Sex-ified Game characters.... problem you have?

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verdant monkai

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Sylveria said:
I think it's cute that so many of the forum feminists think that the 'idealized man' is made purely for male power fantasy and has no sexualization to it what-so-ever.

I have a small surprise for you, that 'ideal male' imagine of the buff, shirtless, Fabian super-man exists because that's the kind of guy straight women get hot and bothered for on a purely carnal level. Is there emotional depth? No, but that's not what one looks for in that sort of man. If you need evidence of that, look at the cover of any pre-Twilight romance novel or question why cheerleaders are always dating the football players in high-school.

Frankly, you're all trying so demonize sexualization, especially female sexualization, that you're intentionally ignoring male sexualization when it's oiled pecks are staring you right in the face.
This just this, they may not all like muscled guys but a lot of other women most definitely do.
 

Alssadar

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Sep 19, 2010
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burningdragoon said:
A normal man doing poses of common fantasy men: http://www.jimchines.com/2012/04/posing-like-a-man/
A normal man doing poses of common fantasy women: http://www.jimchines.com/2012/01/striking-a-pose/
There's a reason I like this man's books... Because they're funny.

OT: I guess you could say that a man's muscles could result from him putting time and effort into making his body strong (as action games require*, while breasts can only be changed with surgeries.
As well as just the fact that these characters are from the designer's perspective: Men want to have muscles and be extremely charismatic, and some want to pursue the women of their fiction, as fantasy can allow anything unimaginable as the reality. From the strange beast-girls they spawn and couple with, they can create anything their mind seeks, and they chose their image of fantasy in their own sight.
And as well, manly men of manly proportions are manly, and being manly is kickass for manly men. These characters would technically be sexualized by the given terms, as they would be wearing open flannel and have great muscles and beards as they performed manly acts of lumberjacking. But, they are grizzly and have awesome beards, so they are ignored by this aspect.

*And often these games were set in the medieval ages, where they had to carry sheets of iron attached to them as they had to swing a meter-long stick of iron at another man covered in iron, for a couple hours at a time. They would half to be a bit buffed to do all that stuff.
 

Kahunaburger

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verdant monkai said:
Men are often put in revealing suits as well a women, and you will often find that said mythril bikini offers more protection from evil than a suit of iron armour, and it usually comes with good magic resistance. So I have no sympathy with your case here.
I don't know about you, but if I'm going to be hacking/stabbing/circle-strafing my way past the forces of evil, I'd rather keep my mithril between me and the monsters vs. between by buttcheeks.
 

Xanadu84

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A major problem here is the ends these idealizations go for.

Im men, idealized sexual characteristics may have women appeal, but they primarilly show of aspects of the character, like strength, agility, charisma, wealth, power, confidence, atttude, or pretty much anything that a character might need to impress upon their audience.

In women, idealized sexual characteristics show more of their naughty bit. And...no, never mind, its just naughty bits.

Also, I may be able to dismiss Kratos as a body image, and look to a Nathan Drake as a character, and be a little inspired to keep running, work on strength training, and generally work towards a reasonable fitness goal, where a male ideal is a high, yet both worthy and achievable goal. If you are a girl looking at female ideals, doesn't matter how many ladies you dismiss, your going to need to be rail thin with huge tits, and if you reach were to reach that impossible goal, you can look forward chronic back pain and a case of bulimia.
 

TehCookie

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verdant monkai said:
Ryu (street fighter): Yes
Kratos (god of war): Yes
Marcus Fenix (gears of war): Yes (he is a muscled guy)
James Sunderland (silent hill 2): no
Commander Shepard (Mass effect): Yes
Snake (metal gear): Yes
Mario (seriously?): No
Hawke (Dragon age 2) Yes
Tidus (FF X): Yes
Master Chief (Halo): Yes (...Fuck off I find him sexy and I will bet you any amount of money he is well muscled underneath that armour)
Yes men are sexualized, but for other men! I want equality which means give the girls some eyecandy or make the women in the games less fanservicey. Even the movie industry knows what a hot guy looks like. If you think men and women like the same traits in men look at the difference between yaoi and bara characters.

Also sexualized doesn't just mean they look attractive, it also includes fanservice. Snake's tight ass is fanservice. Dante's Lucifer scene from DMC4 is fanservice. Mass Effect is an example of how to be sexist, it's impossible to have a man's ass be shown during the intimate parts. Even the gay option you turn into a girl (not to mention it took them 3 games to get to a gay option, but lesbians were in the first game).
 

