Damsels in Distress

April 2017 Damsels in Distress A Gender Analysis in Video Games SHAVINI FERNANDO CCPT: 681 | Georgetown University

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Video games evolved over the decades from a purely technical definition to a general concept, defining a new class of interactive entertainment. The industry, introduced without any gender bias took a twist when “Lara croft”, with the unrealistic female figure with a 34D bust was introduced. This led to the gender bias in the industry for the past two decades. Without identifying the root cause for the withdrawal of the female audience, the gaming industry categorized the games as Male and female. The majority of the games, had only male protagonists, leading the industry to become not just male dominated but a “WHITE MALE” industry. On every occasion where a female protagonist was introduced in a primary figure, it was always hyper sexualized or to be purchased by the players, whilst the male avatars were provided freely. More than as primary characters’ women were portrayed secondary, often sexually objectified or portrayed as a helpless, submissive figure. They were used to lure male players and as a reward for the male character on achieving a goal. Furthermore, the stereotypical ideas led to the development of typical “girl games,” such as Kim Kardashian, Barbie, themes that were based on “female themes”, such as appearance, fashion, and relationships. The industry branded female games as all dress up or mere household and daily activity games, whilst, all action and sports games were branded as male. “Tomb-Raider” – the ideal game to break the typical feminine stereotype was used to lure the male players to play the game rather than to address the female players. P ag e 1 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games Video games influenced and affected the perception of players, where they expected the women to resemble the female avatars portrayed in video games. With the video game population being more male, females had to often go through peer pressure, where the women’ video game players were socially disvalued through many social connotations such as “geeky” or “Socially inept”. This hindered the participation of most female players. The Segregation that was created for the video games, resulted in segregating the society. The character representation and the sexualization of the female characters is mainly due to the percentage of female work force in the industry. The video game avatars largely represent the numbers in the industry. Though the gaming industry is aiming to be all-encompassing, their efforts seem to be reinstating the olden day’s stereotypical ideas. The disproportionate gender representation, and stereotyping is the foremost reason for the demotivation, of female players to pursue a career in the video game industry. This has led to a “Recursive effect” between the video games and the players. Therefore, Until the focus is solely on satisfying the needs of an already- motivated player group, and not confronting the stereotyping practices in the industry; and until the necessary steps are taken to shift video gaming from a ‘threatening medium’ to ‘an uninhibited pastime’ for women, the recursive effect will keep continuing and the industry will continue to remain a “WHITE MALE” industry. P ag e 2 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Executive summary .............................................................................................................. 1 2 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 4 3 Literature review ................................................................................................................. 5 4 Analysis ................................................................................................................................... 14 5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 27 6 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 29 Figure 1 : Average Sexualization of Characters by Year of Release (Lynch and Teresa, 2016) .................................................................................................................................. 6 Figure 2 : Lara Croft - Tomb Raider - 1996 ..................................................................... 14 Figure 3 : Lighting - Final Fantasy 8 .................................................................................. 15 Figure 4 : Scarlett Fox - Temple Run .................................................................................. 16 Figure 5 : Grand theft auto - Virtual Sex ......................................................................... 17 Figure 6 : Tomb Raider Reinstating Advertisement .................................................... 18 Figure 7: The recursive effect in the gaming industry ............................................. 