The title of this post is just the names the authors of the articles. As for the articles themselves, Jenkins & Cassell and Yee both write about female representation in gaming, both in the player base and the industry, while Anderson & Levene explore the origin, rise, and fall of Lara Croft, as well as her impact on the world of gaming.

Jenkins & Cassell, in “Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat”, explore how even as early as the 90’s, female representation in gaming culture was a topic for discussion. They discuss how female gamers as a market have been targeted multiple times by game companies, all for no to little avail. Game companies designing games for girls leads to games focused on “womanly” activities, like shopping, dress up, and games like “The Sims.” This not only reinforces the gender stereotypes that pushed girls away from gaming, but they don’t attract and keep the number of females into gaming as games targeted at boys. This leads to a negative feedback loop; companies try to get girls to play games … by making games for girls that enforce the thought that girls shouldn’t play games. And what the game companies put in the male-targeted games don’t help matters.

In “The Proteus Paradox”, Yee delves into massive multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG’s), like “World of Warcraft” and “EverQuest”, and their nurturing of the “male fantasy.” Basically, male characters are the epitome of masculinity (bulging muscles, always winning, able to do anything they want, etc.) while female characters are essentially relegated to sex-objects (large bust, slim waste, wide hips, barley any clothing, etc.) with a heal spell. This leads to many female gamer feeling unsafe as they are cat-called or questioned, as many female character avatars are controlled by males, and perpetuates the idea of gaming being a “boys club” and that girls should just leave (I have not experienced this due to really only playing single player games, but I do know that it is a major problem in the gaming community). This push-back results in some female gamers picking a male avatar just to avoid discrimination, while male player are free to choose a female character just to look at. Stereotypes about the genders come into play at the gameplay level as well. People using male characters are more likely to be on offense, while their female character counterparts are more likely to heal and play support. But game characters don’t start like that every time.

Anderson & Levene discuss the creation behind one of gaming’s most recognizable characters, Lara Croft, in their journal “Grand thieves and tomb raiders: how British video games conquered the world.” Lara Croft started as the typical muscular, Indiana Jones type, but was transformed into the sophisticated British woman that is known today. While she started as a bad-ass loner, able to conquer every obstacle in her path, as is sadly common in any industry, marketing took over the presentation. She was turned into more-or-less a pin-up girls used to sell copies. That, along with the company rushing the development team to put out game after game, lead to Lara being dropped from the pillar of the gaming world she had earned. It’s kinda sad how “Tomb Raider” is just seen as a knock-off “Uncharted” by many, despite it being the other way around.

How should video game companies encourage women to play games and get into gaming? What needs to change about how we as a society think about games? Anything else? I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject.