The Male Domain: Exclusion of Women in Video Games | Kayleigh Connor

Even as an eleven-year-old, I understood how unrealistic giving an apparently strong fighter an embarrassingly
tiny armor set that clearly does not cover any of her skin was. My character’s voluptuous curves and evidently
burdensome big breasts popping from her outfit. I wanted to make my character look like me, but she still ended up
resembling a sex goddess. “Will I ever feel truly myself when gaming?”

When computers and game consoles became popular in the 1980s and 1990s, they were male-dominated areas, so
when computer games gained more popularity in the 2000s, they were less likely to be accessed by women. Most
“hardcore” games, like Halo or Call of Duty, were designed and produced by males for males.

In most of these games, that main character is a male. When there is a choice between playing a male or female
character, the customization options are very few for the female characters. For example, characters in the MMORPG
(or Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), World of Warcraft, clearly show how gaming is certainly not gender-
neutral. The choices for making a character are extremely limited. Not only are women excluded from video games
through character customization, they are often harassed by the male base for being female gamers due to the
expectation that females are not gamers.

Women are even excluded from the box art on video games, which in most cases for mainstream video games shows a
centralized male and a marginalized and sexualized female. This is because this portrayal is what sells the most games
due, again, to the expectations in the gaming world. In a study done by Christopher Near in 2012 on box art for video
games, he found that 42 percent of game boxes showed only male characters and only 7 percent of game boxes showed
only female characters. Out of the game boxes that did show women, 61 percent of them were sexualized.

Despite the increasing number of female gamers, developers continue to ignore these women, which creates a vicious
cycle. Desire to sell more isn’t the only reason this cycle exists; it’s also encouraged on by the fact that only 11 percent
of game designers and 3 percent of programmers are women and, to make matters worse, women video game
programmers earn an average of $10,000 less than their male counterparts annually. Experienced women gamers aren’t
asking for the industry to “girlify” video games and eliminate male characters; they are simply of the attitude that “we
just want a good game, and preferably one that’s not insulting to women” (Murray et. al.).

As many adolescents play video games, and

sexualization affects adolescents strongest, the
sexualization of women in video games can have
significantly negative effects on these adolescents,
both boys and girls. Video games’ hyper-sexualization
of females can cause this problem as well as eating
disorders and low confidence from the “thin ideal,”
unhealthy sexuality or shame regarding sex, and
misconceptions of femininity and sexuality due to
stereotyping. . Games don’t have to be completely
redone in a fully feminist way to appeal to women:
they just need to more accurately represent women in
a respectful way and give us a choice of what we want
and how we want to play.
Abridged from https://www.digitalamerica.org/the-male-domain-exclusion-of-women-in-video-games-kayleigh-connor/
1) Look up the meaning of the words in bold.

2) Answer the questions:

a. What is the problem with online games, apart from customization?
b. According to the article: Are men and women paid equally in the video game industry?
c. Why is the sexualization of video game characters an important regarding adolescents?
d. Do you think there has been an improvement in the portrayal of women in the video game industry
in the last 10 years? If you do not play video games: what about films and TV series?

3) True or False. If it’s ‘false’, please provide the evidence.

a. Video games are a male-dominated area and were less likely to be accessed by women when they
first became popular
b. Women are often excluded from video game box arts.
c. Statistically, there is approximately the same number of women and men working in the video
game industry.
d. Female gamers are asking for the video game industry to eliminate male characters and create
games that are exclusively for women.

4) You will play 5 games in which women are the main protagonists. You can answer the following questions in
the form of a short paragraph, or individually, but please consider them all when giving out your answers.
• What positive and negative aspects can you list from these games, regarding the portrayal of women?
• What game did you like the most? What game did you like the least? Why?
o What game do you think it best represents how women should be portrayed in video games?
• Do you think the sexualization of the character “Bayonetta” is the same as the sexualization stated in the
article? Why? Why not?
• If your gender is female: Do you think any of these characters could have been a role model in your
childhood?

Bayonetta 2 – Tomb Raider Legend?? – Resident Evil 3 Remake – The Last of Us Part II – Final Fantasy X-2