Hey, Bioware: Stop Crowdsourcing Your Gender Politics

 Glad you picked this up.  Though I liked this article, I wish the tone would be a little less simpering.  I’m tired of Bioware getting the praise that it does when they regularly do shit like this.

This is, for the record, the SECOND time the flags have been raised on this particular model.  The first time was a concept drawing of the Liara figurine.

I think the reason why the FemShep appearance was voted on was, since she’s a player-created character, a lot of people had their own idea of how she should “look” and Bioware thought the easiest way to handle that would be to allow fans to voice their opinions on how she should look. The vote didn’t bother me (besides the least-military looking hairstyle winning, but oh well).

I think you have a good point on the figure, though. This time it looks more like they knew the figure could cause some issues and were trying to cover their ass, but if they were that worried about it they probably should’ve rejected it in the first place. It’s especially frustrating to me as an anime fan because…well, this doesn’t look like an anime character, exactly. It looks like a specific type of fanservice-y “harem” character. It’s a bit frustrating that there’s an idea out there that this is ALL anime is, and that to do an “anime-esque” figure of Liara you have to oversexualize her and increase her bust side to a ridiculous degree.

I’m surprised that so many folks don’t like the hairstyle that won, seeing as it looks the most like the default femshep’s from ME 1 & 2. There were no complaints about that one until it won. Also, not all real life female military personnel have shaved heads. Hair of that style seems like it wouldn’t get in the way. 

Definitely understand the comments on the figurine, but people do have to realize it was done in the bishoujo style, as the article pointed out. All the things that people are noting about it are classic bishoujo. Teenager, check. Impossible figure, check. Showoffy posture, check. Why they chose to do it at all is another story, I’m guessing because they might have gotten some otaku fans from the comics and such they did around Liara. I haven’t read them, so I don’t know if the figurine’s style is close to her comic book look or not.

It’s not anime style, it’s bishoujo style.

Crowdsourcing the appearance of your female characters is also perpetuating the notion that women’s bodies are objects of public discussion.

Great post Susana! 

Nice article, I agree with what you’re saying.  Considering also that in Mass Effect lore that whilst supposedly the Asari are genderless – whilst in practice being all female really lol.  The figurine depicted above is horrendous. Seeing as I played mass effect and found myself almost being like a parental influence on Liara, I am horrified to see her looking like this lol. Like seeing Lisa Simpson with breast and butt implants in a bikini.

Terrific article. You’ve managed to say exactly what was wrong with this. These stunts from Bioware rankled me, but I couldn’t properly articulate why. But this is why, you’ve explained it perfectly. So thanks.

I’m definitely aware that there are different genres and styles within anime and manga. I’ve tried to alter the sentence where I name-drop anime to better reflect my actual meaning. 

I hope you sent this to them directly.  I love Bioware, and their good has always outweighed the bad.  They have allowed us to play female characters and had strong females in their supporting casts.  But these last two incidents have been just EMBARRASSING!  I mean, it’s like they suddenly stopped caring.

But WHY is it bishoujo style? It doesn’t fit the character or the aesthetic of the game whatsoever. 

I actually don’t think it even suits bishoujo style – bishoujo just means beautiful woman and comes in many different “types,” usually ones bearing a certain degree of dignity.  It’s completely detached from the fanservice we’re getting in this figurine, which is more the result of the actual sculptor (whose name is similar to bishoujo).

Very well put.

When I first saw this, I thought, “So … Did Liara get implants & facial-reconstruction surgery, or what?” Especially odd for an alien race which doesn’t technically even have gender … nor, one would presume, mammary glands.

At the rate they’re going there will be more tentacles in the next one – and I don’t mean those things on her head. 

Come on, BioWare! You’re better than this! You’ve always been more about character & story than appearance & sex-appeal. Don’t change that!

It doesn’t look like Liara. It doesn’t have the proportions Liara does. It’s not dressed like Liara. It’s not in any pose Liara has ever been shown in, and nothing about the figure screams “I’m a force-wielding badass archaeologist information broker”.

