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Representation of Girls in Video Games

Over the years, the gaming industry has developed and changed in many ways. The representation and treatment of girls has changed drastically over the last few years, with some conditions and lasting effects from previous stereotyping.

By Brooke JenkinsPublished 6 years ago 8 min read
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The industry beginning to stray away from its old sexist ways has introduced new and more games with strong girl protagonists. Consequently, girl protagonists have made the gaming community more open to girls because of the less sexist representation and breaking of societally established gender roles.

The Gaming Industry

Girls and boys are almost balanced statistically in the gaming community. Yet, female representation is drastically smaller in comparison. Further, girl characters tended to be sexualized and rarely the heroine in video games. Recently, the industry has begun to stray away from this old sexism, introducing new and more games with strong girl protagonists. Consequently, girl protagonists have made the gaming community more open to girls because of the less sexist representation and breaking of gender roles.

When gaming entered that mainstream, there was a separation of games based on gender. “Video games have long been known as a male-dominated media, including in the terms of market audience, player base, and character representation in game” (Zorrilla). As expected, most video games were directed toward the male audience. As a result, the “girl games” were made to represent the girls that wanted to play video games too. Stereotypical games that had to do with caring for children, cooking, and cleaning were made and sold as “girl games.” This reinforced the stereotype that girls were to cook, clean, and serve the family because that was what the female audience was receiving in game content. In “Video Gaming & Learning: Beyond Stereotypes” by Elisabeth Hayes, it is stated that “girls and women often tell stories of how, as children, computers and game consoles were purchased for their brothers or placed in their brothers’ rooms, giving girls fewer opportunities to play games as well as further reinforcing the idea that gaming is a masculine practice (Margolis & Fisher, 2002)” (Hayes 24). As time went on, this section has disappeared in stores along with its gender bias. This disappearance has been extremely important in the gaming world. While these games still exist because some gamers may enjoy them, they are no longer locked to one specific gender. The disappearance of gender bias has game sections has made video games available to any gender no matter the type of game and broken the stereotypes associated with what gender could play what game allowing girls to take part in gaming.

In recent years, the gaming industry has been straying away from the old objectification of female characters. This old objectification was the adding of overly sexualized female characters that had no impact in the games storyline or having the female protagonist dressed provocatively. In “Virtual Gender: How Men and Women Use Video Game Bodies” by Robert M. Geraci and Jovi L. Gerac it is stated that “Video game bodies generally accentuate sexual characteristics, especially in female avatars” (Gerac 332). Videogames that have been around for years, such as Tomb Raider, have developed more realistic female protagonists to this change in the industry. Tomb Raider’s protagonist, Lara Croft, started as a provocative character with heavy regard to her sexual appeal and is now an average girl with normal proportions and clothing that fits with her storyline. Along with Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat X redesigned the female characters to be less hypersexualized like they were in the past Mortal Kombat games. While this objectification was taking place in video games, females reacted negatively towards it. According to James D. Ivory in “Still a Man’s Game: Gender Representation in Online Reviews of Video Games,” “This content may appeal to some males, but seems poorly suited for female video game players and may account for findings such as Funk and Buchman’s (1996b) report of a negative relationship between video game play and self-perception questionnaire scores among adolescent girls” (104). This change in the industry impacts women today in the gaming community drastically. Girls can now play many strong, normal girl protagonist that are the heroine of their own stories and ultimately become more accepted in the gaming community with games that represent girls as people and not sexual objects. This changes the view that the female gender are not just sexual objects for male entertainment.

