The FIFA 16 Controversy
FIFA 16:
Snowballing Feminism into Football
Ignoring
the ‘fratricidal’ FIFA wars over Sepp Blatter, the officials at EA Sports gave
the masses something unprecedented earlier this June. The internet woke up (as
if it ever sleeps) to witness gaming spheres and women activists, sportswomen
and feminist leaders brawl over the inclusion of 12 international women’s
football teams in the upcoming FIFA 16.
FIFA has
been one of the most played videogame since its launch and after the
introduction of improved game-play and graphics in FIFA 12, its sales have sky
rocketed. Due its increasing popularity it was bound to face many critical
arguments- one regarding its exclusively male character. Despite Ubisoft’s
claims that women are too hard to render, EA Sports has somehow done the
impossible and digitally modeled more than 200 of them, “each a recognizable
simulacrum of a real human person who is very good at playing football”.
The female
football World Cup is currently being played in Canada (which might be a
factor). It’s great news for the female footballers who can’t wait to score in
the game as ‘themselves’. England captain Steph Houghton’s interview to BBC is
going viral. And at the same time insensitive jokes are being inflicted upon
them by the ruthless (predominantly male) netizens. Thinking of what the game
would actually look like they have come up with such innovative crap. ‘Your
player has been ruled out for 9 months due to pregnancy’ or ‘Player unfit.
Having period!’ are just some of the ‘innocuous’ remarks that illustrate their
intolerance. In defense, the netizens-in-question blurt out that they’re tired
of feminism altogether.
The world
online is scary today. To be extremely frank, the aggressive ‘feminist-
anti-feminist’ debates are making it scarier. This very movement which ‘aims at
achieving equal social, economic, political, cultural and personal rights for
women’ is diving into almost every aspect of the real and virtual order. The
intensity is absolutely legitimate and positive however, the moves the
so-called ‘fanatics’ of the ideology are taking are being met with unwelcoming
responses by some elements that perhaps belong to the ‘antithesis of feminism’.
(The term being used to represent and at the same time sooth the ‘anti-feminist’
people who refuse to be called anti-feminists.)
Then comes
the ‘gamer’ point of view which- in this debate- unfortunately- is the least cared
for at the moment. Gamers despite enjoying the enhanced virtual experience of
FIFA have been complaining about several areas of the game, for example, the
primitive manager mode, goalkeeper control, tournament settings issues and
more. At this point of time, when EA ignores all these aberrations and goes
ahead adding females who are relatively unknown angers quite a few of the
gaming lot. Then there are people who suggest it’s an American move- according
to them, the U.S. women’s football team (ranked 2nd) has been doing
exceedingly well recently and so its neighbouring game developer (the Canadian
EA sports) did the needful.
The prime
motive behind this is quite explicit. EA suggests the inclusion of the 200 or
so women players would increase their ‘female-following’ which is negligible at
the moment to a seemingly high extent. Some pundits opine the
‘girls-in-a-boys-game’ isn’t going to work out. Well, that’s as regressive as
it sounds.
The sport of football has forever been
regarded as ‘manly’- which presently means ‘like men’. One can only hope it
doesn’t get forced to mean ‘of Men’. There’s no doubt that male gamers would be
the core consumers of FIFA 16. However,
the hidden intention of the game is to instill a love for the little bit “‘equality’
that has just found an opening” in the gamers similar to their love for the
beautiful game.
And there
seems no harm in adding top 12 women’s football teams in a game where an
international men’s team ranked 141 already exists. Yes, I am referring to our
very own country.
-Vikram Grewal
Comments