Eclectic Dreck

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verdant monkai said:
Ryu (street fighter): Yes
Kratos (god of war): Yes
Marcus Fenix (gears of war): Yes (he is a muscled guy)
James Sunderland (silent hill 2): no
Commander Shepard (Mass effect): Yes
Snake (metal gear): Yes
Mario (seriously?): No
Hawke (Dragon age 2) Yes
Tidus (FF X): Yes
I disagree with this entire list as you confuse male power fantasy with female sexual fantasy. That these characters may appeal to women is a distant secondary concern to the fact that they appeal to men.
 

Vault101

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Sep 26, 2010
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verdant monkai said:
Ryu (street fighter): Yes
Kratos (god of war): Yes
Marcus Fenix (gears of war): Yes (he is a muscled guy)
James Sunderland (silent hill 2): no
Commander Shepard (Mass effect): Yes
Snake (metal gear): Yes
Mario (seriously?): No
Hawke (Dragon age 2) Yes
Tidus (FF X): Yes

.
female sexual attraction is not the same as male suxual attraction

why do so many girls lose their shit over edward from twilight? yet most guys can;t stand him?

the physical aspect on only PART of it

like seriously....I don't want to fuck Marus Fenix...and I DO NOT WANT Kratos anywhere near me

marcus fenix and Kratos and power fantasy FOR GUYS they are not for women
 

Paradoxrifts

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j-e-f-f-e-r-s said:
Nope.
Seriously. If you want to critique these sorts of things, then you need to learn to differentiate between what constitutes a sexual fantasy, and what constitutes a power fantasy. Because while all the examples you gave are power fantasies, the likes of the Hitman nuns, or Ivy from Soul Calibur are definitely sexual fantasies. And they're ultimately degrading towards women.
That's all bullshit. This is why..

The sexualisation of Superman has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not the intended viewer can see the indentation of every skin wrinkle, pubic hair and vein of his superjunk. For starters, our hero is the idealisation of a handsome white, upwardly mobile middle-class heterosexual male, who on top of everything else going for him has super powers. And yet despite everything else the character has going for him, what central fact about Superman has permeated throughout the popular consciousness?

Lois Lane.

In fact whenever Superman escapes the confines of his comic book stomping ground and explodes out into the wider media, Superman's relationship with Lois invariably takes centre stage. When Superman had a television show it was a romantic comedy titled Lois and Clark. Seriously, a show about Superman and his girlfriend played by Teri Hatcher, preforms the role of the show's protagonist. While she might always end up being rescued by Superman but that's all part of the appeal of the female sexualisation of Superman. Unlike the audience's useless non-superpowered male partners, Superman will not only be able to pull your fat out of the frying pan when you need help but he'll also juggle saving the world and a successful professional career at the same time.

That's not my power fantasy. My power fantasies don't even begin to even closely resemble any of that.

But the important part is as follows..

The problem you people keep failing to address, acknowledge or gloss over by exclusion when it comes to sexual fantasies and power fantasies is a fundamental. But what can be expected from philosophy created by women to further the interests of women and whose practitioners do nought but dismiss and belittle anything brought up by a man, for the fact that they're men.

Male power fantasies, male sexual fantasies, female power fantasies and female sexual fantasies are all completely different.

Men sexualise things differently from women. Women sexualise things differently from men. When men fantasise about empowerment they have different fantasies about that empowerment then women do. When women fantasise about empowerment they also have different fantasies about what constitutes that empowerment then men do.

Failure to recognise these differences, only proves how modern feminism has lost touch with reality by far too much vagina gazing. I would cut it some slack considering how amazingly self-centered, individualistic and inwardly focused our modern culture has become but you're after my polygon boobies and that just cannot stand.

Also, as a side note, when Joel Schumacher, that director who happens to be gay, sexualised Batman in Batman and Robin he did so clearly for the benefit of other gay men not heterosexual women. While I'm sure an openly gay Batman is every hag fag's wet dream, I'd be very surprised if George Clooney's Batman tops the list of most eligible movie Batman versions. None of that makes the homophobia that accompanied some of the more feral responses to that film, but most normal people hated it because completely abandoned the darker gothic aesthetic of Tim Burton's first Batman film for something that more closely resembled the campy style of the 1950's television series. Oh yeah, and it completely sucked.
 

AmrasCalmacil

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Pretty much all the characters the OP listed as sexualized are in fact playing up to a male power fantasy. How Master Chief is sexualized, I'll never know, never known girls to get off to a big hunk of faceless metal.

