The Issue of Female Representation in Gaming, I Learned, as a Man
Video games, or video gaming, has become one of the most integral aspects of today's society. From their earliest conceptions as digital hobbies and entertainment, to now having competitive leagues and the potential to grant millionaire careers, they’ve become a staple part of the human experience. Video games have reached global popularity, developing massive communities and proving itself as a valuable industry worth economic investment.
There are so many positive things that can be said about video games; however we can not ignore the negatives. First, let's ask the question of what video games are. As mentioned before, video games scale in range of involvement and scope; they can go from being small personal hobbies to being a career or occupation granting a celebrity-like status. To surmise and condense the expansive nature of video games into an essential idea, we just need to understand video games simply as an “activity”. With any activity there’s the concern of engagement. Who is this activity made for, who will enjoy it, how do we get others to engage with it? When we think about video games in this manner there’s many contentious aspects in how video games are designed, who they are designed for and how they relate to us as they are designed.
“I understand that many representations of women in video games were designed to appeal to the heterosexual male interest, but I couldn’t empathize...until now.”
I identify as a man and I would call myself a person who plays video games. Video games have been a source of entertainment, fascination, therapy and even a way of bonding for me. This has been a hobby I’ve developed from childhood, and I’ve learned what games I gravitate to and what games I struggle to immerse myself in; for the most part though, I’m sure I can find enjoyment playing most games. Honestly, when I’m thinking about video games, the only thing on my mind is the potential gratification I’m going to get from it. Nonetheless, I am aware of the societal concerns and arguments that video games have been a male-dominated space and most are made to appeal to the male-dominant power fantasy. I’m open to the idea and willing to accept that sometimes this argument may apply to me. However, some things I couldn’t relate to were the concerns of how women are represented and portrayed in video games. I could, of course, understand the arguments logically. I understand that many representations of women in video games were designed to appeal to the heterosexual male interest, but I couldn’t empathize...until now.
There’s a lot of things I don’t know about being a woman or girl who plays video games or considers herself a gamer. There’s probably a lot of things I won’t ever understand. However...I will say...I may have at least...to some extent...come to understand female gamers when it comes to trying to make a cool female character who isn’t just a sexual object.
Let's present one of the main arguments about female representation in video games.
The argument goes that most of the time female characters are depicted wearing skimpy or revealing clothing. Furthermore, it argues that such clothing in respect to the game and it’s circumstances are unrealistic. For example, let's observe the fighting game genre, where the premise and nature of the game is that you’re given a cast of characters who engage in close quarter combat. In fighting games, it makes sense that characters sometimes wear clothing that shows some skin—it’s a fighting game and you’re playing a cast of fighters, why not show off their muscles and scars? However, sometimes you’ll have female characters in the cast who show off a lot of skin, but it doesn’t necessarily make sense in regards to what that character is designed to represent. What I mean by this is that it's obvious the character is designed to be overtly sexually appealing even if it doesn’t fit with their theme. A primary example of this is in the fighting game franchise of Street Fighter with the character of Cammy.
“Let’s present one of the main arguments about female representation in video games.”
Cammy is supposed to be a soldier. In her base design, she wears a military berriot, wears green, and has a camo design on her body. However, what’s awkward about Cammy’s design is that despite being an elite soldier, her main outfit is a one-piece leotard that looks like a swimsuit. You have to ask if she’s an elite soldier in the military and she’s going around doing military missions, why is she wearing a swimsuit?
The fantasy game genre tends to be the bigger culprit of having awkwardly unrealistic clothing for its female characters. The arguments and contentions with how female characters are portrayed and how nonsensical their designs are aren’t too difficult to find in this genre. I would say I was aware of this but it didn’t affect my gaming experience until I chose to immerse myself into a fantasy game as a female character.
I decided to get into the popular fantasy role playing franchise of Monster Hunter. The whole premise of this franchise is simple—you hunt monsters! I played one of their games when I was younger, but I didn’t fully understand it.Their most recent game, Monster Hunter World, looked visually stunning and the game play looked phenomenal; playing the game proved my expectations right and the game itself is addictively fun. In any game where I have the ability to customize a character, I try to make a character that in some way resembles me and I enjoy imagining what kind of experiences I would have in that fantasy world. However, with this game, I chose to go with a female character because the default female character before any customization was a woman of color whose identity could have been Black, Caribbean, or Brown. For those who don’t know, the concern of racial representation has been a concern in the gaming community, so the default female character being a woman of color was really cool. I decided that this time I’ll be a strong black woman. I did a few customizations and of course kept her skin the same. With the Monster Hunter franchise, one of the main selling points besides hunting the monsters is the armor and weapon sets you create from the monsters you kill and that selling point definitely worked in attracting me so buy the game Monster Hunter World. To my disappointment, the female armors were disappointing.
One of my friends who also bought the game played as a male character and we progressed through the game at the same time. That means for each monster armor set we unlocked we were able to see what it looked like for the men and the women; the women’s versions of the armor were aesthetically weak in comparison to the men's armor. I would say there were 3 key differences that really showcased the disparities in how the female armors were designed. Firstly, the stereotypical skimpy armor did show up. For some reason, in this game with monsters that can manipulate the elements and cause natural disasters you have this “protective” armor for female hunters that just don’t cover your midriff or outer thighs. Secondly, the armor set for women that was actually designed with heavier armor was ugly and clunky. These armor sets were designed with big metal-plated dresses. Very literally, imagine a woman wearing an open umbrella around her waist and it’s made of metal—this is not an exaggeration. The same way we might think of revealing armor being unrealistic, this was also unrealistic in the opposite direction. How are you supposed to maneuver and fight when the clothes are designed so impractically? Thirdly, the last set of armor fell somewhere in the middle of the extremes where the armor was really just a body suit. Nothing too revealing, nothing too clunky, just really a costume you’d wear to a halloween party.
Overall, I wouldn’t say all the female armor sets were bad. Some of the armors belonging to the 3 categories I described were nice to look at, but in comparison to what was designed for the male characters, there’s a disparity. When it comes to video games that allow for the customization of being a female character, this disparity creates a lack of immersion and lack of personal integration of identity. I felt disappointed playing as a female character because the game lacked the armor designs necessary to fulfill my image of a tough and strong female character. When I want to customize the aesthetic of my characters in a game like this, it really isn't about being male or female, but how my character design fits into the world of the game. However, if the game doesn’t give me those options of aesthetic representation then it’s just pushing me into a box. I can understand how this can be a problem for women now, because if all you’re allowed to be and/or see is a sexual object, then the game limits your expression in ways it probably shouldn’t. For this same game the male armor also had some revealing and skimpy armor sets, and so as a male character, you have that freedom of personal integration. The question is why can’t the female characters have that range as well? The same way I just want a character who looks like a tough warrior regardless of gender, I’m sure there are female gamers who feel the same.
This isn’t an argument to end sexual representation of women in video games, rather an argument for more diverse representation.