Easy on the Video Character Body Image

Most video games feature a main character whose body shape in almost impossible to achieve in real life. To me this is okay though. Is it necessary? Absolutely not. But I’m not too upset by it.

In most video games that include female characters, their bodies are often portrayed in absolutely outlandish ways. Their bodies are shaped in ways that impossible for any human female to look like and they are dressed in absolutely absurd garb. To me it doesn’t make any sense to portray women in this way and I would definitely be in favor of putting a stop to it. I personally haven’t ever found a female video game character attractive and honestly the thought of being attracted to an animated being is kind of creepy to me. I’m sure that others are but I’m sure there are other, more private mediums to access that weird stuff than to play a video game.

Some will argue that the same concept of male character’s bodies being blown out of proportion in video games. Most male characterized have been given massive muscles that are almost impossible to acquire in real life, those muscles are being used to portray a sense of strength and power in the video games. This differs greatly from most female video game characters who have big boobs and little to no clothes on just for the sake of having big boobs and little to no clothes on. The female bodies in video games generally don’t reflect a sense of purpose in the game like the size of the male characters do.

Some will say that the concept of male characters’ bodies being blown out of proportion in video games is juvenile (Perez, 2011). I think that most video games offer people the opportunity to play as something that they are not. So if this means giving people the opportunity to play as a character with massive muscles, so be it. This doesn’t mean that all games have to follow this idea though.

Even though most video games do substitute brains for brawn, often times gamers cannot connect with these types of alpha male characters because the thought of actually putting yourself in those positions is completely absurd. It is because of this that there are many examples of games with main characters who are fairly ‘regularly shaped’ but allow your mind to go to places it cannot go in reality. Games such as Super Mario, Zelda and Uncharted all offer gamers a chance to save the day by solving puzzles rather than blowing everyone’s heads off and leaving a pile of destruction behind you. These types of video games offer gamers the chance to connect more to their character than the games where you play as the total alpha male. This is because when playing as a seemingly ordinary person and still being able to save the day, you feel as though you could put yourself in that scenario and save the day just as your character did.

Although many people would suggest that there is a huge problem in the gaming industry with misrepresentation of body image to both sexes, I think that causing a stir over this is a bit too much. The ways that females are often portrayed is totally unrealistic, but I don’t think it is overly necessary to be upset by their misrepresentation as ridiculous as it is. Just as female characters are misrepresented, so are male characters, but often times this is necessary to reflect the power that they have. If the video game industry decided to normalize their characters, I definitely think that they would connect with their gamers more. But if they don’t, I won’t be too upset and life in the gaming world will go on.

Works Cited

Perez, R. (2011, March 17). Venture Beat. Retrieved from venturebeat.com: https://venturebeat.com/community/2011/03/17/the-misconception-of-masculinity-in-games/