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(12-21-2014, 09:24 PM)Flickering Ember Wrote: It's not even that I want to always have a badass, muscular female to play. It's that I would like for the males and females of fantasy races to look like they are from the same species. It always feels like the male characters have all the identifying features of the fantasy race while the female is more of an offshoot. She doesn't get to have the same features that the males do. The problem with that is that these features the male characters get are what make that particular fantasy race iconic.
At the end of the day, pretty much every fantasy race that can be can played across all games resemble humans. However, the more a race is defined by typically masculine attributes, the less identity the female has of that race. I am speaking in a broad sense here because as you pointed out, the races in this game don't have that degree of sexual dimorphism. And even Au Ra are not as bad as some other fantasy races out there. What I am saying though, is that the reason why I don't want to see it in this game, is that I am already tired of this trope that I have seen from the majority of other games.
TL;DR large males and small females is a tired trope.
And I would like to have more female options than "pretty girl, hooker girl, cute girl, petite girl, fragile-wallflower girl, elf girl" etc. in my games. I wasn't expecting for SE to make anything ground breaking, but I was at least hoping for the females to look just as iconic as the males.
"However, the more a race is defined by typically masculine attributes, the less identity the female has of that race."
<slow applause>
These were my thoughts when I saw the footage. What really got my goat, though, were the typical cute, flirtish mannerisms exhibited in their emotes. Haven't we exhausted this via the Miqo'tes and the Hyur Midlanders?
That said, I think this sexual dimorphism has plenty of subversive potential for the RPers from an anthropological (?) perspective. It'd be interesting to consider if their difference in body shape could've been the result of some nasty evolutionary necessities sometime along in the past, and the implications of this might still be seen / felt today in Au Ra society. I'd love to see female Au Ra NPCs working against this, I do, and loreeeee, but I'd better not get my hopes up. (Coerthas was also disappointing in this aspect.)
[sub]Avis Inkwood | Qara Qalli
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