Hyper-Sexualization of Women in Gaming - Caroline’s Perspective

We’ll start off with my most egregious examples. I quite often talk about how I love playing 7 Days to Die. I shouldn't because it's a terrible game and I hate the developers in so many ways, but I do like playing the game. You get to build, you get to do whatever you like and I like those games. Creating my own house, spending time doing things and killing zombies. One of the traders that exists in this post apocalyptic world is Trader Jen and 7 Days To Die has been an alpha for about a century and the latest update came out and what did all those developers spend that time doing? They made her cans bigger and lessened the doctor aspect and it made her look more like a nurse. It's just tiresome when you're playing games as a woman to have to constantly look at this stuff.

A quick disclaimer; as a bisexual woman, looking at this image here of Harley Quinn. I was sending a message to my friends going, Hi, I've got mixed feelings. Obviously this is terrible objectification, but also it's Harley Quinn and I love Harley Quinn, she's so cool. Nobody is saying you shouldn't be able to fancy people in games, I mean Mass Effect Deluxe Edition’s coming out, now we've got a release date and that's the only reason you play Mass Effect. I saw a really interesting thread on Twitter, people going which person do you plan to romance first in Mass Effect?

Everybody in Mass Effect is sexualised in a good way, like they are human and you can have relationships with or rather they are not human, they are people and you can have relationships with them and you can form bonds with them. There is no sort of difference in between the way that the men and the women are treated in that situation and I just absolutely can't wait to replay that.

If we look at the general world of media, we look at TV, we look at films, we look at adverts, there has become less of this problem. You're not just allowed to put women in skimpy bikinis all the time. I'm not saying it never happens, but we are past the days of the glamorous assistant in her underwear draped over the car and stuff like that.

Yet it persists in gaming so much, why in gaming is it still almost impossible to have a female character in a fight scene wearing something that actually covers her navel or gives any genuine armour protection? Possibly because games have been outside the mainstream spotlight until now? Is it because gaming hasn't received the sort of focal attention that movies and TV and various other media have that has put that pressure on them to remove the hyper sexualization?

I don't know how skewed my perspective is. Gaming is always a huge part of my life so I've been in that bubble. On the Girl Gamers Reddit there was one of these horrible threads where somebody said something horribly abusive, but what was interesting about it is it was somebody complaining about a girl gamer and how they're all awful and he said that it's not fashionable anymore. So gaming is fashionable at the moment is it? I realised that’s not the most important part of the thread, but that was the bit that really struck me.

On the topic of male sexualisation, I think the really key point is what is the by-product of that sexualization and that while you know Henry Cavill in the Witcher, well I mean I could talk about that for hours. That is a handsome man, but his sexualisation doesn't put him at risk.

On the issue about body image, it is not a new thing, it's been going on for centuries. Way back to ancient Greek times, when you think about ancient statues, you always see really strong athletic men and just really thin beautiful women and it's not anything new. We've got centuries and centuries of this kind of imagery ingrained into our heads, that that's the ideal body and that's how it's going to be.

I was thinking about the good examples we've seen, that were done right and actually that was why I started looking for Stardew Valley. My Discord icon is Pam from Stardew Valley, who is an alcoholic old woman who's a little bit larger and drives the local bus and she's not horrific, she's just a normal person.

Sex is a prize so often in games. It is used as a reward, you get a woman as a sex object, surprise! The Witcher being actually quite a bad example for that. If you’ve ever played Grand Theft Auto 3, back when that was out, when I was a stupid young teenager, so to me it was, I wouldn't say amusing, but it was just part of the game that you would get a prostitute and then kill them afterwards to get your money back. It was considered almost a standard way of playing in the game and again it's a sign of how desensitised and systematically women are sexualised.

One of my other favourite games I play at the moment has no hyper sexualization of women because it has no women in it. I’m playing a lot of deep rock galactic because it is a really good multiplayer or Co op game, if you are looking for some fun Co op to do with your friends or loved ones. It's got progression. You’re just dwarfs and you go around mining and gathering stuff and you also get to drink beer and dance the bar between going out of mining which is great. But there is this thing in fantasy, I’ve discovered this in RPGs as well where there is actually a debate where the female dwarves even exist.

A lot of people who say there are very few people talking about feminism in gaming, they're talking about the lack of feminism in gaming, but not talking about actually doing feminism in gaming and because a lot of people feel very scared. A lot of people keep saying to me, you stream that on twitch and you're gonna get abusive comments. But most of our comments are lovely and supportive and I think that shows that there is some space to be taken up by us.

Gaming the System is a feminist gaming podcast where 4 intersectional feminists examine gaming through a feminist lens. This article is a collation of Caroline's perspective from our episode on hyper-sexualisation of women in games. If you want to hear more, you can check out the full episode on the links below. Welcome to Gaming the System!