A random guy saying to your kickass pandaren lady "there there, honey, you're beautiful just the way you are!" is perhaps even MORE gross.

In the most creepy way possible?

You DO know there are ways to reinforce positive body image without being a creep about it, right?

Not all compliments are good compliments.

I know it's possible to reinforce positive body image or deliver a compliment without being creepy. My point was that the person who wrote this dialogue probably didn't realize that it would come across as creepy. That's why I mentioned lack of awareness and best intentions gone awry.

People still read quest text?

Sure, the writer may have had good intentions, but he needs to be informed that a line like, “I bet you can't keep the men off of you!” is REALLY CREEPY. It smacks of no consent.

If the writer wants to compliment the female character for her looks, he could just say the same thing as what the male characters got, as Josh said in the article, altered for heteronormativity I suppose.

I assumed it was a play on the "lecherous old man" archetype. My first reaction was to laugh. Maybe I've been watching too much anime?

You know what they say about the road to hell...

The principle at work here is called "unconscious privilege". Most men (and I'll admit I'm making an assumption when I believe that the quest text was created by a man, but that is the way to bet) don't consider the many angles of language because they rarely if ever are spoken to in a similar fashion. And by "similar fashion", I mean in a way that they would consider demeaning. Their awareness suffers from this, so when they speak to a woman using language similar to Firepaw's, they don't understand (and often disagree) that it's a problem.

I understand how this comment by a character who is an older warrior of a race of good-natured people who are simply made for cuddling could come off as creepy, but to me, it doesn't. It seems, and I think this is how it was intended, to be a comment mae by a friendly, good-natured fellow content with himself and happy to share the love. He isn't presenting an ulterior motive, he's just commenting on a standard physical trait of female empowerment when talking to ladies, and commenting on a standard physical trait of male empowerment when talking to men, and that's it.

It was most likely a man that wrote the text... why do I say that? Because guys think it's hilarious.

Case in point, in Minnesota (I believe it was at least) a new public building opened (I believe it was a court house) with lovely glass stairs. Except no one paused to think about that glass stairs meant that you could view up ladies skirts. Women were basically told to either wear pants or shorts under their skirts. Men thought it was hilarious. So many of my male friends were talking about how it was the perfect design.

Until I pointed out that if their wives, daughters, mothers, sisters, aunts or nieces had to work there on a daily basis and someone looked up their skirt they would be out for blood. And every single one of them agreed with me, that it wasn't funny thinking that their loved one could be victimized like that.

See this is how our male counterparts work. They can find humor in pretty much anything - until that anything happens to someone they love and respect. Random bimbo at the bar gets felt up? Laugh about it. Your sister gets felt up a the bar? Your ready to punch his lights out.

Now this isn't true for every guy out there, many of them would be just as outraged by a random girl at the bar and their sister. But many of them would still think the random girl was funny and would have probably said something like 'if she didn't want to get felt up she shouldn't have dressed sexy and done shots'.

As a society we have a long way to go.

Blizzard has said that if a single trait can sum up Pandaren culture it is that they live in the moment. That's what Ji was doing. He sees you and gives you the biggest compliment he can think of and says that you're gonna be his friend now. He doesn't think whether it would be weird or not. That's what he feels and if he doesn't share it now maybe he won't ever get a chance to. Would it be awkward if someone walked up to you in the street and said that? Yeah, probably. But this is Panda-Land : D

Really, Loli? Just...really?

That's worse..the males are even more 'chubby' and they don't need to be 'reassured'.

You can promote good body image without a level of awkward harassment. Also, you're not doing anybody any favors when you refer to "anorexic" anybody. It's a mental illness and there are plenty of thin people who are not ill.