23 Figure 8 : Comparison of Lara Croft with Faith Connors ..........................................24 P ag e 3 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games 2 INTRODUCTION Since the introduction of the ‘Pong’, the first video game by Physicist William Higinbotham In October 1958, video games have come a long way from the console to online and virtual reality. From scrabble to the hangman, super Mario to Warcraft, video gaming has become a popular form of entertainment and a part of modern culture in most parts of the world. Along with this for the longest time, Video games, have been known as a male-dominated media, in terms of market audience, player base, and character representation in games. Gender representation in video games often portray men and women differently. In the earlier days, female video game characters are often more sexualized than their male counterparts. Hypersexualized depictions of women, including enlarged breasts and narrow waists, was most common in fighting games like “Mortal Kombat”, “Tomb Raider” as well as games rated Teen and above. Although this has declined, since 1995 women in games are still objectified more than male characters, and are often seen as secondary. Does this sought differences in motivations between genders or cutting into industry profits? Along with the changes in the society, cultural norms and values, how does the video game industry reflex and influence the society?? What can the gaming industry do better to address the female video gaming population. P ag e 4 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games 3 LITERATURE REVIEW Video games have taken a sizable portion of the media diet, becoming a widely popular and highly profitable medium surpassing the television. Nevertheless, they still need to understand the important systems of symbols which has a broad social impact; as the current video games predominantly highlight males and white, while under-representing females, Hispanics, Native Americans, in a systematic manner (Williams, Dmitri et al., 2009). However, the question ‘why?’ is beyond anyone’s understanding to date. The character demographics and portrayals of social groups influence players’ perceptions of social reality. It is relevant to the population themselves, as this representation will and can have an identity and self-esteem effect on individuals from those largely portrayed groups. People look for representations of themselves in comparison to other groups to comprehend the weight they carry in the society as well as within games (Williams, Dmitri et al., 2009). Hence, the absence of portrayal contributes to the feeling of unimportance and powerlessness, Therefore the game data, the under- represented groups being both scarce and, when present, in secondary roles, makes those groups seem less visible, giving the impression that they will be less important. P ag e 5 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games Figure 1 : Average Sexualization of Characters by Year of Release (Lynch and Teresa, 2016) In the Article published by Lynch and Teresa (2016), They state that the findings demonstrate a significant difference across time, where that female characters during 1983 to 1991 were less sexualized than characters in 1992 to 1998 and 1999 to 2006, Where 1990s and into the early 2000s, the industry introduced more sexualized female characters than other periods. In contrast, female characters from 2007 to 2014 were less sexualized than those appearing in Time Block 1999 to 2006 largely due to the increase in female interest in gaming coupled with the heightened criticism levied at the industry’s arguably male hegemony. William (2009) states that “In traditional console based video games the distribution of gender and race is frequently unrepresentative, where male P ag e 6 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games and white characters were overrepresented at the expense of women and most other ethnic groups”. Similarly, Weddell and Franklin (2014) states that “White males were more likely to be featured as the primary protagonist controlled by the users, while only 13% of characters were female”. William (2009) also states that the results of his research shows that males, whites and adults are over-represented in comparison to the actual US population; and that these overrepresentations come at the expense of women and some minority groups. Furthermore, he states that the gender differences between ratings were statistically significant due to the substantial number of characters, as the game makers created games with heavy portrayal of male characters. where the purchased were even more heavily male. With 50.9% of the US population being female and 49.1% being male where 60% of gamers being male while 40% being female, the most common portrayal for female characters was the complete absence of females. The research depicts that in general, male characters are more likely to appear than the female characters, and when they do it is more likely in a secondary role than in primary ones. Based on the “Gender and Video Games: How Is Female Gender Generally Represented in Various Genres of Video Games?” journal, in 1998, Dietz found that almost 80% of the games contained violence, of which 20% was directed towards women, and that female characters were portrayed as “damsels in distress”, or they were stereotyped by being dressed in tight and provocative clothing, exposing their large breasts and long legs. this representation is harmful to children of both sexes since they will internalize these expectations and accept the idea that women are to be viewed as weak, as victims, and as sex objects. P ag e 7 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games Based on Mou, Yi, and Wei Peng (2009) research, according to Beasley and Standley (2002) games used female characters clothing as an indicator of sexuality and code body cleavage and breast size of female characters. Beasley and Standley (2002) come across a