It's interesting that women's rights have taken on the battleground of videogames, given that video gaming by and large is still a very recent innovation and frontier. Console gaming only really took off in the 80s, and only in the last decade has online gaming truly come into being as not only a form of social interaction but also as a competitive sport.
The demographic that comprises the videogaming market falls firmly into the "youth" category. Given that, one would think that the gaming community would be a place of liberal values, but the truth is anything but. When it comes to finding positive female role models in video games culture, it's a bit like finding that rare line piece in Tetris at just the right moment: it might look great, it might fit great, but the moment you let it drop the whole thing just tears apart your well built foundation.
She is SO ready to take a hit to her left arm.
I'm not going to pretend that there's an equal division of men v. women in the gaming market, but the absolute vacuum of positive female characters in modern gaming is a bit pathetic, if not alarming. While I don't subscribe to the fringe belief that "games teach our children to kill!" I do believe that games, and media at large, do teach out children about self-image.
See, in our teenage years (presumably when we'll play the MOST videogames, although we all know some people persist for many years after the fact) we're developing a sense of self. It's during this formative phase that we really start to figure out the person we want to be. While that doesn't necessarily mean we're breeding a generation of women-beating, misogynistic criminals, I can't help worrying that the FEMALE gamers out there are being subjected to a dazzling array of completely unrealistic, backwards-thinking idols. Add to this a community that preys on any perceived feminism with almost sadistic relish, and you have a recipe for some seriously damaged teenage girls.
It obviously doesn't help that the industry is comprised largely of men, who know what men want and are ready to deliver it in as few lines of code as possible.
Hint: It's not better health care for single moms.
Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. What do I expect? How do we create a "positive female role model"? For all I know, maybe these writers, designers and programmers really are trying their damndest to meet this demand, but they just don't know what the hell they're doing.
On the other hand, as Kate Beaton of Hark! A Vagrant stipulates, maybe they're just malicious idiots. Beaton's "Strong Female Characters" are pretty much the perfect satire of the video game industry's gravity-defying bosomed protagonists. BUT, what I really want to point out is the last strip on this page:
We don't need special window dressing, scanty outfits, absurd physiology. If you want a strong female protagonist, you stick in a character with a believable backstory, a strong arc, and special talents that make them cooool (psychic powers, uncanny gunplay, zany plumbing / jumping ability, whatever). And then BAM. You make them a woman.
Metroid got this. See, Metroid didn't need to make Samus Aran a woman. They only did it at the last minute because fuck it, why not? It's a simple change, but it's hugely profound. Consciously or unconsciously, these gaming designers put forth the notion that hey, gender didn't affect this badass character's ability to blow the ever loving shit out of aliens and save the day.
Of course, part of this leap forward in gender politics may have been due to technology. Eroticization of Samus in the moment was next to impossible. With 8 mighty bits at their disposal, even if they had decided to make Samus into a sex object in the moment, they couldn't have. Sadly, after the first Metroid game Samus has been gradually reduced in status to the point where one of the latest installments featured her as a whiny bimbo with mother issues (WAY TO GO, NINTENDO!)
Two steps forward, three steps...you're not even listening to me, are you?
That might just be the whole problem: the medium has advanced too far. See, when it came to chunky 8-bit graphics, you couldn't very well showcase enormous ta-tas and ludicrously curvacious buttcheeks. No, you had dot 1 + dot 2 = eyes overtop of PITCH WHITE SKIN with monochromatic clothing.
So this brings me to Sword and Sworcery. Keen observers who clicked that link will note that this indie game features graphics best described as "crummy". After playing it however, even keener observers will note it is funner than hot sex on a stick (the latest Stampede treat).
Sword and Sworcery is your basic, run of the mill point-and-click RPG. It's got a gorgeous soundtrack, nifty gameplay mechanics, and quirky writing. And until yesterday, I didn't even notice the lead character is a she. The Scythian, as she is called, is a tough little cookie on a mission, and she wields a sword and shield like she means it. The reason I was really fascinated by the gender casting of this character is simple: it could just as easily have been a man.
In fairness, I haven't finished the game yet, so for all I know she turns into a shrieking pile of periods before the end of the game and starts baking pies for her daddy (this seems unlikely, however). To this point, however, she reads like...well...a normal protagonist. She's determined, plucky, fun to play as! She's got special skills, she's got buddies, she has a book that reads people's minds!
Seriously. You'll have no idea how hilarious this is until you play the game.
See, I think the reason it's important to have these female protagonists who are simply female - not "I am woman, hear me roar", not "I'm just too sexy so DEAL WITH IT" - is that it allows that developing audience to project themselves into the game universe. That's the whole point of video games. They allow us a moment of escapism, where we can become a hero (or heroine) and kick ass and take names.
The "blank slate" female character is just what the doctor ordered. They're not overtly eroticised, they're not pushed into a gender role...they're just...there. I guarantee you that the teenagers playing these games will not find their strength and their identity playing as buxom bimbos from beyond the stars. They'll find them by taking the role of a strong character and making it their own. Give them something to PLAY with, for crissakes.
And then just let them play.
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