Is Bayonetta sexist? Does it matter?

I have not played Bayonetta for myself due to a combination of post-Yuletide pecuniary embarrassment and the ensuing mountain of games I need to play anyway. I fully intend to, but I am not entirely sure why. All reports suggest that it’s basically Devil May Cry with oestrogen added, and I gave up with DMC around the same time my chapel became invested with giant lava spiders.

I could make excuses that my interest in Bayonetta stems from its hype and its rave reviews, or that I’m intrigued by its bizarre cosmology, but in truth what makes Bayonetta more appealing than Devils of War is its central character. This need not be as seedy as it sounds, since I have a long standing, if psychologically revealing, practice of playing games as female characters when given the option. Partly it’s the feminist perspective that drives this article: as anyone who has seen Buffy (or any Joss Whedon property) it’s awesome watching girls kick arse. And there is possibly an element of the old joke that if one must stare at a polygonal posterior for ten or more hours, it might as well be worth staring at.

Which brings us back to Bayonetta. I don’t want to find such an obviously calculated avatar of male desires to be attractive, but I do. And I’m sorry. Maybe the guilt is part of it, but I do find Bayonetta attractive. I downloaded at least two wallpapers of her, and I am worried that there will be someone else in the room when they come up. Well down Platinum, Mission accomplished. I’d like to think I’m in a minority, but it seems unlikely. Damn Platinum for trying something so exploitative, and damn me for going along with it! Because I know I am being taken advantage of, and I should know better.

The reason for my discomfort is an underlying feeling that Bayonetta does not present women well but instead focuses on her sexuality. This is hardly unique to Bayonetta, of course, since I have also had to wrestle my perverse desire for say, Seras Victoria or Revy despite knowing full well I shouldn’t. Because they all presented largely for the titillation of the male audience. They can be- and are- developed, interesting and, yes, attractive characters in their own right, but their status as male fantasy figures undercuts the respect the audience should bestow upon them. Put simply, a female character does not need to be sexualised to be attractive, but if she can be, she probably will be, because sex sells.

Sex in games doesn’t bother me- if anything it is to be readily encouraged, both because as a legitimate art form it should have the right to the same tools as any other medium, and to undermine the lingering but misleading idea that games are for children and that it is inappropriate for them to deal with adult issues. The rather puerile way it is usually portrayed in practice- the threesomes of God of War spring to mind, no pun intended- is more alarming, but hopefully the subject matter will be treated more maturely in future. What concerns me more is the way that games like Bayonetta present women largely as sex objects. Admittedly Platinum do seem to have carried the sexualisation of Bayonetta to the point of parody, and in their defence it does seem to serve an artistic vision, even if that vision is “how over-the-top can we get away with”? That does not change the fact that it is a deliberate design choice or that Bayonetta’s sexuality has been exploited in marketing.

There have been several discussions on the example of Bayonetta that seem to crystallise into three opposing arguments:

1. i.Bayonetta is empowering.
   

2. ii.Bayonetta is demeaning and exploitative.
   

3. iii.It doesn’t matter; it’s just a game.
   

The first two arguments need not be discussed here, since an interested reader can follow them at their leisure. My own feelings currently towards the second view that, but I am probably being oversensitive. It is a little patronising of me to claim to act offended on behalf of all women everywhere ever, and even more patronising to suggest that players (children, manchildren, whomever) cannot tell the difference between the hyper-stylised fantasy of Bayonetta and a real woman. That would be he argument of a Jack Thompson or a Mary Whitehouse, and I would credit people with greater judgement than that.

Though without seeming too rude or disparaging the intelligence of others, those who argue that it doesn’t matter should- at the least- die in a fire. At most their ISP should cut them off, but such a punishment might seem extreme, and I do try to temper intellectual snobbery with mercy. Because it does matter. Not just to onanistic navel-gazers like myself, but because games are the fastest growing, most dynamic and possibly the most important medium of the twenty-first century. Moreover, they probably are more “harmful” than pornography- they damn well should be! They are more than just shallow aids for masturbation to be discarded after use like tissues or stiffened socks. They can move their audience to the same heights or depths of any art, and for good or for ill they can and should impart lessons on their audience that sticks with them their entire lives. And even games as mindless as Bayonetta are important because they will dispel the myth that games are for kids.

The problem is they won’t convince the world they are for adults. If games are to be taken seriously then it needs to be shown that they can create female characters that are characters, not cup-sizes and waist measurements. They need to show they have moved beyond adolescent preoccupations with mammaries and can sell product based on artistic merit, story and characterisation and not just because a digital Megan Fox is on the front cover in a bikini.

It might be suggested that other media is just as exploitative of the female form- god knows the real Megan Fox has been pimped out enough this past year despite having little discernible talent. The difference is that video games are still “on trial” by society at large. Film as a whole has passed the test, and because enough Citizen Kane’s exist people can overlook the endless avalanche of American Pie films. On the other hand some media have not passed, and are for now doomed to an immaturity ghetto, where fans of comics and anime are perceived as dateless freaks, in which women are “of course” treated like sex objects, because “those comic dorks and weeaboos could never get real women!”1 Games still face the danger of being characterised the same way as the last refuge of the terminally sad. Until the trial is over, they will have to be on their best behaviour, and Bayonetta is not helping the cause.

Yet it also isn’t harming it, and that is due to its obscurity. Which raises a final issue for concern: why is no one yelling at the top of their voice to get Bayonetta banned? I checked feminist blogs (yes, I read feminist blogs) who have plenty to say about Judy Nails’ boob-job in Guitar Hero III and conservative sites who daily call for the blood of Infinity Ward to be spilt on a black altar to resurrect Enoch Powell but are silent about Bayonetta, a buxom witch who kills angels by getting naked. And the conversation within the gaming community is surprisingly muted- a few blog posts and some expressions of discomfort on podcasts, but nothing major. No flame wars on NeoGAF led by ne-suffragettes and Spice Girl fans, as far as I am aware. The whole issue certainly pales compared to, say, the racism debate about Resident Evil 5. Maybe it should.

I should reiterate that I-of course- do not want Bayonetta banned. Censorship is never justifiable in my opinion, and I wouldn’t want to presume that I should tell anyone what they can and can’t play. Besides, I want to play it myself when I have the cash. But if there were calls to boycott it, it would produce a debate that would at least demonstrate that the gaming community takes sexism seriously, and that it wants to be taken seriously itself.

Then at least I could feel less guilty about putting “witches in underwear” into Google.2

1. I should probably note that I hope that comics and anime will also escape the stereotypes associated with them, but I am not hopeful.

2. Though the fact that I have fallen in love with Morrigan from Dragon Age makes that unlikely.