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Ways I think Sexualization in media can be fixed
8 years ago
This debate is never ending though it does bring up a good point especial in case where both male and female characters are present in combat situations. As the idea of sexy characters is fine so along as what they wear makes since for the situation though some exception are sometimes fine (capes, ect) while others are becoming less okay (high heels on any character). It's also an early sign of the eventual gradual death of fantasy in general that will one day happen years probably decades from now. But I'll talk about that later. First my fixes or rather the fixes I agree with. Pretty much every option has been stated now. These are just the 3 that would get results in some way shape or form in the US specific. Globally it would not be easily do able.
The Fast Nuke it all approach, would be for a government intervention that bans all content featuring sexually inappropriately dressed characters (skimpy clothing) in situations such as combat regardless of sex/gender/sexuality/culture/plot where such attire would be inappropriate to wear. Exceptions are situations outside of combat where such attire would be fine such as home settings, the beach/pool, ect. And already released content during and up to a year after the bill went into affect would be allowed to sell and clear inventory (to gives devs and stores time to sell them off). Would be immediately noticeable as a major swift. And would put a stop to it almost all together. The bill would be one of the easier approaches as it would be backed by the religious community which alone makes up almost half the population. Not counting non-religious parties that would be in favor, making it "almost" a sure shot if made a public vote. Key word there being "almost". The problem is that it's an extreme approach and may cause increased tension among gamers split on both sides between rather or not such a broad stroke was even necessary over the other two options. And political concerns regarding the governments ever growing size and control over our lives outside of handling foreign affairs.
The Join them approach, would be to do the same with more and more sexy and over sexualized male characters (appealing to women and girls) while cutting back on doing it with female characters (basically doing things more equally). All while creating more varied female characters in terms of personality and body type. Much like we already kind of do with male characters. This is most likely going to be what actually ends up happening. We already have some examples such as the Final Fantasy and Tales Of franchises that do this with a mostly female fan base. Same ironically goes for Gundam as well (the guys are basically usually boy band pretty boys). We'd just do more of that in greater numbers until things balance out. Over 1500 games with over sexualized males are needed almost consecutively to come close to tipping the scale enough to be noticed even by the most prude of gamers and viewers. Other wise it's safe to say most wouldn't notice it until it was past the balance point. In the fighting wold likely continue. Alternatively making less or no stripperriffic character designs for game that are both serious and about battle/combat would also work as well. And arguably also what all parties in this debate would agree on.
The Dynamic Ads approach, would be to reduce and remove ads featuring over sexualized characters. And advertisers having greater access to our information (enough for only ads related to what you like to appear). And E3 and other gaming events would be forbidden from showing such content. Same goes for other conventions. Ads like these would be rarely seen and gamers of all types would be more easily able to see the games they would actually like. This is also some what already in affect though it's limited due to tech and legal issues. Going farther would make this more effective but comes with the issue of more of our private info being more accessible to advertisers. And unless we are cutting done on sexualized content as well out side of the ecchi/softcore porn genres. It would probably still not be a noticeable fix for many years. Seen more as a vale or sweeping it under the rug. It can very easily only make things worse.
This debate stems more from social issue regarding how we see and treat one another. Art mirrors and draws from life and society. Had things been different we'd be arguing about something else entirely. And our over usage of generalization despite it being a logically fallacy. Humans aren't perfect enough to be consistently consider one another. A walking paradox at best. And yes this is also why all of the characters are getting changes to their design in some way for my project. Once I have some of the model sheets done I'll be going of different places, including places like feminist gaming sites to get them critiqued. Adjustments will be made based on over all feed back. The main concern is not stepping on eggshells.
The Fast Nuke it all approach, would be for a government intervention that bans all content featuring sexually inappropriately dressed characters (skimpy clothing) in situations such as combat regardless of sex/gender/sexuality/culture/plot where such attire would be inappropriate to wear. Exceptions are situations outside of combat where such attire would be fine such as home settings, the beach/pool, ect. And already released content during and up to a year after the bill went into affect would be allowed to sell and clear inventory (to gives devs and stores time to sell them off). Would be immediately noticeable as a major swift. And would put a stop to it almost all together. The bill would be one of the easier approaches as it would be backed by the religious community which alone makes up almost half the population. Not counting non-religious parties that would be in favor, making it "almost" a sure shot if made a public vote. Key word there being "almost". The problem is that it's an extreme approach and may cause increased tension among gamers split on both sides between rather or not such a broad stroke was even necessary over the other two options. And political concerns regarding the governments ever growing size and control over our lives outside of handling foreign affairs.
The Join them approach, would be to do the same with more and more sexy and over sexualized male characters (appealing to women and girls) while cutting back on doing it with female characters (basically doing things more equally). All while creating more varied female characters in terms of personality and body type. Much like we already kind of do with male characters. This is most likely going to be what actually ends up happening. We already have some examples such as the Final Fantasy and Tales Of franchises that do this with a mostly female fan base. Same ironically goes for Gundam as well (the guys are basically usually boy band pretty boys). We'd just do more of that in greater numbers until things balance out. Over 1500 games with over sexualized males are needed almost consecutively to come close to tipping the scale enough to be noticed even by the most prude of gamers and viewers. Other wise it's safe to say most wouldn't notice it until it was past the balance point. In the fighting wold likely continue. Alternatively making less or no stripperriffic character designs for game that are both serious and about battle/combat would also work as well. And arguably also what all parties in this debate would agree on.
The Dynamic Ads approach, would be to reduce and remove ads featuring over sexualized characters. And advertisers having greater access to our information (enough for only ads related to what you like to appear). And E3 and other gaming events would be forbidden from showing such content. Same goes for other conventions. Ads like these would be rarely seen and gamers of all types would be more easily able to see the games they would actually like. This is also some what already in affect though it's limited due to tech and legal issues. Going farther would make this more effective but comes with the issue of more of our private info being more accessible to advertisers. And unless we are cutting done on sexualized content as well out side of the ecchi/softcore porn genres. It would probably still not be a noticeable fix for many years. Seen more as a vale or sweeping it under the rug. It can very easily only make things worse.
This debate stems more from social issue regarding how we see and treat one another. Art mirrors and draws from life and society. Had things been different we'd be arguing about something else entirely. And our over usage of generalization despite it being a logically fallacy. Humans aren't perfect enough to be consistently consider one another. A walking paradox at best. And yes this is also why all of the characters are getting changes to their design in some way for my project. Once I have some of the model sheets done I'll be going of different places, including places like feminist gaming sites to get them critiqued. Adjustments will be made based on over all feed back. The main concern is not stepping on eggshells.
