Video game characters continue to appear more and more realistic as technology continues to advance.
Though it appears some heterosexual male gamer's don't seem to enjoy the more realistic characters we're beginning to find in video games, particularly when it comes to female characters.
It would sadly seem these male gamers would rather have all the female characters possess only the most highly idealized, hypersexualized traits associated with beauty.
This was evidenced when a male gamer recently pointed out on Twitter Aloy, the heroine of Playstation 5's Horizon Forbidden West, had faintly visible peach fuzz on her cheeks.
Rather than applauding the great detail in her design, the original poster circled the area of Aloy's cheek where the peach fuzz was visible, and asked a question which translated to:
"Can you explain to me why the hell Aloy has a beard?”
What this man apparently didn't know was that peach fuzz, scientifically known as Vellus hair, is something that all women have all over their body, including on their face.
Luckily for him, a handful of Twitter users were quick to point this out, with some rightfully expressing their awe it was possible to give Aloy peach fuzz, and feeling she was only all the more beautiful for it.
For those STILL going on about Aloy's face:\nEvery woman has tiny hairs on their face called peach fuzz. We have dermaplaners, waxes, hair melting creams, laser removal, etc because it's something we all have and takes work to get rid of. Aloy doesn't have time for that nonsense.pic.twitter.com/aWEd3qUNfn— \u2728\ud83d\udc8e\ud835\udd0d\ud835\udd32\ud835\udd29\ud835\udd26\ud835\udd1e\ud83d\udc8e\u2728 (@\u2728\ud83d\udc8e\ud835\udd0d\ud835\udd32\ud835\udd29\ud835\udd26\ud835\udd1e\ud83d\udc8e\u2728) 1644885044
Peach fuzz is very normal and I\u2019m honestly amazed that Aloy has this level of detail on her. https://twitter.com/jessecox/status/1493434884953559040\u00a0\u2026— GemmyEntity\ud83c\udfae\u270a\ud83c\udfff\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83e\udd8a (@GemmyEntity\ud83c\udfae\u270a\ud83c\udfff\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83e\udd8a) 1644921162
From the light rosacea to the slightly strong jawline and peach fuzz, I just absolutely adore Aloy's character design so much. It feels so realistic and gorgeous.\n\nAll the jerks saying she looks too masc...just shut up.pic.twitter.com/UwGqtitKf5— Ariel S (@Ariel S) 1644968211
Aloy doesn't have a beard, this is normal peach fuzz that every human has. Proper hirsutism is darker and coarser, caused by common stuff like higher testosterone and PCOS. Gamer guys stop being weird about women challenge [DIFFICULTY LEVEL: IMPOSSIBLE]pic.twitter.com/FRdcvqWZ0A— \ud83c\udf31\u2721\ud83c\udf44Ladlien (@\ud83c\udf31\u2721\ud83c\udf44Ladlien) 1644957172
As someone with dark hair, which makes body hair very noticeable, and was once called a gorilla because of it, I cannot tell you how awful I feel when a gorgeous character such as Aloy is being dragged for REGULAR PEACH FUZZ.— Faierius (@Faierius) 1644946301
I'm so impressed by the Horizon peach fuzz shader that I can't bring myself to dunk on the guy who doesn't know how faces work.— Mike Bithell (@Mike Bithell) 1644927637
Others were quick to poke fun at the original poster, believing his statement stemmed from his inexperience with live women.
BREAKING: gamer accidentally proves he has never been within 10 feet of a woman beforepic.twitter.com/tXnwrNooe8— cian maher (@cian maher) 1644930000
Cut these guys some slack, Aloy's peach fuzz is more of a beard than any of them will ever be able to grow— Mr. Raz (@Mr. Raz) 1644883521
Tell me you\u2019ve never been up close to a woman, without telling me you\u2019ve never been up close to a woman\u2026\n\nThis dude will go first:pic.twitter.com/glRRULUJjT— Jesse Cox (@Jesse Cox) 1644897597
Every single real life woman has peach fuzz like Aloy so I guess you're never getting laid bro. I'm sorry you don't understand since you've never touched a woman that isnt your mother.— \u2728Beth\u2728 (@\u2728Beth\u2728) 1645019307
To his credit, props to this guy for clearly having never violated his 500ft restraining order.pic.twitter.com/7M6igLCT9a— Dan Johnson \ud83d\udc99 (@Dan Johnson \ud83d\udc99) 1644885169
Someone has never been within five feet of a woman.pic.twitter.com/K9rlrFsamx— John Phipps: below-average human, beautiful beast (@John Phipps: below-average human, beautiful beast) 1644890567
It is not the first time Aloy's appearance has come under scrutiny, particularly by male gamers who seem to expect all female characters to be designed in the same, fairly sexist fashion.
Last year fan art of Aloy went viral, which reimagined her in a more princess-like appearance as opposed to her more rugged appearance.
Several male gamers applauded this fan art, with some even going so far as to say they wished Sony made their female characters more "realistic", clearly meaning more conventionally beautiful.
However, one doubts Ben McCaw, narrative director of Guerilla Games, will take any note of the numerous sexist trolls demanding more attractive heroines.
He expressed his delight in the advancing technology which comes with each new gaming console in a post on PlayStation's blog this past September, including his delight with the ability to include peach fuzz.
"Each generation of consoles brings extra power that lets us add even denser polygons to our character models, so we can create finer details such as peach fuzz, smooth contouring, or finer texture details and accurate materials expression, to name a few."We'll never know if the assumptions made about this Twitter poster and his apparent inexperience with women are valid or not.
The Bulwark
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