Rivalry

Sometime ago a game like Marvel Rivals emerged and quickly endeared itself to many gamers, or did it? It turns out some gamers and especially female gamers have objected to the way the superheroines are portrayed there, if I was honest most of the female characters there are ridiculously busty. They also tend to be leaner than their male counterparts, which makes them seem more palatable to certain male gamers. Though it’s true not all male gamers are sexist perverts, let alone for life, but a number of games in the past have set the tone for certain things. Not just in depicting helpless women a lot, but also sexualised heroines fairly often too. In the cases with characters like Kitana, Sonya Blade, Cammy White and Lara Croft, though these characters are ostensibly admirable heroines this is undercut by unnecessary sexualisation at times, well until recently with newer games featuring the three of them appearing to be less sexualised than they did in recent memory. Though unfortunately this isn’t well-received by other male gamers, despite their respective developers’ sincere attempts to concede to feminist criticism.

Actually even in games that don’t sexualise female characters a lot, either that they simply don’t show up in the games at all, are made functionally interchangeable with their male counterparts in gameplay (though this is a grey area), and are also glorified NPCs as well. Based on my meagre gaming experience on PBS Kids of all things, but it’s kind of telling that when it comes to depicting and creating female characters in video games with most game developers being male that it’s going to be a hit or miss at times. Sometimes it gets complicated that even when the game doesn’t seem to be outright sexist, it’s subtly sexist in that the female characters either simply don’t show up at all or are practically NPCs at most. Conversely speaking, especially in the Japanese video game industry, there are games that technically fail the Bechdel Test but are highly aimed at the female gamer demographic in terms of the ways the male characters are portrayed as to appease to them (something like Ensemble All Stars).

Although the Japanese video game industry isn’t any better, this is something the US counterpart missed out on. Well for most of the part as it’s going to be hard naming what is the US equivalent to the Ensemble Stars game that the US equivalent would have to be created instead, but this implies the US equivalents to these games are either nonexistent or very rare at most. In the sense of a video game that’s unabashedly aimed at women that objectifies male characters a lot, that it may not necessarily be a popstar raising game the way Ensemble Stars is, but something that’s kind of upfront about pandering to cishet female preferences a lot. Or if there ought to be a way to push the envelope with male character designs that is somewhat closer to what their female counterparts get, like what would happen if you were to chance upon a male character who goes about pairing an Italian suit with a dog collar, it wouldn’t seem particularly that sexualised compared to what the womenfolk get.

But it is pushing things when compared to the way male characters are usually depicted, that does speak volumes about the rampant sexualisation of female characters in ACG media a lot. Where if you have a male character going about in a suit but where the tie’s replaced by a bondage collar/choker, it is pushing things in a way that’s barely if ever done to male characters. Or that it’s been done to male characters before but not for long (mind you I’ve seen Hank Pym wear bondage clothing before), whereas it’s painfully commonplace to see female characters go about in skimpy and really sexualised outfits, to the point where Super Mario’s Princess Peach stands out more for usually wearing more modest dresses. There are some people who feel that young girls shouldn’t wear skimpy clothing, to the point where it makes the character designs for early-teen characters like Misty feel iffier in this light. She’s supposed to be in the 10-14 age range so far, but dresses in a crop top and short shorts that make one wonder if she’s going to risk injuring herself more if she does something by accident when going out on a trip.

Princess Peach is very much an adult woman but she usually is more covered up, which goes to you show you given her prominence in the video game canon that a female character needn’t to be too sexualised to have any renown or impact. One other contender within the early video game canon would be Princess Zelda, who in her official appearances, barely if ever dresses this skimpily either. Though it could be argued that the sexualisation of female characters in the video game industry also started out early, it seems to have surged in tandem with having more agentic female characters around, that it feels like an attempt to compensate for having potentially emasculating fictional womenfolk around. Marvel Rivals seems like a more recent permutation of this meme, surely there are a lot of playable female characters around. But they tend to have absurd proportions, a number of them dress in a very sexualised manner and fewer still are stuck with the same colour scheme, despite being ostensibly very different women respectively.

If characters like Aloy are any indication, if you have a female character who’s both strong and not that sexualised, she’d intimidate some guy gamers a lot. Further compounding the problem is that even when the female character is sexy, but if she doesn’t have certain proportions then she’s not sexy enough. There’s this blogger who insinuated that such players aren’t even interested in good character design, they’re more interested in wanting the womenfolk to be as arousing as possible. Believe or not, I actually know of somebody who’s attracted to redheads, fat women, muscular women and giantesses, but the same fellow draws the line at ugly women and short-haired women that he seems to prove her point right. Sound character design might as well be traded for whatever that’s immediately arousing, especially in female characters, that contributes to an unnecessarily sexualised environment. I suppose if it were possible to push the envelope with male characters, that even when it doesn’t seem provocative compared to the women, it would still be daring compared to the way male characters are usually portrayed.

Let’s say that the upshot politican Colin Sallow wears a mustard-coloured Italian pantsuit with a very tight shirt that ironically leaves practically nothing to the imagination, despite being coloured black, then there’s forensic scientist Fabrice Tientcheu who also wears something similar. Then comes financial adviser Ilmar Tuglas who’s the most modest of the three men, if because he wears a buttoned up bottle green trenchcoat that’s paired with a violet dress-shirt, bottle green trousers and a violet choker with an emerald gem at the centre. He doesn’t seem that particularly provocatively dressed when compared to a female character, it would still be a rather odd character design choice despite not being this sexualised either. It’s not just that he wears a choker and jewel-toned garments, but that he also actually wears jewellery at all. When it comes to something like body dysmorphic disorder, this is kind of exacerbated in the ACG canon where such character designers can readily whip up the ideal woman. I even argued elsewhere that such depictions might even be more harmful than fashion magazines.

One can appreciate a well-done dress, but it’s kind of hard measuring up to a cartoon heroine with more sexualised proportions than you, goes about in a very sexualised manner despite appearances to the contrary and is sometimes depicted as if she were a porn star, that would be much more drastic than if she were confronted by a woman wearing a modest but nice gown. It’s easier for others to let these ACG depictions slide but in the sense they either think it’s imaginary or a mere mistake, without knowing it could be even more harmful as it more effectively communicates a certain message. With clothing you could learn to make something that suits your likings, or to create something for somebody else. But with cartooning and the like, one could cook up the ideal woman. It’s like if somebody’s so exposed to a near lifetime of looking at naked and scantily clad women in artbooks, comics and video games that it feels unfeminine for a woman to dress much more modestly, to the point where it might even be more provocative for a woman to go about dressed in a roomy abaya in public.

This isn’t always the case for Muslim-majority characters like Malaysia and plausibly Iran, Turkey and Morocco where you’re bound to have women who’ll find ways of undermining the modesty mandate in some other way, pushing things despite appearances to the contrary, though not for long. But supposing if things like Malaysian folk clothing, hanfu/traditional Han Chinese clothing, Indonesian folk clothing, precolonial clothing and Burmese folk clothing were to get popularised in the Philippines, especially after America collapses, that Filipinas might dress more provocatively if many of them went about in panlingpaos, changaos, baju kurung, ruqun and the like in public, than if they wore short shorts and leggings just the same. If because it would be really odd seeing more Filipinas dressing much more modestly than they did, where it would surely freak out a lot of people if a lot of young Philippine women wore panlingpao and baju kurung to the streets. There could be issues of cultural appropriation, but it’s essentially no different if white women went about in sexualised versions of Native American clothing.

But it does bring up the question if women in sexualised clothing is so normalised, what does it take to dress provocatively then? Could it be that the sight of say Sonya Blade in a more modest outfit be more provactive than if she went about dressed as if she were a dominatrix? Going back to the other example, because it’s so common seeing Philippine women in short shorts and leggings, that they’d dress more provocatively if they went about dressed in baju kurung and sarong in public. If because what they’ll be wearing would be so shocking and strange that it polarises people at first, because it’s something the Philippine public’s not particularly this used to. It would be similarly bizarre if something like Swedish, Danish and Finnish folk clothing get so popularised among Canadian women, that it would also draw in accusations of cultural appropriation at any point. Even if these same garments don’t get sexualised at all, it would still be weird seeing Canadian women going about in Danish folk clothing in public spaces like malls and restaurants.

A lot weirder than if they went about in American clothing, because it’s been popularised for years. So it would be super strange seeing a character like Kitana go about wearing a Song dynasty panlingpao with Song dynasty trousers to boot, especially if others are more used to seeing her in more form-fitting or skimpier outfits before. It would be really strange seeing Tanya go about wearing a boubou/kaftan in Ankara print whilst finishing her opponents in kombat, one would only wonder if players have (to develop) the patience to put up with seeing Sophitita in a modest Norwegian bunad (or even Ivy Valentine wearing the same garment). It would be pretty controversial for many reasons, but the fact that so many people are desensitised to highly sexualised depictions, that it would be super out of the blue seeing more women (both fictional and real) dress much more modestly than they used to. Marvel Rivals seems like the latest iteration of an earlier but ongoing phenomenon when it comes to sexualised depictions of women, that it would potentially serve to normalise/popularise these things again.

Is sartorial impracticality in character design objectifying?

I feel when it comes to what constitutes as a practical character design and whether if sexual objectification has anything to do with it, at other times it doesn’t seem to be what it ought to be. One could be dressed modestly and still dress impractically, speaking from personal experience wearing really baggy sleeves that get in the way of eating. In the context of superhero stories and the like (i.e. a good number of video games), it usually refers to highly sexualised character designs that get in the way of fighting or whatsoever. From my personal experience, it might be possible to dress demurely yet also impractically, that it does make one wonder if our understanding of impractical dressing’s largely limited to just dressing sexily.

But that would mean the subject matter’s more nuanced than the dichotomy of sexy/ugly, even this has shown up multiple times in video games before in some way. Most notably what both Princesses Zelda and Peach wear, though from a certain standpoint what they wear’s positively anodyne compared to the more sexualised likes of Samus Aran (even before she wore a catsuit, she kind of dressed skimpily and also the way some illustrators depict her catsuit risks pushing things), Lara Croft, Cammy White and Kitana. Actually with Lara Croft, it’s a more complicated by now. Especially when you have lots of women dressing like her in real life, whether the leggings or the shorts, that at this point the way Lara Croft dresses is very unremarkable.

Not necessarily any less sexualised, but highly unremarkable in this day. It would be all the more provocative to see another female character dress in a more demure yet stylish manner, given we’re practically desensitised to sexualised female designs both in ACG media and in real life, especially if it’s a character design that’s barely seen in years that it’s kind of monstrous in its own right. In the sense of being very out of the ordinary, like say supposing if this character named Jemima Szara goes about in a demure black turtleneck blouse and red maxiskirt paired with black tights and red shoes, it wouldn’t exactly be monstrous. It would (still) come off as kind of unusual, because we’re not used to seeing a civilian dress this way.

Let alone an investigative journalist a la Lois Lane and also Insomniac’s Mary Jane Watson, but that’s got to do with American culture favouring both sexiness and comfort in dress over ornamentation and demureness as it is in Japan. Especially among Japanese women in real life that makes the differences between them and their ACG counterparts all the more drastic, but it also means that sometimes dressing impractically doesn’t necessarily mean the character’s sexualised. Princess Peach could be seen as dressing impractically despite dressing modestly, especially if she does certain things contrary to the way she dresses. Lara Croft could be seen as dressing comfortably, despite also dressing skimpily, especially if she starts going about in hot, damp places as there are women who do dress like her for this purpose alone.

It kind of upends one’s understanding of what it means to dress in such a manner, since sometimes dressing impractically might sometimes mean the character dresses too fancily for something. Princess Peach is generally like this and there could’ve been instances where she did dress too impractically for the occasion, just by wearing a nice gown alone and one of my sisters point out that I dress impractically because I habitually wear blouses with baggy sleeves a lot. I don’t play video games much but just by going from my own experiences dressing in such a manner that sometimes dressing impractically might also mean dressing in a way that’s too fancy or gets in the way of eating in my case, not necessarily because the character’s outfit is sexualised.

Not necessarily always because the character’s outfit is sexualised, which means our understanding of what it means to dress practically is kind of context-dependent. Somebody like Lara Croft might actually tend towards comfort over dressing fancily, the sort who feels more comfortable wearing shorts or leggings over a super nice dress, when she’s out looking for adventures in far off places. It happens to be rather skimpy or sexualised, given how they risk coming off as at inopportune times. A hypothetical character like Jemima Szara could be seen as dressing impractically, because she opts to dress in a black blouse and long red skirt with red shoes and black tights, as to look kind out of place and too fancy for the occasion.

Characters like Zelda and Peach, both Nintendo princesses by the way, do upend one’s understanding of what an impractical character design’s like, in that they needn’t to be sexualised to be impractical for the situation they’re put into. They also upend the sexy/ugly dichotomy so falsely assumed by a number of gamers when it comes to coming up with nonsexualised female character designs, similar things can be said of Lara Croft herself who dresses quite practically for the situation, despite being also rather sexualised at the same time (favouring shorts or leggings), there are even women who dress like her in the real world by the way. So it seems what is impractical needn’t to be sexualised, since this can involve dressing too fancily for the circumstances they’re in.

But one that fundamentally upends our understanding of things like these.

Horrible to think that

The more I think of what Nick Carter would’ve been like if he was in his twenties in the 2010s and never joined a boy band, the more I feel he could’ve easily joined Gamergate instead. For those who don’t know, this is a trolling movement aimed at harassing anybody who criticises legitimate problems in the video game industry like sexism. I’ve been around similar circles when I was younger and given the many rape allegations around Carter that I can easily see him actually joining those circles for real, going on harassing and annoying any broad who dares to point out misogyny in his favourite video games. That’s not to say every man who plays video games is going to be a misgoynist since others like Andrea Pirlo and Usain Bolt are fine enough guys who see video games as a fun diversion.

I even know of one pastor who played Mortal Kombat when he was younger and he turned out fine, which leads to an utterly odd thought that if someone can be into Mortal Kombat and turn out to be a well-adjusted member of society, then one could play something less salacious like Super Mario and end up really annoying to women. This isn’t true for all Super Mario fans, and Mortal Kombat fans either and either way, but the thing with Nick Carter is that since he’s been accused of rape multiple times over coupled with video games having had issues with objectifying and dehumanising women a lot, so the way he was brought up in, part of which is really sexualised when he was growing up, helps contribute to a really skewered view of women as disposable sex objects not helped by him allegedly having an affair with another woman.

Literature on whether or not video games affect one’s perception is mixed, but when you have people making fanfictions of their favourite video games like Mortal Kombat, Super Mario and God of War that it does influence them in certain ways. Not necessarily always for ill or good, but it’s present on some level. Nick Carter, unfortunately, seems closer to the meme of video games influencing people for the worst, as evidenced by the many rape allegations thrown at him and video games themselves having issues with misogyny and sexism for years, that inevitably they do influence the way he perceives women to be. This may not be true for all video gamers and even guy gamers for another matter, but the influence is there in some manner and in ways people may not always immediatly realise or recognise it as.

Like I said before that video games’ influence on people isn’t always for good or ill, but it’s there whenever people make fanfictions and essays based on stories like Street Fighter and Animal Crossing. It’s there whenever something like Mortal Kombat inspires them to make video games themselves, it’s there whenever people set out to dress up as characters like Sindel and Princess Peach. It’s there whenever people make fanart out of series like King of Fighters, Animal Crossing and Pokemon, it’s not always for good or evil but it’s going to be present in some fashion anyways. So video games’ impact on Nick Carter is going to be around in some manner whenever he homages them in his body of work, that it’s not implausible that the games he liked playing would’ve affected the way he views women.

So it’s going to be present in his life and sometimes in ways he himself doesn’t always immediately recognise it as, whether if they even shape his perception of women or not. Add to that he’s got a temper and has been mean to somebody like Kaya from Pussycat Dolls that if he never joined a boy band in his youth if he was a young man in the 2010s, he would’ve inevitably gravitated towards Gamergate and the like instead. I can even see Nick Carter as being more upfront about his misogyny and dehumanisation of women in this scenario, given he puts on a facade whenever he’s with the Backstreet Boys at all since the 1990s. Celebrities aren’t always what even they themselves make out to be that somebody like Harry Styles might be more vanilla and milder-mannered in person than one realises or even he himself knew from time to time, so logically Nick might be nastier in person on a really bad day.

The personas they cultivate are very carefully curated as to live up to public and fan expectations of them, even when these sometimes slip and reveal sides that they don’t want to show often. Harry Styles could be less flashy in person especially if he can’t always keep up with his public image, Nick Carter might actually be meaner and more devious in person on a bad day. Compounded by that fans don’t just personally not know these celebrities, but they don’t personally encounter them that much in person that there’ll be sides to their favourite celebrities that are practically unknowable to them. It’s one thing to learn that Nick Carter likes comic books and video games, but it’s another to encounter another side of say Harry Styles this often in person where he might actually be very contrary to the usual public image. This could even apply to the rest of the Backstreet Boys or any other celebrity.

Especially with celebrities who have carefully curated public images that there’s going to be a side to them that’s practically and highly unknowable to not just the general public, but also their fans that it would be pretty shocking to realise that somebody like Bang Chan might be the sort of fellow who’d rather watch football matches than actually enjoying fashion himself. Bang Chan would rather follow his favourite football leagues like either Manchester United or Real Madrid online than fashion designers like Giorgio Armani and Dolce and Gabbana, he might know Andrea Pirlo and Steven Gerrard better than he knows Madeleine Vionnet and Jeanne Lanvin. I might be projecting here but there’s a possibility that celebrities themselves may not always live up to their public personas that much on certain days.

It’s known that Nick Carter likes playing video games but it is uncertain if there are other video games that he likes that might be really surprising or off-putting even to his fans that would more clearly influence his view of women, given Super Mario is one of the video games that he publicly admits to enjoying or acknowledging in any way. It would be particularly shocking if Nick Carter’s not above playing video games that objectify women a lot, but one that might not be a stretch if he’s a serious gamer himself. If somebody plays a wide variety of video games that they’re going to be not above enjoying certain things even for a time being, in the same way somebody who’s a wide listener wouldn’t be above enjoying certain things for a certain time. For the record, I don’t play video games much.

But it’s not inconceivable for somebody like Nick Carter to be not above playing more misogynistic or pornographic video games, if he’s a dedicated gamer himself who likely plays a wider variety of video games than I do. It’s like if somebody’s a really wide listerner that if they couldn’t be above listening to bands like Skinny Puppy, The Wurzels, The Chicks, Basil Valdez, Miriam Makeba, Celeste Legaspi and Barbie’s Cradle at various points in their life, so a serious gamer like Nick Carter wouldn’t be above things like Dead Or Alive and Soul Calibur either. This is pure speculation on my part, since I don’t play video games as much as he does, but it’s highly plausible he’s still not above those things. But this is one that reveals a more human side to him.

If Super Mario was one of his gateway drugs to gaming, then there are likely other games he plays or has played that’s not publicly known in any way. He may not necessarily play Soul Calibur but he could’ve played something like this at one point in his life, or for another matter Dead Or Alive and although this is speculative, he wouldn’t be above those things as a serious gamer himself. Even if some of the things he did in private are true like with Kaya saying that he watched porn before, a good number of his fans would dismiss these things and would do anything to gaslight people like her. Even if Nick Carter’s not above watching porn and may even be not above playing pornographic games himself, there’s going to be a side to any celebrity that fans don’t immediately believe or accept.

It’s hard to truly like somebody if you don’t accept that they have any other faults, so the way many of his fans act around him is less like somebody who truly understands and knows his shortcomings, and more like obsessive cultists who don’t want to hear anything bad about them. It doesn’t help that many of his fans don’t accept or realise that he could be abusive to women, even if the media he likes would’ve influenced his viewpoint of them, that I feel they’re more in love with his public image than they are to rationally reckon with his other shortcomings. It’s even worse if he continues to pursue affairs with other women, despite being married himself, that it’s like he essentially grooms others to be his mistresses of some sort.

Which only expounds the possibility that he kind of objectifies women, that women are there to gratify his ego and stuff means he doesn’t really see them as people. Compare this to Gerard Way who adamantly refused to make women flash something, that even when he could have, he never did. He’s not above his own issues but he never really objectifies women this much. So far nobody around him so far has admitted he watched porn, unlike how a certain Pussycat Doll felt about Nick Carter. There are no rape allegations around Gerard Way as far as I know about it, Nick Carter has a lot of those around him and then we have Kaya having admitted he watched porn, so there’s a chance that Nick really doesn’t see women as people at various points in his life.

I feel this is something that not many BSB fans would readily reckon with, not just because of Nick Carter’s own misdeeds, but the odd possibility that somebody like Gerard Way might be everything they make Nick out to be. Or the utterly ironic possibility that a rocker would be less sexist than a boy band member this time, especially when it comes to somebody like Gerard Way. I don’t think many BSB fans would easily reckon with these, lest there be somebody who actually fulfills their criteria much better than a Backstreet Boy would. Lest an outsider be the person they make a Backstreet Boy out to be, which is worse because that would mean the mental image they have of a certain Backstreet Boy isn’t and will never be how he is in reality. It’s like this with me before with a certain celebrity, then being so disappointed with them that I turned to others instead.

