I think that in the case of Senua in Hellblade it makes sense and it actually fits a lot.
Especially with the story and what's happening to her and the mental problems she's suffering from, I am also a big fan of Heilung who does old Norse music that they used in the trailer too. The overall style just really fits together nicely. They're sorta embracing that albeit stereotypical beastial Pagan side of it all.
In general tho I do agree with this, and I think that it's just because people have an extremely narrow-minded view on what '' strong '' is.
People only think about it in terms of masculinity, even in fiction where you can write and design your character to do literally anything ( lets be real here, the female characters don't look physically strong to begin with. They basically still have superhuman strength in contrast with their physiques ).
I see this a lot with people who talk about character designs and how people look at feminine designs, a lot of designs that some will look at as sexual a lot of other people will look at as an aggressive and cool expression of femininity.
A man with his shirt off is still sexual to a lot of people, but people accept it as a sign of power because that's how we've been conditioned in society and what is normalized in media.
A woman showing cleavage or whatever tho, that's literally an expression of power in the same way as a man showing off his abs or his wealth through a nice car, watch etc.
Human beings work the same as animals, the same as how a peacock or a lion show off their big feathers and mane, most of these things that we do are done for the same reason even if it's subconcious.
Men acting all aggressive and showing their abs, biceps and wealth etc. Why do you think that men do this?
It's to attract a mate.
Most men don't go to the gym because they want to be healthy, they go there because they want the attention of women.
It IS an expression of sexuality, men are literally trying to be sexy to women ( or other men ).
But when women express themselves sexually then it's seen as submissive and objectifying, but I think that's only one way to look at it and it's all about framing I could frame what men do to make it objectifying towards men too.
I mean what men are basically doing is essentially signaling to be used as a credit card who work themselves to death to support other people and to put themselves on the line to protect others, that's pretty objectifying when you actually think about it...
And when it comes to gay people then very often there will be one part that is more feminine and the other that is more masculine.
If you actually ask artists who draw women in skimpy outfits and/ or women who are very overtly feminine and aggressive in a feminine way, most of them do it because that's what they find cool and engaging. It's flaunting your power in the same way that men do.
But because of how people at large have been socialized and also because of how backwards the world in general is ( especially in developing countries, that still play video games remember that ), in order for women to be considered '' strong '' they basically need to act and look masculine because masculinity is so ingrained into peoples perception of what strength is.
You actually see this a lot in parts of the LGBTQ community, I know that there's a of hysterical bullshit going on there too but in general femininity is a lot more accepted as a badass thing.
In general I think that this is more about pandering to mens idea of what a strong woman is, not what womens idea is.
Some womens ofc, but in general I don't think that most women find misery porn and angsty or butch women to be very appealing.
That is what men find appealing and to be '' strong '', and men going through pain and struggle to protect other people is a big part of what '' being a man '' has and still is about.
A glorification of pain and anger I think is quite stereotypically masculine, while most women look at it as men being stupid ( and it often is ).
The original Lara Croft had a lot of weird marketing because of the shitty marketing department, but the actual character and games themselves were a lot more '' feminist '' imo than the reboot is. Original Lara Croft was very much a feminine power fantasy, while the new Lara is a more masculine idea of what a power fantasy is and straight up misery porn at times. I mean I dunno what woman think that Lara almost being raped at the beginning of the first reboot game and the implications of that throughout the game was a good idea.
That seems more like a mans idea of it to me, and it's also a lazy way to make us care about her and want to protect her.
LOL!
This reminds me so much of women in horror movies xD.
Women in cinema in general often have this problem, but in horror movies they hire a lot of .... Bad actors.
A lot of the women in horror movies act like they're more worried about their makeup being messed up and looking ugly on camera than actually being scared.
I can't remember her name but the woman in the Shining actually did a really good job at showcasing genuine emotions, but most of the time it's just awful.
