| Title | Metal Gear Solid V: let's talk about the pair of heaving tits in the room |
| Author | Tom Chick |
| Posted in | Game diaries |
| When | September 18, 2015 |
I haven't read anything about Metal Gear Solid V. Even though I'm pretty sure I'm almost done -- well, "done", if things play out like I think they're going to play out -- I still haven't read anything about it..
Read the full articleI'd echo a similar opinion to that of Danielle Riendeau on the Idle Thumbs podcast, in that I'm not particularly bothered by her nakedness, but the relentless shoving her arse in my face on the chopper and the repeated close-up shots of her chest are what's obnoxious. Without delving into spoiler territory, her reasons for showing skin are actually tragic, but the camera's fixation on her undermines that and that's what makes it feel like a gimmick. She has some really good scenes throughout the game, none of which needed close-up zoom ins on her tits to improve them, which only makes much of the rest of her time on camera a slight disappointment.
Quiet is the best companion to take on missions. She adds an element of uncertainty to your plans like trying to pull off a heist in GTA Online. You can set up the perfect silent kill, but here comes Quiet swooping in to buffoon things up. Other times, she's in the clutch saving your bacon from a plan that went pear-shaped.
That said, the story reasons for her outfit and her near-silence are really dumb. Granted, it's no more dumb than a lot of story stuff in MGSV, so there's that I guess, but Kojima's "you will be ashamed" warning should've been taken for what it was worth - not much.
Anyway, I expect the comments for this to go places.
I think there’s a lot more to Quiet than than the teenybop
bloggers and social justice warriors have bothered to notice, and I’m really
glad you put all of this out there as counter-programming. Her presence in the
game is a far cry from the usual kinds of sexist, objectifying treatment of
women often seen in video games. In a lot of ways, Quiet is one of the more
sophisticated and compelling aspects of the game.
It’s not just that she makes it pretty clear that she is a
total badass and MORE than in charge of the situation from the get-go. We’ve
seen that in tons of video games, movies, comics, etc. It’s not that she almost parodies the whole
notion of “male gaze” with those lingering frames of her body that are long
enough for you to think about how almost awkwardly drawn out they are. And it’s not that par-for-Kojima-course crazy
pseudo-science backstory.
For me, what makes her really interesting is her disruptive role
in a TOTALLY duded out, ultra-GI Joe fantasia. I love how Miller is just like “no
way, kill her now”. Because she would, effectively, be violating the boy’s club
(regardless of there being a tiny number of female Mother Base crew and Paz
around). She’s almost treated like a WITCH in a medieval village, which I think
is really an interesting way of presenting her. And she does have “magic” and
is mysterious. Men- battle-hardened, warrior-men- are actually SCARED of her. She is a threat to
them.
But Boss is completely aware of her competence, her skill
and her value- all without a trace of sexual attraction. He’s a soldier, and he
knows that she is too. If you think about it, it’s almost kind of weird that
none of the characters in the game are really lusting after her, commenting on
her anatomy, or being offered immature dialogue options to “hook up” with her.
She’s remote, ultimately untouchable, and sort of above this kind of base,
human instinct.
There’s also a fleshy humanity to her that is in stark
contrast to all of the hardware, all of the armored bodies constantly on
display. Yes, it’s ludicrous to think that a soldier would go to battle in a
bikini top, ripped tights and a thong. But in the world of MGSV, there’s actually
a reason for it and her femininity is almost in defiance of all of the macho military
metal.
And sure, she could have been depicted as a dowdy, matronly
woman to appease the crowd that believes that feminisim equals robbing women of
their natural sexuality. She could have been a mousy, sexless analog to Mia
Farrow. But I think it is important that she is so eroticized. I didn’t really
get what Kojima was going for when those articles were being written about how
he wanted the character to be more erotic, but now I think I do. She has to be hyper
sexualized so that she can be not only project as a woman in a male-dominated
fantasy, but also as something more than a woman that disrupts the MGS vision.
It’s not like Kojima has never depicted women before, and
well at that. Think about Meryl, Sniper Wolf, Eve, the original Boss/Joy…in
MGS4, one of the most interesting story pieces was the Beauty and the Beast
corp- beautiful women that had been subjected to tragedy and atrocity because
of war.
In terms of the game, I take her on almost every mission. I’ll
be fumbling around with an entire base after me and she’s out there just
picking dudes off with frightening efficiency.
I almost regret KOing her by dropping a supply box on her head during that first duel with her.
