Hmm.
... meh.
Women in videogames, why are they hot? I've always figured it was so that they could be set dressing for guys who disregard story and dialog, and I still figure that's it. But there's probably more to it, as well... and yet, for me, it all comes back to one question.
Who are asking for ugly women in games? Why do we worry about their appearance? Why do we care? I'm all for having deeper, more realistic women as characters in games, but I do not see that value is added by making them overweight, buck-teethed or what have you. Bob brings up Mario. Mario may not be Mister Universe, but he's got incredible stamina, speed and strength, he has a big nose and a full moustache... he's loyal and devoted to a fault, he's got a respectable job... what I mean is, if Mario was a real guy, he would not be single. In fact, Peach/Toadstool/whatever her name is only has a shot with this guy because she happens to be the only woman in-continuity. Mario might not be the guy you WANT to look like, but you could do much, much worse than that. Any reasonable translation of Mario into a real-life guy would be a pretty handsome guy.
In the end I don't think it makes sense to discuss this in the context of games specifically, nor in the context of women specifically; it feels like suggesting we clean 10% of the ocean because hey, the ocean's full of filth. Women are almost exclusively cute/pretty/hot/beautiful in EVERY type and genre of fictional representations, and guess what, so are the guys. I'm not talking about the glistening muscle mountains either; Max Payne is starting to get a beer/pill gut, he's balding... but if he's still single, it's because he's a miserable git, not because he's ugly (not played last game). I can't think of a reasonable sample of male characters in gaming history whose looks alone would land them squarely in the realm of unfuckable... so long as they're recognizably human. Is it so wrong that the same is true for women?
Question for those of us who have read the Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones etc), and those with an imagination. Brienne of Tarth is described flat-out as UGLY. Now try to forget the actress in the series, and picture this too-large, too-muscled, androgynous woman who moves without any feminine grace. Remember how you pictured her as you read the book. Now describe that image. Is your description truly ugly? A horrible troll, some kind of eyesore, a disgusting hag? I think very few people could honestly say they would be horrified to have to behold what the envision her to look like... though her demeanour means you'd hardly seek out her company.
No, if we want more "reasonable"-looking people in games, then we must also get them in movies, magazines, TV, yada yada yada, and then you run into the fact that with a little make-up, almost any man or woman can be made to look well above the average you encounter on the street, meaning that even homely people will look somewhat attractive on TV.
So no, the looks thing is pointless. I want better written characters, though, and it'd be nice if male and female alike would be dressed consistent with what they are DOING. No matter how ridiculously musclebound the barbarian hero is, unless he's a moron he'll wear some armor over that muscled chest and six-pack abs. No matter how gorgeous the sword-wielding playboy bunny that follows him, if she decides to leave her midriff bare in combat, she should be stabbed to death and left bleeding, and the next female character might take the hint and wear protective clothing. On the other hand, if the male wears a loincloth and oil, then I'd find it very odd if the woman wears a steel bomb-disposal suit.
So, how do we make awesome female characters, then? To me, it seems clear that it HAS to be about what the character DOES, not how she looks, primarily. But I've tried my hand at writing, and the truth is, you can write an OK character, but a GOOD one gets real tricky real quick, because people seem to insist on you dodging ALL the tropes, but I swear to you here and now, there is no space left between them! What is her mood like, for instance? Does she try to stay positive? Fifties wife stereotype. Is she, excuse the phrasing, a ***** to everyone? Good ol' ***** stereotype. What if she has issues that justifies it but you need to gain her trust to overcome that? Damaged goods stereotype. Justifying issues you can't overcome? Hysterical woman stereotype. Distant? Ice queen stereotype. The list goes on. The bar is too high, damnit! No woman, past or present, real or imaginary, avoids tropes, even the awesome real/imaginary women out there are trope bait. So, technically, are the guys... but nobody gets in your face about that.
And I'll go you one further. The female fighters in the chain-mail bikinis and bare midriffs are just stupid, right? We all agree that it's absolute crap? That either her skin is adamantium mesh or she's a moron who deserves to bleed out? I live in Norway. I have a friend who's a teacher in high school equivalent. Midwinters here can be quite cold. Last winter we had a damp, biting and horrific minus 17 degrees Celsius, that's roughly 1 degree Fahrenheit. Snow and ice on the ground, chill that bites you to the bone... my friend was talking to me, complaining that the girls in his class, just turned eighteen, were wearing bare midriffs and short skirts. Were they "allowed" to wear this in school? Certainly not, though he was not allowed to enforce any kind of dress code, so he could do nothing about it. Going dressed like that is an excellent way to get severe hypothermia, frostbite... quite frankly, going dressed like that, no matter the societal pressures that "made" them do it, is a GORRAM STUPID thing to do. Impractical, and actually hazardous to their health... and there they were.
Should we be satisfied with the way women are portrayed in video games? Certainly not. But don't try to tell me that "real women aren't like that". The problem is that while ALL the stupid stereotypes will rarely be wrapped into one flesh-and-blood man or woman, neither do the stereotypes pass through a membrane from another dimension. They come from US. WE are that stupid... some of us. Some of the time. Don't try to say we're not. So come up with solutions, because the problem is sufficiently illuminated for another few centuries by now.
