Being female in a male-dominated virtual world

Video games have evolved immensely over the past twenty years, developing from two-dimensional Mario fighting to save Princess Peach to three-dimensional warriors exploring a vast world with virtually endless possibilities. As video games have advanced throughout the times, however, controversy has surrounded these games, with studies showing how video games can perpetuate stereotypes about women to the point of degradation. Although female protagonists are much more prominent in video games now compared to 20+ years ago, they are generally depicted as being weaker and much more scantily clad than their male counterpart.

I realized my obsession with video games in 1999, when I was 7 years old, with the release of Donkey Kong 64 on the Nintendo 64. My gamer instincts kicked in when I learned that I could play as the ass-kicking, pigtail spinning Tiny Kong. This love for video games continued to manifest as Pokemon Crystal Version was released, the very first Pokemon video game where I could be a female Pokemon trainer as my representative avatar. It was from this point that I declared myself a “gamer.” Nevertheless, I was not just any gamer; I was a female gamer, and that, my friends, is when the problem developed a name.

You see, as a child, I always watched my older sister and cousin (male) play games such as Mario, Sonic and Donkey Kong for the Nintendo and Super Nintendo. At the time, I could never fully get into the platform-style games, as I felt that the monotonous gameplay of Mario jumping from pipe to pipe, collecting coins, killing Goombas and saving the feeble-bodied and -minded Princess Peach was hardly a gaming experience to enjoy. The same applied to Donkey Kong, Sonic and a cast of other male characters who were the well-renowned heroes of the ages.

Why could a woman not save the world? Why were women always in need of saving from the bad guy? And why is it that when the women are not captured, I find myself more entranced by their giant boobs than their fighting styles (i.e. Candy Kong, Lara Croft, the list unfortunately goes on)?

The problem that developed a name? Women in video games are weak. If they are not weak, they are useless. If they are not useless, then they can kick ass but only if they are a 36-24-36. And Sir-Mix-A-Lot does not belong in my video games; I do not need anymore men in my video games.

Studies on Female Representation in Video Games

As I mentioned previously, I consider myself a “gamer,” though my knowledge in the video game realm is specifically related to role-playing video games. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, RPGs are a video game genre in which the player takes on the role of the main protagonist, controlling his or her every move by advancing him or her through the main story, taking part in side quests and gaining battle experience. In sum, in an RPG, players become the central character. What motivates individuals to play RPGs and take on the role as the main protagonist, however, varies greatly among both male and female gamers, something that greatly changed as the popularity of video games continued to rise.

For example, in their study titled Video Games and the Battle of the Sexes, researchers Steinberg, Kehler and Cornish studied how second-generation video games began to incorporate more violence, assimilating them into what they defined as “boy culture.” More specifically, boy culture, as defined by their study, describes video games with an increased amount of human violence, where humans unleash violence upon one another rather than a magical or mythological entity. Video game developers started to adopt this component of “boy culture,” beginning to create video games with not only powerful male protagonists but also through the typically negative depiction of female-identifying characters.

When violence in video games dramatically increased as video game development increased, female gamers began to become alienated as video game companies started to target a male demographic. Although female representation has begun to increase in stereotypically “male” video games, this portrayal continues to be either scarce or nonexistent. If females are present, they usually fall into a hypersexualized position, which is defined as a character’s physical appearance and actions being overly sexualized. For example, video game heroines Lara Croft in Tomb Raider and Sonya Blade in Mortal Kombat are both powerful, independent female characters, yet are highly sexualized in the role as major protagonists.

As Carpenter outlines in his analysis titled Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, the role of women in video games frequently fall into one of five categories: the background decoration, the sexy villainess, the sexy sidekick, the fighting fuck toy or the damsel in distress. When a female character is presented as being weak and feeble, she frequently requires the male protagonist’s assistance and protection from danger, portraying females as the “damsel in distress.” Characters that have typically been associated with the damsel in distress trope include Princess Peach in Mario and Princess Zelda in The Legend of Zelda, characters that have proven themselves valuable and powerful allies, but that strength is typically overshadowed  by their frequency of getting kidnapped in every damn game.

If female characters are on the opposite spectrum and placed in powerful positions, however, they tend to be either hypersexualized, with a fixation placed on the woman’s looks, or presented as villainesses, painting a picture that women who are put into a position of power correlates with that woman being evil.

Similarly to the “damsel in distress” phenomenon, women in video games are typically depicted as non-playable characters, which is outlined in a study by Wilson, Gutiérrez and Chao titled Racism, Sexism, and the Media. Women in many video games are shown as being the witness that watches the action, while the men in video games are the protagonists that dive straight into the action in order to save the day. This takes away from the prominence of the female character. Female video game characters are both infrequent and stereotyped as weaker than men.

As the presented studies show, video game companies began to target the male demographic due to stereotypes concerning what attracts women to video games. When these games began to incorporate more human violence, something that studies have typically pointed to as a male-oriented trait, more biases began to fall into place such as making a majority of protagonists strong male characters and portraying women as either the villainess, the weak “damsel in distress,” or the sexy partner.

The Badass Ladies that Have Kept Me Fighting

Though a number of studies do exist regarding female vs. male representation in video games, hope does continue to exist for the female gamer. Previously, I gave some examples of the damsel in distress character, as well as the female characters who are seen predominantly in a sexual manner. Nevertheless, the presence of powerful female protagonists is not nonexistent.

If you identify as a gamer or simply want to play a video game with badass female representation, check out some of these games and the awesome female protagonists associated with them:

WARNING: There are definitely some spoilers!

