Running head: DO WOMENS PORTRAYAL IN VIDEO GAMES AFFECT HOW WE VIEW

WOMEN AS A GENDER?
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Do Womens Portrayal in Video Games Affect How We View Women as a Gender?

Brittany Carter

Arizona State University

DO WOMENS PORTRAYAL IN VIDEO GAMES AFFECT HOW WE VIEW WOMEN AS A
GENDER?
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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

this topic needs greater attention and further research.

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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Do women's portrayal in video games affect how we view women as a gender?

In day-to-day media consumption, we are bombarded with advertisements trying to mold

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
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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

and male 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
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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
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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
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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

Stereotyping in Video Games. Mass Communication and Society,5(3),279-

293.doi:10.1207/s15327825mcs0503_3

Ivory, J. D. (2006). Still a Mans Game: Gender Representation in Online Reviews of Video

Games.

Mass Communication & Society,9(1), 103-114. doi:dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327825mcs0901_6

Jansz, J., & Martis, R. G. (2007). The Lara Phenomenon: Powerful Female Characters in Video

Games.

Sex Roles,56(3-4), 141-148. doi:10.1007/s11199-006-9158-0

Ferguson, C.J. Psychiatr Q (2007). The Good, The Bad and the Ugly: A Meta-analytic Review

of Positive and Negative Effects of Violent Video Games,78: 309. doi:10.1007/s11126-007-

9056-9