Women characters are portrayed as nearly naked by wearing very thin or skimpy clothing. Their cleavage does not go unseen because of their ridiculously low necklines and small amounts of clothes. Their waistlines are often so thin that the only part visible is indeed, their breasts. A great example of this can be shown through looking at the characters of the Soul Calibur series. Below is a picture of Ivy Valentine, a female character from the series. Notice how much emphasis exists from the chest down in this image. Her body represents the notion of skimpy clothing and voluptuousness in female video game characters. Her waistline is nearly invisible as her breasts invade the space in this image. It is evident that in real life, these kinds of bodies do not typically exist. Although she may be considered a hero or important character in the game, it is overshadowed by her sexualized body image.
image by: Stregatto10
"To date, there is no published systematic research on female body imagery in video games, but a casual examination of the video game landscape suggests that the female characters featured in many of these games may conform to the skinny-yet-busty ideal featured in other media." -Dmitri Williams
Although they may not intend on doing it, it seems that female character developers believe that it's alright for female characters to be as resistant and active as their male counterpart. Only if she is in some way sexualized, this will hinder her strengths when being compared to male characters.
"For a woman, who may not be voluptuous or want to be objectified by men, there may not be much desire to engage with a media product where this is the common depiction of femininity (Martinson, 2002)."- CarrieLynn Reinhard
The picture above represents the female body image that we see in everyday life. It is more common to see bodies like this as opposed to the one featured earlier because they are real. As mentioned before, the bodies portrayed in video games are completely unreal. The fact that men can play as the female protagonist (whether it be Ivy Valentine in Soul Calibur or Lara Croft in Tomb Raider) allows the woman's body to be controlled and therefore gazed upon by the dominant ideology. The video game business fundamentally boosts itself in developing games that male end users will want to engage, and failing to give bigger quantities of games with adverse-depictions for players of both sexes.
"Past research has found a level of ambivalence among women as they deal with themedia's depictions of female beauty, such as the curvaceously thin.Women shown idealized or sexualized body types have indicated more dissatisfaction with their own body, especially if they have internalized the norms portrayed,all the while being critical of sexualized portrayals in general." -Reinhard
Maybe potential female players would refuse to engage in a video game involving such a character because of their lack of enthusiasm to relate to the character. Contrary to this idea, male end users might enjoy playing games like this in result of their attraction to the sexualized female character. When identifying with the character on both conditional and intellectual traits, both female and male players may show an increased amount of involvement in the game. Many studies show that male players are much more interested in a character that is not "boobified." Other findings show that even female players interest might decrease in the character if they are given other options. Therefore, the gaming industry might want to acknowledge adjusting to characters that are not sexualized (or as sexualized). This would allow both sexes to distinguish and thus, appoint to the game on a more personal scale.
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