Anita Sarkeesian - All the Slender Ladies: Body Diversity in Video Games

 
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At their annual Blizzcon event in 2014, the wildly successful game development company Blizzard Entertainment showed off a new game they had in the works called Overwatch. And from that first reveal, it was clear: the appeal of Overwatch resided in its cast of characters, a diverse assortment of heroes, each with unique traits and abilities. The roster revealed at Blizzcon included men and women, sentient robots and super-intelligent gorillas. However, for all the apparent variety and diversity in the heroes Blizzard showed off at the game’s debut, there wasn’t much diversity to be seen in the body types represented by the female heroes.

The male characters introduced that day included the towering knight Reinhardt, the sturdy engineer Torbjorn, the agile archer Hanzo, and the hulking simian scientist Winston, among others. The five female characters introduced consisted of the slender adventurer Tracer, the slender healer Mercy, the slender support character Symmetra, the slender sniper Widowmaker, and the slender but well-armored security chief Pharah.

Overwatch was hardly alone in having all of its female characters share a similar physique. In Ultra Street Fighter IV, characters such as Dhalsim, Hakan, E. Honda, Rufus and Vega represent a significant range of male body types. Looking at the roster of female characters, however, while some may be a bit taller than others or have…slightly larger thighs, not one of them represents a notable departure from the slender body type that has been established as the standard of conventional female attractiveness.

Similarly, when we look at the champions on offer in the hugely popular MOBA League of Legends, we see the designers employing a wonderful range of body shapes and proportions across dozens of male characters, from the classic muscular warrior physique of Taric to the hefty beer belly of Gragas to the cartoonishly disproportionate body of Dr. Mundo. There isn’t any one male body type that is presented as the standard, default male body type, and the value of these characters is definitely not connected to their sexual desirability. However, when we look at the female heroes, there’s nothing approaching the diversity we see on the male side of the roster. There are a few noteworthy variations from the standard–Illaoi is somewhat more muscular than many of the female characters, Jinx has smaller breasts, and there’s the cute, gnome-like Tristana. But the overwhelming majority of female characters make it clear that a slender figure with prominent breasts is viewed as the standard for female character design.

Likewise, in Dota 2, male heroes can be handsome or comical, outlandish or grotesque, while female heroes are mostly relegated to being standard humanoid characters with conventionally attractive facial features. Where are all the female rock creatures, skeletal priests, and…whatever this thing is?

This isn’t just an issue in fighting games, MOBAs, and other titles that give players a range of characters to choose from. Female characters across the board are often limited to that same specific body type.

CLIP: Batman; Arkham City
“I should kill you…”

CLIP: Dishonored
“Doing all right there?”

CLIP: The 3rd Birthday
“Stay away from her!”

CLIP: Devil May Cry 4
“Sure you want to let him go?”

CLIP: Dead or Alive Xtreme 2
“[singing] You are…”

CLIP: Blades of Time
‘[grunt]”

CLIP: Primal
“And this guy wants me to trust him.”

It’s as if male characters are free to embody whatever physique best communicates their personality or abilities, but when it comes to the designs of female characters, that kind of imagination and creativity often doesn’t seem to exist. Rather than seeing such an exciting range of female characters, we mostly get the same body type over and over again: one designed to be sexually appealing to the presumed straight male player.

This reliance on the same body type for so many female characters isn’t just boring, it’s harmful. It links our value as human beings within the culture to our desirability to men, and it reinforces our culturally influenced ideas about who gets to be considered desirable and who doesn’t. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that, when we do see representations of women with different body types, they’re often presented as a joke, as in Fat Princess, or they’re pathologized and presented as a twisted transgression of the established feminine ideal, as in the case of the evil lesbian psychopath Jo Slade in Dead Rising.

CLIP: Dead Rising
“Let’s see just how shameless you are, you dirty little skank! Say hello to my little fried!”
“No, not again!”

When the majority of women who populate these game worlds are designed from the same narrow template, the problem isn’t just what we’re seeing in games. It’s what we’re not seeing. The fact that fat women and women with different body shapes aren’t featured in these worlds reinforces the false notion that these women are less valuable and less worthy of recognition than those women whose bodies come closer to matching the cultural beauty standard.

