One good thing about Japanese games in the days of sprites

[Mr Khan]

Khuutra said:

Mr Khan said:

The problem being that there *is* room for interpretation as far as Japanese portrayals of masculinity go. This: 

http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/291224/major armstrong/

being one of them, but in the West and especially in Western gaming, the above is what you *have* to be as a man, unless you're specifically being portrayed as a nerd or gay, or some other less-than-ideal type of man.

Edit: fucking broken image links...

And you just managed to do the same thing for portrayals of masculinity in the West! You are killing me here. Communication of masculinity is not always done via the body. Ever seen anyone manlier than Atticus Finch? Or the hero of Dark Corners of the Earth? Cave Story?

There is an entire continuum of masculinity and acceptance of what qualifies as masculine on both sides of the ocean, is my point.

Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird, correct? I was discussing gaming specifically. The ability of other mediums worldwide to portray a wide variety of males as perfectly set in standards of manliness is not in dispute, but rather in mainstream Western gaming where the He-Man archetype is still dominant and any other portrayal leads to doubt or some sort of "condition" under which the characters are identified primarily before their masculinity. This also expands to Western gamers, who then lambast other visual portrayals of masculinity, which do not necessarily have to be any less manly