Gamer Doesn’t Understand Why Female Video Game Character Has A ‘Beard’, Gets Schooled With 35 Brilliant Replies
Game development companies now include more graphics in their characters than ever before. While most people admire their efforts to strive for realism, some will never be satisfied with how it turns out. And when a female character does not look like she stepped out of a magazine cover, certain gamers won’t be happy about it.
If you’ve never heard of Horizon Forbidden West, it’s a beautiful game where imaginary beings and environments are revealed with the utmost clarity. Recently, the main protagonist of the series, Aloy, attracted quite the attention when one gamer questioned her appearance on Twitter. "Can you explain to me why the hell Aloy has a beard?" they asked.
Well, what they called a "beard" is actually light peach fuzz, something that most women have on their faces. Their post received many reactions from other Twitter users, with some saying that the gamer has probably never seen a woman up close. Continue scrolling and share your thoughts in the comments below!
Twitter users shared their reactions after one gamer asked why Aloy, a female video game character, has a "beard"
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That's one of my peeves. All these women after the end of the world are always perfectly shaved with their roots done, locks curled, and their makeup perfect. It's so irritating. Meanwhile, the guys have their clothes hanging of and waist-length hair and beards.
Yeah, they at least all get stubble, but heaven forbid that women should dare to look anything less than the the Hollywood idea of the heterosexual man's ideal
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I have friends that will show off their smooth freaking skin with their baby hair and proclaim "Haven't shaved in a month, it has gotten so bad." Woman, I can't see nothing unless I have a magnifying glass so hush. Then they will look at my legs and be like "Dang how many months have you gone without shaving?" Two days, two days is how long it has been for me, thanks for pointing it out.
Right? There's always someone "nice" enough to point out your "flaws" for you.
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I am very blonde so my facial hair doesn't show unless I get some sun. Then my skin gets a tan, and my hair bleaches to white. Let's just say hubbie calls me Santaclaus on romantic summer days.
I gave up shaving years ago. Women's razors are 3x the price of men's..I think because they're pink. I don't give a rip what society thinks my bits should look like anyway
I bet you've rarely, if ever, had anyone notice or care. It's such a scam on women
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Would be fun to switch for a while between men and women: no shaving for women, while men would have to shave all that beautiful fur with overpriced razors, etc. Could be an interesting study.
It's happened before, actually! In the 1700s in Europe it was considered unsightly for a man to go about unshaven; to do so would immediately get you labeled as eccentric at best, insane at worst. Women, on the other hand, weren't expected to do much of anything since the formal dresses of the era covered every square inch of the body. Even in recent history, just 20 years ago it was considered unprofessional in the US for a man to have facial hair at most workplaces.
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Because no one wanted to spend more time making hair on their armpits
Was thrilled watching "1883", and the main female character has armpit hair!!! Waaay more realistic. They expect us to shave with a hatchet or what???
I acctually have a theory about this though since all the humans in horizon are from a gene bank or decended from those who were its possible the team who built the bank did some editing to the genome would also exlain why 90% of the population are hot
Games and other media is entertainment and unless it is meant to be super realistic then having people look appealing and beautiful is probably more profitable.
I have no idea why you are getting down-voted. I hate to admit the obvious but beauty sells. My mom and I still laugh to this day at how Kate Winslet's makeup still looks wonderful in Titanic despite her trying to flee a sinking ship.
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I know, right. Quick, the zombies are getting closer! Well, let me just shave my legs first.
No tells us to do it now, legit no one cares if shave or not. No one is going past you in the store thinking 'omg she doesn't shave gross'. Its purely our decision if we want to shave or not.
I don't shave when it starts getting cold down here (FL) and I know I will be wearing jeans or sweats for awhile.
Station Eleven and YellowJackets both acknowledged that there'd be bo pit shaving in an apocalypse scenario
FYI, those particular "standards" are not endemic to the rest of the world. The U.S. seems to have an especially difficult with those two.
And I guess all these bikini armors fantasized by male graphic designers won't even come to true existence.
I mean, my wife care way more then I do..let's stop pretending it's for men...we literally don't care. You can't say men are horny and want everything, then say they have a standard in the same breath....they don't. Woman since forever have been primping and preening, and always says it's for men while men forever yell hurry the f up already we don't care you look fine. One guys doesn't know someone that is not realistically visible in daily life, and you jump on it to validate the stupid lengths you go to to validate yourself in general. Either do it or don't, literally no one cares but you and how it effects you, simply because all people are different and not all will like you.og boohoo one pig man doesn't like you...doesn't mean you need to do s**t...especially since it was your mom and friends you taught you to be that way...no man ever cared what you were or if you share as long as your feet are over his shoulders. Give up then lies
Horizon Forbidden West is an open-world fantasy game that takes place in post-apocalyptic western America. The main protagonist is a huntress named Aloy, a young red-haired woman with freckles on her cheeks and nose. While she's often described as a fierce, smart, and likable hero, it seems that it’s not the first time that male gamers have attacked her appearance online.
