Why Desexualizing Women in Video Games is More Dangerous than Over Sexualizing them
Little known fact about me - I’m a nerd: starting from the very first time I picked up a game controller and found myself being tossed into a fantasy world filled with intrigue and danger I have been completely hooked. One of the largest issues as I had as a young girl was the fact that I could never really relate to the characters I was playing, I just didn’t have much in common with big meaty men in armour carrying around guns. So when I found games that let me play as a woman, I was overjoyed; the first game that let me fully alter my in game self was a MMORPG by the name of Perfect World. Honestly looking back it wasn’t that great of a game, it had a pay to play aspect that made it easy for some people to level up and do quests faster and it was pretty easy to find yourself in places that you just weren’t strong enough to handle yet. But that didn’t matter to me; there were eight classes in the game at the time and seven of those classes allowed you to play as a female - with one class (Venomancer) being restricted solely for women. I was able to completely customize my character - I could make make her tall or short, thick or skinny, I could even control the size of her bust and hips; I was in heaven, not because I could create some sex kitten ( though admittedly a lot of my characters were ridiculously pretty ) but because I could create the kind of woman that I wanted to be - I could make this beautiful woman who didn’t care if she was showing a little skin because if some jerk guy said something to her she could just take them out like a total BAMF.
And yes the clothing for Playable Female Characters (PFC) was pretty revealing, which I didn’t realize at that time was a problem for some people, all I cared about was that finally I had character that was feminine AND a total badass. Playing a game like this made me believe that as a woman, it didn’t matter what I was wearing - be it a mini skirt or leather pants, my clothing didn’t take away from my personal power or invalidate me. Games like this made me feel just as, if not more, powerful than my male counterparts.
Of course as I got older and took a break from my games I realized that the strength PW had given me was not applicable to the real world - in the real world as a woman I was inherently weaker than the men around me, I had to wear modest clothing so people wouldn’t think I was looking for trouble, I couldn’t read or use my phone in public because it made me a target - made me vulnerable. This was also when I became aware of the fact that some people, people that probably have never played a video game in their life, had a problem with the way that women were being represented. They believed PFC’s we’re being objectified, that their clothing or breast size made them inherently weaker than PMC (playable male characters). Sound familiar.
I started up my gaming addiction again with Fable II and Dragon Age : Origins - I fell in love again. These games, while limiting my customization, still allowed me to play as PFC that was just as strong as the PMC - in fact there was absolutely no stat difference between the two genders. But beyond that they gave me something that my previous gaming had kept from me - they allowed me to develop my characters personality and form bonds (both platonic and romantic) with other in game characters.
Now the fantasy that I dove into was different - I knew that in real life I wasn’t powerful, that I couldn’t say whatever I wanted or wear whatever I wanted, but in this fantasy world I could do that….and more. In the spirit of being completely open - of helping you understand why this game and the way it was made is so important to me, I should mention that I am a survivor of sexual assault. As are many other people I know. In DA:O you are given the chance to play as a young woman who, along with her cousin and friends, is kidnapped on her wedding day by a nobleman looking to throw a “party”. No one can help them out of fear of endangering the rest of their people, and so the women are left to their own devices - it is also insinuated in the game that this is a common occurrence, that women are kidnapped and raped by nobles all the time because they have no power to fight back. Now let me jump in and keep going before someone gets angry; yes this could possibly teach some little idiot that it’s okay to objectify and abuse woman EXCEPT FOR ONE THING. You. Fight. Back.
The whole point of the origin is that you, a woman, fights back against her oppressor and saves her cousin and friends. You, alongside your male cousin who, interestingly enough, is weaker than you and honestly only there for moral support, fight your way through the estate taking out anyone that gets in your way until finally you find your younger female cousin who has just been raped by the nobleman and YOU GET TO KILL HER RAPIST. Now I understand that a lot of people may think that its impolite for women to get this excited about violence but anyone that has been sexually assaulted or knows someone that has can tell you that there is not a single moment where they haven’t wanted that person to pay for what they’ve done, but hasn’t felt like that was a possibility because in situations like this the law is rarely on the side of the victim.
Once again throughout this game you are give the choice to wear revealing clothing, and your femininity is highlighted even when wearing full plate armour - you can wear makeup and make yourself as pretty as you want, also as a side note the physique of the women is default set as being very fit and picturesque. Over and over again you are shown female characters who are not forced to sacrifice their beauty and sexuality in order to gain power. (Also they’re literally all gay but that’s a different post)
So maybe men “objectified” them, maybe they didn’t care about the backstories or personalities, but the young women playing these games 100% payed attention.
The rather long point I’m trying to make here is that, yes, there are some people out there that purposely create unnaturally attractive women and put them in skimpy clothing because they want to play out some ridiculous sexual fantasy, or because they want to try and demean them and their abilities. Those people won’t respect women anymore if their wearing loose fitted clothing instead of tight leathers, and it’s ridiculous to assume they’re the only ones playing. Female gamers need these characters - they need to have power somewhere because I can tell you they certainly aren’t getting it in the real world; they need female characters that are beautiful without being ashamed, who show as much or as little skin as they want because IT’S THEIR CHOICE, who don’t teach them that in order to be equal to men they have to sacrifice their femininity
When I was reading articles to amp myself up to write this I found a quote that I want to share that said “men win battles and women wear heels.”. Now I’m sure the author was well meaning but they drew in on what I believe is the real reason why these characters offend people. Women are taught through other media and real life experience that beautiful women, with large breasts or curvaceous bodies, who wear clothing that highlights these characteristics can only fall under three categories; The Airhead, who has nothing to offer society and obviously cannot possibly be intelligent because they focus on and or take pride in their appearance, The Mean Girl, who while being ridiculously pretty also has nothing to offer society because she is so self absorbed,usually but not always rich/spoiled, and has no real worth or skill other than her looks so she spends all of her time bringing other people down, and finally The Slut, the obvious beauty who must be having sex with everyone and could only have gained any power or knowledge she has through sex because of the fact that she is unashamed of her body and sexuality - she also has nothing to offer society.
So when they see these characters, when they skim through gaming clips without context, and they see that flash of thigh or display of cleavage, they automatically put the female characters in one of these categories and become offended because they think it’s just another case of woman being demeaned and under sold by men. And maybe that was the intention maybe there’s some big misogynistic CEO out there cackling because he thinks he put us in our place. But that’s not what happened, yes men do go into battle, and women do wear heels, that’s what the real world has taught us, but these games -
They taught me that women can do both.
