And I'm irritated with people crying out sexism when it's not even there. Seriously, so many people are way too sensitive when it comes to these kinds of situations, especially when gaming is involved. If you want a truly sexualized female character, look no further than Bayonetta.
Well said. If anything, people calling out over-sexualisation about this one are the ones in the wrong.
Nothing Samus does is 'sexual'. Like JJ said, there are lots of things Bayonetta does that are purposely alluring and sexual in their nature, whether that's right or wrong is another topic entirely, but Samus doesn't do that. Other females characters do, camera angles purposely flash some skin or arse or something of that ilk, in movies this happens too, and TV, but this doesn't happen in the Smash Bros. People need to keep in mind that these camera angles and screenshots are user manipulated and therefore aren't representative of how Nintendo as a whole wishes to portray Samus within the game. The game itself won't be zooming in like this, nor are these screenshots the main type of advertisement for the game. I mean, you could take lots of freeze-frames of character animations and say it's a sexy pose but we don't say that do we because a) that'd be stupid, and b) unlike Bayonetta, the animation is not designed to be sexual. So if 1 or 2 frames of it happen to look perhaps slightly sexual, it's not exactly the animators fault and somehow proof that she is being over-sexualised on purpose. Regardless, I don't think any of the screenshots posted are like that at all anyway, so arguing against a baseless point.
The only 'sexual' thing people see is the female form, and that's why the people trying to condemn this are in turn the ones in the wrong and being the insulting ones, as far as I'm concerned. Is it over-sexualisation just to have breasts? Should all videogame females have to hide them away? No, cos that'd be wrong, it's a part of a female's anatomy and not exactly an entire gender's fault they are sexually stimulating to people. And should all females be banned from wearing any kind of tight clothing, yet Snake, Raiden and other male characters can bounce around in them all they like? No, cos that'd also be wrong. Do people think any female with a figure like Samus' is just a walking ball of sexualisation too, in real life? I would hope not. And if you don't think that in real life, why would you now apply that thought to a videogame? Olympic gymnasts wear less clothing than what Samus is wearing right now, they also do a lot of the poses that she's doing too. Are they over-sexualised? Again, no, they aren't.
Bottom line is it isn't wrong for a female videogame character to be good-looking, and nor is it sexualisation, and especially not over-sexualisation, for a female simply to be attractive and have a nice body, and not to hide this all away like it's wrong to have these things. Samus has a nice body, yes, but simply the act of having that is not inherently suggestive and over-sexualised. Saying otherwise is just objectifying the female form as nothing but sexual in and of itself.
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