It’s probably no different with Nick Carter in this regard that it takes time to accept that Gerard Way could be the person they make Nick out to be, far moreso than Mr Carter would make himself out to be just the same. Or perhaps any other celebrity, which was my case before. Even if Nick Carter didn’t rape this much women, but with him objectifying women every now and then, he is likely someone who doesn’t see women as people. He sees them as playthings he can use when it’s convenient, to the point of carrying out an affair behind his wife’s back. Nick Carter might not be the person he constantly makes himself out to be on certain days, so he himself would often fall short of his efforts and goals. Not just his struggle with alcoholism, but also his struggle with his libido as well.

A more human, fallible Nick Carter if there ever was one, a Nick Carter who might do shadier things behind closed doors. A Nick Carter who’s not above playing games like Dead or Alive and Soul Calibur, a Nick Carter who watched porn before and might have an affair with someone else. A Nick Carter with real rough edges that can’t be easily smoothed out, no matter how hard he and his team tries. A Nick Carter with warts and bumps that can’t always be readily concealed, if his affair were to be outed any time soon. But a Nick Carter that people have difficulty accepting that he’s the same man as the one they knew before. In a way he does have some parallels to Taylor Swift, in the sense of both of them appearing to be wholesome, despite them being also really promiscuous.

Taylor Swift is an interesting case study of a celebrity whose cultivated persona clashes with her actual behaviour, like she makes herself out to be kind of innocent and likable but turns out to have a higher body count than Katy Perry ever would. Katy Perry to my knowledge only has romantic relationships with two men, Taylor Swift has much more than hers really over a period of time. To think that Taylor Swift desperately wants to be seen as this wholesome girl next door type, yet has been rather promiscuous in the past makes one wonder about Nick Carter when he was younger. Like he was made out to be this wholesome blond All-American type, yet in reality he wasn’t above abusing his girlfriends before, also not above watching porn just the same if you believe Kaya Jones.

He may not be even above pornographic games either, assuming if he’s really this into gaming. This would be like saying Nick Carter’s not above gorier games like God of War, Mortal Kombat (if he did try it out for a brief time at all) and Assassin’s Creed, among many others so even if it would’ve clashed with his wholesome persona that his manager and then he himself cultivate, it goes to show you that Nick Carter wouldn’t be above these things growing up. So in a sense he’s like other guys, sometimes for ill regarding his attitudes to women. In hindsight given video games’ own issues with sexism that this would’ve influenced how Nick would see women in his formative years, even if not all gamers turn out for ill since there’s a pastor who used to play Mortal Kombat before.

Some of the stuff I’m talking about is speculative at best, but I still feel Nick Carter isn’t always what he makes himself out to be. Perhaps in ways that are obvious to those who’ve encountered him on a really bad day like Kaya Jones.

Overly sexualised designs

When it comes to needlessly sexualised character designs, it’s something that occurs in things like video games as well as CSI and its ilk. Like how the women characters often seem to dress slutty, despite their actions to the contrary and so on. Street Fighter’s Cammy White for a long time wore a thong leotard, yet to my knowledge she’s never been romantically involved nor is she particularly flirtatious. This has been undone as of the latest Street Fighter game, but it does make one wonder why on earth would they put her in a thong leotard to begin with. Not only would it increase her chances of getting her legs chaffed, but also how and why she’s never a flirtatious character at all.

It’s even weirder still to think that another Capcom character who’s an actual seductress going by the name of Morrigan Aensland dresses more modestly than she did, in the sense of not baring bare buttocks in combat. The fact that Cammy White is something of a soldier and it could be said that she used to dress in what appears to be a sexualised military uniform in-game is kind of distasteful really, like as if they’ve undermined the ability to take her seriously without having to sexualise her that it’s belated they’re desexualising her at this point. Now let’s consider what would happen if somebody were to do something similar to a male character, in which his direction strongly mirrors that of his female counterparts.

Let’s say that Graham Knightley’s the son of a billionaire and a salesman, at first glance he wears a skintight suit. But that’s not all as his trousers have bondage straps to it, that it highly sexualises the outfit in a way that echoes the unnecessary sexualisation done to somebody like Cammy White, who’s a soldier by the way. Or Lara Croft for another matter who’s an archaeologist, yet she appears in booty shorts in most games so far. You’d say that he kind of dresses rather fruity, not just because his suit is skintight, but also because he wears bondage trousers. But it’s not uncommon for female characters to dress kind of fruity themselves, sometimes bordering on catering to certain paraphilias.

