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Sexism in the Video Game Industry

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Submitted By lwaltke
Words 4263
Pages 18
Linzy Waltke
Professor Andrew Forrester Discernment and Discourse 1313 5 May 2014
Sexism Sells: The Male Dominated Video Game Industry
Only 4% of video game titles released in the past 10 years feature a playable female character as the leading role, and there are even fewer female protagonists on the list of the top grossing video games (ESA). This trend of male dominated storylines is evident in other forms of media as well: movies and television shows tend to be centered around men, but video games show the least diversity in protagonists and often have regressive views on women and their position in society. Women make up 20% of console video game players and 46% of computer and mobile game players in this 20 billion dollar a year industry, meaning they are contributing a large amount of profits (ESA). Despite their significant purchasing power, they are not represented equally as characters in games, and continue to be used as a plot device or sexual being to attract the male target audience. Neither are they allowed to be a compelling character with a story arc and personal growth as we see with the male protagonist. Female characters, when included, tend to be one dimensional and only valued for typically how they fit into traditional gender roles by being submissive and innocent. This narrow portrayal of women comes from the fact that the developers of video games are predominantly men. Only 11% of game designers are women and only 3% of programmers, even though it is one of the fastest growing and most profitable fields in the economic market today (Sydell). This small portion of women in the video game workforce also earns significantly less than their male counter-parts- typically around $12,000 a year less, making their gender-pay gap worse than the national average (Sydell). This inequality stems from a larger societal problem of women not being

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