In a world full of Hooters restaurants and wet t-shirt contests, is not even the leading lady of Bioshock Infinite safe from cat calls and leers from those who see her as naught but an object of lust? …Don’t be silly, of course she isn’t.
In an interview with UK’s Official Xbox Magazine, Irrational Games boss Kevin Levine expressed his displeasure that the denizens of the internet would focus on the appearance of such a woman of substance rather than her inward qualities.
"You know I think there's two questions there, one is 'does she need to be pretty?' and another is 'does she need to be voluptuous?' or whatever," Levine commented. "In terms of her body type, I think certainly people on the Internet have spent way more time thinking about Elizabeth's chest than I have. It's something I've barely thought about.”
Now, don’t freak out and cancel your pre-order or anything, Levine isn’t going to go all angry dad on you and give you a long and intimidating speech that involves the line ‘If you want to have sex, use the barrier method – I’m the barrier.’ He’s more the concerned grandfather. Think Liam Neeson, or maybe Morgan Freeman. Levine isn’t angry at you for thinking about his game-granddaughter’s boobs all the time – he’s just disappointed.
"It's disappointing when [Elizabeth's appearance] becomes a focus for conversation because that was never my intent and it's sort of a disincentive – I'd much rather talk about what she's going through as a person, but whatever, they have the right to shout out whatever they want,” Levine said, delivering the equivalent of that thing your grandfather does where he purses his lips and shakes his head while looking at the ground.
Don’t worry, though, there’s no need to avert your gaze in shame next time you run into Elizabeth. "To me, the most important thing with Elizabeth was just honestly her eyes because, you know, they're somewhat exaggerated and the reason for that is because there's so much expression you can do there, with her eyes, and you see her often at a great distance,” He explained, giving you a suitable way to take in his game-granddaughter’s beauty that isn’t going to remind him that she’s a grown woman and possibly sexually active already.
What do you know? Maybe a character isn’t defined entirely by their mammary glands or lack of. Maybe we should all actually be paying attention to what an important role Elizabeth plays instead of her measurements.
I’d just like to remind everyone that their mother has breasts as well. Just a thought.
