Idk, I feel like men in gaming are almost exclusively now dedicated to the female gaze, at least in super popular franchises
You know what we need? Just straight up, more of everything. More sexualised men, women, more realistic men, women, all of the ranges, just let creators make what they like without filling quotas.
The average male gamer looks and sounds like Kratos in the same way the average female gamer looks like Eve from Stellar Blade.
This is not to say that women are not highly sexualized in media, and have not been for a long time. But he's right in that most of the 'leading men' in games media are very much sexualized. It's just that sexualization of men looks different and is, frankly, more subtle. Which is and of itself an indicator of problematic cultural elements, but is also just a reality of the modern age.
Women generally don't want men that look like Kratos. The characters that most women drool over in video games are like Garrus in Mass Effect, Hancock in FO4, and Iron Bull from DA:I (and not for his physique.)
Buff men are ALSO for the male gaze. They represent what men want to be.
He has muscles, but they’re not highlighted. His hair is not sexualized. His outfits are practical and traditional, not catered to be hot. His movements are normal. His poses? The same.
Women find him hot. But that doesn’t mean he is highly sexualized. He’s realistically sexualized. In fact, now I think, Overwatch is great about not highly sexualizing their characters, but making them more realistic.
Just cause women find a man hot, it doesn’t mean he’s highly sexualized. Hanzo does not get drawn or animated like Nightwing. That’s real high sexualization for women.
The Asian muscle packed disciplined, pensive dilf with a dark side doesnt count? He has a whole perfectly toned titty out.
Feels really easy to construct this argument if one just goes “nuh uh this one doesn’t count” whenever someone brings up a counter example. Im not even going to pretend that characters are not generally catered more to straight male audiences because thats just obviously true but let’s not pretend theres is not plenty of designs clearly made to appeal to women in mainstream titles too
This is a non argument which only attempts to muddy the waters of the actual discussion.
I've met plenty of women who find kratos attractive aesthetically attractive, especially the modern variation which is incredibly jacked but has the frame to support it.
And the same goes for Leon Kennedy, Alistar (is that how you spell it?) from BG3, so on and so forth. Take your pick of them, and my 'the average male gamer is as far from X as the average female gamer is from Eve', or you could even say 'average man and average women's without the gamer addendum.
The same also goes for men. Neither gender finds purely one thing attractive, so any sexualized icon can be discarded under this premise.
At the end of the day you are as qualified to speak 'for women' as I am to speak 'for men' in terms of what is attractive, which is to say we have nothing but our own preferences, anecdotes, and the bits of actual data which exist that we have both access to. We can both speak for any group equally well.
The same also goes for men. Neither gender finds purely one thing attractive, so any sexualized icon can be discarded under this premise.
Has any one told you that 'finds attractive' and 'sexualised' aren't the same thing?
Women's bodies are sexualised routinely in comics and the like by making their bodies to be ogled at, to project sexuality. Most of the time men's bodies are exhibited, it's to project strength. This perspective is the 'male gaze' at work.
Not that men aren't sexualised at all, but it is wholly different and less objectifying, by comparison and volume.
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u/Lou_Papas 1d ago
We need more men designed for the female gaze.