significant sex unfairness in female characters. Of the 597 characters coded, while only 82 (13.74%) were women, majority of the female characters wore clothing that exposed more skin than the male characters. Beasley and Standley states that “To be specific, female characters were more likely to be in low-cut clothing and with bear arms than male characters, and about 41% of the female characters were big busted”. Similarly, while Downs and Smith research identified females were more likely to be represented in a hypersexual way, Haninger and Thompson (2004) found that in the sample of 81 teen-rated video games, women were significantly more likely to be depicted partially nude than men. In addition, there were much more male playable characters (72 out of the 81 games) than female playable characters (42 out of the 81 games).The journal also states that based on Jansz & Martis, (2007, p.142) although the new trend of “Lara phenomenon”, which refers to “the appearance of a tough and competent female character in a dominant position” was introduced, the female features were exaggerated by sexy attire and thin body. “Tomb Raider” became one of the most popular game with the first female character until “The Sims” was released in 2000. The “Gender and Video Games: How Is Female Gender Generally Represented in Various Genres of Video Games?” journal states that Per Laura Mulvey (1975), “games present women as objects of the male gaze: most women appear to be hardly older than 30, in most cases wear skintight, figure-accenting clothing and are slim.” Girls and boys who play games are more likely to create their concept that P ag e 8 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games females should look like this representation. The journal also states per Nielsen, Smith, & Tosca, (2008) “at the same time as games were drawing their of conservative society, they were also used as a means of reinforcing social norms and power relations”. Per the Entertainment Software Association report in 2013, 55% of players are male while 45% are females. Video games becoming a favorite media allows players to enjoy and imagine the unreal worlds and situations. Thus, it is very probable to receive high percentage on fantasy gratification as well. As an example, more than 50% of the participants of the Deloitte’s survey have a gaming console in their house (Deloitte, 2013). According to Vermeulen, Lotte, and Jan Van Looy (2016) “Many of the stereotypical practices in the gaming industry are based on the player’s gender even though gaming as a pastime is now equally distributed across gender”. The author also states that according to Nakamura (2012) and Schut(2006) “gender stereotyping is a widespread practice in and around digital game culture. The discourse of game culture is still stereotypically male, young, heterosexual, and white, which creates a symbolic division between people who legitimately claim gamer identity and those who have no right to do so”. Based on Vermeulen, Lotte, and Jan Van Looy (2016), Many game content draws on masculine (heterosexual) fantasy by portraying stereotypical and sexualized images of women. In addition, the clear majority of female game characters are unplayable or supplemental, often depicted in helpless and innocent roles. Based on the “Gender and Video Games: How Is Female Gender Generally Represented in Various Genres of Video Games?” journal, according to Harrison & P ag e 9 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games Bond (2007), the male gamers who read game magazines (preadolescent boys) tend to have a stronger desire to gain muscularity rather than readers of fitness or sport magazines. Proving that the muscularity, power and super abilities of the game characters affect a boy’s perception to make them believe that power and popularity can be achieved with such a body. Similarly, for female players they wish to be as thin like female characters of the games with large breasts, small waist and small hips which is not physically and cannot be reached in a healthy way. With more male game players, this can also make them believe that a female body representation in the video games are normal and attractive. Thus, affecting females through peer pressure, such as bullying girls who do not have a thin body. Whereas Lynch, Teresa1(2009) indicates, that children who play video games likely encounter sexualized imagery prior to adulthood. As games rated Teen did not significantly differ from Mature games in terms of sexualization. This finding does not imply that the video game industry sexualizes female characters for teenagers. Rather, this may indicate that video games have normalized sexualization of female characters across audiences of varying ages. Therefore, an amendment of the ESRB system needs to include an additional rating for teens aged 15 and younger, as they may be more appropriate for ages 16 and over. According to Vermeulen, Lotte, and Jan Van Looy.