Recently Overwatch released a new character, citing complaintsof a lack of ‘body diversity’.  Now, Idon’t like the character but that’s for a variety of reasons and that’ll becoming at a later date.  No, what really botheredme was this argument and the implications for a common trend in representation of women in video games.

To add some context, I’m a gay woman and I want to be a game dev.  I’ve loved video games and been a gamer for close to 15 years.  And I really feel there are pressing issues with the arguments for ‘representation of women in video games’.  I’ve made similar rants about this general topic before and you can find my most successful one here.

If you’re concerned with women, body types, representation, etc, I suggest you give me a fair shake and read all the way to the end.  More under the break.

Watching Overwatch

What really bothered me about the Overwatch pressure was the claim that all the Overwatch ladies were the same while the men were inherently different.  The men of the game fit into one of four categories:  One thin, one dwarf, two heroic, one large.  You can probably guess which is which by the image above.

But then people claim the women of Overwatch are all the same.  I’m sorry but I don’t see that as true.  Immediately, Pharah is big and bulky.  Widow and Symmetra share a similar body type, being mostly legs and hourglass.  Mercy may come close to Widow and Symmetra but is slimmer.  But people seem to just lump Tracer in with the others.  Tracer has a different body type, more bottom heavy, less hourglass, shorter legs.  She’s stockier and close to a body type I’ve heard described as “Korean Radish”. So we have three body types for women, four for men.  And yet this is apparently an issue that requires a cry of sexism.

And this is the crux of this topic.  How I feel these so called advocates, these people obsessed with social justice and crying misogyny and sexism at every turn, are not pro-women.  They’re anti-sex and pro-ego.  We have a game like Overwatch, with a diverse cast of women and men, of different nationalities, and yet it is still ‘problematic’.

They lumped every woman together into one body type; ‘sexy’.  And called it a day.  They erased the body differences displayed in Pharah and Tracer because to them that is a body type.  To them, classically attractive women are just lumped together, regardless of if they have different body types or not.

It’s amazing that they crow victory over the new character being introduced, despite being extremely shallow, relying on a very old trope, wearing a breastplate and is, effectively, employing the “man with boobs” trope.  But they really didn’t care, not that much, what they wanted was a body type that wasn’t considered classically attractive and, ultimately, to be listened to and have their ego stroked.

Apocatits Now, Death of the Sexy Woman.

I’ve seen this behavior before but the Overwatch arguments really pushed me to write this.  So why do I hold this theory?  Because I’ve seen proof of it, over and over and over again.

These people do not care about choice.  They don’t care about women.  They ultimately just want to drag down sexy women and/or women with large breasts. For what reason, I can’t say. Maybe they’re puritanical or have low self-esteem.  Either way, they couldn’t give a damn about women in general.

Look at Dragon’s Crown, decried as sexist for the Sorceress character and, sometimes, the Amazon.  They complain about the Sorceress’ big breasts, her jiggle physics and… well, everything about her.  But here’s the question.  Why are they ignoring the Archer.  The Archer is a modestly dressed female playable character with smaller breasts. And yet they make it all about the Sorceress.  Shouldn’t it be a GOOD thing to have a wide variety of women to play?  A busty feminine character, a muscular female character and a modest female character?  It gives you choice.

No, they zeroed in on the Sorceress because, to them, a character who is sexy and has big breasts cannot be tolerated.  Even if there is player choice, even if there is the option of playing a modest character as well.

Look at Soul Calibur. Who are the two characters that get decried all the time?  Taki and Ivy, Ivy usually.  I wonder why….

Oh right.  But you never hear about how the game offers you different choices.  You never hear about Talim, who has a small bust.  Or Cassandra or Phyrra, who are reasonably dressed.  You don’t hear about Hilde, who is in full plate mail.  Don’t hear about Lexia or Amy, who are flat.

No, it is all about Ivy. Because despite the game having a HUGE roster of women who are not super busty and super skimpy, Ivy is a problem. You can’t have a sexy woman in the game, can’t have a woman who is perfectly fine being sexy and powerful.

Ivy is problematic to these people.  No, it doesn’t matter that you can choose somebody else.  It doesn’t matter at all.  She must be dragged down, covered up and shamed.  Because these people don’t care about women, they care about covering women up and discarding women one can describe as ‘classically sexy’.

Nevermind that so many women love to actually cosplay as Taki and Ivy.  No, it couldn’t be that they love those characters and, maybe, they like the fact that there are big breasted women who are powerful they can relate to.

Or what about Lara Croft? Years as gaming’s sex symbol, she’s reduced down to her body by these people and not the numerous successes she’s had, both in game and as a franchise.  No, thee people would rather just lump her into the ‘sexy’ group and throw her out.

 Women Must Fit Their Mold. Or Else.

Women must fit their mold. And I’m getting tired of it.  Even when characters AREN’T busty, like industry icons like Zelda and Peach, they must fall into a very specific mold.  Or else they are problematic and the developers deserve to be shamed over it.

Peach, the epitome of the “damsel” trope.  Peach isn’t allowed to be weak to these people.  Peach, a diplomat and debutant, must somehow be strong enough to take on Bowser by herself.  These people love to discount her character, how she’s loving and compassionate and gentle and fair.  How she has a strength of soul and heart, rather than strength of body.

Peach isn’t allowed to be a woman who likes to bake cakes and be girly.  She must be a warrior.  Even though not every woman can actually fit that role.  I know that if I was kidnapped, I wouldn’t be able to fight my way through an army to escape.  Peach isn’t allowed to just be a princess, to be a ruler.  And given how absolutely distraught her subjects are when she is kidnapped, I’d imagine she’s very much a well loved and well liked ruler.

Interesting side note. Notice how people complain about Peach being kidnapped and not Mario?  Despite Mario being damselled repeatedly?  Mario is Missing, Luigi’s Mansion 1 and 2, Super Princess Peach and I’m sure I’m missing more.  Apparently Mario is immune to being defined by being damselled, despite him having less of a personality than Peach does (seriously, Mario has no personality).

Conclusion

This is my problem with the so called criticisms about female portrayals in video games.  The people who love to complain about it seem to be inherently sex negative and puritanical.  It isn’t so much that there are women who AREN’T busty and sexualized, it’s that there are women who are portrayed as such.  And no matter what, apparently, those kinds of characters shouldn’t exist.

Want proof?  Look at this redesign being heralded as “the best thing ever” in many of these circles. Notice the fact that every redesign (Note: most of them being god awful) shrunk the bust of every woman there.  Oops, I guess women just aren’t allowed to have big breasts anymore.  Guess they’re ‘problematic’ despite the fact that we have characters like Juri Han, Millia Rage, May, Talim and Hsien-Ko all exist to offer different choices, right? Naw, we gotta make sure women are covered up and don’t have big breasts.

How these people don’t fucking see this as body shaming, as being overall harmful to women, is beyond me. I have body issues, I don’t have big breasts, I don’t have long legs, and I’m still not insecure and authoritarian enough to want to impress my own weakness on others.  

I like playing these characters.  I like playing as these characters.  I like the power fantasy.  And god help me, I like sexy women in video games.  I guess I’m just the ‘wrong kind of woman’ though.

Thank you for reading.  If you enjoyed this, let me kt me know and reblog. If you liked my perspective spread this to wherever you think people would also get something out of it.  Again, thank you for making it to the end and taking the time to go through this.

You can find my other post on a women in video games here.