By Jamaal Ryan
I have to admit, once I read that conservative group
American Enterprise Institute had something to say about video games, my cynicism
shot right up, and I was ready to discredit.
Today, AEI published a video seemingly very much in response
to the rising awareness in gender representation and sexism within the video
game community. Christina Sommers leads into the video with a proposed
distinction between the general qualification of female gamers, and female
gamers who engage in “core” genres, thus emphasizing the point that video games
are very much a male activity with a 7:1 ratio of hardcore gamers.
She captures the hearts of many by mocking the general
hostile view of violent video games as a whole, but does so to further serve
her point that “the
video game gender police have become harsh and intolerant”. She asks the
questions, “But are video games rife with sexism?” and “Do they promote a
culture of misogyny and violence that must be dismantled?” before her
swift determination, “No”.
While
there have been some corners of the feminist movement in games that have, say,
targeted games like the Last of Us just because Ellie was a partially dependent
teenager and not the main protagonist, Sarkeesian and others have made valid
points. The term “tropes” doesn’t necessarily paint artistic efforts as a
hostile agenda to perpetuate misogyny, it mostly relates to laziness, misunderstanding,
and the tendency to fall back on stereotypes instead of investigating and
exploring proper portrayal.
It’s
less of an agenda to, as Sommers believes, seek the death of male video game culture,
and more of an eye opening effort to express what’s offensive. I did so with
Dead Rising 3’s portrayal of black characters, IGN’s Jose Otero did so by expressing
his discomfort with the Xbox One launch title Loco Cycle, and many did with
Far Cry 3’s colonialist narrative which influenced the writers of Far Cry 4.
But
it’s the last two minutes of the video where she really started to lose me.
She
justifies the sexualized female figures in bikinis, boob armor, and skimpy
outfits because of the male dominated demographic. Though that’s pushed by video
game publishers, it negates those, such as myself, who are disinterested in
such a (in my opinion) rote representation, and males of the LBGT community.
She
also claims that feminists fail to realize the accomplishments that the
industry has made with proper women’s representation, even though all of the
episodes of Tropes vs Women I’ve seen have featured Sarkeesian discussing games
that have treated women with more sensitivity and depth.
Lastly,
she questions why the same gender criticism in games isn’t targeted towards
shows like Oprah and The View, and magazines such as Cosmopolitan. Though I can’t
comment on Cosmopolitan, most of us have watched Oprah and The View for years,
and I’m almost certain that these shows aren’t riddled with abs, abs, abs. Is
the occasional “hunk” featured on the show? Sure. But the gamut of “male
representation” is wide and varied.
Sommers certainly makes an interesting effort to target the
feminist movement in games with a wink and a nod to gamers, however I question
the agenda behind it. But then again, “agenda” is inherently behind everything.
In the end, I don’t quite care for AEI’s stance on gender
issues in video games.
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