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. Gender stereotyping is prevalent in
videogames, where the representation of genders primarily reflects traditional gender roles and
sexual objectification.
Women participate in video gameplay as much as men. However, most video characters
are male. According to Kelleher (2008), men and women are proportionately represented among
all videogame players. Yet, females are disproportionately represented in video game
characterization. Female characters are very few in video games, and some do not even have
them. The dominance of male characters in these video games leads to an underrepresentation of

VIDEO GAMES AND GENDER STEREOTYPES 3
their female counterparts. Thus, women have less involvement with the gaming culture because
there is little to relate to in the games. The gaming culture has established itself as a co-culture
due to technological advancement. Continuous side-lining of women in the creation and
designing of video games provides a non-verbal message of how society perceives men and
women differently. Further, the games portray stereotypical gender appearances and how that
affects the roles that can be taken by men and women. In the recent past, video game players
have increasingly become diverse with people from all over the world taking part. However, for
characters used in these games, this digital realm remains more of a man’s world, as female
characters are underrepresented. Games industry depict gender imbalance in its selection of
characters when designing video games. Video games depict bifurcated gender constructs thus
reproducing misrepresentations and spreading negative stereotypes against the female gender.
They make it appear as if the gaming industry is a man’s world aimed at undermining the female
world.
The belief that the female identity is incompatible with gaming has fueled a stereotype
against the female gender in the video game market. Gaming gives people identity because it has
become a way of life in society. It unfairly portrays women as the gender that takes on lesser
roles and that gaming is more complicated for them; hence preference is given to the male
characters. Reports that “Men are more likely to identify as gamers and visibly perform their
identity, professionally as well as privately. Conversely, a feminine identity is incongruent with
the gamer identity. As a result, female gamers can only be seen as female or as a gamer,
reinforcing the belief that being a woman and gaming are fundamentally incompatible.”
(McKernan, 2015, 224.p 17). Since 2015, the number of games that center on female heroes has
been declining. The designers of these games are a reflection on societal beliefs. They design

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games depending on attitudes and beliefs held by people in society. Thus, society wants more
male characters taking center roles in video games as opposed to their female counterparts. Only
five percent of videogames produced in 2019 feature female protagonists as can be seen in the
chart below;

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/e3-2019-female-representation-videogames/
A study conducted by Feminist Frequency show that only less than ten percent of videogames
centered on female heroes-showing male dominance in the selection of heroes as shown in the
figure below;

VIDEO GAMES AND GENDER STEREOTYPES 5

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/e3-2019-female-representation-videogames/
Women are portrayed as items of sexual objectification in a majority of video games.
Perry (2018) claims that female characters are hyper-sexualized and relegated to disempowering
roles. This promotes harmful gender ideologies. A few of the games that center on female
characters turn them into sexual fantasies that are usually placed in the games for the benefits of
the male characters. Thus, harmful gender stereotypes are reinforced in such video games
(McKernan, 2015). When video content is produced by men, to be consumed by their fellow
men, then there are fewer healthy representations of female characters. Women are depicted in
ideal slim figures, and their facial features include plump colored lips and seductive eyes. Such
characters appear too sexualized, and they contribute to an already sexist media outlet. Besides,
these women are given incredible and perfect bodies, but little to no personality. Other than a

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pretty face, female characters take on roles that have no power, thus making them almost
insignificant. Therefore, when women are present in video games, their appearance is often
hypersexual. Such portrayals often undermine any leadership abilities that the character may
have thus leaving such powers to the male characters in the game. Video games that
hypersexualize women cause detrimental effects by portraying women as sexual beings with
little or no capability to lead. More women characters are dressed in provocative clothing
compared to their male counterparts. In some games, women are used as a reward system.
Players are provided with an opportunity to pursue a relationship with her, and the reward is
usually to see when she is almost naked. It is evident that the sexualization of female characters
as portrayed in the video games has undermined women (Mou & Peng, 2009). Since video
games have become a co-culture, the impact of such portrayals of women affects how the general
population in the real-world view women. Although video games were initially designed as a
form of entertainment and fun for everyone, the male players appear to have more fun than the
female ones as they enjoy viewing and playing with the sexualized female characters.

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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.
Kelleher, C. (2008). Using storytelling to introduce girls to computer programming. Beyond
Barbie & Mortal Kombat: New perspectives on gender and gaming, 247-264.
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.
McKernan, B. (2015). The meaning of a game: Stereotypes, video game commentary, and color-
blind racism. American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 3(2), 224-253.
Mou, Y., & Peng, W. (2009). Gender and racial stereotypes in popular video games.
In Handbook of research on effective electronic gaming in education (pp. 922-937). IGI
Global.
Perry, K. (2018). Damsels and darlings: will we ever see playable, sexually empowered women
in video games? (Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia).