VIDEO GAMES AND GENDER STEREOTYPES 2

Video Games and Gender Stereotypes

In the digital era, many people, especially the youth, play video games. Research
indicates that a young person in America plays video games for close to five hours every week
(Henning et al., 2009). The popularity of video games has resulted in research based on the
effects of video games on adolescents. One theme that comes up is whether or not video games
have an impact on gender stereotypes. Most video games are characterized by highly stereotyped
gender images (Kondrat, 2015). Video game characters specifically contain dominant male
characters. The male gender is associated with masculine and violent heroes. On the other hand,
females in video games are mostly submissive and are given inferior roles. Female characters in
video games are often given sexually exploitive roles (Kondrat, 2015). They are portrayed as
innocent victims of aggression. Exposure to this stereotypical content may have an impact on the
video game players. Some video games reward sexual violence and fail to portray any negative
consequences of sexual violence (Kondrat, 2015). The video games raise a serious issue
revolving on what the young people are consuming. Societal morals are a product of what young
people are being fed. The cruelty in most video games coupled with stereotypical representation
of gender may promote negative gender stereotypes.

VIDEO GAMES AND GENDER STEREOTYPES 3

References

Henning, A., Brenick, A., Killen, M., O’Connor, A., & Collins, M. J. (2009). Do stereotypic
images in video games affect attitudes and behavior? Adolescents’
perspectives. Children, youth and environments, 19(1), 170.
Kondrat, X. (2015). Gender and video games: How is female gender generally represented in
various genres of video games?. Journal of comparative research in anthropology and
sociology, 6(01), 171-193.