This blog stems from a blog on Kotaku – Nerds and Male Privilege part 1 and part 2.
I toyed with posting a comment, and thought perhaps it’d be best to get my thoughts down here instead.
This post mainly stems from Part 2 – Deconstructing the arguments. I admit for me it’s hard to get a response down in words that doesn’t boil down to one from gaming sexism bingo – I’m guilty of “It’s just a game, no-one cares”, “But men are all super-buff, they’re sexually objectified too”, and “Yeah, the story, dialogue and character design is all sexist, but everyone can enjoy the amazing gameplay”.
In the past I’ve been more reactive, but now I tend to be dismissive, because I’ve accepted that Ivy’s skimpy attire is the norm in a beat ‘em up, along with the men’s equally overdone proportions. I do feel in a lot of cases, we ‘give as good as we get’, the women are ridiculous, but so are the men. But Harris’s words have been a bit of an eye-opener in this department.
The idea that the male characters, as ridiculous as they are, are who men aspire to be, but the female characters are designed purely to please the men, is new to me. And in the example used, suddenly it does make sense to me.
It may sound stupid, but in reading this article I’ve abruptly remembered the only time a game genuinely managed to put me off playing it any further due to.. well… this.
This is Shahdee from Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. I played and thoroughly enjoyed the previous game, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. In Warrior Within, playing as the Prince, I’d boarded a ship and was quite engrossed in the gory combat, but then Shahdee made her appearance early on, and I felt incredibly awkward. I think my first thought was, what would my parents think if they saw me playing this game? 14 year old Emily was intimidated and confused by scary bondage woman.
I look at Shahdee now and think – what on earth is her costume made of? It looks like it’s supposed to be a shining metal , but it flexes around her legs and chest. Why is she wearing shoulder pads? Or bracers, for that matter? What’s the point? Why isn’t she just completely naked?
I’ve come to realise that some true equality between men and women can really enhance my enjoyment – but when it’s there, it’s so good that I’ve never really noticed it.
In Metal Gear Solid (let’s ignore 4 and the models for now, just for this), I feel as though the characters have had pure division, never based on gender, but based entirely on their profession. Everyone in Metal Gear Solid is either a soldier or a scientist.
Meryl Silverburgh, a soldier more comfortable with a desert eagle than a bra, Olga Gurlukovich who doesn’t shave her armpits, and Sniper Wolf, who puts more layers on in cold weather. 11 year old Emily loved Meryl, and her one line of dialogue about not wearing make up changed my life.
You might think that Eva in Metal Gear Solid 3 was bucking the trend here, but there’s a reason for this – she’s a spy, and she’s trying to seduce Snake. Infiltrating ranks among Ocelot and Volgin, she dresses as so:
And this is how Eva dresses when addressing Snake:
On a side note, thorough players will learn that Eva has breast implants.
And here are some scientists:
Pictured at the top, Emma Emmerich – she’s a young genius who I can only really describe as a computer wizard. Snake and Raiden fight to protect her because she has programmed a virus capable of destroying GW (let’s not go into more detail than that). Mei Ling on the bottom left is a data analyst, all the player sees through the course of the game is her face from the codec screen – a vital piece of equipment which she designed. Naomi Hunter on the right was head of FOX-HOUND medical staff. She prides herself on being a scientist, not a doctor, although often comes across as an amalgamation of the two – in Metal Gear 4 it is revealed that she has terminal cancer, and has only been able to fight it with the help of nanomachines, and she willingly takes her life by disabling them.
Para-medic saves data for Snake (later Big Boss) in Metal Gear 3, in addition she also advises medically, and offers knowledge on local creatures and plant life to assist in jungle survival. Nastasha Romanenko fulfills a similar role in Metal Gear Solid, this time advising on nuclear weapons. Born in the Ukraine, Nastasha’s parents unfortunately succumbed to the affects of radiation after the Chernobyl incident, and she works pro-actively to prevent others suffering the same fate, and helps Snake and Otacon form Philanthropy.
Metal Gear Solid has such a strong female cast, I’m surprised they don’t get mentioned more often in the discussion to have stronger, sensibly-dressed, and intelligent female characters that aren’t merely eye-candy.
I still don’t think the abundance of scantily-clad women will put me off a great game, and while I can see in some cases the issue isn’t just in a characters appearance, I definitely believe it is worth celebrating and paying note to the games that put the effort in to make all their characters truly brilliant, powerful, and somewhat believable. Except Raiden.
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