Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
That Little Demon
Dec 3, 2020
I want to get out of the way that I am a sex positive feminist, and when I criticise sexualized female character designs, it has nothing to do with prudishness or slut-shaming or anything like that; instead, it comes from a place of frustration, because how the hell are we supposed to combat sexism in gaming when one of the biggest examples of that--that serves to both reinforce and reflect sexist viewpoints--is consistently let slide?

Because yes, if you have a game where all the dudes are covered from head to toe and your one female character is running around in a trash bag bikini and looking thoroughly uncomfortable about it, it's sexist. It reinforces the (already widespread, particularly in gaming "culture") idea that women are objects who exist solely for male titillation and pleasure. It's not "puritanism", it's wanting to be treated like goddamn people.

There's nothing wrong with a female character wearing a bikini if, for example, a game is set on a beach, and the male characters are in their swimming trunks. Complaining about that would be prudishness, and a little ridiculous. But it often seems like developers are so desperate for boobs that they're willing to break the audience's suspension of disbelief and hurt their own narrative in the process, and it's like, wow, do you really want to objectify women that badly? Can't you just leave us alone for five loving minutes? Because Quiet breathing through her skin is not a compelling reason for a trash bag bikini, within the narrative or outside of it. If you really, really want to stick with the skin-breathing, gently caress, just dress her in a sports bra and running shorts. At least that would be practical, and not grossly out of character. Cindy is a mechanic in the loving desert who walks around in hot pants and a bikini top, because she has grease-repelling skin that never burns, I guess. Meanwhile, Noctis and co. roll up in jeans and t-shirts. It's like, okay, we get it, this game is for dudes and the women are there for eye candy. Can we stop now, please? We're just so loving tired of this. And then we get steamrolled by dudes who barge in and try to insist that this poo poo is actually empowering and we're just prudes, and, like, we get it, you don't want anyone to take your boobs away, stop pretending it's some righteous cause, thanks.

(I've talked about objectified female characters in gaming before, and I have received some amazing responses: I'm jealous because I'm a fat ugly loser; I have no idea what I'm talking about and Quiet wearing a trash bag bikini is actually empowering and feminist; "ohmygod why are you trying to take away my BEWBS"... you get the idea. Still, hopefully this time will go a little better.)

i used to give a gently caress about making these ops seem professional so the Gamers wouldn't be scared away but i dont give a gently caress anymore so here's the lowdown:
women & women-aligned ppl (henceforth referred to as women for brevity) are sick and tired of being treated like sacks of meat for the consumption of the cishet male gaze
this thread is a safe space for discussion and venting by and for women. non-women ARE allowed to participate but only if they behave themselves. bullshit WILL be actioned by mods.
despite the title (which is a holdover from the original) this is a thread for feminist discussion of all aspects of video games, not just character designs
and some pre-emptive rebuttals (revised edition):

"you'd get more people on ur side if you weren't such a rude bitch" i literally don't give a gently caress
"something something pussy heat sink something something words and deeds" it's time to stop posting
"but her rear end IS part of her character!" "dummy thicc" isn't a myers-briggs type
"sex sells" repeatedly proven not to be the case but go off i guess
"lol i love teh bewbs" good for you. gently caress off
"lmao dumb feminazis trying to censor games" it's not censoring. it's criticism. it's asking to be treated like goddamn people.
"you're a prude" i'm a sex-positive feminist. that means i support women's right to control over their own bodies without judgement. that does not extend to 1000 year old loli dragons designed by and for men to get their nasty rocks off.
"wHaT iF sHe ChOsE tO wEaR iT????????" she's not loving real you drooling bottomfeeder, she can't decide anything because she's a fictional construct!!!! she's a bunch of pixels!!!! she has no agency!!!!
"men are sexualised too" call me when we get dick physics in video games, then we'll talk about male sexualisation.
"vote with your wallet" gee it's almost like this is an epidemic in gaming and finding games in the genre we like, with gameplay we like, a story we like, characters we like, and no bullshit designs anywhere to be found is a loving sisyphean task. loving great games have this problem. skyrim? dragon age origins? boob armour. boob armour everywhere. if we voted with our wallets we wouldn't be able to play loving anything
"my wife/girlfriend/sister/daughter/gardener/friend's cousin's sister-in-law's mother's dog's walker's chemist doesn't think it's sexist!" then she can come on here and make an account and speak for her own drat self, can't she? assuming she actually exists, of course
"lmao typical prudish americans, in MY sexually liberated country we don't care about these things!!" i'm not american. a vast proportion of the women in this thread are not american. this is a universal problem
"you don't speak for all women!!!!11!1!" neither do you. now what?




Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

That Little Demon
Dec 3, 2020

SpaceAceJase
Nov 8, 2008

and you
have proved
to be...

a real shitty poster,
and a real james
I'm sex positive.
positively down for more hot babes in my videogames

----------------
This thread brought to you by a tremendous dickhead!

