The group's presentation on sex and video games highlighted the interesting topic on how sex bodies are portrayed throughout different genres of video games. The main ideas revolved around how video games depict what are considered "normal" male and female bodies with white people usually being portrayed as the central character. One thing I found interesting was in their "Need for Speed" example with race cars being lined up and the race starting with the female waving the flag. As the advertisement progressed, the pavement turned into the curvatures of the female body with the cars violently thrashing against each other in order to obtain victory.
This brought into mind the stereotypical nature that is associated with males and how all they want to obtain when meeting a potential partner is sex. The speed and aggression displayed by the cars as they raced along the female body is further portrayal of males as they portray their dominance over the woman body. The woman, on the other hand, resumes the submissive position, allowing the race to continue on their route as they race from the bottom to the top of the female body.
Although the video does not directly state the sex of the driver within each car, the aggressive nature of the vehicles lead the general population to believe that the drivers are male. This idea of aggression and males are rolled over to the group's example of "Metroid" where the sex of the main character (Samus) is actually hidden within a bulky armored suit with a big gun on the end of one arm. Due to what we know of stereotypical males, the gaming audience was led to believe that the sex of the character was male. It was not until later that Samus was actually discovered to be female that people started sexualizing the character and her body by portraying her in skin-tight clothing.
In relation to the group's presentation, I tend to see similar results when playing other types of games. In some, characterization of one's avatar does not lead much options when trying to customize body types. Males are usually very bulky in the chest while females tend to have an "hour glass" figure no matter how one tries to alter their avatar. Some games, according to the group, does not even allow body customization, but rather already have a set body type that resembles closely to what society deems as the "normal" body. This leads me to wonder when and how this imaginary line of normativity was ever established.
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