Guest Writer: Sexuality

Kris Lipscombe 69 Comments

I love getting guest articles in. It’s always nice to read a fresh take from someone outside of our writers. This time round it does still come from someone inside TSA Towers, in the form of Dexter17 one of our community staff. Anyway, read on.

No one can deny that a certain degree of sexism has always had a presence within the videogaming industry. The industry has always been predominantly made up of males and although certain outlets would have us believe that the industry has diversified over the years, the statistics only serve to reinforce the original fact.

A comprehensive study by the University of Liverpool back in 2010 showed that a colossal 96% of employees in the UK videogaming industry are male, with only 4% falling to that of the female species. With these numbers being taken into consideration, it is obvious as to why some videogames, if not intentionally, include elements that could be perceived to be sexist. With Andy Gray and Richard Keys recently facing the sack for their chauvinistic views, I decided to take a look at whether the videogaming industry can afford to push the boundaries like it currently does, especially at this time when videogaming is really beginning to take the mainstream market by storm.

The first thing to note is that this kind of understated sexism is not exclusive to the videogaming industry. A quick glance over at Taio Cruz’s music video of Dynamite highlights that that the videogaming industry should share in the scorn that is regularly heaped upon the interactive media. For the benefit of those who have yet to watch the video, Taio shares what appears to be a junkyard with several scantily clad ladies who are all performing some sort of mechanical task. A few years ago, this video would have been classed as an exception to the norm but it only takes a brief surf of Youtube to find a countless number of alternative music videos that all follow similar conventions.

Worryingly, not all of them are created by male artists either, suggesting that it has become an essential element of a music video to include some sort of sexual connotation. Although I could select several situations in videogames where it is obvious that females are being portrayed as simple sexual objects, I personally feel that no videogame (that I have played) performs it as shamelessly or as confidently as some of the leading music videos do in the market today.

The film industry also needs to withstand the criticism it deserves. Several movies could be selected and scrutinised for the roles that their leading female characters play. Transformers is one such film, Piranha 3D another. Both utilise well known models (Megan Fox and Kelly Brook retrospectively) and seem to intentionally put them into provocative situations just for the sake of doing so. It’s needless to say that these situations hardly ever develop the story or add anything of any value to it.

Bringing this back to videogames, it should be clear by now that videogaming can only take a small division of the blame for how women are portrayed within the media. Examples in videogames can be picked out from a variety of titles, including Grand Theft Auto 4, God of War 3 and the obvious choice, Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust. It’s worth a mention that the trailer for the upcoming Duke Nukem isn’t without its fair share of nudity either. It could all be perceived as harmless fun but when reputable commentators are getting the boot for a splattering of sexist comments, you have to question the media’s right to continue with its current portrayal of women.

There is no doubt that the situation is slowly changing; late last year Brian Horton (the Crystal Dynamics Art Director) went on record saying that they didn’t want to play up sexuality for sexuality’s sake in the new Tomb Raider game, due for release this year. He told Game Informer “If for any reason we wanted to put her [Lara Croft] in a situation that would be alluring, it isn’t to be alluring. It would be because the situation called for it.” This highlights a subtle change in attitude that other developers and publishers may do well to adopt.

You might think I’m being captious but with the videogaming industry continuing to reach out into living rooms across the globe, shameless and sexist portrayals of women make the industry look cheap and distasteful. And with the ever increasing amounts of bad press that the videogaming industry already seems to receive, it would do well to lead both film and music into an age where sexuality is no longer an issue.

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69 Comments

  1. Good read :)

    • Does the chap in your avatar have rickets?

  2. Cracking article, Dexter – a really wonderful read and something that’s prompted me to think about a topic more than I had previously.