Sort of like how NCIS’s Abby Sciutto dresses as if she panders to people’s fantasies of a Goth girlfriend, that it would be harder for her to get away with dressing in Goth clothes if she’s a guy lest she’d be seen as unprofessional. But it’s also kind of telling how we’re pretty desensitised to the rampant sexualisation of women in these stories, that it feels kind of normal in an unfortunate regard. It seems even if Graham Knightley isn’t dressed so skimpily, him wearing a bondage-inspired pantsuit could be seen as too sexualised for some people. He may be hypothetical for now, but this is to give you an idea of what game developers have been doing to female characters.

You’d say that the bondage straps are impractical and could get in the way, yet Cammy’s leotard is just as impractical and unhelpful considering the risk of chaffing at any point. This is to give you an idea of how a number of female characters’ outfits aren’t just overly sexualised, but also really impractical given the risk of accidents at any point. You’d wonder why on earth would he even wear bondage trousers, but you could ask the same thing about Cammy wearing a thong in public. It may not be equivalent at first but this is to give you an idea about how unnecessarily sexualised a number of female video game characters are, that the mere presence of a man in bondage trousers would make other male characters (who wear merely tight clothing) look tame.

There might be male characters that have come close to this in a way, look at what happened to Wal from Final Fantasy. There was controversy over the way he dressed, so he was eventually redesigned. But it does speak volumes about how desensitised people are to women dressing skimpily or in a sexualised manner in some other way, that Wal as he first appeared really caused a shock. As for the other male characters like say Fabrice Tientcheu, he’s a forensic scientist and he seems to dress the part at first. But he also wears a really tight shirt and trousers that it makes you wonder why he dresses the way he does, or Colin Sallow being the son of a politician who also dresses similarly.

Both men have a habit of wearing skintight clothing to show off their physiques, despite their professions that it does parallel the way female characters are unnecessarily sexualised. Back to the Abby Sciutto example, I do recall her wearing a skimpy dress despite being a scientist herself. If you have a male character who is a scientist and yet wears a tight shirt and tight trousers to show off his physique, it’s practically no different from what’s been done to her. If you have the son of a politician wearing similarly, you’d have to wonder why Ashley from Resident Evil used to dress in a way that arouses people’s sex drives. It’s increasingly no longer the case these days, but it speaks volumes about sexist character design.

The odd fact that almost everybody in game development is straight and male kind of influences things like character design and writing, which would explain why in some early incarnations of long running games, with the possible exception of educational games, female characters were almost always either sexualised (Samus Aran, Cammy White, Sonya Blade, Kitana and Mileena) or disempowered (Zelda and Princess Peach). This is getting better at this point in time, with game developers trying to give the latter more agency than they did before, and with the former being desexualised big time. But I suspect the former isn’t done to men often because it’s weird seeing them being actually objectified, the latter because it’s emasculating to see weak men.

This may not be the case anymore, but when it comes to Wal it’s weird seeing a male character being this sexualised. And why it’s kind of rare to find dudes in distress, it’s emasculating to depict male characters this way.

Not much confidence

I think if there are some writers and creators at Nintendo reluctant to make Princess Peach more independent and also a playable character that even if it shows up in some games, some really don’t have much confidence in her potential (like say she might give the irascible Daisy a run for her money, supposing if the trend of her powers ruled by emotions as in the Super Princess Peach were to continue).

Like the fear of making her out of character when in reality it’s right up there in her own titular game, not that she should be exactly like Daisy in demeanour but that she could get really angry as to attack her enemies as it was in Super Princess Peach. I guess the closest analogy to would be that DC’s Stephanie Brown might be a better athlete than Tim Drake and even as angry as Jason Todd is never mind it could’ve shown up in canon to some extent.

Or almost any other character, for fear of emasculating their male counterparts and I would say this also extends to the matter of race and disability where nobody wants the thought of Cassandra Cain being mentally ill and with a low self-esteem never mind that this was addressed to some extent, considering that she hadn’t much of a normal childhood and was raised to be violent.

Rao help if CW’s Flash has the guts to turn racial stereotypes on its head where Iris West is very girly and satisfied to be a housewife type whereas Caitlin Snow is hot-tempered, animalistic (as she’s a werewolf) and androgynous (as a shapeshifter she can appear as a man) or if Wally West might have mental health issues (he might be highly anxious).

