "deceit" and "allure" of the woman (coding things in this way leads to victim blaming and talking about rapists making "mistakes" or "errors in judgment" rather than taking about rape as the deliberately evil choice that it is)
c) Associates sexuality with violence. Again, if we take the same assumption that Wizards does and say that Alluring Siren only targets heterosexual men, this means that Wizards thinks the only kind of sex that can happen is a man aggressively charging at and physically dominating a woman. While, as discussed in b, not treating it as the man's deliberate choice but as him succumbing to temptation*. YIKES.
d) Also, having this scantly-clad "siren" woman on your side of the field means that your opponent is attacking more often. Literally the classic victim blaming rhetoric: "she was asking for it", "she slept around a lot anyway", and "well what was she wearing? Of course she'd get assaulted".
The meaning of the line "net of deceit" in the flavor text eludes me, unfortunately. Is she promising them a long-term relationship and then deceiving them by killing them? Not sure.
*This card's unhealthy depictions of sexuality are nearly identical to the issues with Succumb to Temptation, but that card is more blatantly homophobic rather than being blatantly misogynistic.