Female Game Characters Photoshopped to Average American Proportions

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Weird. I thought the average American woman was actually larger than that (thanks TV). Either that or Australian women are creeping closer to the "American average".
I'll put my hand up and admit I've slept with a few women that size. Who gives a shit; nothing wrong with it. If I was a shallow narcissist I would have missed out on some good times. Just because they have a few extra pounds doesn't make them repugnant sub-humans.

Video games are fantasy, as is porn. If I based my bodily self worth on males in either area I'd be a shut in; cowering under my sheets and stewing in self-loathing.

 

[Weaver]

Maybe all my friends are just super sexy but most people I know aren't that large.

 

[CaitSeith]

Realistic proportions in Dead or Alive? Doesn't that kinda beat the game's purpose?

 

[Zacharious-khan]

This is why we can't have nice things

 

[Batou667]

Ugh. I hate how this kind of "article" is so de rigeur now; they don't even go to the effort of arguing a point, they just mock up a bunch of gender-swapped or size-morphed pop culture icons and presume the audience has had their eyes opened to some kind of poignant truth.

What I got from this article:

1) If that's a true representation of the average American woman, and I fear it might be, then they're unhealthily overweight. This should be a wake-up call for raised awareness about exercise and nutrition, not a cue for gamers to feel bad about enjoying games with athletic female protagonists.

2) These are fictional characters! They don't lead average lives or do average things; why should they *look* average? Hyper-capability and idealised body-shape is an accepted staple of many types of escapist or fantastic media, including some genres of comics, films and video games. And that applies to both genders. Where's the indignation about Superman not having an average American male physique?

3) Eating disorders are bad. So is obesity. Obesity-related disorders kill on the order of a hundred times more people annually than anorexia and bulimia do. Priorities, people.

 

[someguy1231]

Video games are not real life. They have no obligation, legal or moral, to be "realistic".

Face it, most people prefer to see idealized characters in their media. This is why the vast majority of Hollywood actors are so good-looking. Since video games are not a live action medium (and thus aren't even restricted by the appearance of real-life people), it's no surprise that most developers make their characters as good-looking as possible (unless they're supposed to be ugly). Even in games where players are given the option to make fat or ugly characters, most of them will not use it. On the rare occasion that they do intentionally create an ugly or fat character, they generally do so for comedic purposes rather than to make any kind of serious statement about body image or beauty standards or anything like that.

Obesity is not attractive, and no amount of "fat pride" imagery or plus-size modeling campaigns will change that. Even in those times and places when slightly fatter women were considered ideal (i.e. places prone to famine or food shortages), it was only because it meant she had good access to food and other resources, not because she was beautiful on her own merits.

As I said earlier, the only reason there's been such a push for more "body diversity" (a euphemism for more fat characters, particularly fat women) in recent years is because of the obesity epidemic. Deny it all you want, but ask yourself if we'd be having this discussion if America wasn't getting so damn fat.

 

[Dalek Caan]

But on the whole, I suppose it's kind of okay. The GTA V one made me giggle a bit though, since GTA V is supposed to be a pastiche of American culture, as did Cortana since she's a fucking hologram.

There is a joke in there relating to Bytes but I can't see it right now.

OT: Most of these aren't too bad and are nothing I would consider fat, though the last one is kinda weird. Aside maybe from Cortana and the Zelda one doesn't it make sense for them not to have as much fat on them since they move around a lot.

 

[bluegate]

Sons of a bitches, they dun made Rikku look fat and ugly!

Time you guys fought the stigma surrounding mental illnesses and started fighting for a healthcare system that gives these people easy access to mental help.

 

[ILikeEggs]

I'm curious how you can tell what muscle mass looks like on a fat person? Here is a picture of Holley Mangold.

She's fat. She is also a goddamn Olympic standard weightlifter. body fat and muscle mass are in no way mutually exclusive, and whilst in some athletic endeavors, slimness and high muscle mass go hand in hand, they don't in others. Fighters tend to be slim, but they also often have bigger frames and bigger waists/shoulders than in the original character designs.

I'm sorry, but you're kind of being pedantic. Yes, there are a few types of sports where having a higher bodyfat percentage is either fine, or beneficial, but honestly, how many can you name? Wrestling or weightlifting for sure, and maybe some golf, rugby and baseball players can get away with being 'fat' atheletes. On the other hand, you've got gymnastics, basketball, distance running, cycling, sprinting, swimming, tennis, volleyball, hockey, skiing, skating, rowing, surfing, soccer, mountain climbing and countless other sports where having a leaner physique is essential. I don't think it's a stretch to say that most types of 'athletic endeavors' are significantly easier with lower bodyfat percentage.

