It says something about feminism when a character having rocket-powered high heels in a video game is a hot-button issue, like this is the most important thing going for them at the moment
And these are the same tools who post shit like “gonna crush the patriarchy with my six-inch heels” too, you’d think that with Smash’s mostly-male roster they’d be in favor of it
You know there’s a difference in actual, real life women choosing what they wear, and a video game character being presented by writers in a certain way, right?
And no one is saying that Samus’s ridiculous, impractical, and laughable costume change is the BIGGEST MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE EVER. But it is, obviously, a VISIBLE one and offers a widely accessible platform to talk about the double standard of video game costuming.
Emphasis mine.
Gotta “love” all the people who suggest that by caring about things like video game character design feminism apparently lost its priorities (and somehow, shifted all focus from any other issues, cause heavens forbid the movement cared about multiple things at once!).
It’s totally not the other way round, right? That we see the actual impact that popculture products like videogames have on the society at large and do our best to spread awareness of it!
~Ozzie
So I hear you say that nearly every muscular man in media is a male power fantasy so I have been meaning to ask what is a woman power fantasy. I mean what criteria have to be met for a power fantasy for women since for a man the criteria is to be fit and attractive to look as said from your post here that Dolph Lundgren Ax here and Conan. I mean can’t a woman who is attractive and so skilled she can kill enemies without armor be a fantasy for women as well.
Wow, that’s some fundamentally loaded question…
The premise of asking for ultimate criteria of gendered power fantasy is kinda flawed… First, there are VERY different facets of indulging in the male fantasy. Let’s make it clear: strong, overly-muscular men aren’t the only representation of male power fantasy, they’re just the most obvious one, cause they’re extending the stereotype of maleness to ridiculous degrees. They appeal to the deep-rooted societal notion that male = stronger, that’s why to make the character seem powerful the designers exaggerate the “manly” aspects of the him.
But when it comes to female characters, it gets complicated.
The thing is, our culture tends to view things almost exclusively from the (straight) male point of view. Men try to extrapolate their own experiences onto us and assume that how they feel is how we feel. That’s why conventional female “power fantasy” either emulates the male one (butch warrior woman) or (more often) assumes that female power comes from controlling sexual availability to men. That’s where the sexy femme fatale warrior stereotype comes from. Men imagine that the only area where women can be in total control is sex.
Going back to the male power fantasy, it’s important to realize how Buff Warrior Dude type basically comes down to eliminating the fear of ever being threatened by other men. Notice how Sexy Warrior Babe type, instead of eliminating the fear women have (of being overpowered, assaulted etc.), feeds onto the fear men have (of being rejected and/or sexually controlled by women). That’s why villainesses are very likely to be portrayed in most sexual characters.
This disingenuous female power archetype is the result of filtering everything through male perspective.
To create a genuine power fantasy, female point of view must be applied and male one must be deconstructed. We can’t latch onto the simplistic and hurtful notion that associates maleness with strength and femaleness with weakness.
I touched upon this recently, but the genre of magical girl narrative is one of the basic deconstructions of that: the powers, weapons and outfits of the heroines are usually designed to be as girly as possible, so that monsters are defeated not with the male-coded brute strength, but with sparkly magic beams from pink, heart-shaped rods and jewelry. Things associated with the “weak” part of femaleness stereotype become the source of their power.
That said, it does not mean that no female character ever can find their strength in being butch or sexual. Just that those female power stereotypes (especially the sexual one) have so far been framed in how men see them and thus, problematic.
Also, Sexy Warrior Babe type of character is vastly overused, so it’s really hard to to make it work without looking like you’re playing it straight. That’s one of the reasons this blog exists.
~~~~
Big thanks to our dear friend ami-angelwings for helping me to put our collective female perspective on the subject to words.
~Ozzie
(Disclaimer: wincenworks is a cishet male so can only give information from observation and received from women who have spoken about the issue)
Firstly, the story of a character who is so badass that they can run into fights with no protection and be assured of a victory without injury is a pretty boring story. There’s no tension or drama if the outcome is pre-ordained – even less so if it’s only pre-ordained to justify a costuming decision.
Secondly, the buff barbarian look isn’t about selling men a fantasy of being fit and attractive (Conan is traditionally not a pretty man, he often gets injured and he’s not above wearing armor) – it’s about recognized as physically powerful and coded as a great warrior and one who is above caring what regular think of them. Howard wrote about the appeal of this aspect at length in letters and at least one artist has already explored what Red Sonja might look like if she was given the same visual coding Conan is.
Bikini armor on fictional women doesn’t project this, because after decades of it’s being used for senseless titilation, for Ms Male Characters and damsels who are to be rescued by manly men. They’re not designed with the intention of anything done, or having other primary traits other than “sexy” by Male Gaze standards.
This leads to (in case you missed it, at the top of the post you’re replying to):
See female power fantasy characters are meant to reflect female fantasies and it turns out women are people. So their fantasies tend to be more complicated than “look sexy to the assumed straight male audience and be do something badass to justify my position as ‘strong’ character”.
