As I mentioned in a previous thread, Street Fighter V alone has quite a bit of people of color in its current roster, especially compared to most other fighting games. Plus, from the perspective of black/brown characters, Capcom has quite a few both in SFV & in the vault. Hell, we even have a transgender character in the form of Poison & a gay character in the form of Eagle. But in many other ways, Street Fighter has a ton of potential to be more progressive & inclusive than it already is for both women & people of color. And given Capcom's Redemption Arc that's going on right now between Resident Evil 7, Resident Evil 2 Remake, Devil May Cry 5, Monster Hunter World, & Mega Man 11 (more so on the quality of these games, not so much the representation....something I'd like to see positive change for all these IPs), I'd like to believe that there's reason to be hopeful for positive change at Capcom. To be more specific, these are some of the things I'd like to see changed with Street Fighter going forward so the series can live up to its potential from a socially progressive standpoint.
I think the man who inspired this thread put it best, at least with regards to Sean Matsuda.
While this issue has existed prior to Street Fighter V, the problem has become more prevalent in SFV. This is unfortunate because SFV made a number of strides with regards to updating certain designs, especially for Sakurai & Karin. But for every Menat & Karin, there's also a Rainbow Mika & Laura situation. And in the case of Rainbow Mika, her design was even more sexualized than she was in Alpha 3. It's gotten to the point where certain default designs (namely Cammy, Rainbow Mika, & Laura) can't be used at major tournaments that are aired on TV (Ex: EVO). That's not to mention the sexualization of under-aged characters like Menat with regards to their alternate costumes. At the very least, Capcom should tone down the fan service for the default designs (& please, give Cammy pants for her default design) since that's what most people are gonna see when they first play the game or when they watch tournaments (since Capcom can easily just restrict TV-broadcasted tournaments to just the default costumes). The track suits are fantastic, but more options for the ladies that aren't sexualized would be nice (plus avoid sexualization altogether for any characters under 18). Though concerning the breast sizes, that actually goes into my next topic...
For one, I'll commend Capcom for making the women of Street Fighter well-toned from a muscular standpoint, especially in SFV. It's refreshing to see amongst a sea of thinner female fighters in other fighting game franchises, so credit where credit is due. However, one of the things that stuck out to me in SFV it that, outside of a few differentiating factors (Ex: Chun-Li's thighs, Cammy's leg muscles, etc.), the women of SFV have more-or-less the same body type. The most different of the lot is Menat thanks to her smaller frame & breast size, and even she isn't that much different compared to the other women in the game. Speaking of breast size, it seems like (Menat aside) everyone has large breasts in Street Fighter V (even Karin, which is more evident with her swimsuit). I'm not saying that big breasts are bad or that the existing body types are terrible, I'm just saying that it would be nice if Capcom did more to make the body types of each of the ladies different from one another. For example, Karin can be a bit thinner since she's more of a technical fighter (but keep her decently toned in terms of her muscles), while Rainbow Mika can have way more muscle on her by virtue of her being a pro wrestler. Though I'd imagine that this is a problem that would be better solved with giving potential new female fighters radically different body types (Ex: a plus-sized female fighter). Just don't lose the muscles on the ladies, that's one thing that I like.
UPDATE SOME OF THE MORE PROBLEMATIC CHARACTERS
To Capcom's credit, they have moved away from adding anymore racial stereotypes with their recent newcomers (Ex: Rashid, one of Street Fighter's best newcomers in a while). But there still stands the fact that some of the previous additions may have veered too far into their respective racial stereotypes. This is especially true for Dee Jay, who can easily be seen as a racial stereotype. While true, changing characters like him that radically may be a bit tough since Dee Jay has been around for a good long while, that hasn't stopped Capcom from re-desigining a good chunk of the Street Fighter V cast's veterans. So maybe they could do the same for Dee Jay & a number of others. Granted, I wouldn't lose any sleep if Dee Jay never came back, but I understand that he has his fans. The same applies to T. Hawk with regards to the Native American stereotypes that can be found with his character & his design, especially after how Iron Galaxy revamped Thunder's design to be culturally-appropriate. But what irks me the most is how Capcom handled Santamu.
As someone who's Eritrean-American (yeah, she's Ethiopean, but both nations are Habesha in terms of ethnicity), it breaks my heart that the first Habesha character in the Street Fighter series (albeit an NPC, but still) is another racial stereotype. My only hope is that now that she & the other Dolls are free, they can do a total course-correction with her character should Santamu make the jump to being a playable character in a future Street Fighter game.
To paraphrase Village, Capcom's other franchises are paying more attention to the world around them (to varying-but-decent degrees), while Street Fighter is progressing much slower compared to the rest. Even within the fighting game genre as a whole, we have games like Mortal Kombat (Sonya's VA aside) & (more recently) ARMS that are being more progressive with its characters. That's not to say that there's no progress at all within Street Fighter, as Rashid & Menat prove. But there's a lot Capcom can do to make Street Fighter more progressive as a whole that they simply aren't taking full advantage of, & I hope that they do more in Street Fighter VI & beyond.
