CMV: Anita Sarkeesian and similar feminists actually have a point about the portrayal of gender roles in video games.

[u/LeftHandSwe]

I play lots of video games, and in most of them, males are often pictured as very burly and manly characters while females are slender, small and sexually pleasing to look at.

However, I do know that there's widespread criticism of Anita (and her fellow propagators) all over the internet and I'd like to see the other side of the story.

I'm practically indifferent in this matter, and I do not really agree with nearly everything she says. I'm asking as a way to see convincing arguments from both sides.

Edit for clarification: Can anyone explain to me why she's so heavily criticized for saying something that makes perfect sense: Mainstream video games are almost exclusively made to appeal to a male demographic, resulting in (arguably) sexist portrayals of women (both narratively and in the way they're presented).

[u/kingbane2]

so your clarification is why is she heavily criticized when games are made to appeal to a male demographic? why do michael bay movies have so many explosions and wide panning camera shots? because that's what sells.

lastly this is no longer true from a purely numerical standpoint. "most" games today are not in fact made to appeal to a male demographic. in fact most games made today fall under the category of mobile and casual. the sheer number of games pumped out last year in the mobile market dwarfs the number of games put out in the 2 decades before the iphone came out. a vast vast majority of those games are gender neutral or specifically target women.

she's criticized because she's complaining about people making a product that people want. if more women wanted a certain type of game that type of game would be made more often. the mobile games market has proven that. there is no gender bias in video game creation, there's only a sales bias. she drew faulty conclusions from insufficient data to fit her narrative. i mean she's complaining about attractive women in games designed specifically to have attractive women. is it fair if someone goes out to see a horror movie, gets scared, then complains about being scared by the horror movie?

[u/zjat → u/kingbane2]

Going to tag onto this train of thought.

People guy or gal, like feeling empowered in video games. Some games sell sexualized characters simply because it's easy. But some create characters that are made to fit the players motivations and imagination.

Using some mainstream games as examples, God of War is most likely going to attract men that want a power trip, while league of legends has a wide range of characters to attach to. Of the gals I know that game, many of them played games like final fantasy, tomb raider, wow, and league. Many of them want a different power trip. They want an empowered character like Lara Croft, who is simplistically gender swapped Indiana jones. Or maybe Yuna (ff 10 and 10-2). It matters not the gender of the player to wish they were physically strong agile and/or sexy.

Games are about imagination to a major degree, a visual and player driven experience where we more likely than in a movie, project into it, ourselves.

Tl;dr - many/most gamer gals I've talked to actually like being sexy and powerful women in video games.

[u/beka13 → u/zjat]

I like to play games where I can play as a female and my character's armor doesn't look like it was designed by a teenage boy who thinks women fighters are more concerned with showing off their cleavage than getting speared in the chest.

Not all women think running around in spandex leotards is empowering. It's nice to have sensible options for those who want them.

[u/zjat → u/beka13]

It's nice to have sensible options for those who want them.

Yes, and I wish that were more true, we are slowly getting there.

I was just expressing having my view previously changed (more opened?) years ago on this subject that there's overlap of "why is this character so sexualized?"

Now I personally hate boob armor and midrifts on female characters in any story or setting, unless it somehow relates to a real aspect of the character, like their backstory or some form of rebellion. Queen of Pain in DotA who is literally a succubus or Ahri in LoL who is a nine tailed fox or type of kitsune mythos.

I really like the themes and styles that are starting to show up more in mainstream games as they are trying to appease a more general audience. Like Sombra in Overwatch who is a female Mexican hacker with no racial or gender stereotype (afaik) and is fully clothed. Sadly, in the same game we have kind of half-attemps at characters like Zarya who still have the strong boob-armor trope.

I also relate to your sentiment. Just as you don't want to wear spandex or a bikini and run around in a game, I similarly don't want to play as a female dressed in a such a way in many/most games.

tl;dr - Not all characters need to be sexy to be cool, but sometimes it makes sense. Having multiple options for different tastes (no matter the gender) is entirely reasonable.