(2016) Although there were Countermoves such as Girl Gamers, Riot Girls, and Frag Dolls have proven successful all-female game communities, resisting a male domination play, woman gamers are frequently reminded of their unconventional position within a digital game culture. According to Vermeulen, Lotte, and Jan Van Looy (2016), taking back to the perceptions of men being better at playing games and women belong more P ag e 10 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games productive with household chores. Due to all these facts, most of the time women experience a “double stereotyping” while engaging in game culture. The author states that based on Gyongran, (2008) Kowert, Festl, & Quandt (2013) and Shaw (2013), They not only encounter discrimination based on their gender, but also suffer from the low pop culture status of digital gaming as an active gamer is socially disvalued because there are a lot of negative connotations about gamers such as “geeky” or “socially inept”. These trends in character representation have been attributed to the corresponding demographics of game designers; the absence of non-white and female characters in games was compared to the absence of females and minority designers in the gaming industry (White, 2006). According to Lynch, Teresa1, et al(2016), Although Video games are a popular source of entertainment for all genders based on the IGDA (2014) records only a 22% of employees were women in the video game industry in 2014. The author states that the shortage of female employees alongside the sexist encounters in online game spaces support the popular notion that video games are a masculine activity). At the outset, the computer industry employed women in jobs that required limited technical skills with low salaries, and limited upward mobility in contrast to males. (Haigh, 2010). The gender gap that fueled in technological fields (Haigh, 2010) caused for only 3% of the work force to be women (Graser, 2013). The ample bust of Lara Croft in 1996 originated as an office joke was encouraged, and remained her most recognizable feature for years (Brown, 2008). Williams (2006) notes, that the dominance of men in the game industry P ag e 11 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games has led to a culture in which the male perspective is the only one. Thus, the online games served as deterrents for women due to the gender harassment (Fox & Tang, 2014; Kuznekoff & Rose, 2012). Although the industry started to create games for females it was with Barbie Dolls and Sims (life simulation game where you create and control characters): again, based on the stereotyping that girls like to play with dolls. It seems like the industry is not interested in creating video games for both genders. As said at “ABC Nightline” news program by Sherry Turkle (1997) “If you market to girls and boys per just the old stereotypes and don’t try to create a computer culture that’s more inclusive for everyone, you’re going to just reinforce the old stereotypes…. We have an opportunity here to use this technology, which is so powerful, to make of ourselves something different and better”. According to “Gender and Video Games: How Is Female Gender Generally Represented in Various Genres of Video Games?” article, when experts from the industry was interviewed, they agreed that female gender is misrepresented in video games and are hypersexualized or are victims or prizes. “We don’t have developers creating strong women, so publishers and developers don’t think that games with women sell, so they don’t make games with strong women” and by that “it makes young men (in particular) intellectually lazy”. In the same article it states that, “It is important to create video games or and advertise them for genders. Sega, tried to introduce more new female heroines into their fighting games, giving the impression of a change. But they were P ag e 12 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games only targeted to the male gender, and gave them powers which will be engaging for female and male players”. The authors states that Lara Croft, the female protagonist is a perfect fantasy for both genders, but the company market the game extensively for male audience and by representing the female model half-naked at trade shows. In addition, it states “76.9% of players from the research conducted believes that female gender is stereotyped and of that 31.62% agree that they are sexually objectified and dressed provocatively. Females were more unsatisfied about this representation. They agreed that this happens due to predominant male target audience and industries uses this as a marketing tool and that the industry lack people who are qualified and aware of gender studies and assumed that the industry does not want to re-create or change as it will cost more money and time”. P ag e 13 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games 4 ANALYSIS The term “video game” has evolved over the decades from a purely technical definition to a general concept, defining a new class of interactive entertainment. At the inception of the industry when Atari introduced “pong” the first arcade game in 1972, the industry was introduced as a hobby for all genders, and ages. To strike a blow for gender equality, Atari introduced “Ms Pac man” two years from introducing “Pac man”. Without any gender bias people could enter the arcades or purchase the console to enjoy the hobby they loved, until 1996 when “Lara croft”, with the 34D bust, was introduced. Although the producers claimed it was to introduce a female protagonist, it was more of a male fantasy being illustrated to reality. This unrealistic female figure gave birth to gender bias in video games, which has taken place in the industry for the past two decades. Much as penicillin was discovered by a lab accident, the bust of Lara croft themselves were the result of a happy lab accident. An office joke, that was encouraged, and