The Sexualization of Men in Gaming

[Spoonius]

I don't really care, as long as the characters are contextually sound.

For example, a female soldier should act and look like a soldier, a blonde bimbo should act and look like a bimbo, and a scientist should act and look like a scientist. When every woman in a game is supposed to be hot, it just lowers the immersion factor.

The same goes for men.

 

[Vrex360]

The thing is, while it's true there are sexed up male characters who are attractive that pop up from time to time, there certainly isn't an 'expectation' for them to be attractive.
By which I mean, for every one handsome charming hero there are about ten ugly muscle bound hate ridden psychos, faceless space marines in body concealing armor and non human aliens.

But meanwhile no matter what, female characters are always attractive and sexed up to some degree. There hasn't been an action game yet that I can think of where the female lead involved isn't some kind of sexual fantasy. In Mass Effect we never see any females of the aliens races that are very non human looking, and all the women are hot.

I dislike it because while we put a LOT of emphasis on making the female characters look sexy, the main mindset of making a male character is just to make him 'look cool' which isn't really the same thing. Grunt from Mass Effect looks cool, I wouldn't want to have sex with him. Masterchief looks cool but you never even get to see his face, Kratos from God of War looks cool but he's ugly as sin.

But female characters don't really get that. In their pictures they are always posing in a sexy way and they are always attractive to some degree. They aren't trying to look strong and powerful in design as much as they are trying to be made to look hot.

Hence why, even though it was really nice to hear that they were finally going to give femShep in Mass Effect her own trailer, it was ruined by Bioware proudly saying:
"And she's gonna be hot!"
Because, really? This is supposed to be a big moment for being much more accepting of your female audience and instead of saying she'll be AWESOME you just say that she'll be sexy. Which sounds like you are trying to use her looks as a selling point.

This trope isn't just in games either, you find it movies and comic books. Take X-men for instance, how many unnattractive aged female characters with very 'unsexy' powers can you think of? Not many I'd wager and I've certainly never seen any in the movies. They are all petite and young and hot women with perfect bodies and beautiful faces and their powers are always attractive on an aesthetic level.

But the men? Green guys with giant slimy tongues? Red scarred faced demon guys with pointed tails? Big blue furry guy with an animalistic face? Plus, some of them are a lot physically older like Magneto and Proffessor X. There are a few attractive male leads in X-men such as Wolverine and arguably Cyclops... but the fact remains that while all the female leads in the X-men movies are beautiful, that same rule doesn't seem to have to apply to the men.

In essence what this kind of jarring line does is create an unpleasant standard:
Male characters CAN be attractive from time to time.
Female characters MUST be attractive ALL the time.

I have nothing against the fact that there are attractive female characters out there, nor the fact that there are unattractive male characters. But it would be nice to see some reversal happening from time to time.
Next time have a male protagonist who is very handsome.
Then have a female protagonist who is unnattractive.

I don't mind having sexualized characters in games, but it really does bother me when practically every single character of a specific gender is made to be either a sexual fantasy or at least an attractive girl next door type deal, whereas male characters can be ugly and monstrous and faceless as much as they want.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

-snip-

I just wanted to quote this for truth. It is important to realize that gaming is not the sole perpetrator here either, as Vrex shows by his comic book example. Movies and music (the videos in particular) are just as bad. The fact that such a staggering amount of movies fail the bechdel test really should tell you something about what role women usually play in modern media and storytelling.

While we are seeing an improvement, women are more often then not side-characters that exist more or less to provide some sexiness, a love interest for the male protagonist and the "emotional" response. Naturally, there are exceptions, but in a majority of fictional works today women are still not really characterized as people but more as objects (plot devices to be exact) that serve their function only when in conjunction with a man.

There are arguably some male stereotypes that also act as little more then plot devices to the male protagonist (boy wonder is a stellar example), but they are nowhere near as prevalent as the "woman as plot device" is. The sexualization stems from this inherent problem, that female characters aren't as much people as they are objects.

 

[Zoe Castillo]

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[Tonythion]

Masterchief looks cool but you never even get to see his face,

because if you saw his face you'd jizz you're pants until you died.
but on a more serious note, yes I agree with you.

I actually can't think of any female in a game that was ugly. Or if there is an unattractive female in a movie or television it is usually to make fun of them or some how they end up being attractive if they got rid of their unibrow.

But there will always be some (or many) poor ugly bastard somewhere.

There can't be an unattractive female in gaming or movies ect. it wouldn't sell. Even though there seems to be people that hate the way women are portrayed in these things there will always be those idiots that see the trailer with a hot girl, look to their friends say "AWSOME!" then proceed to give each other a head butt (I won't deny it, I've done this once or twice, but not because of a sexy character) Even females would have something negative to say, if a game came out with a female soldier that wasn't utterly drop dead gorgeous some would say
"Oh just because she's a soldier she can't be sexy?".

There is no pleasing everybody so producers and developers can only go with satisfying the majority.

 

[LuckyClover95]

Well as a female, I don't mind the sexualisation of anyone in games because as it has been said, sex sells. I don't mind if a female character is sexy, but it bothers me if that's the only thing about her that interests people. If she has a really blank personality but big tits it may bother me - but if she has interesting personality and always something good to say I don't mind. And it's vice versa with the sexualisation of males - if they're hot, cool, but if their boring (while they might be attractive) I'm just not interested in their game.

 

[Farseer Lolotea]

As a female gamers, it does annoy the shit out of me. All the virtual women are sexualized for men, and all the men are sexualised for men. You need a reality check if you think most girls love raging steroid-beasts. If there was an equal balance of hot girls and hot guys I wouldn't mind, since I would have my own eyecandy. As it stands you will mostly likely see a slut and a shaven bear, and both are unpleasant.

Funny thing is, when you do have non-body builders as protagonists (like the JRPG characters) guys tend to hate it.

I wouldn't use those exact words. I don't necessarily equate idealization with sexualization. And I actually prefer beefy guys (albeit more blue-collar than bodybuilder) to bishies.

That said, I agree with the point you're making here. Or, as my husband put it: men whom the hypothetical tween male audience want to be, women whom they want to do.

I'd certainly prefer it if it were a bit more balanced in either direction. (That is, either female characters presented less as eye candy, or male characters presented more as such; a complete switch from fanboy-bait to fangirl-bait would not be a desirable outcome.) Then again, that's why I plan to go back to school and (as they say) "be the change."

 

[MrGalactus]

Thing is, I can think of some male main characters that are not muscular "brick shithouses", but I can't think of one single female character that could be considered purposefully unattractive.

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

isn't really sexualization of a male character. It's a physically strong character depicted in a way that shows that. Any sex appeal the character may have is incidental.

Kratos is the spitting image of power top in a gay porn movie.

That's not just me saying that, it's been pointed out to the developers before.

 

[Susan Arendt]

The men in games are designed to be physically fit, which makes sense, given what they're doing, typically, and being physically fit just happens to be what typically makes men sexually attractive. (I'm speaking in general terms, here.) The females in most games, however, wouldn't have the upper body strength needed to lift a gun, let alone swing a sword, based on their physique.

It's all about intent, really. The female characters are typically designed to be sexually attractive first, physically appropriate to the situation second (if at all), and the male characters are the reverse.

 

[Sudenak]

Men are not hyper-sexualized. They are hyper-masculinated in order to appeal to the men. Just like the women are hyper-sexualized to appeal to the men.

The only hyper-sexualized male I've seen in a while is Fenris. Slim, feminine, absurdly deep voice, muscular. He was built to be a girl's wet dream, essentially. Otherwise, male characters lean towards being giant refrigerators with the same face, same gruff voice, and same attitude.

All women are scrawny, disproportionate, and wear S&M costumes to expose as much cleavage and skin as possible. They are either played as excessively weak, or "tough" to fit whatever fantasy men might have. If a woman is obese or non-attractive, she's not a main character. Nor will she get a lot of screen time unless it's with intent to be hilarious.

That being said, most of these overly masculine heroes just end up seeming really gay to me. Either closeted or out. Next big game that you play, assume that the lead male is gay. It'll answer so many questions.

 

[Mallefunction]

The sexualization of men only bothers me if they are given almost nothing to wear. See, the body type does not bother me so much as how much skin is shown. Female characters are usually much more exploited, given that they usually get a string bikini for clothes and that's it.

When the guys are shirtless or wearing pretty much nothing, then it's a little awkward for me to play the game. I remember when I played as Ethan in Heavy Rain, my mum FREAKED out when she watched me make him take a shower. It was....awkward to say the least. I wish that making him butt naked hadn't been a mandatory part of the tutorial XD

 

[Kahunaburger]

isn't really sexualization of a male character. It's a physically strong character depicted in a way that shows that. Any sex appeal the character may have is incidental.

Kratos is the spitting image of power top in a gay porn movie.

That's not just me saying that, it's been pointed out to the developers before.

Kratos wasn't designed from the ground up to look like a gay porn star, making the sex appeal once again incidental. Incidental sex appeal =/= sexualization.

For an analogy - Garrus in ME1 wasn't sexualized, he was designed as an alien Dirty Harry. However, for some unfathomable reason, he acquired quite the fanbase, which clamored for his inclusion as love interest in ME2. So you have a character that has incidental sex appeal to some, but was not designed in a sexualized way.

EDIT:

It's all about intent, really. The female characters are typically designed to be sexually attractive first, physically appropriate to the situation second (if at all), and the male characters are the reverse.

^This

 

[Woodsey]

Men aren't sexualised in games. They're sometimes made to look like steroid-junkies, but I'd hesitate to call a walking slab of meat "sexualisation".

I guess it'd be hyper-masculinity or something, but really I don't think its that much of a problem.

 

[Nimcha]

Personally neither is a problem for me, I don't even mind oversexualized women in games. But I reckon there will be an increase in strong female characters as the female gaming population grows. Which can only be a good thing really.

 

[Pearwood]

Spoiler: Sexy guy

Tychus from Starcraft 2 and Garrus from Mass Effect 2 are sexy too but that's because of the voice actor

 

[Katana314]

Here's what's bothering me...

Many people are claiming male characters are made all masculine and covered in muscles because it appeals to men. Is this true? I know I don't enjoy watching musclebound Chris Redfield as he has a fist-fight with RE5's final boss, the Evil Dr. Boulder [http://youtu.be/2Trszk44ElI] (except for humor purposes). Heck, the male characters I've enjoyed have seemed to be the same kind that appeal to women. Nathan Drake's smarmy, sarcastic and slightly terrified personality in action, Dante's over-the-top "coolness", Garrus' cool personality, Phoenix Wright's determination. Heck, three of those four characters are action heroes often holding guns or swords. You don't see me complaining about how realistically, their muscles should be bigger (besides which, muscle size is not always what you'd expect it to be from someone's strength) By contrast, look at how popular Duke is [http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/duke-nukem-forever] (those reviews aren't all by women, mate.)

Bottom line? It looks to me that a sexy, awesome character is a sexy, awesome character by anyone's standards, be it a woman looking at a man, a woman looking at a woman, man looking at a man, or a man looking at a fish.

Er...wait

 

[Iron Mal]

Women may have a more blatantly sexualised image than men but this isn;t to say that women are the only ones who get the rough end of the stick in terms or stereotypes or generalisation.

How many times do we have the manly captain of team kickass turn out to not be all that smart? (sadly, quite often)

How many times must said male characters limit their level of emotional response to 'hostile rage' or 'heroic stoic'? (again, sadly quite a lot)

How many times must male characters adhere to the standard image of being muscle-bound ex-con/military types? (yet again, sadly quite a lot, and if we're going to argue that the hyper-sexualised image of women is damaging to the female psyche then surely this one is just as bad to men, notice how we're not even supposed to have a problem with this)

How many times will the one virtue or talent of a male character be 'knows how to use firearms really well' and 'kills stuff real good'? (need I even answer this one?)

Yeah, women have it rough being one dimensional sex objects but trust me when I say that we men have just as many problems being one dimesional killing machines. It sucks for everone.