And despite all of that maturity, they still do male-gaze, heteronormative centric design.
In BG3, Type A halflings (male presenting) are all dumpy and kinda goofy-looking. Type B halflings are all banging smokeshows. Give me the dumpy looking halflings, man.
In Cyberpunk, the camera lingers on nude women, but hides or ignores male nudity, even if the player character is fem presenting and chooses a male partner.
There’s a YouTube video about this, but I can’t find it. I’ll update later if I do (and remember)
these games are taking inclusion steps. but that doesn’t mean they need to stop catering for the majority. its still art made by humans and their own preferences find a way in
The usage of the virtual camera in cyberpunk described above is textbook male gaze. Male gaze is specifically about how people aim cameras (in this case virtual cameras) with the assumption that the audience is primarily composed of cisgender, heterosexual men. It seems like you are making this same assumption here when you say “catering for the majority,” especially considering data shows a roughly 50/50 split: https://www.statista.com/statistics/326420/console-gamers-gender/
EDIT: I switched to a global link. The URL says console gamers. The graph title says any device.
The “male gaze” is objectively just an unfortunate condition of how we’re wired. We all like looking at conventionally attractive women. Even straight women. So that will always be the default in any game with artists selected at random from the general artistic population.
Not how we’re wired, how patriarchy views both forms. Seriously, you can’t just put up a study that confirms an assumption of patriarchy without acknowledging that it is, on some level, circular logic.
Patriarchy is the dominant worldview, patriarchy says that beauty is a feminine trait, most people agree that women are more beautiful than men. All that proves is that most people accept the patriarchal definition of beauty.
If you conducted this same study in ancient Greece, would you expect the same result? If no, then cultural views of beauty play a big role in this. If yes, then why were the ancient Greeks obsessed with male nudity?
Not how we’re wired, how patriarchy views both forms. Seriously, you can’t just put up a study that confirms an assumption of patriarchy without acknowledging that it is, on some level, circular logic.
This is a wonderful idea, it’s not a falsifiable theory though. This makes assumptions that Patriarchy in its current form is so deeply ingrained it affects every study on nudity preferences done at the subconscious level. So the only way your idea could ever be proven is if we, in a vacuum, develop cloned humans and developed a specific matriarchal society for them that we some how teach them without any possible contamination, and then repeat tests like these and see if there’s a difference.
Patriarchy is the dominant worldview, patriarchy says that beauty is a feminine trait, most people agree that women are more beautiful than men. All that proves is that most people accept the patriarchal definition of beauty.
Or alternatively, Patriarchy developed from common human traits in majority, which resulted in a preference for the female form in regards to beauty (it didn’t), which associated beauty as a feminine trait (it didn’t), and thus it’s not the tail that wags the dog, but indeed the opposite.
If you conducted this same study in ancient Greece, would you expect the same result? If no, then cultural views of beauty play a big role in this. If yes, then why were the ancient Greeks obsessed with male nudity?
Yes, actually. And more specifically it would benefit your argument if that study was done – since Ancient Greece was a heavily patriarchal society regardless of which period you pick and which society you want to pick within Ancient Greece. Arguably it was a more patriarchal society than today; with the fact women were not seen as sexual partners (Athens, Sparta, etc), just spouses meant to produce children.
We’d also have to broach the fact that outside a few renaissance artists imitating an ignorant variance of ancient Greece, there was not an obsession with male nudity over female nudity. They were just more open with both compared to later western societies that built themselves with Greece as a template.
If you conducted this same study in ancient Greece, would you expect the same result? If no, then cultural views of beauty play a big role in this. If yes, then why were the ancient Greeks obsessed with male nudity?
Why wouldn’t you? I’m not an expert but from skimming through a brief search they seem to adhere more or less to the same standards we do. Yeah, there’s more dudes but that can be explained by the fact that they’re sculpting heroes from mythology which are mostly men and they want to show off how buff they are. It’s like comic books of today, but unrestrained by censorship. The female statues are just as conventionally hot/naked.
Let’s face it, women are straight up beautiful. Like, outside of a sexual or “treating like an object” point of view, they do hold inherent beauty that men only seem to compare in Greek statues.
Of course, they do the male gaze. The majority of the male audience loves it and the majority of the female audience doesn’t care enough to prevent a sale.
It’s a no-brainer to implement male gaze if your target audience includes males. It’s easy to do and yields a lot of goodwill from that part of the audience. Some gacha games make tons of money just doing the male gaze and literally slopping everything else. It’s absurd how well sex sells.
