OK, straight male who's going to disagree with a bunch of your points here. I'm sick to death of girls with giant racks and guys who look like the result of smooshing three roid-junkies together.
RelexCryo said:
1. Complaint: It is offensive to women to focus on gender specific traits rather than gender neutral ones.
Response: Being attracted to gender specific traits is what defines monosexuality, both heterosexuality and homosexuality. The idea that being attracted to gender specific traits is morally wrong implies that both heterosexuality and homosexuality are morally wrong.
Wow, that's a hell of a strawman. The issue is not that women are being viewed as sexual. It's that they're being view as
nothing but sexual. Seriously, I'm not one to generally prattle on about objectification of women, but there's a hell of a lot of it in games - essentially women are treated as nothing more than a pair of tits in a ridiculous outfit. I don't object to breasts, but in the same way that I shouldn't need to know a male character's penis size unless it's relevant to the character, I feel that a female character who walks around spilling out of the corset three times too small for her and never behaves in an interesting or even remotely realistic way is an annoying distraction.
The fact that these characters are often doing things like going into battle wearing armour everywhere but their breasts (lookin' at you, Taki) illustrates how much their character has been compromised in an effort for fan service.
2. Complaint: It isn't normal for women to have such big boobs. It is genetically abnormal!
I think your response to this was based around suggesting that we should be OK with being attracted to abnormally large breasts. Which is fine. The problem for me is that they're simply abnormal. If you played an otherwise realistic game and all the characters had horns growing out of their foreheads for no reason, it would be odd right? Same with giant racks - quite often they're simple so large that the characters animate oddly - they'd literally be top heavy in real life. Going to all the effort of making a realistic character and then giving her unrealistic breasts is silly.
3. Complaint: Women are being treated differently from men!
Response: The exact opposite is true. Men and women are both held to a standard of physical attractiveness far above average in videogames and comic books.
I disagree with this. There's plenty of ugly men in games - look at Marcus Fenix - grizzled, scarred, etc.
Men have their physical gender specific traits magnified, women have their physical gender specific traits magnified. Both are super beautiful/masculine/feminine.
Ahhh... Now we're getting somewhere. Only not. Because there's actually some variety in males in most games. Again, think of Gears of War, Marcus and Dom might look like the result of some unholy union of protein powder and steroids, but there's male characters like the dill rig guy - (Dizzy was it?) who aren't so over the top. But female characters, the only named one I can think of was the queen, and even she was boobs o'clock [http://images.wikia.com/gearsofwar/images/d/db/Queen_myrrah.jpg]. Oh, Dom's wife doesn't have a rack, and we all know how things work out for her. (What? They don't have post-traumatic counselling on that planet?)
But for the sake of argument, let's assume that both male and female characters are hypersexualised versions of their gender - that's still not good enough. I don't read books which can't deal with nuanced sexuality, I don't watch movies which can't deal with nuanced sexuality. Why should all the AAA games get a pass for one-dimensional stereotyped males and females?
4. Complaint: I don't have a problem with Big Boobs, but I do have a problem with the sheer percentage of them!
Response: Adult Female characters that have larger than average boobs are actually a fairly small minority.
Now we get to the part which made me actually both replying. What crack are you smoking? Let's go through and look at what you're talking about.
Here is an example: In Extra Credits, they keep using pictures of Ivy. Ivy is part of a large roster of female characters. Most of these characters have small or average breasts.
http://soulcalibur.wikia.com/wiki/Tira
http://soulcalibur.wikia.com/wiki/Xianghua
http://soulcalibur.wikia.com/wiki/Talim
http://soulcalibur.wikia.com/wiki/Amy
Most of these characters actually have quite large breasts to begin with, especially on the frames that they have. I sounds a little insulting, but I think you've actually been rather brainwashed by games into thinking that 'average' breasts are a lot larger than is really the case. Let's have a look at some of those characters. Apologies for the giant images.
Tira:
Xianghua:
Both Talim and Amy, I'll give you, but have a look at the concept art [http://images.wikia.com/soulcalibur/images/1/17/Gilslm3.jpg] for the female characters and tell me that stupidly large breasts are in the minority again, I dare you.
This is common throughout games. The minimum for size for breasts seems to be about a C-cup in games. And that's reserved for young girls or virginal characters. If you think that in any way reflects reality, you're in for a lot of disappointment.
5. Complaint: I don't like being compared to a standard I can't live up too!
Once again, I don't really think this an argument that people use in the form that you've stated it. But there are a couple of points to it that have merit:
As seen by your suggesting that Tira is an example of a character with 'small or average breasts', constant unrealistic portrayal of 'beauty' can lead to unrealistic standards or expectations. Both for men and women.
Another, and more insidious, point is reflected in your comment later on:
And of course, big boobs/hourglass figures are sexy because I am heterosexual, and I am attracted to traits specific to the female gender.
The assumption that big breasts always equals attractive is incorrect. As others here have mentioned, not everyone is crazy for giant racks. In fact, culturally, preference for breast size has varied massively according to various trends. Additionally, there have been cultures which don't see breasts as sexual at all. The assumption that large breasts are always attractive is a standard that many players don't want to have to live up to.
6. Complaint: I believe big boobs are a crutch game designers use to support bad games!
Response: Excellent writing and character development are also crutches game developers use to support bad gameplay. Text adventure games are a pretty good example. That doesn't justify hating excellent writing, character development, and overall narrative.
This is too dumb to bother arguing against. Stupid games don't get better with tits, but that won't stop developers trying to add them. And more to the point, good games usually get worse with tits. Case in point: Mass Effect 2 - I'm supposed to believe a warrior-judge-monk who has come with you on a quest to kill someone very, very dangerous chooses to suit up in this:
Nope. Sorry Bioware, I get it with Jack - she's meant to be hyper-sexualised - but why is your warrior monk who has given up sex, family, and all her possessions dressing like a stripper? What the hell is going on that I'm supposed to believe in a character like that?
In the end, my issue isn't just with breasts. It's to do with the lack of realistic, non-hyper-sexualised characters of either gender.
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