    I think, with the games industry, we have a situation that’s unique when compared to other mediums in entertainment. What we have on our hands is an interactive situation that usually suffers if we have some truly vapid bint trailing around with us (or have us play as her) for hours upon end. This isn’t like watching Kelly Brook in Piranha (my god, what a figure) as that was a bit of titillation and nothing else. There’s no way 99% of developers would consider having her in a game like that for 10, 20, maybe 30 hours worth of game time. Even, as you say, Miss Croft is finally becoming more real. Hell, in the last Tomb Raider title she actually looked beautiful and attractive for the first time… not like a polygonal version of a blow-up doll with a personality to match from earlier outings. She’s been fleshed out (steady on!) to a degree that now has her being cared about and associated with when it comes to plot points.

    Uncharted 2 highlights how well it can be done. The visual and personality contrasts between the likes of Chloe and Elena were superb and something all devs should aim for at the very least.
    Sure, we’re going to get the blonde bombshell cliché here and there but game-long characters need to have more to them than likes of Megan Fox (thankfully).

    • Ha :) I just signed up to comment on what a great read this was (been lurking here for a fair while) but I think you just summed up my thoughts perfectly. Great article Dexter17, both thought out and articulated very well

  3. So who’s keeping women from forming a women only studio and than make a “feminist” game?

    • I did a programming course at University, there was literally 0 women in my classes. I don’t think this is the fault of game studios at all.

      • It’s a neverending circle- A male dominated industry makes games that appeal to more men than women, therfore more men choose to try and take up jobs developing games, and the circle continues.

      • Exactly my point. It’s not the game studios who are to blame here.

    • feminist?
      you mean a game where the women in the game aren’t there just to be ogled or rescued?
      and where they don’t wear outfits that offer so little cover you’d be ashamed to even go to bed in them let alone enter a combat tournament or out onto a battlefield.

      • Sure why not? I used “feminist” because the article uses “sexist” to describe the games it is talking about. But a women oriented studio could make men wear outfits that barely cover anything :P. I’d actually like to see this happen because I’m curious how some people would react.

      • @esir – Ever played Kane & Lynch 2? In one of its chapters, both of them 50 year old maniacs are running around completely naked in Shanghai killing cops left and right. Didn’t get much attention lol

      • @Aquastyle , I haven’t played it nor it’s prequel.

      • Decent game the latter, definitely. I’d imagine one could get it quite cheap now aswell, saw it at £8 somewhere.

    • Same im doing one at the moment, 2 women, 15 men

  4. 96% of people in the gaming industry are men. Ok but that doesn’t necessarily make it a sexist industry, how many young girls aspire to video game development? Not many. How many men aspire to it? Loads. If women aren’t going into the industry, that’s not going to change. Vicious circle, while its men making games, they’re always going to be at least a little sexist in their portrayal of women, and while games are sexist in their portrayal of women, not many women will want to get into the industry.
    Vicious, catch 22 style circle with no way out.

    • There’ll always be the gentle erosion of such a cycle, I reckon, fella. It’s already happened a bit and fingers crossed we’ll see it happening more and more as casual gamers look to the industry with more and more interest (seeing as female casual gamers almost rival male casual gamers for numbers).

      • ‘seeing as female casual gamers almost rival male casual gamers for numbers’ – I’m not saying you’re wrong, but where did you get that stat from? I’d personally be amazed if that were true!

      • I’ll dig out the link to BBC website. Out and about at the moment. :-)

      • Here we go. My mistake with referring to it as casual. It was more social gamers than casual.

      • Aah nice, thanks for enlightening me! Although, I hadn’t really considered this type of gaming. Was thinking more along the lines of console orientated games.

      • The thing I was hopelessly trying to get at is that even with social gaming like this, female minds will be curious and they’ll seep into the gaming industry too. Sure, it’s going to take a couple of decades to see any massive difference but it’s already started, I’m sure.

      • I can see the logic there. Hopefully you’re on to something, male or female the more gamers the merrier, right?

  5. Yeah, good read! It may be fair to suggest that the media only do what they do because that’s what people want. Sex has sold as long as there’s been a buyer, back through saucy postcards, the moulin rouge, erotic fiction, the list could go on and on.
    We may live in more enlightened times, whatever that means, but it’s very difficult to change human nature.

  6. Good article Dexter.

    I am quite shocked by those figures (96% male). I knew that it was very male dominated, but not to that extent.

