No.

Just. No.

I try to debunk this stupid meme every time the way genders are portrayed in video games comes up.

Every single time, a dozen clever people point out, "WELL KRATOS DOESN'T WEAR A SHIRT, CHECKMATE." "THE MALE CHARACTERS HAVE BULGING MUSCLES AND YOU DON'T SEE ME WHINING, CRAZY LADIES!"

It isn't. The. Same. Thing.

The two are not equal.

The Man-In-Loincloth is *not* the equal of the Chainmail Bikini. They are both wearing very little clothing, but they are not equal portrayals.

It has to do largely with agency and *why* the character is portrayed the way they are.

Nariko is drawn the way she is for very different reasons than Kratos is drawn the way he is.

Characters like Kratos and Conan are male power fantasies. They are fulfillment fantasies. No, not the fantasy of every man, but broadly speaking, they are designed as male power fantasies. They have agency. They are who you are supposed to *be.* Their nudity is a reflection of their power and strength. Conan is such a bad ass barbarian that his strength and will can carry him through, unlike lesser men who wear armor. Maybe a woman might enjoy looking at them, but they are fundamentally designed for the purpose of a male, heterosexual viewer. Robert E. Howard didn't make Conan as beefcake for the ladies - sorry, that isn't what happened.

Chainmail Bikini characters are not this way. They are not some equivalent female power fantasy. They *can* be, some women might see them as empowering, but they are not created to be female power fantasies, they are created as male sexual fantasies. You can see this in the way the muscles are illustrated, in the poses they take, in how the camera lingers on them. Their nudity is not a symbol of their strength and their agency - it is titillating. It is expressly for the purpose of a male viewer.

This whole dichotomy is basically a video game incarnation of what is called Male Gaze.

Before you respond to this, think very carefully about:

* Why you're making a counterargument. Why is this (very true, well researched) concept something that you need to argue against?

* And if your argument is something arbitrary, nitpicky, goofy or anecdotal like "WELL WHAT ABOUT LESBIANS?!" or "MY FRIEND IS A GIRL AND SHE LOOOOOVES KRATOS' BULGING PECs."

Maybe some day, I'll just write a boilerplate explanation of this and save it in a word file and repost it every time the topic comes up, since I see the same stupid "MEN ARE JUST AS OBJECTIFIED AS WOMEN, IT IS I THE SAME THING" come up, eveyr single time, without fail.