Wednesday, September 30, 2009

The paucity of female video gamers.



From Jezebel.com:
"For the video, Floyd collaborated with female video game journalist Leigh Alexander, who sometimes writes for Kotaku, and her own blog Sexy Video Game Land. They report that even when female characters are portrayed as strong and competent within a game, they're often marketed on their looks. Case in point: Lara Croft, who may be powerful as a character, but is know mainly as a sex symbol in pop culture. Almost every video game character, male or female, is designed to let players control an unrealistically attractive avatar. That makes sense, because the medium is based on letting people act out their fantasies, and no one really daydreams about being an uglier, weaker version of themselves. But while a male character's sex appeal is never stressed in the game's advertising, basically the only thing consumers will learn about a female character is that she's hot, and her clothes may be torn off in strategic spots during game play."

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