I’m so goddamn tired of beauty. I’m tired of moon-pale maidens and voluptuous warrior queens alike. I’m tired of artists who can only draw one female face. I’m tired of lush lashes and delicate pixie chins and luminous doe eyes. I’m tired of firm D cups jiggling ripely above perfectly taut midsections. I’m tired of Female Hero X being brave and valiant and capable with a sword and guess what?! She was also a famed beauty! Holy shit, you’re fucking joking! A beautiful female character?! I NEVER WOULD HAVE GODDAMNED GUESSED!
I’m tired of beauty being the uncrossable line. Maybe you get a game with a female lead, maybe a comic, maybe a TV show or a movie. More than a few current and upcoming pieces spring to mind—Transistor, Maleficent,comics ranging from Simone’s Red Sonja to Black Widow to Wonder Woman to Brian Wood’s X-Men. Sure. Great. I love these characters. I’m excited to play these games, to read these books, to watch these movies, but let’s talk about how, save hair color, all of these women are basically physically interchangeable. God almighty, I’m not even asking for out-and-out ugliness (though I’d welcome that too)—just give me a woman with one feature, just one that deviates from the flawless norm. Give me a woman with unsculpted abs. Give me a flat-chested woman. Give me a woman with acne. Give me a woman with bushy eyebrows and size 12 feet. Give me a woman that maybe won’t give the audience a boner and make them root for her anyway.
Or, you know what? Let’s compromise—how about you just give me a different kind of beauty. How about you draw me a gorgeous black woman without making her look like a palette-swapped Cinderella? How about you stop relying on the dialogue to denote a character is Asian? For Christ’s sake, I had no idea Psylocke—AKA Betsy Braddock—was Asian for years because she usually looks like a white brunette with a katana. Can we maybe embrace two, maybe even three different kinds of beauty? Like, I know that I’m asking a lot here, I’m asking a whole bunch of creators to shatter what seems to be the coziest corner of their comfort zone, but, y’know, consider it? Can we accept that hair comes in varieties beyond “luscious loose sex curls” and “silky and straight with just a hint of bounce”? Can we make it so my little sister doesn’t see her “Jewish nose” as the stubbornest flaw in her lovely face? Can we make it so little girls like me don’t fixate on how wrong their skin looks with pastel colors because it’s less than a sparkling alabaster?
Just, please, no more perfect white girls. No more hairless, dewy-lipped, sunkissed (but never too dark) goddesses. No, not even if they’re total asskickers or charming brainiacs or valiant queens. I don’t care how emphatically you declare your feminism, your desire for greater diversity, your fealty to this cause. I will not completely trust you until you create female characters who don’t look like every woman on every cover of every magazine at the checkout line. Prove to me that you think women are worth more than their looks. Prove to me that you care about women—all women. Even the ones who don’t look like Emma Frost.