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Author: Anita Sarkeesian Executive Director and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Enthusiast Executive Director and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Enthusiast

This remix was inspired by Sloane’s “Star Trek Dance Floor”

It is no secret that the majority of video games these days star overly muscular men often carrying big swords, guns, baseball bats, chainsaws or other phallic weaponry. Many games normalize this extremely macho form of masculinity while uncritically glorifying war or military intervention. Sadly too many games tend to celebrate grotesque displays of violence instead of providing opportunities for creative, less violent, innovative forms of conflict resolution. Today with the growing dominance of the first person shooter genre players are encouraged to really participate in the destruction, testosterone and gore up close and personal.

Not only are these games dominated by male characters but even the few women characters who do get staring roles are often made to replicate overly patriarchal, violent, macho behavior (but inside of a hyper sexualized female body). Not surprisingly the vast majority of game producers, designers and writers in the industry are still men.

To put it simply, there are just too many dicks on the dance floor!

***Note: Two games in this video I offer as examples of games that break the mold. A clip of the game Portal appears during the line “Easy to Fix”. Portal is a game employing less violent conflict resolution tactics and the protagonist is a woman (although you hardly see her during the gameplay). On the lyric “Not Enough Sisters” there is an clip of the protagonist from the dystopian future game Mirror’s Edge which also stars a woman who is not hyper-sexualized.

List of games in order of appearance:



Halo 3

Assassin’s Creed 2

Alien vs. Predator

Modern Warfare 2

Call of Duty 4

Modern Warfare 2

Soul Caliber Broken Destiny

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Bayonetta

Call of Duty 4

Devil May Cry 4

Resident Evil 5

Halo 3

Postal 2

Halo 3

Grand Theft Auto IV

Lego Universe

Army of Two

GTA IV: Princess Robot Bubblegum

Assassin’s Creed

GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony

Gears of War 2

Left 4 Dead 2

Bayonetta

Soul Caliber 4

Prince of Persia

Perfect Dark Zero

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Star Trek Online

Splinter Cell Conviction

Call of Duty 4

Dead Rising 2

Tekken 6

Portal

DJ Hero

XMen Origins: Wolverine

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Modern Warfare 2

Heavenly Sword

Dead Rising 2 Multiplayer

Star Wars: The Old Republic

GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony

DJ Hero

Vampire Rain

Mirror’s Edge

Wolfenstein

Bio Shock 2

Gears of War 2

Uncharted 2

Tekken 6

Dead Rising 2

Grand Theft Auto IV

GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony

Devil May Cry 4

Left 4 Dead 2