Essay On Gender Sexism

Various studies have been conducted examining the role of gender representation in game design, game play and game experience, in which these studies commonly conclude that females are often excluded. Females make up forty-seven percent of gamers in the industry and although their presence is becoming more encouraged into the industries society, most games still continue to gender stereotype woman through the use of over-sexualising them reinforcing the gender imbalance in society. There are multitude of ways in which sexism in video games have seemed to mirror real-life sexism and the unrealistic, degrading portrayal of the female sex. This emergence of sexism is an ongoing issue in the gaming industry causing serious controversy over a period of years, with games or game series such Grand Theft Auto demonstrating how detrimental the problem is. Grand Theft Auto 5, abbreviated GTA 5, released in 2013 (in text) present woman in the games that have been previously released with virtually no role to the story nor are they needed in the game, they are merely ‘eye candy’ for the male players. With the females in the game either flirtatious, provocatively dressed or lovers of gang members. Much debate has raged about the degrading portrayal of woman in GTA 5 which implement sexism traits such as objectification, sexualisation, being under presented and suffering sexual violence.

One of the most frequently cited forms of degrading woman in video games is the widespread trend of female characters to be in almost non-existent costumes presented as the ‘perfect woman’ with bulging breasts and an unrealistic tiny waist. The loading screens in GTA which expose woman as this ‘perfect woman’ place woman in provocative poses with a futile...

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...deo game blogger and venture capital analyst Bob Thomas says “things are moving in the right direction, with great games like the mass effect series, putting male and female characters on equal footing.” Over the decades gamers have matured, with audiences recognises the inappropriate content displayed. He stresses: “i don’t think the gaming audience accepts sexism lightly” and says that for companies “who are mature enough to acknowledge that their developers’ sex is not the basis of their creativity, the benefits are clear”. (Bates, 2012) The gender imbalance and stereotype of woman being weaker than males is reinforced through Grand Theft Auto. The times have changed, and with more video game publishes rebuking this stereotype and allocating more female roles in their games, it is about time that Rockstar, the producer of Grand Theft Auto, should follow suit.