I'm glad Bob explained that the vast majority of female gamers have no problem with "sexy" character design. However, I feel that he stumbled on the issue of posing more than anything. In fact, I think this is actually an excellent example of gaming equality - in many cases, both the character's appearance and the pose/attitude personality are basically a set of ideals.
When he went through the male characters poses, he correctly identified a lot of what they were presenting. However, it appears the female poses he chose a different interpretation simply to make a point. Is Mike Haggar's "Arm up, implying strength" pose a comfortable or normal way for a man to stand? No of course not, its just as much of a "I could be looking in the mirror or showing off for the player" as a female character cocking her hips to the side. Both male and female characters embody various tropes that go through their character design. Morrigan Aesland is a succubus, her entire character is designed around sex in accordance with legends predating video games; we'd expect her poses to suggest exuding temptation and danger. All of these poses fit these characters, not simply provide eye-candy. I think its rather telling that Soul Caliber's Ivy is shown exclusively in her sexy outfit, but not her nearly completely covering "George Washington" attire, one of her default outfits.
Characters in games are typically designed to various ideals that are impossible or unlikely to be present in real life. Most men aren't going to look like Mike Haggar or even Marth, most women aren't going to look like Ivy or Samus. This isn't an issue - most people want to play ideals in certain circumstances. However there are also elements or realism when important to the story. Look at GTA4 - no character, male or female, is a perfect ideal and that's part of the design and it works in that environment. Look at the sheer variety of character designs in Alpha Protocol; you have several romance options and at least 2 of them are (SIE and Madison) are not developed to be stereotypically hot. In fact, the most "normative" attractive member, Scarlett reacts negatively to attempts to compliment and spend time addressing her beauty, unless you know her very well: she wants to be taken seriously as a reporter. Mina, while attractive but not designed as "Asian Seductress" trope, has a similarly complex set of reactions that lead to what's most likely the most in-depth actual "relationship" in the game.
We have more variation in female characters than ever and while I grant there is a part of the male gamer market that is hostile to females even asking question, I think it is because the vast majority of the so-called "Feminists" who bring up topics often are the more hardcore variety from the "All sex with a man is rape, sky god killed mother earth, Womyn" camp as opposed to the "Lets treat everyone equal" camp. To use a real life comparison, there are feminists who actively degrade other women for making the choice to stay home and raise their children while their partner brings in money - a perfectly respectable choice and excellent for the offspring. However, these feminists are truly no better than the old school chauvinists in that they are trying to limit the definition of valid choices for women, just on another path. They bring this same line of belief to games that somehow if every female character isn't "I am woman hear me roar, I don't do anything for the benefit of any MAN anywhere" somehow it isn't a modern valid role for a woman. That's wrong as well.
Much like racial and religious groups that make critical statements of video games, the feminist community tends to bring its extremes: the moderates and more reasonable folks don't typically find the need to bring forth these sorts of issues as they just aren't that big a deal without extremist beliefs.
When he went through the male characters poses, he correctly identified a lot of what they were presenting. However, it appears the female poses he chose a different interpretation simply to make a point. Is Mike Haggar's "Arm up, implying strength" pose a comfortable or normal way for a man to stand? No of course not, its just as much of a "I could be looking in the mirror or showing off for the player" as a female character cocking her hips to the side. Both male and female characters embody various tropes that go through their character design. Morrigan Aesland is a succubus, her entire character is designed around sex in accordance with legends predating video games; we'd expect her poses to suggest exuding temptation and danger. All of these poses fit these characters, not simply provide eye-candy. I think its rather telling that Soul Caliber's Ivy is shown exclusively in her sexy outfit, but not her nearly completely covering "George Washington" attire, one of her default outfits.
Characters in games are typically designed to various ideals that are impossible or unlikely to be present in real life. Most men aren't going to look like Mike Haggar or even Marth, most women aren't going to look like Ivy or Samus. This isn't an issue - most people want to play ideals in certain circumstances. However there are also elements or realism when important to the story. Look at GTA4 - no character, male or female, is a perfect ideal and that's part of the design and it works in that environment. Look at the sheer variety of character designs in Alpha Protocol; you have several romance options and at least 2 of them are (SIE and Madison) are not developed to be stereotypically hot. In fact, the most "normative" attractive member, Scarlett reacts negatively to attempts to compliment and spend time addressing her beauty, unless you know her very well: she wants to be taken seriously as a reporter. Mina, while attractive but not designed as "Asian Seductress" trope, has a similarly complex set of reactions that lead to what's most likely the most in-depth actual "relationship" in the game.
We have more variation in female characters than ever and while I grant there is a part of the male gamer market that is hostile to females even asking question, I think it is because the vast majority of the so-called "Feminists" who bring up topics often are the more hardcore variety from the "All sex with a man is rape, sky god killed mother earth, Womyn" camp as opposed to the "Lets treat everyone equal" camp. To use a real life comparison, there are feminists who actively degrade other women for making the choice to stay home and raise their children while their partner brings in money - a perfectly respectable choice and excellent for the offspring. However, these feminists are truly no better than the old school chauvinists in that they are trying to limit the definition of valid choices for women, just on another path. They bring this same line of belief to games that somehow if every female character isn't "I am woman hear me roar, I don't do anything for the benefit of any MAN anywhere" somehow it isn't a modern valid role for a woman. That's wrong as well.
Much like racial and religious groups that make critical statements of video games, the feminist community tends to bring its extremes: the moderates and more reasonable folks don't typically find the need to bring forth these sorts of issues as they just aren't that big a deal without extremist beliefs.