It shouldn’t
surprise anyone that the world of video game programming remains predominately
male. Video games, as well as their
packaging, seem geared entirely towards the infamous “Male Gaze.” It’s an
influence that surfaces throughout the entertainment world. It’s why, in the
movie industry, “empowerment” and “half naked” remain so easily confused. It’s
why female characters in comic books can’t seem to shop for clothing that
covers more than ten percent of their bodies.
Sure,
the girls in Sucker Punch wear sexy
clothing, but it is an action movie. How many times have we seen male, action
stars take off their shirts for no apparent reason? Male characters in comic
books possess biceps larger than NBA-approved basketballs.
However, in the
gaming world, the male gaze runs amok to the point of complete lunacy.
It’s
almost as if the creators of certain video games have never actually seen a real, live female. The female
cast of the Dead or Alive franchise
serves as perfect examples.
Dead or Alive is a series of fighting
games that has, for years, featured perfect-bodied individuals who couldn’t
stop beating the snot out of each other. Eventually, Team Ninja decided to
create a spin off series (Beach
Volleyball), in which their female characters put on bikinis, prance around
on the beach, and engage each other in such challenges as jumping and giggling.
It’s rather generous to call it a “game,” really.
I can’t say that I
didn’t enjoy watching it, though (at least the first edition, but more on that
later). Female geographies have a wonderful and distracting habit of filling my
blood with happy chemicals. I naturally want to defend what makes me happy.
As much as I want
to stand up for Dead or Alive Beach
Volleyball, its developers haven’t given me much with which to work. I want
to argue that I most certainly can enjoy looking at a female while still
respecting her as a human being (Yes. I know. We’re not truly discussing human
beings so much as lines of computer code, but you get the idea). I defy anyone
to play Beach Volleyball and share
with me a single characteristic regarding a single character.
This is because at
no point are any such characteristics expressed. The characters really haven’t
any. If you do a little research, you can learn these characters’ backstories,
but good luck connecting those dots to anything that takes place in the game.
Despite this, I’m
unconvinced that there’s anything wrong with
it. A person might argue that such a game dehumanizes women, but I would have
to counter with the observation that fewer feminists took issue with these same
girls kicking the crap out of each other as they did in the original Dead or Alive franchise.
How is it less
dehumanizing to depict a person beating a woman in the face before tossing her
headlong into an electric fence, rather than depicting that same woman dancing
around half naked?
(Interesting side
note: To purchase the violent Dead or
Alive, game, you must be of thirteen years of age or older. To purchase the
sexy version, you must be eighteen. Something to think about.)
Someone else might
argue that Beach Volleyball reverses
the Women’s Rights Movement. While I can’t claim to know what circulates in the
minds of others, I can swear that I’ve never watched a woman in a bikini (real
or computer generated) and thought to myself, “That settles it. She gets paid
two-thirds what I make.”
(Another side
note: Equal Pay for Equal Work has yet to see actualization.)
I’ve meandered
from my earlier point, though, haven’t I? Several lines ago, I questioned
whether the creators of these games had ever seen a real woman. My doubts arise
from the depictions of female characters in several games. Let’s alight upon
the most relevant, given the earlier references of this article.
In Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball 2,
someone replaced the female characters with strange, life-size dolls whose breasts
seemed filled with Jell-O. At that point, I discovered myself flashing back to
all the female characters found in comic books, the sort whose bodies fail to
make any sort of mathematical sense.
This is the point
where I get annoyed. Not because these characters insult the notion that women
possess anything more noteworthy than their bodies, but because the bodies I’m
watching don’t even look like women.
If you’re going to
appeal to gamers via half naked woman, get the woman right. At the risk of
rolling your eyes, I’m going to add another suggestion. Personalities and
actual skills can be very sexy. I haven’t a problem with sticking large breasts
on a female character, but I ask that those breasts look biologically feasible.
I furthermore ask that the developers don’t stop at large breasts. If sexy is a
developer’s goal, that developer must dig deeper than large breasts alone.
(Final side note:
Our military has employed countless female soldiers. How often do you see a
female option when you construct a character in a military based video game?)
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