Actually, the more you work out, the more you get rid of fat, so your boobs are likely to be smaller if you're muscular. I don't know if that's the point you want to be making, as it's sort of reversed. They're not there because they're realistic, they're there for the reason you sometimes seem to be making with your post, that they're there for sex appeal with the set that likes them, or thinks that they like them, that size.
You're right, though, that body expectations aren't limited to female characters. I'd argue that there tends to be greater variation for males, though, whether stereotypical, goofy, dumb, muscular, or whatever, there seems to be a greater emphasis on character difference, with the fearful default being muscular, with fat guys being comic relief, skinny guys often transcending gender barriers, that sort of thing. Aren't too many muscular women in games, and you notice that there was an outcry in games such as World of Warcraft when the female characters were deemed "too ugly".
Your thesis in general is a little unclear, perhaps because of the way you list examples for ancillary points and feel sometimes like you're trying to hit several targets at once. It could probably be tighter, in other words.
It might serve your interest to look up the history of comic book censorship in America. That was a young medium like film, but its development and perception was largely dictated by its accessibility and its writers' and artists' willingness to address certain subject matter which caused reactionary elements to clamp down harder than they ever did with films. This may have been due to the perception of comic books as being a child's medium, despite there being adult titles before the censors moved in. Games, too, are considered to be a child's medium by many, despite examples to the contrary.
Even films, now considered by a lot of people to be among literature and other artistic expression, are often regarded as "just entertainment," often sapping whatever potential they have to move people on a deeper level than forgettable excitement or sensuality. I think you actually undersell the value of entertainment in culture, here.
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
