Hypersexualizing Female Characters in Video Games Should Be Discouraged

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Recommended: Gender in the media

The sun, that shines ever so brightly, wakes you from your deep slumber. It is noon. Exhilarating dreams of being a secret agent illuminates your mind, but cannot be expressed in the real world, so you close your window blinds. As you walk away from reality, a light bulb then appears above your head. You have an epiphany. You realize you can be the crime fighting, devious, secret agent you always wanted to be, but you must do one thing first—turn on the game console. You are now channeling yourself into a different world, where every fantasy you have ever had is considered normal. As you continue to dwell in your fantasy, you encounter a very submissive woman with enormous sized breasts, and other curvy features to match—features that then become expected in the real world. Although, there are others that disagree, this hypersexualization of female characters in video games is taking a toll on gamers, by portraying fantasy to be something real. Gamers are becoming more prone to objectifying, and expecting women in the real world to have unrealistic bodily features. Also, based on the negative connotation that these video games entail, females are discouraged to play such video games, because it leads to negative self-perceptions. Consequently, hypersexualizing female characters in video games should be discouraged because it teaches gamers to accept stereotypical views of women, desensitize them to interpersonal violence, and, worst of all, it causes female gamers to have negative self-perceptions. The depiction of female characters changes as technology advances, thus demonstrating as time progress, the more hypersexualized female characters become. In October 1958, Physicist, William Higinbotham invented what is known to be t... ... middle of paper ... ...Amanda."Orientations to Video Games Among Gender and Age Groups." Simulation & Gaming. 41.2 (2010): 238-259. Print. Ivory, James D. "Still a Man's Game: Gender Representation in Online Reviews of Video Games." Mass Communication & Society. 9.1 (2006): 103-114. Print. Kennedy, Helen. "Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo? On the Limits of Textual Analysis." The International Journal of Computer Game research. (2002). Print. Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Screen 16.3 autumn 1975 pp. 6-18. 1975.Print. Reinhard, Carrie L. "Hypersexualized Females in Digital Games: Do Men Want Them, Do Women Want to Be Them?"Department of Communications. 2006. Print. Smith, S.L., Lachlan, K.A., & Tamborini, R. (2003). "Popular Video Games: Quantifying the Presentation of Violence and its Context." Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. 47 (1)

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