Junior Dylan Cordoni is one of many students who attends the biweekly Aragon Smash Club. Every meeting, members hook up a Nintendo Wii to a small TV and play “Super Smash Bros. Melee” while eager members watch and wait for their turn. Cordoni, however, acknowledges a problem that spans from the 18-member club to video games in general. “People come and go, but we don’t have any official female members,” he says.
New poll data from the Entertainment Software Organization reports that the percentage of female gamers is about 45 percent, most of whom play the video games on their smartphones. Additionally, female gamers tend to be a social and vocal minority in an industry dominated by men.
“Some people look down on female gamers,” says junior Rachel Leung. “They might say we can’t play as well as males do since we’re female. They think that playing games is a male thing to do.”
In addition, female gamers are often viewed as atypical in the gaming scene. Freshman Sofia Azalgara says, “Sometimes people think it’s weird for girls to play video games. Like when a girl plays a shooter, you immediately think, ‘that’s weird.’ In reality, a lot of us do play games.”
Cordoni comments on the representation of women in “Super Smash Bros. Melee,” an 11-year-old game featuring 25 different characters. “There are only four female characters in the game,” he says. “I suppose there are a few circumstances in the game that can be seen as sexist, like how Peach uses a frying pan as a weapon, but I don’t think it is nearly as bad as some of the other games today.”
A lack of female characters in video games remains a problem in 2013. Microsoft unveiled its new Xbox One console earlier this year, and none of the 13 games it presented had a female protagonist.
Moreover, female protagonists in modern single-player games, when they exist, can also exhibit sexist clichés and tropes. Junior Dasha Sheskatov says, “When it comes to female protagonists, they’re made to be overly masculine … One example is Lara Croft.”
Lara Croft, star of the well-known action franchise “Tomb Raider,” is a female character whose reputation involves multiple controversies, spanning from her breast size to her violent surroundings. Last year’s “Tomb Raider” reboot received backlash when it nearly included an attempted rape scene. The scene was cut before release.
Other tropes, including ‘damsels in distress,’ often appear in more benign games. “Peach is kidnapped and can’t escape for herself,” Azalgara says. “I think these [clichés] send the message that girls are weak and can’t defend themselves. In reality, we can.”
As a $90 billion industry with about $2 billion per year spent on advertising alone, video game marketing also reflects questionable representations of women. “Another reason why you see large-breasted and stereotypically hot female characters is so that people buy the game,” Cordoni says. “People want to see that. They definitely market sexuality.”
Free-to-play games, which rely on the purchase of in-game characters or items, exhibit a similarly sexualized market. “I play League of Legends, and almost all the female characters have large chests to appeal to guys, except for the new character, Jinx,” Leung says. “When she came out, I thought ‘I have to play her.’”
Popular feminist Anita Sarkeesian is one female gamer who confronts sexist stereotypes through a series of YouTube videos called “Tropes Vs. Women.” Her latest video, entitled “The Ms. Male Character,” deconstructs female video game characters who are mere variations of their male counterparts, such as Ms. Pac Man. In the video, she claims that developers use this trope in order to garner a larger audience with limited effort.
Nevertheless, developing gender-conscious games remains a challenge when women account for only 11 percent of game designers. “If there were more female developers, I feel like they would know how to make the games more female-friendly,” Leung says. “It would attract more girls to video games.”
Despite sexist tendencies and trends, junior Ben Maisonpierre emphasizes the importance of examining each game on its own. “Video games are like art. Or a book. Different books have different points of view. You really have to look at the games individually, even if there are apparent trends. There are definitely a large number of exceptions, and you can’t generalize all games as sexist.”
Leung offers her own advice for encountering female gamers in person and online. “When you’re playing with other people, don’t bash them just because they’re female. Be friendly,” she says. “Video games are fun until someone starts being mean.”
