Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2 are over-the-top “spectacle fighter” video games by Platinum Games. In these games the player takes on the role of the titular character, a practically omnipotent witch who uses her powers to fight angels, fell demons and depose the occaisional god. I am a big fan of this game. Its mechanics are rewarding and responsive and I love the over-the-top characters.

I also like the game’s approach to sexuality,though many will disagree. There are many games which shoehorn in sexy female characters for a male teenage audience, but none to my knowledge have developed the sexuality of those characters to anywhere near the same depth as Bayonetta. Bayonetta is a narcissist. She gets off on her own power and her own sexiness. Though she teases and flirts with other characters it is made clear that she does so for her own amusement, she always acts from a position of confidence.

To get more of a taste of the game is suggest watching the opening sequence from Bayonetta 2, which shows pretty much everything I like about the game, but I digress.

One of the mechanics of the game is the “climax” move. Remember I said Bayonetta gets off on her own power? As Bayonetta fights through the game she fills up a meter, visible on the screen. Once the meter is full the climax move can be used to annihilate multiple opponents in brutal fashion.

I would like to contrast this mechanic with the depiction of women’s orgasm in pornography. In porn orgasm is almost always depicted as something much more passive. Female actors tend to lie still, expressing their pleasure vocally almost as if paralysed.

I’m not trying to say one depiction is wrong. However I do find it interesting, and think that it may be damaging that orgasm is depicted much less often as ssomething that women do than something that happens to them. I worry in particular that this leads people to expect women to be passive in bed, and leads to missed opportunities in their sex lives.