RE: We chat about videogames and videogame accesories.
03-29-2012, 06:15 AM
The problem isn't that sexy is sexist; lots of things can be sexy without being sexist! It's when needless sexualization gets drizzled over everything just because of the character's sex. The fact that it's difficult to think of not-lovingly-gainaxed fighting game characters is a pretty good example of the sexism pretty pervasive in the genre: having an Ivy in a game isn't a crime against women; being "the sexy one" is a fine enough gimmick for a character in a type of game that traditionally limits character development and personality to maybe a few lines between fights in story mode. It's when they all look like they stepped out of a ryona fetishist's wettest dream that eyebrows start to raise. The problem isn't sexiness: it's that they all HAVE to be sexy, and in nearly-identical ways. Sexism arises when it's an expectation that they will be that way, because of the tacit implication that they should be that way.
I'm not going to argue for realism in fighting games; it's an inherently unrealistic genre, and crazy outfits and weapons are way more awesome than practical, padded, loose-fitting clothes and NOT trying to use a ten-foot scythe in close quarters. But when the games men run the gamut from "crazy ripped bronze god of bare-knuckle boxing" to "skinny assassin type with a dagger" to "hulking monster with the aforementioned ten-foor scythe" to "crazy lizardman" and beyond – many of them sexy, many decidedly not, and all with different body types and features (and very few with costumes specifically going for "masturbation fodder" rather than "total badass") – and the women are basically variations on the theme of "slender, athletic, tits that could smother a horse, not much clothes", the issue becomes one of simply enforcing a standard on what a woman is or should be.
It's that same issue that arises with "overtly sexual but very empowered female characters"; the Strong Female Character is just this generation's barefoot housewife, this hemisphere's Yamato Nadeshiko. She's what every woman should be and should aspire to be. Not because that's what she wants to be, of course, but because that's what we want her to be. Even if your T&A du jour is an astrophysicist who trained herself to be a world-class sniper in her spare time and is sexually liberated but not a skank-ho and don't take no guff from nobody... She was still written that way because mostly men wanted her to be. Which is the whole problem with sexism (in this form; obviously there's still discrimination and hatred and so forth but that's a whole different ball of wax under the blanket of general sexism): regardless of the nature of the stereotype we want is, it's the fact that our media so overwhelmingly confirms to it that is sexism.
It's been a twenty hour day after a long week with not much sleep. I'm sure this post is a jumble of circles and repetition and not-actually-making-my-point but wevs. I ain't looking over it.
I'm not going to argue for realism in fighting games; it's an inherently unrealistic genre, and crazy outfits and weapons are way more awesome than practical, padded, loose-fitting clothes and NOT trying to use a ten-foot scythe in close quarters. But when the games men run the gamut from "crazy ripped bronze god of bare-knuckle boxing" to "skinny assassin type with a dagger" to "hulking monster with the aforementioned ten-foor scythe" to "crazy lizardman" and beyond – many of them sexy, many decidedly not, and all with different body types and features (and very few with costumes specifically going for "masturbation fodder" rather than "total badass") – and the women are basically variations on the theme of "slender, athletic, tits that could smother a horse, not much clothes", the issue becomes one of simply enforcing a standard on what a woman is or should be.
It's that same issue that arises with "overtly sexual but very empowered female characters"; the Strong Female Character is just this generation's barefoot housewife, this hemisphere's Yamato Nadeshiko. She's what every woman should be and should aspire to be. Not because that's what she wants to be, of course, but because that's what we want her to be. Even if your T&A du jour is an astrophysicist who trained herself to be a world-class sniper in her spare time and is sexually liberated but not a skank-ho and don't take no guff from nobody... She was still written that way because mostly men wanted her to be. Which is the whole problem with sexism (in this form; obviously there's still discrimination and hatred and so forth but that's a whole different ball of wax under the blanket of general sexism): regardless of the nature of the stereotype we want is, it's the fact that our media so overwhelmingly confirms to it that is sexism.
It's been a twenty hour day after a long week with not much sleep. I'm sure this post is a jumble of circles and repetition and not-actually-making-my-point but wevs. I ain't looking over it.