I'm very passionate about sexualization in videogames, and Samus is an interesting case because she's really two people - Samus and Zero Suit Samus. Nintendo treats her like that, at least.
So how can you tell how Samus is sexualized? Many people would probably point out the skin tight zero suit, but that's so easy. Let's challenge ourselves a bit more than that, OK? You can actually tell from the size of her butt, and I'll explain to you exactly how.
First, we have to remember who Samus is. She's no ordinary woman. An ordinary woman can have many different types of bodies. There's no right or wrong here, maybe with some upper and lower limits in mind. But Samus is an intergalactic bounty hunter. She's supposed to be fit. Just like Ike, who is a male mercenary, Samus should have a muscular body. But Samus doesn't have a muscular body. Hers is all soft and smooth.
So what kind of body does Samus have? I would say she's rather slim instead of bulky. However, two areas contradict this: her boobs and buttocks.
When male designers sexualize the female body, they tend to make the woman slim, but with big boobs and buttocks. The reason for this is that most men don't find muscular women attractive. However, a woman with a slim body would realistically have small boobs or at least a small butt. You see, women with slim figures have lower body fat ratio than women with larger figures, unless the woman has a lot of muscle but if that's the case you can tell that on her whole body, not just her butt. If a woman has a big butt from exercising, she most likely has small boobs, because that amount of exercise for a woman will reduce her overall body fat %. Bye bye, big boobs!
Sure, there are "lucky" women with genes which makes all their fat go into the boobs and buttocks. This is known as the hourglass shape, and Samus falls into this category. As most people would agree, Samus has big boobs AND a big butt. The big boobs tell us she has a high body fat %, but since her body overall is not fat, that means she's one of these "lucky" women who only stores fat in her boobs and buttocks. And since she does have a big butt (for her frame, I would even say it's borderline huge) we also know that her butt is actually fat. Sorry guys, gotta be brutally honest here with the definitions! No sugarcoating with the wording here!
So, normally, a woman with a fat butt is no big deal. We all have them. The thing with Samus though is that she's no ordinary woman. If Nintendo had made her into an ordinary woman, she would NOT have been sexualized. Women have tons of different body types, and it's not our fault a majority of men happen to find certain body types sexually attractive.
The reason Samus's butt size is sexualizing her is because she's a bounty hunter. She's not supposed to be your soft, cuddly girl next door. Yet, she has the hourglass body shape (big boobs, fat butt), and the ONLY reason for this is because Nintendo wants to make her attrative for the male eye.
So what options did they have when designing her body?
1) Make her look like a bount hunter. Solid Snake and Ike both look like tough men, they don't look like your avarage guy next door, do they? With this option, Samus would have an overall muscular body.
2) Make her slim. With this option, Samus would lack the muscles, but be slim and agile. This could be believable as well, seeing how it is more difficult for women do build muscle due to our high rate of estrogen. But a slim body does not have big boobs and a fat butt.
3) Make her sexy hourglass figure. This is the option they went with, completely neglacting any realism in favour for making Samus look sexy.
You see, while I certainly find Ike's body sexy, it's ALSO realistic and believable. If you're going to create a sexy female character, then do so with a character who is NOT supposed to be a bounty hunter! There are female characters who are just supposed to be your girl next door. Make them hourglass and I won't complain. But when you make a female bounty hunter, who's supposed to either be muscular or slim, into an hourglass, then it's just sheer sexism.
Sorry for the wall of text, but since this is a controversial and sensitive topic, I felt that I really had to go into detail.
So how can you tell how Samus is sexualized? Many people would probably point out the skin tight zero suit, but that's so easy. Let's challenge ourselves a bit more than that, OK? You can actually tell from the size of her butt, and I'll explain to you exactly how.
First, we have to remember who Samus is. She's no ordinary woman. An ordinary woman can have many different types of bodies. There's no right or wrong here, maybe with some upper and lower limits in mind. But Samus is an intergalactic bounty hunter. She's supposed to be fit. Just like Ike, who is a male mercenary, Samus should have a muscular body. But Samus doesn't have a muscular body. Hers is all soft and smooth.
So what kind of body does Samus have? I would say she's rather slim instead of bulky. However, two areas contradict this: her boobs and buttocks.
When male designers sexualize the female body, they tend to make the woman slim, but with big boobs and buttocks. The reason for this is that most men don't find muscular women attractive. However, a woman with a slim body would realistically have small boobs or at least a small butt. You see, women with slim figures have lower body fat ratio than women with larger figures, unless the woman has a lot of muscle but if that's the case you can tell that on her whole body, not just her butt. If a woman has a big butt from exercising, she most likely has small boobs, because that amount of exercise for a woman will reduce her overall body fat %. Bye bye, big boobs!
Sure, there are "lucky" women with genes which makes all their fat go into the boobs and buttocks. This is known as the hourglass shape, and Samus falls into this category. As most people would agree, Samus has big boobs AND a big butt. The big boobs tell us she has a high body fat %, but since her body overall is not fat, that means she's one of these "lucky" women who only stores fat in her boobs and buttocks. And since she does have a big butt (for her frame, I would even say it's borderline huge) we also know that her butt is actually fat. Sorry guys, gotta be brutally honest here with the definitions! No sugarcoating with the wording here!
So, normally, a woman with a fat butt is no big deal. We all have them. The thing with Samus though is that she's no ordinary woman. If Nintendo had made her into an ordinary woman, she would NOT have been sexualized. Women have tons of different body types, and it's not our fault a majority of men happen to find certain body types sexually attractive.
The reason Samus's butt size is sexualizing her is because she's a bounty hunter. She's not supposed to be your soft, cuddly girl next door. Yet, she has the hourglass body shape (big boobs, fat butt), and the ONLY reason for this is because Nintendo wants to make her attrative for the male eye.
So what options did they have when designing her body?
1) Make her look like a bount hunter. Solid Snake and Ike both look like tough men, they don't look like your avarage guy next door, do they? With this option, Samus would have an overall muscular body.
2) Make her slim. With this option, Samus would lack the muscles, but be slim and agile. This could be believable as well, seeing how it is more difficult for women do build muscle due to our high rate of estrogen. But a slim body does not have big boobs and a fat butt.
3) Make her sexy hourglass figure. This is the option they went with, completely neglacting any realism in favour for making Samus look sexy.
You see, while I certainly find Ike's body sexy, it's ALSO realistic and believable. If you're going to create a sexy female character, then do so with a character who is NOT supposed to be a bounty hunter! There are female characters who are just supposed to be your girl next door. Make them hourglass and I won't complain. But when you make a female bounty hunter, who's supposed to either be muscular or slim, into an hourglass, then it's just sheer sexism.
Sorry for the wall of text, but since this is a controversial and sensitive topic, I felt that I really had to go into detail.