I guess that’s still saying if it were to happen, even if some writers pull it off and let it happen others might not have the confidence to turn stereotypes on its head and in the case with Peach, some aren’t that confident about her becoming more independent and forceful or for another matter, Cassandra Cain’s and Wally West’s mental health issues.

Not so peachy for her

Admittedly I don’t play video games but considering the Mario video game’s history of having one of its characters (Princess Peach) be in distress that it shouldn’t be surprising that some games did try to address the problem or even turn it on its head in Super Princess Peach where she actually rescues Mario despite the games’ flaws as well as rescuing others.

(It could be argued that in the Super Princess Peach where Peach’s emotions grants her different powers might be an attempt at making her more aggressive or forceful especially if she uses anger, though that might not be the right word for it.)

Whilst not any better if her powers are governed by her emotions, it could be argued that for some writers (especially cishet males) they don’t have much confidence in depicting female characters as being more capable than their male counterparts in some fields (albeit not in ways one expects), perhaps why some don’t have much confidence in Peach’s capability.

(Like I think if one game gave Peach’s emotions specific powers, which if she uses one of those to torch enemies it would seem unthinkable even if she’s capable of it*.)

Even if the character is capable of doing those things in some games or stories, some writers don’t have much confidence in them for whatever reason.

*Perhaps the other problem’s that nobody wants her to usurp Mario in some regards.

Toy companies branching out

I guess with some toy companies, they’ll surely find ways of staying relevant and competitive one way or another even if my business knowledge’s rather weak. It’s like how Hasbro went from being a pure toy company to a proper multimedia entity now that it bought Entertainment One in addition to Wizards of the Coast. The former produces animation and the latter’s behind fantasy board games and books.

For another matter, Bandai also did similar things by buying an animation studio and a video game producer. (Actually Mattel also bought an animation studio.) Nintendo for a long time was a cardmaking company and still does to some extent (much moreso if you include Pokemon in a way) and for a while made toys that led to its video game present. Not all toy companies do this though that doesn’t make them any less relevant and adaptive.

But rather it’s expanding one’s business to do other things really.

Hasbro–the American version of Nintendo?

Not quite but pretty close to some extent. Hasbro did start out as a humble toy making company and still does to this very day. These included Mr Potato Head, GI Joe and My Little Pony. All three of them received animated adaptations and appearances but most especially the latter two.

Let’s not also forget that Hasbro also has Wizards of the Coast, which’s largely responsible for the Dungeons and Dragons brand (board games, books and animations). That’s in addition to Monopoly, a longstanding Hasbro board game. Currently it bought Entertainment One, which’s got the Peppa Pig brand.

It does feel tempting to call it the American Nintendo (Sega actually started out as an American company that produced games for soldiers before moving to Japan). But it does come close. Especially in the sense of begetting a lot of memorable franchises and brands and branching out into odd territory. Nintendo started out as a card-making company.

Hasbro bought a film production company. That’s how far these two have come.

Nintendo’s toy days

Nintendo is quite a company with a storied history. For a long time and it still does to an extent (club cards and the Pokemon cards in a roundabout way as it’s co-owned by Game Freak), Nintendo makes cards. These ranged from hanafuda cards to Western cards and sometimes cards based on Disney and Popeye characters. (If I’m not mistaken Mario and Donkey Kong were based on Popeye.)

One employee had a knack for creating amusing gadgets that inspired Nintendo’s prior toy lines (actually Nintendo still produces toys, whether if it’s Amiibo or merchandise in a roundabout way). These ranged from the Love Tester to the Super Hand and finally some of Nintendo’s earliest video games. Some people say that the toys are the missing link between Nintendo’s card-making past and gaming present.

I’d say Nintendo still produces cards and toys in some fashion or another, as if the past’s not entirely forgotten.

Nintendo’s Early and Middle Years

There’s already a book and blog that extensively studies and chronicles Nintendo’s early years and eventual transition to electronics. Compared to Samsung, Nintendo’s relatively more predictable in a way. It started out selling trading cards and board games before transitioning to toys and then to video games.

It’s comparable to how Disney and Universal all are rooted in films so transitioning to theme parks, consumer products, music and television aren’t much of a stretch either. Disney already had been licencing its characters and stories to books and comics so buying Marvel Comics isn’t that a big stretch when you think about it.

They even made Marvel publish Disney theme park comics. That Disney and Nintendo never forgot both animation and card games‘s saying.