Wormskull
Aug 23, 2009

I don’t want to read this crap.

mycophobia
May 7, 2008
thanks op

Leadthumb
Mar 24, 2006

I tried to read the whole thing. I read the bingo cards cause those are pictures.




PS this post is impervious to Flames because of the flame proofer. :)

Plebian Parasite
Oct 12, 2012

Wormskull posted:

I don’t want to read this crap.

Arrhythmia
Jul 22, 2011

Leadthumb posted:

I tried to read the whole thing. I read the bingo cards cause those are pictures.

I didn't read it but I read the bingo cards.

symbolic
Nov 2, 2014

5

Daikatana Ritsu
Aug 1, 2008

didn't read anything ITT but it's because they're ugly, OP

That Little Demon
Dec 3, 2020
Have we talked much about the new Avengers game? Kamala is really cool and positive, but I'm also finding Black Widow a lot more palatable than I ever did in the movies. She has a really large variety of costumes many of which are not super sexy, and her writing as a character doesn't have anything that could possibly approach the level of how bad she was in age of ultron.

She of course still has the option to equip a skin tight outfit with a plunging neckline, but at least as a player if I want to play black widow I have the option to put her in something like these instead.

That Little Demon
Dec 3, 2020

Daikatana Ritsu posted:

didn't read anything ITT but it's because they're ugly, OP

PLEASE see my preemptive rebuttals, thank you!

symbolic
Nov 2, 2014

That Little Demon posted:

Have we talked much about the new Avengers game? Kamala is really cool and positive, but I'm also finding Black Widow a lot more palatable than I ever did in the movies. She has a really large variety of costumes many of which are not super sexy, and her writing as a character doesn't have anything that could possibly approach the level of how bad she was in age of ultron.

She of course still has the option to equip a skin tight outfit with a plunging neckline, but at least as a player if I want to play black widow I have the option to put her in something like these instead.



That Little Demon
Dec 3, 2020

Cubone
May 26, 2011

Because it never leaves its bedroom, no one has ever seen this poster's real face.

That Little Demon posted:

call me when we get dick physics in video games
call me, too

That Little Demon
Dec 3, 2020

some plague rats
Jun 5, 2012

by Fluffdaddy
Burlap sack cosmetic DLC for every game. There's your million dollar idea.

----------------
This thread brought to you by a tremendous dickhead!

Larry Parrish
Jul 9, 2012

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
:gas:

----------------
This thread brought to you by a tremendous dickhead!

trying to jack off
Dec 31, 2007


chiropractors are absolute quacks so no surprises there. a qualified physio would correct her posture while retaining the popping rear end

That Little Demon
Dec 3, 2020

Mods? Let’s get this bigot banned please

Alaois
Feb 7, 2012

Wormskull posted:

I don’t want to read this crap.

Joan
Mar 28, 2021

That Little Demon posted:

"something something pussy heat sink something something words and deeds" it's time to stop posting

:dafuq:

Wormskull
Aug 23, 2009

trying to jack off posted:

chiropractors are absolute quacks so no surprises there. a qualified physio would correct her posture while retaining the popping rear end

P-Mack
Nov 10, 2007

Plutonis
Mar 25, 2011

trying to jack off posted:

chiropractors are absolute quacks so no surprises there. a qualified physio would correct her posture while retaining the popping rear end

Wormskull
Aug 23, 2009

Dongicus
Jun 12, 2015

polygon guy recoiling from the screen after seeing a titty in yakuza

----------------
This thread brought to you by a tremendous dickhead!

Pablo Nergigante
Apr 16, 2002

trying to jack off posted:

chiropractors are absolute quacks so no surprises there. a qualified physio would correct her posture while retaining the popping rear end

Dongicus posted:

polygon guy recoiling from the screen after seeing a titty in yakuza

Fungah!
Apr 30, 2011

trying to jack off posted:

chiropractors are absolute quacks so no surprises there. a qualified physio would correct her posture while retaining the popping rear end

Dongicus posted:

polygon guy recoiling from the screen after seeing a titty in yakuza

In Training
Jun 28, 2008

Wormskull posted:

I don’t want to read this crap.

Yup. Read the bingo card however.

Wormskull
Aug 23, 2009

I am loling at the phrase “words and deeds”. I consider this a confusing success, OP. :confuoot:

mysterious loyall X
Jul 8, 2003

Wormskull posted:

I don’t want to read this crap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E4StlboB48&t=51s

Wormskull
Aug 23, 2009

Daikatana Ritsu
Aug 1, 2008


Trolls get destroyed on the daily.

Fungah!
Apr 30, 2011

Sleng Teng
May 3, 2009

I got the tude now
Jul 22, 2007

elf help book
Aug 5, 2004

Though the battle might be endless, I will never give up
Why women

Hitlersaurus Christ
Oct 14, 2005


Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Wormskull
Aug 23, 2009


Haha, FAIL!

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply