Today Blizzard, a video game company, released its new online first person shooter, Overwatch. Overwatch recents got a little flap from the public for its oversexualization of its playable female characters. In particular, there was a lot of gripe of the poster character Tracer. When winning a match this characters victory pose had her back facing the audience showing off her butt, placed in a pair of tight fitting spandex pants. Fans were outraged at the over sexualiation of her and Blizzard listened. They changed the pose and apologized, stating that the fans were right. Fan were also upset do to the fact that all the females seemed to have a very sexual issued and sultry design. Where as the male characters had a variety of looks. In response Bilzzard released a female character that was strong and sporty in order to show the crowed that the company was wrong and the fans were, once again, right. But this isn't always the case. There are many games where females are overly sexualized. They are give large dairyaires and have their bosoms busting out of their blouses. In other areas women can either be drop dead gorgeous or an old crone. How do you feel about video games over sexualizing women? Do you think they do it to their male characters too? Many think it's just the female characters. Why do you think they sexualize the female characters?
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Hey, Sexy Lady
Today Blizzard, a video game company, released its new online first person shooter, Overwatch. Overwatch recents got a little flap from the public for its oversexualization of its playable female characters. In particular, there was a lot of gripe of the poster character Tracer. When winning a match this characters victory pose had her back facing the audience showing off her butt, placed in a pair of tight fitting spandex pants. Fans were outraged at the over sexualiation of her and Blizzard listened. They changed the pose and apologized, stating that the fans were right. Fan were also upset do to the fact that all the females seemed to have a very sexual issued and sultry design. Where as the male characters had a variety of looks. In response Bilzzard released a female character that was strong and sporty in order to show the crowed that the company was wrong and the fans were, once again, right. But this isn't always the case. There are many games where females are overly sexualized. They are give large dairyaires and have their bosoms busting out of their blouses. In other areas women can either be drop dead gorgeous or an old crone. How do you feel about video games over sexualizing women? Do you think they do it to their male characters too? Many think it's just the female characters. Why do you think they sexualize the female characters?
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Great topic! ;) I feel as though the sexualization of women in video games has a lot to do with the idea that video games are a "boy thing" (gender norms are a whole different issue I will not go into). Many video games have been created by men for other men and boys, so they create characters that will intrigue customers who are like them to buy the game. It also may just be the fact that "sex sells". Either way, it would be nice to have some character options where I can make one that is more like myself instead of a big breasted and big booty woman.
ReplyDeleteThe sexualizing of women in video games is something that has persisted for a long, long time. I don't know how much you've looked into it but Anita Sarkeesian has a really interesting site called Feminist Frequency and has done a whole series about tropes and women in video games (amongst other things). Her comments (along with those in your post above) help to highlight problems within the industry.
ReplyDeleteGoing back to one of the issues with the whole GamerGate problem (which I know you are well-read on), I think part of the problem isn't that games are marketed towards boys, but it's also the fact that many people assume that games are made by boys for boys, and a lot of companies stick to that model with character development. I think that it's a very good step forward that Blizzard listened to their players and made alterations once they were brought up :)
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