Running Header: WOMEN IN GAMES AND THEIR EFFECT ON REAL WORLD WOMEN

Writing Project 3: Women in Games and Their Effect On Real World Women
Brittany Carter
Arizona State University
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Abstract

In this paper I will outline the depiction of female characters and video games and how this in

turn affects the views of the genders perceived worth in society. I will go into depths of the

different tropes that are primarily depicted through female characters and provide examples of

how this could be detrimental to the gender as a whole. I will also explain why this topic needs

greater attention and the ways that gamers who participate in the consumption of this media can

get involved in the movement of change in this industry. To narrow down the broad spectrum of

game types I will be focusing on mostly console gaming. Although future gaming consoles, such

as Virtual Reality, with be touched on.

Keywords: Women, Video games, Gender gaming bias, Sexuality and Gaming.
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Women In Games and Their Effect on Real World Women

In day-to-day media consumption we are bombarded with purposefully designed stimuli

trying to mold our minds and influence our thinking. When seeing these images or hearing these

messages over and over again they begin to affect our interpretations of the world in some form

or another. Taking it one step further, we are now able to step into that media and become a part

of it. With video games these images become more influential because we are able to immerse

ourselves in this imaginary world with these curated images. In many of these games women are

depicted as toys, objects, something to be conquered, to be won, all to further the storyline of the

primarily male main characters. As games become more realistic and more advanced, we must

also refine and rethink the way that we create female characters before these images run rampant

and lay waste the equality that modern society has made great strides towards.

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. Tropes of female characters can

date back into Ancient Greek mythology. This mythology has countless descendants in modern

media which have rehashed the ancient tales in one way or another; a great deal of those

descendants are video games. As Jack Holland discusses in his book A Brief History of

Misogyny: The World's Oldest Prejudice, the depiction of women throughout the variety of

artistic medium as being lesser goes as far back as we can see. Holland discusses the examples of

myogenic tropes stating, As well as burdening Pandora with responsibility for the mortal lot of
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man, the Greeks created a vision of woman as the Other, the antithesis to the male thesis, who

needed boundaries to contain her...Any history of the attempt to dehumanize half the human race

is confronted by this paradox, that some values we cherish most were forged in a society that

devalued, denigrated and despised women. (2006, 335) The fact that we still display a particular

segment of humans as less than complete being negates that that's what they are; less. Continue

to display someone as less and they will be treated as less. If you cannot see someone as human,

or think that you have more worth than someone, it makes it easier to abuse, rape, or murder.

These tropes in video games don't make rapist or murderers, but they reassure potentials that this

treatment of women is the norm.

Let's start with the longest running and most popular trope of all, the Damsel in

distress. Im sure that most have heard of this term before through some sort of media.

Additionally, Im also sure that this immediately evokes an image in your head of a young

beautiful woman crying out for the help of a gallant hero. Not only does this bring the crowd to

the box office, it also has gamers lining up to become part of this story and become the hero.

Anita Sarkeesian describes this trope as ...A plot device in which a female character is placed in

a perilous situation from which she can not escape on her own and must be rescued by a male

character, usually providing the core incentive or motivate for the protagonists quest(3:24). One

of the most well know examples of this is the game series Mario. In this franchise the main

character, Mario, is on a constant quest to get his beloved Princess Peach back from an evil

dinosaur creature named Bowser. Although the whimsical nature of this game may make it seem

harmless, the depiction of the damsel in distress trope could not be more right on the nose with

this one. The Mario franchise has over 230 games most of which follow this exact same story
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line. Mario is a more lighthearted depiction of this trope, however there are many darker ways it

has been played out through video games. In 2010 Dante's Inferno, the characters wife is

brutally murdered and he has to travel to hell to liberate her back from Lucifer himself. A

haunting example of how the abuse and sometimes murder of a woman can be used to give

incentive to the male character and further his heroic tale.

The damsel in distress trope is detrimental to the views of the female gender because it

not only reinforces the stereotype of females being the weaker of the two sexes but also that they

are property of men from which can be taken. The antagonists character as this stereotypical

presentation of evil is also a false representation. The casual way in which video games depict

this reinforces a false perception: that violence against women is committed by only the most

heinous of people. When in fact, someone trusted by the victim is most commonly the

perpetrator of such violence. These images sensationalize and normalize the issue at hand and act

to reinforce the myth that women are to be victimized and objectified by all.

Another highly prevalent trope depicted in gaming is presenting the female characters in

eroticized ways after completing a task or beating the game. This trope is called Women as

Reward. The Feminist Frequency crew coins this term as, When women (or more often

womens bodies) are employed as rewards for player actions in video games. The trope frames

female bodies as collectibles, as tractable or consumable, and positions women as status symbols

designed to validate the masculinity of presumed straight male characters.(5:04, Sarkeesian).

