I love video games. They’ve played a big role in my life, especially as I was growing up. I have extremely fond memories of playing Lego Star Wars, Wii Sports, Guitar Hero, and countless other games with my friends and family when I was a child. Even now, gaming serves as a way for me to stay in touch with my friends from high school. Looking beyond the social aspects of video games, I’m fascinated by everything that goes into making games. I’ve even taken a few game design classes and helped develop a couple of student games. Unfortunately, for everything I love about video games, there is also a lot that I despise, such as false marketing, predatory microtransactions, and the conformity to stale or uninspired trends. Above all, however, I feel that misogyny has been and still is one of gaming’s biggest problems. I believe that misogyny in the gaming community is the reaction of heterosexual male gamers who are reluctant to occupy the same gaming culture with women out of fear of breaking the status quo, and that such a status quo was cultivated by the gaming industry.
History of the “Male Gamer“
The root of misogyny in the gaming sphere is the somewhat universal image of the term “gamer.” It’s common knowledge that most will often envision teenage boys or young men when tasked with describing the typical video game player. The cause of such a phenomenon can be traced back to the 1980s. The video game industry at the time was, if anything, chaotic. Although Atari “controlled 80% of the video game market in 1982,” the fierce “competition from a growing home computer market, the release of its glitch ridden game Pac-Man resulting in lower consumer confidence, and its own business decisions” led to what is known as the “video game crash or the Atari crash of 1983” (Singh 3). From my experience of playing, or attempting to play, video games from the Atari era, I can assert that the Atari version of Pac-Man was only one of countless video games during this generation that were either in an unfinished, cryptic, or even esoteric state. Despite my familiarity with video games, I was hardly able to comprehend the mechanics or objectives of games such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. This unappealing nature of video games at the time clearly affected consumers, who were possibly confused as to who these video games were meant for. This failure of communication and accessibility to customers through video games themselves is another probable cause of the crash. Following Atari’s failure, “Nintendo revived the North American video game industry by releasing their … Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985” (Singh 3). This revival is mainly due to the fact that Nintendo had a much more focused strategy that effectively communicated the intended audience of video games to consumers. In order to ensure an “economically profitable audience,” Nintendo employed “background research to accurately target [their] demography” and accordingly marketed their “products at children, foremost boys” (Singh 3). This marketing decision, although strategic and accurate at the time, undoubtedly gave rise to the outdated stereotype of the male gamer that has since plagued the industry and community. Such a stereotype is one that actively discriminates against women. The constant absorption of video game advertisements that feature male gamers directly feeds into the universally implicit notion that video games are made for men and men only.
Female Representation in Video Games
The stereotype that video games are directed towards men is, beyond marketing, also being contributed to by video games themselves. As previously stated, I’ve spent much of my life playing video games. Although I cherish many of the experiences I’ve had with gaming, I truly lament the disgustingly high number of obnoxiously large breasts I’ve seen in video games. I noticed that this trend mainly originates from the 1990s, as games became edgier and more mature in both content and design. Games from the era such as Mortal Kombat 3 feature female character designs that deliberately accentuate and draw attention to select secondary sex characteristics. The most famous, or infamous, example of this trend can be seen in Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft. I distinctly remember playing Tomb Raider: Anniversary when I was around the age of eight and not being off put in the slightest by Lara’s almost satiric body proportions. I believe that this reaction, or lack thereof, stemmed from the fact that I had been conditioned to implicitly believe that video games were for boys. I thought that these designs were normal because I thought these games were for men. Unfortunately, the oversexualization of female video game characters still proves to be a prolific trend in more contemporary games. I’ve very recently played through 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake and was thoroughly disappointed with how this modern retelling still conforms to the outdated hypersexualized character designs of its original counterpart from the ‘90s. Female characters such as Tifa Lockhart and Scarlet are needlessly sexualized through both their tight clothing and their unrealistic body proportions. As mentioned previously, this constant representation of women in video games as sex objects communicates to gamers that video games are for men, as this portrayal of women comes across as a deliberate fulfillment of male sexual fantasies. Not to mention, the casual sexualization of women in video games also implicitly promotes heteronormativity in the gaming community. This unspoken exclusion of homosexual males stems from the fact that the provocative character designs of women in video games are typically targeted towards straight men. Therefore, not only is the image that gamers are solely men perpetuated by the industry, but also the image that gamers are solely straight men.
