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All 5 of the SSW Skins are for Male Champions - Is this 1850? A Feminist Speaks Out

Hal Su Ice0·5/14/2015, 1:41:19 PM·7 votes·20,235 views

Edit II: At the present moment, the poll is in shambles and I believe this to be due to the length of my post. People are just coming in and voting in the poll immediately without reading through the post, so please don't pay heed to the poll numbers. I believe that any sensible person who reads through all of the examples I have given in my post will agree that Riot has shown a pattern of sexism in its champion and skin design. Please read before voting.

Edit I: A lot of people have taken this post to mean that it is appropriate to attack me with slurs and insults to my intelligence - this is not the case. Be warned that the moderation team is now watching this thread like hawks.

Hello everyone. It has come to my attention while I was browsing the 5.9 patch notes earlier that there is a new skin theme, the SSW Skin Theme, that gives five champions a nice new skin, sponsored by our favourite electronics company. Unfortunately, the percentage of these skins that are going to male champions is 100%, and the corresponding percentage for female champions is 0%. This demonstration of inequality in Riot Gaming's treatment of its male and female champions is inappropriate and sexist, and for me, it is the final "straw that broke the feminist's back", so to speak.

This is not the first time we have seen male champions getting the "long end of the stick", so to speak, within League of Legends. Did you know that the ratio of male champions to female champions is 124 to 82? Did you know that the total number of male skins in the game is 41% higher than the number of female skins? Can you believe that in addition to these telltale statistics, a vast majority of the female skins and champions are sexualized for the straight man's* viewing pleasure?

But wait, that's not all! Did you know that during the world cup last year, the login screen featured seven male champions sporting their World Cup skin themes, and zero women? And did you know that out of the six champions that received skins in the Chroma debut, only one was female? It is clear that at the Riot Headquarters, the representation of women in their game, as well as the idea of womens' sports, are just laughing matters.

In conclusion, in order to "vote with my dollar", so to speak, I will be girlcotting all Samsung and League of Legends products, sending a letter of dissatisfaction to Samsung, and amending my F rating for Riot Gaming on the Better Business Bureau's website to include this latest offense. I urge all feminists to do the same so that we can send a clear message that this pattern of male favouritism is not tolerated outside of Riot's Headquarters.

*also included within my use of this term are all other groups of people who find viewing pleasure in the sexualization of female champions

408 Comments

Riotmoonstones5/14/2015, 5:11:11 PM47 votes

Hiya,

Just wanted to jump in here and explain the decision making behind the SSW Championship skins.

Each one of these skins honors a player of Team Samsung White, the winners of the 2014 League of Legends World Championship. These skins are representative of the following players.

Looper: Singed Dandy: Rengar Pawn: Talon Imp: Twitch Mata: Thresh

You can read more about these skins and the players in the esports announcement.

Richard5/14/2015, 1:46:03 PM40 votes

Give me a break. Jesus Christ.

Boycott the boards while you're at it.

Serevas5/14/2015, 1:48:27 PM16 votes

I can't tell if you're trolling or not.

lightdragoon885/14/2015, 3:37:28 PM15 votes

http://www.troll.me/images/bert/whatthefuck-did-i-just-read.jpg

UseCodeTempo5/14/2015, 7:26:17 PM12 votes

Im a feminist but this is the most bullshit post I've seen in my life summoner 3

Sinister Snail5/14/2015, 4:37:58 PM11 votes

No, this isn't 1850. There were much more legitimate feminist complaints than "not enough aesthetic options in a video game" back then.

Colgate Gator5/14/2015, 2:47:21 PM9 votes

If anything, go complain to the members of SSW for not using/prefering female champions, I guess.

So let me get this straight, Riot didn't add a girl skin to the group skin, no matter if they are releasing female skins over and over, you're going to """Girlcott""" them "and amending my F rating for Riot Gaming on the Better Business Bureau's website to include this latest offense".

You aren't even a fan of this game, you're just looking way too for things to stir up problem about. Instead of nitpicking about the choices of characters' skins, go and fight for causes where women are truly being oppresed, not over this.

Serevas5/14/2015, 2:59:23 PM9 votes

Looking through your past activity on the boards I now realize that you weren't trolling which makes me very sad, and frankly even more disappointed.

People like you are the exact reason why feminists aren't taken seriously today. You spout off about things you have no idea about and then make a complete ass of yourself on as grand a stage as you possibly can find. You literally do more damage to the cause you're trying to champion than you do good.

Being that there are more male champions than female champions it only makes sense that the number of skins for male champions is higher. The skins that you're on about being all male are skins that were chosen by the players of Samsung White that they felt were most key to their victory at season 4 worlds, so of course you weren't polled on the skins. Go win worlds and you can select your own skin for whichever female champion you want.

Not only do I disagree with your statement that almost all skins for female champions are massively oversexualized, frankly it is entirely unfounded. I personally believe that I could walk out onto the street and find at least 20 examples of female dress in reality that are easily more sexualized than 95% of the skins you'd find on this game. So frankly I feel that the skins are no worse than what women wear in reality.

Furthermore anyone with have a bit of common sense could tell you that you have far better sales volume when things are more appealing to look at. That goes for both male and female products in game and in reality. That's just the way that marketing works and I can guarantee that it works on you just as much as it works on us men.

Frankly I'm not sure why I'm even taking the bait and posting on this as it's clear from your previous responses that you're just looking for an argument that you can then take to tumblr or reddit or wherever. Cut only the parts out that would support your case, and get the rest of the "feminists" like yourself, and mind you I'm using the term very loosely, to throw up a fit of rage and accuse every man in the world of metaphorically raping you because we have male sex organs. People like you who claim to be after gender equality actually boil down to not looking for equality, but rather for payback and revenge.

You bastardize your own cause for little more than attention and frankly it's just downright shameful because there is true gender inequality that exists in the world, but instead of spotlighting that, you find the most insignificant thing and turn your own cause into a complete joke.

I really and truly hope that you find a better way to go about this kind of thing, because if your type is the face of the feminist movement, you won't be getting anywhere.

Edit: Furthermore if you're going to do a boycott, do a proper boycott. Playing the game and not buying stuff is like saying you're not going to go to starbucks anymore and instead you buy the starbucks grounds from a grocery store.

bearded squid5/14/2015, 2:01:26 PM7 votes

you do realize that they were player chosen skins for champs they had fun with or felt affected their victory in a positive way had nothing to do with gender

Jamaree5/14/2015, 1:51:39 PM4 votes

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Graidon5/14/2015, 2:00:20 PM1 votes

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