Thread by @GeneticJen

Every time I see disagreements on the sexualisation of women in videogames, the differences of opinion always seem to come down to the same thing: some people act like the characters are real

That might sound patronising but I don’t mean they literally believe the characters exist in the real world. I mean they think about their sexualisation in the context of them existing as real people and having agency

There are so many ways the arguments are made. For example, “some real people choose to dress like this character you are saying is overly sexualised so you want to police them too?” Umm no? Those people are real. They have a choice. They have agency

I’m not sure how that’s a sensible argument when the other woman in question was a fictional character deliberately designed by some guy in the real world

Two examples: one was a big Lara Croft fan saying she was never sexualised. I know, right? I’m all for a female protagonist in an action game, and Lara inspiring some people (me included). But there’s no reality in which she wasn’t overly sexualised

So people then say the earlier argument: some real people look and dress like Lara so are they overly and unnecessarily sexualised? But it’s not a valid comparison. Lara doesn’t have agency. She was designed to look this way by a guy

Ah, but there’s a quote from that guy saying she was never deliberately designed to be sexualised and that it’s just something marketing took and ran with. How fortunate for marketing that it was a look they could run with, huh?

But that’s not how it works. You can be sexist, racist, homophobic etc without realising you are. You can be fiercely anti those things and be part of the systems that encourage them. They can affect you and your actions without you realising. That’s how they do much damage!

Today I saw a really striking example. For context, there’s a game where lots women are unnecessarily sexualised in a very blatant way. The comment was about two specific characters who are both equally unnecessarily sexualised

In the story, one character is sexualised by a male character. She’s actually a robot and was created by him. He makes her wear stuff that’s so over the top that even the other characters are made to feel awkward about it, including the equally sexualised character

This isn’t just my opinion... it’s the story. It’s canon. She doesn’t know better and has no choice so doesn’t know the things she’s being made to wear are for her creators’ enjoyment and it’s amusing (or supposed to be) when the other characters are creeped out by this behaviour

The comment I saw today was about the other character. She isn’t a robot with a creator, she has agency and choice (although she’s also literally the main character’s sword lol). That’s supposedly why the scene is funny and why she can recognise the awkwardness

The person said it’s only creepy for the first character because she’s created by some guy and designed to look the way she does for the male gaze. The other character isn’t his robot and makes her own choices so her outfits and design aren’t creepy

But... she’s not actually real. She doesn’t really have agency or make choices. The attempted contrast between the characters is based on an in-game, in-universe, fictional explanation...

My problem is that both characters are creations by a REAL guy and are literally designed to look the way they do. They’re equal. Neither have agency or choice. What’s frustrating is the person could see why that’s creepy for one of them since they’re a creation in the story

If they’re defending the unnecessarily sexualised character design by appealing to the character ability to make their own choices in the story, they’re defending the behaviour of the games’ creators by appealing the behaviour of the games’ creators

It’s not unnecessary and overly sexualised character design because the story told me she’s ok with it! See, she’s happy! It says right here in the script!

So it’s like I said at the start... it’s like these people think the characters are real. Imagine acknowledging it’s creepy for only one character because she doesn’t have a choice but not recognising that all of the characters are fictional creations and none have agency

The people who are actually real include the people, men in this case, designing the characters to be unnecessarily sexualised and the women and girls who are playing

Anyway, good morning, have a nice day

Sorry to continue the typo rant but three other things:

1. If someone points out unnecessary sexualisation of women in a game, they don’t necessarily hate the game. Not everyone starts with liking or disliking first then engaging just to attack or defend

I’d go further and say that sometimes people point out shit portrayals of women in media BECAUSE they love that media. They’re not “just haters”. The game above with the robot lady? I love the game. So much good about it. That makes the sexualisation suck even more

2. If someone finds it creepy that a guy designs women in the shallowest ways to look and act with only the male gaze in mind it doesn’t make them a prude at all. That same person could be posting nudes on OnlyFans and there’s no contradiction here

3. Men can point out over-the-top, unnecessary sexualisation of women and feel uncomfortable about it too. That’s the tweet. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a “white knight” or “trying to fuck some feminists”. Men are capable of seeing sexism against women

If the counter to their points is just “lol you know the feminists won’t fuck you for this” then you’re a part of the problem and it suggests you don’t have a genuine point to make beyond feeling personally attacked that some guy has an opinion about a thing you like

Leaving a good video here by @ludiscere that highlights a lot of these last points (subscribe, he’s got a good Hades video coming!)

About those last points:

1. Video’s creator is a man who recognises the sexualisation
2. He genuinely likes the game, it’s not just about hating on things
3. So many comments calling him sexist, prude, white knight etc

Why sexist? Why would you call someone sexist against women if they’re uncomfortable about unequal sexualisation of women? Because as I’ve been saying these people are acting like the characters are real and you’re robbing them of making their own choices

And this, whether it’s done deliberately or not 👇🏻

https://twitter.com/amandaweisbrod/status/1364168137189556231