(According to an article made last year there have only ever 13 playable female characters. The list doesn't include fighting game characters for reasons I don't agree with. As such, I have decided to put a spotlight on 14 of these characters, to see what is being dismissed here. There are MORE than that, but I admit, not MUCH more.)
Game
Street Fighter 5
Bio
She's Sean's Sister. And Sean's like...Ryu's son? Or Akuma's? I don't know, it was a pretty boring anime.
How Black is she?
She's Half Black Half Japanese, but instead of representing Japan in a beauty contest(man is THAT gonna be old when this is posted...), she's representing Brazil in Street Fighter.
Prominence
I'm writing this in November 2015 and haven't even decided WHEN it'll launch. You tell ME if Laura is now the most important Street Fighter character in the world.
Fight examples
Flaws
The SF guys always struggled with how to properly stereotype Brazil. But after 20 years, they finally figured it out: Wrap a Batucada girl in the Flag of Brazil.
Like, this chick obviously has had more surgery than Poison, has both long flowing locks AND cornrows, and probably shoots Favelas out of her butt for all I know.
Pros
Instead of being yet another wiggle warrior, she was actually given a rough moveset including lots of grapple moves. That counts for something, right?
Honorable mentions go to the 2-3 females in Capoeira Fighter, a chick I'm pretty sure was Black in Bloody Roar, and any others I may have missed. There's a lot of fighting games out there, and when I think I've seen them all, I run into more. The point of this was never to say that representation is a non-issue, but that you don't need to dismiss what you already have to ask for more.
Next Month, 13 female fighting game Puerto Ricans. Oh, there are none? Well, 13 Puerto Rican playable females in all of videogames. Neither, huh? Uh...13 Puerto Rican playable characters? 13 Puerto Rican at all characters?
Fuck.
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