Oh fine, I’ll throw a few more cents in.
Fighting too hard? How does one fight politely for social progress or fight just the right amount? How do they talk about tropes or why objectification isn’t a good thing for the medium and not sound like hump-backed crones to the men’s rights brigade?
We’re talking about a gender that couldn’t even have credit cards in their names until 1976. Progress is never easy. There’s always resistance, regardless of how small or insignificant the issue might seem, it’s all part of a connected cultural picture.
To some, in the moment, progress might seem like censorship because gaining positive female influences or better connecting women to the context of a game and putting a spotlight on the tropes, the selling of s-e-x and marketing all seem aimed at taking a guy’s fun away, but I find a few faults in the overall ideology:
ONE - Not all guys want to see a vast majority of female characters sexualized or objectified in games, not just because exploitation is oily and at times needlessly dimeaning to gamers of both genders, but also because a lot of times it feels forced, out of context with the rest of the game, or just so flat out ridiculous looking it can be downright embarrassing to be seen playing that game.
TWO - This ludicrous concept of equating misogyny with maturity. It’s not a matter of Americans being too prudish or not evolved enough. It’s looking at a game like Street Fighter and saying "why are Ken and Ryu wearing karate gis while Cammy, who’s supposed to be in the military, is wearing a bathing suit? It doesn’t fit the context, and once you connect that with the obvious reason as to why she’s dressed that way, it becomes borderline insulting with how ridiculous and needlessly gratuitous it is.
Again, not a prude. I like women. I just think that seeing one in a bathing suit in a fighting tournament is silly and out of place and I don’t just shrug my shoulders because “hey, a hot chick, so who cares” when we’re talking about polygons. I’ll take immersion in to the game world over completely out of place, just because T&A every time.
It’s not sexually evolved to say “I don’t mind that this female character is dressed in a completely ridiculous way that in no way fits the genre of this game or who that character is just to sexify her for no real discernible reason.” To me, that’s really saying “I care so little about women that the only way I care to see them in this game is to see them naked, nearly naked or dressed and acting lasciviously, genre and story immersion be damnedd (sorry, figured that word gets bleeped). Or to be the trophy to be won at the end, my reward for winning.”
Sorry, but that’s not evolved thinking. It’s just not. It’s obeying the long established cultural paradigm that some women are trying to break in video games and sometimes they have to be a little less polite in their efforts.
THREE - The “this is okay but that’s not is hypocritical so everything should be allowed” argument has to stop. Again, it’s progress. It’s also a matter of the opinion of the devs and that’ll change over time.
Back in the 90’s, Orchid’s look was okay for Rare. MS/DH went a different way in 2013 even in spite of how Sadira looks. That’s their choice to make and their reasoning to line up. Some think Sadira’s underdressed and some think Orchid’s overdressed or not faithful to her original vision and the only people whose opinion matters in terms of where the line should be drawn is the devs and every team in the industry has their own line that changes over time.
It’s still a long road to equality in a variety of ways for women, from the pay gap to the societal pressure for youth and beauty that’s aimed far more at preying on female insecurity (even if the gentlemen style is aiming to tilt the scale on that front… Psst, beard oil is a stupid, needless expense…) than men’s insecurity.
The sooner men start to see how the small things fit in to a larger picture, the more they’ll notice those little things for what they are and be less willing to be quiet or dismissive or accepting about it. Patriarchy is like the matrix. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
I’m not a social justice warrior or a white knight or any other subversive blanket stereotype that fits in to the narrative of those that think sexism and objectification is all in good fun if it’s just a little or just a game. I’m a white guy that sees no reason why any other gender or race should societally or systematically have it worse than me in any way in 2016. The fact that there are so many gamers out there that can’t see how it all connects or simply don’t care even if they do see because they want their polygonal bewbs is downright embarrassing.
