Excellent blog, man. I certainly found it more even-handed than any of Anita Sarkeesian's videos.
Games and Girls--Why Feminist Attacks on the Hobby are Largely Misguided
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 On 06/01/2013 at 07:35 PM by Pacario See More From This User » |
The video game hobby is one loved by all, right? Not exactly. Violence, anti-social behavior, obesity—within certain circles, video games are blamed and hated for many things.
But while the ornery parents and opportunistic politicians are obnoxious, the worst of these smear merchants could well be the feminists, who love to potshot the hobby from a number of angles. Games don’t feature enough strong female characters. Games represent women in compromising ways. Games don’t cater enough to the female crowd. And so goes the rant.
Some of these complaints, however, are based on beliefs that are simply erroneous or greatly exaggerated, and gamers of all stripes should be aware of them. The most common are listed below.
Myth 1: Men and Women Play Games Almost on an Equal Basis
This misconception is bandied around a lot, and is usually backed by numerous statistics indicating that women play games nearly as much as men do. But watch out—this is only true insomuch that women love growing crops on Facebook or popping bubbles on their phones. In other words, these studies tend to include anything even remotely resembling a game, thus producing a set of skewed results favoring the view that women are being underrepresented by the hobby.
But for serious games, especially those within the action genre, female gamers truly are a distant minority. Don't believe me? Jump into any random multiplayer match of Halo, CoD—whatever—and count the number of women playing compared to men. I’d be shocked if you count more than one or two at any given round.
Myth 2: There Aren’t Enough Strong Female Characters in Games
Another oft-cited fallacy, games are actually drenched in tough, brash, feisty female stars. Ellie from Deep Space 2, Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite, Kasumi from Mass Effect 2, Sheva from Resident Evil 5, Elena from Uncharted—nearly every big mainstream title (certain war games aside) features at least one strong, capable female serving in some capacity. In fact, there are too many of these superwomen—would it be so terrible if the girls of gaming weren't always so gung ho, and were maybe, dare I say it, kinder and gentler? But apparently such notions are passé. (Elizabeth being a notable exception; Kevin Levine really is a genius.)
Myth 3: Developers Have an Obligation to Feature More Female Leads
Feminists wail this mantra with striking regularity, but why should developers listen when their audience, as we’ve already established, is predominately male?
Because including more female leads will encourage more women to play games, someone will inevitably say.
But does anyone really think that having, say, a female God of War, is magically going to bring in droves of new female players? What it would do, however, is probably drive away some of the male crowd.
Myth 4: Tropes are Evil
There’s currently a video series circulating the Internet that takes great pleasure in listing all those terrible plot tropes games have long been known for. You know, all those times you were required to rescue the princess/a damsel/your sister, and other similar clichés. But beyond the uninspired storytelling, are these plot conceits really so bad?
Everyone needs a goal, and these tropes are just that—a reason to propel the player further into the experience. Think of them as Macguffins, or excuses to play. And because men—the hobby’s typical audience—have an inborn desire to explore and protect, it is thus only sensible to give them an archetypal role that they can quickly understand and agreeably fulfill.
Indeed, what guy hasn’t ever dreamed of saving a beautiful woman from danger? It’s in their genes, and by logical extension, only natural that these roles and desires would then manifest themselves in our entertainment. Put simply, these timeless tropes serve an invaluable function—to more greatly immerse the player into the experience. And that is perfectly fine.
Now before everyone comes at me with pitchforks, I don’t mean to suggest, of course, that the industry is perfect. More intelligent, complex female characters are always welcome—women do not have to be overly sexualized to be considered attractive and desirable. And attempts to draw more girls into the hobby are certainly commendable—if done properly with realistic expectations.
But like it or not, gaming has, and probably always will be, a predominately male hobby. And is this really so surprising? Men also gravitate more towards sports, cars, action films, and numerous other pursuits and interests, just like women tend to have their own preferences. In other words, men and women are not identical.
So the next time a game features a man tasked with rescuing his beloved wife from a band of evildoers, maybe we should cut the developers—and by extension, the male gamer—a little slack. Yeah, the story stinks, but isn't it nice to see a man so deeply devoted to his wife?
Let's see how long that crap would last. Feminist will come out of the woodwork complaining, "Why are all the strong female characters in videogames ugly?" I wouldn't say there are "too many female characters", but feminist seem to ignore perfectly good female characters already out there. They pick and choose what they consider strong female characters, instead of judging every female character by her role in that particular game. BUt, that takes work and they don't have time for that. They rather point the obvious and judge a whole industry and culture based on that. 
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