And despite all of that maturity, they still do male-gaze, heteronormative centric design.
In BG3, Type A halflings (male presenting) are all dumpy and kinda goofy-looking. Type B halflings are all banging smokeshows. Give me the dumpy looking halflings, man.
In Cyberpunk, the camera lingers on nude women, but hides or ignores male nudity, even if the player character is fem presenting and chooses a male partner.
There’s a YouTube video about this, but I can’t find it. I’ll update later if I do (and remember)
eh, sounds like an accidental noting burger.
these games are taking inclusion steps. but that doesn’t mean they need to stop catering for the majority. its still art made by humans and their own preferences find a way in
The usage of the virtual camera in cyberpunk described above is textbook male gaze. Male gaze is specifically about how people aim cameras (in this case virtual cameras) with the assumption that the audience is primarily composed of cisgender, heterosexual men. It seems like you are making this same assumption here when you say “catering for the majority,” especially considering data shows a roughly 50/50 split: https://www.statista.com/statistics/326420/console-gamers-gender/
EDIT: I switched to a global link. The URL says console gamers. The graph title says any device.
Lmao reminds me the stat where Larian said that the absolute majority played HUMAN WARRIOR :D
You sound like a man.
Yeah, it’s the immediate assumption that the male gaze is the majority.
Women make up half of the gaming community.
In most studies most women and most men prefer looking at female nudity.
The “male gaze” is objectively just an unfortunate condition of how we’re wired. We all like looking at conventionally attractive women. Even straight women. So that will always be the default in any game with artists selected at random from the general artistic population.
Not how we’re wired, how patriarchy views both forms. Seriously, you can’t just put up a study that confirms an assumption of patriarchy without acknowledging that it is, on some level, circular logic.
Patriarchy is the dominant worldview, patriarchy says that beauty is a feminine trait, most people agree that women are more beautiful than men. All that proves is that most people accept the patriarchal definition of beauty.
If you conducted this same study in ancient Greece, would you expect the same result? If no, then cultural views of beauty play a big role in this. If yes, then why were the ancient Greeks obsessed with male nudity?
This is a wonderful idea, it’s not a falsifiable theory though. This makes assumptions that Patriarchy in its current form is so deeply ingrained it affects every study on nudity preferences done at the subconscious level. So the only way your idea could ever be proven is if we, in a vacuum, develop cloned humans and developed a specific matriarchal society for them that we some how teach them without any possible contamination, and then repeat tests like these and see if there’s a difference.
Or alternatively, Patriarchy developed from common human traits in majority, which resulted in a preference for the female form in regards to beauty (it didn’t), which associated beauty as a feminine trait (it didn’t), and thus it’s not the tail that wags the dog, but indeed the opposite.
Yes, actually. And more specifically it would benefit your argument if that study was done – since Ancient Greece was a heavily patriarchal society regardless of which period you pick and which society you want to pick within Ancient Greece. Arguably it was a more patriarchal society than today; with the fact women were not seen as sexual partners (Athens, Sparta, etc), just spouses meant to produce children.
We’d also have to broach the fact that outside a few renaissance artists imitating an ignorant variance of ancient Greece, there was not an obsession with male nudity over female nudity. They were just more open with both compared to later western societies that built themselves with Greece as a template.
Why wouldn’t you? I’m not an expert but from skimming through a brief search they seem to adhere more or less to the same standards we do. Yeah, there’s more dudes but that can be explained by the fact that they’re sculpting heroes from mythology which are mostly men and they want to show off how buff they are. It’s like comic books of today, but unrestrained by censorship. The female statues are just as conventionally hot/naked.
Let’s face it, women are straight up beautiful. Like, outside of a sexual or “treating like an object” point of view, they do hold inherent beauty that men only seem to compare in Greek statues.
Men are also beautiful and there’s a lot of male Greek statues.
ok
Bulverism
Of course, they do the male gaze. The majority of the male audience loves it and the majority of the female audience doesn’t care enough to prevent a sale.
It’s a no-brainer to implement male gaze if your target audience includes males. It’s easy to do and yields a lot of goodwill from that part of the audience. Some gacha games make tons of money just doing the male gaze and literally slopping everything else. It’s absurd how well sex sells.
basically the entire anime and vtuber “cultures” have been nothing but horny bait for years now. What really gets me is how it pretends not to be