I understand perfectly well. It is you and others who are incorrectly categorizing The Witcher based on your own biases and preconceptions of what you think "objectifying" is.
Here is the definition of objectification in regards to women: Sexual objectification is the act of treating a person merely as an instrument of sexual pleasure, making them a "sex object". Objectification more broadly means treating a person as a commodity or an object, without regard to their personality or dignity.
You're wrong. Sexual objectification is a general catch-all concept for media (broadly defined) portrayals of women that disproportionately sexualize portrayals of women for (primarily) the purpose of titillating the audience. Having very shallow female characters whose only purpose is to look attract is a kind of objectification of women, but it doesn't exhaust the category. Objectification goes beyond that type of portrayal.
In The Witcher setting, the fact that sorceresses have lore specific reasons for all looking hot in the same way is an example of sexual objectification (but that's not CDPR's fault per se - that's the source material). The fact that every other main female NPC happens to also be really attractive - like Ves, Fillipa, Saskia, etc. - is an example of objectification.
Now as I have already discussed in great detail, the women in The Witcher do not fit this description at all. If they were merely "objects" that served no other purpose other than to be naked on the screen, then I would agree with you. That, however, is just not the case at all. Anyone who claims these women are being objectified does not actually know what the term means. It's that simple
Like I said above, sexual objectification goes far beyond simply having women naked on screen for absolutely no purpose. For example, having a disproportionately attractive cast of female characters - all with supermodel thin bodies, attractive facial features, full breasts, etc. - is an instance of objectification even if the characters are otherwise portrayed as being well-developed and varied etc. This is a serious problems with video games generally, and CDPR is no more or less an offender than Bioware or any other company in the industry, so don't take this to be a specific indictment of CDPR.
However, you're wrong about the definition of the term and the circumstances that it captures.
As I said before, the "lesbomancy" scene is an example of sexual objectification of women. The intent behind the scene isn't sexist - that's a different issue - but the way the actual scene is actually done is objectifying. This is because the foreground in the scene isn't the fact that Fillipa is taking advantage of her sexual wiles to exploit a character, but rather than there is a very light S&M scene between two women that a male character finds sexually arousing; the fact that an entire sexual orientation gets reduce to an RPG joke makes it worse, and adds to the issue of sexual objectification because of the general sexist assumption that portrayals of F/F sex are there to turn men on.
As far as The Witcher being sexist, that's one of the various issues it addresses... As sexism is very much an on-going issue with the world today, it's yet another concept CDPR addresses unapologetically and shows why they are not afraid to make a world that feels real and believable. The very reason why The Witcher is "mature" is because CDPR is willing to tackle issues other developers have steered away from with fear of being criticized by the media.
CDPR doesn't tackle this issue at all. They don't explore or show how women chafe against a society that's oppressive and that restricts their career and life choices on the basis of their gender. What they show is either (a) a group of sexually liberating women having or talking about sex in ways that turn men on (e.g. the sorceresses) or ( 
situations and portrayals of rape that are (i) totally unrealistic and (ii) completely disinterested in actually exploring the perspective of women who are assaulted in this way.
You are continuing to show your lack of knowledge on this subject matter. There was a slight controversy over the prison escape sequence as if you decided to kill the Baroness' son, you would then come across her, bare-breasted, in a chamber where she was being tortured. The issue was the fact that there were no clear scars, bruises, or scratches on her breasts while her face was clearly bruised and beaten. People instantly jumped to the conclusion, just as you are, about the use of titillation in order to bolster sales. What I find funny about your argument, however, is the fact that the sequence was not actually removed from The Witcher 2. It's still there, regardless of the supposed controversy, because only a vocal minority was taking issue with it to start.
I didn't say that it was supposed to be sexually arousing. What I said was that CDPR removed the scene to avoid the perception that it was meant to arouse.
I fail to see from any of your assertions how CDPR is being disrespectful of any of these subject matters. The only thing that is offending anyone is the fact that they are bringing them up. Period. No reasonable person approves of rape, discrimination, objectification, etc. These are real life issues that exist in our world and it's part of the reason why many developers avoid crossing these lines as they don't want the criticism and attention. CDPR has shown they are willing to tell a realistic, mature, and believable story grounded in real world issues. They aren't afraid to tackle difficult and ugly problems. That's what makes The Witcher such an amazing franchise. You don't have to like it, which you clearly don't. That being said, just because they are including these issues does not make them guilty of it. You are confusing bringing awareness to problems versus the act of doing it because of ignorance. Two very different things.
CDPR has shown that they don't understand how rape impacts women (see Ves's backstory) and they literally stuffed a rape victim into a fridge when it came to Ves. That's really bad.
I don't have a problem with games exploring mature issues. I don't have a problem - and actually support - media that portrays sexist or otherwise unsavory topics. But I have a problem with people defending media that does a terrible job of portraying these issues as mature.
Retour en haut
