Body Types and Features in League of Legends

###TL;DR: Female Champions lack variance in body type and body features in an attempt to make them appear more attractive. Male Champions have body types and body features that represent their character. No excuse for why there is this big of a difference between male and female Champions. New female Champions have shown variance, but for any real impact in overall variance of female Champions mistakes of the past much be mended.

Greetings Summoners,

This is not a post about oversexualization of female Champions in League of Legends.

Recently I have gotten into a debate about how female Champions are portrayed in their models and art. Where male Champions are given body types and features to match their character, female Champions are given body types and features to make them attractive. Let me now draw your attention to the linked Google document. My intent was to categorize each Champion whose body is relatable to the adult human form into a body type from the sources I found online. I do not hold this as official canon for Champion body types since I am no expert, but I believe that the errors I made do not affect the outcome.

From the data in this document, one can see that not only are female body types under represented (50%), but the distribution is heavily weighted toward the hourglass, bust and hips are basically the same size and the waist is well defined, figure. This is unacceptable when we compare it to the representation (100%) and distribution of male Champions. To further compound this issue, we can begin to compare features of Champions within the same body type.

For male Champions in a single body type the Champions show a high variety in muscular distribution. Some Champions are body-builder gods, others have large muscles in the arms or legs only, still others are more lean than muscular, and then still others show very little muscular structure. What causes these differences in features? The character of the Champion. Compare this to the features of female Champions. The females all show very little muscular structure and only have slight variation in the size of arms, butt, thighs, and bust. Let's break down some examples.

#Male Champions Feature Variety in the Trapezoid Body Type |Champion|Features|Reason| |- | | Muscular: upper body concentration | Draws eyes upwards to view a god of war | | Bodybuilder: mass on chest, legs, arms, and abs | Embodiment of Noxus: "Strength above all" | | Lean and withered | Powerful undead mage - no physical exertion necessary | | Muscular: even distribution| Balanced mastery over the physical form | | Muscular: full chest and abs, lean muscle elsewhere | Outrageous Disney prince | | Muscular: upper body, giant sword arm | Reckless swinging in rage | | Lean with minimal muscular structure | Style and effortlessness: All in the cards These are but a few examples of the variety that is found in one male body type and they all have character reasons for why the features exist.

#Female Champions Feature Variety in the Hourglass Body Type |Champion|Features|Reason| |- | | Delicate arms, long legs, thighs | Magical seductress with elegant movements | | Minor muscular structure in arms, long legs, rib structure seen, large thighs | Lean sexy ninja? | | Minor muscular structure in arms, long legs | Female? | | Extreme breasts and hips, muscular arms, claws | Murderous seductress: gets hands dirty | | Extreme breasts and hips, large thighs, tiny arms and legs | Black widow devours men maybe? | | Slim, tight figure, no visible muscle structure, large thighs | Because of "fencing" and reasons | | Tiny arms and legs with no muscle structure | Loss of muscle due to floating blade? Balanced frail form? | | Little muscular structure in abs, long legs, thighs | Lean? | | No muscular structure shown, large thighs, small arms | Sunscreen model? (Praise the sun!) | | No muscular structure, frail | Protected by black ice? | | No muscular structure, leggy | Spell user? | | Some muscular structure in arms, ribcage shown, thin, massive breasts | Fallen tormented angel | | Some muscular structure in arms, large thighs | Female? | | Frail, thin, long | True, selfless healer pouring out what she has for others | | Minor thigh muscular structure shown, large thighs, thin arms | Tumble day = leg day? | | No muscular structure shown, thin arms, large thighs | Loss of muscle due to hextech gloves? There is not much difference between the features of female champions. Some are thin and frail due to magic wielding, but others are mighty warriors with similar features. Furthermore, the excuses that I could come up with for the features were hardly compelling on a non-seductress themed Champion. There was never much muscular structure visible despite a plethora of tight clothing, active positions, or lack of clothing. The range of features seems to be limited to varying small sizes of arms, varying large thighs, thin legs, full breasts, a small waist, and smooth skin.

Male Champions have a wide range of body types and even in those types they have a wide variety of features. However, female Champions have both few body types and a small range features within those body types. This is caused by attempting to make female Champions appear more attractive. While the male Champions are also attractive, it is not because they are forced into a small pool of possible body features.

##But Isn't League of Legends Set in a Fantasy World? This would be a more compelling argument if both males and females had features to make them attractive for the sake of attractiveness.

##But the Female Body Features in League are for Females that are In Shape A simple Google search of natural women's muscles clearly shows that the females in League of Legends are underrepresented in terms of muscular capacity. Either the creators did not think to give their female character's muscles, or the art is designed to "airbrush" away the muscular structure as if they were models. Both possibilities still show a blatant difference between how Riot handles males and females.

##You're Just Afraid of Attractive Women!!! I could care less if every female Champion in League of Legends were XXX lingerie sex goddesses so long as it made sense. I have no issues with Cassiopeia or Ahri simply because their body type and features align with their character.

##Leauge Has no Problem With Sexualization Let me repeat "This is not a post about oversexualization of female Champions in League of Legends"

The more recent female Champion releases have brought much needed variety to female Champions and I applaud Riot for their efforts, but I want to know if anything will be done about the mistakes of the past. If current trends continue, it will take years for there to be any real variance in female Champions from just releasing new females.