[WitchOfDoubt]

Almost the same thing could largely be said about male heros too. Most heros, male or female, are young and at least decent looking. In adventure games it's usually young, smart looking guys as opposed to the physically strong heros with perfect abs you see in action games. But very rarely is the hero a fat slob.

It happens now and then. Sometimes a male hero will be a handsome slob with messy hair and a cluttered room. Other times he'll be neat and presentable, but not too handsome. Or he might be a clumsy space janitor or a dorky pirate wannabe - there's VARIETY there.

How many adventure game heroines are allowed to just be kind of clever-but-dorky, and not at all idealized as objects of attraction? I count Laverne from Day of the Tentacle, and maybe a few others, but it's not many.

But a heroine who isn't both pretty and well-organized? Heaven forbid. Gabriel Knight can have a messy room and leave junk around, but Grace Nakimura can't.

The main difference is guys don't really care. They don't take issue with the fact most heros in action games have huge muscles and a perfect body that is nearly impossible to have in real life (especially not by playing video games.)

If guys didn't care, then we wouldn't see so many action games with cookie-cutter heroes with muscular physiques. I'd guess that a lot of guys care in the other direction - they want to play a hero with certain physical characters. Some women probably do, too, but I don't think I've seen any evidence that this has been as much of a character design-shaping force.

Why do some men want to play characters with that physique, but some women object when heroines are given big breasts and revealing clothing? Well, a "perfect body" for a male hero is one that lets him beat people up and have adventures and do things, while a "perfect body" for a heroine is one that makes her look attractive to guys.

(And quite possibly causes her serious back injuries.)

Whereas lots of women create a storm over barbie dolls, says it hurts girls self-esteem. But what about Ken?

Quite a few women have noted that Ken is also problematic. It's not a matter of "men versus women" or "feminists versus game designers." Lousy depictions of women tend to go hand-in-hand with lousy depictions of men.

I don't want interesting and different female characters because I'm a feminist; I want interesting and different female characters because they are interesting and different.

It is true, feminist characters would be lesbianic überfrauen such as Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor. You don't see many of those as videogame leads.

Like these lesbian uberfrauen?

Laura Bow deals with 1920's sexism from the introduction onwards.

If we're willing to include action games with some adventure-y elements:

Jade bares her midriff and has a pretty physique, but fights a regime with a camera as much as she does with her staff. Also, she gets genuine character development!

And don't forget a game that made a few feminist points with the subtlety of a mammoth stomping on the player:

Kate Walker breaks free of a controlling boyfriend and male authority in general to go on a search for mammoths.

See also Ellen, above.

At this point, a "feminist female character" is pretty much any female lead who has believable goals that don't neatly fit a male demographic's expectations.

Btw, nothing wrong with lead female characters, as long as they are interesting. I have to say, most lead videogame ladies kind of look the same. Unlike the male characters, they are usually devoid of character flaws or any unique traits... very one dimensional all around.

Uninteresting leads naturally happen when designers take a hero or heroine and turn them into a vehicle to fulfill someone else's fantasies, with no internal motivation or agency of their own.

An action game hero whose only reason for being is "to be a badass so that we can feel badass" is not going to have much depth.

A heroine whose main reason for being is to be "as appealing as possible to a largely male demographic" is going to be boring. A protagonist should have agency - the sense of acting towards real goals of their own that relate deeply to their personality. "Find the artifact" and "save the world" don't count; those are too generic.