It's a Boy's Club

While sexism has actively declined since the 1960s, it is still present in video games. The gaming industry and all aspects of it from game designers to game players have been dominated by men for the longest time. It is has been an all-boys club and only recently have the doors been open to women. When people design these games they purposely make them appeal to men. Women are often over-sexualized, associated with violence, male dependent, and have idealized body types. There are a few female archetypes that we learned about in class but to keep it short I will focus on the “sex icon.” We all know which female sex icon is the most famous and is still one of the hottest female characters of all time, Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. What could a guy want more than a super sexy killing machine? She is not even the worse one out there. Just look at these women from the Mortal Combat game. What these characters are wearing is sexy but also disturbing. Realistically, it’s close to impossible to fight with those types of outfits on, but I guess that is why it’s not real. Just imagine being a girl and growing up in a house hold with only boys. When I was little I played all kinds of games with my older brothers, especially Mortal Combat because it had many girl players to choose from. I always picked the girl player who I thought was the prettiest, had on my favorite color, and had the biggest boobs because that is what I thought beauty looked like. Sometimes young girls are exposed to these images at such a young age it brainwashes them into thinking that is what real women look like. Just like the perfect Barbie dolls we see in the stores, the half-naked swimsuit models in magazines and on TV, and also in online gaming. These women are made to have big breast, curves, and a big but. No one in real life looks like that. Actually, Nicki Minaj comes close but all of it is fake. 

When I look at it from the other side I see how it makes since to make these women the way they do. When it comes down to it, it’s all about selling and making money. More men play and it has always been that way, therefore companies are going to appeal to their main audience. I think if more women played then, the display of women as sex icons would be less. Recent statistics have shown that there has been an increase in the number of women gamers with the rise of games like The Sims and casual gaming apps, such as Diamond Dash and Candy Crush. I found a video on YouTube called, Video Games and the Female Audience and it just about sums up everything we learned in class about women and cmc and what I have been talking about in this blog. It is a really interesting video and definitely hits all the main issue about women in the gaming industry. One thing that stood out to me the most was when he talked about how the creator of Lora Craft, Toby Gard, made her to be a “sexy, powerful, over the top heroine, pretty much a female Indiana Jones.” He goes on to talk about the marketing side of it. The creators make them one way but then the marketers portray them in a way that attracts more men. It’s kind of sad that women’s images have to be degraded in order to sell a video game.  I believe if women feel a certain type of way about the way we are being portrayed in the media and everywhere else then they should stand up a say something. Women have been to quiet and we have been pushed to the side for way to long. We are more powerful now than ever and we should take full advantage of that.