I had this talk with a girl I know who calls herself an 'equalist' (cue rage) and she suggested Geralt as a sexualized male character. Presumably because he likes running around with his shirt off an being all rugged.


I guess chicks really do dig scars.
Even if you've a chunk of your pec missing.
 

DoPo

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Jan 30, 2012
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verdant monkai said:
I was under the impression women used breasts for feeding babies but ok.
Umm, last I checked, huge boobs don't offer +2 enhancement bonus for feeding babies, either. I don't know what you meant by this.

verdant monkai said:
I think you are wrong when you say that women are objectified in gaming.
[...]
Even the Hitman Nuns, seriously they made the decision to try and murder Hitman so he killed them in self defence. Yes the outfits were silly but they were not objects or helpless they were trained killers.

You accept the nuns as perfectly normal thing? I...don't think I want to do anything to do with this.
 

Kahunaburger

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Paradoxrifts said:
Unlike the audience's useless non-superpowered male partners, Superman will not only be able to pull your fat out of the frying pan when you need help but he'll also juggle saving the world and a successful professional career at the same time.

That's not my power fantasy. My power fantasies don't even begin to even closely resemble any of that.
Ooh, ooh, I can play this game, too!

Unlike the audience's useless non-heroic male partners, Odysseus will not only cross oceans to return to you (and kill a small army of creepers) when you miss him but he'll also juggle crossing the ocean with amassing wealth on the way back.

Unlike the audience's useless non-heroic male partners, Conan will not only be able to rescue you from a gratuitous bondage scene (because R. E. Howard gotta get on the cover of Weird Tales, man) but he'll also juggle saving you and a successful professional careers as a thief, pirate, king, conqueror...

Those aren't male power fantas... oh, wait, they totally are.
 

Unsilenced

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Oct 19, 2009
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>>Marcus Fenix
>>Sexualized

...

Lol what?



There are a lot of things to be said about his appearance. "Dat ass" is not among them. (Unless you have some sort of grizzled marine fetish)
 

DirgeNovak

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burningdragoon said:
It's pretty simple really. Men are made to muscular, because men want to pretend to be badass. Women are made voluptuous because men want to fuck voluptuous women.
Quoted for truth. Most action games today are targeted towards young men. Kratos is muscular because the target audience will want to play as a badass. Juliet Starling is sexy because the target audience will want to fuck Jessica Nigri.
 

verdant monkai

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DoPo said:
verdant monkai said:
I was under the impression women used breasts
You accept the nuns as perfectly normal thing? I...don't think I want to do anything to do with this.
If you had used your eyes and read it properly you would be able to see I called it SILLY.
 

Zeriphor

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verdant monkai said:
Attractiveness however is something to consider, if the main character is a girl 9 times out of ten she will be hot. This in my mind is the only issue for consideration here. Consider this "would Max Payne be taken seriously if the protagonist was a middle aged greying woman?" no of course it wouldn't, no one would play it. You can jokely say "dunno flying through the air as a 43 year old mother, with two guns would be funny" yeah it would for about 3 seconds then the novelty would be gone, so fuck off you would not really spend £40/$60 on it.
I'm going to focus on this because no one else seems to have noticed it. Sexuality has almost nothing to do Max Payne (speaking of 1 and 2, haven't played 3). There is a large "women in refrigerators" trope going on, but that's not always a bad thing.

The fact that you think the game would be bad and no one would play it with a female protagonist unless she was sexed up really shows how dangerous the pervasive sexualisation of women is for society's perceptions on gender.
 

Moonlight Butterfly

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verdant monkai said:
j-e-f-f-e-r-s said:
Thank you for that reply, rest assured I will never check out Tom of Finland's work, unless I need to puke.
And yet you think it's okay for female gamers to have the female version shoved in our faces 24-7? Don't you see the double standard there.

The way that art makes you uncomfortable? That is how female gamers feel ALL THE TIME.

Welcome to our world!

I had the same reaction when I said to my male gamer friends 'Would you play a game with 11 appropriately dressed women and 6 male strippers?' they said no without thinking about it...
 

DoPo

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Jan 30, 2012
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verdant monkai said:
DoPo said:
verdant monkai said:
I was under the impression women used breasts
You accept the nuns as perfectly normal thing? I...don't think I want to do anything to do with this.
If you had used your eyes and read it properly you would be able to see I called it SILLY.
Thanks for the insult, but I saw that. Also, that doesn't make it "not normal".