For my women’s studies class, I was asked to write a medium length paper for my midterm. The vague subject was a critical analysis of the portrayal of women in some sort of media, so I figured I’d write about what I’m passionate about. I would also like to share my paper and my thoughts with you.
I want to focus on the portrayal of female characters in video games. This will consist exclusively of playable protagonists. Since most, if not all, of these characters are not perfect in their portrayals, I will also point out the negatives of each character. Additionally, I will not be including indie games. All example characters will be from games that I have played and have personal and advanced knowledge of.
When talking about accurate and acceptable portrayals of women in video games, it is impossible to not bring up the concept of a “strong and capable” female character. This concept, unfortunately, is very vague and has many flaws. While it does it’s job in removing the woman from the damsel in distress, submissive, or pacifist roles, it does not get rid of the oversexualization or the lack of characterization for these women.
First, I’d like to start with the iconic, powerful women that, while they can defend and take care of themselves, have little to no personality or character growth whatsoever in their respective games. The characters themselves, and the power they wield, is used directly as an object of lust for the assumed heterosexual male gamer.
Characters that follow this trope include Sonya, Jade, Kitana, Mileena, Sheeva, Sindel, Skarlet, and all other female characters from the Mortal Kombat series. These girls are very strong and can compete on equal footing with their male counterparts, but they have a limited storyline, if none at all, and their personalities are nearly identical to each other, with only minor quirks. They are also very oversexualized, with little to no clothing, and nearly all of their moves are sexually provocative or suggestive.
Another series that follows this trope is SoulCalibur. These characters include Sophitia, Ivy, Taki, Tira, Cassandra, Xianghua, Elysium, Seong Mi-Na, and many others. These women, while it can be argued that they have more storyline, purpose, and personality than those in Mortal Kombat, are still oversexualized in their dress and their movement.
It should be noted that these are characters from fighting games, and the player has a choice on whether or not to play as or against these characters. There have been studies that show that men who play as characters who show abuse toward oversexualized women will have less sympathy for rape victims in the real world.
In contrast, I’d like to point out two characters that are not from a fighting genre. These games are storyline action games. They are single player with an option to play with (not necessarily against) another person.
Bayonetta is the protagonist and only playable character in a series by the same name as herself. Her portrayal is very problematic, given that she wears no clothes (her clothing is made up of her hair alone) and every single fighting move she makes is suggestive in some way. Every final or ultimate move she can perform has some connection to sexual punishment or BDSM. While it can be argued that Bayonetta has a very extravagant and well laid out background and storyline, this barely shows in her personality during the game. The entire first game, she is shown to have nearly no emotions or goals except to seduce. This is a big problem since the character’s overarching goal is to retrieve her lost memory.
Ada Wong is a neutral character in the Resident Evil series. She fights neither with the heroes or the villains, nor against them. She is always seen to travel and fight alone. Wong and Bayonetta share the same issues, including limited or provocative dress, lewd movements, and little to no emotions. She is coy, seductive, and quiet. She has minor moments of shock and surprise, but they quickly fade into a pride that is nearly constant with the character in the series.
To fix this problem, there are many developers who have tried to fix the problem of oversexualization with their female protagonists. Some good examples of this are Jill Valentine, Claire Redfield, and Sherry Birkin from the Resident Evil series. These characters have sensible outfits, given the zombie apocalypse setting. They have a lot of character development, and varying emotions that mix well with the story. Unfortunately, to appeal to male audiences, skimpy outfits for the characters have been added as downloadable content, and Sherry Birkin premiered in the series as a damsel in distress.
Samus Aran is also a good example of the industry trying to fix the problem. She is a fully armored woman and traverses the Metroid galaxy on her own, and (mostly) on her own terms. In fact, during the first game of Metroid, Samus’ gender is never mentioned. She was then speculated to be either a man or a robot. There are multiple issues with this character, though, as she is shown to be increasingly emotionally weak. Her love for her comrade in Metroid: Other M causes her to fall short of her ambitions and nearly lose control of herself altogether. Additionally, in the first game of the series you could only find out that Samus was female if you beat the game in under 5 hours. Just before the ending credits, Samus would take off her helmet to reveal her long, blonde hair and her feminine facial features. If that wasn’t enough, if you beat the game in under 3 hours, you would see Samus in a leotard. By that point, if you’re convinced that you haven’t mastered the game, and finish it in under an hour, you are treated to Samus in a bikini. This tradition also carried on to the sequels Metroid II and Super Metroid.
