Women's Roles In Sexist Video Games
Many people believe that the media helps develop awareness and inspiration toward women’s rights. The media provides censorship in order to offer the security of women. The government subjects websites and written blogs to censorship in order to suppress …show more content…
According to the report Distribution of Computer and Video Gamers in the United States from 2006 to 2016, by Gender, by Statista, “in 2016, 59% of game players are male and 41% are female.” Male characters appear more often in video games than female characters. Women’s roles in many modern games are usually less important to the game and rely heavily on stereotypes. Male characters who are often the main characters have little to no negativity in their presentation. Many video game roles for women are often minor helpers, or a love interest that requires rescuing. These roles for women have been found to have a negative impact on the perception of women in gaming. In the article Sexist Video Games Decrease Empathy for Female Violence Victims by Science daily found that “sexist and violent content in games cause Male Gamers to identify with the male lead, and find less empathy with female victims of violence.” Most video games have violent content, including violence against women, and some contain sexual objectification of women. Not only are gamers increasingly being exposed to video games containing sexual objectification and violence against women, research indicates that such exposure can be excessive. According to the article Violence Against Women in Video Games: A Prequel or Sequel to Rape Myth Acceptance by Academia.edu states, “A national sample of youth aged 8 to 18 found that ‘8.5 percent of video game players exhibited pathological patterns of play.’” If video games are degrading women, it can lead to an increase male video gamers being influence to treat women like in the video