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Female trainer pose has been changed in Pokemon GO loading screen

L Thammy

Member
I hope to never see any of the people concerned about this trot out the "creator's vision" defense in the future, since they don't seem to care about it here.

Well, obviously their new vision is censoring their old vision. We have to stop creators from oppressing themselves.
 

MUnited83

For you.
I don't...I don't get it. What was wrong with the first one? Can someone please explain?

Well human people don't naturally stand that way when they are checking their phone, for starters.
I'm not "dying" on any hill. If a woman takes pics like that regularly, do you think she would appreciate the likes of us calling her a stripper? I don't think you understand half of the fanbase if you regard all of those poses, most of which are pretty mundane, as "stripper poses."
She's not taking a photo or making a pose for social media. She's literally holding a phone and playing Pokemon Go. Nobody stands like that when they're playing Pokemon Go.
 

JC Lately

Member
I didn't even notice there was a female trainer on this loading screen until this thread. Huh.

Edit:: just started the game. Still have the old image.
 
Are you sure about this? it looks like you're making assumptions. You're assuming that Pokemon is a male dominated environment, you're assuming that the artist is a man, and you're assuming that the intent of the artist was to represent a sexual image. A woman with big hips is not inherently sexual, if she stands in a certain way, you can assume sexuality in that pose, or just see it as a person with a bigger frame. This reminds me of the whole teacher bae controversy

The "Teacher Bae" story is a good reminder that it's important not to oversexualize people, but I think there are a few important differences between that story and the situation in video games. I contend that the original trainer is striking a pose and does not have a naturally curvy body type, but let's set that aside and consider the case of the many female video game characters that have curvy body types and why that could be a problem.

I'm having a hard time finding the exact words to describe my thoughts, but I think the fundamental problem again boils down to a question of individual agency and celebrating differences while avoiding harmful norms. Everyone's body should be accepted and respected. But when the vast majority of female game characters are designed with a particular body type, and that body type happens to be the one that men are stereotypically attracted to, it sends a message that those characters exist in whole or in part to be attractive to men.

Again, I'm not particularly knowledgeable about how female body type portrayal in media affects consumer perceptions, or what the best practices are for making women of all body types feel welcome in video games, so maybe I have some wrongheaded ideas. I will just say that my goal in all of this is to advocate for a world in which women don't feel excluded by video games.
 

Mega

Banned
I guess that contorted, unnatural, exaggerated poses on women have become so normalized across various media that people don't even notice them as odd anymore. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Well human people don't naturally stand that way when they are checking their phone, for starters.

She's not taking a photo or making a pose for social media. She's literally holding a phone and playing Pokemon Go. Nobody stands like that when they're playing Pokemon Go.

It's a girl with big hips leaning back to take a photo. Besides her simple and somewhat exaggerated cartoon physique, there's nothing so unnatural, hypersexual or crazy about her pose. I could easily see a woman like Bey for example translated into cartoon form and coming out like the Pokémon Go silhouette. And there are many women with bigger hip:waist ratios than this.

lZxDQpZl.png
 

Sianos

Member
It's a girl with big hips leaning back to take a photo. Besides her simple and somewhat exaggerated cartoon physique, there's nothing so unnatural, hypersexual or crazy about her pose. I could easily see a woman like Bey for example translated into cartoon form and coming out like the Pokémon Go silhouette. And there are many women with bigger hip:waist ratios than this.

lZxDQpZl.png

wait a second, upon closer examination even if she's facing away from the camera her calves are STILL on the wrong side of her legs
 
It looked unfinished before. A dark silhouette in the middleground when things behind her are lit up perfectly.

Pretty much the feeling I'm getting. In general, the overall image had touch ups with the trainer silhouette getting an update to fit the actual design of the trainer in the game.
 

Mega

Banned
wait a second, upon closer examination even if she's facing away from the camera her calves are STILL on the wrong side of her legs

No, they aren't on the wrong side. Her feet aren't pointed at either direction so her calves could reasonably be on the left or right depending on the subtle positioning of her lower half.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
It's a girl with big hips leaning back to take a photo. Besides her simple and somewhat exaggerated cartoon physique, there's nothing so unnatural, hypersexual or crazy about her pose. I could easily see a woman like Bey for example translated into cartoon form and coming out like the Pokémon Go silhouette. And there are many women with bigger hip:waist ratios than this.

lZxDQpZl.png
That woman is not leaning back in that photo nor is her bottom half running away from her top half. In fact, your post highlights exactly what's wrong with the pose itself, she's in the most awkward way possible leaning back, letting the arm on the side she's leaning back with hang, weight distribution is all over the place in the worst ways possible.
 

