1.0 Introduction
For my case study I will be looking at women’s representation in video games and the over sexualised way they are represented. From the birth of the industry, females have always been underrepresented. Not only in the real world but females often played the role of background characters offering no real difference to the gameplay. Another trait these characters upheld were their oversexualised personas. In this discussion I will be looking at how females have been portrayed in video games after the emerging of new technology and through the development of feminism in the real world. According to the Oxford Dictionary (2017), Feminism is “The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes”. Has the waves of feminism had an impact on women within the industry and the way in which females are portrayed. Focussing on Lara Croft as one of the most controversial female characters created, which caused a lot of debate and received criticism for her oversexualised depiction of a lead female character.
2.0 Feminist Theory
“Feminist theory is a theory on women’s rights and gender equality. It involves the study of women’s roles in society which include their rights, privileges, interests, and concerns. It serves as an extension to feminism which evaluates the rightful place of women in the society” (H, 2011).
Historians and professors divide feminisms history into waves. The first wave happened between 1848 and 1920 and gave women the right to vote. Currently we are in the fourth-wave of feminism which began around 2012 and is associated with social media. Feminist Prudence Chamberlain (2017) says that the fourth wave focusses on sexual harassment and violence towards women.
3.0 Women’s Representation in Video Games
In the 1980s there were not many female characters in video games and when they were, they primarily assumed gender-stereotypes (Braun & Giroud, 1989). Although there was an increase in the production of video games in the early 1990s, female characters were still underrepresented and over sexualised (Dietz, 1998). The common trends in these female characters were usually playing the role of the “damsel in distress” the “sexy sidekick” or “background decoration” said Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency. In the history of video games male characters have been seen acting aggressively towards female characters and having them only take on roles as the prize, victim or damsel in distress (Provenzo, 1991; Martison 2002). Even in the rare circumstances where the female character was the hero, she was regularly sub-ordinary to the main male character, or the way in which she was created was over sexualised through her clothing and behaviour (Dietz,1998). This was during the 2nd and 3rd waves of feminism where women were still underrepresented but there was focus on reducing the inequalities between the different sexes. Movements such as National Organization of women (NOW) and the Women’s Liberation Movements were born during the second-wave of feminism. The main issues that they raised were workplace equality, sexuality and domestic violence. (Dorey-Stein, 2015). The NOW movement fought for the Equal Right Amendment (ERA) and on the 22nd of March 1972 provided “the legal equality of the sexes and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex” (History, 2018).
Further down the timeline, the portrayal of female’s characters in video games showed them to be more like participants rather than competitors to the male characters. The underrepresentation of women is not only shown in video games but has a direct correlation to females in real life. Data on the gender demographics collected in the 1980s by popular press reports suggested that female developers made up just 3% of the workforce in 1989 (Graser, 2013). As well as female workers being concentrated into low paying and low-ranking positions (Jacko, 2012). According to (IDGA, 2014) only 22% of professionals in video games are women with this proportion being higher than the original approximation by 3% (Graser, 2013). In 2005, only 11,5% of survey respondents identified as female, this means that in a 10-year period the number of women who are involved in developing games in the industry has almost doubled. This is a positive sign that there is a change happening within the industry and women are becoming more represented in the workplace and having more of an impact of the games being produced. This development could have been due the powerful movements born within the second-wave of feminism that has made way for more females moving into sectors that were traditionally dominated by males.
3.1 Ambivalent Sexism
According to the oxford dictionary ambivalent sexism is: “a theory that sexism toward women is multidimensional, one form (hostile sexism) reflecting negative views of women who challenge traditional gender roles, and the other form (benevolent sexism) reflecting positive views of women who conform to these roles” (Oxford Dictionary, 2019)
The ambivalent sexism is a theoretical framework that has caused harmful depictions of females in the virtual and real world. These two themes being; benevolent sexism which sees females as delicate and fragile, the other being; hostile sexism which implies notions of women wanting to control men through sex (Glick & Fiske, 2001). These sexist themes have popped up many times and can develop into harmful stereotypes. An extremely popular title, Super Mario (1985), displays the theme of “damsel in distress”, with Princess Peach appearing helpless as she is kidnapped, and it is up to the male protagonist to save the day and the girl. This benevolent sexism of traditional gender roles shows Princess Peach in a positive way as she in conforming to this idea that women constantly need saving and it is up to the male character to save the day.
