Okay, now we’ve all been assured that Mercy’s sexy witch outfit was not even a little bit sexualized or made to pander to a particular demographic…
…and that Blizzard only makes these special events for “fun” and certainly not as part of a larger strategy to make money and promote themselves…
…let’s talk about the other aspect of the Halloween event: White washing and placing a lower value on characters of color, especially female characters of color (so much so they forget that they’re skin is brown).
For those already frantically typing apologies:
- Hanzo got to keep his tattoos, they even recolored them for him to better fit his “demon” persona (and his grey skin tone matches his regular)
- So how many of you noticed that Pharah, Symmetra and Hanzo are
Possessed ,Vampire and Demon respectively but
generic white guySoldier 76 is “immortal”? That’s not generic “Immortal” that’s “homage to Michael Jackson’s Thriller” btw. - Now you’ve typed your bit about the Summer Games Event did you happen to notice how Mei got completely left out of that too?
- So Symmetra’s vampire form having pale white skin is not whitewashing… Because all vampires/undead ever, regardless ethnicity, are supposed to be pale white? How so? Who makes up rules on how vampires work other than people who write them? Regardless of so many better options? If we’re obligated to imitate previous imagery, why don’t more vampires look like Count Orlock?
- Lastly, Blizzard recently announced they’re going to make potentially dramatic changes to one character to make them viable (and they don’t yet seem to be sure what changes those will be). Can you guess which character? If you guessed the brown lady in the sexy cocktail dress who’s recently been white-washed for Halloween you’d be right!
Here’s the reality: Blizzard makes games with a very big focus on making money, and with Overwatch they’ve been promoting themselves as being more concerned about representation – but they haven’t been following through. Not for women, not for other cultures and not for people of color. It’s basically an going mess of glorification of white men at the expense of others, this leads to a certain demographic having a relationship with the media that’s well…
tl;dr: Blizzard’s depictions of women in general are terrible, but their treatment of female characters of color is even worse. Blizzard is pretty blatant about using brown skin tones as an optional accessory in their ongoing quest to make money via highly commercial video games and that is not okay no matter how many half-arsed excuses are made on their behalf.
– wincenworks
Half mark on thigh highs… because while they’re her sock/stockings they’re made of leather so they basically have all of the hazards of being boots. Nothing like the male equivalent is well, none of the guys got sexy costumes.
It is worth noting that there was an issue with this skin that Blizzard has since addressed, one so big it made gaming news headlines:
The tweak? Well people were upset that Witch Mercy still kept her traditional tagline of “Heroes never die!” instead of antagonist Witch Mercy’s tagline of “My servants never die!”
Because yeah we didn’t mention that, the reason she got this novelty skin is because she’s an enemy in the new Halloween game mode… she’s not really part of the story or anything, but she’s an enemy.
Thank goodness they fixed that up!
– wincenworks
Half mark on thigh highs… because while they’re her sock/stockings they’re made of leather so they basically have all of the hazards of being boots. Nothing like the male equivalent is well, none of the guys got sexy costumes.
It is worth noting that there was an issue with this skin that Blizzard has since addressed, one so big it made gaming news headlines:
The tweak? Well people were upset that Witch Mercy still kept her traditional tagline of “Heroes never die!” instead of antagonist Witch Mercy’s tagline of “My servants never die!”
Because yeah we didn’t mention that, the reason she got this novelty skin is because she’s an enemy in the new Halloween game mode… she’s not really part of the story or anything, but she’s an enemy.
Thank goodness they fixed that up!
– wincenworks
Good stuff. Thanks @shattered-earth
oh my god more gifs yes thanks also you’re welcome
Remember that Deadpool pec mousepad we featured some time ago? @shattered-earth also contributed to reclaiming grope-y mousepads by people interested in men with those very limited (and sold out in preorders) Overwatch bros.
The extra effort put into Hanzo pec wrist pillows actually getting manufactured in pectoral shape makes me see his appeal, which so often was claimed to balance out how generically sexy almost every female Overwatch character is.
Too bad Blizzard isn’t in a hurry to officially display male heroes like that and make the equivalence real.
As always, male and female empowerment gets to be truly balanced only through fan activity.
~Ozzie