Yes, Mortal Kombat Gives Gamers “Empowered Females”

Mortal Kombat objectifies and hypersexualizes women the same way most other fighting games, and games in general, do. To say they are empowered because you give them similar fighting capabilities to the male characters is bogus. That's not empowerment, it's necessary combat balance. The near topless, thong-clad, nipples-you-could-dial-a-phone-with women would be unplayable otherwise.

Ed Boon is full of shit and/or he doesn't understand what the word empowerment means when discussing gender equality in gaming.

Last edited by Bio on 1/2/2015 10:38:32 PM

" The near topless, thong-clad, nipples-you-could-dial-a-phone-with women"

Would them wearing Hijabs and nun outfits please you then?

Hexen – Something even remotely realistic or at least plausible would be nice. People who play games should be ashamed at the way the industry makes 99% of females sexpots first and characters second. That the sexpots in Mortal Kombat can 'kick ass' is completely irrelevant to the problem. That Ed Boon thinks his comments justify anything is laughable.

Yes, the industry does have plenty of sexualized female characters but there's plenty of non-sexualized characters too. Lets look at games released on Sony consoles this month and see how often female characters are "sexpots":

-Chivalry: Medieval Warfare – No female characters present but to be expected from the setting.

-Fantasy Hero: Unsigned Legacy – Ashta is a fun character who I wouldn't consider sexualized at all and is decently explored over the course of the game, not a deep meaningful character by any means but on par with the rest of the cast.

-Final Horizon – Just sci-fi tower defense.

-Game of Thrones – I haven't played it but assuming it follows the book, I wouldn't say that the female characters are there for fanservice only. Most of the main female characters are powerful, independent, and with their own agendas. Arya for example does a good job defying the princess trope and later (not sure how far into the series the game goes) Brienne is a good example of an interesting female character with no fanservice attached.

-Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix – Wouldn't consider any original female character here as just fanservice (hard to sexualize young teenagers) and if I remember correctly, most were interesting characters (haven't played in ages). You could arguably get into some of the final fantasy or disney characters but thats a different debate.

-Secret Panchos – One female character who is a matador. Can't honestly judge the merit of characters, I haven't played it and it appears to be mainly an arena shooter. Costume is not overtly sexualized, its trim and fitted but all matador costumes are.

-The Crew – A racing game.

-Tales from the Borderlands – Haven't played it so I can't judge. Fiona's costume seems to fit into the noir style detective, so I won't say it's impractical and sexualized, bu I'll leave that open to debate.

-Flyhunters Origins – Nonhuman characters.

-Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – Haven't played it but it appears to put her personality first, quite literally as a gameplay aspec. Does not appear to be sexualized.

-Juju – It's a panda

-Lara Croft – You can debate over if she is an example of female empowerment or sexualization.

-Guilty Gear Xrd – Haven't played through the story mode yet, so I can't really judge, but I'll assume that the female cast is generally going to be shallow and sexualized (but in a more stylized way than sexual).

-Loudout – Helga would like to have a word with you about fanservice.

-Tetris Ultimate – They're blocks. If you want to be extremely pedantic (I'm sure someone has) you could say its pure male empowerment because you're trying to fit phallic objects into holes.

-Trine – I find Zoya a generally balanced character, not particularly deep but no one really is in the game and she rather fun as a character. I personally find her design elegant, I'd completely understand if you say it is sexualized but I find it matching to her rogue character and leave its overall practicalities up to debate.

-Fieldrunners 2 – Tower defense.

-Resogun – No real human character to note, just a female announcer.

That was December, not exactly brimming with strong female character but it should be noted there was a general lack of strong characters and few case of sexualized female characters. Looking at November you had well developed female characters in most AAA games such as Dragon Age and with the only notable cases of objectification in Japanese niche games like Akiba Trip and Senran Kagura Bon Appétit. Glancing at the rest of the year, I'd say it follows the same trend of mainstream games with a proper story having a strong cast (male and/or female) and the most common source of objectification being niche Japanese games. I honestly can't remember the last major character in a AAA game hat I'd consider there as just a sexpot. Now I'm not saying that there aren't many cases of female characters being there for decoration, it's common in some genres and sectors, but there's also plenty of solid female characters that aren't just window dressing and plot devices. In addition, for the sake of fairness to the other sex, you should examine the same niche Japanese market that produces the majority of sexualized female characters and realize that it produces a lot, though not necessarily equal amount, of material that sexualizes men. The BL video game market alone was producing about 1.6 million dollars a month back in 2006 and has undoubtedly grown since then. Fujos spend a lot more than otaku on merch in my findings but I digress.

You also have to take into account that Ed is correct to some degree. You can have powerful female characters who are also sexualized. The best example in gaming is Lara Croft, though she does have massive boobs (the story behind them is amusing) and wears skimpy clothes, she is undoubtedly one of the most revered and powerful female characters in gaming simply because she kicks ass. Sexualizaton itself isn't objectification, the femme fatale character type of film noir is a perfect example, they are dangerous and powerful character because of their sexiness and craftiness. I will concede that the mortal kombat girls don't exactly fall into this group but they do kick ass in every way, Mileena being my personal favorite, and their character is just as developed and stylized as the male characters.

Speaking of stylization, you also have to consider artistic representation. From a design standpoint, you have to take into consideration how designers stylize characters. In games that are non-realistic like MK and Guilty Gear which without much of a story, how a character comes across is mostly dependent on their art design, as a result character traits crafted by how they look, resulting in gender related traits being emphasized, so in women waist are thinner and hips and busts are larger and in men torsos are larger and arms are more muscular, it helps to give them a well defined silhouette. This is a gross oversimplification of character design but it demonstrates my point.

I'll stop here. I apologize for any spelling errors, typing on a broken keyboard sucks. I'm not necessarily saying Ed Boon is right, I'm just debating your points for the sake of argument.

JonnyR – Hilarious!

You've been called out by everyone here.realize you are wrong.you can't even give one example of what in your mind would be good for women to wear.also sexpots? I don't know anyone who plays mk or soul calibur for perverted intentions. Don't know where you are getting that analysis from.I brought up women's mma because they wear shorts and a slightly heavier clothed tank top pointing out that its somewhat scanty but what women would really wear in a fight.that was my point.

No kidding Lone Wanderer. The woman in MK aren't exactly attractive. They're a little on the manish side like female body builders. So I'm not sure what people are so upset about.

I do find it interesting though that the same people who talk about real woman empowerment are now getting into the habit of deciding what they should and shouldn't wear. That's patronizing.

Of all the real world crimes against woman like being forced to cover from head to toe with a garbage bag in the middle of the desert or being kid napped and sold into sex slavery or child marriages, western feminists and their beta male enablers have turned their sites on the video game industry. B*tching about what digital woman wear in digital worlds.

Unbelievable….maybe they should demand Cammy coverup next.

Last edited by Jawknee on 1/3/2015 4:35:49 PM

He's not really seeing the complaint most would allege. But those people are stupid anyway, games are fantasy and you want your women to be ideals just as much as your male heroes. If the fighter was about women with beer guts and sagboobs being empowered then it's not a fantasy anymore.

The product has what people call sexism built into it, that's what the customers in this capitalist society want. So they should be allowed to give it.

yeah its not sexcist at all you got about 50/50 male female correct me if i'm wrong that was an educated guess from what i can remeber from last time i played a MK which was 9 i think with a friend few months ago i think

happy gaming