Tom Chick has a wife and daughters?
I haven't played any MGS game since the first one on the NES. Is the degree of skin shown equal to the degree of tragedy? If the tragedy was greater would she be topless?
Why not just have her topless anyways? It seems like the bikini top is pointless.
But I haven't played the game so my comment is based on ignorance of any subtext the game may have for her.
haha you said fleshy
(Good post.)
The number of words written to essentially say "I enjoy looking at her" is truly astounding.
This reads like an extremely tortuous attempt to justify something very simple. Twisting yourself up like a pretzel until down is up and dumb is smart.
wanna know why they did it? because they wanted to . . . and that's the only excuse they need. This idea that we need to think about how women are portrayed in videogames is non-sense . . . why? Because some mainstream feminists tell you that you should? What is the harm in having a representation of an attractive woman in a game that is mostly going to be played by men and teen boys? Please, I'm all ears . . .
You can get away with having a bikini lady in your promotional material in game magazines and on posters that hang in someone's local gamestop. The game's still a commercial product as well as a piece of creative endeavour.
Tits sell. Shoehorn whatever reasons you want into her wearing a bikini and deuce gear, but video games will always be seen as a 'boys club' activity as long as we continue to make excuses for this kind of blatant pandering. Sexy tough women are hot enough without needing to showcase their jiggly bits.
That said, thank the gods of hedonism for Quiet cosplay girls.
And I'll just leave this here to disturb and/or have a good larf; http://zombiesandwich.devianta...
I'm sorry your mom doesn't think your hobby is as worthwhile as reading Faulkner, Jack.
What the fuck does my mother have to do with this? Take your condescension and blow it out your ass.
The cute girl with the thick-rimmed glasses from your Literature class, then.
That I can work with.
Fair enough.
Also, sorry for being a douche earlier.
Getting back to topic: Your post, and sentiments like it puzzle me because
A) Other media seems to manage just fine (relatively speaking that is) without feeling the collective need to call out and shun every instance of gratuitious cheesecake. Of course, other media also seems to manage to provide at least a bit more pandering of that kind aimed at other groups than straight men and (maybe) queer women. I'd say the more obvious way to stop videogaming from being a boy's club (besides just waiting, since more and more women seem to rush into the hobby despite questions of representation still remaining, to say the least) is to react with more pandering in more directions.
B) Videogames are an inherently pandering medium whose entire premise is based on childish wishfulfilment. Why is pandering to someone's sexuality worse than pandering to someone's John-Rambo-Fantasy? I mean, you said yourself that you think sexy tough women are hot, implying that it's totally okay to have hotness be an important factor in the creation of a given character. Is the problem with MGS V maybe not that it panders to people's sexuality but rather that it does so for people other than you?
C) Why do people think it's so very important that videogames are seen as legitimate? What happened to being cool and not caring about what society thought about one of your silly hobbies?
D for disclaimer) All this is not to say that there aren't some really unfortunate and deeply problematic aspects about the way the game handles Quiet's story (at times coming very close to fetishizing her victimhood), not to mention the child soldiers (which is a whole other can of worms, hoo boy) but narrowing it down to "sexualising boobs=bad and regressive" makes for a really shallow, unconvincing and uninteresting discussion to have.
I don't understand this (common) line that the story is "nonsense." I haven't finished the game yet, but thus far it strikes me as vintage Kojima - insane, goofy, sad, complex, confusing, risky, offensive, and maddeningly intelligent. The dude is far from an idiot, and I'm inclined to take his encyclopedic "critique of Western imperialism" seriously.
Apology accepted. That's a lot to reply to, but basically, I think there's really no need for Quiet to be that naked--aside from whatever backstory they gave her in order to justify it--other than to titillate, and something about that just turns me off.
Honestly, I don't care if video games are accepted by a wider audience, but I do think it's embarrassing how video games try to make women attractive to men; a girl-next-door face and a porn star body, and just enough clothing to cover the 'naughty' bits. I mean, are we all teenagers that this sort of fanservice still works?
I dunno, I guess I don't like being pandered to in fashion, I find it juvenille. To me, Quiet would be more palatable if she were wearing military trousers and a tank top, a la Lara Croft. Still attractive, and practical attire that doesn't take me out of the game.
But hey, if fans want T&A, then I guess Kojima knows his audience.
Re: disliking Big Boss and Ocelot, it's worth noting that later on in the series' timeline they're supposed to be bad guys. Though the way this is surfaced in the game might be questionable.
