Honestly if people would stop using the term "Objectified" altogether in these kinds of discussions the quality of said discussions would improve 100 fold.
I am starting think whenever someone says "objectified" they mean "bad". (actually I know that is how it is being used)
Since let me translate:
Most women in video games are made to be like objects.
Which fine I understand what this means... Afterall in a metaplot sense most women are not Agents. Anyone who isn't an agent is an "object" and in that sense they are objectified.
HOWEVER!
The most egregious example of this that I can think of is Soul Caliber, where the female characters are walking balls of fetish appeal yet no one even talks about sex.
That has nothing to do with objectification... Though yes Soul Caliber is the worst game ever in terms of the sexualisation of unsexual characters. Even to the extent of having characters get breast enlargement between games regardless of their roles (DANG IT stop messing with Sophitia!)
Yet all of them are important in their own way, are not strapped to male characters, and many of them actually fulfill their storylines. They actually have roles beyond looking sexy (Taki though basically has no story though...)
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I feel like I am in a crazy game now.
Male love interests in romance novels are sexy, but they aren't objectified
WHAT!?! They are almost always cardboard cut outs with "qualities women would like" stapled onto them who are "Fulfilled" through the female character.
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Ok... For the sake of my sanity
Sexualisation even to a character who shouldn't be sexualized isn't related to objectification, it is only an indication that objectification may be happening. It isn't to say there isn't a problem, but lets stop giving the term objectification frequent flier miles because it already can go to mars.
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As for the video this part: "A common argument in the ongoing debate over gender and videogames is that women and men both are equally objectified"
Is making me cringe at the thought of reading it. Since there is always this sort of "Equality Olympics" and usually it ends with "Women have it so tough that men have no right to complain".
Ok there we go the video is trash... and I only had to get 2 minutes 15 seconds in. I could have turned it off earlier, but I wanted to give it a fair chance.
It is like Male Feminism is stuck where female feminism was in the 70s.
But here is the point of the video:
"Men in videogames are not objectified, because they are made by men and marketed towards men." (It is a summation not a quote)
Which is funny... because even within Feminism they don't accept that female characters made by women and marketed towards women are not objectified. In fact it is considered a serious issue.
The objectification of men is not the same kind of objectification of women in videogames. I mean I absolutely do not agree with the argument "Women have no right to complain that they are objectified because men are equally objectified" even if the "equal" was true (which to me at least it isn't). I do not however agree with that video.
I am unfortunately blinded with rage... so I'll stop.