Breakfast Topic: Is WoW inherently sexist?
by Amelia Ramstead 
May 17th 2011 at 8:00AM
We've all heard the arguments. We've seen the plate mail that looks rough and rugged on the human male and then turns into a barely there bikini on the night elf female. We've taken our turns putting bunny ears on all the ladies during Noblegarden. We know the warlock succubus pet and her sexy "come hither" stare. Guys claim to roll female characters simply for the joy of watching them from the backside, while the few who play dwarven women complain about the "bounce mechanics" and think about how uncomfortable that would be in real life. And we just won't even talk about some of the players.
So what's the deal? Is WoW sexist? Is the gaming community itself sexist? Is Blizzard simply conforming to the video game/comic book stereotype of rough-and-tumble men with huge pecs and ab muscles and the super-sexy women who look so top-heavy that they might fall over any minute? (And what the heck is that chain mail bikini actually supposed to be protecting, anyway?) Are you okay with it, or do you feel like something needs to change? Do you think it ever will?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 13)
u4851554 May 17th 2011 8:04AM
its a blooming outrage if you aske me!
MattKrotzer May 17th 2011 9:07AM
This is a man's world, this is a man's world
But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl
You see, man made the cars to take us over the road
Man made the trains to carry heavy loads
Man made electric light to take us out of the dark
Man made the boat for the water, like Noah made the ark
This is a man's, a man's, a man's world
But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl
Man thinks about a little baby girls and a baby boys
Man makes them happy 'cause man makes them toys
And after man has made everything, everything he can
You know that man makes money to buy from other man
This is a man's world
But it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl
MattKrotzer May 17th 2011 10:04AM
Seriously? No love for James Brown?
Shameful!
Thomas Higgins May 17th 2011 10:54AM
You will get no argument from me over the true, the one, the only Godfather of Soul.
Best stinger line in music history and I will stand up to anyone over that. Thanks for the lyrics, Matt.
Zallgrin May 17th 2011 8:06AM
Life is sexist.
World of Warcraft simply reflects this.
gewalt May 17th 2011 8:48AM
Blizzard delivered what customers ordered.
Deal with it.
Nagaina May 17th 2011 10:05AM
@ Gewalt ~
Some of us deal with it by kicking it in the nuts and then curb-stomping the fail out of it. Just sayin.'
pizoni May 17th 2011 10:31AM
I must be confused on what sexism really is :/
My female toons can do everything a male toon can, she gets the same price on anything she sells, she has the same abilities to fight and is able to do the same work as any male ingame. no npc's ever dissmiss her because she is a female or treat her less then they would any male toon.
is WoW sexist? IMO not at all.
Can the outfits be a little trashy? sure, TBH thuough I feel like a nun in teir11.
polydorr May 17th 2011 10:54AM
I think we're all confusing 'sexism' with 'objectification.'
If WoW were sexist, there wouldn't be some babe female belf up in front with a shield tanking the %#^ out of a raid boss. But they can, and do. Quite simply, the gender roles are completely equal in this game. So by strict definition, it is *not* sexist. We even have a strong female (zombie) leader at the head of a major faction. The percentage of female rulers in WoW is better than real life.
Does WoW objectify women? Maybe a little bit, but it's certainly not egregious. It's natural to want to look at something attractive. And like someone said, it's been part of the fantasy setting for some time.
At least it's not this.
http://mmogamesvs.com/2011/02/09/the-hot-girls-from-tera-online/
Nagaina May 17th 2011 11:11AM
@ Polydorr
Objectification is, in fact, a defining symptom of inherent sexism.
Wulfkin May 17th 2011 11:13AM
You make a good point polydorr, within the game world itself there is little sexism. Although there has been the occasional in-game references to it, such as an Orc female NPC who comments on how Thrall's Horde is better than the old for women warriors. However for the most part it is thankfully entirely absent.
However you could make the argument that Blizzard, probably unwittingly, incorporates some elements of real-world sexism into its games. Noblegarden is probably the best example of this, as its a reflection of the Playboy image and lifestyle that many find offensive.
The 'bikini armour' debate also comes into this, not because showing off female bodies is wrong or offensive, but because it reflects a proscribed gender binary that is perpetuated by the media in real-life. That binary basically boils down to 'men are strong, women are sexy', you'll see it replicated in tv, film, newspapers adverts, everywhere around you, and in the attitudes of people everywhere as well. In my opinion causes all kinds of problems for men and women in everyday life. Warcraft with its muscle men and bikini-clad women certainly has copied this meme, however I 'd hardly say that makes them sexist, more that they are unconsciously copying a social standard that has unfortunately become institutionalised.
tl;dr - Blizzard is not inherently sexist, but our society is. If sexism in Warcraft offends you, look to the larger causes behind it.
