Week 3: Ashley Johnson Is Voicing a Teenager and They Didn’t Make It Creepy Thank God
This week’s reading about the sexist portrayal of characters in video games touched a lot on how female sprites in video games are often extremely and unnecessarily sexual. This included women being portrayed as “scantily clad” or “objectified physical specimens.” I do have to say, in my honest opinion, I don’t think that The Last of Us has this problem with its visual representation of women. For example, of the two main women depicted so far, Tess and A̶s̶h̶l̶e̶y̶ ̶J̶o̶h̶n̶s̶o̶n̶ Ellie, neither of them appear, to me, to be sexualized at all. I will say that maybe, maybe, Tess’s neckline might be a little lower than necessary, but it’s definitely nowhere near what I would call “scantily clad.” Besides, her frayed clothes, lack of makeup, and overall disheveled appearance not only take away from any potential sexualization, but also help to cultivate the belief that she really is living in a violent, desolate, post-apocalyptic, zombie-infected world.
Ellie, a fourteen-year-old character, seems to also have the look of someone who has spent her entire life living in this depressing, post-apocalyptic world. She’s dirty, bloody, and seems to dress more for function than for visuals. Thankfully there is nothing even remotely sexualized about her since she is a CHILD, and none of the players (so far) have treated her like any kind of sexual being. Neither Ellie nor Tess seem to behave in any way that could be construed as sexual or as a way to cater to a male audience. They both dress, curse, fight, and, in Tess’s case, die the way one would expect any person in their place would.
Any gender-related complaints I had about this portion of the game were definitely not related at all to the female characters being portrayed as sexual objects. If anything, the game seems to be going in the opposite direction with Ellie, putting her so aggressively into the “daughter who must be protected role” that there’s no way anyone could think of her sexually. This does have the potential to be equally toxic, as the male characters reducing Ellie down to an object to be protected could be almost as toxic as reducing her to an object of sexual desire, but Ellie herself seems to be perpetually willing to tell off any character who tries to do either to her. She is constantly reminding all the characters that she can take care of her self. Whether or not she actually can remains to be seen, but this week she did continue saving me with her switchblade because my aim is still terrible. Like, I turned on lock-on aiming or whatever and I’m still wasting four bullets per zombie. It’s starting to be a problem. Why can’t I just have a switchblade?
Anyways, I’m not saying that this game is completely free of portraying women as sexual objects, but it’s certainly not anything I’ve noticed yet, and it doesn’t seem like it’s something that would come up in the future. I think nothing would disappoint me more right now than seeing this game go in that direction, since it really feels like it’s been so good about it so far. And wow, isn’t it sad that, given current gaming culture, unnecessarily and unexpectedly sexualizing female characters is never completely out of the realm of possibility?
On a completely unrelated note, it’s funny that this week’s reading talked about sprites, since actress Ellen Page, who has no connection to The Last of Us, has voiced numerous complaints about how Naughty Dog (the makers of The Last of Us) “ripped off her likeness” for the Ellie sprite. I think she kind of has a point.
