The entertainment
industry of today’s world is moving more and more towards a digital platform.
Children of all ages, as well as some adults, are taking part in the digital
entertainment revolution, where video games and fictional worlds reign supreme.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article about violence in video games. In it,
the violence in games is described, as well as the possible outcomes of the
violence (i.e. corruption of younger minds that play them). Sometime later, I
wrote another article about gender bias and how the media generally classifies
women as inferior to men. It was not until now that I realize that the two
articles could overlap to bring one major problem to light: gender bias in
video games.
As
my professor stated in lecture, the classification of females is prominent in
many aspects of video games. For example, in the “Grand Theft Auto (GTA)”
franchise, women are portrayed as objects. They exist only to attract the
gamer’s attention, and provide no actual sustenance to the game. The gamer is,
thus, inclined to perform deplorable acts, such as murdering them or soliciting
sex from them, simply because they can. I've thought in a similar manner when
playing video games. I would never be able to do the majority of the things possible
in that game in real life. Hence, when given the option to try it without
hurting anyone or any consequence, I don’t really hesitate. It’s fun and
entertaining to watch a “what if” scenario that would be otherwise impossible
to witness. However, those too young to view these scenes (anyone under the age
of 16 in my opinion) may not realize the distinction between reality and
fiction.
In my video game
article, I described a similar concept, where young minds don’t realize the
difference between the real and the fictional. One must consider, though, what
happens when something less obvious occurs. When children play games that
portray women in a stereotypically degrading fashion, they are more likely to
view them in that light. Similar to how one may not distinguish reality from
fiction in violent games, younger individuals may not notice the difference
between women in games and women in the world today. Obviously, women have
equivalent rights in the world today. Portraying women as they once were seen
(as objects) to younger minds will inevitably lead to biased views of women as
inferiors.
In the textbook
“Media and Culture”, a specific example of bias is used: a game known as “Red
Dead Redemption”. The game follows a cowboy during the old western era in the
US, taking place on the Mexican border. The article tends to describe the game
as having no redeeming social value, and being on-par with GTA in its
treatment/perspective on women. The game, though it does indeed tend to portray
them in a negative manner, does so in an acceptable fashion. To elaborate, the
game is highly consistent with the views and opinions of the world at that
time. Women are seen as objects, but as most historians know, women were viewed
as inferiors to men at that time. The game does not directly force you to kill
a woman for fun. The book is incorrect in its description of forcing the player
to “tie a woman to train tracks and wait for an oncoming train to kill her”.
That instance is optional: something that the player can do of their own
accord. They can still progress to the end of the story without doing it. The
only motivation for completing this action is an achievement (something that Xbox
players are familiar with), ironically titled “Dastardly”. As a side note, the
achievement is reminiscent of the “dastardly” fiends in older western cartoons
who do the same, and aren’t nearly as highly criticized.
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| If History had Achievements... |
As stated above,
the game takes place in an accurate western setting. The game itself has many
redeeming social values. For example, the player is able to assist the sheriff
of a town in capturing criminals, some of whom are based off of actual
criminals known in that time. There are no Native Americans present in the
game, but the main reason for this is that the game primarily takes place in
Mexico, not America. Perhaps one of the most unique concepts is its take on the
buffalo extinction in the area. The game actually has an achievement for
killing every Buffalo in the “Great Plain” region, titled “Manifest Destiny”.
From the rating
system, to other games, to countless cases of sexual harassment, the list of
topics which can be reviewed to fuel the discussion on “underage gaming” is
ever-expanding. The argument here is simple enough. Although the concept of
women portrayed as objects in video games is obviously negative, historical
games which do so cannot possibly be considered inappropriate. The only reason
a game such as Red Dead would be inappropriate would be if it were sold to
minors: an audience that the game wasn’t even designed for. When minors obtain
games like these, they end up developing biased opinions. This is clearly seen
in the recent NY Times article, where a gamer girl was harassed by her peers.
While inappropriate games exist, the media should switch their focus from
bashing the games themselves to bashing the stores that sell those games to
minors. Simply regulating the flow of information, something which our
government has been actively doing in other areas, would solve this issue in
its entirety.
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