Female participation in gaming and its obstacles - Dissertation Social

Since their creation during the second half of the twentieth century, video games have not ceased to have a great popularity among young people, who find them amusing and welcome them as a hobby that can make them forget the routine of their lives. However, although video games appealed mostly to young boys and men, female participation in gaming continues to increase. Actually, due to the influence of feminine activism and the power that women are taking in developing companies, the world of gaming is shifting to include females on its industry. Nevertheless, in spite of these few changes, female gamers still not overtly welcomed, because of the type of games, the oversexualization of the female characters and their under-representation.

To begin, most video games seem to be more done for men than for women. As there is a difference between the genders of the players, it is obvious that there might be also a difference in the preferences of the type of the games. Indeed, although this may seem stereotyped, men tend to prefer games where there is a lot of action, fighting, dynamics and tactics, while a relatively important proportion of women do not enjoy this type of games. On their side, female gamers have a taste for games where there is communication, a story that goes on, or a development in the personality of characters.

However, video games are done by men for men. While there is a whole heap of games that men can play, women are stuck with only few options that meet their expectations. Unfortunately, the video game industry is dominated by men, and there are not enough women to develop games that match the tendencies of female gamers. Thereby, it is indeed fair to say that just like female gamers, women are not quiet welcome as employees in the gaming world.

Moreover, female characters are over sexualized. In many video games, female characters are gorgeous, tall, with big breasts and slim waist, wearing sexy outfits. In other words, the female body is represented in unrealistic proportions. This idealization of the female image displeased female gamers. As a hobby, video games are played for fun, and they are supposed to be kind of an escape from reality. However, with an unrealistic representation of female characters, it is practically impossible for women to identify themselves in video games. Thereby, they may feel not enough, inferior or unable to

meet beauty standards that are “required from a woman”, which make them feel extraneous and therefore unwelcome.

Finally, female characters are under-represented in video games, and they are numerically and functionally inferior to male characters. For instance, in most video games, the player always has a wide range of male than female avatars. To make matter worse, the few women characters that are available are usually vulnerable or they have a secondary role. In fact, in most video games, female characters are powerless, assailable, or in jeopardy and in need to be protected by the invincible hero who is of course a mal character.

In conclusion, the gaming world has in fact changed in the last years, but not enough to be overtly welcoming to female gamers. Even in a virtual world, women still can feel that they are unequal to men, because of the negative image that video games reflect and the roles that they associate to female characters. Broadly speaking, the stake of stereotyping within video games and the game industry makes the gaming world a sexist and a masculinist place for women, on both a consumer and developer level.

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