See More Butts

The world has one less butt pose, and a lot of people are pissed.  The as yet unreleased game Overwatch by Blizzard has been the centre of a controversy about the removal of a pose from a character.  One side of the argument is a bunch of feminists, the other side is a bunch of assholes.

The short version is that there is a character in Overwatch whose is female and who has a silly, techie sort of theme.  She had one pose that emphasized her butt and which was at least somewhat sexual.  Some people thought this didn't match her character, and really wanted it removed to keep that particular character on theme.  Blizzard agreed, and will change the pose to something else.  Now the misogynists of the internet are extremely angry because they want their butt poses and they want them now.

The arguments that the angry people put forward are a joke.

They want the right to have sexy characters!  But there are other sexy characters in Overwatch, so if you want boobs and butt you will easily find it.

They don't like censorship, they want artistic freedom!  Since the creator of the piece agreed with the criticism and had already planned to change the pose anyway, it is hard to argue that censorship is a problem.  More like, y'know, listening to your customers.

They don't want anything removed from the game, because options are good!  You know what else isn't an option?  Winston, the big male ape character, posing in a speedo.  What aren't you complaining about *that* option being missing?  (Blizzard has not offered this option, obviously, but also no one is whining about getting it.)

Fact is that all these arguments are crap.  There is plenty of sexy in Overwatch.  Also if you really want butts, cruise over to pornhub, I bet they have some to spare.  The creator doesn't agree with you, but that isn't a freedom of speech issue or censorship.  Advocating for all options to be possible is idiotic.

But we all know what this is about.  It isn't about people's right to a butt pose on every damn female character in existence.  It isn't about millions of people loving that particular butt pose and going ballistic about its removal.  It is about people not wanting to think about the fact that objectification of women in gaming is a problem.

And it is worth repeating that nobody is trying to take away all sexy characters, or all sexy female characters.  Nobody is saying such games can't be made.  We are just saying that not every female character need to have a sexy pose.  Some of them can and should be decidedly not sexual, in the same way that most male characters are.

Screaming about this just shows that you are so terrified of admitting that some of the stuff you like has problems that you are willing to do anything to avoid that thought.  You are willing to refuse to buy games and have gigantic internet tantrums, all in the name of not saying "huh, I guess some of the stuff in games does have issues."  You can keep your games.  You can have your sexy.  Just think about the impact that has on women, accept that products are increasing made to appeal to more than just men, and move on.