GENDER AND VIDEO GAMES ADAM SHAFFER

Introduction of topic -Video games have a stereotype associated with them of being very masculine things to have and play. -Along this subject, when women are presented in this situation, the results almost always cater to the “intended” male audience, and ignore the role female gamers play in the industry.

OVERVIEW OF SEXUALIZATION OF WOMEN It doesn’t take much to see that women are viewed as sexual objects. Open any magazine, watch TV for any length of time, and you’ll be flooded with images of women promoting prodcuts, often using their sexual appeal to do so.

OVERVIEW OF MASCULINE IDEAL Men, however, are viewed as The Strong Ones: They usually have some form of facial hair (A trait commonly associated with men) They tend to be in a position of power or leadership, under a quest that depends on them to be completed fully.

THESIS STATEMENT “Video games have normalized the gender roles in their characters by showing primarily male characters, emphasizing the masculine details and habits of the male characters, and sexualizing female characters. These traits are easily seen in the characters of the Soul Calibur franchise, which will be featured throughout this presentation.

INTRODUCTION OF GENDER REPRESENTATION In the gaming community, a large percentage of gamers are female. Similarly, a certain percentage of video game characters (playable or not) are female. It is interesting to note how different the numbers compare between the ratio of fictional women to men and horizontal women to men.

STATISTICS OF GENDERS OF CHARACTERS Of 49 games included in a test, 282 of the characters are males and 53 are female. (just 15.8%)

STATISTICS OF GAMER AUDIENCE GENDER 55% male 45%female

COMPARISON OF REPRESENTATION TO PLAYERS As you can see, although women make up roughly 50% of the gaming audience, the number of actual playable women is much lower than that, at only around 16%. This disparity between the numbers leads to a huge amount of generalization and stereotyping of the female gender.

PRESENCE OF WOMEN IN GAMES VS AUDIENCE Also interesting to note is the difference in type of characters males are versus females. Female characters in campaign games are rarely the protagonist: they’re usually a side character who either isn’t important to the mission, or who only appears for a few minutes of gameplay until her usefulness to the protagonist is fulfilled. However, the women in the audience aren’t interested in playing that type of character: they’re drawn to the same protagonist as male gamers are, they are willing to play as male characters because they like the game more than they dislike their representation in it.

VIDEO GAME ADS INCREASED USE OF WOMEN BASED ON SEX APPEAL Although women have higher representation in video game ads than in the actual video games, this is mainly because they are more visually appealing and are dressed to be more “attention grabbing.” Contrary to this, in ads men are shown to be tougher and more rugged, so there is less visual aesthetic.

TRANSITION TO SEX APPEAL USAGE WITH FEMALE CHARACTERS using the concept of “sexy women sell things”, it's not surprising that video games have a large tendency to over-sexualize women. In fact, it's far more rare to see a woman dressed conservatively than not, even in situations where it is impractical to have large sections of exposed skin (like winter scenarios or heavy combat)

EXAMPLE SOUL CALIBER CHARACTERS ▪Ivy (shown on opening slide) Leixia Sophitia Alexandria Seong Mi-na Taki

OTHER GENERALIZATIONS OF WOMEN conventionally attractive, large busts, small waists and hips even in situations where such appearances don't make sense (Such as a post- apocalyptic world) Randomly emotional/unstable

EXAMPLES OF COMMON TROPES one of the most common tropes fulfilled by female characters is the “damsel in distress”. Regardless of the woman's supposed prowess, there always comes a point where the male hero must “save” her from some sudden evil that was too strong for her, but miraculously isn't as strong for the man.

TRANSITION TO MASCULINITY ◦on the other side of this spectrum, we have the generalizations that are applied to men: Men are strong, smart, good leaders, brave, tough, and so on incredibly ripped. The ones who “save the damsel in distress.”

FURTHER DISCUSSION OF THE IDEALIZATION OF MASCULINITY ◦Why do these traits only apply to men, and why do they exclude everything else? Game companies want to make a definitive brand for themselves, so they choose a generic ideal that “everyone” should be able to relate to.

EXAMPLES OF LESS MASCULINE MEN AS VILLAINS ◦since physical strength is portrayed as a “good guy” thing, many enemies are portrayed as lacking that; physically, appearing more feminine. The subtlety here is that more feminine forms are associated with the “bad guys”, regardless of actual alliance. Similarly, if a female is meant to be “evil,” she is likely to posess qualities normally associated with the “good guys”. Physical strength and size, commanding personality, etc.

MASCULINE GOOD, ALL ELSE BAD, NORMAL ◦This is an example (and definition) of Heteronormativity: Things associated with one gender must be constant in that gender if it is to be “good”, but if someone possesses qualities of another gender, or lacks those associated with their own, they are “bad.”

WHY ARE GAME COMPANIES DOING THIS? Game companies are catering to straight white men, but why? It is because they believe that is where most of the money is to be made. David R. Dietrich demonstrates a complete understanding of racial representation in MMORPGs and offline RPGs in this well-researched article. He writes how many of these games that have character creation lack the options to make a non-white character, many of which do not have this option at all. Dietrich concludes on how the lack of features in character creation enforces the normalization of whiteness.

EXAMPLE OF “TRADITIONAL” AUDIENCE CATERING Audience catering is what happens when the opinions of the audience outweigh the values and originality of a company. One major example of this kind of incident happened earlier this year when Ubisoft announced there would be no playable female assassins in the new Assassins Creed Unity game.

ASSASSINS CREED UNITY SCANDAL ▪“women are too hard to animate so we’re not including them in the game” according to Ubisoft's creative director Alex Amancio, “The reality of production made the additional characters too costly.” This is less an issue of extra work (As former Ubisoft animation director Jonathan Cooper pointed out, “In my educated opinion, this would be a day or two's work. Not a replacement of 8000 animations.”) and more an example of game companies swaying their products to better match the ideals they have, and that they want their customers to have. In this case, “males are the heroes. Women are difficult and complicated, so it's impossible for them to do what we need a Male Hero to do.”

PREVIOUS EVIDENCE BEING JUSTIFIED ◦This change of focus is evidenced by the fact that previous assassins creed games (some under the direction of Jonathan Cooper) did feature diverse women as playable characters in the games. With this in mind, it becomes obvious that Ubisoft's decision with Assassins Creed: Unity is not one of production costs, but one based on sexist misconceptions.

TROPES FOR MALE CHARACTERS The “Classic Hero” Responsible for saving the damsel in distress Has the guarantee of winning against the boss (no matter how many tries it takes like.)

PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS FORMAT ◦If theses generalizations and false ideas are allowed to continue, men will continue to view women with the same depth they give to the characters in their game: they will assume women all have no personality, and are supposed to give them something to help on their quests. (In some cases, this can lead to abusive behavior, either through emotional abuse by using hurtful language to generalize all women, including whomever they are talking to, to sexual abuse, viewing their perceived masculinity as a trait deserving of whatever they want, regardless of the opinions of the other parties involved.