Body diversity in video games

Colin Slark
Team Member

omebody asked me a question recently

that I had a hard time answering. She
asked me if I could think of any female
video game characters that are ugly, non-
conventionally attractive, or really muscular-
-that are not antagonists. I thought that there
must be. There are so many video games, on
so many platforms that there should be some
examples and there are some, but they are
underwhelming.

There’s a girl in the first Danganronpa
game that is very buff and her body is

covered in jagged scars, but she’s a minor
character. Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney
features a background character that is

an overweight baker. EDI, the artificial
intelligence from the Mass Effect games,
identifies as female and is only represented
by a glowing blue sphere in the second
game, but in the third game she acquires a
sexy robot body to house her consciousness.
Catherine features a transgender woman,
but she is the object of a joke by her friends
who think it is hilarious to encourage a
man, who doesn’t know about her gender
identity, to go pursue her romantically.

Games with in-depth character creation tools

like the Saints Row games sometimes feature
the option to make women with varying

looks and body types, but that is a choice on
the part of the player and not the developer.

It is exceedingly difficult to think of a female
character that is portrayed positively,

is not an antagonist, and is not made to

look like the ideal of beauty. I do believe
there is a problem having most female
protagonists. It puts a certain kind of woman
on a pedestal, fetishizing them at the cost

of others. It creates an unreal expectation

of how women should be in real life.

It could be argued that a similar thing is

Culture 18

Mass Effect Ill
BioWare

happening with male characters in video
games, creating an ideal of a buff, handsome
hero. If anything, what needs to change about
men in video games is the ultra tough manly
man stereotype. However, you get more
variety in body types with male characters.

Look, for example, at the most enduring
video game of all time; Mario is chubby
and is no model. Male characters get to be
scarred, buff, and ugly while still being able
to affect the plot positively. There should
be a wide variety of female characters,
especially protagonists, with a variety

of body types to better reflect reality.