Discussion: Sexuality in GoW

Developers I just want a female troop that is a good cuddle buddy. She has to be able to hold me and tell me life is made of rainbows.

That speaks to how a gender views “sexy”. Males, it is almost entirely visual and external. Females tend to define internal traits “sexy”. Just slapping a buff guy on-screen doesn’t instantly mean women will be attracted.

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Well said sir.

@killerman3333 Please don’t
 just


Ok then


Yeah, there A FEW examples scattered here and there amongst MILLIONS of games, and they’re always brandished as somehow equivalent.
Plus, Samus being a woman actually caused outrage for this at the time, and don’t even start me on he whole Samus stripping depending on your scores


Whoa, poor Bayonetta, she’s so misunderstood
 Also, she’s a character ENTIRELY designed around sexuality so you know, argument pointless. It would be like saying “but the succubus is almost naked” when that’s kind of her raison d’ĂȘtre in the first place.

So let me help you out: having some female leads in games amongst the f***ton that have been created are not really a proof of even playing field, and picking on a character whose whole identity is inextricably linked to sexuality is kind of totally missing the point


@TaliaParks Yes, but that’s the point. That’s why saying that ripped males are female fantasies is a bit ludicrous to me. The typical superhero is supposed to appeal to male audience, and represent what men think they should look like, whereas the typical superheroines are also designed to appeal to male audience, and reprensent what men think women should look like. All from a purely straight viewpoint too, I should add.

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I don’t think it’s possible to create a truly 3D character in a game with as shallow a characterization as this one. All characters are stereotypes, and it’s not like Gems is paving the way for a social movement or anything. I don’t mind the females looking female; there’s no need to hide boobs or bind hair or what-have-you. I recognize the fantasy for what it is – surface-deep fantasy.

I do think some of the outfits are ridiculous; the Sorceress is about one inch from topless, which is not my thing. I think “sexy” is fine, though. Amira for example is dressed in form-fitting leather that actually looks practical. Tyri is similarly plausible, and I think we’d be best buds (her personality is great, so devil-may-care!).

I do want my Incubus, though. If the guys get their Topless Wonder, I expect to be represented in kind.

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I think thats completely subjective. That is definitely not an image I could relate to or desire being. I also dont know what a womans ideal is but I know what id find if I googled it.

Why though? When men look at the female body, the first thing they look at is the face and not the body. Even when tested to see what men look at the longest or first it is normally the face and rarely do they check the body out. The opposite is more true of women as they check out the female body more than they female’[s face.

Her fighting style seems very sexualized sure, but remember that all fighting styles around grappling can be seen as sexual. Yes to be fair for most of the game she is completely naked but she is fighting angles and collecting their halos. She exudes the epitome of female strength with her abnormal speed and strength. She even fought god itself, if that is not female strength then nothing is. I understand that people can not get past her body much less her gymnastic abilities, but from the standpoint of a fighter she is extremely strong and smart. All that wrapped in a human body. Yes the female design lead on bayonetta got flack for the design choices but as she said, she did it to show a strong and independant woman who did not need any men’s help.

There is something interesting here, it was mentioned by someone else in the other thread, that Tyri was a “Damsel in Distress” needing rescue over and over

But for me it seems like she does what pleases her, being reckless is dangerous for both genders, but if she would be a passive NPC waiting for the player to decide everything she would be labeled as pathetic and a poor image of women in general. So i guess even when a character is designed to defy the standards people will still look for flaws on it


A female Yeti/Barbearius is what you wish for. :slight_smile:

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Heyo, I didn’t disappear. Just momentarily busy.

It’s really important to differentiate between two things that are getting confused a lot in this thread.

One is the character’s sexuality–does their sexuality define who they are as a person? Is it prominently expressed?

Think of the real world. Most people will find some way to express their sexuality in some low-key way. Wear flattering clothes, etc. But it’s fairly rare to meet people for whom sexuality is their most essential, defining characteristic–who show up to the airport in a mankini, say.

People exist on all points of the spectrum and so it makes sense to represent all points of the spectrum. An accurate representation of the world DOES include people who are insanely sexy, and aren’t we all grateful for that.

