There were two things that I knew the Smash community would do when Mythra and Pyra were announced as the new Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC: They would hate them (swordie, from a game some people haven't played, not the ones they predicted, etc.) and they would talk about their breasts. 

The Super Smash Bros. community did not disappoint. 

A lot of gamers call Xenoblade Chronicles 2 a "waifu game" to begin with, so it's not like I'm some ground-breaking fortune teller. But that doesn't mean every woman in the Smash community was comfortable with the amount of focus put on the fighters' bodies. People immediately pointed out that Mythra had been "nerfed" because Smash covered up more of her breasts than her original costume in Xenoblade. This is something that's been obsessively discussed for the past few days. 

This is something that Smash players have discussed for years. I've seen posts in Smash forums dedicated solely to critically analyzing how Zero Suit Samus' breasts became slightly smaller between Smash 4 and Ultimate. I've seen sexualized fan art of Inkling and Isabelle — multiple times. I've seen clips of people trying to see up Peach's dress at various angles mid-match. There are tier lists of all the female Smash players' feet. 

While all of this can be seen as harmless jokes — and I can't say I've never chuckled — it's important to remember that the Smash scene (and almost every other gaming scene) is made up almost entirely of men. The women who attempt to join these scenes are often met with a lot of backlash and it doesn't help when they see posts objectifying female characters. While the Smash fighters are cartoons, most men are still often pointing out the same features they'd judge on a real woman. 

I actually asked women in the gaming community if they were or weren't offended by the community sexualizing female characters in games. Here are some of the responses: 

"I mean, most sexualized characters are only sexualized to act as fan service and appeal to the male gaze so yeah that grosses me the fuck out."

"I'm in the middle. If the character was created that way then sure that's cool. But if someone takes a character and enlarge their boobs like 10x and giving them a tiny waist and huge hips when they're suppose to look like an Aerith for example from FF7, that's when it bothers me a bit because I'm just like, why? Lol." 

"It typically does bother me! Unless it somehow relates to the characterization of said character and they are fleshed out well, then it bugs me and feels like it’s just there to appease the male gaze and lowkey makes me feel insecure about myself/awkward lol." 

"I would care less if they equally objectified everyone. Unfortunately, men always get interesting silhouettes and face designs whereas women are always the same tits n ass, Disney princess face lady. It really makes it feel like they see women as interchangeable and only worth existing if they are 'beautiful.' Having sexy lady characters isn’t bad, but if that's the ONLY lady you have, maybe you need to have a little more imagination." 

"Women are sexy beasts. What irks me, however, is when they specifically say just one body type is.. Like overly huge anime boobs and ass." 

Hungrybox apology shines light on sexism in Smash

While the Smash community creating lewd art of Smash characters and saying they want to wank off to Mythra is already uncomfortable for many women, the real issue was uncovered when Melee God Juan "Hungrybox" DeBiedma dared to apologize for making some female (and male) viewers uncomfortable. 

Upon the release of Mythra and Pyra, Hungrybox uploaded a video where he analyzed the trailer and discussed the fighter's possible moveset. But the Smash commentator decided to remove the video when he realized that a joke he had made about the character's boobs had been "tone deaf." He said in a tweet that he had not considered the perspective of others in the Smash community. 

"Given the events in the Smash community from last year and my own history, it should be far more obvious when to know what jokes are and aren't appropriate," Hungrybox said. "I or any other content creator shouldn't encourage the objectification of women, even if it's of a video game character. Because one step leads to another and then back to the same problems that led to a lot of pain for others." 

In response to Hungrybox's decision, many Smash players ranted that the competitive player had "bent a knee" to women who didn't like the joke. Many said he didn't even have to apologize. Others pointed out how annoying it was that they can't "make a joke about boobs" without someone getting offended. Hungrybox was basically called a "white knight" and anyone who stood up for women's feelings in the comment section were called "simps." 

So that is the real issue here: Many people in the Smash — and overall gaming — community don't care how women feel in response to female characters being objectified and judged by their appearance. They don't care if their sexualized comments offend people. And they don't care if their obsession with Mythra's breasts makes women in the scene uncomfortable. 

Remember when Moira was first announced for Overwatch? The community was immediately upset that Moira was "old and ugly." She didn't fit into the usual beauty standard like Mercy with her beautiful hair and Widowmaker with her back-breaking butt.

The same reaction would happen if the Smash DLC wasn't an anime waifu with giant boobies. And on top of that, there would be endless fan art of her WITH giant boobs. How many lewds of Tracer have you seen with a big bosum? How many sexual drawings of Mei have you seen where she is thin with a tiny waist? The same can be said for basically every game. 

I believe artists should be able to express themselves however they want — and to an extent, their drawings can also recreate a character to fulfill a fantasy. The bigger issue is that the gaming community won't admit how damaging this repetitive behavior can be to the female gamers in their midst.

Some women will obviously chant, "Where's the sauce!" But that doesn't mean we should ignore the women who feel uncomfortable. That doesn't mean we should mock leaders in the community who care about how female players feel — about something they experience time and time again. Seeing female characters be objectified and oversexualized is the norm for women in the gaming space.

You can say Pyra and Mythra are "just cartoons" but this continuous behavior reinforces the idea that women and non-men only exist for sexual gratification. And some women will always find that upsetting. The issue is that we should care more when women express their feelings about this matter instead of beating them and their supporters into silence. 

Disclaimer: The author is also a contributing editor to Hungrybox's Team Liquid.