remained her most recognizable feature, which lived on and helped establish Croft as the exemplar of the sort of hyper- sexualized lady characters; becoming Figure 2 : Lara Croft - Tomb Raider - 1996 the key reason to withdraw the female P ag e 14 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games audience from the industry. Without identifying the key reasons behind this withdrawal, the gaming industry categorized the games as male and female video games, and introduced “Sims” in 2000 for female players. Along with the social norms that were prominent in the days when STEM fields were classified as a male industry, and labeled women in a supporting role and housewives, “Sims” was introduced; a game of the daily activities of one or more virtual people (\"Sims\") in a suburban household near a fictional city. Since then majority of the games – 90% - were introduced with only male protagonists, and the industry became not just male dominated but a WHITE MALE dominated industry. Where female characters and other races were often unplayable or supplemental, they were always given a helpless submissive role in video games. On every occasion, the video game companies introduced female protagonists as a primary figure, since the days of “Lara Croft” the characters were always hyper-sexualized. The females’ figures were often portrayed in fewer or revealing clothes. Similar to Lightning of final fantasy 8, All female Figure 3 : Lighting - Final Fantasy 8 characters often had a tall P ag e 15 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games figure with a 34D bust, 24” waist, a 34” hip, with long legs, which was not only unrealistic but unachievable without any cosmetic treatment. On one hand, from Lara croft to Bayonetta characters, who are ambitious, strong and independent were the image that most of the women wanted to be, But, due to the way their body was portrayed, it hindered the participation of most female players. In addition to the female primary characters being hyper sexualized another factor that hindered the female gamers was the fact that most of the video games not making the female avatars freely available for the players. Although the male avatars were provided free of charge for the players, the female avatars had to be purchased for the user to use them. Therefore, Female users unless willing Figure 4 : Scarlett Fox - Temple Run to pay and purchase the female avatar that they required, they were forced to play as a male character willingly or unwillingly. The Past incident that took place with the temple run character can be taken as a key example, when the 12-year-old player wrote to the owners of the game stating “It's not fair, because if I'm being forced to play as a boy, like, why?”. The response that was given by Natalia, the Temple Run creator, was “For all our good intentions, and for all my good intentions, it's true that P ag e 16 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games you start out with this male character. The white male is always the default, and anything else, it's like, you have to work for it.\". And when questioned about why the female characters was priced, they stated that 60 percent of the players were female, and the women characters brought in a lot of cash, which proves the requirement of female avatars in the industry. When the gaming industry is considered more than the primary characters’ women were always portrayed secondary. These secondary characters were often sexually objectified or portrayed as a helpless, submissive figure. Women were often used to lure the male players. The female characters were used as a reward for the male character on achieving a goal. The grand theft auto game is a key example for this, where the male Figure 5 : Grand theft auto - Virtual Sex drivers can enjoy virtual Sex where the player, kills the prostitute afterwards: This Allows the player to get health bonus. This has become one of the main reasons for the male gender to play this game. When searched on the internet for any information, related to this game, all that you see are videos, posted by the players on how they got health points by having sex, and killing the female character. The “Need for Speed- Underground” noticeably portrays how women in secondary roles are used to lure the men in to the game: with the body of the women being used as the track. P ag e 17 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games All these stereotypical ideas about female game preferences have led to the development of typical “girl games,” such as Kim Kardashian, Barbie and the well-known “Sims”- that led the foundation to this criterion. They all follow themes that are labeled as “female themes”, such as appearance, fashion, and relationships, which portrays female characters with perfect figures. The video game industry has characterized female games as all dress up or mere household and daily activity games. Whereas, all action and sports games are labeled as male only games. If one analyzes video games that represents the sports arena, female figures are not at all seen in any sports games. Even though, in real life there are female rugby, cricket, football, basketball teams, that represent their countries in world cup, and many tournaments, for the video game world sports arena is only meant for the male players. Thus, although female players would like to play these games they have no option but to play as a male character. “Tomb-Raider” – the