Burgess, Melina C. R., Steven
Paul Stermer, and Stephen R. Burgess. “Sex, Lies, and Video Games: The
Portrayal of Male and Female Characters on Video Game Covers.” SexRoles Sept. 2007: 419-33. Academic Search Premier.
Web. 11 Nov. 13.
The article written by Burgess,
Stermer, and Burgess is an academic research paper discussing the portrayal of
both men and women on the covers of video games. Based on their findings,
men are the main characters within games of all genres five times more often
than women, and when women are present on a cover of a game, they are nearly
always portrayed with a male. Whenever females are present within a game,
nearly half of the characters are shown as sexualized in some manner.
This article works to against my claim stating that the portrayal of women in
games, despite the rise in female players, has not occurred.
Disbelieving
the Dissipation of the Damsel in Distress
A young woman rebounds and
smashes into her opponent, knocking them out with one swift kick to the
head. The player rejoices as she
completes the blow in her game as a female protagonist; she has formed a
connection to the character on the pixelated screen that could not have been
developed with a male character. The portrayal
of women within video games has changed greatly throughout the years through
the implication of strong female characters; however, some refuse to view this
change as significant. Even with these
contradictory statements regarding the change of women in games, such
viewpoints can be analyzed and proven to show that there has been substantial
change within the genre of video games.
Authorities
on the subject of the portrayal of video games state that such change observed
is not entirely present within the industry; only select games in an
insignificant portion of the gaming market have adapted to display women in a
positive manner. Within the article “Sex, Lies, and
Video Games: The Portrayal of Male and Female Characters on Video Game Covers,”
Burgess states that women, if seen throughout a game, are involved in less
action and plot, and when shown on the screen, are usually dramatically
sexualized (429). In order to prove this
point, she and her fellow researchers conduct an experiment regarding images of
women on video game covers. Through her analyses,
she discovered that the majority of women, who were not typically shown on the
covers, were either objectified to an obese degree or were shown in conjunction
with the male protagonist. Such images,
in her opinion, represented the idea that the gaming industry has not improved
their outlook on the feminine identity.
This
article directly challenges my point of view that women’s roles have
significantly grown throughout the last decades, but a common ground can be met
between our dissenting opinions. Burgess’s
main claim that “while the call for increased representation has been heard, it
is difficult to interpret the type of representation as truly a step forward”
(430) displays the common mentality that has circulated through the minds of
women’s advocates: not enough is being completed in order to display women in a
suitable fashion. While I can agree that
that women are still being mistreated within this genre of media, I believe
that the changes occurring cannot be brushed off like dust sitting on a worn
console. Because a woman is shown in an
inappropriate manner on select covers of video games does not mean that the
women gamers’ voices have been ignored and extinguished. Degradation does exist, but the alteration of
women’s roles is also occurring. A
researcher cannot ignore that baby steps have been taken in the right direction
to right these atrocities.
The article also
states that by simply portraying women beside men on video game covers
automatically shows that men are the more dominant figures within games. Even though this would be the case for a
variety of games, most of the covers showing women contain games with a strong
female presence. For example, Aqua
within the game Birth by Sleep in the
Kingdom Hearts series is pictured with two male characters on the game’s cover,
yet she is the most powerful protagonist of the three. A few other statements can be found as
conflicting; she states that the violent nature of the men and women characters
has an effect on the way that women are sexualized within games. While this can be true in most cases, basing
sexualization of a character based on their fighting capabilities does not mean
that women’s roles have been abused because of the difference in violence; most
women do not tend to be as violent as men.
Even
though dissenting opinions have been voiced pertaining to the change in the representation
of women in video games, the information provided by this source can be incorporated
into my argument. Because I am showing
the change of the portrayal as well as advocating for a larger change to be
instated within the gaming community, I am able to use Burgess’s research as an
example of how video games have changed their display of women through the use
of video game cover art. While I am not
covering the ways in which violence within games can affect women’s opinions on
this form of media, such information can be used to show that female
protagonists now act in the same manner as males in order to display
equality. As the heroine rubs her hands together
contently while sauntering away from her latest victory, the girl behind the
controller is satisfied, for her tiny voice within the gaming industry had
finally been heard.
