Why Female Lead Characters Are Still Portrayed with Minimal Clothing - Case Study Example

Final Critique Proposal Where are all the STRONG WOMEN at? The objectification, misrepresentation, and underrepresentation of females in video games Object of Study: The under and misrepresentation and objectification of females in video games Framework of Analysis: The theory that I will be using Feminism Theory to approach this subject Justification Introduction The depiction representation of women in video games has for a long period been a hotly debated issue. Though video game players are currently more diverse, women are still misrepresented and underrepresented in video games. Notably, almost 39% of the video gaming population is women (Aron, 2009). The numbers of women involved in video games is anticipated to increase and their contributions are anticipated to surpass those of men. However, video games still continue to pigeonhole women. Video games have been accused of misrepresenting women in a virtual playground. These have been seen in the objectification, the scantily clad women and the scenes of a man saving the helpless princess. All these have been created within these games to appease the men players. Women have been portrayed as so dependent on men and lack intelligence. Very few games have women as the lead role and most of them have women as supporting roles. Even when women take the lead roles, they are often sexualized (Cruse, 2014). In some cases where the female characters are not sexualized, they lack personalities and backstories and the player can hardly recognize that they are females, which contributes little to the positive portrayal of women in video games. Depiction of Women The sex symbol is one of the most common misrepresentations of women in video games. The video game industry targets straight men with sexualized female characters in order to get attention. The female characters that are the main characters are not spared either. Most of the time these strong women are portrayed fighting and subduing many of their enemies while wearing the smallest amount of clothing with unrealistic proportions. Most of the women characters are portrayed wearing a bikini of armor, which may be appealing to look at, but leaves an individual wondering how much guard it would offer to her if she is attacked (Weiger, 2014). This repeated illustration of female characters in fantasy situations commenced in the 1960’s when the female lead characters would be scantily dressed. These female characters appear fitted with armor designs that expose a huge part of their bodies and fitted with decorative plaques almost exposing vital organs, thus being non-effective in protecting the character. This is a complete illustration of sexualization of women in video games (Tassi, 2012). To make it even worse, video games have attempted to sexualize the sounds that a female character makes when she is in pain. The sexualized portrayal of women in video games has also taken another dimension where male fans and video game players are complaining to video game developers to enhance feminine features of the characters. For example, male players of Dead or Alive had been reported to complain to the developers of the game to improve the breasts of the female characters. Additionally, some video game adverts have centered on sexualizing and objectifying women in video games. Recently, a picture of Senran Kagura Burst made rounds on twitter as portraying female video game combatants with huge bursts (Wieger, 2014). Another image of a female character with a plastic figurine attached between her huge breasts was also re-tweeted from Nintendo’s twitter account. This portrayed the objectification and sexualizing of female characters in video games. One example of a video game that portrays women as weak and completely high and dry is Damsel in Distress. To summarize the video game, the female character in the video game is completely high and dry and is abducted from the male character, who must save her. This raises the matter that females are weak and helpless people who cannot subsist without men. It enforces the stereotype that women are naturally weak (McFerran, 2014). This objectification of women in video games has been attributed to the vast population of young male players with high testosterone levels that have to be satisfied and targeted through scantily dressed and nubile female characters (Kruse, 2014). The intense marketing of video games in United Kingdom has seen the entry of video games that portray scantily dressed and almost nude female characters on the front covers of the video games magazines such as the official Nintendo Magazine and the Radio Times (McFeran, 2014). However, nothing much seems to be done to regulate the content that is displayed on the front covers. Establishing measures to censor such contents does not seem to be getting much attention. People do not seem to want any regulations on the media in terms of what they watch, play or listen to (Aron, 2009). Though objectification of women in video games seems to be on the increase, Japanese video game developer companies seem to have pushed the boundaries further than the Western counterparts. Some of the games produced in Japan have gone overboard in misrepresenting women. For example, RapeLay is one of the games developed in Japan that involves rape and sexual violence towards female characters as part of the game (McFerran, 2014). There are other various games that have been developed in Japan with similar misrepresenting content. However, the cultural considerations of Japan allow the objectification of women in video games. To make matters worse, reports have indicated that the developers of some of these games are women. Some women have also been involved in the developing the Anime shows and movie