Another Mass Effect Rant
On Tumblr, someone made a Bioware confession saying:
"It annoys me when people complain about the new [Fem]Shepard being too good looking. In real life, I don't have much going for me, so whats wrong with wanting to role play someone beautiful, smart and dangerous?"
Cue the replies from females complaining about how Shepard doesn't look 'battle hardened' enough, how she looks too young and too pretty and that's unrealistic.
Here's why that pisses me off: Females have complained about how we're forced into a set standard for appearance. Models have to be X tall and X size. There's a standard in our heads of how a woman should look in a particular role, and females have complained about this, and how it makes us look.
That's exactly what's being done here. Most of these people complaining have never been in the military. They have a set idea of how they think a military woman should look like, and nine times out of ten they're wrong. Military women are not some special breed created for the sole purpose of another woman's imagination. They are from all walks of life, of all appearances, as diverse as civilian women.
There are beautiful women in the military. There are beautiful women in the military who wear skirts(Yes, the military does have skirts and they are worn), makeup, have also served in Iraq. They go to the club, they put on heels, they get their hair did. At work, they maintain a professional persona, but outside of that, they're just as femine as any other civilian. They wear push-up bras, get fake nails, and wear their hair down.
On a ship, you must always maintain a level of battle-readiness. So who's to say Ashley wasn't feminine outside of the Normandy? Who is to say FemShep couldn't be a straight up sexy-mama once on shore leave? It happens in the real military all the time.
Trying to say FemShep doesn't look realistic of a military woman because she's 'too pretty' is an insult to military women. You're basically saying "You have to look the way I would envision you in my head, be damned what you actually are! You're unrealistic if you're not tomboyish or battle hardened enough after coming back from Iraq!"
As a prior military member I am sick and tired of seeing people try to force a standard appearance on all military women as if all of them want to be viewed as plain, sexless soliders. They didn't stop being women when they joined and not all of them are hardcore feminists who shave their heads and go "SUCK MY DICK."
Just.
Stop it.