Male and Female portrayals in Video Games

[ZetaBladeX13]

While I get kind of annoyed when I'm playing a game and then the "badass" female character comes on screen, only to see a stereotypical scantly clad warrior or something, I have to agree with this article;

http://tinyurl.com/6x2moh5

I get equally as annoyed when main characters are "better" than the average character in a game not due to skill, but when their intelligence level exceeds 9000 and at the same time look like they were the product of a romance between Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger (and excessive amounts of roids) with testosterone leaking through every pore in their body.

Sure these things annoy me, but I don't REALLY care. It's a friggin' video game, and it's just the development team's fantasy. No matter how much weight lifting or training I do, I could never even hope to be like some of these protagonists. Sure, there are games like Persona or Zelda where the main characters are just "normal" people chosen to save the world-blahblahblah, but those examples are unfortunately the minority in the gaming industry.

You don't really see many groups calling to put a stop to the way males are portrayed in video games by characters like Kratos, Marcus Fenix, Dante, etc. It just seems like the only ones going out of their way to complain about the portrayal of gender in video games are those like Feminists.

Am I the only one who thinks that this is a bit of a double standard?

[scy]

There's people complaining about the dudebros but it's more because of the sheer amount of them rather than them being dudebros. Typically.

What it comes to, though, is that females in games are typically oversexed and objectified; contrary to this, males in games are typically sweating machismo and glorified tools of destruction. Both are highly idealized (to the development team/to the masses) body types but role-wise, males are typically given more "control" or "leadership" or things like that; females are still sex symbols or something akin to that, regardless of what they are storywise (i.e., leader, token love interest, naive dumb bitch who should be offed, sex slave/trained gimp, etc.).

So, no, I don't really see it as a double standard on that regard. If we're just talking image wise, though ... well, yes, they're both ridiculous and it's weird that there's only the "unattainable standards" on females while ridiculous male characters (in terms of image/character, as opposed to role) are just shrugged at.

To be honest, I don't give a shit. Idealize them all damn day. It's a game. The same can be said for movies, TV, etc. as well. They're all idealized (or attempts at idealizing) looks. So what. I don't care. This having a legitimate impact on my ability to enjoy the game is practically impossible; I'm not that shallow to flat out quit because my character displays some thigh and cleavage (or benchpresses whales or underaged pretty boygirlthing). I'll just go on my demon exterminations as an oil-laden, body immaculate, sweat glistening, hunk of sheer lust, with perfect ... where was I?

[spoiler]Unrealted-ish but Dragon Age 2 opening cinematic (if Warrior or Rogue) has shots with Bethany who is RIDICULOUSLY stacked. Like, I can't fathom movement possibly stacked. It's ridiculous. It's been weeks since I've seen that and I still can't figure it out. I'm pretty sure I tried mathing it out.

Shortly after, bullshit is called and the "real story" is told and Bethany becomes rather normally endowed. I found it funny.[/spoiler]

[heprea]

[Sampson]

[ZetaBladeX13]

[zamisk]

I can hardly play soul caliber games without feeling like a tool.

[hide]Jiggle jiggle[/hide]

[ZetaBladeX13]

[zamisk]

[Doktor_Q]

What, you never heard of a death rattle, Zamisk?

[zamisk]

.___________.

[Doktor_Q]

[zamisk]

[SAL]

[ZetaBladeX13]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oid4xNOP2eA[/youtube]