Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
WOMEN AS A GENDER?
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Brittany Carter
Abstract
In this paper, I will outline the different perspectives on how women are portrayed in video game
media and how it may consequently affect the way this gender is viewed. I will also explain why
Keywords: Women, Video games, Gender gaming bias, Sexuality and Gaming.
DO WOMENS PORTRAYAL IN VIDEO GAMES AFFECT HOW WE VIEW WOMEN AS A
GENDER?
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our minds and influence our thinking. When seeing these images repeatedly they begin to affect
our interpretations of the world in some form or another, may that be good or bad. What if we
take it one step further than just being a bystander in these images? What if we could become
part of a world comprised of highly curated messages? How much would those images begin to
affect us if we could actively interact? If such images created a bias towards the way a gender
was portrayed, would it begin to change the way that we see the gender?
Women and media have a complex relationship in which they are both idolized and
exploited. The impacts of female representation have long been argued, and recent movements
have called out the negative effects of many of these depictions. Like all forms of media, video
games carry implicit messages. The key advantage video games provide these latent themes is
players level of interaction. Active interactions with such portrayals of women found in video
games can change the way that people who interact with this type of media view women. It has
been argued if video game imagery can substantially affect the psyche, but if it does, how does
the depiction of women expand or narrow our minds about the gender. Some believe that greater
exposure to female characters may positively influence players views. However, others believe
that the lack of clothing and treatment of these characters likely has a darker effect.
Video games have been a growing part of media culture since the early 1970s. However,
the complex storylines, visually detailed characters, and immersive worlds found in today's
games took decades to develop. Gendered characters, and therefore the interaction between male
and female characters, didnt make their debut until the 1980s. Classics such as Donkey Kong,
Mario, and Zelda were all early adopters of fantasy storylines. Although the new medium
DO WOMENS PORTRAYAL IN VIDEO GAMES AFFECT HOW WE VIEW WOMEN AS A
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afforded the creators the opportunity to try something different, the classic trope of a damsel in
distress was made an industry standard. Strong female protagonists were virtually non-existent.
The 1990s brought about advances in computer graphics technology and subsequently more
aesthetically realistic gameplay (Jansz and Martis, 2007). The abilities to create more visually
elaborate characters were utilized in part to wildly sexualize female roles. The common
phenomena of scantily-clad female characters with exaggerated figures emerged in this era.
Modern video games are much more immersive than their predecessors with incredibly
expansive settings and highly complex storylines. This intricacy of these games creates a venue
for subtler, yet pervasive, sexism seen in nearly every interaction involving female characters.
Todays videogames weave together fantastic storylines enriched by incredible detail of the real
world.
Other than the skimpy outfits, female characters have increasingly been portrayed as
strong and relevant. Strong female protagonist has emerged among the gaming scene. The outfits
not undermining their journey, there for empowering and reinforcing that they are more than
bodies or props (Jansz and Martis, 2007). Strong female characters can date back to an old video
game by the name of Tomb Raider, that came out in 1996. This game was one of the first
games to depict a strong female character playing the role as the hero. Though the character was
dressed in a lesser amount of clothing, the focused was on her abilities as a survivor. In many
ways, this game has been credited to setting a new bar for main characters of the female sex. In
games, more recently there is has been equal number of main roles given to female characters
In discussions of women's portrayal in video games, one controversial issue has been the
over sexualization of their physical appearance. On one hand, Beasley and Stanley argue that the
DO WOMENS PORTRAYAL IN VIDEO GAMES AFFECT HOW WE VIEW WOMEN AS A
GENDER?
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amount of clothing that male game characters are presented wearing is completely contrasted by
the lack of clothing that women characters are shown with (Beasley and Stanley, 2009). On the
other hand, Ivory, J. D contends that the matter of the lack of clothing a character is depicted
with doesn't undermine the impact of the representation of strong women in the gaming industry
(Ivory, 2006). Others even maintain that the sexual representation empowers women through the
portrayal of women bodies, making them less taboo (Jansz and Martis, 2007). When it comes to
the topic of the over sexualization and violence toward women in video games, most of us will
readily agree that women characters are less represented than male characters. Where this
agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of, does this really affect how we view
women in day to day society. Whereas some are convinced that these images can led to violence
and crime against women, others maintain that what is portrayed in video games does not have
any negative effect on the human psyche, instead it influences a positive one. Ferguson argues
that violence in video games does not cause a violent effect in people who play the video games.
People that tend to play violent video games have a higher sense of spatial awareness (Ferguson,
2007). Therefore, if violent video game does not cause aggressive tendencies in people, sexism
video games does not create a sexist thought process. In my own research, I hope to demonstrate
that the images can both empower and oppress depending on the depiction and the audience that
consumes this
I will be exploring this topic by searching through published findings as well as credited
writings from experts in the field. Key words that will be used to search through these databases
are; women in video games, women gamers, tropes in video games, feminist gaming, Video
games and gender, Role portrayal, sexualized female characters, female protagonist, sexism in
video games, gender statistics, and women involved in the gaming industry. Questions that I will
DO WOMENS PORTRAYAL IN VIDEO GAMES AFFECT HOW WE VIEW WOMEN AS A
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propose to narrow down and further the discussion of my topic will be questions such as; How
often does misogynistic suggestions occur in video games? Male empowered videogames vs
women empowered video game? Are people's view of gender warped by excessive exposure to
video-games? What are the social dynamics between the sexes in gaming? What is the role of
structural characteristics in video-game play motivation? What are Girl gamers and what is
their relationship with the gaming culture? Is there a gender bias in video-games? Can women
gamers feel related to these characters? Are women more inclined to play games with a strong
female role?
We face a constant barrage of directed and meticulously designed messages from the
world around us. Though it may impart some influence, were able to block most distractors out.
Video games, as a part of modern media, present an interesting caveat to this idea. They are
comprised of fantasy worlds that are painstakingly designed by their creators complete with
implicit messages found in all variety of media. This topic is worth exploring as this type a
media plays more into everyday lives. May it affect the viewing of a gender in a positive or
negative way. We need to begin to question whether people are affected by games and whether
games should be regulated to stop or continue the change of perspective of how we see a gender.
These questions need to be answered now as we step further and further into the gaming
multiverse. This needs to be addressed now because videogames are only becoming more
common, available to younger generations, and immersive with the invention of virtual reality
gaming. With the line of gaming and real world becoming thinner, we must investigate how it
affects its audience perspective on the real world. What is at stake is women in the gaming
industry as well as women gamers. This topic needs to be further discussed and researched to
DO WOMENS PORTRAYAL IN VIDEO GAMES AFFECT HOW WE VIEW WOMEN AS A
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find the correlation of womens portrayal in specifically videogame media, to how women are
viewed in society.
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References:
Beasley, B., & Standley, T. C. (2009). Shirts vs. Skins: Clothing as an Indicator of Gender Role
293.doi:10.1207/s15327825mcs0503_3
Ivory, J. D. (2006). Still a Mans Game: Gender Representation in Online Reviews of Video
Games.
Jansz, J., & Martis, R. G. (2007). The Lara Phenomenon: Powerful Female Characters in Video
Games.
Ferguson, C.J. Psychiatr Q (2007). The Good, The Bad and the Ugly: A Meta-analytic Review
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