When someone is talking about their 'athletic' physique, most people(or at least most people I know) don't picture someone with 25-30% bodyfat or more, which is what pretty much every single 'average' image in this gallery is. Additionally, sure muscle mass and bodyfat aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, but by simple virtue of these images being of the "Average American woman", I don't see why they would have the muscle mass of a real athlete.

 

[VanQ]

Weird. I thought the average American woman was actually larger than that (thanks TV). Either that or Australian women are creeping closer to the "American average".
I'll put my hand up and admit I've slept with a few women that size. Who gives a shit; nothing wrong with it. If I was a shallow narcissist I would have missed out on some good times. Just because they have a few extra pounds doesn't make them repugnant sub-humans.

Video games are fantasy, as is porn. If I based my bodily self worth on males in either area I'd be a shut in; cowering under my sheets and stewing in self-loathing.

Australia long since overtook America as the fattest nation in the world by ratio. That is, America has the most fat people by sheer virtue of population size, but Australia has a higher concentration of fat.

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/australias-health-at-a-glance-were-fat-depressed-and-battling-cholesterol/story-fneuz9ev-1226765535472
http://www.smh.com.au/news/health/australia-pips-us-as-worlds-fattest-nation/2008/06/19/1213770827371.html

 

[Weaver]

In other news I really had no idea Conrad Zimmerman was a contributor here. Shows where I've been!

 

[Erttheking]

Snip

I don't think video games have an obligation to be anything, but it's nice if they give their customers what they want.

According to whom? Idealized characters are boring. Flawed characters are interesting. And you probably shouldn't bring up Hollywood considering that there's currently a major backlash against them right now for how unoriginal they are in remaking everything. You know what the majority of people who customize their characters do how? They make a character ugly for comedic purposes? Every ugly character in Game of Thrones begs to differ.

To you. Everyone has different definitions of attractive. You've honestly never heard of chubby chasers? You're projecting a lot.

Don't tell me why I'm arguing what I'm arguing. Half of modern day video game developers couldn't imagine their way out of a paper bag, and I feel very comfortable calling them out on that in general. That and when they do create female characters, half of the time they seem to go for anorexic models as a template.

So pardon my big fat American ass for thinking video games could do better. And they can. I love video games but the lack of creativity is PATHETIC at times. I've recently put in 80 hours to Sunless Sea because it had the guts to step outside of what was considered safe, and that's a rarity nowadays.

 

[Christian Neihart]

It's not like model thin with bug boobs and skimpy outfit hasn't been a default design for a while. Along with either an Ice queen or child like personality.

On a side note, where the heck are the Luccas, Aylas, Marle and Jades?

 

[Silence]

This is so beautifully stupid. For all americans out there: You know who you have to thank for reinforcing my stereotyped about you.

I'll say it: These photoshops are overweight, not "normal", and not "realistic", at least not more than the original.

 

[Silence]

This is so beautifully stupid. For all americans out there: You know who you have to thank for reinforcing my stereotyped about you.

I'll say it: These photoshops are overweight, not "normal", and not "realistic", at least not more than the original.

Why us? We haven't been the fattest for years.

It's stil the stereotype. I could switch it to english women, but I don't know if that's true, either.

 

[lastcigarette]

Why I am I not surprised this article is on the Escapist but certain other gaming & tech articles only show up on EveryJoe.

 

[Travis Fischer]

So, to sum it up...

1. This really says more about the average American than it does video game characters.
2. Nobody expects professional athletes to look like the average American, why would you expect it from people who can jump 30 feet straight up and knock out dinosaurs with their bare hands.
3. There are plenty of real-life people that look like those fictional characters, both athletes and non-athletes.
4. When all else fails, George Carlin is always right.

 

[someguy1231]

I don't think video games have an obligation to be anything, but it's nice if they give their customers what they want.

And the vast majority of them don't want to play as a fat character.

According to whom? Idealized characters are boring. Flawed characters are interesting. And you probably shouldn't bring up Hollywood considering that there's currently a major backlash against them right now for how unoriginal they are in remaking everything. You know what the majority of people who customize their characters do how? They make a character ugly for comedic purposes? Every ugly character in Game of Thrones begs to differ.

