Gender Stereotypes: Gender Roles In Videogames

Admit it... people spend way more time than they should playing videogames. It might not be triple-A titles, that is games that have millions of dollars backing them, on full retail consoles, but countless hours have been wasted gaming in these fantasy worlds. True, these worlds are fantastical, but only for males. For far too long females have been neglected in the gaming industry; they are meant only to serve or cater to a man. This can primarily be seen in how women are often used as selling points for some games in advertisements. This then leads to the incorrect ideology that women should be objectified. To make matters even worse, some games go as far as to show women in men serving and pleasing roles only.
Videogames are wondrous tools
Want to be a man or a woman, or, want to be a dragon? Well, with videogames, anything is possible! But, even though this seems nice, more and more games reinforce the idea of gender roles. A gender role is what is believed a gender should do. For example, how a woman is often thought to be a care taker or house cleaner. This idea presented in a videogame can spill over into real life, which is supported by Paul Stermer's and Melissa Burkley's work, Xbox Or Sexbox? An Examination Of Sexualized Content In Video Games. " ...Sexualized content is both highly prevalent in video games and is linked to increased sexist attitudes and perceptions of the real world." This means that if a female is, say, fearful or feels weaker than a male in a videogame, she is likely to then develop those same feelings in the real world. This issue would not be as big of a problem if it were not for the massive amounts of games that put the power in the male's hands. To name some that do: Assassin's Creed, GTA, Minecraft, and Chivalry Medieval Warfare just to name a couple. All of the aforementioned games feature one key concept: females are either only seen as prostitutes or are simple unplayable. However, some will claim games like the Last of Us are working hard to break gender roles and to redefine the gaming industry as a whole. While this is partially true, it is ultimately proven false by the realization that it is easier to sell a game that panders to one group, like men, than none at all. This concept is proven by Aja Romano's report of a study done by the Entertainment Software Association. In this study, it is stated that 52% of gamers are men under the age of 35 ( the other 48% includes men older than that and females of all