Slashdot Mirror
On The Feminine Form In Gaming
heartless_ writes "The GamerGirl team over at Gamergod.com has an interesting article delving into a male driven industry. This time the subject of discussion is the sometimes overzealous portrayal of women in games." A well-considered piece, with thoughtful references to the works of Camille Paglia and Naomi Wolf. From the article: "He also highlights several games that, instead of focusing on the female form in its big-breasted glory, showcase women who are intelligent, strong, and powerful. He insists, 'The protagonists highlighted above illustrate that plenty of excitement can be provided by female leads who will, in turn, bring in female gamers - not to speak of richer gameplay options. Additionally, as McIntosh says, most women gamers are "confident enough not to feel threatened" by sexist imagery, merely finding it annoying and disappointing.'"
I like how the site got slashdotted even before comments appeared. Must be something to do with the word "women".
I initially thought that the reason why the ladies have such overinflated love cushions were to differentiate them from other mass of polygons, the idea that all game developers were under sexed males completely escaped me.
I'm still waiting for the game where the idea is to help a rather blessed big breasted lady walk down the street via the use of the mouse to help her from toppling over.
I wonder how many guys just clicked that link hoping to see some examples of these over developed women in video games. I sure as hell know I did. :D
Why, just the other day I was lamenting the lack of games that allow me to play a 32 year old, balding, Xbox owner in his parents' basement.
Trying to use sarcasm in text-based forums does not work.
It's because everyone's been told that "you can't hit girls," and so they obviously won't receive as much damage, making armor unneeded. In fact, to get not hit even more, they emphasize their feminine traits, so no one will mistake them for a male and accidentally hit them.
Boy, it's a good thing we don't have to look at unrealistic pictures of women anywhere else, like Victoria's Secret catalogs for example.