Several months ago, one Twitter user criticized the studio behind the game, Guerilla Games. It is one of Europe's leading game development companies that’s a part of PlayStation Studios. The person wrote that the female characters they create are becoming too masculine, so they decided to share their own fan art. In the image, Aloy had glowing skin, white teeth, and full-on makeup.
Needless to say, many people felt frustrated to see such sexist complaints about the video game character. Tweets like this receive lots of attention from the gaming community since they highlight the ignorant, narrow-minded, and sometimes childish views certain male gamers have. And some people, especially women, are sick and tired of hearing criticisms aimed at the female characters, saying that it's all part of a bigger problem.
"Male gamers push their standards and expectations on these female characters," Beth, who goes by the handle @GentleBara, told Bored Panda. She shared her thoughts on the matter by tweeting that "every single real-life woman has peach fuzz like Aloy." So if someone could even ask why she has a "beard", it probably means that they have never seen a woman up close. "If there's anything [men] are not used to in a female character's design, they'll complain about it," she added.
When asked why that male gamer seemed to think that the hair on Aloy’s face was a masculine feature, Beth said they're "ignorant and immature". Otherwise known as vellus hair, peach fuzz is usually short, softer in texture, and lighter in color compared to other types of hair on a person’s body. A survey of 1,000 women conducted in the UK showed that 98 percent of those who had facial hair had negative thoughts about their looks.
Around a third of these women revealed they felt anxious if they could not immediately remove them. This only shows the lack of acceptance by our society regarding facial hair, making many women feel uncomfortable about their appearance and preventing them from discussing it out in the open.
That’s why so many people celebrate the new technologies that allow gaming companies to include more graphics. After all, making the characters look more realistic is a step in the right direction. Bastien Ramisse, the lead character artist at Guerrilla, said in a blog post that the development of the PlayStation 5 console allowed them to aim for high quality and bring more detail and authenticity to the game.
"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," Ramisse explained, saying that it’s a dream come true for both players and developers.
Women...actually look like this. Full stop. It's a fact. I'm stunned that this needs to be said.
He continued: "The most noticeable differences and improvements for Aloy in terms of technology is the push of facial and body capture accuracy, allowing more realistic shapes and surface details on characters as well as the careful increase of polygon density to capture handmade and used outfits."
So even when the artists can make their heroes more exciting than ever before, some gamers still do not seem satisfied with some of their human traits. "People will always complain about a character's design and its features," Beth told us. "It's happened before with other games and will continue to happen in the future." If she would have to guess the reason behind having such a mindset, "it could be a projection or they might have standards that are ridiculous."
I have to wonder if at least part of this is a near-vision problem on his part. I mean he should be able to see his own forehead and earlobe fuzz in the mirror.
Just a tip. I had peach fuzz like that when I was younger. Even though I'm dark haired it was blond. I was embarrassed so I used some hair removal cream. It worked but burned my skin bright red and the hair grew back black and seemingly thicker. Now it's a pain to keep up with. Lesson here is love and appreciate your peach fuzz!
And now too many people think science is a dirty word. Or fictional.
Makes me wonder if this artist lost sleep thinking did I get the fine hairs just right.
Ah yes, the fashionable and totally not eye-brow looking mustache.
That’s exactly what I took away from that post, I’d never have known that wasn’t a real person!! Amazing!
Yep, he wants it realistic but not realistic enough that a woman looks normal for once.
Right?! She don’t have time to take a nice hot shower and shave her skin off. Men need to learn how natural (and cool!) it is. I for one love peach fuzz. It’s so soft
Wait till he sees an all"natural" girl, in the um, natural. Wait.. He won't. No worries. Carry on.
Note: this post originally had 57 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.
Why don't men know women have hair everywhere they have hair? Women know men have facial hair even when they shave.
Because a lot of the "women" these idiots encounter - the ones that are sexually attractive and therefore the only women worth paying attention to - come from heavily photoshopped magazines, or waxed excessively pornography. But that's just this small bubble of idiots - plenty of men are aware that women have hair/fart/poop/have normal human bodily functions. (Their expectations regarding make up is a little more flaky)
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And the gamer's actual frame of reference is that blow-up dolls don't have any hair that isn't printed on.