But no, expecting them to commission a figure that actually resembles the character they created would definitely be asking too much.

What on Earth is that face, she looks like a child with breasts! That’s creepy as anything!

Beyond the issue of what she actually looks like, what bothers me is that entertainment is supposed to give the audience something they didn’t realize they would think was amazing. Crowdsourcing it in this fashion doesn’t allow for the wonderful surprise of seeing someone who isn’t ideal (by the standards of the day) but somehow reshapes your ideal. Companies that aren’t willing to be brave and let their work stand on it’s own two feet really do a disservice to their audience. 

Hah. The having dramatic mammeries despite NOT BEING A MAMMAL thing got me. The whole concept of voting on a woman is stupid but slapping tits on a very non human character just doesn’t make sense.

Hah. The having dramatic mammeries despite NOT BEING A MAMMAL thing got me. The whole concept of voting on a woman is stupid but slapping tits on a very non human character just doesn’t make sense.

But why just FemShep? Why not vote on both Sheps male and female? As someone down thread says it reinforces the idea that women’s bodies and appearances exist to be judged by outsiders but men’s bodies are not up for judgement or examination.

Because the Male Shep model was based on an actual person (model Mark Vanderloo), and they already had abundant concept art and marketing materials for the male Shep. They weren’t going to change that three games into the series.  It was only after Femshep became popular, largely due to the stellar voice work by Jennifer Hale, that they decided they needed an “official” Femshep as well, and would put her on the cover of an edition of the game and make a trailer for her and whatnot.

Why they thought it was a good idea to have random internet people vote on what she would look like, I have no idea.  My “go-to” custom Femshep is (very loosely) a cross between Salli Richardsom Whitfield and Rose Rollins, so their version doesn’t interest me much.

Err… Bishoujo is a specific style of game/anime/figure that is can be represented by what is in the picture above. It’s all about sexualizing girls/women (yes most of them are underage) with large breasts and in impossible poses. Bishoujo games tend to run from Tokimeki Memorial to absolute porn. Yes Bishoujo games are games where you have a harem of women that are all out to date or get with the main male character. Most of these games are visual novels, but you get games like Ar Tornelico, Hexyz Force, Record of Argarest War and a few others.

Most Kotobukiya models ARE children with breasts considering Japan doesn’t have a law against drawing underage girls in sexual situations.

Interesting to note that both DC and Marvel have Kotobukiya action figures of their women super heroes. Any company in my book that goes out of their way to sexualize the women in pin-ups and art is dead in my book.
Yes even Wonder Woman has a FEW Kotobukiya models of her, some were shown at the SDCC.

” In other words, she’s rendered in a style typical of the market for figurines inspired by anime and manga.”

Because it’s from the Kotobukiya “Bishoujo” line, they did the same thing for DC and Marvel and Tekken characters, etc. I’m not a fan of this figure in particular, but you can’t blame it for being anime-ized.

It’s amazing that a single company can hire a head writer as awesome and all-inclusive as David Gaider, and PR people as stupid and offensive as the ones that run the FB fan page. Just reminds you that companies are made up of lots of individual people.

Doesn’t stop Marvel or DC getting ‘bishoujo’ figures of their characters.

Oh no no, you weren’t the one I was annoyed with! I’m just annoyed with Bioware and the company behind the figure.

I’m not a fan of seeing hugely sexualized versions of characters in ANY form, any more than most girls are. 
It’s worth pointing out, though, in defense, I suppose, of this anime – style of statue, that it can be done well or it can be done stupidly. There’s the Kotabukiya DC X Bishoujo Collection, which shows characters in basically their normal outfits in foolishly sexualized positions. The Ame Comi collection, the first run of which included the statues of Supergirl and Batgirl shown in the picture linked above, is actually significantly more interesting than that particular photo would imply.

 Their first go at Supergirl isn’t great, obviously, but I recommend searching for both of these collections on Amazon and doing a comparison. The Ame Comi statues are mostly interesting takes on characters, and while some of the outfits are still pretty scanty, some of them aren’t at all, and the positions are, in general, much more character appropriate. And the line has been coming out for a while. There’s a Jade figure, and one of the female Steel, Duela Dent as the Joker, a pretty sweet Vixen, Jesse Quick… Some of these costumes and character renditions are totally more interesting than the standard DC versions. Their second go at Supergirl is lovely. There’s even a little female Robin! Seriously, PLEASE go look at them. They’re kind of delightful. In fact, I think if Bioware had chosen to make a Ame Comi figure instead of a Kotabukiya Bishoujo one, we’d have a significantly more interesting and character appropriate figure. 

And while the Kotabukiya Bishoujo DC figures are annoying, at least we know we can find wonderful statues and action figures of each of the characters they so thoroughly sexualize. The same can’t be said of Liara, obviously, and so this sort of lazy thoughtlessness is even more offensive and just plain frustrating.

 GIRLS LIKE YOUR STUFF TOO, Bioware. Stop being so dumb. 

Oh, and you know what? Races usually include two sexes. Every mammalian race should include females as well as males. Not just the races where the ladies wind up looking hot.  Because, you see, women don’t exist solely for your freaking viewing pleasure. 

And I don’t want to hear any excuses about them being hard to model. Female Elcor could look exactly the freaking same. You only would have needed to record a few more voice actors. Your games are awesome. Stop being lazy assholes. 

This pretty much covers the reasons why I didn’t like the voting, and why I was worried about FemShep going “mainstream” to begin with.  If they had just done a high-res face scan of Lena Headey (or some other equally badass female), I would have been a happy camper.  But to put FemShep’s looks to a vote to the ENTIRE Mass Effect fan community – and not the vocal FemShep fan community, which was the entire reason Dave Silverman even realized that FemShep even had a following – just drives home that they don’t actually care about FemShep.  Maybe they actually felt that by doing things this way they were increasing visibility for FemShep.  And in a way they were, but only in the worst possible way.

And don’t get me started on the Liara statue…  As one of the above posters mentioned, I wouldn’t have MINDED a bishoujo Liara statue if I had ALTERNATIVE statues, memorabilia, posters, etc.  But as the first and ONLY piece of official Liara art…  ::sigh::  That is NOT the Shadow Broker!

Yeah, and it sucks then too.

going by a tweet that casey hudson sent I dont think bioware had anything to do with the liara figure and the way its made they just asked this company to make them

now femshep bioware made an epic mistake not having her on the marketing and game box from day one I know they say only 20% play as her but I dont buy it if you look at how many femshep facecodes are out there compared to male ones there are way more

They knew what they’d get when they asked this particular company though, its entire catalogue is like this. Bioware are just as at fault here.

I fully agree that the Femshep Beauty Contest and the Sexy Fifteen-Year-Old Liara issues suck, and suck mightily.  I don’t think Bioware is at fault, though.  I think it’s EA marketing.  They’ve got a nasty history of pulling stupid marketing stunts, from “commit lustful acts with booth babes” for Dante’s Inferno to “your mom will hate this game” for Dead Space 2.  Extra Credits is responsible for cluing me into this with their “An Open Letter to EA Marketing” episode, found on YouTube here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUdNq6RoiN4

I’ve “Liked” both Mass Effect 2 and BioWare on Facebook, and the Beauty Contest and Teenage Liara posts were both by the former, with nothing of the kind from the latter.  So yes, BioWare’s IP is being used for some sexist behavior, but I think EA’s to blame.  This is largely speculation, however; I’m only guessing it’s EA behind the Mass Effect 2 Facebook page.  I think I’ll check in with BioWare.

It’s just a figure. And that is the typical jstyle. More men than women buy these things. And this is what men like to look at.

The kind of people who would invest in this will never make enough money to attract a chick with those kinds of assets, so leave them to enjoy what they can before they settle for a slightly unkempt baby-fat-packing greaser who will chop her hair off the moment she squeezes a ring out of him.

Stupid feminism trying to trample over every last bastion of mandom. get some self-esteem.