Gender Roles In Video Games

Video gaming is the largest entertainment industry, with an estimated 1.2 billion people engaged worldwide. Whilst women represent 46% of gamers and female game creators are increasing, games are still predominately made by and for men. As a result, misogynistic and sexist representations of women are created in the interest of male fantasy that is reflected in both game context and game play. Throughout many video games a patriarchal culture of sexism is maintained, reinforced and normalised through the context, stereotypical character representations, online bullying and harassment. This culture of sexism is, however being challenged by gamers and game developers in a way that is liberating and empowering to women in the gaming sphere.
Online and console-based gaming is explored and analysed throughout different research studies and feminist perspectives. “They see It as a Guy’s Game”:The Politics of Gender in Digital Games, is an article which explores female involvement in the gaming world and analyses “gaming character representation, content, and the gaming environment” through a sociological and feminist perspective. Anita Sarkeesian is a feminist who began a webpage titled Feminist Frequency, highlighting the over-sexualised, objectified, stereotyped and oppressive portrayals of female characters in games whilst providing educational tools for people to study and learn from. These sources and a collection of studies, explore misogyny and sexism in gaming and how it relates to contemporary Western societal perceptions of gender construction, relations and power. The sources indicate that Western societies still live in a patriarchal world, as the gendered context and experiences of gaming remain male-dominated. These portrayals of women are a reflection of social messages that are reinforced and normalised through the ongoing experience and level of interactivity involved in games.

Gender appropriate behaviours and roles still prevalent in contemporary Western societies are perpetuated throughout gaming culture and genres.
Family-games are designed to be child friendly, however some still perpetuate stereotypical view of gender roles. Nintendo's Mario Brothers, portrays the stereotypical view of Princess Peach as the damsel in distress, reinforcing the idea that women are rewards, when Mario rescues Peach. Grand Theft Auto (GTA) although targeted at an older audience (15 years) also perpetuates this message by using hyper violence and brutality toward women to gain rewards and level up in the game. The stereotypical context and portrayal of violence towards women is so rampant across video games, that players essentially become desensitized to graphic images and the role of women in society is identified and normalised. This culture of sexism is thus maintained as the industry continues to design these games and their popularity remains the
same.

Societal notions of the gender hierarchies are illustrated in the representation of gaming avatars.
According to sociologist Raewyn Connell; “Hegemonic masculinity is dominant in the hierarchy of gender and associated with the acquisition of societal powers, status and privileges”. This patriarchal gender binary therefore reinforces that femininity is devalued, thus emphasising women’s subordinate role in society, and men’s dominant role. This construction of gender is evident in gaming culture as hypermasculine male characters are the protagonists, whilst the hypersexualised female characters are the objects of desire, existing to satisfy the needs of the male protagonist. Grand Theft Auto emphasises this gender hierarchy as women are portrayed only as prostitutes or girlfriends of the main protagonists. Although there are some female protagonists in games such as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, these characters remain hypersexualised and portrayed in a way that is disempowering and objectifying to women. Notions of the patriarchal gender hierarchy also affect the decision of gamers. A study found that both male and female gamers choose the male character as their “social position of power was fun and sometimes exhilarating”. This illustrates that the gender hierarchy present in virtual worlds, serve to uphold men’s dominance, power and status in society and reinforce women’s subordinated and devalued role. This notion is further reinforced as women are also vastly
underrepresented in video games despite making up 50% of the population. Video games therefore maintain and reinforce a culture of sexism as they perpetuate women’s inferior position, which reflect the patriarchal notions of gender constructions and hierarchies evident in Western societies today.