It's partly because most of the staff inside these companies have been over-influenced by anita sarkeesan and subsequent feminist criticisms of western representation of women. Not to single her out, she has many worthwhile criticisms, but it has been taken much too far in some regards.
Rather than have "masculine" and "feminine" traits with perhaps a general range of characters that each sit somewhere different on the scale they have instead taken to removing the feminine side altogether. Women will be present but will feature no overtly feminine traits because to do so is apparently bad now, from a western game design perspective. I suspect the companies involved do not trust themselves to treat femininity with respect, so they just avoid it altogether, I don't necessarily blame them for not trusting themselves given the bro-culture we constantly hear about in western game studios. These men make games for men and the male gaze and because their studios are insufferable places for women there aren't any women to speak up.
The results of this are obviously unsatisfying. The only thing I can think of from a major publisher that is still getting it correct and doing so respectfully is The Sims, probably because it has a significant focus on family, children and so on but also because there are more women than men that play the game so they must cater to their audience.
I feel like it's most noticeable to trans women too because quite frankly a lot of the trans women I know overcompensate into the hyper-feminine pinky pink and frills realm "dress go spinny" because they've had that withheld from them in all walks of life. So when they can't be remotely feminine in a game it's very obvious and upsetting.
Ironically the group of people that probably gets blamed for this kind of thing by the chuds are the group that wants extremely feminine content. Generally speaking.
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It's partly because most of the staff inside these companies have been over-influenced by anita sarkeesan and subsequent feminist criticisms of western representation of women. Not to single her out, she has many worthwhile criticisms, but it has been taken much too far in some regards.
Rather than have "masculine" and "feminine" traits with perhaps a general range of characters that each sit somewhere different on the scale they have instead taken to removing the feminine side altogether. Women will be present but will feature no overtly feminine traits because to do so is apparently bad now, from a western game design perspective. I suspect the companies involved do not trust themselves to treat femininity with respect, so they just avoid it altogether, I don't necessarily blame them for not trusting themselves given the bro-culture we constantly hear about in western game studios. These men make games for men and the male gaze and because their studios are insufferable places for women there aren't any women to speak up.
The results of this are obviously unsatisfying. The only thing I can think of from a major publisher that is still getting it correct and doing so respectfully is The Sims, probably because it has a significant focus on family, children and so on but also because there are more women than men that play the game so they must cater to their audience.
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I feel like it's most noticeable to trans women too because quite frankly a lot of the trans women I know overcompensate into the hyper-feminine pinky pink and frills realm "dress go spinny" because they've had that withheld from them in all walks of life. So when they can't be remotely feminine in a game it's very obvious and upsetting.
Ironically the group of people that probably gets blamed for this kind of thing by the chuds are the group that wants extremely feminine content. Generally speaking.
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It's ok I do it too.