So I have fine hairs. So what? I'd be a pretty weird mammal if I didn't!
If I ever need to change my name, Weird Mammal it will be
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I'm a guy. That dude is a complete idiot and deserves to be publicly shamed. He can't grasp the complexities of the exterior of a woman's body. I'd be afraid to ask what knowledge he had, if any, about the interior.
He has been publicly shamed. Now he just needs to learn. He may need books on real women... Hello, Amazon?
Load More Replies... Men are the real gorillas. Not women with peach fuzz. (Not all men tho. Theirs some really cool guys out dere)
I honestly hope for the sake of our society that men this stupid are a small minority.
Load More Replies... Can someone explain to me why the female dwarf in Amazon’s Lord of the Rings trailer doesn’t have a beard?
1. We're mammals, so duh we're covered in hair. 2. Aloy is amazing! I am terrible at this kind of get but her character is so fantastic that I spent hours running around killing random mobs so I could play like a champ. 3. Aloy is a stunning teenage girl 4. If you don't like it, don't play it 5. No seriously f**k off
Wait until he sees a real woman's a**s that hasn't been bleached and waxed. LMAO.... if he ever does.
I'm personally far more horrified at the knowledge that Aloy is apparently wearing eyeliner...
Women look more like Aloy than they do Cindy from Final Fantasy XV!
This video game character looks a lot more lifelike than a lot of people's selfies on social media.
10 years from now kids are going to be talking about how bad these graphics are.
And it took me reading all the notes/comments to figure out that it's not an actual picture!
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The whole idea of shaving confuses me. Way I see it if people can't accept you for who you are and what you look like as is then they got no business talking to you. I stopped shaving like 20 years ago. I figured if people had a problem with my hairy legs and hairy pits they weren't worth my time. After all it's just hair.
I have a tiny nitpick with your statement: Due to the fact that I absolutely *reek* within a couple hours of a shower if I don't shave my armpits, I associate pit hair with that stink and can't stand it. Beyond that, I can take it or leave it. She wants to shave? Fine. She doesn't want to shave? Fine. Me, I prefer with significantly less body hair. Her, whatever she's happy with.
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What beard? That is not a beard, so I'm wondering why he is using that word?
This just makes me sad cause she had more facial hair than me, also, what game is she from?
Didn't read the entire but first thought was "wait til he meets a woman and finds out about nipple hair".
Aloy is a woman living over a thousand years into our apocalyptic future fighting hostile killer machines and a lot of very bad humans. I don't think she's concerned with whether she looks good enough. Frankly, it would be silly to have her looking like a freaking OnlyFans model, so I'm glad the designers went this route.
Naturally, when I read the title to this article, I automatically googled this game not knowing anything about it. I was expecting a full-on beard on the character. And was amazed by the details on realism if the graphics. And was like what beard?
1. Humans can grow hair everywhere except the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet. It's only thick, long, and noticeable in a few places. 2. I genuinely thought he has mistaken the placement of her head hair for a beard in that one shot until I looked closer. 3. Whenever someone says "they look like a man!" I say something along the lines of "What makes you think they're not?" and watch them trip over themselves to point out all the ways they're obviously a woman. Seriously, if you can tell someone is a woman they don't look like a man, and vice-versa.
The OP (original poster) clearly hadn’t had a lot of close human interaction. This makes me sad. They’re not necessarily an idiot or an awful person. They are likely a teenager or just a kid, or whoever, they’re still a human being and it would be good to remember that. Perhaps we can try to be a little kinder to one another.
Maybe because PCOS is a thing?? I have the same condition, so I deal with this a lot & it’s not always that simple to get rid of the body hair. Some don’t even want to, not if it’s just because other people are giving off about it ... I mean, what business is it of theirs if we decide to grow out our body hair? Just be yourself & live your life, girls. F*ck anyone who says anything rude to you! 🤷♀️❤️🙂
Peach fuss is normal and 99% have it. PCOS is different.
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I legit thought that was a photo at first; I am marvelling at the accuracy of the skin texture and pigmentation. Clearly this dudebro gamer has only encountered women in pictures... heavily photoshopped ones at that!
While most people, male and female, have hair all over their body, except in certain important places. Many people apparently just haven't figured out the link between shaving, and darker body hair. The more you shave, the darker and coarser the hair is. I wish I hadn't given in to peer pressure as a teenage girl, and shaved my beautiful soft golden body hair. Now I have sharp black pig bristle that needs constant maintenance, just so I don't scratch myself - let alone my husband. My husband is one of those people with pale skin that is naturally hair-free, and perversely protective of that one long hair that is growing from the top of his shoulder. He couldn't grow a beard or mustache when we first married. Daily shaving of his peach fuzz meant that he actually grew a beard after a few years.
