# Do girls really get offended by the depiction of women in video game and anime?



## freakingout (Feb 6, 2010)

Just trying to figure out if it's just more feminist crap, or if it's something women actually think about.


----------



## The Library of Emma (Mar 3, 2016)

I’m more apt to raise a skeptical eyebrow than become actively incensed by it, as it’s common enough that one begins to ignore it— though I don’t think its presence is benign. The level of physical distortion in female characterizations would be laughable if it didn’t have real implications. At some point or other they cease to bear much resemblance to actual women, and more so inflated sex objects.

Edit: yes, I think about it sometimes


----------



## SplendidBob (May 28, 2014)

Wtf is an anime?

(that is your answer btw)


----------



## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

Girls/women tend to watch different anime, and it's a really diverse medium so I suspect they're not as offended by the depictions in the stuff women tend to watch.

With video games Eastern video game characters tend to be more sexualised/ridiculous (though there are still some decent characters,) in Western games there's a shortage of female characters generally though that's changing gradually. Lara Croft was very sexualised but personally I liked the old Lara more than the new one, (even though people complain about the fact that she was written as a male character,) but I appreciate what they're trying to do with her now (and also the first of the two new games was fairly boring gameplay wise. The scripted gameplay got old, and felt like I wasn't participating as much as I wanted to.)

I'm struggling to think of very offensive Western female video game characters obviously Faith from Mirrors Edge is fine, Chell from Portal even though you can't see her, uh lots of games where you can choose a gender like the Elder Scrolls which seemed fine (Bethesda are so bad at character modelling in general though lol.) in WoW the female characters are clearly more attractive/aesthetically pleasing (with the exception of like undead, and Tauren and Dwarves, and possibly a couple of others where it's more equal but you get it,*) and so I generally prefer to play them over the male ones typically.

*the more I think about it the more I realise this doesn't apply to about half the races in the game but you still get what I mean lol. Also I don't know why but male belfs are dick heads. They are the prettiest guys though so swings and roundabouts.

Lol just remembered this:






in Runescape I change the gender of my character to whichever armour looks cooler since they started to differentiate with some which probably isn't ideal for some people, but I don't really give a **** (there's even a mage in a hut that does this to make it all lore-y)


----------



## f1ora (Jan 5, 2016)

I sometimes think about it, but then again I really like playing Dead or Alive whether fighting or beach volleyball. Tecmo wasn't shy at all about what they wanted to do and they made that very clear long ago. I think stuff like the tetas everywhere is stupid/funny but I end up overlooking it bc the doa games are super well-done (ofc not storyline wise haha some dumb sh!t there)

I also main Ivy in soulcalibur whose well known for being sex appeal but I like her story and style too much to care, things dont feel particularly offensive but there is a line where things just get dumb like her getup in IV


----------



## Mabel Pines (Mar 19, 2018)

How come a lot of women in animes look like little kids and act naive like little kids, sometimes, when they are doing grown up stuff?


----------



## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

Mabel Pines said:


> How come a lot of women in animes look like little kids and act naive like little kids, sometimes, when they are doing grown up stuff?


Their target demographic find that attractive, I think it's the reason Japanese women put on little girl voices in porn as well. But tbh everything is neotenised in Japan so I made a joke a while back that in anime the guys are girls, and the girls are children with big breasts (or not even big breasts,) and it's not an absolute thing but yeah.

edit: I don't have anything against anime/manga I've watched/read a few series' and films over the years and liked a bunch.


----------



## waterfairy (Oct 20, 2016)

No I don't care. It's not something I think about until feminists try to force it down my throat.


----------



## CNikki (Aug 9, 2013)

I knew someone who was sort of like this. Haven't talked to them for some odd years, but to my understanding they still focus on said-cartoons and spend their 'art career' on critiquing over children's media, basically. Must be nice to feel so oppressed enough to focus your life on that and not everyday/mediocre survival.


----------



## Amphoteric (Sep 11, 2011)

I don't care, the men look stupid too.


----------



## 629753 (Apr 7, 2015)

Amphoteric said:


> I don't care, the men look stupid too.


lmao


----------



## Nekobasu (Apr 22, 2018)

speak your mind bro. 

I will be around,


----------



## Synaps3 (Jul 12, 2012)

There a probably ones that do; they don't matter. This society has gotten caught up in being offended over everything.


----------



## ScorchedEarth (Jul 12, 2014)

Persephone The Dread said:


> in WoW the female characters are clearly more attractive/aesthetically pleasing (with the exception of like undead, and Tauren and Dwarves, and possibly a couple of others where it's more equal but you get it,*) and so I generally prefer to play them over the male ones typically.
> 
> *the more I think about it the more I realise this doesn't apply to about half the races in the game but you still get what I mean lol. Also I don't know why but male belfs are dick heads. They are the prettiest guys though so swings and roundabouts.


I don't get it. Unless you mean that the females are not giant massive beefcakes like most of the males. Even adjusting for physiological differences, they're nowhere near as muscular, so I guess they preferred to make them more conventionally attactive rather than sticking to the Olympian thing. Forshame. And I suspect the male belf thing is down to you and others who are into androgyny.


----------



## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

ScorchedEarth said:


> I don't get it. Unless you mean that the females are not giant massive beefcakes like most of the males. Even adjusting for physiological differences, they're nowhere near as muscular, so I guess they preferred to make them more conventionally attactive rather than sticking to the Olympian thing. Forshame. And I suspect the male belf thing is down to you and others who are into androgyny.


Yeah I think I started off making one point and ended with another. The size distribution between male and females is huge except for the races I listed (but then realised there were more examples, like female orcs could be bigger but are still fairly sizeable and Humans are Humans) and I think the females of most races look better. Especially with Trolls:










As for male belfs the hilarious thing is, because it's WoW they don't look androgynous (in game anyway.) They just look like average slightly built guys with long hair, it's just most of the others are even more jacked.

In actual fact and contrary to basically all fantasy lore about elves, there is still a fairly big difference in male and female belf dimorphism too.










taken to an extreme with this artwork:


----------



## ScorchedEarth (Jul 12, 2014)

roxslide said:


> It's more annoying than anything else. Video games/Anime are meant to be an escape so it has been annoying to run into issues like not being able to play as your gender or if you do get a girl character she's wearing a bikini for some reason while the men are wearing cool armor.


I love that trope, it's hilarious.


----------



## ScorchedEarth (Jul 12, 2014)

Persephone The Dread said:


> The size distribution between male and females is huge except for the races


You know what, I think Pandaren might be the most egregious. The males are loaded with fat by default, but we couldn't have an obese-looking female in a game so they made them half the size so they could be cute plushies instead. Feh.


----------



## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

ScorchedEarth said:


> You know what, I think Pandaren might be the most egregious. The males are loaded with fat by default, but we couldn't have an obese-looking female in a game so they made them half the size so they could be cute plushies instead. Feh.


To be fair they were an April Fools day joke that they randomly decided to make playable, so they were always kind of doomed. I feel partially responsible since I jokingly made a facebook page about making them a playable race a couple of years before they were introduced as a playable race.


----------



## ThatGuy11200 (Sep 3, 2012)

I've been watching a YouTube series called Lady Bits, which is about women in gaming, both characters and developers.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf9ZVzFaBzHkEmkTeJGwmp7XkMJW6ZSU5

It pretty interesting and is how the topic should be approached. Rather than, say, getting over half a million dollars on Kickstarter to make a series on gaming, but not actually improving the production values of said series or doing anything more than basic research, as well as using other people's content without acknowledging them, and then never actually finishing the series before asking for more money to make another series with the same crappy production values and lack of in-depth research.

Not naming names.


----------



## Kalakotkas (Feb 15, 2018)

As a man, I think that all the anime fanservice involving females is pure trash.
I'm not disturbed as much in videogames, unless the woman depiction goes against the logic of the world, for purely aesthetic reasons, in a context that is suppose to be taken seriously.


----------



## Nekobasu (Apr 22, 2018)

to those that say Japanese women put on and ****, I will tell you, do not judge them all. I mean all that **** about making the squeaky voice.. yeah no. if anything my baby was always trying to emulate people like rocky and terminator lmao


----------



## unemployment simulator (Oct 18, 2015)

I see some games where its just insane and it offends me, because they assume every man needs to see a woman turned into something like that to buy the game and the assumption is about any guy who buys it they are doing so because they get off on it. I generally don't have a problem with objectification and you grow accustomed to a certain level of it in society, especially growing up in the 80s. also, I would like to be physically desired/admired and I think there isn't anything wrong with a revealing outfit per se, definitely not a prude either. 

but there is a point where it is just crass,obnoxious and insulting and I feel that some video games have crossed that boundary more recently, there seems to be a whole genre popping up where its like this is specifically catered to. also, it cuts both ways here, if you want to put women in skimpy clothes then at least have some equality and put a ripped dude in there too. the thing is most won't because they are thinking about the money and the audience being young teens who can't keep their hands off their dicks. I get it, young teens like fantasy women, I was a young guy once too. but a bit more maturity and acknowledgement for an increasingly older audience in the industry would be refreshing.

I rarely watch modern anime, because most modern stuff I don't like irrespective of sexual politics. I think I mainly stick to studio ghibli and thats about it, so I can't really comment here.

I think its possible that some of the ideals portrayed in video games add to the idea of people trying to seek body perfection and being fixated on that, tiny waists with huge breasts on women, muscularity and frames on dudes that would make phil heath jealous. I get that guys will either want to play as a hero and want to see women they would be attracted to, but we are past the point where the physical ideal has been reached in bodybuilding and its gone from looking good to looking grotesque and proportions that can be a serious detriment to health. there just seems to be this push to more and more extreme in physicality and we have seen previously how people try to look more like what they think are ideals and how this plays into mental health surrounding body image. so scaling it back would be nice.

on a side note, it kind of makes me cringe when some game devs can't model a human body anatomically correct, I don't mean exaggerated limbs or muscles with artistic licence, I mean totally erroneous muscle groups,insertions on fictional humans which do not exist. its akin to sticking a 6th finger on a hand and just makes me think they have no idea what the **** they are doing lol


----------



## Karsten (Apr 3, 2007)

It annoys me, but not in a feministic sense. I just think it's childish. 

I know there are a ton of good animes out there, but I have completely avoided the genre because of this. Something about the extremely dainty voices, ridiculously exaggerated features and huge eyes really hurts the credibility for me.

That being said, there's sexualization in EVERYTHING. TV commercials, music videos, movies (even the award-winning ones), shows, etc. Sexual tension is a core part of the human experience.

If that means there is a 2D animation of a scantily clad woman bouncing up and down on the floor moaning, "Senpai", then I guess I have to accept it alongside it's other iterations (like Emilia Clarke's tits in the FIRST few seconds of GoT, 'Magic Mike' and every Freddie Prinze Jr move). :lol


----------



## ScorchedEarth (Jul 12, 2014)

Karsten said:


> I know there are a ton of good animes out there, but I have completely avoided the genre because of this. Something about the extremely dainty voices, ridiculously exaggerated features and huge eyes really hurts the credibility for me.


I'm not exactly an anime afficionado because I find many of the tropes cringeworthy, but I can still recommend you give Ghost in the Shell (the first film) a watch. It has almost none of those things you mentioned (there is some nudity) and is a damn good cyberpunk thriller.

But yeah, feels like anime is 90% schoolgirls, squeaky voices and fanservice. At least, that's what keeps filtering through to me. I don't even seek it out. I play World of Warships, which has absolutely nothing to do with anime, until they did crossovers with *three* animes that have schoolgirls captaining WW2 warships. The squeaky-voiced schoolgirls are inescapable, it seems. I'm starting to hate them.


----------



## Mabel Pines (Mar 19, 2018)

The depiction of men is idealized, too. In Grand Theft Auto, the guy is some hardcore badass person and in God of War, Kratos is some muscular, ripped dude. But men like those stereotypes and don't find them offensive, lol, so it doesn't get brought up because it is not an issue.


----------



## SplendidBob (May 28, 2014)

Mabel Pines said:


> The depiction of men is idealized, too. In Grand Theft Auto, the guy is some hardcore badass person and in God of War, Kratos is some muscular, ripped dude. But men like those stereotypes and don't find them offensive, lol, so it doesn't get brought up because it is not an issue.


Am not convinced how much actual outrage / offence over this there is among feminists. There definitely isn't among women in general (because most don't play games or watch anime, when you consider the entire population).

I would personally bet that almost almost all of the outrage here is online, and that most of that is outrage from the manosphere or whatever about feminists being outraged. It's highly unlikely the OP actually got this idea from feminists. I might be wrong though, but the OP hasn't given any kind of source for all of this outrage.

I think this is the first thread on it here, for example.


----------



## Lohikaarme (Aug 28, 2013)

I don't know, I tend to see it as something totally separate from reality, because the proportions and everything are just so ridiculous no one could possibly measure up to them?? I mean at some point it's not even worthy of criticism anymore because you kind of go like, have these mangakas/animators ever even seen a woman in their entire lives?? Lol. There are some great games and anime that portray women realistically though and I generally do think those designs should be supported and preferred over the utter absurdity that is pure fanservice-anime like Highschool of the Dead or something.



Karsten said:


> If that means there is a 2D animation of a scantily clad woman bouncing up and down on the floor moaning, "Senpai",


:rofl


----------



## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

splendidbob said:


> Am not convinced how much actual outrage / offence over this there is among feminists. There definitely isn't among women in general (because most don't play games or watch anime, when you consider the entire population).
> 
> I would personally bet that almost almost all of the outrage here is online, and that most of that is outrage from the manosphere or whatever about feminists being outraged. It's highly unlikely the OP actually got this idea from feminists. I might be wrong though, but the OP hasn't given any kind of source for all of this outrage.
> 
> I think this is the first thread on it here, for example.


It doesn't really matter if they play games lol the relevant people are sociopathic:






I actually got blocked by 'one of them' (Brianna Wu,) on twitter for simply calling her a hypocrite. But anyway as **** as all these people are, it's not 2015 anymore (when this topic was very popular all over the internet because of gamergate,) so the OP is a tad late to the party so to speak.


----------



## unemployment simulator (Oct 18, 2015)

ScorchedEarth said:


> But yeah, feels like anime is 90% schoolgirls, squeaky voices and fanservice. At least, that's what keeps filtering through to me. I don't even seek it out. I play World of Warships, which has absolutely nothing to do with anime, until they did crossovers with *three* animes that have schoolgirls captaining WW2 warships. The squeaky-voiced schoolgirls are inescapable, it seems. I'm starting to hate them.


I am also not into how they are shoehorning anime tropes into some games,its become more and more popular to do this, like a lot of strategy and rpg which were previously perfectly fine without them now feature obnxiously squeeky prepubescent girls (edit; with huge breasts? yea how does that work?), even shmups have got in on packaging them with "cute" anime girls in an attempt to capitalise on this, I pretty much roll my eyes at all that stuff but if its not grotesque and its just a simple aesthetic I might put up with it if the game is actually good. its a pain in the arse though in some ways as I feel even more like I am not really catered to as a gamer (I already feel like that as it is,which is partly why I am so jaded about gaming :lol)


----------



## Red2N (Oct 7, 2017)

I don't care enough to give a sht.


----------



## Xemnas (Sep 29, 2017)

hope the don't start bashing on my favorite game series... Hyperdimension neptunia...
also not all anime makes women over-sexulized.... one character i liked is Belldandy, although some might argue that she is too submissive, i just think she cares a whole lot for other... but she also cares for herself too
but games and anime don't just put women in like unattainable ways.. the do the same to guys... just look up Dragon's Crown... the freaking fighter guys is beyond any muscle builder


----------



## ShotInTheDark (Nov 4, 2017)

Well let's face it lots of woman tend to act and even more to talk like ****s sometimes without any sign of shame or embarrassment, so at this point I'm not going to give a single **** about all that feminist crap. 
I'm kinda curious does actually someone else cares what feminists are saying instead them itself?


----------



## Xemnas (Sep 29, 2017)

Just a sloot said:


> I'm pretty sure that game and anime were meant for pedophiles....


well could be... however those games are kinda masterminded by two women

Tsunako 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunako

Mizuno
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,378668/

and they are more of a parody of the "Consoler Wars" as the main characters basically represent gaming consoles like the PS3, Xbos and the Nintendo Wii

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperdimension_Neptunia


----------



## ashcole (May 8, 2018)

Nope... Never bothered me. Yes, female anime characters do not have realistic bodies at all, and they tend to have annoying voices, but at the end of the day, it's just an anime, so why let it bother me?  It's not real life and isn't harming me in any way, so why let it affect me?


