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.
After tweeting the video, Bleszinski was criticized by indie game designer Elizabeth Sampat:
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:
Bleszinski proceeded to retweet images of other sexualized animé mousepads, including one of a male animé character:
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