Tag: double standards

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6 Ridiculous Excuses Game Designers Gave For Sexist Costumes

6 Ridiculous Excuses Game Designers Gave For Sexist Costumes

Video games feature more scantily-clad women than a ladies’ gym changing room, and worse excuses than a cameraman hiding there in the corner.

A similar piece to another Cracked list we shared before. If lists some of the characters we featured before on the blog, like Quiet, Cortana or Ivy.

~Ozzie

There is one important criticism I want to address with this article, specifically the handling of spot #1.  Bayonetta.  That is, even if you find an example where you think it’s better or avoids the hazards of the others – do not take it upon yourself to give it an official “not sexist” stamp.  Seriously.

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While it’s true that Bayonetta is a rarity in that she gets a role and attitude normally reserved for male characters, there’s still plenty of problems with her character concept and the principles behind the design.  That and it’s not a coincidence that it was the female character who was to be defined by being “sexy” instead of “cool”.  

Their confession that they wanted her to be sexy doesn’t make their explanation that somehow she doesn’t wear clothes because she can make clothes out of hair except when she’s launching her most powerful attacks (ie the time when you really don’t want to be exposed).

There’s always a temptation to believe that things we enjoy and that seem to be flawless and that because we know a thing means that we can declare it to be “not problematic” because we know something others don’t – but that’s really just another line of bullshit.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that Dante’s “cool” factor comes from him being the son of the greatest hero in history, and so badass he can take down monsters of unimaginable power.  Hence the confidence boost and the willingness to focus on style over efficiency.

With Bayonetta the only reason for her being defined by sexiness… is they wanted to cram more “sex appeal” (targeting cishet men as always) into it while also wanted to be taken seriously as a Devil May Cry type action game because as long as we say it’s sexy, it can’t be sexist right? Glossing over her exposure is not one of the things that makes moves like this awesome:

Whether you like the game or not, that’s all kinds of bullshit and the games don’t deserve a free pass because because the creator admits the blatantly obvious (while still adding layers of bullshit so as to claim “creativity”).

– wincenworks

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coelasquid:

I am mostly convinced this was kind of a happy accident rather than intentional worldbuilding, but this here’s a thing I get a kick out of regarding Gerudo fashion;

In Gerudo society, this is women’s armour that armoured warriors would wear;

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When you crack even the regular not-Nabooru Iron Kuckles open there’s a unique, not-Nabooru Gerudo lady inside of them, Iron Knuckles are covered in Gerudo motifs, this is all around a pretty Gerudo construct.

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BUT, this is Ganondorf’s armour when he was young and functioning as their king;

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We got a skin tight black leather catsuit under sculpted muscle leather armour topped off with thigh-high boots. Ganondorf comparatively wears the masculine equivalent to form-fitting titty breastplates. I’d go so far as to say this is like the Gerudo saying “But if they can’t see his sweet abs and manly, narrow hips how will they know he’s a guy? Better hammer some pecs into that chest plate just to be sure. Put some weird beads on his big bulgy biceps, it’ll draw people’s attention and he’ll get the upper hand while they’re distracted.”

The in-universe implications of of the character with the most aggressively on-display masculine secondary sex characteristics also being the character who was most likely dressed by women are kind of interesting to consider. It’s kind of taking “male power fantasy” and looping it around into some kind of “strong male character”  situation, like some Gerudo fashion designer is standing there all “okay, so the fabric might not breathe at all and you’ll probably get your sternum crushed by the first guy who tries to punch you in the chest, but just get a load of how masculine and empowered you look!”

Wouldn’t it be nice if someone did female society worldbuilding deliberately and unironically like that?

Matriarchal society (say, drows?) where female warrior attire is designed with functionality and coolness in mind, while male fighters are dressed to look as masculine and conventionally attractive to the women as possible.

It’s quite sad that no-one in the mainstream media seems willing to try the idea.

~Ozzie

(ht: @lightlunas)

Posted on

coelasquid:

I am mostly convinced this was kind of a happy accident rather than intentional worldbuilding, but this here’s a thing I get a kick out of regarding Gerudo fashion;

In Gerudo society, this is women’s armour that armoured warriors would wear;

image

When you crack even the regular not-Nabooru Iron Kuckles open there’s a unique, not-Nabooru Gerudo lady inside of them, Iron Knuckles are covered in Gerudo motifs, this is all around a pretty Gerudo construct.

image

BUT, this is Ganondorf’s armour when he was young and functioning as their king;

image

We got a skin tight black leather catsuit under sculpted muscle leather armour topped off with thigh-high boots. Ganondorf comparatively wears the masculine equivalent to form-fitting titty breastplates. I’d go so far as to say this is like the Gerudo saying “But if they can’t see his sweet abs and manly, narrow hips how will they know he’s a guy? Better hammer some pecs into that chest plate just to be sure. Put some weird beads on his big bulgy biceps, it’ll draw people’s attention and he’ll get the upper hand while they’re distracted.”

The in-universe implications of of the character with the most aggressively on-display masculine secondary sex characteristics also being the character who was most likely dressed by women are kind of interesting to consider. It’s kind of taking “male power fantasy” and looping it around into some kind of “strong male character”  situation, like some Gerudo fashion designer is standing there all “okay, so the fabric might not breathe at all and you’ll probably get your sternum crushed by the first guy who tries to punch you in the chest, but just get a load of how masculine and empowered you look!”

Wouldn’t it be nice if someone did female society worldbuilding deliberately and unironically like that?

Matriarchal society (say, drows?) where female warrior attire is designed with functionality and coolness in mind, while male fighters are dressed to look as masculine and conventionally attractive to the women as possible.

It’s quite sad that no-one in the mainstream media seems willing to try the idea.

~Ozzie

(ht: @lightlunas)

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World of Warcraft (the Movie)

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clearlyiwaswrong submitted:

I don’t know if you’d seen these already but my eyes just rolled into the back of my head. Thanks for the crotch shot.

And of course the male equivalent is the opposite of sexualised. 

image

Those posters sum up PERFECTLY the problem with gendered double standard in depicting fictional characters and how it traverses through various media, as an MMO gets adapted into a movie.

Everything about those characters that should be equal, isn’t: makeup, costume, posing.

@nicholaskole took notice way back of how male orcs are big and unequivocally monstrous, while female ones are just conventionally pretty ladies painted green with small fangs (and that Garona’s mixed ancestry is not given justice either). Basically this:

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Also reminds me strongly of @krudman’s take on sexual dimorphism in character design.

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We assure you, WoW the Movie, designing big badass orc women (and/or sexualized orc men) isn’t that hard! We have a couple examples in our orc tag.

~Ozzie

edit: A number of people have rushed to remind us that in according to the character’s particular lore, she’s a half orc.  While correct, this doesn’t address any of the key problems such as her pose and attire, that audiences unfamiliar with the lore won’t know that or that the character is essentially promoted as a sexy orc-like lady in juxtaposition to a powerful, well protected and dangerous orc man.

Posted on

World of Warcraft (the Movie)

image

clearlyiwaswrong submitted:

I don’t know if you’d seen these already but my eyes just rolled into the back of my head. Thanks for the crotch shot.

And of course the male equivalent is the opposite of sexualised. 

image

Those posters sum up PERFECTLY the problem with gendered double standard in depicting fictional characters and how it traverses through various media, as an MMO gets adapted into a movie.

Everything about those characters that should be equal, isn’t: makeup, costume, posing.

@nicholaskole took notice way back of how male orcs are big and unequivocally monstrous, while female ones are just conventionally pretty ladies painted green with small fangs (and that Garona’s mixed ancestry is not given justice either). Basically this:

image

Also reminds me strongly of @krudman’s take on sexual dimorphism in character design.

image

We assure you, WoW the Movie, designing big badass orc women (and/or sexualized orc men) isn’t that hard! We have a couple examples in our orc tag.

~Ozzie

edit: A number of people have rushed to remind us that in according to the character’s particular lore, she’s a half orc.  While correct, this doesn’t address any of the key problems such as her pose and attire, that audiences unfamiliar with the lore won’t know that or that the character is essentially promoted as a sexy orc-like lady in juxtaposition to a powerful, well protected and dangerous orc man.