These limitations on creativity when it comes to female characters don’t stop with body type. We also don’t see the same range of ages commonly represented as we do with male characters. It’s not unheard of to see male soldiers, fighters and heroes who appear to be in their 40s, 50s, or even older.

CLIP: The Last of Us
“You’re right.”

Playable female characters, on the other hand, are almost always young, and it’s for the same reason that so many of them have the same body type: they’re intended to be sexually appealing to straight male players. The result is that we have plenty of representations of male characters who communicate that men can continue to be active, vital and powerful over the course of their lives. Meanwhile, the absence of older playable female characters wrongly suggests that women’s value is tied directly to their beauty and youth, and that when they’re older, that value is all used up.

There aren’t many good examples of prominent, positive representations of women with different body types in major contemporary games. In Life Is Strange, there’s the minor character Alyssa, a classmate of Max, the protagonist.

CLIP: Life is Strange
“Oh, by the way, Warren said you borrowed his epic film flash drive. I didn’t know you were a sci-fi geek like us. What’s your favorite?”

In Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, there’s Agnes MacBean, owner of the train which becomes the heroes’ base of operations.

CLIP: Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
“And may I present to you, Agnes and Bertha: lady and locomotive.”

And in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, Kreia is a great example of a capable, powerful older female character.

CLIP: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II
“I am Kreia, and I am your rescuer. As you are mine.”

CLIP: Overwatch Trailer
“Ana, reporting for duty.”

Let’s go back to Overwatch for a moment. Since that initial reveal, a few female heroes have been added to the roster. There’s Mei and Zarya, both of whom have body types that are notably different from those of the originally announced female characters. And more recently, Blizzard announced the game’s next hero, Ana, who is both an older woman and a woman of color. These characters are welcome and encouraging additions, but really, they’re just a start. Game developers need to continue actively working toward creating the same range and diversity in female body representation that we see among male characters. When female characters’ bodies are liberated from the need to uphold narrow, limiting cultural beauty standards, the resulting range of representations can not only make games themselves more interesting; it can encourage us to see all women as the desirable, autonomous, fully human individuals that we are.

This was actually posted a few weeks ago. I never bothered sharing it, though, because on this rare occasion, I found myself almost completely disagreeing with her. For once, I didn't think it was a very good video.

But then I thought, why should that stop me from posting it here?
Last Edit: September 22, 2016, 01:14:57 PM by Verbatim


 
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You either die a hero or live long enough to become Mythic..
I'm honestly too tired to say too much but most of the games she talks about have all the characters needing the ability to fight and be strong.
Males generally are more physical in nature, so different body types can still put up a good fight.
While, as bad as it sounds, I doubt a 250lb woman could go to the same standards.

Mei? Yeah possibly. Zarya? Dear god I don't wanna fight her, she'll rip me in half.

It's not sexist it's a fact. Generally most men of many body types are capable of physical combat to some degree while women tend to not have that ability, but instead are better intellectually and emotionally. A smart woman in good shape? Deadly.


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Cant watch the video right now, buut:

I mean those female characters that she picked out all have the same-ish body types, but a lot of the male ones are same-ish, too.

Genji, Hanzo, McCree, Reaper, and Soldier are pretty much the same height, muscularity, etc. and she's arguing as if  Zarya, Mei and Ana don't exist.

In recognizing a pattern, she's definitely not wrong, but she's arguing that there's ZERO diversity (when she says something like "all of their female characters") which isn't true.  She's picking a handful of the male cast (either gigantuan Reinheart, or stumpy Torbjoen) to point out diversity among men, and ignoring the (albeit smaller) handful of diverse women (the tall and muscular woman, the short and chubby woman, and the old lady).
Last Edit: September 22, 2016, 12:32:07 PM by Coco


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Genji, Hanzo, McCree, Reaper, and Soldier are pretty much the same height, muscularity, etc. and she's arguing as if  Zarya, Mei and Ana don't exist.

In recognizing a pattern, she's definitely not wrong, but she's arguing that there's ZERO diversity

Try reading the last paragraph.

