I don't see anything creepy about it. They sell beer, cars, TV shows, magazines, boats, dog food etc. in the same manner (images of sexy women). So getting upset about the sexy girl marketing strategy of an American game company is ridiculous.
Let me see if I can even begin to explain why a lot of people, men and women, are saying that the "sexy girl/hot chick" thing creeps them out and makes them feel uncomfortable, especially when it is brought into our own nerd/geek/gamer subculture.
I have no problems with porn or sex work. None at all. Actually I think it's great, and I have friends in the sex industry whom I wholeheartedly support. Women should have every right to be openly sexual when they choose to be around other consenting adults, without being shamed, penalized, attacked or harassed for it. I think everyone should have the right to be sexual for money if they want to be, on the premise that if you own it, you get to rent it. Nobody should be able to say boo about that. And that's not what I'm saying.
The problem I have is when the sexual depictions of females become
knee-jerk and automatic, to the point that "female" always equals "sexualized depiction" and "sexualized treatment/language to refer to them". Because that's when it starts to spill over generally onto women who are *not* choosing or consenting to be sexual in that time or in that place.
If I am sitting down at a gaming table, and the atmosphere I've just walked into is one where women are invariably sexualized - no exceptions, we're all "girls" or "chicks" or pick your condescending perjorative, always depicted primarily in terms of our sex appeal, and viewed more as passive objects to be acted on than as powerful actors ourselves - I'm going to feel creeped out. I am going to consider this to be creepy behavior.
I get that maybe you won't feel the same way. Possibly you don't have the same experience of being bombarded with shaming media messages, being catcalled on the street by strangers, feeling unsafe walking alone at night, being judged on your shoes and your hair and whether you smile pretty for the boys even when you don't effing feel like smiling. Our experiences may be different, and that's okay. That certainly doesn't make you a bad person. But if your feelings and experiences are that different from mine, I would simply ask that you listen and think for just a moment how it feels to be the product of these experiences.
How you might react if all these things were true for you in mainstream culture, and you got treated to a little more of the same at the gaming table that was supposed to be your refuge from the cool-kid culture, not one more place to be judged for not being popular enough or pretty enough?
Yeah, the weather outside is frightful. That's why I'm an out-and-proud nerd, and why I prefer hanging out with other nerds and geeks and gamers who don't play the mainstream popularity rat race game. I am not thrilled that these enterprising folks are deliberately taking the worst part of mainstream popularity culture and trying to bring it to my gaming table. It is very likely to spill over into the language other gamers use and the social attitudes they have towards me, another gamer who happens to be female.
Yes, I am creeped out by this. I respect that other people's experiences and feelings may be different, but these are mine.
If the "Gamer Girls" think there is something wrong with it, then they won't go. Why not let them decide for themselves. It's probably a given that there are some female gamers out there that have a fantasy of being a model too (just like female non-gamers) or they just want to draw attention to themselves for fun. You can see this attitude from some women at gaming/comic book conventions.
I sometimes believe there are people out there that can't come to terms with the decisions that some women make for themselves. Thus they are accusatory of the photographer/artist but not of the model.
The problem is not the decisions that women make for themselves when they consent to be sexualized because they think it is fun. That is not actually a problem. The problem is presenting the overall sexualization of women in a social context that assumes that this condition must be true all the time, for all women, even in times and places where it is not consensual or appropriate.
When I say "not appropriate" I mean when she's supposedly fighting a remorhaz or scouting in the arctic wilderness while dressed like a hooker with bills due. Or when she's just another gamer who happens to be female but does not consent to being sexualized. If you wanna do porn, do porn, but there is a difference between adults choosing to create and enjoy porn (nothing wrong here) and the generic 'pornification' of female imagery to the point that it's pretty much a default setting (lots wrong here).
Porn is good, mmkay, but automatically porn-ifying a large percentage of female character depictions, or worse, depictions of actual female gamers, not so much. I think there are real and serious social consequences to doing this, and I personally do not feel comfortable at a gaming table where this is happening.
You don't have to feel the same way, but if people - especially women - are telling you that yes, this DOES genuinely make them feel creeped out and uncomfortable - it's worth listening to rather than dismissively sneering at because it doesn't trouble you any.
If you take home no other message from this post, please consider this. When a woman tells you "That behavior is creepy - it makes me feel uncomfortable and creeped out," and you respond, "You shouldn't feel that way, your feeling is invalid, it's not really creepy at all," guess what -
THAT IS CREEPY.
That is really, truly, seriously creepy, because it it shows that you think your right to tell us how we should feel and what behavior should be okay trumps our right to feel that way. It's creepy specifically because I don't feel safe or comfortable around people who think that way and behave that way. Someone who thinks that his right (or society's right in general) to make me feel uncomfortable with sexual behavior trumps my right to say that I'm uncomfortable is a scary, creepy person.
That's all. If you don't want to be that scary, creepy person, please listen when a woman says, "That's creepy." Whether you feel the same way or not, the fact is that she does, and you aren't going to fix that by making her feel even more uncomfortable and casually dismissing her discomfort.
