Semper_Fidelis53 said:
I'm writing an essay for my english class in college and I was wondering if you guys would answer a couple questions for me.
1. Do you believe that the better than life apperances of videogame characters hold you to higher expectations in order to impress the favored gamer gender?
2. Do you find how women are portrayed as large breasted bimbos in most games deemening to women? Likewise about men being portrayed as overly muscled emotionless pricks?
3. Do you believe that the images in video games are worse than those in advertising and television?
1. Though there are many female characters tailored to the social ideal of beauty, I do not feel pressured by them. In the games I am interested in, such as the software designed by the game company, Valve, I would find that the women most fawned over are equals to the male characters. Characters, such as Alyx Vance and Miranda Keyes, are portrayed in practical outfits, contributing greatly to their team, and often dirty, if they were in a situation inhibiting the comforts of modern life. In terms of beauty, their beauty is only the natural beauty of the character, as evident as one would find in a female co-worker: not an attribute flaunted by the character's behaviors and appearance, but showing through their daily attire and informal behavior.
2. The reply to this question depends on the genre. In some types of games, particularly games that follow the Japanese form of cartoons and comic books, the sexualised appearance and behavior of the female characters is a staple of a larger form of media. Without the exaggeration of certain features, both behavioral and physical, even a game produced in Japan would not be given the prefix, "J," short for, "Japanese." Other countries can, and often do, produce games that reflect this signature Japanese media, most often other Asian countries.
As for those games without the influence of the anime image and pantimime, the portrayal of women is often the victim of capitalism. Blockbuster games are extremely expensive to produce, at times even eclipsing major movie budgets. The dominant sex of the gaming demographic is male, making it especially crutial to include sexually arousing women as an additional selling point. As a woman, I am bothered by the portrayal of women in many games, because in order for a sense of true emmersion with a female character to occur, I would often have to accept an image of women whose physical attributes are beautified beyond what even the most drastic of photoshop artists could create for a magazine cover.
3. When comparing the portrayal of women in the general media to video games, I would have to say that gaming is more empowering to women. Sure, both Brittany Spears and Samus Aran are blonde, big-breasted and beautiful, Spears is selling sexual arousal for money while Aran is destroying menaces to the galaxy, defeating monsterous space pirates, and proving herself superior to her more sinister male bounty-hunter counterparts. In many games, the female characters are given sexual visuals to make them more desirable to the male audience, but many do not behave sexual at all. Women often serve as a more lithe, but competent counterpart to the male character.
Though there are countless exceptions, my impression of the general media is that it says to women, be beautiful and fulfill the sexual desires of men to the media, while video games say, be beautiful and intelligent, witty, and competent.
(I don't play many games with the females being a token pair of breasts, so I really can't say much. Of course, what
does that say about the behavior of a female gamer?)