• Final Fantasy VIII: Rinoa Heartilly is the main female protagonist of Final Fantasy VIII, a RPG released in 1999. The game follows Rinoa and a group of trained mercenaries as they attempt to save the world from monsters and an evil sorceress while also discovering their own destinies.
  

  Image credit: ihearttoys

  Through her story line, battle prowess and personality, Rinoa exhibits a number of admirable feminist traits, making her a positively represented female protagonist. In examining her vital stats and battle abilities, Rinoa is physically and magically the strongest character in the game, with stats higher than all three male protagonists of the game. Unfortunately, Rinoa is not always able to escape the “damsel in distress” stereotype, as there exist instances where Rinoa does run into trouble like when fighting the sorceress on her own and putting herself on the front lines for the sake of her friends. Nevertheless, Rinoa finds herself in these dangerous situations not because of physical weakness but because of her determination to save the world. Rinoa’s bravery and independence is shown through her leading an all-male resistance group, joining the war with minimal experience, accepting her sorceress powers, sacrificing herself to save her friends and, SPOILER ALERT, ultimately saving her love interest from being killed. These characteristics are what draws Rinoa away from the stereotypical depiction of female video game characters.

• Kingdom Hearts: Bir
  

  Image credit: Kingdom Hearts Insider

  th by Sleep: 

  A

  qua is one of three main protagonists of

  Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, the prequel to one of the most highly-rated RPGs, Kingdom Hearts. With her friends Ventus and Terra, Aqua is training to become a keyblade master, a title given to only the most dignified keyblade wielders. From the beginning, players see that Aqua is the only individual amongst her friends who receives this title, showing that not only is she more powerful than the male protagonists but she is also fully in control of that power. As the story line progresses, Aqua, determined to find her friends and bring them home safely, is the only character who does not stray away from the path of light nor does she give into the darkness. In fact, SPOILER ALERT, Aqua is the one who ultimately saves her friends and the world by destroying the evil that takes control of Ventus and sacrificing her own life to save Terra from being lost in darkness. Not only is Aqua a noteworthy protagonist because of her courage but also because she packs a punch. Aqua is the main spellcaster of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Not only is she the most powerful magic user, but she also receives the game’s strongest weapon to wield when venturing out to save her friends.

• Metroid: 
  

  Image credit: G4

  Samus Aran from the Metroid video game series continues to be known as one of the first female video game protagonists in 1986. Her character and the Metroid video games continue to be highly praised by gamers. Samus is a trained and powerful bounty hunter who, as a child, was orphaned after her home planet was destroyed. She typically dons a full body and head covering Power Suit that protects her from enemies, a cannon of some sort that will allow her to shoot beams, missiles, etc. at enemies as well as components that allow her to navigate from place-to-place, such as the grapple beam and Morph Ball. Outside of the virtual realm, Samus has helped to make great strides for females in video games and continues to do so almost 30 years later. The initial focus when creating Samus was her strength, agility and dexterity. In fact, it is not until the end of the first game that players learn that Samus is in fact a woman (though the reveal does show a scantily clad protagonist). Nevertheless, Samus has continued to be praised as an asskicking female protagonist who has avoided both the “damsel in distress” and the “fighting fuck toy” tropes that typically haunt women video game characters.

• Resident Evil:
  

  Image credit: Fighters Generation

  Jill Valentine from Resident Evil is a one of the co-founders of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance, as she is a high-ranking and well-respected operative of the organization. Not only is Jill a leader of an organization she firmly believes in, but she is also a physically and intellectually powerful character. Prior to creating this organization, Jill has a great amount of experience and intelligence in the field of fighting skills and bomb disposal. Jill is a character who, through each of the Resident Evil games, has been thrown into several zombie-infested monstrosities, yet has continued to thrive by not only saving herself with her talents but also the lives of those she comes in contact with. True, although the later Resident Evil games begin to put a lot of thought into Jill’s physical appearance, she has continued to kick ass since 1996.

• Street Fighter:
  

  Image credit: CapCom

  Chun-Li is a recurring character in the Street Fighter series. I will be the first to admit that although I have not played many of the Street Fighter games nor am I always a huge fan of some of her alternate costumes, Chun-Li was a character that reinforced my love for fighter games. When I would sit down to play my sister’s Sega, I stumbled upon Street Fighter and began playing as soon as I realized that there was a female protagonist of the game. I continued to play the game, as Chun-Li’s quick attacks helped her gain power over even the toughest male fighters in the game. Her quick and nimble fighting style has progressed throughout not just the Street Fighter series but also through other fighting video games, empowering the many more female protagonists that were created out of future fighter games, such as Tekken and Soul Calibur.

Where do we go from here?

Unfortunately, even with these feminist heroines, we continue to live in a male-dominated virtual world. Current studies from the U.K. even show that there are more women gamers than men today than several years back. Nevertheless, the patriarchal depiction does not cease to exist. This is something reflective of not only the virtual world, but of the tangible human world where it continues to be the norm for men to be in a position of power in politics, business, sports and a number of other topics. Though as the real world continues to have more women represented in a positive manner, we begin to see the same reflection in the protagonists on the television screen, which can be seen through the ass-kicking prowess of both Rinoa Heartilly and Aqua. At the end of the day, we live in a patriarchal world, and the virtual world is not much different. Both need to be dismantled (one of many steps) in order to continue the trek towards gender equality.

Header image credit: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider/Superb Wallpapers