ideal game to break these stereotypes. A character that any woman would want to be, to break the typical feminine stereotype, the society has come up with. The ambitious, strong and independent figure that most of the female players would idealize of. But still it is not playing the role it’s meant to play due to its hyper sexualized figure since the character was introduced. Although the Hyper Figure 6 : Tomb Raider Reinstating Advertisement P ag e 18 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games sexualization of the characters in video games has reduced since 2011, it is still nowhere close to the state it was during its inception back in 1983. Her sex appeal is so illustrious, that male players perform in-game actions to make Lara Croft repeatedly say phrases and view closer camera angles of her bust, whilst pornography featuring the character has been distributed via the internet. She is even sexualized through her attire throughout the action of the game. Throughout various Lara Croft games her outfits change correspondingly to the missions, where they all highlight her thighs and legs, becoming more and more revealing. Outfits such as the ‘Dressing gown’ ‘Bikini’ and ‘Evening Gown’ pays homage to her ‘unobtainable’ attributes which make her such an erotic character. This differs greatly from the other male gaming protagonists generally in the media such as Max Payne or Hitman. Where we see it the norm for Lara to parade around shooting people in almost her underwear, it would be a very different story if hitman turned up to his mission wearing only boxers instead of his infamous suit. The “Lara Croft” character has also taken a fresh look since 2011, but still it is unfortunate that the gaming industry is using the character to lure the male players to play the game rather than using her to address the female players. Despite the creator of Lara Croft (Toby Gards) intentions for her to be sexy was “only because of her power”, the general media emphasize her as a ‘sex symbol’ in the gaming industry. This can be seen through Robert Ashley of Official U.S. PlayStation Magazines’ description of Lara Croft as the first video game character openly thought of as sexy plus. Moreover, Publications like Play, Game Trailers, and PlayStation Magazine listed big breasts, as one of the P ag e 19 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games character’s most famous attributes. The character has reduced her bust size, but still is adorned with revealing clothes. The company uses all its advertising materials in a way to lure the male players rather than trying to attract the female player. The video game player percentage has changed significantly since its inception where the community now consists of 45% of female players and 55% percent male players, but still the companies are only marketing for, to attract, and making games to serve the male players. Is it that they are still using the ancient market research figures? or that they are biased towards the male players? With all this gender stereotyping it can be said that the women experience “Double Stereotyping” while playing video games. As they not only come across discrimination through the game characters but also suffers from the low pop culture status of video gaming. With the influence of the video game characters, and due to the norms, that has evolved since the olden days the women are labeled as they belong to household and customary, supporting role based work. With science being a male industry, the society and the male population expects the women to look as they appear in video games. During adolescence, most boys and girls explore their identity in direct and indirect means. While unique fashion statements and activities are direct ways of exploring, frequent stereotyping and gender roles in the video games influence on how they form their own identity as well as their attitude towards the opposite genders. As a result, the boys may expect P ag e 20 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games the women to look like the avatars that they daily see in their video games; to be sexy and attractive while instilling the message, that women are weaker and need to be supported always. According to Harrison & Bond (2007), male gamers have a stronger desire to gain a more muscular body than the readers of sports magazines, proving how the games influence and effect a boy’s perception, that popularity can be achieved through muscularity, power, and super abilities, as portrayed in video games. Similarly, it can be said that they expect and wish for women to look like the female avatars portrayed in the video games. Due to the video game population being more male it will affect the females through peer pressure, such as the girl who doesn’t have such a figure being bullied in schools and society, and when women are video game players the active players are socially devalued through many social connotations such as “geeky” or “socially inept.” It is labeled as the women who plays games and who are interested in the computer related activities looks “geeky” or are supposed to dress in “nerdy” clothing which includes a thick pair of glasses, whilst the women who dress in sexy attire and who carries a perfect figure cannot have any interest in video games or the computing field. Resulting the women having to use a male name while engaging in MMO’s and gaming forums to avoid being objectified by