Physically smaller amount of boob to objectify equals less sexism? That’s how math works, right?
Really, though, I think it’s great that the Mortal Kombat X team is at least trying to reign in some of the more ridiculously cartoonish takes on women’s bodies as they reportedly mentioned in a stream on Twitch. I mean, look at the above image from the gameplay trailer when compared to the same character’s (Kitana) art for the last Mortal Kombat game:
And to be fair, her outfit has at least gotten less boob-window-y. But we talk a lot about female combatants wearing ridiculous outfits around here—we literally have an article tag for “Boob Plate Armor”—because it’s a rampant problem, and Kitana was hardly the most scantily clad Mortal Kombatant out there to begin with. Here’s another example from 2011’s Mortal Kombat:
So… we’ll see how that turns out if Mileena winds up in MKX.
The impractical clothing isn’t a huge surprise, though, when the impetus behind bringing the character designs more in line with actual human anatomy was artistic as opposed to an attempt to reign in objectification. On the stream, NetherRealm production manager Spiro Anagnostakos said, “The mantra for this game has always been realism; heading towards a more realistic look. So the same thing applies to the proportions where we try to bring things back in per se to where they should be.”
We’ll be waiting to see how it applies to the wardrobe of the as yet unannounced remaining female cast. It does not apply, as it appears, to people getting their heads split in three pieces by bladed fans, to keep your expectations in check.
(via Gamespot)
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