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What On Earth Is A 'DEI Chin'? Complaints About Female Characters With 'Masculine' Chins Explained
A wild new slang expression to describe female characters in video games and other media with strong jawlines has appeared online and has been promptly mocked in memes.
So what is a "DEI Chin" exactly, who coined the expression, which characters does it refer to and is anyone even using it unironically?
Learn all this in our explainer below.
What Is ‘DEI Chin’?
"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 and modern trends in video game development.
While the term was coined recently in September 2024, discussions regarding female video game characters with jawlines that have been generally considered masculine – broad, defined or having a cleft – been a thing for quite some time in gaming communities, particularly in discussions among those unhappy with inclusion in gaming industry.
Characters such as Kay Vess from Star Wars Outlaws, the main character from Fable and Mary Jane from Marvel's Spider-Man 2, among others, have been among those whom some gamers accused of having a "man jaw."
Where Does ‘DEI Chin’ Come From?
The novel way to describe female characters with stronger chins has been coined by X / Twitter user @kala2k7, who on September 18th, 2024, made a post about a new Lara Croft statue produced by Dark Horse Direct with a complaint about the heroine's figure and chin.
In their post, @kala2k7 referred to Lara's chin as "DEI Chin," referencing DEI in the gaming industry, which Lara's innocently pointy chin supposedly was a result of.
‘DEI Chin’ Usage In Memes
The post quickly went viral on X as some users were in sheer disbelief at the expression. After all, many thought Lara Croft's chin was just a regular chin you see both on men and women every day.
Others shared photographs of their faces and chins, with one user ironically grieving over having a "DEI Chin" in real life in a viral post.
The post also got shared on 4chan's /v/, where it quickly developed into a less-than-civilized discussion about whether new or old Lara Croft design was better that failed to reach a consensus.
Overall, DEI Chin is not an expression that's really caught on apart from being mocked in memes — at least not yet.
For the full history of DEI Chin, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.