men. Whilst the hardcore female players gives a blind eye to this and consider the avatars as gender neutral in order to be engaged in the hobby they love, the low frequency female players consider it as a complete masculine domain, thus P ag e 21 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games distancing themselves from such games in order to keep away from the stereotyping as their coping strategy, and engage in the “female” labeled video games. The Segregation that the gaming industry created in the video games has resulted in segregating the society as well. This character representation and the sexualization of female characters is mainly due to the percentage of the female work force in the industry. It can be said that “Video Games are Made by Males and Made for Males.” The female work force in the video game industry being only 16% of the total workforce, it’s reflecting on the video game industry. Like the girls hardly being able to find a female avatar to represent themselves in the games, yet boys having a wider variety of avatars; you can hardly find a female developer in the video game industry. Thus, it can be said that the video game avatars largely represent the numbers in the industry. Furthermore, the target marketing of groups based on the stereotypical gender notions further promotes the sidelining of women as gamers. Even though the gaming industry is aiming to be all-encompassing, these same efforts, seems to be promoting and reproducing the early day’s stereotypical ideas about womanhood, thus increasing the limits between those who can claim to be a gamer and those who can’t. This gender representation in the video games, the sexualization and gender biasness mainly leads girls to lose interest in the video games. It is an industry where you can find people who have come to the industry due to their passion for video games. Almost every employee in the industry has been a video game P ag e 22 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games player since childhood. Research has identified that the video games play a potential positive effect in cognitive and social developments of youngsters, and believes that the gaming opens the door to computer literacy leading to potential technology related careers. Which is widely seen in the video game industry. Therefore, the disproportionate gender representation and the gender role stereotyping of the game characters has become a foremost reason for the deterrence of female players to pursue a career in the video game industry. Girls not getting as much exposure to computing and gaming in their younger years, influences their attitudes toward computing, and as they grow older girls become reluctant to choose computer and technology subjects and eventually influencing their career choices. Therefore, it can be said that there is a vicious circle of “recursive effect” between the video games and the players. While the portrayal of the female avatars in the video games affect the female players and their joining the game development industry, the lack of female developers in the industry keeps affecting the female character portrayal in the video Games Players video games. Thus, the games not only reflect the industry but influence the industry as well. Unless the necessary measurements are taken to break Figure 7: The recursive effect in the gaming industry P ag e 23 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games this circle, the recursive effect will continue. This reclusive effect is not alone in the gaming industry, but also very prominent throughout the STEM industries. The norm that started in the past, that science is only for men, is still quite visible in the industry; although many companies are trying to make a difference. The women who are involved in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics related fields face stereotyping similar to the video game players. As stated above women involved in such fields are often labeled as “nerds “or “geeky”. The masculine stereotype of stem pushes women out of the field. Although this gap has become a big concern among education advocates and despite increased attention and new diversity initiatives, however, it remains a persistent problem. Therefore, when the video game industry is lacking the knowledge it needs and the talent they are looking for the industry needs to consider consciously the disparity and try to understand the root cause for this situation similar to the other industries, and take responsibility to mend this gap; rather than advertising and trying to market the industry only to the Male players. When games that are developed by a complete team of Male developers and a team with equal male and female developers are compared, the disparity is clear between the characters, and how they are portrayed. When the Tomb Figure 8 : Comparison of Lara Croft with Raider, a completely male developed Faith Connors P ag e 24 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games game and how they portray the sexualized “Lara croft” character compared with the subtle portrayal of Mirror Edge Catalyst “Faith Connors,” it can be clearly said that the reason behind the sexualization of characters is the lack of women in the industry. Mirror edge Catalyst was Developed by a team consists of 50% Females where the Female Protagonist Faith in fact, is developed based on one of the female team members. Moreover, the EA Games involved Anita