An example of hostile sexism comes from another popular title, Grand Theft Auto (1997), which portrays women as oversexualised and “background decoration”. Sexism is very apparent in the Grand Theft Auto series as there are no lead female antagonists, and the ones we do hear from require help to get out of difficult situations. This is where it is up to the lead male character to solve her problem. The other form of female characters shown within the Grand Theft Auto franchise are topless women found as prostitutes where you have the option to rob her once she has finished her service. This is a very negative portrayal on women in general and can lead to sexism in real life situations.
A survey created by Emma Matthews (2012) with over 800 responses, collected data and produced easy to read graphs based upon sexism in the video game community.
” 79.3% of all participants believe that sexism is prominent in the gaming community. 7.1% responded “no,” and 13.6% of respondents were not sure if sexism is prominent in the community” (Matthews, 2012).
Figure 1: Is Sexism Prominent in the Gaming Community? (2012)
63.3% of female participants said they had experienced sexism whilst playing video games. 15.7% of the male candidates also said that they had experienced sexism. This 15% said that they received comments that revolved around them not fitting into normal masculine gender role (IBID ,2012).
Figure 2: Have you experienced sexism while gaming? (2012)
4.0 Sexualisation of female characters
Over sexualisation or hyper sexualisation of female characters is also a well talked about subject in the gaming industry. In an analysis of the top 60 selling games from 2003, Downs and Smith (2010) found that when comparing male characters to female, the females were frequently shown partially nude. In another inspection of introductory films and video games, Jansz and Martis (2007) seen that a vast majority of female characters had particularly large breasts, bottoms and wore provocative clothing. This over sexualisation of females does not just exist in video games, but in other media texts there is an emphasis on having a “curvaceously thin” body (Harrison, 2003). These thin women with extra-large breasts that are disproportionate to their body, create an unattainable body image that you would only otherwise be able to attain through cosmetic surgery. These physical attributes are them paired with how attractive and successful the game character is showcasing societies ideal feminine figure. In digital games these pairings are seen with over sexualised characters being the hero in the game or the helping hand to the hero.
Game characters such as Samus (Metroid, 1986) who’s curvy figure was intended initially as a reward for completing the game. This shows once again that the female is being portrayed as the ’prize’ for completing the game. She can be seen as having large extremities, partnered with high heeled boots as well as wearing bright blue spandex that was very well fitted.
Figure 3: Samus Aran Zero suit (2004)
In an examination of female sexuality in video games it was found that 70% of female characters that appeared in mature games and 46% of these characters were shown to have an exaggerated cleavage, with 86% of these female characters have low and revealing clothing, and 48% were also dressed in outfits that had no sleeves. In contrast to male characters in the same study only 22% of these characters had no sleeves and 14% were wearing low/revealing clothing (Beasley et Standley, 2002).
These exaggerated over sexualised images of the female body creates unrealistic standards, and in many cases deters female players from going anywhere near the content. Women are attracted to games with less sexualised characters (Hartmann & Klimmt, 2006). Women were also more subject to play role playing games (RPGs) rather than any other type of game (Williams, Consalvo, et al., 2009). This is due to the fact that there are more oversexualised female characters in genres such as action, adventure and fighting style games. Players and critics suggested that women do not play more video games because the character the player controls in the game, is not one they felt comfortable playing or want to play as (Martison, 2002). Feminism was within its 3rd wave where women were embracing individualism and diversity throughout the world. Sexual liberation was also a key issue at this stage of feminism and the 3rd wave allowed women to redefine themselves “as assertive, powerful, and in control of their own sexuality” (Brunnell and Burkett, 2019).
5.0 Lara Croft
Released for the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1996, Tomb Raider follows the adventures of an English archaeologist. Lara Croft is the lead protagonist, represented as extremely intelligent and athletic. The game was an instant success, selling 7 million copies worldwide. It earned praise from video game magazines for its graphics, control and gameplay (Whitehouse, 2018). Despite its great success, the game also received a lot of criticism for the objectification of a female character on top of being an over sexualised representation.
