{"id":449,"date":"2014-01-07T16:26:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-07T21:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chaoticblue.com\/blog\/?p=449"},"modified":"2014-01-07T16:28:25","modified_gmt":"2014-01-07T21:28:25","slug":"shes-got-the-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chaoticblue.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/shes-got-the-look\/","title":{"rendered":"She’s Got the Look"},"content":{"rendered":"

So Bryce Mainville wrote a short piece last week about suggestions for overhauling the design of\u00a0Street Fighter 4<\/em>‘s main cast.<\/a>\u00a0It’s a quick read, and not all that controversial; most of the suggestions are relatively mild changes, but I found the entire post thought-provoking and wanted to elaborate on my thoughts on the subject in general, despite Recent Events\u2122,\u00a0because regardless of what people think of me, my work, or my book<\/a>, I actually enjoy fighting games a lot and I’d like to see them do better, much as I’d like to see MOBAs — another genre I enjoy — do better too.<\/p>\n

\"Elena<\/a>
She really loves hippos you guys. LOVES THEM.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From this post’s subject you probably expect this post to be about sexualized designs, but to be honest, I don’t necessarily think that’s the problem here. Certainly, the sexualization of some\u00a0SF<\/em> characters and their outfits — Cammy’s ridiculous bikini\/camo leg paint and Viper’s “hot businesswoman stripper” top — gets on my nerves, but character designs in fighting games in general (SF<\/em> nor Capcom aren’t especially guilty compared to anyone else) tend to invoke very specific ethnic and gender stereotypes in their designs that sometimes also<\/em>\u00a0get on my nerves. And not always for reasons of ZOMG RACISM\/MISOGYNY, as I’ll discuss after the cut, but it’s still a thing we need to consider.<\/p>\n

So Bryce asked me on Twitter for my thoughts, and I think this tweet of mine I’m about to quote sums up my feelings pretty well:<\/p>\n[tweet\u00a0https:\/\/twitter.com\/laevantine\/status\/417454854798196736 hide_thread=’true’]\n

Like, think back to the original\u00a0SF2<\/em>‘s cast from back in the day:<\/p>\n

\"Street<\/a>
THE WORLD WARRIOR\u2122<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I mean, part of SF2<\/em>‘s schtick (and even\u00a0SF1<\/em> to some extent) was that these were martial artists from around the globe, and so each fighter represents something about their home nation, as we can tell:<\/p>\n

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