that are filled with sexualized female characters. Women characters also face particular immense materialization of male scrutiny. Since the development and introduction of a woman character Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, it was critiqued for its unrealistic breast size. The character Lara was criticized for personifying a continuing culture clash over sexuality, gender, objectification and empowerment (Perry, 2014). However, later series of the game developed the character Lara with less sexuality and objectification. In another example of objectification, the two developments of fighting video games Tekken and Soul Calibur that were released some years later after the initial issue showed male players who were allowed to age while the female characters did not age and would remain in the same age with consecutive series of the games (McFerran, 2014). Even when women are still being objectified in video games, few women have been able to voice their discomfort. However, those who have come out have received a backlash. For example, Sarkeesian, an entertainment analyst and journalist, received backlash from nowhere after she attempted to broadcast her views on misrepresentation of women (Perry, 2014). She was pelted with a spectrum of insults ranging from hatred of women to actual threats of rape (Tassi, 2012). To make it worse, her Wikipedia page and other blogs were hacked and spammed with pornographic materials. The abuse and insults on women when they try to voice their misrepresentation in video games have portrayed the discomfort felt by women. However, this made the problem worse and obtained much public attention. As though this is not enough, various women gamers recently complained that they had experienced various injustices. The misrepresentation of women seems to have gone overboard where women are being abused by the male players (Tassi, 2012). Underrepresentation Very few video games have women as the lead roles. Recent researches still show that companies are still struggling with having female protagonist in their video games. Recently, some news had leaked that the juniors of Dontnoid entertainment were struggling with the superiors to permit them have a female protagonist in their recent video game Remember Me. Additionally, the juniors of Naughty Dog corporation also struggled in order to have a lead female character in one of their video game, The Last of Us, on the front cover of the game (Tassi, 2012). This implies that the game developers are still fighting with the idea of having female lead characters, with many believing that female lead characters do not sell not unless they are objectified as men. Statistics shows that almost 85% of all the characters in video games are males while female characters are left with the 15% (Aron, 2009). This media underrepresentation may be because of the lack of diversity in the game developers. It is proposed that games operate as significant gatekeepers for interest in technology, science, math and engineering, and the absence of appropriate characters to relate to may cause the underrepresented group is less probable to work in the video game industry. Notably, the lack of a chance for identification through role models may result to self-censorship. Female game designers are particularly few and make only 11 percent of the game developers (Wong, 2010). Women have been involved a lot in marketing and public relations in most of the companies that develop video games than in the development. Conclusion With an industry that is obsessed with selling preposterous amount of items, they try to sell to an audience that is sure to purchase, and with every organization desiring their call of duty it appears that it would take time before women are fully represented. Nonetheless, there is still some hope as some games have been developed with female lead characters such as the Mass Effect series that features highly developed female and male protagonists. However, even in the video games with female lead characters, such as Lara Croft and Princes peach, they are still portrayed with minimal clothing (McFerran, 2014). Arguably, as the industry continues to improve based on the shifting needs, demographics and desires of gamers, it is apparent that there is no need to feature more female characters, but also portray them in an accurate and positive way. References Aron, J. (2009, July 31). Why arent there more women in videogames? | Technology-theguardian. Retrieved May 4, 2014, from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2009/jul/31/videogames-gender-balance Kruse, S. (2014, April 7). Video games still grossly misrepresent women | The Post. Retrieved May 4, 2014, from http://thepost.ohiou.edu/content/video-games-still-grossly-misrepresent-women McFerran, D. (2014, March 14). Soapbox: Ignoring The Objectification Of Women In Games Wont Make the Problem Go Away. Retrieved May 4, 2014, from http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/03/soapbox_ignoring_the_objectification_of_women_in_games_wont_make_the_problem_go_away Perry, Allison. (2014). Women and Video Games: Pigeonholing the Past. Thesis. Claremont Colleges, 2012. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Web. . Tassi, P. (2012, November 30). Fighting Misogyny in Gaming Begins At Home - Forbes. Retrieved May 4, 2014, from ,http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/11/30/fighting-misogyny-in-gaming-begins-at-home/ Wieger, C. (2014, September 27). Continued objectification of women in video games needs to stop. Retrieved May 4, 2014, from http://www.dailynebraskan.com/opinion/article_65f1f910-2724-11e3-b1d0-0019bb30f31a.html Wong, W. (2010, August 11). Women fight underrepresentation among game developers, players. Retrieved May 4, 2014, from http://phys.org/news200736177.html Read More