Apparently the dude that wonders why Aloy has facial hair...is because he is single and never been close to a woman.
I blame poor education. Surely you know that humans have hair everywhere bar the soles of the feet and palms of the hands, unless there is a health factor interfering, it’s part of what makes us mammals. It’s like dimwits who refuse to believe humans are animals. Deep level of dim.
Oh my god, I thought that was normal how am I going to break it to my girlfriend that she's now going to have to join a circus as a bearded lady 😭
I think it's great that we answer these questions. Some people genuinely don't know, and it re-creates unrealistic beauty standards. Women are not hairless by nature even if most edited material show their skin without hair. it takes a lot of work to constantly be that smooth in real life. I once had a boyfriend who was surprised I had hair on my butt and backside of my thighs (I don't have pcos, just normal body hair but compared to those shiny smooth porn-butts I guess it was a surprise)
She's clearly a unusually tall dwarf. She shaves her face to avoid suspicion but slacked off a wee bit.
This is what happens when you have a separate school system where boys don't mix with girls.
Or he lives in a basement, is home schooled and hasn't ever seen a woman in his life? Who knows.
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Dozens and dozens of comments... many from men. And I can find *two* where someone says "men", and that's what you fixate on? As if everyone is out to get the poor men and paint them all as the same? Why are you so sensitive? Why are you so insecure in your masculinity? Nobody thinks "all men" don't know this. Nobody. Not one person posting here thinks that. Yet you feel attacked. I think that's a problem with you, not them.
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It's called frustration. We're all frustrated that we're the ones that constantly get crapped on. If a man doesn't know a woman has hair they deserve to be called out. We're tired of being told we should be hairless like a child but we should also have long hair on our heads along w long eyelashes. It's incredibly demeaning to be constantly attacked for our looks and then get told we shouldn't exist after we turn a certain age.
Load More Replies... Why don't men know women have hair everywhere they have hair? Women know men have facial hair even when they shave.
Because a lot of the "women" these idiots encounter - the ones that are sexually attractive and therefore the only women worth paying attention to - come from heavily photoshopped magazines, or waxed excessively pornography. But that's just this small bubble of idiots - plenty of men are aware that women have hair/fart/poop/have normal human bodily functions. (Their expectations regarding make up is a little more flaky)
Load More Replies... And the gamer's actual frame of reference is that blow-up dolls don't have any hair that isn't printed on.
So I have fine hairs. So what? I'd be a pretty weird mammal if I didn't!
If I ever need to change my name, Weird Mammal it will be
Load More Replies... I'm a guy. That dude is a complete idiot and deserves to be publicly shamed. He can't grasp the complexities of the exterior of a woman's body. I'd be afraid to ask what knowledge he had, if any, about the interior.
He has been publicly shamed. Now he just needs to learn. He may need books on real women... Hello, Amazon?
Load More Replies... Men are the real gorillas. Not women with peach fuzz. (Not all men tho. Theirs some really cool guys out dere)
I honestly hope for the sake of our society that men this stupid are a small minority.
Load More Replies... Can someone explain to me why the female dwarf in Amazon’s Lord of the Rings trailer doesn’t have a beard?
1. We're mammals, so duh we're covered in hair. 2. Aloy is amazing! I am terrible at this kind of get but her character is so fantastic that I spent hours running around killing random mobs so I could play like a champ. 3. Aloy is a stunning teenage girl 4. If you don't like it, don't play it 5. No seriously f**k off
Wait until he sees a real woman's a**s that hasn't been bleached and waxed. LMAO.... if he ever does.
I'm personally far more horrified at the knowledge that Aloy is apparently wearing eyeliner...
Women look more like Aloy than they do Cindy from Final Fantasy XV!
This video game character looks a lot more lifelike than a lot of people's selfies on social media.
10 years from now kids are going to be talking about how bad these graphics are.
And it took me reading all the notes/comments to figure out that it's not an actual picture!
Load More Replies... The whole idea of shaving confuses me. Way I see it if people can't accept you for who you are and what you look like as is then they got no business talking to you. I stopped shaving like 20 years ago. I figured if people had a problem with my hairy legs and hairy pits they weren't worth my time. After all it's just hair.
I have a tiny nitpick with your statement: Due to the fact that I absolutely *reek* within a couple hours of a shower if I don't shave my armpits, I associate pit hair with that stink and can't stand it. Beyond that, I can take it or leave it. She wants to shave? Fine. She doesn't want to shave? Fine. Me, I prefer with significantly less body hair. Her, whatever she's happy with.
