Geek Feminism and representation of Female Roles in games

"Through STEM studies, which look at why males are often linked toscience rather than females, there are a myriad of studies that focus specifically on genderedrepresentation within video games. While these studies do not differentiate between American made games and Japanese made games, and do not cover every video game system, they have noticed several patterns." -Representation of Women in Popular Video Games , Nicholas Lalone

Although many believe that we have overcome the underrepresentation of female characters in video games, gender discrimination remains unconquered. One may note the sexualized appearance of women often found in role-playing and narrative based games. Women characters are often thrown into the game as sexualized rewards or game goals. Most video games are still marketed to the dominantly male consumer. This sexist advertising presumes that the audience will be male which leaves many females offended. One may note that most characters featured in video games are in fact male. Kelly Phillips noted the number comparison between male and female characters in her 2009 Yahoo! Contributor article From Princess Peach to Lara Croft: Gender Representation in Video Games



photo by: addae2012

"In Mario Superstar Baseball, the front cover only shows male characters (Bowser, Mario, Luigi, Wario, Donkey Kong) and an unidentifiable gendered dinosaur (Yoshi). All the characters are shown in a small column on the right of the back cover. This column includes the characters on the front plus two females, four other male characters and an unidentifiable gender dinosaur (Princess Peach, Daisy, Waluigi, Diddy Kong, Bowser Junior, and Birdo)." -Kelly Phillips, From Princess Peach to Lara Croft: Gender Representation in Video Games.

If gaming options exist for female players, they are usually provided with less features and options than men have. Video games that are sexually explicit and involve fair amounts of nudity are generally directed towards a dominant male audience.If women play, this type of game leaves them with not much of a choice in the matter. A great example of this would be hotselling titles such as Grand Theft Auto and the latest installation to the Max Payne series. Both of these games were created by video game developer and publisher Rockstar Games, and feature open world and free roam settings. This allows games like these to feature prostitutes, drug addicts, victims, and strippers; all of which represent the low life of women.



photo by: Thomas Menga

Women are continuously objectified and sexualized. Perhaps this is due to the simple fact that video games portray this significantly higher amount of male character and male dominance in video games."These perspectives suggest that a video game landscape wherewomen are represented infrequently and as passive, sexualized beings can precipitate a similar Weltanschauung among video game players who consume the message through long and frequent bouts of game play." James D. Ivory



video by: feministfrequency

In the video above, pop culture critic Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency shows images that represent how narrative games of male dominance are like.The video depicts Faith of the ever famous Mirror's Edge. The video also features Chell from Portal. Both characters are shown at significant points to communicate the idea that game developers can note the issue. I plan to bring various ideas to the table this semester by focusing primarily on gender representation (especially when it comes to female roles and feminist focused theories).