Special thanks to Village for inspiring the topic of this thread.
BRING MORE BLACK/BROWN CHARACTERS TO THE FOREFRONT
I think the man who inspired this thread put it best, at least with regards to Sean Matsuda.
Sean is literally the personification of the untapped potential Capcom has on this front. In a world where Black Panther & Miles Morales have made it big in the eyes of the general public, bringing Sean Matsuda to the forefront as an actually good & relevant character (yes, I know he was good in 2nd Impact, but still) would be a big win for Capcom & the Street Fighter franchise. Of course, I'm not saying just Sean, I'm also arguing for more black/brown newcomers as well as other people of color to be brought into the roster (Laura is a step in the right direction, aside from her design.....which I'll mention next). Credit where it's due, there's already quite a bit of racial diversity (even if they're mostly marred with stereotypes, which I'll mention later). But like with most topics in this thread, a lot more can be done.
TONE DOWN THE SEXUALIZATION (at least for the default designs)
While this issue has existed prior to Street Fighter V, the problem has become more prevalent in SFV. This is unfortunate because SFV made a number of strides with regards to updating certain designs, especially for Sakurai & Karin. But for every Menat & Karin, there's also a Rainbow Mika & Laura situation. And in the case of Rainbow Mika, her design was even more sexualized than she was in Alpha 3. It's gotten to the point where certain default designs (namely Cammy, Rainbow Mika, & Laura) can't be used at major tournaments that are aired on TV (Ex: EVO). That's not to mention the sexualization of under-aged characters like Menat with regards to their alternate costumes. At the very least, Capcom should tone down the fan service for the default designs (& please, give Cammy pants for her default design) since that's what most people are gonna see when they first play the game or when they watch tournaments (since Capcom can easily just restrict TV-broadcasted tournaments to just the default costumes). The track suits are fantastic, but more options for the ladies that aren't sexualized would be nice (plus avoid sexualization altogether for any characters under 18). Though concerning the breast sizes, that actually goes into my next topic...
HAVE MORE BODY TYPE DIVERSITY, ESPECIALLY AMONGST THE LADIES
Obviously this isn't representative of all the ladies in SFV, but it should give you an idea of my general argument.
Obviously this isn't representative of all the ladies in SFV, but it should give you an idea of my general argument.
For one, I'll commend Capcom for making the women of Street Fighter well-toned from a muscular standpoint, especially in SFV. It's refreshing to see amongst a sea of thinner female fighters in other fighting game franchises, so credit where credit is due. However, one of the things that stuck out to me in SFV it that, outside of a few differentiating factors (Ex: Chun-Li's thighs, Cammy's leg muscles, etc.), the women of SFV have more-or-less the same body type. The most different of the lot is Menat thanks to her smaller frame & breast size, and even she isn't that much different compared to the other women in the game. Speaking of breast size, it seems like (Menat aside) everyone has large breasts in Street Fighter V (even Karin, which is more evident with her swimsuit). I'm not saying that big breasts are bad or that the existing body types are terrible, I'm just saying that it would be nice if Capcom did more to make the body types of each of the ladies different from one another. For example, Karin can be a bit thinner since she's more of a technical fighter (but keep her decently toned in terms of her muscles), while Rainbow Mika can have way more muscle on her by virtue of her being a pro wrestler. Though I'd imagine that this is a problem that would be better solved with giving potential new female fighters radically different body types (Ex: a plus-sized female fighter). Just don't lose the muscles on the ladies, that's one thing that I like.
UPDATE SOME OF THE MORE PROBLEMATIC CHARACTERS
To Capcom's credit, they have moved away from adding anymore racial stereotypes with their recent newcomers (Ex: Rashid, one of Street Fighter's best newcomers in a while). But there still stands the fact that some of the previous additions may have veered too far into their respective racial stereotypes. This is especially true for Dee Jay, who can easily be seen as a racial stereotype. While true, changing characters like him that radically may be a bit tough since Dee Jay has been around for a good long while, that hasn't stopped Capcom from re-desigining a good chunk of the Street Fighter V cast's veterans. So maybe they could do the same for Dee Jay & a number of others. Granted, I wouldn't lose any sleep if Dee Jay never came back, but I understand that he has his fans. The same applies to T. Hawk with regards to the Native American stereotypes that can be found with his character & his design, especially after how Iron Galaxy revamped Thunder's design to be culturally-appropriate. But what irks me the most is how Capcom handled Santamu.
To paraphrase Village, Capcom's other franchises are paying more attention to the world around them (to varying-but-decent degrees), while Street Fighter is progressing much slower compared to the rest. Even within the fighting game genre as a whole, we have games like Mortal Kombat (Sonya's VA aside) & (more recently) ARMS that are being more progressive with its characters. That's not to say that there's no progress at all within Street Fighter, as Rashid & Menat prove. But there's a lot Capcom can do to make Street Fighter more progressive as a whole that they simply aren't taking full advantage of, & I hope that they do more in Street Fighter VI & beyond.
Special thanks to Village for inspiring the topic of this thread.
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