Kick Sexism Out Of Gaming

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If you do just one thing today, read this article - www.vg247.com/2012/04/12/enoug…

I won't post the whole thing here, but the issue can be summed up with this quote from the above article: "The truth is that games are sexist in their depiction of women to a depressing degree. I raised the point on a press trip dinner last year: how many female characters can you think of that aren't obviously designed to be sexually attractive to men? Apart from Shepard, no one around the table could suggest a single one."

I've made my thoughts on this issue very clear before, and taken some flak along the way for it - but it has got to stop. Is there anything wrong with wanting to make characters look attractive? Of course not. But the ridiculous degree to which female characters are sexualised is not going away - and if anything - getting worse. Take Ashley Williams for example - in ME1 she was a tough as nails soldier - the only Soldier class character you got, in fact - wore heavy armor, and her hair up in a bun. Fast-forward to ME3 and her newly designed outfit is a ridiculous catsuit-esque monstrosity that ME1 Ashley wouldn't be seen dead in, and even in combat her hair is all over the place and she's caked in make-up. Sure, she got some armor - but it's just a re-used FemShep asset, while Kaidan got freshly designed unique armor.

And the worst part? A lot of people can't even understand that there's anything wrong with that. I get so many comments on posts like this with people saying "Eh, I don't care, she's sexy" - that is exactly the problem - they don't care because they get to oggle a video game character.

If you're watching a romance scene, then of course the character is going to be sexualised - but if they're on the battlefield, then for crying out loud why are they wearing heels?

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gearseffect's avatar
So am I the only dude who despised Ashley's new look in ME3? Because I did, she hardly resembled the Ashley I knew. It was like she had a shitload of BOTAX, and plastic Surgery along with butt implants and boob implants.

Hell if I'd been told it was Miranda's new sister I'd have bought it. That's how much of a departure her look was from the Ashley I knew.

Oh and don't get me started on how her skin got lighted up, and they piled on the make up.

And whille I'm at it I may as well point it out that Liara's new boobs looked so odd and out of place with the rest of her body. She had these tiny little chicken arms and legs, a tiny waist and then, what the hell I may as wall say it like I see it, her boobs looked deformed really, really deformed like almost square boobs.

I swear some idiot sat down and just decided to stretch Liara's boobs and pixels to make them bigger and it only made them look deformed.

There no sugar coating, just like I see it, and I don't see anything at all appealing with Liara's new deformed boobs, and Ashley's ruined look.

More is less, not more is best. And bigger is not better, leave the boobs alone they don't need to get bigger in each game. Liara's boobs were perfectly fine in ME1.

But then again I happen to be in the minority of American dudes and am not a fan of fake boobs and all sorts of plastic surgery.

All I came here to do was look at some artwork and ended up sharing my 2cents worth on this matter.