Sexism in Video Games and the Gaming Industry

It is ridiculously past my bedtime, but I am staying up with my boyfriend to keep him company while he watches G4's "Countdown to Halo 3", which is actually "Countdown until a Best Buy in New York sells a copy of Halo 3 to a guy who has been standing in line since 1997". I started watching this program with more interest when I saw the interview with the female gamers. As you may assume, the majority of the folks standing in line, or playing the demos, or being interviewed were male, largely between the (apparent) ages of 15 and 30. And since the storyline of Halo 3 involves a very manly type of man, running around blowing things up and machine-gunning enemies, this section of the demographic is to be expected.

However, not to leave out any women that might be interested in this game, G4 put in a token segment with an interview of the Suicide Girls, self-proclaimed female platers. The content of this segment is what shocked me -- it opened with a montage of photos that were one step below pornography, showing these girls either completely nude, with naughty parts pixilated, or in clothing that would get them arrested in 47 states. The spoken part of the interview contained repeated assertions by these girls that they frequently liked to play the game online and in the nude -- I assume a fulfillment of every adolescent boy's fantasy. Unlike the interviews with male gamers, they didn't mention what their favorite maps, weapons, or strategies were, and it didn't matter. Their role was to be sexual objects, not knowledgeable contributers to the program.

The other interview I saw was on the streets with "real girls", and by real I mean they were wearing clothing and did not seem to be actors in a lesbian pornography film. However, the interview began with them being introduces as "some hot, sexy ladies" or something very close to that. In contrast, none of the male participants were mentioned in a sexual way. No one mentioned Jim's nice pectorals, or Joe's great rear end, or John's tight jeans. Those interviews focused strictly on gameplay -- favorite strategies, difficulty levels, weapons, etc. Interesting, but not surprising,

Ironically, the female character in Halo does not match the usual stereotype of women in video games. She is a military commander. Men listen to her orders; she does not get called 'babydoll' or 'sweetheart', and she does not show cleavage. If you have taken a visual survey of other female characters in video games, this portrayal is a digression from the norm. One beach volleyball game's sole purpose is to have to players hit a ball, causing the female characters' um, lady parts to bounce in an inapropriately realistic way; in the Grand Theft Auto series, the majority of the women are either prostitutes, overweight, or mothers with strollers -- thus oversexualizing or desexualizing them. Even in games such as Tomb Raider, where the protagonist is a woman, the female lead character is built like a Barbie, with an unnaturally small waist, and disproportionate chest.

In a media world where the camera view is largely a male view, the video game industry takes sexism to new heights. In cinema and television, female characters who are powerful and smart (such as in Charlie's Angels, Kill Bill,Daredevil, and Tomb Raider) also have to be sexy; as though short, average-looking women with small busts couldn't possibly have what it takes to fight crime. But at least in these industries there are plenty of shows and movies where average women have inherent value; in the world of video games, both inside and outside the television, this quality is noticeably lacking.