There are a lot of gut reactions going on when a scantily-clad lady appears in a videogame. Things like “she’s hot!” and also “she must be cold in that.” Some of us might sigh in exasperation and wonder if there will be any real ladies in the game. 

An essay at J. Shea’s blog urges us to reconsider our gut reactions to depictions of sexy women in games. 

The preeminent connection between “sexy clothes” and “creepy author intent” made many women leery of feminine clothes at all, to the point where that dislike is itself a trope. I can also find plenty of examples of “non-feminine” women who saw themselves as being different from (and thus better than) more traditional women.This piece by Jenn Frank, for example, reflects a time in her life where she believed this to be true. These people are (or were) missing the point of complaints about sexist design: it isn’t what they’re wearing, it’s why they’re wearing it.

In other words, if a woman is wearing a bikini in a game, we should at least be near a beach.