Female Representation in the Workplace
Another contributor of the straight male gamer stereotype can be found in the video game development workplace. Although the number of female video game developers has increased over the years, around 71% of video game developers in 2019 were men (Singh 12). This staggeringly high number has multiple causes. One such cause is that, in 2018, men in the gaming industry earned a mean salary of “$51.75 thousand … while in comparison their female counterparts earned a mean salary of $46.7 thousand” (Singh 14). This pay gap can easily be seen as a massive dissuasion for women trying to enter the gaming industry. Interestingly enough, however, Singh also states that the pay gap is the product “of the significantly higher number of men working in the industry” (13). Therefore, the relationship between the pay gap and the number of women in the video game industry can be interpreted as a self-perpetuating cycle. Women won’t work in video game development studios because of the pay gap, and the studios won’t remedy the pay gap because they probably don’t think there are enough women to justify doing so. Additionally, the “lack of social conditioning, encouragement, and paucity of opportunities prove to be the major reasons for the absence of women in STEM fields” (Singh 14). The previously mentioned cycle responsible for the low number of women in the video game industry also has implications in stereotypes regarding women working in such an industry. Thus, another component is added to the cycle, as the lack of women in the video game workplace contributes to the stereotype that women aren’t or shouldn’t be interested in this field, which, in turn, discourages women from pursuing jobs in the video game industry. The overwhelming imbalance between men and women working in the video game industry is at least one of the reasons behind the hypersexualization of women in video games, as character designs that conform to this trend would be nowhere near as prolific if there were more women in the workplace. The fact that video games are mostly being developed by men further contributes to the notion that video games are intended for men.
Online Harassment
The ramifications of the widespread stereotype of the male gamer are usually seen in full effect when observing the behavior of men playing online video games with women. I don’t personally play a lot of online competitive video games; I don’t consider myself to be sufficiently skilled to play and enjoy such games. However, there are instances where I do find myself having fun while playing online video games. Unfortunately, these experiences are almost always cut short as I’ll be promptly reminded of another reason why I don’t play these types of games. Toxicity among players is a massive component of competitive online video games. Whenever I tune into an online game’s voice chat, I’ll often be met with other players insulting my skill or threatening that they’ll engage in certain acts with my mother - nothing too personal, given the widespread nature of such remarks, but aggravating nonetheless. Fortunately, as a man, I’ve only had to face general harassment in online games. Female gamers often have to deal with far worse when playing the same games. Women have been reported to experience “more severe forms [of harassment] such as stalking, sexual harassment, and sustained harassment” (Fox and Tang 1291). This focused and deliberate type of harassment is the direct result of the male gamer stereotype. Since women don’t fit into that mold, they are unfortunately perceived as outsiders to straight male gamers and, as such, are subjected to “discriminatory act[s] of aggression” that target their gender (Fox and Tang 1293). It’s clear that this behavior stems from the refusal to let women actively participate in the gaming community, which straight men perceive as their own. What’s worse is that this lamentable behavior towards women usually succeeds in driving them out of video games and discourages them from playing again, as women will “ruminate about their experiences with sexual harassment, which in turn leads to withdrawal [from video games]” (Fox and Tang 1298). This behavior further enforces the idea that video games are for men, as this notion has clear self-appointed enforcers that operate in online video game voice chats. Additionally, it’s been reported that “time spent gaming [is] significantly and positively associated with internalized misogyny among U.S. female gamers” (McCullough et al. 272). Not only do countless straight male gamers believe that the gaming community belongs to them, but their incessant rebuking of female gamers also possibly causes women to implicitly believe in the same ideas.