Thus a female character is more likely to read as a female power fantasy characters if she looks more like:
- Chief Judge Hershey
- Tank Girl
- X-Men’s Storm, with mohawk
- Lady Sif, as she’s been featured on BABD
- nihilnovisubsole ‘s Saints Row boss, Rosie
Than Tyris Flare, Fran or Shia.
That said, many characters who are wearing outfits that are not particularly power fantasy inducing have become female power fantasies to certain groups of women via particular traits, their personalities and their stories.
None of these function on the half-arsed justification of “I mean can’t a woman who is attractive and so skilled she can kill enemies without armor be a fantasy for women as well.“ They tend to be things more like “I’d like to treated with respect regardless of my body or how I dress, be feared by tough guys and able to smack them down if they threaten me.”
Most women, in my experience, are not really that adverse to the idea of having or wearing awesome armor which is why our “positive examples“ posts tend to get lots of love and we get awesome asks like this one from yondamoegi :
So in summary, the primary flaw with your argument is that women shouldn’t be expected to be for men’s benefit. The secondary flaw is that women actually aren’t expected to wear armor more than they are bikinis so have no reason to wish they could be free of armor.
– wincenworks
Repair His Armor
This blog is dedicated to show and change the looks of ridiculous male armors (and other outfits)…
This cracked me up!
No, really, there aren’t any male characters who wear ridiculous, illogical, revealing outfits! None at all!
/sarcasmOh wait, those are power fantasies, so they totally don’t count. It’s not like men are killing themselves because of the high expectations that society sets for them and that are being reinforced by video games… while feminists completely ignore this issue because these are so-called power fantasies, and also, “lol male tears”
What if I told you that it’s possible to do activism without erasing and ridiculing the problems of the opposite group
Wow, someone is grasping at straws here.
Do you have some actual things to say, or you are just going to do the good old “lol ur stupid end of story” way of arguing?
The day these outfits are seen as “default” and the day we need to objectify and sexualize every male character in ALL games/comics/etc possible, only for the sake of female gaze, then your argument would work. But it doesn’t. These are rare cases of silly armor/outfits. Men do not have to deal with this in every damn game they’re playing. They have something called -gasp- variety!
Your argument would also work if male characters were a minority and rarely ever portrayed as main character, but rather as an love interest or something sexy to look at and ONLY THAT. Or, if they ARE main character – they must look sexy, because you’re supposed to drool at them; not wanting to be like them — and they can’t even be on the cover of their own story.
The day I see more of this I’ll be happy, because then we’re treated as equals. But, for now, we’re not.
– Tica
“I found three shirtless men in video games, look at the male gender being oppressed! Sexism is over, y’all!”
Objectification and…Men?
by Jimquisition
For any guy that responds to women’s objectification in any media (yes, this video pertains to video games specifically, but it still applies to all other forms of media.) with “well men are objectified too!”, sit the fuck down and watch.Reblogging this because I’ve had this video submitted to me a bunch, and I conveniently saw this on my dash. 🙂
Jim makes the important distinction between idealization and objectification. Male characters are idealized in some ways, but as a power fantasy, are much more varied, and are created for straight cis men to see themselves as. They are idealized, but as the subject. Mainstream gaming is still typically created by straight men for straight men. It doesn’t mean there are never any problems with the way that’s done, how characters portrayed, or that that can’t be addressed, but it’s still an important distinction.
Female characters are made for men to want sexually, to look at, fantasize about, and to be attractive to the male gamer, even if they’re the protagonists. They’re meant as objects for the straight male audience. An example of this is when Jim pointed out in a previous video that publishers don’t want developers to have female characters in straight relationships because they’re meant for the (presumed to be straight male) player to think of as a potential girlfriend, and they fear the players would be turned off if she has sexual agency of her own.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
The Games of Chance: FEATURE – inequality in character design.
The Games of Chance: FEATURE – inequality in character design.
image by Redditor stareattheart
This is an all-around amazing article that on top of discussing the problem of sexist designs is sprinkled with great exemplifying images and quotes.
Very importantly, written from the male perspective and giving some insight on how would a man feel about representation of his gender if it was eqally sexualized and objectified as it is with women now.
Just ignore this one little line that uses word “feminism” (and “masculism”), the author didn’t really know the definition back then.
Why do a lot of people forget that boobs aren’t here for you. They are supposed to produce breast milk, not be sex objects.
It’s the question I ask myself all the time.
Of course being aroused by breasts is natural and by no means bad in itself, let’s make it clear. But our culture skewed the perception of breasts by overemphasizing their arbitrary* sexual value (*boobs are not necessary for sex to happen, after all). They’re treated like some kind of secondary genitals, while tabooing the actual function they’re designed for (feeding babies).
That’s the sad reason why on one hand a bare female breast is considered “indecent” to the point of shaming women from nursing in public places, while on the other hand they’re used as a shortcut for what straight male audience would (allegedly) instantly find appealing.
And as (horny) hetero men are somehow the default audience for most of entertainment media, boobs need to be bared, or at least emphasized beyond any logic (and beyond how science works) on every possible occasion, even when it makes little to no sense in context.
Frustration with above school of thought is one of the major reasons that this blog exists. You know there’s something wrong when it’s more important to show that a warrior character happens to have boobs than to apply some practical battle wear for them.