OT: I can somewhat understand why women are represented in a more narrow range of ages and body types; women lose physicality more rapidly as they age than men do, though I couldn't speak for whether that's intended by developers' design. That said, the "slenderness" she kept bringing up is moot -- Hanzo, Genji, McCree, Soldier, Reaper, Junkrat, and Lucio all basically have the same body type, varying somewhat in the shape of clothes and height, and even including Winston as a male character is silly since he isn't a human...unless we're also supposed to be concerned with toxic gorilla masculinity.
Last Edit: September 22, 2016, 12:45:52 PM by TurquíaHiriente


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I love you, son.
im glad she mentioned kreia, but i disagree with the overall message


fallout 4 lets you play as a fat woman though


 
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This video made me realize one thing--there's not a single character in Overwatch whose design I like. Not even a little.


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Last Edit: September 22, 2016, 01:34:39 PM by Iberian Husky


 
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Who the fuck wants to play as some fat bitch?
That's pretty much my feelings on the matter.

It's not that I'm opposed to playing as x body type, though. I just like playing as cool characters. I couldn't give a fuck less about a character's fitness, musculature, or physique. It just so happens that the easiest (and perhaps best) way to make a cool character is to design them as though they don't have a three-course meal every day.

Women should be less sexualized for sure, but I don't think they should be made hamjupiters for the sake of having hamjupiters. That doesn't scream "body diversity" as much as it screams things like "tokenism" and "pandering."
Last Edit: September 22, 2016, 01:40:22 PM by Verbatim


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just want to chime in on the fat character thing with something

the reason you see fat men like gragas as characters more than fat women is because fat men are generally seen as something funny to be laughed at and portraying a fat woman is generally seen as mean spirited on the part of the author/developer/whatever

until this changes you're going to be seeing a lot more fat men in vidya than you are fat women


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1st page of a "quality" thread.


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1st page of a "quality" thread.

And what quality threads do you contribute that are oh so above this one? Did you even read the post?


 
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1st page of a "quality" thread.
What?
he's under the impression that this thread is going to spiral out of control, even though my last three or four anita threads were relatively calm and short-lived


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MAN MY AVATAR IS NICE ON A BIG SCREEN
i always found your bright red style to be a bit of an eyesore, just saying


 
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This video made me realize one thing--there's not a single character in Overwatch whose design I like. Not even a little.
um reinhart and mcree are best girls


 
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Goodness gracious, great balls of lightning!
This video made me realize one thing--there's not a single character in Overwatch whose design I like. Not even a little.
That's funny, I figured you'd like Reaper since his entire attitude was based off of yours


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Genji, Hanzo, McCree, Reaper, and Soldier are pretty much the same height, muscularity, etc. and she's arguing as if  Zarya, Mei and Ana don't exist.

In recognizing a pattern, she's definitely not wrong, but she's arguing that there's ZERO diversity

Try reading the last paragraph..

Ah. Ran out of time and missed that part.
I still think it's ridiculous to open up with "look at what this game does wrong. There's ZERO inclusivity."  And then end off with "weeellll okay, there's SOME, but it could be better".  Not a good way to structure an argument.


 
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This video made me realize one thing--there's not a single character in Overwatch whose design I like. Not even a little.
um reinhart and mcree are best girls
they're so generic, especially mcree


 
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This video made me realize one thing--there's not a single character in Overwatch whose design I like. Not even a little.
That's funny, I figured you'd like Reaper since his entire attitude was based off of yours
reaper and genji are the coolest ones, but they're cool in the most stereotypical possible ways

inb4"butthey'reSUPPOSEDtobegeneric"


 
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This video made me realize one thing--there's not a single character in Overwatch whose design I like. Not even a little.
Winston is sad. I personally like a few of them.
Last Edit: September 22, 2016, 04:05:59 PM by Luciana


 
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just want to chime in on the fat character thing with something

the reason you see fat men like gragas as characters more than fat women is because fat men are generally seen as something funny to be laughed at and portraying a fat woman is generally seen as mean spirited on the part of the author/developer/whatever

until this changes you're going to be seeing a lot more fat men in vidya than you are fat women
That's a very good point