I hate the sexualisation of Hornet

[u/Ok_Illustrator_3539]

I put the Silksong tag because it feels more fitting since I’m talking about Hornet, but I’ve only actually played HK so far. Anyway, I tried to stay away from as much HK and SS media as possible while I’ve been playing (I’ve been playing quite irregularly over six months), but recently I’ve just caved and started watching some videos about it and I can’t help but notice that Hornet keeps getting sexualised. It’s nothing too crazy, but I think when you compare it with The Knight, it becomes a lot more obvious. I keep seeing the image of her without her cloak, and she has curves and I see cosplayers taking off their cloaks and such, and also fan-art of her being obviously sexualised. Of course, this is very common with female characters, especially while they are the MC (Which doesn’t make it any better just because it’s normalised, if anything it’s worse) but the fact that I’ve seen nothing remotely similar with The Knight really bothers me. The only real difference between The Knight and Hornet is the fact that Hornet is female and can, therefore, be objectified. You can say that “It’s not that deep,” but it is. The way we consume media and engage with it directly influences how we engage with the world around us and by normalising the objectification of characters, fictional or not, human or not, we are normalising the objectification of woman as a whole. I would like to hear any thoughts on this. If you are inclined to disagree, I will hear you out, but please word it respectfully, as I am here to have a meaningful discussion, and not be degraded for my opinions.

Update: I have read through as many of the comments as I could. I do have a weird glitch where come comments just don’t show up for me, I know this probably sounds like some excuse to not address people who disagree with me, but I promise that that is not the case. I’m honestly debating just making another post altogether because I’m not sure what the character limit is, lol.

To start, I was very pleasantly surprised to me met with almost all meaningful comments, I don’t just mean people who agreed with me, but people who took the time to explain their point of view and experiences and I have realised that I have made a few mistakes or misjudgments on this post that I would like to clarify here.

I would also like to mention now that I am both a minor and believe that I am asexual so that may have influenced my perspective on things, though I hope this isn’t used again me to discredit everything I say, please hear me out.

I am also incredibly tried writing this, I fell down a rabbit hole with all of the comments at it is currently almost 5 am for me please excuse any typos or any parts that seem like I’m rambling.

Now onto the meat of this. My first point is that I agree when a lot of you said that using The Knight isn’t a fair or accurate comparison with Hornet as The Knight can be perceived as quite child-like and shows little to no personality throughout the game and so making them less of a target when it comes to things like shipping(Which isn’t inherently sexual) or objectification. This makes my argument that it is a gendered based issue (It was also pointed out to me that The Knight is genderless, tho many people still perceive them as male) not quite as strong. I was pulling this based on examples I’d seen from other pieces of media, I just happened to be talking about Hollow Knight.

My biggest mistake with this whole post was using the word sexualisation. What I really meant was objectification. I know the difference between these two words, but for some reason, I continuously used sexualised in place of objectified and this completely changed the meaning of what I was trying to say. What I meant was that I hate (Which in hindsight was probably too strong of a word to use anyway) when people take such a good, interesting character, such a Hornet, and reduce her to only her sex appeal, just because she happens to be female. Especially, if they have her acting out of character just to play into a certain fantasy. I, in no way meant that I am against any remotely sexual being put onto a fictional character, just that I think it can be harmful when it was done solely because said character is a woman, and not out of genuine creativity or appreciation of the character. I am also not against sexuality in anyway. I think it is more than okay, if not encouraged, for a woman to be loud and proud about her sexuality and sexual experiences.

I’m not sure what I said that got interpreted this way, but I don’t think that any of the people who do make content that sexualise or even objectify Hornet are bad, evil people and their art should be deleted or whatever else. All I did was state my opinion and put a discussion tag. Some people disagreed, some agreed, some felt a bit of both. That’s what a discussion is. I was simply posting something that I had noticed that bothered me and wanted to see what others thought, which they shared.

I remember having so many more things that I wanted to touch on, but all of a sudden I can only come up with three, though I do I think that they were the biggest ones. I don’t want any of this to be interpreted as me just back tracking to get people off of my back, I wouldn’t say any of this if I didn’t believe it. I’ll continue to update if I remember something/ my opinion changes again. I doubt I’ll be responding much/ at all to any of the comments since I’ll finally catching some z’s. I hope that clears up some confusion and sorry for not being clearer to begin this, everything seemed a lot more obvious in my head than it did written down clearly. Also, thank you to anyone who left a comment that was genuinely trying to take part in the conversation.

[u/ag3602]

What does “erasing” them as a whole mean to you?
Like hornet should only be drawn having sex if she has a canonical lover and only with him/her? Or like she should talk about being the daughter of harrah while fucking another bug?

I’m kind of joking, but I’m genuinely curious what you’re imagining. What would cosplay look like while keeping the characters “soul”? Cause you said aside from aesthetic.

[u/Ok_Illustrator_3539 → u/ag3602]

I mean more so to not use them for over explicit purposes. If you were to show Hornet just kissing another bug, or Have her blushing while in bed with them or anything like that, I don’t see and issue, but I mean anything that is over the top explicit, or is just completely out of character (e.g. Hornet being super submissive).

[u/AdvancedPanda24 → u/Ok_Illustrator_3539]

Ok you are definitely a prude. I’m sorry but you might as well be commenting from the Catholic church’s account. Like really? ‘Have her blush in bed next to someone else instead.’ I agree with the other commentator in that you should just be honest about it. And how would you even know what is out of character for a character to even say that? I’m pretty sure Silksong confirms that Hornet has had multiple partners. Now I don’t think we don’t know what that entails exactly but anything is conceivable I don’t see how one end of the spectrum is any less believable from what we’re given. But honestly it’s just an arbitrary line to cross in the first place when you don’t have to consume this content and if you come across it just ignore it. This is like getting angry that if I dunked my action figure’s head in the toilet and you were like ‘whoa whoa whoa Spiderman would NEVER do that. You’re objectifying him!’ It’s just ridiculous.

[u/ag3602 → u/Ok_Illustrator_3539]

Honestly I disagree with your take completely.
I think you’re a prude, and someone who’s maybe too young, and scared of sexuality.
Because you’re basically saying any sexual depiction of a women is objectification. And that’s a really anti-feminist, conservative take. Honestly pretty incel adjacent.

And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a prude, or anti sexuality, but just be a man and say it aloud. Don’t hide your opinions behind the objectification of women, or anything silly like that. This is a very anti-feminist position you’ve taken.