The Courage to be Immoral
(Warning, there is tasteful nudity in this post).
After waxing poetic about sexualized heroines in games, and extolling the virtues of courage in storytelling, I find myself backed into a corner.
Whatever I do, I will be an asshole. Here’s the story:
I wanted to create a good female character. Someone who was respectable, strong, competent, yet feminine. I endowed my creation with a strong trunk, breasts of normal size and shape, strong legs, feminine hips.
Well, first it turns out that athletic women are pretty skinny, especially from the side, which happens to the primary angle of this game:
(See the rest of the latest renders here)
So she may be skinny, but the activity of the game requires that she be really athletic, so I give myself a pass. She may be young, but the storyline requires that she be on the cusp of marriage so it’s out of my hands.
Still, I’m feeling a little uncomfortable about having a young, attractive female lead.
The Straw
Now here’s the “courage” part–the last straw that really makes me look like an asshole.
The pre-European Māori had very different nudity taboos than we do. They had essentially two articles of clothing: a pui pui skirt, which is sort of like one of those Hawaiian grass skirts, and a rectangular shawl that they would drape over their shoulders. They had other things like feather cloaks for special occasions and high ranking people, but those weren’t common.
Generally speaking, they didn’t wear clothes if it was at all inconvenient, and in fact had a cultural belief that clothing spread disease (which was often true in those days). Often warriors would go to war in the nude. Swimming was done in the nude. Lots of athletic activities which a skirt would interfere with would require nudity. Raining? Go naked!
Also, the concept of female breasts being covered differently than males’ is purely European. Often the small shoulder wrap would cover only one breast because of the way it was worn, over one shoulder.
The reality is that if she were on a quest requiring running, climbing, jumping, etc., Kōtiro would most probably go naked or nearly naked.
The courageous thing to do would be to own that, and to show a nude female main character. Because of my audience, however, that would also be sexualizing her in a way I specifically wanted to avoid. Not to mention the practical implications of getting people to distribute and play a game with nudity that is not also about nudity.
So, I’m either a coward or a pervert, and either way I’m a hypocrite.
I think what I’m going to do for the sake of my audience is cover her with a skirt and shawl and just ignore the fact that they aren’t terribly realistic in context. On the other hand, that clothing is still skimpy at best, so maybe by trying to compromise I’m being a cowardly hypocrite perv.
What would you do?
Leave a Reply
About Pete
Plucky polymath, software engineer by day, dreamer of dreams by night. Longing to behold and beget beauty and love, Kōtiro is an expression of my passion for the magic of the world in which we find ourselves.
Body-shame causes widespread and often serious harm. Just compare the teenage abortion rates, pregnancy rates and STI rates for prudish countries (USA) with liberal ones (Denmark, The Netherlands, most of Europe). Attitudes have consequences and they censoring the human body encourages harmful attitudes.
To save readers the trouble of looking it up, several times more likely to have an abortion, about ten times more likely to be pregnant, over seventy times more likely to catch gonorrhoea. The mechanisms are well understood but there is incredible reluctance by the prejudiced to face up to the facts. The attitudes prevalent in many countries are just a different form of child abuse.
I live in the Czech Republic and the attitudes toward nudity are amazingly open, yet the abortion rate here is also very high. I agree that the shame attached to nudity in the west is harmful, but I don’t think it so directly correlates with so many other variables. Cultures are mechanisms of immeasurable complexity.
Instead of doing it for them, why not give people the choice. By default the game could be non-nude but if people wish they could change to the more authentic style by having an option for nudity within the game.
That way it becomes immoral in the way selling tobacco products is immoral. Everyone knows they are harmful and that people cash in on the suffering of others even if it is addictive but that is okay in society because everyone knows that they chosen to take up smoking and they could choose to quit if they so wish to.
“why not give people the choice.” By giving them a choice, it would seem to be another pointless option for the player’s amusement.
It may not be entirely accurate, but why not go off of what the girls are wearing in the picture? I think it’s fantastic that you are considering going against the “standards” to make something more historically accurate and representing the culture in as much detail as possible.