Utakata May 17th 2011 12:39PM
Life maybe sexist, and WoW may indeed simpley reflect that Zallgrin, but it doesn't mean we have to accept that or encourage it.
Noyou May 17th 2011 1:59PM
Sex sells. That's the bottom line. It's a marketing strat that has been used since day 1 I'm sure. You can play around with the wording all you want. It's all semantics. (or some antics if you will) The real question is - Is WoW more or less sexist than the average video game/MMO. Since I have only played WoW I cannot say. If I go by the other games ads however I would say WoW would be far less sexist by comparison.
chrissie May 17th 2011 4:11PM
I am all for sexy-looking female toons, as long as we can have sexy-looking male toons to accompany them. Get on it, Blizz.
Sleutel May 17th 2011 7:10PM
My $0.02, which I know I've thrown out here before: as long as the dev team is mainly composed of white men, WoW will have problems with sexism and racism.
@Zallgrin:
Life also doesn't have magic, or Orcs, the ability to shapeshift, or two-foot-high women with pink pigtails who can shrug off fifteen minutes of blows from a thirty-foot giant with the help of a beefy guy in a dress with green hair and massive eyebrows whose length is exceeded only by that of his ears. Maybe we should remove those from the game and then tell you to deal with it. Because that's how life is.
TL;DR: The point of WoW is to be a fantasy. Why can't we fantasize a world that doesn't reflect our prejudices?
@gewalt:
I didn't order this. Most of the other people I play with, men and women, didn't order it, either.
@Nagaina:
Fistbump.
@pizoni:
Here's a mental exercise for you. Think about all the major lore characters, especially faction leaders. How many of them are male? How many of them are female? What are the temperments of the male and female characters? What kind of abilities do they have? What roles do they fill? Is their importance based on their own abilities or their relationship (blood or romantic) to another character, and what is that character's gender?
What does armor look like on different genders? What are the emotes of different genders? What are the character customization options for the different genders?
Just because gender isn't generally flagged as something that makes an NPC respond differently to you outside of what pronoun they use* doesn't mean that there's no sexism in WoW.
*And it does affect things sometimes. For example, in the Uldum quest "Tipping the Balance," Harrison Jones will either say "I wouldn't want a pretty little thing like you getting hurt" or "We wouldn't want you getting hurt." I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out which gender gets which dialog. (Note, however, that an NPC can be sexist without the game itself being sexist. It's important not to mistake the voice of a character for the voice of the authors.)
TonyMcS May 18th 2011 1:29AM
I think the one thing proving WoW is not sexist, is the large number of males playing female characters. If there were second class characters, then you would be sure hierarchical males wouldn't be playing them. If males had to give birth, we'd already be growing babies in test tubes.
Sleutel May 18th 2011 9:15AM
@TonyMcS:
That's like "proving" our society isn't sexist by the high number of men who visit strip clubs. You know why most men I know who play female characters rolled them that way?
Because if they have to spend that many days staring at an ass...
(Note: Not saying that sex clubs are inherently sexist; nor is finding a female buttocks attractive. Just that it definitely doesn't mean someone isn't sexist, either.)
Blayze May 18th 2011 1:20PM
"as long as the dev team is mainly composed of white men, WoW will have problems with sexism and racism."
That quote in turn implies that white men are all the problem, and that by getting rid of us the problem disappears. Sexism and racism aren't one-way streets, and I find that attitude offensive.
But hey, I'm just a white, heterosexual male. I'm not rich so I'm not part of the elite and don't benefit from any of the cultural benefits I'm accused of benefiting from--but I *do* get the pleasure of having my gender, skin colour and sexual orientation used against me as evidence that I'm apparently a vile, base oppressor that the world would be better off without.
tia Dec 28th 2011 7:09PM
And that somehow makes it ok? NOT. I can hardly wait fro the day Blizz gets sued out the a$$ for their treatment of female characters Imma laugh mine off.
Nina Katarina May 17th 2011 8:07AM
Yes, but they're getting better.
Original vanilla WoW is rather sexist, but there are signs that they know it and are working to counter it in later expansions. Cataclysm passes the Bechdel test in a number of ways.
I'm still waiting on my Very Girly Staff, however.