After 11 pages of the thread I still struggle to understand the definition of the word "sexism" which we all are talking here about.
For me sexism would be for example if the female heroes would be barred from being warriors or rangers and would only be allowed to be enchantresses. Or if they would not be allowed to invest more than 10 points in intelligence. Or if all other NPCs would be unwilling to talk to female heroes and would rather talk to the male heroes of the group.
So, genereally speaking, sexism for me is when some onedenies the women (or men) certain rights based on their gender or belittles their intelectuall/physical abilities.
And I do not see how the poses in the character selection screen belittle the female heroes. Yes, all the poses (male and female) are highly stylised and sexy - but how exactly does it belittle a woman's abilities if she is depicted as a sexy being? And wouldn't it in turn be sexist if one would insist that women have to be depicted as prudish and virtuous (because a woman cannot be trusted with her own good looks and needs to be protected from the prying eyes of would-be seducers)?
Sexism can also involve stereotyping, which is what I believe is happening here. The portrayal of women as sexy via poses and revealing clothing has been pretty dominant in the video game industry whereas the depiction of male heroes, though at time highly stylized like in this game, tends to be more diverse or at least less reliant on sex appeal.
The poses are sexist in the sense that they perpetuate this stereotype for female characters. They contribute to the idea that female characters must look sexy in order to be interesting or appealing.
It would indeed be sexist for us to say that all female characters should be prudish and virtuous, but that's not what we're trying to say here.
