A video game called “Stray” launched to incredible success when it was released on Steam in July of 2022. The indie game sold 2.5 million copies in its first month, accumulating $57 million in sales. As of this writing, the game still has over 700 concurrent players despite it being a linear, and relatively short game that was released almost a year ago.
Despite the hype, if you take a step back, the game can definitely be considered fun but there’s nothing really revolutionary about it. It doesn’t break any ground or introduce any concepts that could be considered fresh. So what made the game so popular?
You played as a cat.
I bring this up because Stray proves an interesting point; you don’t have to look the same as the protagonist in order to enjoy a game. You don’t even have to be the same species. In order to identify with a protagonist in a video game, a movie, a book, or any kind of media, you just have to relate to their struggle and their journey.
The stray cat you play as was separated from its family and it was on a journey to go home through a strange world complete with odd, interesting, and heroic characters as well as frightening dangers.
Chances are you’ve had this experience yourself at some point. Perhaps you felt a kinship with a hobbit, a cowboy toy, a robot, a fish, or an anthropomorphic raccoon. In your mind, the species or fantastical nature of the character didn’t matter, you sympathized and even related to it.
Bizarrely, there seem to be those out there who think that in order to fully enjoy something they have to see their own physical traits represented within a character. This group naturally comes from the social justice community and as such, it’s taken the entertainment industry by the scruff of the neck and forced it to gender-bend, race-swap, and deconstruct the stories themselves in order to fit the qualifiers for “inclusion” and “representation.”
(READ: The ‘I Can See Myself’ Fallacy of ‘Representation’ in Art)
Video games have always been a target of the social justice community dating all the way back to before the GamerGate movement in 2014. Every now and again, woke culture will take aim at the industry again and attempt to pressure and intimidate developers into obeying their agendas and heeding their political checklists just as Hollywood does today.
Dove, the soap company, has been very loud about its stance as a company that cares about radical leftism and what they stand for, specifically in the “body positivity” movement. So neck deep is Dove into this idea that they attacked Brendan Fraser for his role in “The Whale,” causing an intense backlash to the company.
(READ: Dove Soap Attacks Brendan Fraser’s Oscar Win for the Most Ridiculous Reason Imaginable)
It would appear they didn’t learn their lesson the first time. Now they’re going after the video game industry. Working alongside Epic Games (the makers of Fortnite) they created a video game heroine who seems like your standard female protagonist. She’s fit, she’s able, and she’s ready for action. In a commercial, they have the woman defeat a monster. Once she does, the virtual landscape she’s in clears away, and like an actress taking a break she retreats to a dressing room.
As she takes off her armor, it’s quickly revealed that she’s not fit. In fact, she’s fat. As she looks at herself a feeling of resolution comes over her and she decides to go out looking as she does naturally. Dove cuts in, noting that “74% of female gamers see a lack of inclusivity in video game characters.”
You soon learn that this video game character was inspired by a real-life person. Despite the person being real, the virtual character still has various aspects of the woman’s obesity factored out.
The reaction to the video hasn’t been received well. As of this writing, this YouTube video alone has nearly 2,000 dislikes and only 109 likes. Naturally, they’ve turned off the comments, but that hasn’t stopped Twitter from voicing their opinion, including women.
“The people who need to see themselves in a video game character don’t need to be empowered, they need to see a therapist. This is a miss, Dove,” said user Steph Anie.
The people who need to see themselves in a video game character don’t need to be empowered, they need to see a therapist. This is a miss @Dove https://t.co/bLAOoc9yGy
— Steph Anie (@mynerdyhome) May 17, 2023
“I see Dove didn’t nerf her agility and stamina in half,” said Lauren Chen. “Just to be consistent. Obesity is a health hazard, not a beauty standard.”
I see Dove didn't nerf her agility and stamina in half. Just to be consistent 🙄
Obesity is a health hazard, not a beauty standard. https://t.co/yOGtboWadP
— Lauren Chen (@TheLaurenChen) May 17, 2023
“I’m a female gamer and I am not over weight or obese,” tweeted Nina Infinity. “Also, many games now have body scale sizing, so you can design your character to look however you like. Lastly, you’re a soap company. Stick to that.”
I’m a female gamer and I am not over weight or obese. Also, many games now have body scale sizing, so you can design your character to look however you like. Lastly, you’re a soap company. Stick to that.
— Nina Infinity (@Nina7Infinity) May 17, 2023
This is not a popular move by Dove. It’s just more of the leftist idea that you can be “healthy at any size” and that “big is beautiful” being pushed in popular culture. While being a little obese doesn’t necessarily keep someone from being considered beautiful, being fat is not healthy and should not be considered “the norm.” Yet, we continue to see leftist opinion revolve around the idea that being fat isn’t just okay, it should be the standard.
Take, for instance, the running narrative by leftist tastemakers in the mainstream culture that the music artist “Lizzo” is the epitome of beauty. Is she actually beautiful? She certainly has some qualities that you could consider pretty, but otherwise, the answer is plainly “no.” Few men or women truly see Lizzo as beautiful. To prove this, tell a woman she looks like Lizzo then be prepared to dodge whatever gets thrown at you.
This is a political push to eliminate beauty standards from our society that revolves around health, self-care, and traditionalism. As I wrote earlier on Thursday, the attack on beauty has deep roots in sapping someone from their sense of self-respect and their true, personal identity. This especially applies to women as of late:
Girls that engage in radical feminism might morph and corrupt their bodies to look like bright clowns that would be too scared to get close to a magnet, but they lose who they are. They blend into the background despite their very loud and distinct look. They replace their own personality with a political ideology that has no real concern with who they are and as a result they become hollow. Like a video game NPC, they’re just there doing whatever their programming tells them to. They accept and embrace ugliness and as a result, lose their true identity.
(READ: Why Does the Radical Left Hate Beauty?)
To be clear, this isn’t to say that bigger people should be stricken from popular media or ostracized. Today our foods are injected with so many hormones, sugars, and chemicals that, combined with our technologically advanced lifestyle, make obesity very easy to fall into. There are a lot of fat people out there, but obesity being far more common doesn’t make obesity okay.
The idea of being “perfect the way you are” is a dangerous idea. There is always room for improvement and improvement should always be sought after. The body positivity movement is one of those dangerous ideas and one that would result in a life of sloth and disease.
The “representation” angle is a lie. You don’t need to see yourself in a character to relate to or enjoy them. This is just more radical leftism attempting to divide and conquer.