But
 that’s more the exception than the rule, hey?

Which brings me to the second point. The way that characters are idealized or objectified.

One kind of idealization asks you to identify with the character. To admire, emulate, self-insert, etc. Most idealized male bodies in comics and video games fall into this category. They exist so the player can experience the fantasy of being the hero, vicariously living in the hero’s skin.

A great many female bodies in comics and video games are idealized so that they can be objectified. You don’t want to be these women; you want them to admire and praise you. Also make themselves sexually available. They’re prizes or toys, not people.

The nice thing is that that kind of clear and obvious objectification is getting a lot less common. These days, even the sexy ladies tend to have some agency, some will of their own. They’re a little more fleshed out and alive. That’s why it’s possible to defend a character like the Corrupted Sorceress.

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Yeah but you can’t say a guy with his shirt off is sexual. Nobody wants to see our nipples.

It’s because society bases the value of men and women on different criteria.

To put it in the simplest possible terms: Women are valued because of what they are, and men are valued for what they do.

If we want to criticize fictional portrayal of men, focusing on their appearance is a red herring. Instead, we could complain about Tau and his singleminded obsession with violence. Or the all-male population of Khaziel whose greedy pursuit of riches nearly brought about their own demise.

Does it not sound stupid to accuse GoW of making sweeping negative statements about men because its male characters are almost universally insane, violence-obsessed and relatively one dimensional? Of course it does, because ultimately GoW is a freaking puzzle game with some nice window dressing.

I’m so sick of fake feminists projecting their own insecurities out onto the world at large and demanding it cater to them.

Gems of War does not present its female characters as role models. It does nothing to suggest that someone is less of a woman because she does not rock some cleavage on the battlefield. If anything, considering the heavy-handed implication of mental illness in the majority of the characters, GoW is saying “you’d have to be crazy to go into battle like this.”

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Nobody can accuse you of holding back anyway!

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I do not know about that, i can think of a few ladies.[quote=“Tard_Carnival, post:51, topic:11906”]
Gems of War does not present its female characters as role models. It does nothing to suggest that someone is less of a woman because she does not rock some cleavage on the battlefield. If anything, considering the heavy-handed implication of mental illness in the majority of the characters, GoW is saying “you’d have to be crazy to go into battle like this.”
[/quote]

I can understand the idea of the males being single minded in the game, however why do the women in the game have such nice stories about them. Take the female vampire, was she not a queen?

She had a castle
 HAD
 :stuck_out_tongue:
But seriously, i don’t think she was a ruler or something, i don’t recall all the dialogues.

The problem isn’t Tyri. Tyri is great. And most of the troops we meet in the epic questlines for the Kingdoms in Gems of War are farcically stupid. The game is pretty tongue and cheek & tends toward humor rather than gravitas. So Tyri totally makes sense there, too.

The problem comes when that type of character appears everywhere, across all entertainment media, and other types are excluded.

I also said, in that post–it wasn’t exactly a criticism. Tyri’s great. But, big picture, it would be nice to see more variety.

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Yeah, this is really fun. Female characters are designed for the male gaze & then held responsible for the designer’s choices. “I put you in a bustier, that makes you an idiot!”

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I dont know what sexual is for men
 apart from brad pitt and christian bale in american psycho

Also Russell Crowe, especially in the Gladiator. And Ryan Gosling in Drive


I wonder if women are intimidated by even fictional women? Now i know that seems wrong to say but hear me out. The reason that is so common among people as to why women do not play is because there is too many men playing. To me it sounds like the females that want to join are intimidated by the sausage fest. I remember how hard it was to get women to even pick up a controler much less teaching them that it is not a “kids only” thing. Then you have women lashing out because the media latches on to how much we do not cater to those who rejected us (us being male gamers). Why should i be nice to someone who was not nice to me right? Overwatch is the best example of undersexualized women who are unique and strong and yet somehow is seen as sexist for oversexualizing women, especailly tracer.

Yeah I’d have to agree with what @Talia said, sexual for a woman is not on the surface. It’s a total package situation. Mysterious is a sexually attractive trait for a man to a woman. So really unless they make male troops with their dongers hanging out in fruit baskets, it’s not on equal footing.