When I logged onto “Star Wars: The Old Republic” for the first time, I felt a sense of excitement at creating my first character—a sense of excitement that quickly faded away.

I’d seen a sample male character with a body that didn’t fit into the usual category of chiseled, musclebound and gorgeous. The female sample beside him wasn’t as progressive, but it was only a sample. I convinced myself that I’d find an equally curvy female character choice when I loaded up the creator, but I was wrong. There were four choices for the female body and the choices weren’t all that varied.

I could choose from a selection of skinny athletic, muscle builder or busty. The last choice had what I would call the closest thing to curves, but the form of the body was still larger in some areas than natural women are.

But these four body type choices were still far better than other games in which the only choice is a female body that has the breasts and backside of three women with a waistline that’s half the circumference of an apple. And it doesn’t stop there.

The armor choices for a female character are laughable. They cover barely anything and certainly wouldn’t provide any protection from the types of weaponry being bandied about in video games.

So why is it like this? Because the game developers market their games to their main audience: young males. Obviously they are going to enjoy giggling at the over inflated body parts barely held in by scraps of cloth, metal and leather.

But pandering to teenage boys shouldn’t be an excuse for game developers to continue these practices. Why should we sit back and let the over-sexualization of female bodies happen just because some male gamers want to ogle the female form in a digital space? It’s not right. I want a character with a real body. I want to put on clothes and armor which aren’t overtly sexualized. I don’t think game sales will suffer if the female form is treated with more respect.

I’m a gamer, and I’m not ashamed of that. I’m not ashamed to play games or to say I enjoy them. But I am ashamed that the video game industry puts the female form to such misogynistic uses.