Gamergate
Misogyny in the gaming sphere reached its apex in 2014 in what is known as the Gamergate movement. This movement, at its core, is the embodiment of the reluctance of straight male gamers to share their own perceived community with women. The Gamergate movement can be traced back to when “an independent game designer named Zoe Quinn released a free game called Depression Quest;” although “several video game critics” praised the video game for its originality, countless “players took issue with what they considered the artsiness, the non-game-iness of the game” (Dewey). Despite the fact that those who disliked Depression Quest claimed to dislike the game itself, it’s more likely that these people took issue with Quinn’s gender, seeing as female video game developers are extremely uncommon. This hypothesis is backed up by the fact that “anonymous hackers posted Quinn’s personal information” and that Quinn received “death and rape threats so specific, so actionable, that she fled her house and called the cops” (Dewey). These attackers felt that the “purity” of the gaming community was being threatened by both Quinn’s gender and the nonconforming nature of her game and, as a result, felt the need to purge her from the gaming sphere. Of course, Quinn isn’t the only victim of such attacks, as feminist video game journalists such as Anita Sarkeesian and Jenn Frank “received highly graphic, disturbing threats” that resulted in them getting “bullied offline” or being “forced to leave [their] home[s]” (Dewey). Again, whenever the stereotype of the male gamer is so much as questioned by women, self-proclaimed “defenders” of the gaming community will rush to enforce and strengthen it by driving women out of the gaming community. As Dewey puts it, misogyny in the gaming community is about “how [people] define [their] shared cultural spaces” and the “tension between tradition and inclusion” (Dewey).
Change
Although much of the subject matter present comes across as discouraging, change is certainly happening in the gaming sphere, specifically in video games themselves. The previously mentioned Lara Croft underwent a much needed redesign in 2013’s Tomb Raider reboot. Her overly defined body proportions and needlessly revealing clothing were ditched for a much more realistic and natural-looking Lara. Additionally, 2020’s Resident Evil 3, a remake of a game with the same name from the 1990s, made some more than welcome changes to its protagonist, Jill Valentine. Rather than wearing a tube top and short skirt, the 2020 remake saw Jill wearing clothes that actually make sense for someone surviving an apocalypse. However, more can be done. Adding on to the previously mentioned study regarding internalized misogyny in female gamers, “gaming [is] not associated with internalized misogyny among women who [endorse]” feminist ideals (McCullough et al. 272). Therefore, it’s important to spread and instill feminist identities among female gamers to ensure they don’t succumb to the hate so often directed towards them. However, this solution only targets the victims of misogyny in the gaming community. The real targets should be the men perpetuating the idea that video games are for themselves. In order to help rid the community of this issue, the image of the straight male gamer needs to finally be put to rest. In order to do that, the aforementioned pay gap in the video game development workplace should cease to exist. As a result of this decision, it’s very possible that more women would choose to work in the industry. This more balanced representation in the workplace would translate into more balanced representation in video games themselves. Although it would take time, I suspect that this approach would inevitably drive the male gamer stereotype to extinction. As I’ve repeatedly stated, video games are my passion. I truly believe that they are the most unique and engaging art form to exist thus far. It pains me to see such an art form plagued by barbaric and misogynistic ideals and I severely hope I can one day witness it cleansed of such bile.
Works Cited
Dewey, Caitlin. “The Only Guide to Gamergate You Will Ever Need to Read.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 14 Oct. 2014, www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/10/14/the-only-guide-to-gamergate-you-will-ever-need-to-read/.
Fox, Jesse, and Wai Yen Tang. “Women’s Experiences with General and Sexual Harassment in Online Video Games: Rumination, Organizational Responsiveness, Withdrawal, and Coping Strategies.” New Media & Society, vol. 19, no. 8, Aug. 2017, pp. 1290–1307. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=124424894&site=eds-live.
McCullough, Keiko M., et al. “Female Video Game Players and the Protective Effect of Feminist Identity Against Internalized Misogyny.” Sex Roles, vol. 82, no. 5/6, Mar. 2020, pp. 266–276. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=141531765&site=eds-live.
Singh, Tanya. “Gendered Barriers in the Gaming Industry.” Journal for Sports Law, Policy and Governance, vol. 2, no. 1, 2020, pp. 1–22. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edshol&AN=edshol.hein.journals.jslpg2.6&site=eds-live.
