Bulimia.com, an online resource for individuals struggling with eating disorders, is critical of these problematic depictions of women in video games.
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So with Photoshop at the ready, the folks at Bulimia.com set out to adjust, ever so slightly, some of the more iconic female video game characters of our time.
‘With such high attention to detail in gaming, why can’t they accurately portray the female body?,’ Bulimia.com asks. And, for women, body ideals presented and reflected by video games are largely unrealistic – and even risky.
Eating disorder support group Bulimia.com has re-imagined a variety of female video game characters-including Lara Croft and Cortana-in an effort to bring awareness to body image issues.
To explain the motivation behind the making of the images, the site reads, “Some gaming studios boast their hyper-realistic lighting techniques, touting natural cloud movements as the latest features of their games”. These new-look characters represent the average American woman’s measurements. Often times, and perhaps more often with female characters, the body types used are so exaggerated that some become laughably unrealistic.
Tight waists are de rigueur for female character designs in games but, if you have taken a look around, their general dominance isn’t exactly an accurate reflection of the world we live in.
The site added, “If you look at how her form has changed from the original, it’s clear developers are listening to feedback from consumers”.
Other photoshopped characters include the Bikini Girl from Grand Theft Auto and Jade from Mortal Kombat.
According to the blog post, this could “mark the beginning of obsessive thoughts about their own bodies and self-questioning as to why they don’t align with their perceived ideal”.
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In fact, a spokesperson for the charity told Motherboard: ‘The scope of impact goes way beyond the people playing the games.’.
