Cliff Bleszinski, former design director for video game developer Epic Games and founder of Boss Key Productions, posted a vine in which he pinched the pop-out breasts of a mouse pad depicting an animé girl.
My new mouse pad is glorious. https://t.co/h9OFFRCYNR
— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) July 9, 2015
After tweeting the video, Bleszinski was criticized by indie game designer Elizabeth Sampat:
WHERE DO GAMERS POSSIBLY GET THE IDEA THAT WOMEN AREN'T PEOPLE. Where. I guess we will never know
— Elizabeth (@twoscooters) July 9, 2015
.@therealcliffyb please stop actively making the industry a worse place for women
— Elizabeth (@twoscooters) July 9, 2015
Bleszinski responded to Sampat by stating he was “pretty sure Gears 3 [referring to Gears of War 3, a video game he designed] passed the Bechdel test move along please [sic].” The test referred to in this statement is one that tests “for female presence in fictional media.” In order to pass it, a work must have two or more women who must speak at least once on a topic not regarding men. The designer also told Sampat that he “was mocking pervy anime culture if you’re too dumb to see that go elsewhere please [sic].”
Some users criticized Bleszinksi over the fact that the rubber breasts he squeezed were those of Asuka Langley Soryu, an animé character who is 13 years old; Bleszinski said he did not know the character. Other replies on the designer’s thread were a mix of agreement, defense of free speech, and more criticism:
@therealcliffyb @twoscooters Dont let her get you down Cliffy, I'm a woman, and I love MY mouse pad pic.twitter.com/WnQw7GacN3
— AlisonPrime (@Alison_prime) July 10, 2015
@RobbinsFilms Thats why they call it free speech. You can be racist, sexist and objectify in fiction. That's allowed. #GamerGate
— A Girl in Vermillion (@HereticOfEthics) July 9, 2015
@therealcliffyb fyi this is kind of gross and alarming
— ☀❂ eevee ❂☀ (@eevee) July 10, 2015
Bleszinski proceeded to retweet images of other sexualized animé mousepads, including one of a male animé character:
@therealcliffyb Don't worry, they make em for the ladies too pic.twitter.com/ifB5QqKlFu
— OrbitalUncle (@Lain_Coulbert) July 10, 2015
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