As an avid gamer, I never thought to analyze the way women are portrayed in video games, since often the games I played had few, if any, female characters. From the early days of Super Mario brothers and Starfox, through my teenage years playing Counter-Strike, and then finding time to keep my skills alive via Halo or NHL as an adult, I’ve now realized that the female roles (if they exist) are rarely admirable. Sports games like NHL don’t have the option to play as a female team, and EA Sports just added the option to play as women’s national soccer teams for the first time in their FIFA 16 release. Yet, you can play as female characters in other (non-contact) sports games, such as tennis and golf (for example in Grand Slam and Tiger Woods ’14). More violent video games like Counter-Strike or Call of Duty don’t have the option to play as a female character (unless you download or create specialized skins), and the earlier games like Street Fighter or Mortal Combat have brow-raising portrayals of women. These observations are the catalyst for today’s post, which discusses the roles of women as video game characters, and tomorrow, we will also discuss the role of women as gamers and game developers within the industry.

Media is a pervasive tool used around the world to transmit certain ideas to particular populations, and repeated exposure to a particular imagery can often lead to the normalization of those ideas.[1] The video game industry as a subset of the entertainment industry, is not immune from the reproduction of stereotypes through its use of selective storylines and themes. Video games are peculiar in that participants can generally interact within scenes, rather than being forced into passively viewing from a fixed camera angle. Interaction is significant, as humans learn through observation and modelling of behavior early on in life, along with using feedback mechanisms such as positive and negative reinforcement.[2]

A plethora of research surrounding the portrayal of male and female body types in video games has come about within the last 10 years, as video games have become more accessible for all generations. That research indicates that there is an imbalance of gender distribution of characters within the gaming industry, and that when there are female bodies they are often idealized or hyper idealized (stretching the limits of possibility).[3] In particular, games with high levels of photorealism feature females who are systematically thinner (and strangely enough, have larger heads) than those games which are less realistic in gameplay. The level of photorealism in turn impacts the user’s experience, as it has effects on the participant's feelings of involvement in the game, aggression levels, and psychological arousal.[4] Theories have suggested that the reason for this body portrayal is that “male interests drive content development and pervade gaming culture”, and therefore the portrayals “tend to align with heteronormative male fantasies that depict strong capable men and highly sexualized women”.[5]

You may be thinking that you, like me, have played an innumerable amount of games where the female body is normal, and not hyper ideal. Yet, although idealized bodies are not a universal feature in games, the roles in which women are portrayed fall within a few particular categories for the majority of popular games. Anita Sarkeesian has detailed these roles in her YouTube channel, but the three most frequently identifiable are (1) the damsel in distress, (2) the background decoration, and (3) the trophy. [6]

The damsel in distress role pre-dates video games, but was used by the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto in some of the earliest versions of arcade and video games. The iconic ‘Princess’ who is rescued by a capable male is a memorable paradigm replayed countless times, and continues to occur in modern narratives. Of the 14 of the core Mario franchise games, Princess Peach is kidnapped in 13 and only a playable character in one, although she is playable in later spinoff games like Super Smash Brothers and Mario Kart. The other notorious franchise created by Miyamoto, the Legend of Zelda, is also based on a damsel who needs to be rescued. Zelda has never actually been a true playable character (although she is a helpful or active participant at some points), and in every game within the franchise she has been kidnapped, cursed, or somehow disempowered. As Sarkeesian notes, the damsel role “reinforces and perpetuates the notion that women as a group need to be sheltered and protected” as a naturally weaker gender whose ostensible agency is often removed.[7] It is also notable that the reserve scenario, where a man is kidnapped and a woman saves him, is almost non-existent in video gaming culture. Sarkeesian also references “trope cocktails” where the damsel is either used as a pre-text for a bloody revenge question (see: Dishonored, Inversion, Outlaws, Dantes Inferno, etc), or the damsel has to be killed for her own good (see: Resident Evil 5, Duke Nukem Forever, God of War, Grand Theft Auto III ["GTA"], Gears of War, etc). In these examples, women’s deaths are treated as far more important than their lives.[8]

A second recurring role in which females are portrayed in video games is that of the background character or decoration. These characters are often pre-scripted and non-playable, and are used either to further the story of the main character or simply as filler. Examples of highly sexualized characters are most apparent in racing games like GTA, but also occur in games like Hitman, Godfather, Farcry, and Mass Effect.[9]

Women as background characters are sometimes intertwined with the third category – women as a reward. In the early Mario days, winning the game meant earning a kiss from Princess Peach. Today’s games continue this tradition, but there are also other subcategories where women are treated as a reward or trophy to be earned. For example, users may unlock special costumes or skins for female characters (such as a sexy pirate or nurse in the Resident Evil franchise) if they complete particular objectives. Experience points and public achievements are given in response to sexual interactions with female (non playable) characters in games like GTA and God of War. The accumulation of collectibles (like Playboy centerfolds in Mafia 2) is encouraged in some games, although it has no actual effect on gameplay and is a private accomplishment. Sarkeesian notes that these trophies, which fittingly used to be called entitlements, cause men to view women as objects to be collected or displayed, and serve as a way for men to assert their social status relative to other men. [10]

Despite these recurring roles, the video game industry has slowly began to cast females in stronger roles which are gender-neutral (in that, they could be played by either a male or female, and their actions are not a stereotypical materialization based on the character's sex). For example, the Halo franchise has had playable female Spartans since Halo 3, along with other capable, non-sexualized characters such as Dr Halsey. Cortana, while arguably having a hyper ideal body, is non-sexual and acts as more than a sidekick to Master Chief. Mass Effect and Call of Duty Black Ops III allow users to play as a female lead in campaigns, and games such as Beyond Good & Evil feature a female protagonist. The industry is headed in the right direction, but more effort is still necessary to ensure long term and widespread change.

How do you feel that women are portrayed in video games? Let us know via twitter (@msmagnacarta) or in the comments below, and check back tomorrow when we discuss the effect character portrayals have on users, along with the real-life experiences of women within the gaming industry!









[1] Nicholas Matthews, Teresa Lynch, & Nicole Martins, “Real Ideal: Investigating how ideal and hyper ideal video game bodies affect men and women”, (2016) 59 Computers in Human 155-164, at 155 [Matthews]

[2] Anita Sarkeesian, “Women as Reward” (2015), online: <http://feministfrequency.com/2015/08/31/women-as-reward/> [Women as Reward]

[3] Matthews, at 156

[4] Nicole Martins, Dmitri Williams, Kristen Harrison, & Rabindra Ratan. “A Content Analysis of Female Body Imagery in Video Games”, (2009) 61 Sex Roles 824-836 at 826 [Martins]

[5] Matthews, at 156-157

[6] Women as Reward; Anita Sarkeesian, “Women as Background Decoration Tropes vs Women” (2014), online <http://feministfrequency.com/2014/06/16/women-as-background-decoration-tropes-vs-women/> [Women as Decoration]; Anita Sarkeesian, “Damsel in Distress Part 1” (2013), online <http://feministfrequency.com/2013/03/07/damsel-in-distress-part-1/> [Damsel in Distress]

[7] Damsel in Distress

[8] Damsel in Distress

[9] Women as Decoration

[10] Women as Reward