DEI Chin

Submission 21,250

Part of a series on DEI / Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. [View Related Entries]

About

DEI Chin is an expression that has been used to refer to a perceived trend in female characters in video games and animations that have a strong, defined jawline, associated by some with "woke" culture, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and modern trends in video game development. Coined in September 2024, the expression inspired jokes and memes on social media.

Origin

Prior to the coinage of the expression "DEI chin," discussions regarding female video game characters with jawlines that have been generally considered more defined and characteristic of males in popular culture, have appeared on various websites and gaming forums, most notably X / Twitter and 4chan.

In these discussions, the pronounced chins have been described by some as a symbol of "woke" trends in video game development as developers included characters of more diverse appearances (example^[1] shown below).

On September 18th, 2024, X^[3] user @kala2k7 used the novel expression "DEI Chin," with "DEI" being an acronym of "diversity, equity and inclusion," to refer to the chin on a Lara Croft statue produced by Dark Horse Direct.^[2] The post (shown below) received over 2,700 reposts and quotes, and 690 likes in five days.

Later on September 18th, X user @PorcelainPup_ asked for an explanation of what "DEI chin" was, with user @kala2k7 replying^[4] with an image showcasing six examples of what they were referring to, including Mary Jane from Marvel's Spider-Man 2, a female Custodian named Tyrith Shiva Kyrus from the official Warhammer 40K animation The Tithes, and the main protagonist from Fable (shown below).

Spread

In the subsequent days, the post was followed by multiple quote tweets making fun of the complaint and the use of the expression "DEI chin."

For example, on September 18th, 2024, Redditor AllHailZaddy posted a screenshot of the post in the /r/Gamingcirclejerk^[5] subreddit, where it received over 11,000 upvotes in five days. On September 19th, an anonymous 4chan user made a thread based on the post on the /v/^[6] board.

On September 21st, 2024, X^[7] user @banalplay quoted the image, commenting "DEI chin," with the post (shown below) garnering over 2,900 reposts and 100,000 likes in two days.

More posts mocking the use of the expression appeared on X / Twitter in late September 2024. For example, on September 21st, 2024, X^[8] user @selmacashmoney posted a photograph of her face, commenting, "just found out I have a fucking DEI chin and haven't stopped crying since." The post (shown below) garnered over 630 reposts and 39,000 likes in two days.