Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Sexist Portrayals of Women in Video Games

In the larger work that is yet to come, I shall be examining the portrayals of women in video games in the last decade or so. There has been a very outspoken protest against these portrayals within the last two-to-three years, specifically with physical depictions as well as the role that women play in these games.

Included in this will be examinations of a selection of games that have been deemed sexist (soon to come) and a selection that potentially addresses the issues that have been raised (also soon to come). Like television and film, there is a large issue with the presentation of women, but the larger concern is that in video games, developers quite literally have the control to prevent at least the objectification issues in addition to the writing of women in these games.

Sources will include the games themselves, ones that I have played in order to give a fair critique, as well as other critical essays on the topic, news articles, and any digital media that I can include online, both photo and video.

4 comments:

  1. For anyone who is interested, here's an article from NBC that was posted about a month-and-a-half ago. http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/ingame/women-use-twitter-expose-video-game-industry-sexism-1C7283842

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  2. Kotaku has a great article on women's armor as displayed in video games, as well as a press-leak on Soul Calibur's "breast guide-line" rubric.

    Would you be researching any feminist writer's visions on problematic female representation in media? Generally speaking?

    I like your but--the sentence claiming literal control over their characters--and I think exploring that more would lead to a great deal of familiarity to a non-gaming audience.

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  3. This is a great start--a wonderful subject--I just need to see your focus/narrow it down with specificity. What games will you be analyzing specifically. Your argument should arise from what specific evidence you gather from those games. Those should be your primary sources. . . .

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  4. Dang, well you certainly have a plethora of material to draw from. Good luck condensing it down to 1000 words, this sounds like a good idea though, and I think it will make a strong cultural criticism.

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