Load More Replies... What beard? That is not a beard, so I'm wondering why he is using that word?
This just makes me sad cause she had more facial hair than me, also, what game is she from?
Didn't read the entire but first thought was "wait til he meets a woman and finds out about nipple hair".
Aloy is a woman living over a thousand years into our apocalyptic future fighting hostile killer machines and a lot of very bad humans. I don't think she's concerned with whether she looks good enough. Frankly, it would be silly to have her looking like a freaking OnlyFans model, so I'm glad the designers went this route.
Naturally, when I read the title to this article, I automatically googled this game not knowing anything about it. I was expecting a full-on beard on the character. And was amazed by the details on realism if the graphics. And was like what beard?
1. Humans can grow hair everywhere except the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet. It's only thick, long, and noticeable in a few places. 2. I genuinely thought he has mistaken the placement of her head hair for a beard in that one shot until I looked closer. 3. Whenever someone says "they look like a man!" I say something along the lines of "What makes you think they're not?" and watch them trip over themselves to point out all the ways they're obviously a woman. Seriously, if you can tell someone is a woman they don't look like a man, and vice-versa.
The OP (original poster) clearly hadn’t had a lot of close human interaction. This makes me sad. They’re not necessarily an idiot or an awful person. They are likely a teenager or just a kid, or whoever, they’re still a human being and it would be good to remember that. Perhaps we can try to be a little kinder to one another.
Maybe because PCOS is a thing?? I have the same condition, so I deal with this a lot & it’s not always that simple to get rid of the body hair. Some don’t even want to, not if it’s just because other people are giving off about it ... I mean, what business is it of theirs if we decide to grow out our body hair? Just be yourself & live your life, girls. F*ck anyone who says anything rude to you! 🤷♀️❤️🙂
Peach fuss is normal and 99% have it. PCOS is different.
Load More Replies... I legit thought that was a photo at first; I am marvelling at the accuracy of the skin texture and pigmentation. Clearly this dudebro gamer has only encountered women in pictures... heavily photoshopped ones at that!
While most people, male and female, have hair all over their body, except in certain important places. Many people apparently just haven't figured out the link between shaving, and darker body hair. The more you shave, the darker and coarser the hair is. I wish I hadn't given in to peer pressure as a teenage girl, and shaved my beautiful soft golden body hair. Now I have sharp black pig bristle that needs constant maintenance, just so I don't scratch myself - let alone my husband. My husband is one of those people with pale skin that is naturally hair-free, and perversely protective of that one long hair that is growing from the top of his shoulder. He couldn't grow a beard or mustache when we first married. Daily shaving of his peach fuzz meant that he actually grew a beard after a few years.
Apparently the dude that wonders why Aloy has facial hair...is because he is single and never been close to a woman.
I blame poor education. Surely you know that humans have hair everywhere bar the soles of the feet and palms of the hands, unless there is a health factor interfering, it’s part of what makes us mammals. It’s like dimwits who refuse to believe humans are animals. Deep level of dim.
Oh my god, I thought that was normal how am I going to break it to my girlfriend that she's now going to have to join a circus as a bearded lady 😭
I think it's great that we answer these questions. Some people genuinely don't know, and it re-creates unrealistic beauty standards. Women are not hairless by nature even if most edited material show their skin without hair. it takes a lot of work to constantly be that smooth in real life. I once had a boyfriend who was surprised I had hair on my butt and backside of my thighs (I don't have pcos, just normal body hair but compared to those shiny smooth porn-butts I guess it was a surprise)
She's clearly a unusually tall dwarf. She shaves her face to avoid suspicion but slacked off a wee bit.
This is what happens when you have a separate school system where boys don't mix with girls.
Or he lives in a basement, is home schooled and hasn't ever seen a woman in his life? Who knows.
Load More Replies... Dozens and dozens of comments... many from men. And I can find *two* where someone says "men", and that's what you fixate on? As if everyone is out to get the poor men and paint them all as the same? Why are you so sensitive? Why are you so insecure in your masculinity? Nobody thinks "all men" don't know this. Nobody. Not one person posting here thinks that. Yet you feel attacked. I think that's a problem with you, not them.
Load More Replies... It's called frustration. We're all frustrated that we're the ones that constantly get crapped on. If a man doesn't know a woman has hair they deserve to be called out. We're tired of being told we should be hairless like a child but we should also have long hair on our heads along w long eyelashes. It's incredibly demeaning to be constantly attacked for our looks and then get told we shouldn't exist after we turn a certain age.
Load More Replies...