Much as I've been enjoying it, and I
most definitely have been, there's something in XCOM: Enemy Unknown
that bothers me. With all the customization options,
different hair styles and colours, a variety of facial hair for men, some helmets, a huge range of colour options for armour and two different styles for each suit, different faces, even alterable voices, you can't do thing one
about the basic build of your soldiers. No matter what, every woman
is willowy with prominent hips and bust, and every man is a tank
whose head and shoulders meet almost without need of a neck. This works decently enough for male heavies and female snipers, but
what about the reverse? And why are my female assault units so
physically insubstantial compared to their male counterparts? It's a
little thing, perhaps, but it really does nag at me, because it
prevents me from fully engaging with the world the game is offering
me; the stark division between the sexes pulls me out of the
experience, because I'm constantly reminded that what I'm seeing is a design choice rather than a representation of human body types.
This sort of thing isn't uncommon,
sadly. Sexism isn't just about who is allowed to do what, or even
whose armour is armour and whose armour is a chainmail bikini.
Sometimes it's about the way you design a character, the things that
says about them and the limitations it imposes on them as believable
agents in their fictional universe. Body type is one of the most
subtle, and in genre works the most pernicious, form of sexism.
Things with actual human beings,
obviously, can't suffer from this too badly. While Scarlett
Johansson doesn't quite look like the apex human killing machine she
portrays in The Avengers, Jeremy Renner isn't exactly a walking slab
of muscle himself. No, it's mostly limited to illustrated or
animated visual media; your comic books, your cartoons, your video
games. Anya Stroud has almost nothing in the way of muscle
definition, compared to the hulking Marcus Fenix. Nathan Drake, lean
and reasonably designed as he is, looks like a bodybuilder next to
the spindly Lara Croft. Mystique and Elasti-Girl appear fragile, the
former in particular, while Syndrome and Mr. Incredible are beyond
solid, and even the lean and lanky Frozone seriously outmasses the
women. Superman, an alien whose strength is entirely based around
exposure to yellow sun radiation, has muscles on his muscles, while
Power Girl and Supergirl, who are usually almost as strong as he, rarely have any bulges that aren't on their chests. Heck, compare
Iron Man and Rescue, or John Henry Irons and Natasha Irons' Steel
suits. Powered armour suits based on the same framework and
fundamentals, but the men's is bigger, more solid looking, while the
women's is thinner, lighter, with a greater emphasis on replicating
their sexuality. John Henry's suit has broad shoulders and a moulded
metal 6-pack; Natasha's has a wasp waist, tits and a braid.
Ironically, one of the places this
comes up least is in the designs for Warhammer 40K. Yes, there are
no female Space Marines. But the Sisters of Battle look bigger and
more solid than Guardsmen. Female Dark Eldar wyches may not wear
much, but neither do their male counterparts. And Tau and Eldar female characters are
all the same size and build compared to their male counterparts; Jain
Zar looks just as solid as Asurmen, which is to say compared to a
Space Marine, not very. 40K has more, perhaps far more, than it's
fair share of problems regarding sex and gender, but surprisingly
this isn't one of them.
Now, a lot of these female characters
are 'strong', which is to say that they're usually capable of dealing
with a problem so long as there isn't a male character around who can
solve it for them. Lara Croft is a successful treasure hunter;
Elasti-Girl was a respected superheroine; Power Girl is simply
amazing on all fronts, or at least she was before the Nu52 reboot
made her an entitled thief and ludicrously reluctant superheroine.
But these are visual media, and a character is defined as much by
what they look like as what they do. It's great that Wonder Woman
can go toe-to-toe with Mongul, but why does she have to do it in a
one-piece and high heels when Superman is just gloves and a helmet
away from being covered head-to-toe? The emphasis on sexuality, on
showing curves through suits of powered armour and making equally
strong non-human characters wildly different sizes, colours those
characters just as much as whether they can knock out a room full of
ninjas or punch through a tank.
There's nothing inherently wrong with
making a character sexually appealing. It's when it happens at the
expense of making them look like they'd be capable of doing their
jobs, or when they look out place next to people who are doing the
exact same job, that it becomes an issue. Yes, men and women are
built differently in general, and yes, men often have an easier time
putting on muscle than women. But the only people who look like
Fenix and the other male COGs are people whose job it is to look that
way; bodybuilders, not soldiers. You'll get good arms from toting a
rifle, no question, but you won't get slabs of meat the thickness of
your female counterpart's hips. And if Batman really wanted all
those muscles everywhere, he wouldn't have time to be either
billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne or the brooding dark knight
detective, because he'd be spending all his time in the Batcave
drinking protein shakes and doing reps. And don't even get me
started on what Superman could possibly be finding to lift that would
give him that kind of body!
On the great spectrum of sexism,
this is a relatively minor issue. At least there are female XCOM
operatives and COGs and such; for all its decent showing on body
type issues, 40K has the Marines, Orks, Necrons and Imperial Guard
as all-male model lines, with one Tau female special character and men in the
Sisters of Battle codex. But just because you're not doing as badly
doesn't mean you're doing well.
So, how about it, XCOM? Can I get a
willowy male sniper and a behemoth of a female heavy? Pretty please?
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