Is Style Savvy "Sexist"?
Okay, I want us to have an honest to God conversation about this. I know I am going to get flamed for even suggesting this question, but I want us to be civil here and carefully consider this so we can have a better understanding of this game in a broader societal context.
I want to make this clear: I don't believe this game series had any malicious intent and if it did make people feel exclusive, I would firmly believe that it was unintentionally done so. However, unintentional or not, I think it's clear that this game series is clearly designed around women specifically, and I want to dissect that.
So, I just made this post mentioning how I am a dude and I want to get into this series but feel limited because it is mostly marketed towards women despite fashion being universal and celebrated by all walks of life. There is nothing wrong with the game focusing on women, but the problem is that it doesn't explore the possibility that men might enjoy fashion just as much as women might. It leaves me feeling excluded from being able to play these games in a way that makes me feel fulfilled as someone who enjoys dressing up irl. I don't think this game is trying to be hateful or harmful by focusing on women, but I do think it is unintentionally sidelining men. Don't get me wrong, I would still like to play this game and experience women's fashion as I generally like fashion even of the opposite sex and think this game can satisfy men, but I still feel limited in expressing myself in ways women wouldn't.
I want to acknowledge the broader societal context. Many video games are catered towards men, while very few games are catered towards women. That is a general fact. It is a shame that games can feel gendered and exclusively biased towards men. I am not defending those games that are catered towards men and think that it is not okay to exclude women from something they can enjoy. I think the more genders a game can appeal to the better as everyone can enjoy it and feel properly represented. The point here is that style savvy could easily appeal to both demographics but seems to only acknowledges women in many cases, and that is just a fact of the matter. Just because a bunch of games exist to cater towards men, doesn't mean that a game that caters towards women isn't exempt from similar criticism. Believe it or not, it is possible for a game to be sexist towards men. Just because it seldom ever happens, doesn't mean that it cannot. Men can feel just as excluded from a game as women do from a different game.
The reason why Style Savvy likely excluded men wasn't out of malice but was probably because of a straightforward business decision rooted in a society that doesn't support men for enjoying fashion, making a male-inclusive fashion game seem unprofitable. But here's the irony: by excluding men, Style Savvy inadvertently reinforces the very idea that fashion is a women-only space, which further stigmatizes men who enjoy it, which makes the next fashion game even less likely to include them. Nobody deliberately created this cycle, but the end result is a game that tells men, however unintentionally, that fashion isn't for them when that is not the case.
Personally speaking, I would love to see a world in which society supports men to get into fashion as much as women as that would allow for men to express themselves more, experiment, and enjoy their lives to the fullest. That is personally why I think it's limiting that Style Savvy doesn't explore this potential. Fashion is universal and everyone in life expresses themselves with how they dress whether they realize it or not. Recognizing all these facets of life in a fashion game would be powerful, nuanced, and offer a lot of new perspective for everyone.
I DON'T want to prove a point or make people believe that this game series is for sure 100% sexist. I know this is a very touchy subject, but I want is for us to come with an honest answer here and figure out if this game actually feels exclusive to men or not. As a man, I know I personally feel like I would be limited by the options for men; however, I don't have the full context. I know that most fans are probably happy with this game as is given it was made for women primarily in mind and I don't want to undermine how important it is for women to have a game like this, but I can't help but wonder if Style Savvy could have made an effort to be more inclusive.
Closing Thoughts:
If I want to be as exact with my thoughts here as possible, I would say that Style Savvy is NOT generally sexist in the traditional more hostile sense as the game doesn't make harmful statements against men to support some harmful ideology. Rather. I would say that it IS implicitly sexist as it conforms to the gender standard that men don't like fashion as much as women and generalizes fashion as something excluding men who do enjoy fashion in the process when fashion is a part of everyone's lived experience. In that sense, this isn't a bad thing, but something that is more innocent and misguided when Style Savvy has the capacity to be more inclusive. When we do get a fifth game in the series, I hope that Nintendo is more progressive and inclusive and sees the broader cultural significance of fashion for all types of people so we can have the best Style Savvy game for everyone!