Gender and Media Project

Sex and Gender in video games

By Josh Taub

Typical female game characters:

Why is this the dominant representation of women in video games?

Because the largest demographic that plays video games are young men.

These are the type of female characters the typical gamer wants to see

However, the audience for video games is rapidly changing.

Women, homosexuals, and other groups that aren’t typically associated with video games are now becoming a substantial part of the video game user base.

This shift had led to both calls for more diversity and better representations of women in games…

…and to much resistance and backlash by gaming’s original straight-male audience

The Anita Sarkeesian Debacle

This women ran a kickstarter campaign to fund a series of videos examining sexism in video games

… It did not go well for her

The unrelenting harassment and misogyny Sarkeesian faced sparked a newfound interest and debate on the issue of women and feminism in video games

Something of a martyr figure for feminism-minded gamers, the abuse Sarkeesian endured became the quintessential example of the gender issues facing video games.

Ironically, Sarkeesian’s vocal, hateful detractors ended up inadvertently kicking the video game feminism debate into high gear.

Gender issues and sexism in video games are much more discussed now than they were before the Sarkeesian incident

For the record:

There is nothing wrong with straight men enjoying looking at attractive women in entertainment products.

Sexy female video game characters are not an inherently bad thing, and we should not tell people that they aren’t allowed to have something that they enjoy

The issue is that EVERYBODY should be able to enjoy video games, not just straight white males.

There should be a place for women and other groups in this industry and culture as well. There should be more games and characters that reflect the interests of these audiences, and they should be able to play and enjoy games without fear of harassment or sexism from the community.

It’s not that we need much less of this:

It’s that we need much more of this:

Hopefully the day when EVERYONE of all genders and races can enjoy video games will come soon