This gives the player a view of women as something that is owned or the something that has

been earned. This paradigm creates the image and perception of women's bodies as prizes or

asset that can be owned, that in turn creates the thinking which feeds into sexist ideas and rape
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culture itself. Dr. Victoria Simpson Beck of the University of Wisconsin states in her paper

Violence Against Women in Video Games that her study found that a video game depicting

sexual objectification of women and violence against women resulted in statistically significant

increased rape myths acceptance, rape-supportive attitudes, for male study participants but not

for female participants. The findings show that if women continue to be depicted as a reward

rather than complex human beings, we are conditioning people to treat them as such. Though this

might seem like a stretch in reasoning or an assumption of a slippery slope, materials evidence

has been provided by Dr. Beck that supports this shocking notion.

A startling majority of female characters featured in video games are non-playable and

are generally portrayed wearing substantially less clothing. The female characters programmed

un-involvement with the storyline, coupled with their proactive dress, establishes them as the

scenes decoration. In genres like first person shooter games and sports games, female characters

are rare. When they do appear, they follow the all too familiar tend of damsels in distress or

decorative temptresses meant to titillate the player or further the male-centered storylines. The

line of presenting women with sexuality and sexualizing women is crossed when they are

depicted as nothing more that non-playable sex toys instead of complex beings capable of

complex emotion. Robbing women of inherently human complexities establishes female

characters as nothing more than an instrument that may be violated, abused, or even flat out

murdered. With no greater purpose than to raise the emotional stakes and give the player reason

to catch the bad guy and exact revenge. These women are almost immediately shoved under

the rug, forgotten, or sacrificed in the name of advancing the storyline or getting the main

character to his next quest. Sexual and domestic violence is all too familiar for women of the real
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world, an occurrence that is trivialized when reflected into video games.

Many argue that the line between fantasy and reality is clear and that people are able to

tell video games from real life. However, while the surface level impressions of video games

versus real life might be easy to differentiate, it is the latent effects that are much direr. Studies

show that images in media have an effect on how we perceive our world. Dr. Victoria Simpson

Beck expands on existing research into a link between negative attitudes toward women,

violence against women, and the medias ability to condition such negative attitudes by

observing this phenomenon is one of medias fastest growing segments; video games. Beck

states, Study findings did indicate that sexual objectification of women and violence against

women in video games do increase rape myths in male participants. (pp. 25). As we dive deeper

into one of the fastest growing media platforms, games are getting more immersive and realistic

than ever. We need to understand how much more susceptible we will become to these images as

they re-occur.

The skimpy outfits notwithstanding, female characters have increasingly been portrayed

as strong and relevant in more and more video games. Strong female protagonists have emerged

among the gaming scene. The outfits not undermining their journey, therefore helping empower

and reinforce that they are more than bodies or props. Strong female characters can date back to

an older series of video games 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

(Friedberg, 2015). Although the character was dressed in a lesser amount of clothing, the focus

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. Though games have made headway in giving female
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characters leading roles, men are still predominantly the main character and focus of games.

Furthermore, many stereotypical tropes are still employed, even in games with a female lead.

As consumers of media we must also be critics of the platform and witnesses to its real

life consequences. If there is going to be change on this industry the change must start with you,

the consumer. Hit them where it hurts, their wallets. These large multimillion-dollar gaming

companies will only change if the change is required of them to make more money. Boycotting

games that promote these sexist notions is the solution. Show these companies that these

depictions of women are not what we, the consumers, want. There are plenty of upcoming games

developers that have don't use these cheap tricks to pull in an audience. These are the developers

that need your support.

The violent and hyper-sexualized portrayal of women in media, particularly video games,

has aided societys desensitization to violence against women. I say this as an avid videogame

player, bordering on enthusiast. However, despite my appreciation for video games, I believe

that being a fan also means critiquing and speaking out when something is wrong. 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. As

the mass media has distorted and violated the female figure, such warped images of women,

have become easily digestible to the human eye. Some of the most blatant examples, so

commonly mistreated and over used, come from the video game world. These violent and often

sensationalized images have turned the female form into an objectified and marketed
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commodity. Such representations exhibit unacceptable reality of violence against women, which

further dehumanizes the gender. All too often these harmful misrepresentations are hidden in

plain sight.
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References
Ferguson, C. (n.d.). Video-Game Heroines Can Kick Sexism's Butt. Chronicle of Higher
Education,62(15), B14-B15. Retrieved February 26, 2017.

Friedberg, Jared, "Gender Games: A Content Analysis Of Gender Portrayals In Modern,

Narrative Video Games." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2015.

Galloway, Brennan W., "An Analysis of Female Roles in Popular Sports Video Games. "
Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2006. http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/1559

Holland, J. (2006). A brief history of misogyny. London: Robinson.

Sarkeesian A. (2016, June 06). Retrieved February 23, 2017, from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jko06dA_x88