Panel #2
This past Wednesday in class, the panel focused on several topics of the gaming industry. Within those topics, Chloe talked about the advertisement of video games and how different tactics convey different meanings. I wanted to make a connection between her discussion on advertisements and my future discussion on the sexualization of women within video games.
The history of women in the gaming industry is not marked by the successful games, but rather by the waves of negative backlash. Events like #gamergate and #notyourshield and #1reasonwhy overshadow the support for women within the video game industry. The user kbryant218 from timetoast made a timeline of some of the major events surrounding Women in Video Games.
A couple of positive major points on this timeline include January 1, 1978 when Carol Shaw, the first female game developer and programmer, released her first title; 3D-Tic-Tac-Toe. October 25, 1996 when Lara Croft from Tomb Raider was introduced and became one of the most well know female protagonists. October 9, 2007 for Portal’s female character is written in a way that doesn’t use sexualization as a crutch. Along with these advances for women in the industry, there have been equal or more amounts of backlash such as the game Custer’s Revenge. Basically, the point of this game is to sexually assault and rape helpless Native Americans. Or the game Dead or Alive, which is a fighting game, but all of the female characters were created with unreasonable figures with barely any clothing. Within the game World of Warcraft, players were able to create characters that were male or female, and while this attracted more girls to play, they were hit with stereotypes and harassment from the gaming community. This timeline by kbryant218 is very basic and still shows how much adversity women have faced.
James Batchelor of develop looks into how developers can “ensure they design characters without controversy”. Batchelor explains that the line between creating appealing marketable characters and oversexualizing them is “increasingly hard to define”. The writer, Rhianna Pratchett, of the new Tomb Raider reboot says that there needs to be an established difference between sexualized and sexy. She makes the difference by context. She says that “sexy is based off of the character, while sexualized is about the audience”. I love this take on female characters, where they can still be sexy and powerful and do not have boobs that don’t move like a real set of boobs. When a characters appearance is focused towards the male gaze, I often feel uncomfortable and embarrassed playing the character.
“Sexy is more than just looks — it’s about attitude, personality and a certain amount of owned power.” -Rhianna Pratchett
I found a counter argument against women being oversexualized and it makes sense, but I do not agree with it. Paul Tassi of Forbes says that if men were posed like women are it would be humorous. In his article, The One Sided Problem of Oversexualization in Video Games, he states that the argument that women as oversexualized characters is “incorrect and outdated”. He goes on to explain that men are given the equally emphasized preferred body parts, like biceps, abs, and pecs. Also makes the point that men are not viewed as sexual objects in video games, despite having mutations to their physical forms. I disagree on this point because I think that their bodies CAN be sexualized, it is just that society has trained us into thinking that their bodies are heroic and amazing. I think that ultimately, male bodies are sexualized, just not at the same level of bluntness that woman are.
Now, please enjoy this version of the Avengers poster with the male characters posed how Black Widow usually is.
References:
Batchelor, J. (2016, June). Let’s talk about sexualisation in video games. Retrieved October 23, 2017, from http://www.develop-online.net/analysis/let-s-talk-about-sexualisation-in-video-games/0221084
Bolk, K. (2011, November 25). Avengers Booty Ass-emble. Retrieved October 23, 2017, from https://kevinbolk.deviantart.com/art/Avengers-Booty-Ass-emble-270937785
Kbryant218. (n.d.). Women in Video Games timeline. Retrieved October 22, 2017, from http://media.timetoast.com/timelines/women-in-the-video-game-industry
Strum, L. (2016, July 08). Study tracks 31-year history of female sexualization in video games. Retrieved October 23, 2017, from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/study-tracks-31-year-history-of-female-sexualization-in-video-games
Tassi, P. (2012, November 30). The One-Sided Problem of Oversexualization in Video Games. Retrieved October 23, 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/11/28/the-one-sided-problem-of-oversexualization-in-video-games/2/#32ff3b091cfe