To avoid this; “that would also be sexualizing her in a way I specifically wanted to avoid.”, perhaps make her … (as politically correct as possible) slightly less attractive? Maybe age her 5 years or so older, slightly reduce her breasts and thighs some. I completely understand the necessity for her to have strong legs, but for the sake of cutting down on the skepticism of having those proportions purely for the player’s enjoyment, it may be something to consider.
Good luck
I think what you need to do is choose one option – either one is OK – and make a note in the game package explaining yourself. :)
Probably without the nudity, unless you have exceedingly cultured players who would appreciate realism.
Good luck
Andrew
I think you are generally on the right path with the nudity. You can’t fix a culture clash. However, not being able to fix that you can still address the body image. The US may be prudish with nudity but strangely enough we also have very much sexualized women with clothes on by moving to images of women focused on breast and ass. Look at comics, videos, games, etc.
You are exactly right about how athletic women are skinny, because they have less fat which of course impacts particularly the size breasts.
Women in our culture are beset with images either of way too skinny models or women getting implants… forget focusing on simply the issue of nudity and at least take the higher road in body shape. Your worried about the shawl but when I look at the pictures you put up of the Maori women the difference in body shape is much clearer…
I would leave her in the nude, but find some way, even though she is athletic, not to make her body-shape quite conform to the ‘idealised sexual form’. Some proportion that you would not see in a fashion mag, like her shoulders, maybe. Anyway, if someone wants to criticize you, they will; that’s their prerogative. In a sense, every option can be considered wrong, which means that really, every option can be considered right. Or you could quit making the game.
Our ancestors also wore a short kilt call a maro it was triangular, tapering down mid thigh. They also sometimes wore a pare which was a covering across the chest. This was not for modesty sake but more for the cold. they also decorated their clothing with woven patterns. You could try those for modesty sake. As for nudity, while we are not a prudish people we do not go around parading ourselves for all and sundry. Pre european and pre christianity we were ‘innocent’ to the mores of a western english speaking society and were unabashed in our nudity. Today we are very protective of our modesty and mana. You will probably experience a huge backlash from Maori if you were to publish this game with a nude Maori kotiro.
Thanks for the great feedback, I appreciate it. Know that I’m trying my best to be both accurate and respectful to Maori history and culture. Thanks again!
I think the first problem is the title for this entry: “The Courage to be Immoral”.
I want to write a story [I haven't taken a creative writing class, but the idea is there and I've written a few things down pertaining to the story I want to write]that involves nudity, but nudity that is commonplace in the society that the protagonist grew up in. Now I’m running into the same problem as you regarding if I’m being immoral especially since my protagonist is also female.
Where our issues aren’t similar is that I’m trying to cultivate a culture from scratch and you are using historical references. At least that’s the impression I get. So I believe that since you’re taking it from a historical point-of-view you should be able to do what you want in the context of what’s actually documented. Because it’s documented you will have foundation and backbone to shore up the reasons for why your protagonist is depicted the way she is. Anyone who decides to incite animosity towards your work can be met with documentation citing how you know things were in that time.
I know that many do not want to be the forerunner in anything like this that almost screams to the viewer that they change the way they look at things, but it will fall to someone and it’s much better that you do it as I think you aren’t making a political statement as I might.
Frankly I’m tired of people shying away from things because of supposed morality when the subject of nudity shouldn’t come down to morality but to context of how the nudity is used. I don’t know if it was said here, but in the US we live in a sexually repressed society where sex is also a lucrative business venture. We slap “Showgirls” with an NC-17 rating and limited screens while giving “Eyes Wide Shut” an R rating with a nationwide release for I forget how many months that movie was in theaters. We admonish depictions of nudity in games, but have no issue with having characters behead individuals, and/or slaughter civilians at our leisure. It doesn’t make sense.
Now that I’m thinking about it because of your documentation you may actually get a pass much like Kubrik did. I, on the other hand, will still find it difficult much like whoever directed Showgirls (though I intend for my story to have considerably more depth).
In short, (as I said earlier) do what you want and let the documentation/research cover you and I look forward to seeing what you produce.