This particular portrayal of the Lara Croft character was advertised as being 5’9”, 132 lbs and a breast size of 34D. When the developers of the Tomb Raider were designing the game, they wanted to appeal to both men and women. They tried to do this by creating the first, independent, strong and heroic lead female character. However, due to her appearance of large breasts, narrow waist and lack of clothing, it drew in a larger following of men to play the game (Mikula, 2003). Although women may be interested in playing games where the female characters are strong, the industry continues to showcase oversexualised body types that are unattainable to the female players. This makes them more an object for males to gaze upon rather than encouraging female empowerment.
When the very first Tomb Raider game was released in 1996, the marketing used a barely clothed impersonator at events and their campaign ad showed men leaving strip clubs to find Lara Croft (Cassell & Jenkins, 1998). Lara quickly became an over sexualised character that men could look at while playing with her in the game. The game allowed the player to manipulate camera angles that created the best gazing views (Mikula, 2003).
There has been a change in the sexualisation of female characters over the years in the industry. Games released from 1983 – 1990 featured the least sexualised characters. This is not surprising as the lower graphics made game characters disproportionate having their head and bodies looking boxy (Martins et al., 2009). With technology quickly advancing in the 1990s to early 2000s this is where the industry started to increase the sexualisation of characters with higher resolution graphics now available. Lara Croft was the catalyst, this encouraged other game developers to create more sexually appealing characters to entice a large male audience and increase sales.
Figure 4: Average sexualisation of characters by year of release (2016)
This diagram shows that the late 1990s showed an increase in these oversexualised characters where it continued to be an issue, until only recently when it showed a large decline.
However, there are some positive signs that these portrayals are changing. As the interests of women and girls are growing within the gaming industry, they seem to be influencing new game content in a positive way. Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency created feminist discussions like ‘#1reasonwhy’ which,
“Has brought attention to the underrepresentation of female professionals in the industry as well as the sexualisation and stereotyping of female characters in video games” (T. Lynch et al., 2016).
Rhianna Pratchett the lead writer for the newest instalment of ‘Rise of the Tomb Raider (2018)’ stated in an interview that the past sexualisation of the Lara Croft character was mostly for marketing purpose and said that this approach is a thing of the past.
“The way Lara is marketed now is not sexualised”. “It’s still beautiful, it’s still strong, it’s still character, but it’s not sexualised in the way it was done before” (Crawley, 2015).
With the rise of strong lead roles in video games like Emily Kaldwin in Dishonoured 2 and Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn shows females in a strong positive way that does not over sexualise the character to generate sales. The popularity of these two titles has also shown developers that there is a big market for female led games. This is a great step forward and portraying Lara croft as a more realistic image as well as showing her as a person rather than an object is another reason that shows the industry is moving in the right direction. Lara Croft is still portrayed as the same strong, athletic, capable, intelligent women, however, the difference being these are the things that the developers of the game see as ‘sexy’ without having to over sexualise her as they have done in the past.
It is shown that as feminism has progressed through the 4 waves, it has influenced the gaming industry and the character design positively. Characters have become less sexualised and closer to a realistic representation of the female body, empowering women players.
6.0 Conclusion
In conclusion, the underrepresentation of women in video games and the industry was a problem in the early years. The number of women is still a small percentage compared to male, although there does seem to be an increase in the amount of female developers bringing in fresh ideas. The previous idea that women were secondary to men only filling in the gaps of background characters in games and the workplace is slowly diminishing with an increase of lead female characters, as well as there being an increase in female game developers. Sexualisation of female characters is still happening in the industry today, however western culture looks to be moving forward portraying female characters in a positive way, showing that these lead female protagonists don’t need to be partially nude to create interesting, playable avatars. Ultimately, it has been shown that video games have evolved over the years concurring with the waves of feminism. As the waves of feminism have progressed there are clear changes to the way people think and act towards women. From the underrepresentation of lead female characters, and sexualising the few that existed, to the increase in realistic, strong female leads, the industry is making progress in the right direction. Oversexualisation of female characters is unlikely to completely stop, but this trend of characters is becoming less utilised as feminism in the current generation is developing.
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