OPINION -- Women are being used for sex appeal in video games
Joey Smith
Issue date: 3/10/09 Section: Opinion
Video games treat women as sex objects: that isn't a question, or a quizzical thought. It's a fact. It's not as bad as people might think, though, since video games treat everything as either objects or backgrounds. That's just how they're designed. That doesn't change the fact that when the fairer sex does make an appearance in games, nine times out of ten, it's for sex appeal first and anything else second, if at all. Now, here's the question: is it a problem?
How many principal female heroes in all of fiction can you name that don't have 'attractive' as one of their defining features? The answer is 'not many'. Now let's take a look at the guys. Set aside the ones that are just ordinary-looking, and just think about the stunning number of male heroes who are allowed to have outright ugliness as a positive attribute. This difference is both stunning and belying of a curious aspect of our cultural psyche.
Since a majority of female characters tend to appear in, or draw inspiration from, material aimed at women, it can be discerned that female audiences place just as high-if not higher-a standard on beauty in female characters as men do. Basically, not everyone cares one way or the other about the handsomeness of men. But, apparently, everyone likes a pretty girl. In any case, it's indisputable that video game heroines-and anti-heroines, for that matter-are a cavalcade of spectacular beauty. These girls are an endless supply of flawless skin, toned tummies, perfect butts, killer legs, amazing breasts, all assembled into women who are: innocent, yet adventurous; pixyish, yet powerful; classy, yet just the slightest bit slutty. And some people, mostly actual women, have a problem with that.
The meat of this issue generally comes down to matters of perception and expectation. Portraying women in this way, so goes the argument, negatively affects the relationship and self-image development in gamers, both male and female, by setting up impossible standards. This basically means that, if little boys compare potential flesh-and-blood mates to, say, Ivy, from "Soul Calibur," they're going to be generally disappointed and give the overlooked real girls in question a bit of a complex.
How many principal female heroes in all of fiction can you name that don't have 'attractive' as one of their defining features? The answer is 'not many'. Now let's take a look at the guys. Set aside the ones that are just ordinary-looking, and just think about the stunning number of male heroes who are allowed to have outright ugliness as a positive attribute. This difference is both stunning and belying of a curious aspect of our cultural psyche.
Since a majority of female characters tend to appear in, or draw inspiration from, material aimed at women, it can be discerned that female audiences place just as high-if not higher-a standard on beauty in female characters as men do. Basically, not everyone cares one way or the other about the handsomeness of men. But, apparently, everyone likes a pretty girl. In any case, it's indisputable that video game heroines-and anti-heroines, for that matter-are a cavalcade of spectacular beauty. These girls are an endless supply of flawless skin, toned tummies, perfect butts, killer legs, amazing breasts, all assembled into women who are: innocent, yet adventurous; pixyish, yet powerful; classy, yet just the slightest bit slutty. And some people, mostly actual women, have a problem with that.
The meat of this issue generally comes down to matters of perception and expectation. Portraying women in this way, so goes the argument, negatively affects the relationship and self-image development in gamers, both male and female, by setting up impossible standards. This basically means that, if little boys compare potential flesh-and-blood mates to, say, Ivy, from "Soul Calibur," they're going to be generally disappointed and give the overlooked real girls in question a bit of a complex.
Be the first to comment on this story