This document discusses gender role portrayals in video games. It examines research from 1998 analyzing 33 popular Nintendo and Sega games which found that 41% did not include female characters and 28% portrayed women as sex objects. More recent research studies the impact of sexualized female characters and the influence this can have on perceptions of women. While some games still feature harmful stereotypes, the portrayal of women in video games has significantly shifted since the late 1990s, with more prominent female protagonists like Lara Croft. However, issues of sexism in video games remain an ongoing topic of discussion.

1. An in-depth look into Gender Role Portrayals
In Video Games
How womenare portrayedinVideoGamesisoftenahot topicamongcritics, academicsand gamers
alike.There isevidence tosupportthe argumentsmade byeachparty,thisarticle will take an in-
depthlookintothese differingperspectivesinanattempttosiftthroughthe irrelevanciesandtackle
the core issue of the topic.
Dietz(1998) wrote an article thattried to tackle the issue of genderportrayal throughusingsamples
of 33 popularNintendoandSegaGenesisvideogames.Dietzproposedthatvideogamescanbe
attributedtothe impactof children’sidentitythroughgenderrolesandhow women are portrayed
invideogames. Dietz(p.425) foundthat in 41% of the gamesusedinthe studydidnotinclude any
female characters,furthermore28%of those gamesportrayedwomenassex objects.
The article alsofoundthat nearly80% of the sample gamesincludedthe use of aggressionand
violence toachieve the objective,whilealmost27% of the games containedsociallyacceptable
aggressionandinsome gamesviolence wasdepictedagainstwomen.
However, there isone interestingcase withthe videogame franchiseTomb Raider(1996, Core
Design).The mainprotagonistisLaraCroft,one of the firstvideogamestofeature a female
protagonistinlate 1990’s. Releasedin1996 the game wasmet withcritical acclaimbymany critics
and gamersalike,there are some issuessurroundinggenderstereotypesconsistentwiththe time
periodof the games release.
In the Tomb Raiderfranchise LaraCroftis depicted asa sexyheroin withaperfecthourglassfigure
and ratherlarge ‘assets’,whichwasa typical genderstereotype forthe time period.Thistrend
continuedintoeachsubsequententryintothe TombRaiderfranchise.
However, in2013 Lara Croftwas redesigned (Seehere forwebarticle) inanefforttomake the
character more ‘human’this resultedindrasticdifference fromwhatgamersexpected.Thiscouldbe
indicative of achange inthe videogame market. Atthe time of Dietzresearchin1998 manyvideo
gamesdidnot feature femaleprotagonists,butthose statisticshave shiftedsignificantly,one could
argue that the researchisnotrelevanttothe issue of genderportrayal.
Sexisminvideogamesisaprominentissue today.There are numerousexamples (e.g.GrandTheft
AutoV,Halo 5) of videogamesthathave depictedsexismagainstwomen causingcontroversyinthe
industry,howeversexisminvideogamesisnotjustconfinedtoonlywomen.Considerthatmencan
alsobe victimsof sexismbutsadlysexismagainstmenisoftennottakenseriouslybysociety,video
gamesare oftenguiltyof sexismagainstmen.
Modernand classicvideogameshave beenknownto depictmenas masculine andsocially
dominant.(See examplesabove) Inrealitynotall menare masculine andsociallydominantas
depictedinthese videogames,thiscreatesa potentiallyharmful stereotype.Sexismcanbe justas
harmful towardsmenas women.
A studyby Fox andTang (2014) examinedthe role of conformitytomasculinenormsandsocial
dominance. The studywasconductedthroughthe use of an online anonymoussurveywhichranked
responsestovariousquestionsonthe VideoGamesSexismScale (i.e.greatersexistbeliefsabout
womenandgaming). Manyvideogamesrepresentgenderswithinthe normsof social dominance,in
mostcases malesare oftenportrayedasdominantwiththe desire forpoweroverwomenandthe
needforheterosexual outwardprojection.

2. However, Behm-MorawitzandMastro(2009) researchedgenderrolesinvideogames theyused
BusseyandBandura’s(1999) study as a baseline, 3focusgroupsplayeda selectionof video games,
each groupwas assigneda“sexualised”heroine,non“non-sexualised”heroineandthe otherdidnot
playany videogames.
The resultsof the study(viaonline questionnaire)foundthatfemaleself-efficacywasnegatively
affectedby gameplaywithasexualisedfemale characterandsuggestthatplayingassexualised
characters can influencereal worldperceptionsof women.
There isprecedence toargue that sexistgamescontributetowardssexistattitudesof some gamers.
Extremelysexualisedfemale’scharactersandthe overuseddamselindistresstropesinmodernand
classicgameshave contributedtothe misrepresentationof femalesinthe real worldasreferenced
inthe studybyBreuer(2015) et al.
Interestinglythe exposure of over sexualisedormisrepresentedgenderscontributestothe issue of
GenderRole Portrayalsinmediaandthe social expectationof gendersfromthe rolestheytake in
society.Societyhasworkedhardtomove past sexismandthese games cancontribute tobringing
these issuesbackcausingheateddiscussion.
Reference List
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Fox,J.L. & Tang,W.Y. (2014) Sexismin onlinevideo games:Therole of conformity to masculine
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Harper,T. & Tomkinson,S.(2015) The position of women in video gameculture: Perez and Day's
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http://www.polygon.com/features/2015/7/10/8925285/the-reconstruction-of-lara-croft-rise-of-the-
tomb-raider