The Line Between Objectification and “Uglification”

I’ve been seeing some things lately, and they are triggering this part of me mind which is like “you can’t be serious.”  See, there’s this image macro going around of the protagonist in the upcoming Ubisoft game, Star Wars: Outlaws, where the protagonist’s face doesn’t look very good.  The image macro is so OBVIOUSLY from a still that was captured at not the best angle, and clearly shrunk down too.  I’m glad that some of the anti-woke crowd is even calling out how disingenuous this whole thing is.  They are saying she’s the latest addition to the “ugly” female characters.  Meanwhile, she just looks like a chick who is a little grimy.  You know, like an outlaw.  Le shock!

And I see this, after I see the scene in Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth where Tifa goes into a sit-up contest with a gal at the gym outside of Costa Del Sol.  I love a good minigame, but there’s something that I noticed as I was doing this – they have jiggle physics to her boobs while you are doing sit-ups.  Are you fucking kidding me?!  Sit-up jiggle physics?!  Wow.  There’s fan service, there’s fan service, and then there’s this.  I get why Tifa’s boobs jiggle when she’s walking around in a bikini in Costa Del Sol.  That makes total sense.  You are running around, and as any woman who wears a bikini can tell you, le boobies jiggle.  So that’s fine.  But her top is implied to at least do decent support.  They don’t jiggle all the time when you walk around in her normal outfit.  So why are we getting sit-up jiggle physics?

I watched The Act Man’s video about women in games being too sexualized, and I thought it was really disingenuous as well.  He clearly is on the side of the guys who want the big titties, and he basically said that everyone who calls out some of the more overt and in poor taste sexualization as women who are ashamed of their body image.  Um, what?  Dude, that’s not it.  Swing and a miss, slugger.  Look, I LOVE me some sexy gals in entertainment.  For real, a hot chick who can kick ass is right up my alley.  But there’s a point where you have to look at something and be like – “yeah, this is kind of demeaning.”  There is literally NO reason to have Tifa have sit-ups jiggle physics.  None.  This was all because you have her at a perfect angle and they wanted to titillate us.

What’s wrong with a little titillation?!  Geez!  You woke people want to ruin everything!

No, I really don’t!  Like I said, I get why there’s jiggle in the bikini while you’re running around, and I am down for it.  Tifa and Aerith in beachwear was so fucking hot!  So was Yuffie, but she’s a teenager, so no.  Glad that all of Cloud’s answers when she is trying to hit on him are either overtly negative, or sarcastic that goes over her head.  Kudos to him for not being into jailbait.  There’s nothing wrong with a gal being hot.  I am all about it.  All about Geralt with his shirt off too.

But there is a line where it becomes in poor taste.  The Act Man didn’t acknowledge that.  He even found the most overt example of this, in Dead or Alive: Beach Volleyball and found a way to make it sound like it wasn’t so bad.  Dude, come on!  There is a point where it’s tasteless, and it’s about that the point that a woman moving two inches has her boobs flopping around, or looking like icing bags being squeezed.  The fact that this is so controversial is so baffling.  It isn’t “woke”.

There’s a reality that a lot of guys who game won’t admit to – women don’t feel welcome in this space.  Part of that is the attitude of so many gamer guys, who think that a girl only likes games because of her boyfriend or that she is only a “casual.”  Another part of it is how guys get all salty and butthurt about any female character that doesn’t have huge boobs and a face that is like a Victoria’s Secret model.  There are so many guys who are using AI to “fix” female characters in games, and it’s equal parts insulting and disgusting.  Insulting to the devs who worked hard to make a cool character, and disgusting because so many of the fixes are just caking on makeup and giving a chick huge tits.

This sort of thing sends a message to women – that men who game only respect a woman if she is a supermodel.  That if she doesn’t look like that, they will not think she’s worth their time.  The Soul Calibur games are NOTORIOUSLY bad for making women sexy first, anything else last.  Every female character has jiggle physics like the boobs are icing bags bouncing around in zero-g.  It’s laughable how bad they are.

Which brings me to the other side of this argument, the “uglification” of female characters.  Aloy from Horizon: Forbidden West is their go-to example of the “ugly” female protagonist.  They all have that one screen-grab from that one trailer that wasn’t even representative of the final game.  Well, I have a screen-grab from the ACTUAL final game.  Let’s take a look.

Oh yeah, so much like a man, amirite?  Or, you know, not at all.  She looks like a woman.  A woman with Carja paint on her face.  I always loved their style.  But no, she’s not pretty enough, because she doesn’t have a supermodel face, or big boobies.

Speaking of boobies, oh man, the amount of men who were crying like little girls because Tifa went from a G cup to a D cup.  Or how Lara Croft went from a G cup to a C cup.  These are examples that people have used of female characters getting uglier too.  A real mystery why women are turned off of the fandom.  Just boggles the mind, does it?

This is argument is so played out, and in such bad faith.  There are a lot of LEGITIMATE reasons to be annoyed at the upcoming Star Wars: Outlaws game.  Like Ubisoft locking game content behind the battle pass, or the fact that the physical copy of the game doesn’t let you play it.  You have to have an internet connection for a single-player game.  But no, let’s get mad instead at this image that is clearly shrunk down, so we can say the chick in this game is ugly.  Okay.

I’m just so over this.  I’m over the misconstruing, or the gaslighting by people like The Act Man.  So, the big question – where is the line between objectification and “uglification”?  Sit-up jiggle physics aside, I think that Tifa from Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth isn’t a bad example.  She’s a badass fighter and a rich character who goes through a ton of growth by the end.  All of the female characters of that game do.  Or there’s Yennefer in The Witcher 3.  She’s hot, loves sex, but is also domineering, loyal to the people she care about, and also acknowledges the difficulties she faces being both a woman and a sorceress in this medieval setting.  Kudos all-around for her.

For those who are thinking – man, you’re talking about this a lot lately – you’re right.  I am.  Because this shit is everywhere!  This stupid-ass argument about “woke” and not woke in gaming, about things where it is so OBVIOUS that it isn’t nearly as bad as they’re making it out to be, because they have a brain-dead audience to grift for all those streaming superchats or Patreon pledges.  It’s awful. I’m annoyed.  And honestly, kinda over it.  The median age of gamers is in their 30s.  It REALLY feels like we should have grown up by now.  Does it?

Until next time, a quote,

“Ever since we left Midgar on this crazy adventure, ever since we were kids even, I can’t remember a time like this.  A time when we were this close.” – Tifa Lockhart, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

Peace out,

Maverick