If this isn’t wasn’t bad enough for Nintendo’s strongest female lead, Zero Suit Samus was introduced in February 2009 with the game Metroid: Zero Mission. In the game, Samus’ ship and power suit/armor are destroyed, leaving her vulnerable and with only her under armor. This under armor consists only of a skin tight, full body, blue jump suit. This outfit and portrayal of Samus was coined Zero Suit Samus. Sadly, although Samus expresses that this suit is the ‘back up’ and lesser of the two versions of armor,:
“When my Power Suit is deactivated, my Zero Suit is the outfit of choice. In the rare moments when my equipment malfunctions, this is all I have to rely on – fortunately, the streamlined design enables acrobatic movement and the Paralyzer is all that I need to get me out of tight spots.”
-Samus Aran (Metroid: Other M Art Folio)
Nintendo has made the choice to make this sexualized version of Samus much stronger than her original design.
It would be very wrong of me not to mention those characters that go above and beyond and perfect the ideal of a strong and capable female character. These include Chell from Portal, Jennifer from Rule of Rose, and Talim and Hildegard from SoulCalibur. While I have minor complaints with Chell (unable to see the character the entire game, she is silent and emotionless) and Jennifer (the entire game focuses on her vulnerability and ease of manipulation), they do not show the oversexualized or seductive nature that the previous characters have. Jennifer goes through so much hardship and is tortured by the actions of others manipulating her, but she learns and grows from the experience and betters herself as a person. At the same time, she comforts and helps the other characters in the game mature. Talim and Hildegard are characters who completely ignore the concept of sexualization and focus only on their growth as people and fighters.
My favorite character to show this perfection of an ideal, as well as a tremendous amount of character growth, is Alice Liddell from the games American McGee’s Alice and Alice: Madness Returns. The character is never subjected to sexualization, she never relies on anyone else during the entirety game, and the stories of both games are based entirely around the healing process of her trauma and mental illness.
“Everyone I love dies violently; unnaturally. I’m cursed! Why go on? I’ll just hurt others.”
-Alice (American McGee’s Alice)
The premise of American McGee’s Alice, although somewhat extreme, is something that a lot of people can relate to. Male or female, these gamers will continue to play the game intertwined in a personal journey with Alice herself, in her quest to forgive herself for the tragedy and cure her insanity. As a child, at the age of seven, her family and home became victims of arson and she became the lone survivor. After a year of recovery, she is sent to the Rutledge Asylum where she spends the next ten years in a catatonic state before she dives into her own imaginary wonderland to battle with her insanity and find the true cause of her family’s demise.
“I know I’m guilty of something, but punishment hardly ever suits the victims of a crime.”
-Alice (Alice: Madness Returns)
After the events of the first game, and for the premise of the sequel Alice: Madness Returns, Alice is finally released from the Asylum and is brought to live in the Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth, under the care of psychiatrist Dr. Angus Bumby. She is given a job and continues to deal with lingering hallucinations and survivor’s guilt. When Dr. Bumby gives her instructions to go pick up some medication, Alice gets sidetracked and suffers multiple visual and auditory hallucinations, which cause her to plummet back into insanity and into her damaged wonderland.
“Ah, Alice. We can’t go home again. No surprise really. Only a very few find the way, and most of them don’t recognise it when they do. Delusions, too, die hard with memory. Only the savage regard the endurance of pain as the measure of worth. Forgetting pain is convenient, remembering it agonizing. But recovering the truth is worth the suffering and our Wonderland, though damaged, is safe in memory… for now.”
-Cheshire Cat (Alice: Madness Returns)
During the events of the second game, Alice is able to regain her sanity, as well as find out who has sent her back into madness and who was torturing her family and caused the arson. She ends up pushing the man in front of an oncoming train, killing him, knowing full well that she will be put back into the Rutledge Asylum for her actions. This decision was not easy or absent minded, given that Alice knew that the man was toying with many other disturbed children, and that no would would listen to a “mad woman” if she tried to report the incidents.
“You’ve used me and you’ve abused me, but you will NOT destroy me!”
-Alice (Alice: Madness Returns)
In conclusion, there are very few positive or (even less so) perfect ideals of the strong, powerful, capable woman. The video game industry seems to be in a limbo of whether or not to continue treating female characters in a sexist manner and using common and offensive tropes (damsel in distress, fighting fuck toy, femme fatale, ‘strong’ woman) or to embrace the true capabilities of female characters and emotional story-lines that really enthrall and relate to the gamer on a personal level. The true ideal of the strong and capable female character is a woman who dresses appropriately, does not rely on others to get things done for her, has a very distinct and colorful personality, and goes through a personal journey during the story of the game, resulting in character growth.
From a personal perspective, I’ve only been fully enthralled or personally related to a game when the main character is female. This includes indie games, which are not a representation of the larger video game industry. Perhaps the triple A titles, producers, and developers can learn from the community in this way.
-SerpentOphelia
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