What Video Games Teach Us About Women

What do video games teach us about women? In a study on the effects of sexualization of female video game characters on gender stereotyping and female self-concept shows that video games have a bigger impact then we think.

In terms of the characterization of women in video games,content analytic research indicates that females are vastly underrepresented in popular video games and are often hypersexualized when depicted. Not unlike other media, video games offer a narrow range of roles to female characters. Overall,research suggests that when female characters appear in video games they most often serve as victims or prizes and occupy stereotypical gender roles such as brazenly sexualized beings and objects of sexual desire. In addition, the vast majority of female characters have been found to be non-playable, meaning that they cannot be played by the gamer — thus underscoring their secondary and exiguous status. When playable female characters do appear in video games, they are typically overtly sexualized and portrayed wearing promiscuous dress and engaging in seductive acts.

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