Sexism in Videogames

Charlee Cobb

Many people would not tolerate sexism in the real world, but in the world of make-believe it runs rampant. Hundreds of video games throughout the last decade have created female characters as sexualized versions of soldiers or other male characters. Many people have generated content showing their opposition to these depictions. If you have ever been to cracked.com, a website dedicated to funny videos and articles, then you may have seen a post called Female Armor Bingo.

Created by a user named OzzieScribbler, the bingo sheet is dedicated to point out some of the flaws of skimpy outfits that female characters often wear in battle in videogames. Some of the pieces on the bingo cards include “No underwear”, “cleavage”, “metal worn directly on skin” and “random patches of skin uncovered”.

Female characters being sexualized in videogames is nothing entirely new, but some people wonder why it is still a continuous thing. Many females have spoken out about their distaste for the outfits of the characters, but recently blogger Anita Sarkeesian has stood out more than the rest. Sarkeesian has been under fire from gamers all over the country who disagree with her opinions of how woman are sexualized in games.

Recently, Sarkeesian was going to visit Utah State University on October 15^th but suddenly had to cancel the event. The cancelation was due to threats sent to the university that someone would commit “the deadliest school shooting in history” if she were to come on campus. For the safety of the University, Sarkeesian did not visit the campus.

She talked about this episode and other death threats with publications such as the New York Times, The Guardian, Associated Press, and on the radio during an interview with NPR.

The comments on her videos have since been disabled. According to The Guardian there were many inappropriate threats on Ms. Sarkeesian’s life in the comment section. Some of those comments included, “I hope you get cancer” and “This is what happens when you let Jews and liberals infect your industry." To say the least, the comments are very offensive and crude. However, Anita Sarkeesian, and many women like her, won’t stop until videogames are no longer depicting women as merely sexual figures.