Two major articles, one over at VG247 and the other on CVG are taking a stand against the way woman are portrayed in video games, compelling game developers to take a different approach while imploring journalists to stop using sexual images when writing relating posts. We’ve gathered some excerpts from both articles, but for the full reads follow the links up top.
“The truth is that games are sexist in their depiction of women to a depressing degree. I raised the point on a press trip dinner last year: how many female characters can you think of that aren’t obviously designed to be sexually attractive to men? Apart from Shepard, no one around the table could suggest a single one,” wrote VG247.
CVG:
“It’s not just female pro-gamers, either. Female game journalists also deal with abuse — for example, whenever I write articles about women in games, the majority of comments are telling me that I should “shut up and get in the kitchen and go and make me a sammich.” Because of this, I don’t read comments on my articles any more, and that’s a shame, because I enjoy interacting with readers and having civilised discussions and debates. But I’m simply not prepared to put up with abuse or threats to be able to do that. I’m not the only female games journalist who has had to deal with this by a long shot.
Nicole Tanner, a veteran games journalist who has written for IGN, GamePro, the Escapist and EGM, and now works in game development, agrees. She says, “It was a given that at least a few comments on most of my articles would fall into the sexism corner, especially if the topic of the article had anything to do with gender. These ranged from the absurd comments about getting back into the kitchen to make ‘sammiches’ to flat out attacks, usually aimed at my appearance.”
“Do something”, says VG247.
“While I’m not about to stop reporting on games in which women are depicted sexually – I can’t: I’d have no business – we don’t have to encourage it. If you’re a media-owner or journalist, just think about what you’re doing. When you’re selecting an image to use at the head of a feature, don’t pick the one with the over-sized breasts. Similarly, maybe you should stop flagging up images of cosplayers for the sake of brandishing a photograph of an attractive woman in a pair of knickers on your homepage.”
To conclude, CVG wrote: “What we need is to get more women making games. Sheri Graner Ray, a games designer for over 20 years, and author of ‘Gender Inclusive Game Design’ thinks there are a whole host of things that can be done to get more women into the industry. She says, “Firstly, we need to increase the number of female role models and make them visible to the community at large. Recruiters need to expand their search for candidates to include places where there is a higher chance of women seeing their ads and finally expanding the requirements for a job to include skill sets rather than hard industry experience.” If the gaming industry wants to be taken seriously and finally find its way to mainstream acceptance, we need to get our house in order and stop making half the planet feel like they’re not welcome to come and play, too.”
You Might Also Like
did it ever occur to this broad that devs maybe just maybe want female characters to look good. its just another sensitive female turning a situation into something its not. this is why quotes such as “shut-up and make me a sandwich” exist. cause of idiots like this.