Video games are representing girls in the gaming community by giving options to be a female in games and even having games with girl protagonists. This representation that the industry is giving to girls is important because it acknowledges their presence in the community and, ultimately, accepting them. Still, girls in the gaming community are greatly harassed by male gamers. This representation helps with girls playing the games and taking part in the creation of games feel less of an outsider in the community. In Dan Golding’s article “Glass Half Full: Women in Games and The Code Breakers Exhibition” he quoted a female in video games Katharine Neil as saying, “Behind every cashed-up, game industry man-child you’ll find at least a few women, quietly working away on your favourite [sic] game franchise […] If you want to see more of us, support the unionization of developers and public funding of games as culture” (Golding 196). If the world wants to see more girls in video games, the world must support girls in video games and video game culture in itself. In 'When Gaming Goes Bad: An Exploration of Video Game Harassment Towards Female Gamers," Kaitlyn Williams states “female gamers in many cases do not get to enjoy the benefits of improved game play, and must hide who they are simply so they can play in peace” (Williams 73). Harassment that girl gamers go through have made them feel the need to hide their gender in the gaming community because otherwise they will get heavily harassed while gaming online. Robert M. Geraci and Jovi L. Gerac stated in their article that “Some women refuse to play female avatars because doing so leads to unwanted attention.” (Gera 334). Girls despite the representation are still facing a new harassment while gaming. Kaitlyn Williams further build on this issue stats “Gaming should be enjoyable for all participants, and trash-talk that becomes gender-targeting hate speech should not be allowed to change that” (Williams 70). The gaming industry is a vast field with more girls entering it despite harassment. Girls and boys are helping games take on these reforms to represent women in the community by changing the view of women in video games and acting against the hate thrown towards the female gender.

These changes are crucial to how the female gender is viewed in the gaming community. With the gaming industry changing the representation of girls from sexual objects to a natural look and giving girl characters important roles in the video games, girls become more comfortable in the community. Girls are very rarely represented as hypersexualized objects in modern games because girls make up a large percentage of the gaming community that the industry cannot afford to lose or enrage. The industry needs to satisfy the female portion of the community, and to do that, the gaming industry changed how they were represented in the games produced. This change affected the entire gaming population by showing that girls play video games and are not just there for the male players' entertainment. Girls are starting to be viewed as equals to the male players in the community with these changes in the industry. From past representation “when female gamers appear in a gaming session, players who regard fictional female characters with a low level of respect due to how gender is portrayed are enticed to regard actual women with low levels of respect as well” (Williams 77). The community has been addressing the harassment that girl gamers receive but taking little action against it. Games have put in place mute, block, and report buttons, but these are not enough to address the issue of harassment. “In order to genuinely go after the issue, companies need to first officially recognize the role sexism plays in inciting harassment, and elaborate in the Code of Conduct that this form of behavior is not permitted” (Williams 73). The more the companies act on the issue and the more other gamers in the community address the issue will help minimize harassment in the community. Without harassment being acted against, women will remain belittled in the community and not be enticed to play video games. The more the female gender is represented and viewed as equal, the more girls will enjoy the gaming community and make themselves known.

The changes made with girl protagonists and acts against harassment are important in the gaming community because they help females in the gaming community feel more comfortable and belonging. With the girl characters not being hypersexualized, girls are not conflicted with their own appearances or belittled view of themselves to boys. The changes make the female gender viewed as equal to the male gender in the gaming community.

Works Cited:

Geraci, Robert M., and Jovi L. Geraci. “Virtual gender: How men and women use videogame bodies.” Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, vol. 5, no. 3, Jan. 2013, pp. 329–348., doi:10.1386/jgvw.5.3.329_1.

Golding, Dan. “GLASS HALF FULL: WOMEN IN GAMES AND THE CODE BREAKERS EXHIBITION.” Metro Magazine.

Hayes, Elisabeth. “Women, video gaming and learning: Beyond stereotypes.” TechTrends, vol. 49, no. 5, 2005, pp. 23–28., doi:10.1007/bf02763686.

Ivory, James D. “Still a Mans Game: Gender Representation in Online Reviews of Video Games.” Mass Communication and Society, vol. 9, no. 1, 2006, pp. 103–114., doi:10.1207/s15327825mcs0901_6.

Williams, Kaitlyn. When Gaming Goes Bad: An Exploration of Videogame Harassment Towards Female Gamers. Boothe Prize Essays, F12 Williams--When Gaming Goes Bad.pdf.

Zorrilla, Michele. “Gender Representation in Video Games.” Video Games and Gender,

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