I’ve complained here before about not being able to have an avatar that looks like me, size-wise, in Zwift. In Zwift, your avatar is highly customizable but features such as size used to depend on your IRL weight. How’s that work? See here.
But Zwift announced a big change on February 13th. You can now choose your own size. If you don’t make a choice it will still work as above, based on the rider’s actual BMI.
Yet, I still can’t choose my size since in Zwift it’s still true that men can be small, medium, or large and women can only be small or medium.
Her size has bothered me for awhile.
See Meet virtual Sam: Avatars, gender, and identity: “My avatar has grey blonde hair that’s about the length of my actual hair. She’s got an athletic build, solid, and I like that. This is the first time I think I’ve created an avatar who sort of looks like me…I have one complaint about my Zwift avatar. She’s medium sized person and I’m a large sized person. That’s odd because avatar size is based on your actual kg. It turns out that in Zwift women only come in two sizes regardless of how much we weigh. We’re either small or medium. Men come in three sizes, small medium or large. Here’s an explanation of avatar sizes. So when Sarah and I ride together in Zwift we’re the same medium size. That’s weird because IRL she’s medium and I’m big.”
I’ve had more to say here about the missing, larger, athletic women’s bodies: On representation and why diversity matters, and Where are the muscular, larger women’s bodies?. See also Strong women’s bodies and representation. It’s a bit of theme for me.
So when I first saw the story. “Zwift has big news: Choose any avatar,” I got excited. But no. Not yet.
“We are evaluating the timing for adding a larger feminine body shape in the future to be more inclusive and fix this imbalance.”
Is it just about the timing, really? I wondered if Zwift wasn’t sure what a large athletic woman’s body looks like. The larger men’s bodies in Zwift all look like beefy football players. That’s true even if the 250 lb male cyclist doesn’t look like a football player. I can’t imagine anyone objects.
I was imagining the larger women’s bodies also looking athletic.
Like this,
Or this,
But maybe they’re worrying that some women will complain about the new, brawnier avatars.
Me, I’m just looking forward to looking like a bigger rider, so when I fly by people downhill in Zwift, as I do in real life, people will know it’s because I’m larger.
Now they also say that “Every person on our platform should be able to represent themselves as they feel they are. This is one step towards making Zwift a more inclusive space as we continue to build a platform where everyone feels represented.” So maybe there’s hope.
Here’s some more images of me, in Zwift, again with the pink hat.
Thanks Microsoft Copilot for the blog title! (I hate writing titles. Copilot is great at suggesting a half dozen, or more, to choose between. )
