Gender Representation in Video Games Nicole Pero SUNY Geneseo
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Proceedings of GREAT Day Volume 2017 Article 3 2018 Searching for Sliders: Gender Representation in Video Games Nicole Pero SUNY Geneseo Follow this and additional works at: https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/proceedings-of-great-day Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Pero, Nicole (2018) "Searching for Sliders: Gender Representation in Video Games," Proceedings of GREAT Day: Vol. 2017 , Article 3. Available at: https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/proceedings-of-great-day/vol2017/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the GREAT Day at KnightScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Proceedings of GREAT Day by an authorized editor of KnightScholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Pero: Searching for Sliders Searching for Sliders: Gender Representation in Video Games Nicole Pero Sponsored by Melanie Blood ABSTRACT How does the protagonist of a video game and their gender aect the player’s experience? Is it really possible for players outside the gender binary to reach verisimilitude with their protagonists? ese are the questions Pero will be trying to answer across many contemporary games. Frankie was a blue-haired, generally made-up, and 2016). However, what we think of as video games pump-wearing hero. ey were a non-binary avatar weren’t around until the late 1960s with the inven- I made in the game Saint’s Row 3, and they had a tion of the Odyssey, the rst home videogame sys- largely butch, feminine look—tight leather pants, tem. Before this time, video games were hard to code a wifebeater, and a denim jacket. Sometimes, they and produce, and they were dicult for the general sported a set of bright magenta knuckle bandages for public to access. With 1972 came Pong, which kick- the aesthetic, and their voice was a rich, British bari- started the arcade era; in Pong, there is no visible play- tone rumble. Cocky and sometimes goofy to a fault, er character, and the players themselves are meant to they were the ideal avatar for me to explore the out- be playing next to one another while controlling the landish, absurd world of the game and play around joysticks on the very 1970s-looking yellow and dark with gender presentation at the same time. Saint’s wood-grain arcade machine. Later games like Dig Row 3 was one of the rst games I experienced as a Dug and Pac-Man have very recognizable, if diminu- newly-christened PC gamer, and from there on out, tive, player characters who helped create a brand and I played plenty more games, but none of them really drew players to their arcade machines. However, the allowed me to put on a queer, gendered performance genders of these player characters have often been as much as the Saint’s Row series. hard to discern or just assumed to be male. Video games, as a genre of media, allow the player to For example, Metroid’s Samus Aran was assumed to experience a world that isn’t their own and a situation be male because during the entirety of the game, she they would otherwise never experience. e best way is encased in a bulky, red-yellow-and-green power to pull in a player is to have 1. Interesting gameplay, suit while shooting down foes. In order for her gen- 2. A well-written and immersive story, if applicable, der to be revealed, the player must nish the game and 3. a player character who is sympathetic to the under a certain time, after which Samus either pulls player and onto whom the player can map them- o her helmet or pops out of the mechanical suit in a selves in the game world. I’m going to be focusing pink leotard/bikini and waves at the player, depend- my research mainly on the last point of interest—the ing on your nish time. Whether or not Samus is a player character. For the purposes of making sure eve- feminist icon is hotly disputed in the world of video ryone is on the same page, I’ll be delving into some games, some claiming that this player reward system gaming history to show where character creation has downplays her status as a female character and is used grown and changed over time. mostly for shock value. Rupert Goodwins (1994) of e Independent claims: “e hero, one Samus Aran, Beginning in the mid-50’s, games were largely used is apparently female, although the Transformer-like for computer research and military training (Strong, suit she wears could just as easily contain a large cen- is work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. PublishedNicole by KnightScholar,Pero . 2018 1 Searching for sliders: gender representation in video games. e Proceedings of GREAT Day (2017): 44-50. Proceedings of GREAT Day, Vol. 2017 [2018],e ProceedingsArt. 3 of GREAT Day 2017 45 tipede; it’s hardly a breakthrough for feminism.” opment was made legal in 1982, making it possible While I would argue that she kicks ass and takes for individuals to produce cheap knock-os of popu- names throughout the game before the big reveal and lar games and systems. ese knock-os and low- should therefore be considered a powerful, feminist budget ops began ooding the market, causing character, some would argue that her nal appear- gamers to steer clear of new games and systems. ance in the original arcade game cements her as gim- erefore, when Nintendo moved its marketing else- micky and for-the-male-gaze. Still, others argue that where, they chose to market specically to children, her perky wave confronts the oft-male player with his in the toy aisles of stores, which were completely sexist assumptions. I think I sit somewhere in the separated by gender. Arbitrarily, Nintendo decided to middle, both critical of her over-sexualized appear- market to boys instead of girls, and thus the gender ance as a reward for the male player and supportive of divide in gaming was born (truTV, 2015). While her overall badassery and sassy “I-bet-you-didn’t-ex- many girls and women still played games and en- pect-me” confrontation of the player. joyed them, the world of video games was much more hostile to women and girls who wanted to be included in the community. For example, one of the early North American advertisements for e Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time included the phrase “Willst thou get the girl? Or play like one?” (Stevenson, 2007). Advertisements like these, which were target- ed at boys and outwardly excluded girls, served to reinforce the growing “boy’s club” that was video gaming culture. Much later, and with the advent of new gaming sys- Figure 1. Metroid (1986), an action-adventure video tems and more robust engines, we were introduced to game created by Nintendo. Tomb Raider’s infamous Lara Croft, who came to be Al ongside Samus, we have male game heroes like in the late 90s and was one of the rst 3D-rendered Nintendo’s Jumpman AKA Mario, Bomberman, game protagonists to reach gamer fame. She and her Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Megaman, Metal Gear’s sharp polygon-shaped boobs are the rst thing you Solid Snake, Sonic the Hedgehog, e Legend of Zel- think of when someone mentions the Tomb Raider da’s Link, and several others. is long list of male franchise, though in recent years with the 2013 re- game heroes stems largely from the marketing of boot, developer Square Enix endeavored to make her video games, which after the Video Game Crash of more palatable to a female gaming populace. Playing 1983 began marketing specically to male children, the original Tomb Raider, it is easy to see that her beginning with the company Nintendo. Immediately outward appearance and her story are centered on before the video game crash, third-party game devel- the male viewer as she jumps around crypts wielding Figure 3. Laura Croft as depicted in Tomb Raider Figure 2. e evolution of Lara Croft, the protagonist (2013) is less sexualized but more victimized than she of the Tomb Raider series. was in the original 1996 game. is work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/proceedings-of-great-day/vol2017/iss1/3Nicole Pero . 2 Searching for sliders: gender representation in video games. e Proceedings of GREAT Day (2017): 45-50. 46 The Proceedings of GREAT Day 2017 Pero: Searching for Sliders dual pistols, generally destroying valuable archaeo- are assuming a largely male audience for video games, logical sites and murdering local wildlife. Neo-impe- we can put the male player in the position of the male rialist themes aside, some have argued that her most protagonist in lm who views the women of the lm, recent reboot has taken her from sexy yet independ- as well as in the position of the camera itself. In many ent, to playing the role of the victim. Kellie Foxx- cases, the player themselves is made to control the Gonzalez (2012) from e Mary Sue explains the camera angle of the game, and it can be manipulated ways in which the reboot victimizes Lara Croft, often to exploit and view places on even a female player with the threat of extreme violence, rape, and death: character that are meant to be kept out of view. e women situated as early video game protagonists Rosenberg [the head developer] argues were largely made for the male gaze, because video that Lara Croft has not become the ba- game companies marketed largely to men and boys.