Opinion: Boobs, Bad Games and Misogyny

Bioshock Infinite is a game that commands anticipation, respect and admiration. Yet its creator Ken Levine has been in the news
talking about reactions to the central character Elizabeth's cleavage.
What does this controversy say about the nature of games and their
physical portrayal of women?


When it comes to female breasts, the stupidity of nomenclature is
endless. Boobs. Titties. Knockers. Cans. Gazongas. Is this nonsense a
misogynistic diminishing of women as human beings? Or merely a very
human recognition that womens' bodies hold a deeply powerful attraction
to lots of people?


Sure, big breasts are a staple of comedy, of selling crap, of low
entertainment - think Benny Hill - but they pop up in videogames on a
regularity and prominence that makes it impossible to deny gaming's
status as the giggling schoolboy of popular entertainment. Remember
those loathsome Evony ads?


As a man, I don't want to 'white-knight' as Captain Feminist Campaigner.
But it's worth addressing Ken Levine's recent words about Elizabeth. He
says too much attention is being paid to Elizabeth's boobs, and not
enough to her character and the story of the game.



None of his arguments truly set us free from the specific visual stereotype of a screen half-filled with huge tits.


His comments and the debate surrounding them highlight the plain fact that women are objectified in games by various visual devices, one of which is a big chest.


And that the nature of this objectification speaks loudly about the type
of content being served up. It also highlights the conflict between
artistic credibility and cold, mass-market metrics, one which Levine, to
his credit, is prepared to address publicly and plainly, a rarity in
our soul-sapping days of the PR-controlled Blandosphere.


Still, it's a problem. Images like this,
from Soulcalibur V's ad campaign, speak of a certain kind of target
audience; an ogling fool, a vile, drooling slob chomping on onion rings
at Hooters, cracking poor jokes. It's douchey and uncool.


That visual was created for a very specific reason, to appeal to a
guaranteed response, to garner clicks, even with the knowledge that it
makes the creators look cynical and lecherous.


An artist of Levine's talent and temperament does not want to be associated with this kind of trash.


This is why Ken Levine's complaints about reactions to Elizabeth's
curves are so illuminating. Elizabeth is a fantasy creation. Ken – a
significant artist and a highly intelligent man– can just as easily make
her look any way he pleases.


Levine says she needs to be a distinctive shape for gameplay reasons, a
good argument. You don't want to be shooting your gun at your best pal.
She needs to stand-out. But, of course, she could have been made tall or
fat. He says people like to look at attractive people, not ugly people.
All true.


He makes reasonable explanations for the way Elizabeth looks - the large
eyes do help us get a handle on her character, for example - but we are
still left with a character who adheres to a very familiar model and
skirts with those tawdry images beloved of bad online games.


None of his arguments truly set us free from the specific visual stereotype of a screen half-filled with huge tits.

Faced with an infinite variety of options, the makers did make her
attractive, they did give a her large breasts and an insanely slim waist
and large eyes and full lips and a low-cut dress, and a slight hitch at
the hem of her pretty dress. She's short and innocent, child-like and
damaged. She is kind to horses. Although she has powers, she neither
understands them fully, nor is able to properly control them. She is, in
short, a male fantasy.


(I'm going from the E3 demo. I don't doubt that her character becomes more fully formed as the game progresses.)


By making her conventionally attractive, the game easily markets itself
and broadens its appeal. There is absolutely no getting away from this.
Elizabeth looks this way for a reason. She was not accidentally created.
Her bust size is not random.


Likewise, Lara Croft looks the way she does for a reason. It's
interesting that her bust-size broadened at the points in her career
when the games were least appreciated. Desperation breeds cheap tricks.


I write this in the full knowledge that if this feature were talking
about, say, men's knees, I'd be talking to a void. We are all in on this
charade, to some extent. If you consume popular news media at all,
you'll know that sexual imagery is ever-present and at all corners of
the taste-matrix. You may be reading this in the hope of titillation.
Hell, I might be writing it for the same reason. Or, equally
problematically, I'm writing this because I just can't resist the
traffic. My only defense – and it's not a good defense – is that this
feature isn't 'Top Ten Titties in Games'. And we have resisted the
common urge to publish lots of saucy pictures 'ironically.'


Let's also be clear about Ken Levine. He is no cynic, no peddler of
recycled ideas. He is a teller of popular stories, a maker of colorful
worlds and fascinating environments. That he grapples with uncomfortable
cultural questions is testament to his character.


It's curious how the use of breasts in games and in games marketing
projects a strong message, one of 'cheap', 'trashy', 'gaudy' although in
this context these words reek of unpleasant judgments and assumptions
about women.


That said, it's a generally good rule that the less realistic the
portrayal of women's bodies, the worse the game. Good games don't need
to play these tricks, and this is the source of Levine's genuine
concern. His game is not cheap in the Evony sense of the word. Based on
his record as a story-teller, this game is going to be awesome. And so
he does not want his beloved project to become misinterpreted.


That people are talking about Elizabeth's body, rather than the power of the Bioshock story, is entirely predictable.


Games makers and marketers have to make a choice. They can take the easy
click and make their characters pneumatic. Or they can create
characters that avoid unrealistic SuperMonroe models of beauty. They can
figure out how to make a character stand-out at a distance, without
giving her a low-cut dress.


Large breasts in fiction are a visual clue to the kind of content we are
watching. Question is, what kind of game developer wants to be Benny
Hill?