When I said "idealized", I was referring to appearance, and also only to female characters. Yes, that's a double standard, but this project only featured female characters so that's who I was focusing my comments on.

My source for what the vast majority of players create is based mainly on three sources: World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, and Skyrim mods.

In WoW, among female characters, the four most popular races are human, blood elf, night elf, and draenei, all of whom are widely considered to have the most attractive females. The least popular female races are Tauren and Dwarves, who are widely considered the least attractive. Do you think that's just a coincidence? My source is the website realmpop.com. According to this site, female dwarves (the closest thing WoW has to a BBW) are less than 2% of all female characters, and less than 1% of all characters in general.

My source for GW2 is a graph released by the developers themselves soon after the game launched, which showed that Humans and Norn (basically humans but taller and the same proportions) were by far the most popular races, the vaguely-human Sylvari were third, and the Asura and Charr were by far the least popular. It didn't break it down by gender, but based on my own experiences, 9 out of 10 Charr I encountered were male. Female Charr are probably the least "conventionally attractive and feminine" female race in the game. Combine that with the rareness of the Charr in general, and I think it's safe to say that female Charr are on the same level as female dwarves in WoW.

As for Skyrim, visit nexusmods.com and look at the what the most popular mods are effecting female characters. Almost all of them are meant to make them look more beautiful (by conventional standards, that is) or give them sexier outfits.

These three games are among the most popular games that have character creation, and all three of them also offer the player with the option to create a fat female character, or at least a female character who is not considered conventionally attractive. And in all three of those games, such female characters are the least popular when it comes to player creations. Therefore, I feel comfortable extrapolating from these three games to video games in general.

As for "comedic purposes", the only times I've seen gamers showing off fat or ugly characters are in threads that are specifically about showing off the most absurd or outlandish character they've created using create-a-character features.

To you. Everyone has different definitions of attractive. You've honestly never heard of chubby chasers? You're projecting a lot.

Of course I've heard of them. They're a very tiny niche. Tell developers to make a dating sim focused on fat girls if you think they deserve to be pandered to more. As I pointed out earlier, there are already games in which the player can create fat women, and the vast majority do not choose to do so.

Don't tell me why I'm arguing what I'm arguing. Half of modern day video game developers couldn't imagine their way out of a paper bag, and I feel very comfortable calling them out on that in general. That and when they do create female characters, half of the time they seem to go for anorexic models as a template.

You have no idea what "anorexic" looks like. There's a large middle ground between "overweight" and "anorexic", and I think most female characters fall under that (and believe me, I'm very familiar with the subject). Go ahead and post pictures of female characters you think look "anorexic". I've never seen any.

So pardon my big fat American ass for thinking video games could do better.

I'll use the same argument against you that you used against me: "better" according to whom? Most gamers would not consider a sudden proliferation of fat characters to be "better".

Oh, by the way, I'm overweight as well, so don't bother trying to use any "thin privilege" argument against me.

 

[Bat Vader]

Gotta say the photoshopped ones look much more attractive than their original counterparts. That's more so because I find women that have meat on their bones infinitely more attractive than skinny women.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

So, to sum it up...

Some minor nitpicks.

1. This really says more about the average American than it does video game characters.

Actually it says more about the body image issues that Americans with eating disorders have.

2. Nobody expects professional athletes to look like the average American, why would you expect it from people who can jump 30 feet straight up and knock out dinosaurs with their bare hands.

More like, people with body image issues expect the world to conform to their ideal, rather than to ideals of attractiveness, or athleticism ideals.

3. There are plenty of real-life people that look like those fictional characters, both athletes and non-athletes.

No nit pick here, but I certainly look closer to many of the before photoshopping images. Then again I'm unusually tiny and have the benefit of a high metabolism.

4. When all else fails, George Carlin is always right.

George Carlin isn't always right, but he is right more often than not.

Really to sum up the whole article. It's a sexist group who want female video game characters to look more "realistic"[footnote]By realistic they mean overweight.[/footnote] to conform to their situation. All because they have body image issues and want to "thin shame" instead of learning to be happy with themselves, or actually do something about their situation. Now not everyone can help being overweight, no matter how hard they work, and fat shaming is also still wrong. The age old saying "two wrongs don't make a right" comes to mind for me in this situation.