Yesh I agree, that is probably the most noticeable "sexist" aspect that I can find...Mr Cwtchy said:If we're going to make accusations of sexism, it should be about the fact that of the objectively 'evil' characters in the game, including the generic bandits that you kill, every single one of them is a male. Every single one.
And no, I'm not buying this bullshit about women being oppressed in the post-apocalypse environment. That would not inherently preclude them from being murderous arseholes.
But imagine what a shitstorm it would have been if they allowed your main character to bash women's heads in... It is all stupid, obviously, why is it worse to display violence against men than violence against women? It's really not, but I'm quite sure that whatever X association would have accused them of promoting gender violence or somesuch if they did.
Do note that some infected -are- indeed female, and that shows that they were probably aware of the issue: depicting realistic extreme violence against realistic women was -too much-, while depicting the same violence against a mutated, monstruous, inhuman female, was ok. I don't really share this view, but personally, I imagine that I would have been a lot more shocked and uncomfortable if the game did cross that line.
A bit of a catch 22 issue here.
As for sexism, I wouldn't have ever thought of it. However, I do recognize that one of the central topics of the game (and probably the most impressively realized), deals with male psychology, and paternalistic fixation of needing to atone for the guilt of failing as a father. In this aspect, the game does explore a view of the "damsel in distress", but it analyzes it and manages to turn it around, asking which of the characters is really in distress, does Ellie need saving? Or is it Joel who is desperately trying to redeem his past failures and traumas?