"There is difference and there is power. And who holds the power decides the meaning of the difference." --June Jordan

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Female Game Characters: One Size Fits All

"Obama Girl" cruises the E3 Expo to ask attendees the question, "Who is the hottest girl in gaming?" The series of images in this clip demonstrates perfectly how women are typically portrayed in games. Most are depicted with completely unrealistic, oversexualized proportions and barely-there clothes, and those who are somewhat less porntastic, like Ms. Pac-man and Princess Toadstool, are still highly feminized and shown in poses that are less than powerful:

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

SRSLY? As if male gamers don't get enough catering to their sexual desires with game producers/marketers redesigning and reconstructing women's bodies to suit their fantasies, now we're asking them to judge and choose among those fantasy constructions? The sense of entitlement over women's bodies is just disgusting. Notice too how one of the guys was like, "Princess Zelda: the girl you take home to your mom, but not the back alley. Not sexy." WTF does that mean?

I've actually talked to guys who were surprised that I was a gamer because I was a woman. I guess I would be too when this kind of shit floats around. But it'd be nice if the industry took a look at *why* women could be repelled by games instead of assuming there's something biological in our nature that prevents us from enjoying them.

Tracey said...

The sense of entitlement over women's bodies is just disgusting.

Word.

Aryn said...

I've played FF7, and I have to say that Tifa's oversexualization in particular mostly comes from fanboys and subsequent incarnations (looking at you, Advent Children) not the game itself. So a lot of it is from games, but a lot of it is also from gamers themselves.