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Ibrahim Sanaullah

Tekken

Tekken is a series of fighting video games whose first iteration was first released in 1994 and had ever since had many versions of it released. The game's popularity is quite evident as it is one of the most played games of all time.


A big part of the game is choosing a character with whom you chose to fight. Submerging your identity with that of your character, and experiencing the joy of making them win makes the experience so enjoyable.


There are 52 playable characters in the latest version of the game. Out of these 52 playable characters, only 15 are women. The problem isn't the evident imbalance of gender representation shown in the ratio of the male to female characters; instead, the real problem reveals itself in how these 15 female characters are represented.



Most female characters are overly sexualized to appeal to the male gaze, particularly young boys, who are the game's primary audience. Unlike the male characters who are very diverse in their physical features, such diversity is not present in these female characters. They are all shown to have similar physical characteristics, such as large breasts, soft lips, and hourglass figures. Moreover, the sexualization of these characters is further magnified when they win a round, after which they are seen smiling and blowing kisses while swaying their hips from side to side.


As Tekken 8 is to be released soon, it is important to have this conversation surrounding the game’s representation of women in hopes for the developers to change the game in a way that makes for an enjoyable experience for all genders.


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9 Comments


26090069
Dec 11, 2022

I haven't played the game, but I just wanted to reiterate your point of the objectification of women through glorifying nudity. Children playing these games come to like women represented as in the game, with perfect curves, blond hair, and mostly white complexion. Though its meant to appease the male gaze, it also sets unrealistic beauty standards for women. Further more fetishizing women has been a very common practice, where If I were to watch an anime, I would be bombarded with countless ads with clickbait's such as "divorced moms just around you" and pictures of nude women. The producers of such content are just in for the profits, and do not really care how perverted they're making a young…

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Ibrahim Sanaullah
Dec 11, 2022
Replying to

Yes, I completely agree with you. GTA was another video game series that I was considering writing about. All of the protagonists in the game are male. The women that were spotted on the streets, walked while swaying their hips side to side which is very unrealistic and overly sexual. Additionally, strip clubs were a big part of the game which just goes to show how the game was primarily targeting teenage boys.

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Mahnoor Mannan
Mahnoor Mannan
Dec 10, 2022

I remember playing fighting games on my brother's PS2 growing up, and I would actively go out of my way to avoid picking female characters because they were so skimpily dressed, and that made me so uncomfortable.


I feel like, however, it is a step forward to have women in fighting games, and prove that women can be just as powerful as men since all characters are on an equal power scale. A female character can just as easily take on a male character in a fight and win. Tekken was one of the first few fighting games to do this. However, it is obvious by looking at the characters that its just sexism dressed down: none of the characters…


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tekken is a flourishing example of the sexualisation and fetishisation of women in a “man’s world”. Since a female fighting isn't as serious and should rather be considered “sexy”, Tekken’s female character’s representation through their attire, physical features and seductive actions are an exemplary form of behaviour to attract, as you mentioned, the male audience. Their dressing of skimpy and revealing outfits reflect that they are objects of desire rather than battle. To view certain gender being represented in a way to attract audiences is a problematic approach that causes discomfort in many.

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Although I haven’t played Tekken in childhood I’ve had enough exposure to a similar video game “Mortak Kombat” which I used to play with my cousins back then. I remember my aunt clearly not allowing us to chose the character of “Melina” because of her hyper sexualised self, having huge breasts, exposed body suit, perfect hourglass figure. As a child this used to disturb me a lot because being a girl I was clearly forced to choose muscular toxic male characters to play. I remember that whenever Melina would win she would twerk and show her sexualised dance moves that would expose her certain private parts. Further adding to Jaweria’s point that such video games evoke anger and toxic aggression i…

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As a person who has played Tekken in most of her childhood, I loved this game, but I always used to be disgusted by the fact that how hypersexuslised these female characters were. They are often shown to have curvaceous bodies that are the most desired body type within men, and the clothes to be worn by these characters are designed in such a manner that show their butts and their breasts including their cleavages. Furthermore, the moves that they perform while fighting their opponents are mainly with legs that are opening at specific points making their butts and other parts more prominent. The “good girl image” of Lily is not good girl then? Lily’s moves, her hitting the opponen…



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Ibrahim Sanaullah
Dec 11, 2022
Replying to

I think you have made an interesting point regarding the violence caused by video games. Although intuitively it does feel like such video games lead to violence and a few studies might support this, there have been countless studies that state otherwise therefore it is hard to argue for each side using statistics. However, looking at the flip side of it, at times these video games let a lot of people help calm their aggression or as an outlet that helps them deal with traumatic experiences.


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