Sarkeesian, a Canadian-American feminist media critic, blogger, and public speaker in their development team to make the game to cater both genders equally which was detested by the male players. One complained that “Anita Sarkeesian has no credibility or experience in game development. She is merely a self-proclaimed critic and her opinions should offer no sound foundations in the development of this or any game. She has no experience in the industry.” Despite all their efforts in changing the culture in the gaming industry and developing games for the female gender, the reply that was given by EA games was “Anita does not speak for gamers, female or otherwise, on the difficulty or appeal of games. She only offers personal insights catering to her own agenda. In fact, she went so far as to say that women needed a whole new “simplified” control set for this game, based on her personal experiences, passing them off as the opinion of the female gaming community”, which exhibits the fact that the gaming industry still considers the male players as their main market; and that they can and will be biased to meet their needs. Focus should not solely be on satisfying the needs of an already-motivated player group, but to confront the stereotyping practices in the industry and to shift video gaming from a ‘threatening medium’ to ‘an P ag e 25 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games uninhibited pastime’ for women”. As Xenia Konrad (2015) Stated “There are still going to be video games, which are designed directly only for females and only for males. It is impossible to avoid that, but it is important and necessary to create video games or at least start advertising them in such a way that both genders will be interested in playing them”. P ag e 26 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games 5 CONCLUSION The industry, introduced without any gender biasness took a twist when the largely busted “Lara croft” was introduced; which led to the gender biasness in the industry. Since then the industry has continued to be biased where the industry is now categorized as Male and female, and has become a “WHITE MALE” industry. Female protagonist are always hyper sexualized, and portrayed secondary, than as primary characters. Even if they are primary, it is to be phased by the players, whilst the male avatars were provided freely. Primary or secondary female characters are often sexually objectified or portrayed as a helpless, submissive figure and often used to lure male players. These stereotypical ideas led to the development of typical “girl games” themes that were based on appearance, fashion, and relationships. “Tomb-Raider” – the ideal game to break the typical feminine stereotype was used to lure the male players rather than to address the female players. Women were often double stereotyped in the video game industry, through sexualization on video games and through peer pressure; where the women’ video game players were socially disvalued through many social connotations such as “geeky” or “Socially inept” that hindered the participation of most female players. The video game avatars largely represent the numbers in the industry. The disproportionate gender representation and stereotyping has become the P ag e 27 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games foremost reason for demotivating female players in joining the video game industry. Despite all their efforts in changing the culture in the industry, the gaming industry still consider the male players as their main market. This will promote the “Recursive effect” between the video games and the players. Therefore, in conclusion, the industry needs to confront the stereotyping practices in the industry in order to shift video gaming from a ‘threatening medium’ to ‘an uninhibited pastime’ for women; not just by creating video games, but by starting to advertise them in a way that both genders will be interested in playing them P ag e 28 | 29

Damsels in Distress | A Gender Analysis in Video Games 6 BIBLIOGRAPHY Gender and video games: How is female gender generally represented in various genres of video games? (n.d.). 171-193. Retrieved March 12, 2017, from http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/110150979/gender-video-games- how-female-gender-generally-represented-various-genres-video-games Lynch, Teresa1, et al. \"Sexy, Strong, And Secondary: A Content Analysis of Female Characters In Video Games Across 31 Years.\" Journal of Communication 66.4 (2016): 564-584. Humanities Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 27 Jan. 2017 Mou, Yi, and Wei Peng. “Gender and Racial Stereotypes in Popular Video Games.” http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve.aspx?doi=10.4018/978-1- 59904-808-6.ch053 (2009): 922–937. www.igi-global.com. Web. Vermeulen, Lotte, and Jan Van Looy. “‘I Play So I Am?’ A Gender Study into Stereotype Perception and Genre Choice of Digital Game Players.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 60.2 (2016): 286–304. EBSCOhost. Web. Waddell, T. Franklin et al. “White Man’s Virtual World: A Systematic Content Analysis of Gender and Race in Massively Multiplayer Online Games.” Journal For Virtual Worlds Research 7.2 (2014): 1-14. journals.tdl.org. Web. 12 Mar. 2017. Williams, Dmitri et al. “The Virtual Census: Representations of Gender, Race and Age in Video Games.” New Media & Society 11.5 (2009): 815–834. SAGE Journals. Web. P ag e 29 | 29