The portrayal of women in video games

More women than ever are playing games. But the industry risks alienating them through sexualized and demeaning portrayals of female characters.

By Ian Coppock

A few years ago, I took a college course on the portrayal of women and minorities in western media. After a few minutes of discussion, I decided to ask a question I'd never thought of before.

"How many women in here carry pepper spray or knives?"

Almost every girl's hand went up. The revelation blew my mind. I'm a dude, and a tall one at that, so rarely does the question of self-defense occur to me. Beyond that, though, I was a little angry that I'd never born witness to such discussions before. I don't blame women for never bringing it up, though. I blame the media, and our society's staggering inability to discuss female inequality.

Sooner or later, every question I ask applies to video games. I spent a few months conducting my own research into how women are portrayed in video games and gaming magazines, and the results were pretty disappointing. My purpose with this piece is not to evoke a THOU ART SHAMEFUL-esque condemnation of games, but to demonstrate an opportunity that all of us stand to gain from.

How many women and girls play video games?

Want to hear a mind-blowing statistic? According to the Entertainment Software Association, as of 2012, 47% of all video game players are women and girls. When I began the research, I thought the number would be something like 20%, but nope. Nearly half of the national gaming audience is female. There are more 18-and-older women playing games than boys 17 or younger.

What's interesting is that each gender also prefers different genres of games. Generally, men prefer faster-paced and intenser games like Call of Duty or Mass Effect, while women prefer open-world adventure games like World of Warcraft and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

My research shows that women prefer open-world adventure games to titles like Call of Duty.

There are exceptions to this rule, though. Open-world games are one of my favorite genres, and I know a few girls who love shooters. In the grand scheme of things, though, preferred genres are somewhat irrelevant. The more pressing concern in the video gaming world is how women are portrayed in games.

And how, pray tell, are they portrayed in video games?

I conducted a ton of research on a bunch of different games and gaming magazines from all genres and publishers. I came to a rather disappointing conclusion: I could only find two female characters that were not portrayed in a sexualized or demeaning manner, out of the 150 games or so I have in my apartment. Portrayals in magazines were similarly disappointing: female characters were either portrayed in skimpy clothing or as subservient and shielded by a strong male character.

Case in point: Bioshock Infinite. Note how the female character seems helpless, scared, and almost childlike, cowering behind the male character.

Even if certain games have strong or interesting female characters, they are still demeaned through the outfits designed for them. Some of these characters and costumes are just weird.

Bayonetta, a character from the game of the same name. Would anyone really wear that into battle?

Because it totally makes sense to have ridiculous cleavage armor in combat, right? This is Samara, a character from the Mass Effect series.

I don't... I can't...

The sexualization with Bioshock Infinite's Elizabeth is more subtle. Aside from her obvious cleavage, her eyes have been enlarged to make her seem more helpless and childlike.

Wow. So why are women portrayed this way?

I think part of the issue is that the gaming industry is overwhelmingly male. Designers, composers and programmers are almost always men. The only big-name female game designer I can think of is Jane Jensen, who put out Gray Matter. Some staffs at certain gaming companies, such as Valve, are slowly recruiting more women, but the industry's culture is very masculine. The fewer jobs that are offered to women, the fewer career opportunities will be open for additional women in the future.

Aren't you overreacting a bit? I don't hear female gamers bashing down the industry's doors demanding jobs and better characters.

My counter-point for the people who say that I and female gamers are overreacting and reading into the situation too much is, first of all, to go back and look at the images I posted. Second, consider the following: what do we as gamers and game producers have to lose by improving our portrayals of women in video games and magazines? If you don't believe that strong female characters don't sell, look at Half-Life 2. It's one of the biggest-selling games in history, has a legion of bloodthirsty fanboys, and produced a character who's received dozens of accolades, including a spot on numerous gaming magazines' lists of top 10 characters: Alyx Vance. Alyx is a strongly written character who's not sexualized, and the fans absolutely love her.

Alyx might be the industry's exemplar for strong female characters.

Another example is Mirror's Edge's Faith Connors. Though the story of the game wasn't particularly strong, Faith stands out in my mind as an example of a tough female character. The game sold lotsa copies, by the way. Both of these games disprove the notion that titles with strong female characters can't sell.

Faith can outrun helicopters and beat up legions of SWAT. Mirror's Edge did very well.

So, what do we do?

We reduce the sexualization of female characters. It's a win-win for everyone: female gamers feel more included and represented, and the gaming industry makes more money by including those consumers. They also write better, more immersive stories because the characters are more believable. If you oppose reducing the sexualization of female characters, I guess that's your call, but consider the benefits. Wouldn't you rather have a story with stronger, more realistic characters and stories, especially with how expensive games are these days? I'm sure female gamers would like to feel more included in this wonderful story and artwork world of ours. If you like sexualized characters, that's what porn and creepy fan fiction are for. The gaming industry can do better than this, and I believe reducing the sexualization of female characters will move games ever closer to being widely accepted as art.