Female Role Models In Games
Thursday, April 10th, 2008Being a woman myself i grew up on games, I’m not your A typical gal who looks goes nuts on shoes and hats and clothing. (Only when I need to! 
) But a lot of the time growing up, weight has always been an issue and magazines and the media, don’t exactly help in telling a young girl growing up what is “normal”. When I say norma lI mean healthy, a bit of meat and bone on you, not so thin that a stiff breeze could blow you over! You see what I mean? So I look at magazines at my workplace. They’re all tall and thin. And now the size zero phenomena is hitting the UK (size 4 in the UK). Magazines, adverts, billboards. Flat chested, no boobs, no bum, legs like twigs and arms to match.
And since us women are obsessed (including myself) with our weight, it’s all weight loss pills, miracle diets that make us prick up our ears and get easily reeled in by it all. We’re all surrounded by this media and there’s no way of getting away from it. Now, computer games, being part of this media, is also a source of influence for the modern day child, but how about the modern day woman? You may sometimes hear men going “PHWOAR!! Her boobs jiggle”, the average woman saying “*Gasp* But that’s sexist!” I kinda look at it and go “Hmm that’s actually quite impressive but is it necessary in game-play or enhance the game-play experience?” Fair enough the game is promoting “realistic physics” but if you’re viewing the game-play as a FPS or an over the shoulder 3rd person, then what’s the point? But compared to what women are faced with the advertisement media, promoting emaciated looks and thin shapeless bodies, at least over sexed women in games have body shape.
Now some glamour-zons may say to me “But Sooz, they’re not real, they’re not real people.” Neither are the faces and bodies you see in adverts. They’re all artificial in some way and no doubt they have had touch ups done here and there! At least in games they show you “yeah this is a man’s ideal of what game women look like” but you rarely get to see that kind of thing in the main stream media. It’s even my ideal that women should have boobs (at least!) and a curvy figure and be healthy looking (Unless she’s a zombie of course!) But in all fairness, you don’t actually get to see many thinner woman or larger ladies who have more to love (Stick thin zombies don’t count, nor do the Jabba the Hut variety mutant of the female kind!). Maybe games companies should make women with different body shapes, like larger woman or slimmer women characters which play a substantial plot in the game. At least it would level the playing field and make it more realistic, and isn’t that what nearly all games companies are aspiring to do? Not every woman has the same body type. Everyone is different, but everyone should be healthy! So all in all, at least Computer games are promoting “meatier” woman, and not woman you just want to buy a sandwich for! I’m glad that games do promote curvy figured women, at least I don’t feel pressurised to “fit in” while I play.
Suzie
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