    Some of the best in the industry seem to be female, with Jade Raymond and (Assassins Creed 1/2) and Amy Hennig (Uncharted 1/2/3) being the more well known. Maybe the only reason they are more well known though is the fact that they are female!

    I personally would like to see games mature past the sexism and exploitation of female characters in games, as it does nothing but cheapen the story for me. However, there are occasion where I think it is done in such a way that is actually suitable and fun for the story/game/series.

    Examples would be such as in the God of War series with its famous sex scenes. He still has female goddesses kicking his ass through the games so it evens it out a bit ;).

    Another example where it is harmless and almost part of the series and embedded in it would be in Metal Gear Solid where Snake looks down at Meryl in her prison cell. There are lots of little memes such as that throughout the series and it is never really degrading to women I think, but just part of the character of the series.

    I think you have your games which are usually blockbuster games such as Uncharted 2, Heavenly Sword, Red Dead Redemption which have pretty powerful women in them, without showing sexism or treat them as sexual objects.

    Then you have the games which like to be a little cheeky with it sometimes such as MGS series and GoW series, but in no way does it harm them or come across as distasteful and they still show their female characters a lot of respect (Meryl and Athena both kick ass and have their own personal stories).

    Finally there are those games which are sexist and use it in a smutty way that exploits there female characters. It probably provokes some snigger’s and some people probably enjoy the pixilated breasts, but as the industry become mainstream, I think you are right in saying it is time those games took it a bit more serious and maybe grew up.

    • About Jade Raymond, the reason why she backed down from the spotlight after the first AC game was because of all the sexism she was experiencing. Someone even went to the degree of drawing an extremely offensive sexual comicstrip starring her, quite shocking to hear what she had to go through.

      Sexism in the videogame-industry reaches far beyond the content of the actual games, and it’s the (unfortunately not so odd) immature male gamers who is to blame. The amount of shit socalled girl-gamers have to endure during online gaming can be pretty overwhelimg. A group of female gamers created a rather shocking blog about the subject, link here:
      http://fatuglyorslutty.com/

      Sickening..

      • Jade Raymond is not alone in the entertainment industry as you only have to look to the film and TV world for some really eye-boggling shit. The fanfic I hear about (from stories to comic strips) is both astonishing and disturbing. However, you’re spot on about girl-gamers. They really do get a huge amount of shit from immature gamers with little respect for their female counterparts.

  7. I think video games fell into the “sex sells” trap early on because it was a new medium and had to quickly endear itself to the masses. Unlike a music video or advert though where sex is utilised to quickly grab your attention to sell the music or a product, video games engage an audience for entirely different reasons, and I think developers are starting to recognise this. You will still get the odd game that relies on sex to sell it, but I think these are becoming a minority now as gamers desire a deeper experience from a game that just watching a pair of jiggling boobies. That’s what the internet is for.

    • ‘Jiggling boobies’ – Anyone who has played Baldurs Gate WILL remember that bar maid.

      • Alyth (I think). How much time did the devs have on their hands to model those? They were outlandishly awesome! Hahaha… independent suspension an everything! :-)

      • I remember them fondly.

  8. “sexist portrayals of women”? What about the men, it’s just as bad, Nathan Hale is about the only ‘real’ looking bloke in gaming, every one else is pumped up steriod abusing lugheads.

    Including Sackboy.

    Hale always tops the poles in the “Sexiest gaming characters” charts becasue he’s pretty normal.

    • Really? He was a military man with a full charisma-bypass at times.

    • What about the other Nathan, i.e Drake? Ok not all of us might be born with his features but he’s not a steroid junkie or a million miles away from being a pretty average looking guy!

  9. Nice article and an interesting topic.

    However, I do feel there is a difference between the previously mentioned commentators making certain comments on a public broadcast available to a large audience of all ages, and similar comments or portrayals in a game with an age rating that is bought by someone who is likely to know the content of what they’re purchasing. That said, I am certainly not approving of either!

  10. No not within out lifetime

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