HardRojo

Member
I thought the pose was weird the first time I saw it so this is a good change imo. Left trainer's back is probably broken from standing like that.
 

Mega

Banned
That woman is not leaning back in that photo nor is her bottom half running away from her top half.

It's a silhouette with a level of ambiguity. We don't know for sure unless we spoke to the artist. I don't see her bottom half running away or doing anything so outlandish. I see it as a girl holding up her camera to take a pic of Squirtle and leaning a bit.
 

MUnited83

For you.
It's a girl with big hips leaning back to take a photo. Besides her simple and somewhat exaggerated cartoon physique, there's nothing so unnatural, hypersexual or crazy about her pose. I could easily see a woman like Bey for example translated into cartoon form and coming out like the Pokémon Go silhouette. And there are many women with bigger hip:waist ratios than this.

lZxDQpZl.png

But she's not taking photos of anything, she's playing the very game this loading screen is for, a game that doesn't require any leaning back. And that silouette of Beyonce has nothing to do with the siloutte for the game.

I mean man, they removed the pose for a reason, and it wasn't for people complaining about; it's because the pose was just plain bad.
 

Mega

Banned
But she's not taking photos of anything, she's playing the very game this loading screen is for, a game that doesn't require any leaning back. And that silouette of Beyonce has nothing to do with the siloutte for the game.

I mean man, they removed the pose for a reason, and it wasn't for people complaining about; it's because the pose was just plain bad.

A huge component of Pokemon Go that led to its immense popularity in social media was taking photos of the Pokemon in real environments and sharing them. It's very reasonable to assume she's snapping a pic of Squirtle.
 

ShyMel

Member
Whew so it wasn't just me who thought the silhouette art was kinda odd. It to me looked like two poses mashed into one. The first time I saw it, I thought she might be in pain with such a stance.
 

Hellion

Member
Nintendo really has a problem with women in their games.

Female link inclusion "sorry can't do.

Female silhouette "took care of that problem for ya"
man I can't wait to see some people interpreting this as hating on curvy woman and they have to change it back :D

So why change it in the first place?
 

RainForce

Banned
Really disappointing that they would get rid of a very obvious Jojo homage. Instead of changing it outright, they should have added a male equivalent exaggerated pose. As it stands, it's a "if one can't have it, no one can" kind of deal.
 

Mega

Banned
Really disappointing that they would get rid of a very obvious Jojo homage. Instead of changing it outright, they should have added a male equivalent exaggerated pose. As it stands, it's a "if one can't have it, no one can" kind of deal.

Agree! When I see (legitimate) complaints about character design, I want Conan AND Red Sonja ridculousness... not evening it out with boring, stale, conservative, buttoned up blandness!
 

Mailbox

Member
I'm not really understanding people thinking its a different proportioned model. All the proportions are pretty much the same in both images, the difference is in perspective. In the first, chest is to the side, hips are bent to face to the camera, and out to accentuate the hips, thus making them seem larger and the waste seem smaller. The second image (which is a better, less exaggerated pose), is far more casual, with both hip and chest facing the same direction.

Its literally just a pose change. Its for the better, but some people here are weird in their exaggerations, geez.
 

Teletraan1

Banned
who the hell checks its phone like that

It looked like she was leaning back to take a shot of the pokemon right in front of her contorting around like I saw my sister and her kids doing while actually playing the game trying to catch a pokemon. It is a bit of a nonsense pose but no reason to slim down the silhouette though.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
On the original pic, is the lady facing towards us or facing away?

It's facing towards us, yeah?

To be honest, I don't see anything really "unrealistic" with the original pic but really, people, this is such a non-issue. I don't see why we need to make such a big ruckus over it, really.
 
I had to look for the girl, she kind of blends with the background. I guess they did good by changing the girl silhouette but it's not that big of a deal.
I didn't see her at all and thought this thread was a joke post. It wasn't until your comment that I looked again for the third time and finally saw her.
 
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