The average male gamer looks and sounds like Kratos in the same way the average female gamer looks like Eve from Stellar Blade.
This is not to say that women are not highly sexualized in media, and have not been for a long time. But he's right in that most of the 'leading men' in games media are very much sexualized. It's just that sexualization of men looks different and is, frankly, more subtle. Which is and of itself an indicator of problematic cultural elements, but is also just a reality of the modern age.
Hence why people are screaming for better and less offensive representation of women 😔
The subtlties are what women want, too. A hint of sexy but not flat out represented as a large chested bimbo sex puppet unlike a man with some hyper attractive qualities but still focused on for the plot rather than being a sex puppet.
The undertones of the art show just how degraded women are in videogames and media in general. They're a damsel in destress. Men are seen as "heroes" more often than women are. Women are depicted as either untouchable goddesses that abuse power with sex or seen as completely useless other than a sex symbol.
20 years ago sure, women were 100% just prizes for completing a game. No arguments. But I think that argument falls apart for modern games.
I haven't played nearly everything (let alone tracked every release), but I struggle to think of a high-profile game taking the 'big chested wide hipped women in chains waiting for you to rescue them like a manly man' approach in the last decade, if not more. Most often they're the badass protagonist (stellar blade, neir automata, alien isolation, the various newer GoW games), or heavily subverting the trope (RE7 where the wife you're going to save is a half batshit insane monster, modern GoW games where all the women are strong and capable with distinct personalities, Emma from Sekiro, ect).
Which is, again, not to say there are not plenty of issues with female representation in media in general. Or that there is not the aggressively vocal minority of the chuds. Or that there are not games which still play to the offensive and bad archetypes of the past (especially with the prevalence off H-games making their way into big platforms). I'm not here to say that we've solved sexism or objectification in media.
I'm just saying that in this particular instance of discussion, we're doing okay. The big AAA scene sexualizes men in games about as much as women, and does not religate women to the damsel box (or even put them there in general these days) anymore.
Again, this isn't everything being solved. There is a discussion to be had about the male protagonist ratio to female to be sure, and still plenty of other problems with the industry - and media in general - at large. But we can kinda rest this particular avenue, because the battle there is pretty much won.
The fact that you keep bringing up Stellar Blade shows you have no idea what you're fucking talking about lmao.
"Oh yeah the boring repetitive hack-and-slash with the boring living sex doll main character in skintight clothes jiggling for the viewers enjoyment is totally 100% exactly the same as the ridiculously yolked god of a man who actually gets to be a character in his own game"
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u/doodoo_onDemand 8h ago
gonna need some examples. how are you sure that isn't for the men to identify with?