----------



## freakingout (Feb 6, 2010)

ShotInTheDark said:


> Well let's face it lots of woman tend to act and even more to talk like ****s sometimes without any sign of shame or embarrassment, so at this point I'm not going to give a single **** about all that feminist crap.
> I'm kinda curious does actually someone else cares what feminists are saying instead them itself?


hmm, I do want to get married. Not to a feminist, but I'm not really how hard it to find a Christian girl that't waiting till marriage, that's also not a feminist. I found 2 of the 3 on the internet before but she gotten offended when I posted this.


----------



## discoveryother (Sep 18, 2016)

Mabel Pines said:


> The depiction of men is idealized, too. In Grand Theft Auto, the guy is some hardcore badass person and in God of War, Kratos is some muscular, ripped dude. But men like those stereotypes and don't find them offensive, lol, so it doesn't get brought up because it is not an issue.


i find the male stereotyping offensive... i don't like it... but i don't play games anymore, so it doesn't really matter.


----------



## Scrub-Zero (Feb 9, 2004)

The vocal minority(white knights and feminists) and people like Anita Sharkeesian care because there are profits and glory/popularity in a "worthy" cause. But most people don't care that much, seeing how much they pay real money or farm in games for good looking armours and fashion items. Its a vain world in and out of reality.


----------



## wmu'14 (Sep 17, 2010)

discoveryother said:


> i find the male stereotyping offensive... i don't like it... but i don't play games anymore, so it doesn't really matter.


I agree. I came in here to post the depiction of men is out-of-control too. Glad I got beaten to it!  :

Video games and movies and other media have an inaccurate depiction of a lot of men, too. The media depicts the ideal, typical male body as super buff, super muscular, super athletic, good-looking, etc.

It goes both ways.

One of the reasons (out of a million) I stick to Nintendo for video games and don't like a lot of action movies LOL. I don't like to be reminded when playing a video game or watching a movie I don't have that kind of body.


----------



## Mlt18 (Jun 29, 2016)

Amphoteric said:


> I don't care, the men look stupid too.


^This


----------



## wmu'14 (Sep 17, 2010)

Karsten said:


> It annoys me, but not in a feministic sense. I just think it's childish.
> 
> I know there are a ton of good animes out there, but I have completely avoided the genre because of this. Something about the extremely dainty voices, ridiculously exaggerated features and huge eyes really hurts the credibility for me.
> 
> ...


Guess what. Sex sells. People like sex. People want more of sex. People can complain about the sexualization of things all they want, but the reality is, it's what people want.



ShotInTheDark said:


> Well let's face it lots of woman tend to act and even more to talk like ****s sometimes without any sign of shame or embarrassment,


I agree.


----------



## Shy extrovert (Dec 6, 2017)

I dont. Most people can separate fantasy and reality. Video games are a form of escapism and designing the characters like this makes them appeal to the target audience. Not many in real life are expecting girls to be super sexualized. Advirtisements and games and other media do not always match up to reality.


----------



## vela (Apr 19, 2012)

As a gamer and a woman I can say that yes I do find the depiction of women in games offensive at times. Of course I also do in basically all other forms of entertainment. Then again unless it's too bad I just filter it out like most people seem to. Our society has a real problem when it comes to how it views women.


----------



## unemployment simulator (Oct 18, 2015)

Scrub-Zero said:


> The vocal minority(white knights and feminists) and people like Anita Sharkeesian care because there are profits and glory/popularity in a "worthy" cause. But most people don't care that much, seeing how much they pay real money or farm in games for good looking armours and fashion items. Its a vain world in and out of reality.


the whole gamergate thing was a cringeworthy car crash, idiots on both sides making twats of themselves. on one side people like sarkeesian making incredibly dumb uninformed statements and on the other twats who want to kill her and make equally moronic points. honestly watching that whole thing play out was an exercise in losing faith in humanity. :no
you're right about vanity, people seem to think its fine to be exploited and pay silly amounts of money ontop of the baseline price for the game just to get extra costumes, I think that is madness personally. if its not in the wardrobe of the character in the main game, I ain't paying!


----------



## Lonewoman (Apr 11, 2018)

If the males are also oversexualized (created with huge impossible muscles/strength), then I don’t care as long as they’re both objectified. Gender equality


----------



## Rebootplease (Dec 5, 2017)

Lonewoman said:


> If the males are also oversexualized (created with huge impossible muscles/strength), then I don't care as long as they're both objectified. Gender equality


What's going on here
Are you wet yet?


----------

